TORONTO - Ontario’s public services are the chief
casualty of a provincial budget that will actually cost jobs and slow
the economic recovery.
"Any budget that projects a loss of up to 5,000
positions in public services doesn’t instill any confidence that this
government is serious about pulling Ontario out of the recession,” said
OPSEU President Warren (Smokey) Thomas, referring to the Finance
ministry’s plan to eliminate five per cent of OPS positions. The job
security of 1,200 employees who administer the provincial sales tax is
also threatened.
“A loss of that magnitude is akin to losing three steel
mill plants in Hamilton. All it does is remove public money out of local
economies in communities across the province that are suffering through
lost private sector jobs.”
Thomas said Thursday’s budget contains too many examples
where Queen’s Park has fallen short of its stated target to rebuild
public services.
“There’s a wall of silence when it comes to staffing-up
the community colleges that are needed to meet the demand in job
retraining. Already we see laid off workers and students being turned
away because we don’t have the human resources required to get the
victims of the recession back into new jobs.
“There’s nothing wrong with new buildings as long as we
have the faculty and staff inside providing quality education.”
The same could be said of jobs in the human and
community services sector where Finance Minister Dwight Duncan’s budget
had little to say about strengthening these programs that typically see
their caseloads increase during economic downturns.
On the government’s plan to harmonize the PST and GST
Thomas said the move threatens more than 1,200 jobs in Durham region
where OPSEU workers administer the provincial retail sales tax.
“As if Durham hasn’t been hammered enough through
layoffs and closures in the auto industry; we now face the prospect that
hundreds of jobs could be lost in the provincial sector because of
harmonizing our taxes,” said Thomas. “I have no faith that federal
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty will guarantee that a job lost in PST
administration will transfer to the new blended model.”
Thomas said he was also disappointed there is no
indication that Queen’s Park is prepared to infuse major new funding in
heath care and services.
“Every community should brace for more cuts to beds and
social services at their local hospital.” said Thomas. “Funding is well below
what is needed to simply stand still, let alone address the growing
number of community hospitals that are sinking into debt.”
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