Can a collective agreement be interpreted as a statutory right?

In St. Anne Nackawic Pulp & Paper v. CPU 1986 CanLII 71 (SCC), [1986] 1 S.C.R. 704, the court held that it has no jurisdiction to consider claims arising out of rights created by a collective agreement. The grievance and arbitration procedures provided for in the legislation and in the terms of the collective agreement provide the exclusive recourse open to the parties to the agreement for its enforcement.

In Weber v. Ontario Hydro 1995 CanLII 108 (SCC), [1995] 2 S.C.R. 929, the court set out the analysis to be undertaken to determine whether a matter falls within the collective agreement. The court said that “the issue is not whether the action, defined legally, is independent of the collective agreement, but rather whether the dispute is one ‘arising under [the] collective agreement’”. When the dispute arises, either expressly or inferentially, under the collective agreement, then the jurisdiction to resolve it lies exclusively with the labour tribunal and the courts have no jurisdiction.