The fight to keep ServiceOntario public arrives at Queen’s Park
April 16, 2012
OPSEU President Warren (Smokey) Thomas’ demand that ServiceOntario remain in
public hands was formally read into the official record of Ontario’s Legislative
Assembly on May 15. In correspondence to Premier Dalton McGuinty on May 14,
Thomas said the government must withdraw the controversial section of this
year’s budget bill that privatizes ServiceOntario.
MPP Paul Miller (Hamilton East--Stoney Creek), the NDP’s critic for Government
Services, rose in the Legislature and read into Hansard the OPSEU president’s
correspondence to McGuinty. When he finished, Miller went on to describe the
scheme to privatize ServiceOntario as a “nightmare in the making.” Later in
Question Period, Miller asked Ontario’s Finance Minister Dwight Duncan: “Can the
Minister explain why he is pushing ahead with legislation that replicates many
of the failures of ORNGE?”
Duncan failed to reply directly to Miller’s question and instead repeated his
tired and familiar reply about getting the province “back to balance.” As on
many previous occasions, Duncan could not explain how giving away to private
investors a valuable public asset that adds $2.7 billion annually to the
provincial treasury will help Ontario balance its budget and invest in essential
public services at the same time.
Please read President Thomas’ letter
to the Premier, share it with your colleagues and post it in your work
place. Please email your MPP and
tell them that tossing away annual revenues of $2.7 billion by privatizing
ServiceOntario qualifies as one of the most short-sighted and, potentially,
dangerous decisions our government has ever made. It’s not too late to have this
reckless decision turned back.
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