UPDATED June
24,
2007
PSAC National Vice President, Patty Ducharme's Speech at the 2006 Convention
I’ve
been asked to talk this morning about privatization and its many
aspects. I will do that, but I also want to talk a little about the
neo-liberal and neo-conservative policies of which privatization is
just a part – and how as union activists we have an obligation to
actively challenge this agenda which federally is being implemented by
the Stephen Harper government. We in the labour movement and our
allies have continued to fight for justice and equality in our
workplaces and communities, however the ruling elite and their
corporate friends have been just as aggressively undermining us.
The policies of the former liberal government were bad enough –
but the policies of Stephen Harper’s “new government”
as he likes to call it, are downright scary. Harper as you
remember, was the former director of the National Citizens Coalition,
founded almost forty years ago explicitly to oppose publicly funded,
universal Medicare. Their motto until recently was “More
Freedom through less government”.
In BC Report Newsmagazine on January 1999, Stephen Harper said that
Human Rights Commissions are an “attack on our fundamental
freedoms and the basic existence as a democratic society”.
May I remind you that a few weeks ago his government reduced funding
and minimized the role of the Canadian Human Rights Commission, the
Status of Women and Court Challenges programs all of which support and
work to advance Human Rights.
A few weeks ago, the Tories cut government funded programs for
research, advocacy and literacy by a billion dollars while paying 13
Billion dollars on the federal debt which was already one of the lowest
in the world compared to Canada’s productivity. Treasury Board
President John Baird’s has said that he is proud of the cuts and
would make the same cuts again willingly. The current Canadian
government is doing everything it can to ensure that it doesn’t
have money to spend on social programming.
The Harper Clean Air Act is another example of an attempt to look like
something is being done without having to actually intervene in the
affairs of business. However, if we are to protect our children from
our own excesses and from global warming, then immediate intervention
is required now, not 50 years from now.
Although neo-cons always say that they can’t intervene to help
regular people, they never the less intervene all the time - to help
their wealthy corporate friends.
Want some examples? The Clean Air Act that I just referred to
allows the Alberta oil industry to pollute more, not less Tax
breaks to corporations like the ones that the Conservative government
announced in the last budget mean more profits for the corporations.
Corporate tax breaks as a purely economic instrument are supposed to
encourage reinvestment in new infrastructure and machines and the like.
That’s not happening.
The Conservatives just paid $13 B. on the National Debt. Who really
gains the most when the national debt is paid down? Global
investors - corporations, wealthy individuals and banks - who generally
own the majority of bonds and securities that the Government issued
Publicly delivered public services are accountable to the public.
Currently, Canada’s wealth is not being divided up fairly by the
politicians we have elected. Nor will it likely be if we re-elect the
Conservatives or a majority liberal government. We have to fight to
change that. Private enterprises are important to the economy, as well.
to finance the debt.
I have not mentioned privatization yet, but all of what I have spoken
about goes to the core of what privatization is about. Privatization
simply means that governments are making decisions and implementing
policies that put individual profits ahead of the public good.
Privatization includes any initiatives that are designed to transfer
public sector work in whole or part from the federal, provincial
territorial or municipal governments to the private sector. In all
cases collective public interests are given, sold or transferred so
that a profit can be made from them.
Methods of privatization include: Out right privatization, where
public services are directly transferred to the private sector;
Public Private Partnerships (P3s), where governments hand over all or
parts of the financing, construction and management of public services
like schools, hospitals, water works, highways etc to the private
sector; Downsizing is another example of privatization. The
government just stops performing the service by cutting the size of its
workforce. Our union lost 45,000 members during the mid nineties
because of downsizing. Invariably the work remains. It is simply taken
up by who ever in the private sector are able to do it.
In1995 the federal government spent about $3.2 B dollars on contracting
out. By 2006 that figure had risen to $6.2 B. dollars. The
federal government has even contracted out hiring. In the Ottawa region
alone it spends $180 M. dollars on temporary staffing agencies, mostly
to staff entry level positions. The young people entering the labour
force are obliged to share on average a third of the wage they would
otherwise make with the private for-profit company. This amounts to
about 3400 real jobs if people were to be paid their full wage.
Deregulation is another kind of privatization. Regulations that
safeguard the public are increasingly being balanced against the costs
that industry will have to meet them. The federal
government’s adoption of a Smart Regulations policy, its
acceptance of the free trade domestic regulations tests and its
enthusiastic endorsement of deep integration with the United States
through the Security and Prosperity Partnership are all indicators that
the federal government is aggressively moving ahead on deregulation.
All Canadians have felt and continue to feel the privatization of federal public services.
Canadians no longer have equal and transparent access to unemployment
insurance, workplace training and adjustment programs. The Federal
government downloaded that responsibility to the private sector in the
90s. All Canadian workers have felt the impact of privatized EI
services, and it is only getting worse. Federal government
student loan databases, benefit payments and loan recovery have all
been privatized. Worse, now some of these services could be subject to
the American Patriot Act. It is harder for Canadians to acquire
information about the services they receive. If you have
access to a computer and the internet you might be okay, but over the
counter service is going. Seniors, people with disabilities and those
whose first language is not English or French will have a much harder
time. Even the defence of our country is being privatized.
Although the PSAC was successful in stopping large parts of the
defence department being P3d with a British multinational company a few
years ago, the process is still going on. Without a Made in Canada
defence policy, we are seeing the Canadian government contract out more
and more of its responsibility to the American military and in doing so
becoming more tied to American military goals. Our mission in
Afghanistan is a good example.
By not hiring enough customs inspectors to properly and safely respect
Canada’s borders in a fair and unbiased way we are in danger of
unwittingly contracting out our internal security to Americans and to
American goals. The Mahar Arrar case demonstrates that we are already
doing this.
I am worried that if there is a Harper majority women’s rights,
minority rights, and Aboriginal rights will be trampled. I am
worried that public services will be decimated – unemployment
insurance all but eliminated, universal health care abandoned,
universal post secondary education discarded I am worried
that if there is a Harper majority that the problems of global warming,
safe and sustainable water resources, sound agricultural and fish
harvesting policies will all be accelerated. I am worried that if there
is a Harper majority more and more of our sons and daughters will be
sent to war, fighting for unclear goals, except that they coincide with
American goals. I am worried that if there is a Harper majority Canada
will be a much meaner more vindictive country that flies in the face of
the collective spirit that most Canadians cherish.
The union movement must fight back. We must fight back in an organized and strategic way.
Our union membership empowers us by giving us the organizational
capacity that few other organizations have in Canada.The union movement
has to continue to work together in a more organized and cooperative
way then it has ever done to shape the outcome of this upcoming
election. And we cannot do this alone – we need to work
with other progressive organizations and movements. I believe
that for PEI this convention is a good place to start if you have not
started already. The union movement has to go the extra mile to reach
out to all of its members and not just the usual suspects - its
committed activists. We have to set up phone banks, meetings and door
to door visits to facilitate member speaking to member and member
engaging, educating and activating member. Unions have to find ways to
bridge the differences of opinion and thought that members rightly hold
to build a consensus to protect rights and respect differences. Waiting
until an election is called will be too late – we need to be
politically engaged every single day – not just at election time
– if together we are going to build a better world. Have a
great convention!
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