TORONTO, ON – Ontarians shouldn’t buy this spin from a government that’s trying to buy an election, says the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario.
“Ontarians have long been desperate for real action that would bolster the public services they rely on but today we got nothing more than misleading spending promises that aren’t even keeping up with population growth and inflation; and election goodies that don’t come anywhere near meeting the needs of people struggling in the face of historic inflation,” said Fred Hahn, President of CUPE Ontario. “An education worker, as one example, earning $38,000 a year would much rather have a significant wage increase than the few hundred dollars this budget promises them.”
The Ford Conservatives are trying to paint themselves as big spenders ahead of the first provincial election since COVID-19, a crisis that exposed a “gutted public service”, said Hahn.
“The much-touted hospital investments still fall far short of what our health care system needs,” said Hahn. “Members working on the frontlines of this health care crisis have been clear that we faced hallway medicine and gaps in access even before the pandemic. We’ve had a recruitment and retention crisis for years that’ll only get worse with the Ford Conservatives pitting workers against one another, giving bonuses only to some health care workers and not the many working side by side with them.”
“We’re right in the middle of historic inflation, witnessing people struggle to pay their rent, save for the future, and even just get through the day,” said Angella MacEwen, CUPE economist and co-author of Share the Wealth! How we can tax Canada’s super-rich and create a better country for everyone. “Instead of stepping up with real actions to support struggling Ontarians, the Ford Conservatives announced things like tax credits for lower income people that doesn’t help the lowest income workers at all, and at best only saves them a few hundred dollars a year.”
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For more information, contact:
Daniel Tseghay
Communications Representative, CUPE
[email protected] | 647-220-9739
:kw/cope491
