OUTSIDE THE BUBBLE — Labor Minister SEAMUS O’REGAN spent three days last week in Mexico City, checking out the “shoot and spout” that have flowered out of Canada’s investments under the new NAFTA.
O’Regan met his Mexican counterpart, LUISA MARÍA ALCALDE, who he said has seen more labor reform in the past five years than Canada has seen in decades. Half a million Mexicans have signed up to join unions since the country’s sweeping labor reforms in 2019. And after NAFTA’s tougher labor rules were brought into force, Ottawa posted two attachés to Mexico to monitor its implementation and union activities. — Bilateral bonding: Canadian and Mexican officials made jokes “on several occasions” about their shared reality of being members of the same “support group,” O’Regan said. “We both know what it is to share a border with the United States,” he told Playbook during a call Friday evening from Mexico City. “Huge friend, huge ally, huge competitor.” Playbook caught up with the labor minister to talk about his trip, meditations on silly season, and how a period of depression has prioritized keeping a cool head in politics’ heated realms. This transcript has been edited for length and clarity. What results are you bringing back to Ottawa? A new sense of vim and vigor — and a broader scope. Tangibly, we got to make sure we support the attachés we have here on the ground, we got to make sure we continue to support them. Does that mean more money? Perhaps, yes. Yes! Whatever tangibly I can do to make sure their work is supported because I'm seeing it happen here on the ground. Heated discussions are baked into your job as labor minister. Silly season this year is fused with a partisan debate over foreign interference. Can you speak to the challenge of keeping level heads in heated moments — is this a time to de-escalate political tensions? Is there any hope of civility in the next few weeks? Yeah, there is. I look at the work we did on paid sick leave. We got unanimous consent for that. That wasn't a coincidence. I worked very hard with some people in the Conservative caucus to make sure we got that. Look, there are lots of people who want to make the system work and there are a lot of people who get on Twitter and lose their minds — and I am not in the latter category. I just try to seek out civil people who you can do business with. It's there. I've said on several occasions as somebody who had went through a period of depression and anxiety in my own life, it infuses the work I do in every portfolio I have. In politics generally, I'm always wanting to turn down the temperature, to turn down the volume. People have got enough going on. I don't think it gets any results. If I'm aggressive on anything, it's trying to be aggressively placid. And that ain't easy, trust me. But there are people out there who, on all sides of the House, got elected to do stuff, want to do stuff. We're getting stuff done. We're getting lots done. But the heat, man oh man, the heat. Yeah, I stay away. What’s in your toolbox as a parliamentarian to address the heat? Tone matters. Words matter. They matter to people. And they matter to politicians. And listen, this isn't easy. I'm Irish for goodness’ sake, I got a temper. But you have to — this is real life. This is not youth Parliament. And frankly, I was in youth Parliament. And it was a lot more civil in those days than ours. There's a lot of goodwill and a lot of good people on all sides. And I seek them out. What are your thoughts on the “second carbon tax” line the opposition is using to describe new clean fuel rules — and the push by premiers in Atlantic Canada to delay its implementation? Including my premier. What we've seen happen in our oil and gas industry, we're seeing a sea change happening there … When I helped develop the hydrogen plan as natural resources minister, I did not think I would see immediate billions coming into my province for green hydrogen. On the clean fuel standard, it’s a demonstration of our government's commitment to encouraging people to use fuels that will cause less emissions and to provoke investment in those areas. But we are also, just as the premiers are, committed to affordability and making sure people are paying out of their pocketbook. I get out there on “the price on pollution” all the time because I know most of my constituents are going to be better off for it. It isn't necessarily the easiest thing to explain, but it isn't that difficult, either. It just means it's not a soundbite. It's just, like, five sentences. It's certainly not 18 paragraphs. Will you introduce anti-scab legislation to end the Iqaluit Housing Authority strike? Well, we're coming forward with comprehensive replacement worker legislation by the end of the year. I've been called on by certain quarters to do it faster, and do it faster, do it faster — but we need to make sure we get this right. We're talking about supply chains in this country. I want to make sure we don't have we don't have interruptions in our supply chains. I’ve learned that. I was weeks into the job as labor minister when CP Rail happened. We had an extremely brief work stoppage on CP Rail. And I started getting calls in the White House. You don’t forgot that sort of stuff. On the other hand, we have made a commitment to banning replacement workers because we believe it's the right thing to do. I'm committed to it. But, no, we won't — we'll be introducing it by the end of the year. | 
