The Treasury Board (“the applicant”) filed an application under subsection 123(1) of the Public Service Labour Relations Act (“the Act”) about matters that may be included in an essential services agreement (ESA) covering positions in the CS Group at the Public Safety Canada – the department was created in 2003 to address the need for a more cohesive, government-wide capacity to plan for, and respond to, all manner of emergencies – the parties agreed that some positions performed essential services and shared broadly similar views about the underlying nature of most of the essential services performed but disagreed over exactly how to define them – the Board could not endorse either of the competing definitions advanced by the parties – the applicant’s proposal was too broad and encompassed some activities or services that were not essential – it is an important requirement to try to cast the definition of essential services with sufficient precision to facilitate decisions about the other elements required in an ESA – the Board also rejected the respondent’s proposal to link part of the definition of essential services to pieces of equipment, although the Board did not consider itself constrained from doing so - pieces of equipment were prone to change, and although such changes could be addressed by using the ESA amending formula provided in sections 126 to 128 of the Act, such an approach was not to be encouraged and would not serve effective labour-management relations – the types of equipment listed did not comprise “services,” “facilities” or “activities” within the meaning of subsection 4(1) of the Act – by the very nature of dealing with a mandate about emergencies, erring on the side of caution remained an overarching imperative and the zone for caution had to be substantial – the Board identified specific support services in circumstances where there was a clear and direct linkage to the emergency management functions listed in the definition of essential services.

Essential services identified.