Tag Archives: federal government

Attack on workers buried in massive budget bill

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Nov 21, 2013 11:49 AM     http://cupe.ca

CUPE is urging the federal government to have open and public debates on proposed changes to Canada’s labour laws instead of burying the policy changes in its latest omnibus budget bill.

Bill C-4 has been introduced by the Harper Conservatives as an implementation bill for the 2013/14 federal budget. Within the bill, there are dramatic changes to who can and who can’t go on strike in the federal public service. The bill also proposes changes to health and safety laws for federal workers, and workers in federally regulated sectors – such as telecommunications, air transportation, and workers on First Nation reserves.

In a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, CUPE calls for the withdrawal of all changes that impact workers’ right to strike and changes that threaten the health and safety of workers and all Canadians.

Read CUPE’s letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper

Ottawa bargained in bad faith with striking diplomats, labour board rules

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The Public Service Labour Relations Board ruled Friday that the federal government has been bargaining in bad faith with its striking diplomats

Treasury Board President Tony Clement agreed to binding arbitration but then insisted on a series of preconditions, including taking the union’s key demand for wage parity off the table.

Sean Kilpatrick / THE CANADIAN PRESS file photo  Treasury Board President Tony Clement agreed to binding arbitration but then insisted on a series of preconditions, including taking the union’s key demand for wage parity off the table.

By: Mike Blanchfield The Canadian Press, Published on Fri Sep 13 2013

OTTAWA—The Public Service Labour Relations Board ruled Friday that the federal government has been bargaining in bad faith with its striking diplomats.

Treasury Board violated the Public Service Labour Relations Act by imposing conditions in advance on binding arbitration, the ruling stated.

But in its 27-page decision, the board does not impose a remedy in the long-running saga that universities and tourism groups say has deprived foreign students and travellers from getting the visas they need to come to Canada.

The decision urges Treasury Board and the 1,350-member Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers to go back to bargaining to break the impasse.

“I conclude that the respondent engaged in bad faith bargaining in its approach,” the ruling stated.

“I do not believe that it is conducive to good labour relations to order parties to participate in final and binding determination when such arbitration is voluntary in the first place,” it added.

“I encourage the parties to be guided by my comments in this decision and to renew their attempts at arriving at mutually agreeable conditions.”

The union asked Treasury Board in July to consent to binding arbitration.

Treasury Board President Tony Clement agreed but then insisted on a series of preconditions, including taking the union’s key demand for wage parity off the table.

The foreign service staff want wage parity with their counterparts in other federal departments, who they say make as much as $14,000 more doing similar work.

“It was an impossibility for the complainant to put forward its argument concerning wage parity, which it held throughout the negotiation process,” Friday’s ruling said.

“The respondent’s conditions required the complainant to abandon the position it’s held throughout the negotiations.”

Therefore, the process of going into arbitration “would be moot,” the ruling stated.

The union said Friday it was waiting for Treasury Board to return to the negotiations with a revised offer.

“The time has come for the government to change tack,” union president Tim Edwards said in a statement.

“Our offer to take this dispute to binding arbitration without paralyzing preconditions still stands.”

Treasury Board had yet to issue a statement as of Friday afternoon.

The union which has been without a contract since mid-2011, has been staging rotating walkouts at more than a dozen foreign missions. It has targeted the foreign travel of cabinet ministers and the processing of visas for potential visitors to Canada.

NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar urged the government to get back to the table and bargain in good faith.

“The Conservative government’s bad faith handling of the labour dispute with Canada’s diplomats is hurting the country’s economy and our image abroad. It has hurt our communities and undermined the important work of our diplomats,” Dewar said in a statement.

“Instead of trying to discredit our diplomats, I call on Tony Clement to get back to the negotiation table and resolve this dispute through good faith bargaining.”

Advocates take Harper to court over ‘pattern of muzzling’ energy critics

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By David P. Ball
Published August 14, 2013    From:  http://thetyee.ca

One of Canada’s top constitutional lawyers is taking the Conservative government to court over increasing restrictions on who can speak at energy board hearings — and what they are allowed to say.

Decrying federal changes to the National Energy Board Act as a “chilling effect” and “breach of constitutional free speech,” Clayton Ruby launched a court challenge yesterday on behalf of ForestEthics Advocacy, an organization he chairs.

The lawsuit, which has not yet been given the go-ahead by a judge, is challenging increased limits on who can address the board on applications for such projects as oil sands pipelines. The reforms force participants to prove they are directly impacted by a project, for instance if it crosses their property.

“This is part of a pattern of muzzling to keep the Canadian public from getting concerned,” Ruby told The Tyee. “These are vital issues, and the government wants as little discussion about them as possible; they want silence… you can no longer talk about certain subjects, they narrowed the scope of what you can say, they will not hear you if you are indirectly affected, and the process requires a nine-page application form, even for a one-page submission.”

Ruby cited as proof of the “muzzling” rules barring citizens from discussing climate change or impacts of the oil sands in general during pipeline or tanker hearings, even when they transport bitumen proven to escalate greenhouse gas emissions.

Compared to the more-than-thousand submissions to the board’s Enbridge Northern Gateway hearings — completed earlier this year, and almost exclusively in opposition — current hearings into the Line 9B oil sands pipeline through southern Ontario allowed only 175 submissions, despite blockades and growing public protest. 

But Minister of Natural Resources Joe Oliver retorted that the board has not impinged on free speech, since it “permits submissions from individuals impacted by the project.”

“The democratic right to express a public opinion is honoured in Canada,” Oliver said in an emailed statement. “The board must hear from those who are directly affected and may choose to hear from those with information or expertise relevant to the scope of the hearing.

