500 new full-time Correctional staff and new capital projects for Kenora and Thunder Bay will turn the tide on the crisis.
HSABC/NUPGE encouraged the government to be bold in its action, and make the investment needed to maintain and grow a robust and sustainable public health care system.
Brown urges Trudeau to safeguard the power to regulate in the public interest, and stop foreign investors from suing Canadian taxpayers.
“The pandemic is showing us that the cost-cutting and understaffing that go hand-in-hand with privatization can also be deadly.” — Warren (Smokey) Thomas, OPSEU President
If work-from-home (WFH) arrangements become more prevalent in the post-COVID world, they must be a tool to improve equity, not a hindrance.
"Please take a moment to reflect on the loss, to hold your family and loved ones a bit closer tonight, and to remember to stay safe — everyone deserves to come from work safe and sound." — Graeme Johnston.
"We have a system that looks at care in silos rather than a coherent system that is concerned about health from birth to death. This needs to change." — Larry Brown, NUPGE President
Providers underlined the need for appropriate financial and staffing resources in order to reopen facilities safely.
“I’ve been watching politics and polling for a long time, and I’ve never seen numbers like these.” — Warren (Smokey) Thomas, OPSEU President
"The act ... is a draconian measure which limits and reduces a union's bargaining power...and inhibits the union's ability to trade off monetary benefits for non-monetary enhancements, such as protection from contracting out, job security, and layoffs. It has left no room for a meaningful collective bargaining process on issues crucial to union memberships." — Justice McKelvey, Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench
“The fact that your government felt it necessary to create the CERB is a damning statement on the damage done by the restrictions on EI coverage and benefits that have been introduced over the years” Larry Brown, NUPGE President
“The economy is gradually re-opening now, but it will take years to rebuild the quantity of work back up to a level that fully occupies Canadian workers. And at the same time, we need to repair some obvious and damaging flaws in the quality of work, if we want that reopening to last and succeed.” — Jim Stanford, labour economist
“Many people have said that we can’t go back to the old normal after we’ve got COVID-19 under control. This poll shows how true that really is." — Eduardo (Eddy) Almeida, OPSEU First Vice-President/Treasurer
“While the vast majority of pension plans have the resources needed to withstand the impact of COVID-19 on their investments, if a plan is forced to sell assets at fire-sale prices to meet its obligations, it will have a devastating effect. Pension plans that are forced to take this step will likely be left with substantial pension deficits that will be very difficult to eliminate." Bert Blundon, NUPGE Secretary-Treasurer