Public Values

The day the wheat board died

Mar 252013

Tories supported multinationals over small farmers.

by Gavin Fridell

In 2012, the Conservatives ended the 70-year monopoly seller status of the Canadian Wheat Board, one of the world’s largest and most successful “state trading enterprises.” The government decision came without a vote among prairie grain farmers, required by the Canadian Wheat Board Act, and despite a 2011 plebiscite in which a majority of farmers voted to maintain the Board’s status.

The matter is now before the courts, but the Board cannot simply be revived after having been dismantled. Instead, a coalition of farmer groups has launched a class action suit against the government seeking billions of dollars in compensation.

CUPE counters Nestle Waters Canada

Mar 252013

Public Values

Nestle targets campaigns to limit bottled water.

from the Canadian Union of Public Employees

CUPE's involvement in campaigns to limit the use of bottled water is based on nothing more sinister than concern about the toll the bottle water industry takes on municipal public water systems, says CUPE National President Paul Moist.

Moist was responding to a letter published in the Chatham Daily News recently by John B Challinor, Director of Corporate Affairs for Nestle Waters Canada, prompted by a request Chatham-Kent city council is considering to limit the sale of bottled water at civic events. A Chatham area teenager, Robyn Hamlyn, asked council to consider the motion as part of the Blue Communities campaign sponsored by CUPE and the Council of Canadians.

Challinor’s letter to the editor painted CUPE’s involvement as rendering the Blue Communities initiative as suspect.

Moist's March 15 letter in response states that while CUPE is proud to be a part of campaigns highlighting the value of publicly-operated water systems, the call to limit bottle water originates not from "big labour" but from "the grassroots advocacy of concerned citizens like Hamlyn".

"Nestle pays a mere $3.71 per million litres they extract, bottle, and sell to Ontarians. Pressuring the Chatham-Kent council to ignore the concerns of its citizens and the millions of Canadians recognizing the waste of bottled water is nothing more than a cynical attempt to protect these lucrative profits," Moist's letter states.

Source

Reference

Full text of the letter

Five poisons of privatization

Mar 212013

Public Values

Nothing else matters but profits.

from Common Dreams

Paul Buchelt, writing for Common Dreams, offers five chilling consequences of putting the common good up for auction.

Source

Researchers call for moratorium on privatizing liquor sales

Mar 212013

Public Values

Private liquor stores hike alcohol use.

from the Saskatchewan Government and General Employees' Union

SGEU is calling on the Saskatchewan government to place a moratorium on private liquor stores following a study recently released by the Centre for Addictions and Mental Health.

"Strategies to reduce alcohol-related harm and costs in Canada: A comparison of provincial policies" states that governments do not pay enough attention to addressing the damaging effects of alcohol on families and communities. The report concludes that alcohol is a leading risk factor for ill-health, injury and disability in North America.

BC extends outsource contract despite AG’s concerns

Mar 212013

Public Values

Price of new contract up 40 percent.

from Policy Note

Keith Reynolds comments in Policy Note on each of the BC Auditor-General's concerns about the dearth of benefits realized from outsourcing health information management services to Maximus BC, a US subsidiary corporation, since 2004. Maximus was awarded a new five-year deal, he writes, just eleven days after the AG's damning report.

Source

Corruption and how to fix it

Mar 182013

Public Values

Start by valuing public services.

from Revolting Europe

Corruption is an old phenomenon and is spread throughout the world. It has attracted the attention of many social scientists and the condemnation of political leaders of all colours. But it hasn’t been eliminated. Conversely, it has been increasing in the last three or four decades.

Perhaps this happens because in tackling it, you seek fixes based on beliefs or ideological prejudices rather than looking at the facts from the least corrupt countries.

Tree license rollover has no public benefit

Mar 182013

Public Values

68 percent of British Columbians say they'd pay more taxes to protect the province's forests and wildlife

Forest Act changes are a gift to corporations.

from the Vancouver Sun

An act before the BC legislature which looks, on the surface, to be housekeeping legislation, actually grants private property rights to corporations holding BC forest licenses without any reciprocal benefits to the public interest for the Crown-owned land. This gift of a public resource, writes Anthony Britneff in a special to The Vancouver Sun, was offered with no public consultation.

Source

Albertans reject austerity — poll

Mar 182013

Public Values

Investment in services preferred.

by SGNews Staff

An Environics poll conducted February 14 – 21 shows that more than 70 percent of Albertans rejects the idea of cuts to public services. More than three quarters of those polled agreed that there should be an increase in taxes for the wealthy and corporations.

Protecting Regina’s water system

Mar 142013

Public Values

Townhall meeting attracts capacity crowd.

from the Canadian Union of Public Employees

A capacity crowd gathered in Regina March 6 at a town hall meeting organized by CUPE and the Council of Canadians to protest city council's recent decision to issue a request for proposals for a P3 waste water treatment plant.

“There is no such thing as a water system in this world that is expendable, and the only way to protect them is to keep them in the public trust,” said Maud Barlow, national chairperson of the Council of Canadians.

"As governments lose control to private corporations, more and more around the world decisions on water are not being made by governments."

Barlow highlighted some of the international experiences with privatized water systems, many resulting in high profits for shareholders, and skyrocketing rates for citizens.

"We want to say, and we will say no, because we value our water," she said. "The most important thing we can do now is to keep it in public hands, and say no to these private corporations."

Infrastructure challenges are being faced in communities across Canada, said Paul Moist, national president of CUPE.

"Regina is being forced into this P3 in order to access federal funding. Where I'm from, that is not acceptable," he said. "This is about an absence of public debate. That's not democracy."

Moist said publicly-controlled waste water treatment was a public health issue.

"There is a ton of money to be made in the public sector, and we're playing with some big players. And if this goes through, a huge chunk of the rates you pay are going to be leaving Regina," he said. "This debate isn't over."

GOP endgame — privatization of government?

Mar 142013

Public Values

The sequester could be a business strategy.

from the Huffington Post

Larry Hirsch of the Huffington Post wonders if the sequester and the Republican push for government cuts is a strategy for even more privatization of US government business.

Source

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