UPDATED — May 14, 11:59 a.m.
The labour dispute between striking Vale Inco workers represented by United Steelworkers Local 6500 and Vale Inco was brought up at Queen's Park by Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas May 12.
During Question Period, Gélinas brought up the issue of replacement workers, and her hope to see the use of replacement labour banned in the province.
"All of Vale Inco's energy is spent restarting their operation and all of the Steelworkers' efforts are spent trying to stop them," she said. "This is pushing both sides further apart. There's very little energy left for sitting down and settling the labour dispute."
Gélinas asked Premier Dalton McGuinty if he was proud of the lack of replacement worker legislation that allowed for companies to "tear my community apart."
McGuinty said he appreciated the concerns of Greater Sudbury residents in regards to the labour dispute, and that he strongly urges Vale Inco to not use replacement workers.
"It is not the kind of thing that we, in our government, would do. In fact, we specifically adopted that as a policy on our part."
However, McGuinty did not say he or the provincial government would intervene in the labour dispute, which reached 10 months in length the next day, May 13.
"Anything at all that our government can do to put in place the necessary mediation, conciliation services, we are more than prepared to do," he said. "In fact, we have done some of that in the past. Again, I call upon both sides to do everything they possibly can to resolve this at the earliest possible opportunity."
