ST. JOHN`S, NL – CUPE NL President Wayne Lucas says, “None of us should be surprised that the previous government was less than forthright about the provincial deficit, but what’s needed now is a common sense approach to the situation.
“The last thing we need right now is program cuts and huge layoffs in the public sector. In fact, the premier should follow the lead of his federal counterpart, Prime Minister Trudeau, and bolster the public sector as a way to tide us through this downturn,” says Lucas.
The federal Liberals campaigned on having deficits and spending $10 billion a year on infrastructure for the next four years to stimulate the economy. They’ve since upped that figure to $14 billion for 2015-2016.
NL can also expect more federal money flowing to this province with the increased infrastructure and other spending by the federal Liberals.
Lucas says, “Our new federal government is focused on growing the economy and introducing progressive taxes instead of cutting public services. With interest rates this low, the government should be stimulating the economy, not making the economic situation worse by cutting spending.”
Says Lucas, “We’ve also been sounding the alarm on the perils of P3s, so-called public private partnerships. Let’s hope the premier doesn’t change his tune on these costly, secretive deals that are a huge taxpayer rip off.”