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TORONTO – The Tory plan to privatize virtually every public service, introduced yesterday as Bill 160, will create instability for people needing vital public services, while increasing poverty in Ontario.
“This bill is nothing more than an election ploy. As a piece of legislation, it simply defies logic. It would mean a revolving door of private companies replacing the people who help special-needs students in our schools, replacing the dedicated workers who support people with developmental disabilities or caring for our aging parents,” says Fred Hahn, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario. “It would mean less stability and poorer service for the people most in need of reliable care.”
What the Hudak Tories’ plan could open the door to is very disturbing, says Hahn. Possible scenarios include:
- a private employment agency take over school secretarial duties, leaving safe arrival programs in the hands of a series of temps who don’t know the schools or communities
- a multinational corporation like Monsanto running and staffing a university agriculture department.
- people with developmental disabilities facing the same constant turnover in caregivers that we already see in privatized home care
Already, Ontario exploits personal support workers (PSWs) as sweatshop labour in an under-resourced home care system, leading to a 60 percent annual turnover in caregivers. “Is that really the model Ontario wants to replicate?” says Hahn.
The bill calls on the provincial financial accountability officer to report on ways to privatize the delivery of services currently delivered by a wide range of public and community agencies.
The focus of the bill is on driving down wages for the lowest-paid people providing public services. At the same time, instead of increasing services to the tens of thousands of Ontarians on waiting lists for services such as home care, long-term care beds, developmental services and child care, the bill would divert millions away from services and into corporate profits.
“It is a bill that seeks to fire people making just above minimum wage and replace them with people making minimum wage, all to give the difference to private corporations,” said Hahn. “There’s a myth that everyone in the public sector makes big bucks, and it just isn’t true. Our average member makes less than $40,000 a year, and this bill targets people below that average. It’s a bill to create poverty.”
CUPE is Ontario’s community union, with members providing quality public services we all rely on in every part of the province every day. CUPE Ontario members are proud to work in social services, health care, municipalities, school boards, universities and airlines.
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For more information, please contact
Craig Saunders, CUPE Communications, 416-576-7316
