St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation (SLSMC)

In the CA:

19.3 Employees required to work on their scheduled second day of rest in the work week shall be paid for such work at double their regular or acting rate.

In the 12 Hour shift Agreement

19.3 Employees required to work on their second of three consecutive days of rest (Saturday 0700 - Sunday 0700) shall be paid for such work at double their regular or acting rate.

• 8 locks
• The Welland Canal is owned by the Government of Canada and managed by The St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation (SLSMC).

Located on the St. Lawrence River between Iroquois, Ontario, and Montreal, Quebec

• seven locks, 5 of them in Canada.
• Canadian locks: the Iroquois, Upper Beauharnois, Lower Beauharnois, Cote Ste. Catherine and St. Lambert locks
• locks are owned by the Government of Canada and managed by the SLSMC.

The Seaway is run by a non-profit company set-up by the government and completely overseen by the government with “members” who are the shipping companies along the seaway. It is twinned with a similar company in the USA.

SLSMC is set-up to charge fees and get subsidies from the government. The purpose is to independently manage the assets and function of the Seaway with the USA counterpart.

It is set-up as a “shared governance” model, but Transport Canada has statutory expenditures and oversight of the company’s finances as outlined in the Canada Marine Act.

Think of it as an independent Crown without that official structure since the minster is just one of the board including the private sector. It is very similar to NAV Canada and the airport authorities. It is a model that attempts to off-load costs from the balance books of the government, but similarly to NAV Canada and other commercialization programs, has failed to reduce costs for the government.

The SLSMC get a mandate regularly from the government, which ended in March, 2023. There is no public statement that it had been extended officially.

The SLSMC is responsible for managing and operating the Seaway, as well as the maintenance, repairs, acquisition and replacement of government-owned Navigation Seaway Assets.

Transport Canada is responsible for funding any SLSMC financial requirements net of revenues.

From what I can tell, it is subsidized more than it is supposed to be:

It got $62.2M and on track to spend $66M. This is less than last $72.7M it spent last year.

Given that it is getting a sizeable subsidy and the minister sits on the board, it seems reasonable to raise issues directly with the minister.

• SLSMC wage growth not as fast as private sector skilled trades over a decade from 2011-2021.
• SLSMC wages did not keep pace with inflation 2021-2022.
• Tight labour market resulted in significant above inflation growth for private sector skilled trades 2021-2023.

It is true that wage growth for SLSMC members has kept pace with inflation over the rounds of bargaining previous to 2021.

However, the more important measure is the comparison with private sector skilled trades wage growth and SLSMC. This is because wage growth of skilled trades between 2011 to 2021 shows faster than inflation increases. The comparison with wage rates in the private skilled trades shows SLSMC falling behind for some of the faster growing trades such as electrician.

The wage growth across the 2021 and 2022 showed slower than inflation growth and slower than private sector trades growth.

• SLSMC Wage growth since 2011-2021: ~23%
• Private sector wage growth skilled trades 2011-2021: 22.5% to 27.4%

In addition, since 2021 SLSMC wages have not even kept pace with inflation.

Wage rates negotiated in March 2021. Includes 2022 skilled trades adjustment of an additional 0.7%:

To just make up the difference on inflation and/or private sector wage growth alone, an average of 5% per year would be necessary over two years. However, 5% per year would not include the wage growth to sustain par with inflation in 2024, which I have put as an extremely low estimate of "2%" above.

Current settlements in the private sector in Ontario are 4% for 2024.

• Construction trades wage growth in 2021: 4.2% compared to average of other wage growth of 2.5%
• Construction trades wage sector in 2022: 4.3% compared with 3% for non-construction.
• Private sector wage growth in 2022: 4.1%
• Public sector wage growth in 2022 (outside Bill 124): 2.6%

Historical wage settlements

Unifor wage rates SLSMC:

Private sector wage growth:

Previous wage settlements in 2022 was 2.5%. Those wage rates are:

An example of the local wage rate with 5% in 2023:

Ontario settlements in 2023 used in this analysis as comparitors. These include similar skilled trades components of their workforce. These were taken from the Government of Ontario settlement tracker of similar employers in related industries for the region.

Since skilled trades are able to work across sectors, settlements and wage rates were taken from the federal government skilled trades wage data for the region.

• Frank Hummell, Ontario Provincial Government
• Raymond Johnston, Other Members
• Terence F. Bowles, President and Chief Executive Officer
• Pierre Préfontaine, Québec Provincial Government
• Don MacDonald, Grain Members
• Greg Wight, Domestic Carriers
• Karen Tippett, Federal Government
• Paul A. Gourdeau (Chair), International Carriers
• Bronko Jazvac, Steel and Iron Ore

• Terence F. Bowles, President and Chief Executive Officer
• Pauline LeBlanc, Corporate Secretary