Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

Via makepovertyhistory.ca …

I am writing to you today to ask for your help in stopping a dangerous trade deal that you have probably never heard of. The government of Canada is negotiating a trade deal with Colombia, a country that Human Rights Watch calls the “worst human rights and humanitarian disaster” in the Americas.

This controversial deal will make many poor in Colombia worse off and help support a government involved in serious human rights abuses. The US Congress refused to approve a similar deal earlier this year, citing human rights abuses. If Canadians don’t speak up, this deal can be passed without parliamentary approval or public debate.

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Write to your Member of Parliament and insist that this deal not go through without a full debate in Parliament and the explicit approval of our elected representatives.

There is not much time - negotiations are underway, and are set to be completed before the end of the year. Millions of people in Colombia have been displaced through a violent conflict over land and resources. Transnational companies have become complicit in this violence. Many people living in poverty in Colombia are concerned that this deal increases the power of corporations at the expense of the poor.

Act in solidarity with Colombian social justice activists. Tell others that trade is a matter that affects poverty and human rights, and that you care. Speak out now!

Dennis Howlett
Coordinator
Make Poverty History

Nearly All Canadians Concerned about State of Fisheries in Canada - Union of Environment Workers Calls on Federal Government to Put More Money into Fisheries Protection and Enhancement

OTTAWA (November 21) – Nearly all Canadians (97%) are concerned about protecting Canada’s natural resources including fisheries and Canadians clearly give that concern priority over two issues at the forefront of the federal government’s agenda - protecting Canada’s sovereignty over the Arctic and maintaining Canadian ownership of large corporations. Moreover, the majority of Canadians say responsibility for the protection of the fisheries belongs to the federal government and that the government should provide more funding to ensure sustainability of this resource.

• Visit ourfish.ca and send a message to the Prime Minister & your MP!

Part of a recent Leger Marketing survey of Canadians conducted on behalf of the Union of Environment Workers (UEW), a component of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), the results were released on World Fisheries Day to mark the launch of a campaign calling on the federal government to put more money and resources into the monitoring, enforcement and conservation of Canadian fisheries.

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via BC Federation of Labour

Nov. 1, 2001. It was the last time B.C.’s minimum wage was increased.

With another year gone by without a raise for thousands of workers, it’s an anniversary that is symbolic of the growing economic divide in our province. It spotlights the policies of the Campbell government that prevent the benefits of a booming economy from being shared by all.

To make it worse, the Liberals gave themselves huge pay boosts, but say no to a higher minimum wage.

We can be proud that the labour movement is leading the way to win a $10 minimum wage that will benefit 250,000 low-paid workers and bring more economic fairness for British Columbians.

To mark the Nov. 1 anniversary, I’m urging union members like you to act immediately to help win more support for our $10 NOW campaign.

Please click on this link to sign our $10 NOW petition. Then forward it to family and friends who you know support our efforts. Ask them to sign up before Nov. 1.

If you’re one of the thousands of trade unionists who’ve already signed the petition, then send this link http://www.bcfed.ca/petition/minimum_wage to your family and friends and encourage them to sign.

On Oct. 31, we will be lobbying politicians in Victoria for a higher minimum wage. And we’ll be presenting to the Legislature copies of all the petitions that have been signed so far.

Thanks for your help. I’m confident that if we keep up the pressure, we’ll win on this important issue for working people.

Jim Sinclair
President

PSAC-BC is proud to announce that Guinevere Sanderson is the winner of the Public Services Are Cool giveaway.

Guinevere is a PSAC member who works for Canadian Heritage and is a member of the Green Team there. She was excited to win the zero-emission scooter-style electric bike and plans to use it to commute to work.

Congratulations Guinevere & thanks to everyone who signed our petition, emailed their MP and entered the contest!

update: Gwen just emailed us … Thank you so much for coming down this morning to deliver the certificate. I was so excited that I went to the shop on my lunch and picked it up! I rode it back to work and was able to show it off to the office. I think it’s really really cool and I’m so happy to have won. Thanks again!

SPP Montebello Summit August 20-21, 2007

Prime Minister Stephen Harper will meet with US President George W. Bush and Mexican President Felipe Calderon at Montebello on August 20-21 2007, to discuss the so-called Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP). What will be on the agenda? We can only guess at this point, because all of the meetings to review the progress of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) have taken place in secret so far.

• Join protests across Canada against the SPP …
• Rally in Vancouver - Monday Aug 20th, 5:30 PM, Vancouver Art Gallery (south side).

The SPP – which is being implemented without any public discussion or parliamentary debate – is about eliminating Canada’s ability to set its own independent regulatory standards, environmental protection measures, energy security, foreign, military, immigration and a frighteningly wide range of other policies.

• What is the SPP? Security and Prosperity for whom? A series of fact sheets at the national website.
• Read John Gordon’s letter to Stephen Harper regarding the SPP (pdf).

