from Global News Saskatoon
The Saskatchewan legislature resumes this week, and the Brad Wall government is set to introduce new legislation to privatize more Crown agencies and further attack the rights of organized labour.
"Labour, liquor stores and legislation will be on the agenda when the new session of the Saskatchewan legislature starts Thursday," writes Jennifer Graham of Canadian Press.
by Ish Theilheimer, with YouTube video by Samantha Bayard
Robyn Benson knows her work is cut out for her. She’s a grassroots public service union activist from Winnipeg who cut her teeth in a famous wildcat strike in 1980. Last May, Benson was elected national president of the 186,000-member Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), a union that finds itself in the crosshairs of political gunsights. On one hand, tens of thousands of her members are losing their jobs; on the other hand, the government is threatening action to end automatic union membership for federal employees.
OTTAWA, ON, October 1, 2012: Tony Clement, President of the Treasury Board, and several other ministers made announcements across the country with regards to the Red Tape Reduction Commission.
Made up of corporations and lobby groups, this partisan commission is seeking to reduce regulatory compliance instead of focusing on keeping Canadians safe from harm.
Since the launch of this commission, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) has warned that ensuring regulations that protect Canadians' health and safety are enforced override concerns about bureaucracy and red tape.
"The listeria food poisoning outbreak and the recent E. coli outbreak in Alberta are just some examples of the real and devastating impact deregulation can have on Canadian lives," said Robyn Benson, President of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC).
TORONTO, ON, September 26, 2012: An announcement last week by the Ministry of Labour that it intends to strengthen the Employment Standards Act by hiring 18 additional enforcement officers was quietly followed days later by a decision to lay off 19 staff doing investigative work.
On September 17, the Ministry announced with considerable media fanfare that it was hiring the additional 18 officers in a bid to "protect" vulnerable workers from predatory employers who fail to meet minimum standards of wages, hours of work, paid holidays and other regulations under the Act.
Three days later, on September 20th, 19 employment standards officers, known as ESO1s, were told they were out of a job, victims of the McGuinty government's attack on public services as a weapon in its austerity agenda. Seventeen of the 19 officers have 20 or more years of service with the provincial government.
newsletter for the Friends of Lansdowne's Let's Get It Right email list
OTTAWA, ON, September 24, 2012: One of the better features of the Lansdowne Partnership Plan is a 7-acre urban park facing the canal. However, it has just come to light that there can be no new buildings of any size in the park area — ever. There can be no public washroom buildings, no outdoor cafes and no kayak/bicycle rental pavilions. There can be tents and porta-potties, but no structures connected to the city's sewage system. So even though the park is intended to serve hundreds of thousands of visitors, and is part of a project costing taxpayers over $400 million, new amenities will be restricted to whatever is inside the Aberdeen Pavilion and the Horticulture Building. If these buildings happen to be closed, there will be no public washrooms in the park area and you will have to walk to the privately controlled stadium or shops just to wash your hands.
This surprising fact was revealed in a workshop organized by the Glebe Community Association with provincial Ministry of the Environment officials to discuss the risk management plan for Lansdowne. It turns out that because of the environmental controls needed to deal with contaminated soils in the designated parkland zone, any future construction is out of the question.
TORONTO, ON, September 26, 2012: Members of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU/NUPGE) have the power to stop a government takeover of their pension plans, thousands heard on two telephone town hall meetings.
"This government can be swayed if there are enough people going in to see them," OPSEU Region 2 Vice-President Mike Grimaldi told callers. "There are already splits in Cabinet on this."
Some 18,000 OPSEU/NUPGE members joined four telephone calls held September 20 and 24 to learn more about the McGuinty government's plan to pool dozens of pension plans to create a single super-fund controlled by private-sector managers.
"The only people who are going to benefit from this are actuaries who are going to figure out how this works and a bunch of investment bankers who are going control the fund," said Grimaldi.
Coran: “Premier McGuinty should not expect that our members or the workers of Ontario to sit idly while the government strips them of their basic and fundamental labour rights.”September 15, 2012: Following the passage of Bill 115, which strips educators of their collective bargaining rights, three of the province’s teacher and education support staff unions have indicated their intention to challenge the legislation in court.
“Instead of focusing on strengthening schools, communities and the economy, the Liberals have chosen to attack people’s charter rights,” said Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario President Fred Hahn. “We are challenging Bill 115 because the rights of Ontarians are protected by the Constitution, even if the Liberals don’t want them to be.”
“Bill 115 isn’t about balancing the budget. It’s not about fixing the economy. It won’t benefit students or schools,” said Hahn.
“The passing of Bill 115 represents one of the darkest days in the history of workers’ rights in recent memory,” said Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) President Ken Coran. “This government has now passed a law that tramples on the rights of education workers in Ontario, and it appears that Premier McGuinty will be targeting other workers in the near future.”
Mehra: The claims in the PC Party's White Paper about health spending are manipulative, and frankly, dishonest.TORONTO, ON, September 10, 2012: Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak should be required to answer tough questions resulting from the release of the PC Party's White Paper on Health Care, say Ontario Health Coalition leaders. Among the coalition's key observations:
Loxley: Due to the major concerns raised about P3s, the safest approach for municipalities is to forego privatization and continue to follow the conventional public sector procurement model.Regina, SK, September 10, 2012: A new guide encourages municipal officials to show caution in considering the use of public-private partnerships to finance public infrastructure projects. The conclusion of John Loxley, the guide’s author and economics professor at the University of Manitoba, is clear: “Municipalities need to be wary of P3s. They are not the best option.”
The reference document “Asking the Right Questions: A Guide for Municipalities Considering P3s” raises critical concerns about the protection of public services and provides essential information to assist municipalities in making sound decisions in the best interest of their citizens.
“Infrastructure projects implemented under P3s are not advantageous for municipalities or their citizens,” stated national Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) president Paul Moist. “After they read this guide, mayors and city councillors tempted to rush headlong into pro-privatization initiatives will agree with us that P3s do not offer all the benefits touted by promoters of that model.”
TORONTO, ON, August 30, 2012: The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) has issued a stern warning about the Liberal government’s Bill 115, which affects education workers in Ontario. The Association further announced that it will seek intervener status in a legal challenge should the bill pass in the Ontario Legislature.
“We are concerned that this bill violates the right to meaningful collective bargaining. Why is it necessary, for instance, remove the right to strike before any job action has occurred or even been contemplated? Collective bargaining enhances the dignity of workers and is a constitutional right, in part, for this reason. This isn’t only about the pocketbook, it is also about participating in the governance of the workplace,” said Sukanya Pillay, a CCLA director.
