(St. John’s) – Reacting to today’s federal budget, CUPE NL President Wayne Lucas says, “What millions of Canadians who don’t have adequate pensions needed to see in this year’s budget from the Harper Government were real changes to the Canada Pension Plan (CPP).
“What working families in Newfoundland and Labrador really need is better pension income through long overdue reforms to CPP and a national child care program similar to what they’ve had in Quebec for years now. These are missing in action in this budget,” he says.
“Instead we get additional reductions to corporate tax rates and attacks on the unemployed and seasonal workers who depend on EI, which is supposed to be an insurance scheme,” says Lucas.
“The so-called pooled pension plan, meanwhile, is totally voluntary on the part of employers and therefore won’t do a thing for workers getting ready to retire,” says Lucas.
Lucas says, “Communities continue to struggle with inadequate funding to improve public services, including water and transportation infrastructure. The federal government needs to commit significant increased funding for long term, predictable public infrastructure spending that is not tied to ideologically-driven public private partnerships, so-called P3s.”
Lucas says voters in this province have a chance to send a strong message to Stephen Harper in an upcoming by-election by making sure Peter Penashue is not returned to Ottawa.