The summit brings together a US president whose policies are backed by hardly a quarter of his own people, a Mexican president whose election is highly disputed, and a Canadian Prime Minister heading a minority government. The decisions they make will have no legitimacy and will affect the food we eat, the air we breathe, and the human rights and civil liberties we enjoy.

The Globe & Mail, Aug 16 2006

The Canadian Medical Association has recently recommended that private competition be introduced into medicare by allowing physicians to bill patients (or private insurance plans) for services that are covered by medicare, and allowing medicare to purchase covered services from for-profit private facilities.

Those who champion privatization claim these modifications of Canada’s publicly funded health-care system would save money, help eliminate waiting times and possibly even improve the quality of care.

Policy-makers need only look to the United States for the evidence such claims have no merit. The U.S. experience shows that private, for-profit medical insurance and investor-owned medical facilities are a bad deal for the public, and that a health-care system that encourages physicians to behave like private entrepreneurs leads to extravagant costs.

Those who would deny this obvious evidence are either blinded by unshakable faith in market ideology or are biased by their interests in businesses that profit from the privatization of health care.

Read more at globeandmail.com.

PSAC members all over the Province, coordinated by their Area Councils, are spending the summer letting the public & politicians know the value of strong public services - services that should be protected and improved. They are attending events in their communities, meeting with the public, distributing fans and leaflets with the Public Services Are Cool message and website address, and encouraging people to send a message to Ottawa …

Federal public employees are on the job every day to protect our health, safety, environment, culture and standard of living. Our quality of life would be poorer in Canada without them. As workers, citizens, and neighbours, they contribute to strong communities.

I expect their employer, the Government of Canada, to treat them with the respect they deserve. That means compensating them fairly for their labour, providing them with the equipment and infrastructure they need to do their jobs well, and ensuring there is enough of them to get the job done properly.

I support federal public emplyees because their work supports me. Quality public services bring us quality of life. They help keep us safe, healthy and secure. Social programs and benefits support us in difficult times: when we’re ill or unemployed, or facing economic hardship. They provide security in old age.

Quality public services promote social equality and cohesion, and are vital to our prosperity and a sustainable environment.

Quality public services: they’re the ties that bind us together.

Visit www.publicservicesarecool.ca to send a message to your MP, sign on to the petition, and enter to win an enviro-friendly bike.

Here are some photos taken at various events around the province …

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The Conservative government intends to sell and then lease back nine federal buildings as a pilot project that will be expanded to include up to 40 more buildings. The initial nine buildings ­– located in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal – are among the most modern and well-maintained buildings the government owns. This proposed sale will rank as one of the largest sales of Canadian public assets ever.

• More about the buildings for sale in Vancouver: Sinclair Centre and 401 Burrard.

Last fall, the federal government awarded a contract to BMO Capital Markets Real Estate Group and RBC Capital Markets Real Estate Group to determine whether or not it made sense to sell the buildings. BMO and RBC recommended selling the buildings and have since handled the sale. On May 1, 2007, the nine buildings were listed for sale over a six-week period. On June 12, 2007, the bidding period closed with a 60-day review period.

The sale of the buildings is being driven by the Conservative government’s unwillingness to invest in maintaining its properties and by an ideological belief that government should not be in the business of owning and maintaining infrastructure. The government intends to sell the buildings and then lease them back for 25 years with a guaranteed 100% occupancy rate. We believe that taxpayers will pay $2 in leasing costs for every $1 gained in proceeds from the sale of the buildings.

• Email your MP - let them know this is a bad deal for Canadians.

Aside from it being simply a bad deal, the sale of these public assets – property that belongs to the people of Canada – lacks accountability to Parliament and to the people of Canada.

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The PSAC Vancouver Regional Office recently switched from drinking bottled water to tap water … here’s why.

Our union recently identified Defending Quality Public Services as one of our key priorities.

Water is the most important public service in the world. It is also a fundamental human right and according to the United Nations, “the human right to drinking water is fundamental to life and health.”

Unfortunately, the majority of people in the world do not have access to this fundamental human right. Over 1.7 billion people lack access to safe drinking water and each year, millions of children die of disease caused by unsafe water. The numbers are increasing as multinational companies turn water into a commodity that is being privatized, bottled and sold back to us in the guise of being “purer, healthier and safer,” even though much of this water is re-filtered from our municipal supplies.

We need to defend and keep water as a quality public service that everyone in the world has the right to access without paying for it.

“People from all walks of life are recognizing a deep truth: water, the basic element of life, is under threat. They are looking at their own water use, striving to take steps to conserve water as a public trust and questioning the depletion of water and it’s commodification by corporations.”(KAIROS Canada)

We need to be part of the change – by starting with ourselves and looking at our own water use. That’s why we’ve made a commitment to stop using privatized bottled water in the regional office and “tap” into our public water supply.