“Focusing submissions ensures the review is informed by the facts material to the scope of the hearing and protects it from being used as a tool to delay decisions. This concern arose in the context of the Northern Gateway hearing when over 4,000 people registered to be heard, but only 1,179 actually showed up at the hearings.”

Oliver came under fire in 2012 when he accused some Northern Gateway critics of being “foreign-funded radicals” in a widely reported open letter. That allegation started a firestorm where organizations such as Tides Canada and the David Suzuki Foundation were ordered to appear before a Senate committee in Ottawa and faced tax scrutiny over their pipeline advocacy.

Ruby described the government’s approach as creating a “chill effect on free speech,” because small organizations are scared of losing their charitable status, and increased hearing restrictions will dissuade citizens from participating.

“These hearings — which they view as troublesome — will no longer cause them any trouble,” Ruby claimed. “They’ve turned the National Energy Board from a final decision-maker into an advisory board. The final decision is now made by Mr. Harper and his cabinet, not by the board.”

David P. Ball is a frequent contributor to The Tyee.

PREMIERS PARTY AND CARRY TOOTHPICK ; DOWNPLAY SERIOUS ISSUES AT NIAGRA-ON-THE-LAKE….Just Saying….

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July 28, 2013

Just-saying

By Andrew Phillip Chernoff

Me, myself and I had a really good time debating the point and consequence of the Council of the Federation summer meeting from July 24-26, 2013 at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario.

They agreed to have Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island host the 2014 Council of the Federation summer meeting.

So what else did they do?

  • The Premiers announced they are committed to a fair and inclusive society, taking positions on support for persons with disabilities, mental health, affordable and social housing, retirement income, bullying and cyber-bullying.

What the Premiers did not admit was while they had no problem talking about committing to a fair and inclusive society, the Premiers as a federation, as they did prior to the 2013 summer meeting, have done little to improve the lives of people with disabilities, mental health issues; little to improve affordable and social housing, retirement income.

Further, bullying and cyber-bullying will I believe continue to a persuasive issue, with little serious impact on the curtailing of the problem.

The Premiers did not provide any public outrage behind the Harper Conservative governments lack of positive leadership on the subject of a fair and inclusive society and how the federal governments legislation, platform and one-percent policies have contributed to the continued erosion of a fair and inclusive society in Canada.

  • The Council of the Federation announced that Canadians will realize real savings in healthcare through collaboration.  Included in this is lowering the cost of pharmaceutical drugs. Don’t get too excited.

Unlike Canada other countries in the world establish fixed price limits that they will pay for prescription drugs. What this means, though, is that pharmaceutical companies raise their prices for prescription drugs sold in the U.S. and Canada to make up for charging lower prices throughout the rest of the world.

Savings on a couple dozen pharmaceutical drugs for Canadians is nothing but an embarrassment to an ever aging and longer living Canadian population, that built a country that the Premiers and the Prime Minister as the Pied Pipers of “the one-percent” are mortgaging and selling out.

  • The Premiers also talked about disaster mitigation, emergency preparedness and response, and rail safety. For years, the Premiers and the Prime Ministers of the governing party in power, have ignored environmental concerns; the aging infrastructure of cities, and all communities in Canada, allowing “the one-percent” to imperialise Canadian resources and products at any cost.

It didn’t matter whether the cost was our environment, the health and safety of our rail, roads, waterways; the resources had to be tapped, extracted, delivered by any means. Damned be the environment; health and safety of Canadians, or future generations of Canadians.

Once again, the Harper government provides little real leadership. He takes his position and does as he is told by “the one-percent”.

  • Premiers discussed their shared commitments to fiscal responsibility and to protecting and sustaining essential public services, including health care, education and social services. They also stressed the importance of modernizing federal, provincial and territorial financial arrangements to ensure that they reflect current realities and support economic development.

Once again….it’s all talk. Stephen Harper has made it clear, as the BC Liberal Christy Clark government has with the public sector: there will be no new money. You get what you get from the federal government. Trim down and reinvest the realized savings into your programs and services.Sound familiar Christy?

It is clear, that there will be no province in the country that will escape the continued austerity measures of the Stephen Harper led federal government. To think things will change is unrealistic when the Pied Pipers of “the one-percent” call the shots, making it possible for his unchecked arrogance and continued corruption of power.

  • Jobs and the economy are key priorities for Canada’s Premiers.

Shouldn’t they be?  Why should that be a KEY priority. It should go without saying, that provincial economies and jobs are the main task of the Premiers as stewards of their provinces. Without sufficient jobs and business opportunities for the citizens in their particular provinces, their reign being the supreme leader of “the one-percent” in their province is precarious at best.

The trick of these Premiers is simple to say, harder to do. That is, to paraphrase a quote from the Bible: Render to unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s (Caesar in this case being “the one-percent”) and unto the citizens of the province those things that will allow the people to be sustained and prosper, so the government of the day will stay in power and Caesar will stay satisfied.

Of course, it will not work as well, because Harper wields a big stick and keeps his sheep in line. That is evident clearly with the Canada Job Grant. The Premiers were clear they do not like it. Harper could care less. He has made that clear.

In conclusion, it is clear that Harper has succeeded in muzzling the Premiers of this country, and has each one in his back pocket. He is the master conductor of the Pied Pipers of “the one-percent”.

Once again again, the 99 per-cent of Canadians lose.

Take care…..keep smiling…may the force be with you….work safe…drive safe….be good to each other….live long and prosper…..just saying…..

Signed,

Me

COPYRIGHT ANDREW PHILLIP CHERNOFF 2013