We’ve worked hard to build support for tax fairness, public services and public employees. The only people standing in our way are the Harper Conservatives in Ottawa. Their budget is totally out of touch with the priorities of Canadian families. The Harper government must be defeated when the budget comes up for a vote in Parliament.

By James Clancy
National President
National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE)

The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE), our Component unions across the country and the thousands of people who support our All Together Now! campaign have been fighting for tax fairness, promoting the value of public services and defending public employees.

We’ve built great momentum in a short period of time. The vast majority of Canadians and all federal opposition parties (Liberal Party, NDP, BQ and Green Party) support the campaign and its goals.

The only group that doesn’t is the Harper government. Their budget proves they’re out of touch and can’t be trusted to help families struggling to make ends meet in tough economic times.

• Tax Fairness – The budget includes more corporate tax cuts. Corporations have had a tax cut every year for the last decade. Meanwhile, hard working families have seen their tax rate rise steadily. The corporate tax cuts have not boosted the economy or created new jobs. They’ve cost the federal government billions of dollars that could have been used to support public services. They’re also driving up the federal deficit. The Harper government doesn’t care about tax fairness or responsible public financing.

• Public Services – The budget ignores the issue of federal transfers for health care, education and social services. It makes no commitment to strengthen or increase these transfers which are currently being renegotiated with the provinces. Canadians should be concerned the Harper government is planning a repeat of the 1990s when the federal government made severe cuts to these transfers to eliminate the deficit. The budget also failed to increase the Canada Pension Plan or make any real changes to ensure an adequate income for retirees. The Harper government doesn’t support quality public services and social programs.

• Public Employees – The budget requires all federal departments to cut between 5% and 10% of their budgets. The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) estimates as many as 18,000 jobs could be lost. Public employees didn’t cause the economic crisis or the government’s deficit. These problems were caused by governments that deregulated the financial sector and greedy financial institutions that acted recklessly. We stand in solidarity with the PSAC and its members. With the economy still recovering from the blows dealt to it by reckless CEOs, the Harper government is trying to lay the blame at the feet of public employees and ordinary working Canadians.

We’ve worked hard to build support for tax fairness, public services and public employees. The only people standing in our way are the Harper Conservatives in Ottawa. Their budget is totally out of touch with the priorities of Canadian families. The Harper government must be defeated when the budget comes up for a vote in Parliament.

James Clancy
National President

NUPGE

James Clancy is the national president of the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE), one of Canada's largest labour organizations with over 340,000 members. Our mission is to improve the lives of working families and to build a stronger Canada by ensuring our common wealth is used for the common good. NUPGE

More information:

Budget 2011: Harper government out of touch; can’t be trusted to help struggling families [1]

Fairness Test [2]