Toronto The last eight years have shown that the Tories, hard-line, tax cutting ideology “is not only myopic and a disaster for public services, it has also proven dangerous for the health and well-being of the people of Ontario,” says Sid Ryan the Ontario president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) who today made a presentation to the government pre-budget consultations at Queen’s Park.
In his pre-budget brief, Ryan stressed that in each of the past eight years CUPE and others have given the Harris/Eves government good advice on budget spending and on why keeping services public serves the long-term interests of the people of Ontario best.
“Well, it’s evident from the government’s policy messes that Eves didn’t listen to any of our good advice. We told him that hydro privatization would mean skyrocketing rates and supply problems. We told him tax cuts to corporations would leave our provincial coffers bare forcing cuts to social spending. And we told him, as Romanow just has, that only public delivery of health care is acceptable to Ontarians.
“Today our public services are in crisis and this government is in trouble politically. The Tories will soon pay the price at the ballot box because they have refused to listen to Ontarians and to the sound advice given to them,” says Ryan who told the government committee that “tax cuts, privatization, deregulation and the sacrifice of public services to private profits doesn’t work. It doesn’t cost less; it doesn’t provide better, more reliable, more accessible public services; and it isn’t more efficient.”
Ryan called on the government to:
For more information please contact:
Sid Ryan, President CUPE Ontario, (416) 209-0066
Stella Yeadon, CUPE Communications, (416) 578-8774
In his pre-budget brief, Ryan stressed that in each of the past eight years CUPE and others have given the Harris/Eves government good advice on budget spending and on why keeping services public serves the long-term interests of the people of Ontario best.
“Well, it’s evident from the government’s policy messes that Eves didn’t listen to any of our good advice. We told him that hydro privatization would mean skyrocketing rates and supply problems. We told him tax cuts to corporations would leave our provincial coffers bare forcing cuts to social spending. And we told him, as Romanow just has, that only public delivery of health care is acceptable to Ontarians.
“Today our public services are in crisis and this government is in trouble politically. The Tories will soon pay the price at the ballot box because they have refused to listen to Ontarians and to the sound advice given to them,” says Ryan who told the government committee that “tax cuts, privatization, deregulation and the sacrifice of public services to private profits doesn’t work. It doesn’t cost less; it doesn’t provide better, more reliable, more accessible public services; and it isn’t more efficient.”
Ryan called on the government to:
- Fully implement the recommendations of the Rozanski report and increase annual education spending by $2.1 billion immediately.
- To stop hydro privatization and deregulation.
- To scrap the construction of private hospitals and increase funding for publicly delivered health care services such as MRIs, CT Scans and cancer care.
- To increase funding for post-secondary education to ensure all capable double cohort students have access to college and university education.
For more information please contact:
Sid Ryan, President CUPE Ontario, (416) 209-0066
Stella Yeadon, CUPE Communications, (416) 578-8774