(Halifax) – The president of CUPE Nova Scotia is wondering what happened to all those wonderful election promises Rodney MacDonald made?
Reacting to today’s provincial budget Danny Cavanagh says, “Our 16,000 members, and the rest of Nova Scotia, are no doubt scratching their heads today wondering what happened to all those wonderful things promised by the Tories in the last provincial election.
“Instead, they’ve increased user fees by almost 7% – which are really just taxes in a different form – are delaying their commitment on Pharmacare, the Canada Pension Plan clawback and other promises that working families were counting on,” says Cavanagh.
“With capital expenditures almost cut in half in this budget, CUPE is extremely concerned that the infrastructure money being made available in this week’s federal budget is now looking very attractive down here. The problem with that is, the Harper money is all tied to P-3’s.
“Nova Scotians know that P3 schools were a disaster and don’t want to go back down that road,” says Cavanagh.
Cavanagh says, “Child care workers, many of whom continue to work for near poverty wages, want a guarantee that the new money coming from the Harper government is earmarked specifically for wages and benefits. This provincial government continues to ignore this entire sector.”
For information: Danny Cavanagh, President, CUPE Nova Scotia - (902) 957-0822 (Cell); John McCracken, CUPE Communications Rep. - (902) 455-4180 (o)