LabourWyse makes Canadian labour relations simpler, clearer, and more practical.
Our online training teaches Union and Employer representatives to handle the everyday challenges of working under a collective agreement, from interpreting clauses to resolving disputes before they escalate. The growing library of 140+ lessons has also been formatted to work as a quick reference guide that can be used on the job when questions arise.
With plain-language lessons and on-demand guidance, LabourWyse helps you make smarter, defensible decisions under your collective agreement.
Developed through a unique collaboration between experienced union-side lawyers and employer-side experts, LabourWyse delivers both perspectives in one trusted resource. We have turned complex labour relations concepts into practical, understandable solutions that work in actual unionized workplaces in Canada.
Who is LabourWyse for?
LabourWyse provides plain-language guidance for everyone in labour relations. Our users include union executive boards, union stewards, HR professionals, senior and frontline managers, government conciliators, mediators, and labour lawyers.
Meet our team
LabourWyse unites a team of esteemed Canadian labour relations professionals with experience on both sides of the table. We have represented major unions and advised leading employers, and are driven by a desire to create better workplaces through shared, proven labour relations principles.
Riley Palmer
Bio
Riley Palmer is a Co-Founder of LabourWyse and named partner at Watson Palmer Labour Lawyers, a leading labour law firm that represents many of Canada’s largest unions.
LabourWyse is a product of Riley’s passion for education and training. To him, the law should not be abstract. It is a tool for fixing and maintaining productive and healthy workplaces. Riley’s legal career has always been focused on labour relations because he is driven by the belief that fairness at work is central to a fairer society.
Riley has built a strong reputation as an advocate in litigation and a steady hand in negotiation. He has appeared before the Labour Relations Board, the Canadian Industrial Relations Board, Human Rights Tribunals, and in labour arbitration. He also spends significant time on strategy work, preparing cases carefully, anticipating challenges, and finding creative and successful solutions.
Raised with a strong respect for solidarity and community, Riley sees the law as a way to strengthen the voices of those often overlooked. That perspective guides his work as a named partner of a law firm dedicated to labour relations, and as co-founder of LabourWyse.
LabourWyse draws on Riley’s years of experience representing and training union clients to provide practical knowledge and insights. It does not provide legal services or legal advice.
Maxime Labbé
Bio
Maxime is a Co-Founder of LabourWyse, as well as the Managing Director, Co-Owner, and bilingual master course instructor for Montana Consulting Group.
He brings more than 25 years of management experience in human resources and labour relations in manufacturing and professional services. He has advised companies of all sizes and types and coached managers in both French and English.
He developed expertise in leadership coaching while working with a major national accounting firm and with their clients. His professional approach and understanding of what it takes to build high engagement workplaces marks him as an HR leader.
A native of Québec City, he holds a Bachelor of Industrial Relations from Université Laval.
George Raine
Bio
George is a Co-Founder of LabourWyse and the Founding Director of Montana Consulting Group. Since 2004, Montana Consulting Group has worked with around 200 organizations, both employers and unions, providing training and consulting services. George specializes in complex labour relations and HR matters, including collective bargaining, arbitration, workplace investigations, and culture change. He is one of Eastern Canada’s top HR and labour relations experts and his 45-year career includes work in all areas of the field. He practises widely in Ontario and the Maritimes.
Before founding Montana in 2004, George was an HR Manager for Stelco, Corporate Director of HR for Frigidaire Canada, Director of HR for the 2,000-employee Victoria General Hospital in Halifax, and special consultant to the Nova Scotia Department of Health providing high-level direction in labour relations, change management, governance, and organizational effectiveness during the mid-1990s health care reform. He later served as Corporate VP of Human Resources for Irving Group in Moncton, NB.
During his career, George has been directly involved in negotiating roughly 40 collective agreements, either with direct responsibility for bargaining or as an advisor to the bargaining team. He has prepared and presented more than 60 arbitration cases, winning more than 90%.
George is experienced in conducting harassment and other workplace investigations. He taught harassment investigators and advisors for the Department of National Defence and taught conflict management, mediation, and labour relations for the Canada School of Public Service.
George is the creator of the popular Turnaround Interview workshop and author of The 10 Minute Turnaround. Turnaround Interview has been taught to managers in dozens of unionized workplaces, providing a practical and effective strategy for coaching employees out of their bad workplace habits without the use or threat of discipline.
George is a co-founder and twice president of the Canadian Council of Human Resources Associations (now CPHR Canada), which represents over 30,000 HR professionals, and helped establish a national standard for the CPHR designation. He is also a recipient of the Atlantic Canada Human Resources Award (ACHRA) for Excellence in Human Resources.
Michael Raine
Bio
Michael is a Co-Founder of LabourWyse and the Content and Business Development Manager at Montana Consulting Group, as well as a Master Turnaround Interview Instructor.
Before joining Montana in 2023, Michael spent over a decade as a journalist and editor, including 10 years as Senior Editor and Editor-in-Chief at NWC, a national magazine publisher. He specialized in business reporting and, in addition to magazines, he produced a widely respected podcast and webinar series for professionals in the music and audio industries. He has also contributed to outlets such as the CBC and HuffPost.
Michael has conducted over 1,000 in-depth interviews with well-known artists and other public figures, senior executives, entrepreneurs, innovators, and technical experts, as well as serving as a sought-after conference panel moderator. This extensive interviewing and hosting experience supports his engaging, clear, results-focused approach as a trainer and course developer.
Michael lives near Hamilton, Ontario, with his wife and their two young kids.