Groups rally against federal service cuts

A national union rallied across Canada on Saturday against government public-service cuts. The rallies were organized by the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC). Participants want to shed light on the ongoing federal cuts which impact services like food inspection, Old Age Security, border security and transportation safety.

Here in Edmonton, people gathered in Hawrelak Park, in hopes of making Canadians aware that these cuts are happening right in their own communities.

“There is so much information bombarding us all the time, to become aware of everything is impossible. So we wanted to get out here today to show that this is something we should take notice to because it doesn’t just effect me as a public service employee, it effects you, your neighbour,” said Deborah Ferguson with PSAC.

Since the 2012 budget, which warned of the federal government’s forthcoming effort to reduce the size of the civil service, more than 18,000 PSAC members have received notices that they could lose their jobs, the union said.

Ferguson said this Thursday, nearly 1,500 people working at Human Resources and Social Development Canada received notices warning them that their jobs could be in jeopardy, and another 149 RCMP employees have also been warned they could be losing their jobs.

“The public service employees are behind the officers, to make sure those officers can be out on the street. We have officers back in the building doing administrative services. In my opinion, I think that what we want, as Canadians is police officers out on the street to protect us and make us safe,” said Ferguson.

She says in the greater Edmonton area there are around 4,000 public service employees.

With files from the Canadian Press.