FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 19, 2001
Throne Speech: “The
punishment will continue until morale improves”
TORONTO - Ontario public sector workers
hoping for some relief from six years of layoffs, cutbacks, stress and
privatization won’t be getting it from the Harris government, judging by
the Speech from the Throne read out today at Queen’s Park.
“As far as public sector workers are
concerned, the message from the Harris government is that the punishment
will continue until morale improves,” said Leah Casselman, president of
the Ontario Public Service Employees Union. “They clearly intend to
privatize more public services and keep on starving the ones that are
left.”
The Throne Speech made several references
to finding “areas where government does not belong” but indicated that
most privatizations will be announced May 9 in the 2001-02 Provincial
Budget.
The government has clearly put
privatization of health care services on the front burner, Casselman said.
“Once again the government is trying to create the perception of a
crisis, this time in health care,” she said. “It will not be a
surprise when we find out that their ‘solution’ is privatization, or
that the main beneficiaries will be the private health care companies that
donate the most to the Conservative Party.”
Casselman scoffed at hints in the Throne
Speech that the government was facing severe economic hardship. “How can
the books be in a mess after six years of the biggest economic boom in
Ontario history?” she said. “The only ‘crisis’ we’re facing is a
government that’s run out of ideas.”
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For further information: Randy Robinson
(416) 448-7441; (416) 315-2982
