Supreme Court of Canada Judgment on Bill 29

The Supreme Court of Canada has issued its judgment today on a Charter challenge to Bill 29 (the Health and Social Services Delivery Improvement Act).

The Court concluded that the following provisions of Bill 29 were contrary to Section 2(d) of the Charter, which guarantees freedom of association:

• Section 6(2) (prohibiting restrictions on contracting out under health sector Collective Agreements)
• Section 6(4) (prohibiting consultation requirements with respect to contracting out under the Collective Agreements)
• Section 9 (changing bumping provisions under the Collective Agreements (this provision expired effective December 31, 2005)

However, the Court has suspended its declaration of invalidity concerning the above provisions for a period of 12 months to allow the government to address the decision.