Throne speech offers chance to reset agenda

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/10/2020 (1542 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Just as the pandemic has hit Manitobans differently, based on income, ethnicity, gender and more, the recovery also stands to be inequitable as it unfolds — unless governments take action.

For Brian Pallister’s Progressive Conservative government, the return to the Legislature on Wednesday with a speech from the throne is a chance to make sure the recovery goes better than the shutdown. I have to say, however, I’m not optimistic. He has let Manitobans down too often the past, and his actions on so many fronts throughout his time in government give little reason for hope.

Take, for example, child care: even before the pandemic, child care was not meeting the need, with spaces for just 18.8 per cent of children under 12, well below the Canadian average of 27.2 per cent.

At the end of August, Families Minister Heather Stefanson announced the government’s second action plan for early learning and child care, reporting that that 21,000 spaces are currently operational. This is a huge drop from the 37,459 spaces operating pre-pandemic — a cut of 16,459 spaces in just a few months.

Every missing space means another family hurting, and probably another woman forced, once again, to decide between her job and child-care needs. The fortunate ones can work from home and try to juggle it all. Many — often, those we’ve come to call COVID-19 heroes — don’t have that choice.

Unifor urges Pallister to work with the federal government to attain a national, universal child-care system, and abandon his ill-considered scheme to hand over child-care dollars to chambers of commerce.

As this new legislative session opens, working Manitobans are still feeling the sting from Pallister’s austerity measures. Even as COVID-19 puts workers in precarious economic circumstances, the PC government has only piled on.

Manitoba’s universities have seen an increase in enrolment, but that didn’t stop the Pallister government from cutting funding to universities. Our members in Local 3007 at the University of Manitoba have seen hundreds of layoffs in maintenance and food services. While some of that is because there are so few students on campus, others have been idled by funding cuts.

Pallister once again raises the spectre of Manitoba Hydro privatization as he hovers over the Hydro subsidiary Manitoba Hydro International, while hampering the profitable venture by ordering it not to aggressively pursue new work. The throne speech gives him a chance to reverse this wrong-headed scheme.

This is the thin edge of the wedge, and identical to the carving up of utilities we have seen across Canada. Hundreds of workers have been laid off since Pallister came to office, resulting in service delays and raising safety concerns. It is imperative that Manitoba Hydro, which Manitobans built for Manitoba, remain in public hands.

Going after working Manitobans is nothing new to Manitoba’s premier for the wealthy. His Public Services Sustainability Act, designed to freeze the wages of public-sector workers, was overturned on June 11 by Justice Joan McKelvey, who declared parts of it unconstitutional and a “draconian measure which limits and reduces a union’s bargaining power.” Pallister continues to waste taxpayer money appealing the decision.

All this, of course, plays into Pallister’s ill-advised pursuit of balancing the budget. Pallister’s kitchen-table economic approach to running the province has stripped funding from health care, education, the civil service, public transit and infrastructure. At a time when Manitoba needs more public investment, this government has seen fit to starve the province. We deserve better in this throne speech.

And while we applaud Pallister demanding the federal government put more money into health care and pay its fair share under the Canada Health Act, such a demand is disingenuous, considering how hard the Pallister government has hit health care in this province.

The new throne speech will mean that all bills on the previous order paper will die, giving Pallister a chance to reconsider his attacks on labour – including Bill 16, which would privatize the conciliation process. The bill would have effectively killed conciliation by allowing companies to refuse to pay for it. Without conciliation — currently a free service that brings parties together to achieve a resolution — labour stoppages will increase.

We would prefer to see the government abandon its anti-worker stance and instead, deliver a new throne speech that outlines a positive view of our province. Help Manitobans thrive during COVID-19. Abandon attacks on workers, and focus on building Manitoba and building up Manitobans.

Gavin McGarrigle is the Western Regional Director for Unifor.