UPDATED  September 29, 2006

Federation's Press Release on The Federal Government's Recent Cuts

-Charlottetown, PE...  “ We are asking Premier Binns to use his influence with Steven Harper to make him understand that his cuts will have a real negative impact on Island workers” stated Blair Penny, Vice-President of the PEI Federation of Labour

-The PEI Federation of Labour cannot understand how the Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty can defend announcing a $13 billion dollars surplus and at the same time propose slashing $1 billion from programs. Especially when these cuts are done with no debate in the House of Commons.

-“We also have a great deal of difficulty in understanding how the cutting of 50-60 jobs from the Tax Centre in Summerside, the reduction of funding for literacy programs, the elimination of assistance to non profit organizations from ACOA, and the elimination of the Court Challenges Program allowing women and minority groups to contest decisions of their Federal and Provincial governments, will address the priorities of working families on PEI ”,  says Mr. Penny.

-For Kevin McAdam to say in Thursday’s Guardian that no workers will lose their job at the Summerside Tax Centre, that all cuts will be done by attrition is very condescending to Island workers. What Mr. MacAdam does not seem to understand is that attrition means not replacing workers who are retiring and not filling up vacant positions; the end result is job loss. It is estimated that when you add in the approximately 40 positions recently transferred to Winnipeg and Halifax to the cuts; at least 100 good jobs will disappear from the Island economy. 

-And how, at a time, when not only Island employers but also employers across Canada are talking about skills shortages and the critical need to invest in skills that will help in building both a productive and competitive workforce, can the new federal government decide that cutting funding and abandoning programs aimed at raising the skill levels of our workforce will benefit PEI.

-“Raising the basic numeracy and literacy of these workers – which means investing in adult learning and literacy programs – would do more to raise overall productivity and address the shortage of skilled workers than any tax cut in the next budget,” said Penny.

-Also, The elimination of the Court Challenges Program will make it very hard for women and minority groups in PEI to fight for their rights against the government .

-“In the end, what is most outrageous in the position of Finance Minister Flaherty is that in his statement on these cuts, he speaks of ‘cutting the fat’, as if the poor, our youth, women, Natives, volunteers and Federal employees of this country constituted a surplus of fat to be cut”, added Mr. Penny. With these cuts the Harper government has shown that it values its right wing ideology  far above the working people of PEI.  In a time of plenty in Ottawa,  for the Federal government to deliver such mean spirited cuts is reprehensible in the opinion of the PEI Federation of Labour.

-“We are asking  Premier Binns to speak up on behalf of Islanders and condemn these cuts.” concludes Mr. Penny.

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