October 30, 2008
News release
PSAC says Harper government should act in the public interest
Strong public services alleviate Canadians' economic burden
Ottawa – The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) is encouraged to hear that Finance Minister Flaherty recognizes that it would be “misguided” to avoid a deficit at any cost and encourages the federal government to focus its energy on providing assistance to the people hit hard by the current economic crisis.
PSAC represents 160,000 workers across Canada, including more than 130,000 federal public sector workers. In uncertain economic times, Canadians look to PSAC members, who are on the front lines, helping people access Employment Insurance, making sure that seniors receive their pension cheques and that laid off workers have access to retraining and adjustment assistance. They answer phone calls from people every day, who are concerned about whether their bank accounts and retirement income are secure and want to know what the federal government will do to alleviate the crisis that started in the banking and financial sector and quickly spread to the traditional economy.
“Now is the time to invest in public services and public infrastructure,” says John Gordon, PSAC National President. “Minister Flaherty's assertion yesterday that the expenditure review process within government would be expanded to include Crown corporations and public sector compensation is alarming, especially at a time when the focus should be on how to help people and companies who are suffering from the economic fallout.”
PSAC maintains that Flaherty's obsession with expenditure review will take much-needed energy and resources away from helping Canadians and Canadian companies survive the current economic crisis and downturn.
“What is needed more than further expenditure review is re-regulation of the financial services sector and effective enforcement to ensure that it never imperils our economy again,” says Gordon.
According to PSAC, government departments, agencies and Crown corporations should focus on ensuring that Canadian companies in the traditional economy remain solvent and productive. The union also urges the government to provide real, swift and tangible assistance to the manufacturing sector and private pension plans that have been catastrophically affected by the excesses of the financial sector. This coupled with an Employment Insurance program accessible to the majority of unemployed Canadians, not the fraction who are currently eligible to receive benefits, would go along way to ensuring that working Canadians and their families survive a crisis not of their making.
“This crisis was caused by Wall Street and Bay Street. It shouldn't be foisted onto Main Street. Public sector workers and ordinary Canadians shouldn't bear the brunt of an economic crisis caused by an irresponsible financial and investment sector,” says Gordon. “Investing in quality public services and public infrastructure would assist in rebuilding the economy, and help ensure that poverty in Canada is reduced.”
For information:
Ariel Troster, PSAC Communications, 613-292-8363
54-301008
Date Modified : 2010/07/29
