At this week’s Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA) convention, Premier Brad Wall delivered grim news. The province’s deficit is now about $1.2 billion and as a result public sector jobs are on the chopping block.
It’s not the news many at the Saskatoon and District Labour Council wanted to hear, including Service Employees’ International Union-West (SEIU-West) president Barbara Cape.
“What I see right now is an idea or a scheme that’s going to pull money out of the system and create significant barriers, in my opinion, to accessing education, long term and community healthcare,” Cape said at Saskatoon’s Heritage Inn on Saturday.
READ MORE: Potential health jobs cuts a bad pill for care in Saskatchewan: SEIU-West
For Cape, Wall’s musing about cutting 4,900 jobs isn’t the transformational change she’s hoping for the province.
“If we’re truly looking at changing the way we do healthcare and education in our province then it can’t be about cutting funding to those sectors,” she said. “We actually have to invest more and that’s through taxes.”
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The Saskatoon and District Labour Council said it will continue to lobby the province for more investment and that includes on the ever-changing job landscape.
“We’re calling for an end to part-time, contract work and precarious employment. We need to have jobs that are meaningful, that are union jobs and that pay well so people can afford rent,” council president Kelly Harrington said.
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