I keep hearing that Ontario is a province that stands up for workers. Then I look at the anti-scab file and the story falls apart pretty fast.
France Gélinas stood up in the legislature on March 25 and introduced a bill to ban replacement workers during strikes and lockouts. Bill 96, the Anti-Scab Labour Act, 2026. For the 17th time. That number is not a typo, the NDP MPP from Nickel Belt has been tabling versions of this legislation for close to two decades alongside Wayne Gates and Jamie West. Each time it gets first reading, polite applause from opposition benches, silence from government side, and then it dies on the order paper.
What makes this round different is the backdrop. The federal government actually did it, Bill C-58 came into force on June 20, 2025, banning replacement workers across all federally regulated workplaces. Banks, airlines, telecom, rail. The House of Commons passed it unanimously which means Conservative MPs voted for it too and the economy didn’t collapse. Almost a year in now and nobody is pointing to wreckage.
The federal ban, close to one year on
Context: Anti-scab legislation prohibits employers from hiring replacement workers to perform the jobs of unionized employees during a legal strike or lockout. The idea is simple: if both sides feel the pain during a work stoppage, they settle faster. Quebec has had this law since 1977. British Columbia since 1993.
The federal law which took effect last June covers roughly one million workers in federally regulated industries. Employers who break the rules face penalties of up to $100,000 per day, that’s per day not per incident. There are narrow exceptions for threats to public safety and preventing serious property damage or environmental harm. That’s it.
From what I can tell the labour world hasn’t ended since the ban came in. Collective bargaining still happens, companies in Quebec and BC have been operating under these rules for decades. Gélinas pointed this out when she tabled Bill 96. “Business goes well in those provinces,” she said (which, fair enough, is about as understated as you can get when your opponents keep insisting everything will implode).
But here is the gap which should bother everyone paying attention. Federal ban only covers federally regulated workplaces. If you work at a hospital, a school, a long-term care home, a community agency, a factory, you’re provincially regulated. And Ontario has zero anti-scab protections for you.
None.
Ontario had this once, then killed it
This is the part that gets me. Ontario is not some province which has never considered the idea, Ontario is a province that passed it and then deliberately tore it up. In 1992 the NDP government under Bob Rae enacted anti-scab protections through Labour Minister Bob Mackenzie’s amendments to the Labour Relations Act. Three years later Mike Harris won a majority and repealed the whole thing.
That was 1995. Thirty-one years ago.
Anti-scab legislation across Canada
What this looks like on the ground
Anti-scab debates can feel abstract until you look at actual cases. Take Black River-Matheson Township in Northern Ontario. In October 2023 the township locked out 14 CUPE members, standard small-town municipal dispute. Then in February 2024 two picketers were allegedly struck by a truck driven by a replacement worker. Township issued trespass notices barring the locked-out employees from the arena, town hall, and public works depot. Their own workplaces.
Or Villa Colombo in Toronto’s west end. 25 CUPE 5525 members went on strike in 2025 after two years of failed bargaining, the employer brought in scab labour right away. According to union reps, the replacement workers showed up late and didn’t have the relationships with residents that regular staff had built over years of care work. These were people looking after elderly residents in an assisted living facility and the employer’s answer to a pay dispute was to swap them out with strangers.
How do you read that and think the system is working?
Between 2012 and 2022 the federal Labour Program estimated employers used replacement workers in about 42% of all strikes and lockouts.
Not occasional. Nearly half.
What Bill 96 would actually do
The bill itself is pretty simple. Employers can’t bring in new hires, workers from other locations, contractors, temp agency staff, or managers transferred from other sites to do the work of striking or locked-out employees. There are exceptions for emergencies, preventing danger to people, serious property or environmental damage. Same basic framework as the federal version.
Context: Bill 96 is a private member’s bill, meaning it was introduced by an opposition MPP rather than the governing party. Private member’s bills rarely pass in Ontario without government support. The PCs hold 80 of 124 seats.
It is the same bill Gélinas has introduced in various forms since she first entered legislature. Same concept, same structure. What changes is the context around it.
Something feels different this time. Maybe.
Gélinas noticed a shift. “Usually when I table such a bill I get the grumpy conservatives to push back,” she told Sudbury.com. “This time, there was a different tone out there.”
"It sort of gives me hope that they may realize that no, it's not going to hurt business, and if you want to protect workers, this is the way to protect workers."
Part of that is the federal precedent, I’d argue it’s the biggest part. Conservative MPs in Ottawa voted for C-58 unanimously. That makes it harder (not impossible, but harder) for Ontario PCs to call replacement worker bans radical NDP territory when federal wing of their own ideological family already backed the thing.
The Steelworkers have been pushing too. USW Ontario Director Myles Sullivan framed Bill 96 as “an opportunity to Doug Ford’s Conservative government to reverse its course of attacking the constitutional rights of workers.” Those are union words, you can discount them if you want, but the argument doesn’t get weaker just because organized labour is making it.
And then there is timing which you can’t ignore. Right now, this week, thousands of OPSEU community and social service workers are on strike across Ontario. More than 4,500 members walked off May 25 at agencies supporting people with developmental disabilities, mental health needs, children in crisis. The Financial Accountability Office flagged a $1.5 billion shortfall in the Ministry of Community and Social Services budget. Less workers, less funding, same demand for services. These are exactly the kind of workers which would benefit from anti-scab protections, and they have none.
Will 17 be the lucky number?
My honest read is probably not. The PCs have voted down or let die every previous version and Ford’s government has shown no appetite for expanding labour protections. This is the same government which passed Bill 124 capping public sector wage increases at one percent, a law later struck down in court as unconstitutional. The track record speaks for itself.
But the gap between federal and provincial law gets harder to explain with each passing month. Quebec has had anti-scab protections for 49 years. BC for 33. The feds for almost one. Ontario, the country’s biggest province with the most workers, still has nothing. At some point “we just don’t do that here” stops being an argument and starts being an admission.
Gélinas called this attempt “lucky 17.” I’d take the under on 18.
Sources and verification: Bill 96 was tabled for first reading on March 25, 2026 (ola.org). Federal Bill C-58 came into force June 20, 2025 (canada.ca). The 42% replacement worker usage figure is from the federal Labour Program covering 2012-2022 (canada.ca). The 17 introductions claim is from Ontario NDP communications and confirmed by Sudbury.com. The OPSEU strike involving 4,500+ members began May 25, 2026 (CBC News). The $1.5 billion shortfall figure is attributed to the Financial Accountability Office. Villa Colombo and Black River-Matheson details are from CUPE Ontario and news coverage. Gélinas quotes are from Sudbury.com/TimminsToday reporting.
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