Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Saskatchewan Labour on the 2012 budget

WRONG PRIORITIES: AN AUSTERITY BUDGET FOR CHILDREN, SENIORS, AND PUBLIC SERVICES

Members of the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour were disappointed today to learn that the provincial government’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year advances priorities that are not commonly held by the people of the province. The budget makes a number of cuts to valuable public services on which the people of Saskatchewan rely.

“The most disappointing thing about the budget,” said Larry Hubich, President of the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour, “is that it illustrates a disconnect between the government and working people. Instead of cutting 110 jobs in social services, 45 jobs in Highways, and 60 jobs in Environment, we could be seeing the increased revenue from setting fair natural resource royalty rates and protecting our valuable services.”

Prior to the last election the government had misguidedly pledged to cut funding to vital services by a total of 16%, amounting to 500 jobs this fiscal year alone. The budget continues along a similar path of service cuts, but spends additional taxpayer money on handouts to construction companies.

“We’ve recently heard that the government has found plenty of money to hire more politicians, and yet they have cut nearly 500 public service jobs this year alone. Today the government chose construction company profits over people, politicians over children and seniors. Today they pursued the wrong priorities.”

2 comments:

  1. My husband works for government and I have been contracted to social services and I KNOW that job cuts are absolutely necessary. Government employees far too often get large pay cheques,great benefits and work half the amount that the private secter works and can rarely be fired for not doing their jobs. You want to save government jobs? Get rid of unions!! They are the ones that make everything else fail in the long run by demanding rediculous raises and benefits and protecting useless workers from being fired and THAT is why government jobs are being cut. Too many lazy people for too long have been riding the government gravy train!!

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  2. I assume that you and your husband are volunteering to be laid off....

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