Hon. Diane Bellemare: Honourable senators, today, Senators Cardozo, Cuzner, Harder, Klyne, Oudar, Ross, Yussuff and myself are sponsoring an event to highlight the importance of dialogue between governments and economic and social partners in order to ensure sustainable and inclusive prosperity for all Canadians and Indigenous peoples.

In our era, we are experiencing major disruptions that are threatening our prosperity and that of our children, threatening our democracy and world peace, and threatening the survival of our planet.

The complex challenges that we are facing in free and democratic countries cannot be solved only through the goodwill and good ideas of governments, which are often influenced by the need to win over voters.

The most effective strategies require the ongoing, coordinated participation of all stakeholders. Canada, like other free and democratic countries, must complement its policy and strategy development process with ongoing dialogue between governments and socio-economic partners in order to share a common understanding and vision, identify winning solutions and, most importantly, implement them as quickly as possible.

In free and democratic societies, governments may find themselves unable to identify and implement the appropriate strategies to deal with complex issues. A call for individual responsibility may not be enough. A shared understanding of the issues, built through dialogue and the engagement of the entire society around the best solutions, is needed.

This practice is called social dialogue, the word “social” meaning “socio-economic partners.” The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and other United Nations organizations are calling on free and democratic countries to strengthen social dialogue to achieve sustainable development goals and to promote peace.

In Canada and the United States, while social dialogue is practised in many sectors, such as the workforce and local and regional development boards, the terminology itself is less commonly recognized. No matter what we call it, dialogue between representatives of different social and economic sectors remains a necessary practice that must be promoted in our democratic institutions.

The example of the recent pandemic clearly shows that federal, provincial and territorial governments can work together when the threat is serious. However, during this crisis, Canada could have done better on employment and economic issues if governments had worked more closely with organizations representing workers and businesses, as was the case in some countries.

I believe the Senate can play a significant role in building a permanent dialogue between all governments and socio-economic sectors. I invite you to come and meet representatives of several social and economic groups linked to the labour market, gathering today from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the senators’ lounge.

Thank you, meegwetch and tshinashkumitin.

Hon. Senators: Hear, hear.