Ontario's minority Liberal government has survived its first budget vote and will avoid a spring election after cooperating with the New Democratic Party. Premier McGuinty and the NDP reached a deal that will allow the original budget to stand while raising income taxes on Ontarians making $500,000 or more, adding $242 million to the child care sector over three years, and increasing welfare and disability benefits by 1 percent.
Alberta's provincial election was the campaign that pollsters couldn't get right. For weeks the political pundits were predicting a big win for the ultra right wing and anti-labour Wildrose Alliance. However, on election night most Albertans settled for the government they already knew, as 44% of voters opted for the Progressive Conservatives.
The deep cuts delivered in the Ontario Budget on March 28 will provide very few benefits for citizens and will needlessly worsen income inequality in the province. “By threatening government workers with legislated wage freezes, enacting deep cuts to valuable public services, and maintaining a corporate tax rate of 11.5 percent, Premier Dalton McGuinty and Finance Minister Dwight Duncan are clearly demonstrating that they do not understand the needs of ordinary Ontarians," says UFCW Canada National President Wayne Hanley.
With less than a week to go before Canada’s New Democrats elect a new leader,it is becoming increasingly apparent that the UFCW Canada endorsed candidate Thomas Mulcair has the greatest momentum as we gear up for the leadership convention, which will be held in Toronto from March 23 to 24.
Ever since Stephen Harper announced that his Conservative government is considering cuts to retirement security programs such as the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and Old Age Security (OAS), Canadians young and old have been following this issue with great interest.
The recently released Drummond Commission Report gave us another indication that a policy of austerity will be forced upon the working and middle class people of Ontario in the upcoming provincial budget.
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United Food and Commercial Workers Union
Canada's private sector union