“Purer,” “healthier,” “safer” might be some of the reasons why you buy bottled water. But is the water healthier and safer? Take a look at some of the links posted below and see what you think.

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“People count on water for life; corporations count on it for profit”

May is Child Care Month. The Child Care – Let’s Make It Happen! and Code Blue 2007 tour will be visiting a half-dozen BC communities between May 11-25. Events are being co-organized with local groups in Victoria, Duncan, Vernon, Castlegar, Prince Rupert and Richmond. This tour has come together very quickly, and details are still being finalized in locations such as Prince Rupert.

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Dear PSAC Members:

Please join the campaign to raise the minimum wage! The lowest paid workers in BC need our support.

I’m asking you to support the campaign to boost the minimum wage in BC to at least $10 an hour and to eliminate the $6 ”training rate” for new workers (AKA another subsidy for big business.).

The Campbell government has frozen the minimum wage at $8 since November 2001. The labour movement says five years without a raise is too long. Minimum-waged workers in BC cannot live on their wages. We’re calling for an immediate increase to at least $10, closely followed by regular future increases that are tied to cost of living increases.

A minimum wage of at least $10 would benefit 115,000 workers who earn the minimum, plus another 135,000 workers who make less than $10 per hour.

Please click on the following link to go to the B.C. Federation of Labour campaign site and join thousands of people by signing the $10 NOW petition.

Please forward this link to friends and family who also support the call to raise the minimum wage. Thank you.

In solidarity, Kay Sinclair, Regional Executive Vice-President, BC

via Nick Humphreys, BC Regional Council

1. The certainty of spills
2. The impossible clean-up
3. The local ecology
4. Jobs and communities
5. Global warming

It looks like the Harper government is going to lift the ban on oil tanker traffic in BC’s inside waters.

The tankers would run through Caamano Sound and up the inlets to Kitimat. The likelihood of a spill are high and the results for the environment, including our salmon resource would be catastrophic.

Read more and sign a petition opposing the lift of the moratorium at www.notankers.ca.

True or False?

• You are paying too much tax.
• To be fair to all, everyone should pay the same tax rate.
• A reduction in taxes would help working families.
• Individuals can’t influence governments when it comes to tax cuts.

Try the new tax quiz at the national website.

• Thursday, April 12 – 6:30pm
• Heritage Hall 3102 Main St.
• Vancouver, B.C.
• Info: 604-291-9611

Vancouver Child Care Resource is losing half of its provincial funding at the end of April. Ten neighbourhood-based CCRR services that help families with referrals and subsidies, and give family child care providers training and business support, will be gone.

The Campbell government is also cutting 100% of the Westcoast Provincial Services budget. That means no more access to the unique Westcoast Resource Library that promotes diversity and multiculturalism outside of Vancouver. And, significantly reduced access to the Safe Spaces bullying prevention training for caregivers of 3-5 year olds.
Waitlists are growing and parent fees are rising. Families, child care providers and community leaders are not sitting still for these cuts to urgently-needed child care services.

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To: PSAC members in BC

As you may know, Bill 257 (Anti-scab legislation) was defeated on March 21 during the 3rd reading in the House of Commons 177 votes to 122 votes. Despite this, we have a lot to be proud of. The CLC coordinated a well organized campaign of which the PSAC played a key role both in BC and in Ottawa. And we couldn’t have done so without your participation.

Many of you took the time to write, phone, fax and email your MP to build support for the bill. In particular, our Area Councils sent letters to each MP in their region identifying the number of PSAC members in their riding affected by the bill.

I want to thank all of you: your hard work and positive response to our repeated requests for support are much appreciated. While I’m disappointed that more MPs did not support working people on this issue (and we will remember them at election time, scroll down to see how they all voted) I truly believe that our union is stronger from this experience.

Thanks again. In Solidarity, Kay Sinclair, REVP BC

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Via BC Federation of Labour

• Saturday, March 31, 11am – 12:30pm
• Burrard Bridge, Vancouver
• Gather at 11am at Seaforth Peace Flame Park (south end of bridge by Cornwall Ave.)
• Calling parents, grandparents, early childhood educators and child care supporters to span the bridge sidewalks with signs and songs!

March 30-31 marks the elimination of federal-provincial childcare funding agreements by the Harper Conservatives. It also marks the closure of several childcare resource and referral centres in BC and the elimination of critical services to working families as a result of funding cuts by the Campbell Liberals.

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Congratulations to all of you who helped convince your MP to vote in favour of Bill C-257, the Anti-scab Legislation, at Second Reading. Not surprisingly, business leaders mobilized during the committee stage to get MPs to change their mind. You may have noticed the fear mongering in the media. Under the leadership of the CLC your union has worked hard to counter the business lobby.

• More background from the CLC.

We are running out of time. Bill C-257 will be voted on at Third Reading on March 21. Members of Parliament are in their ridings until March 16. This is your last week to talk to your MP in person and let them know that you are watching and you expect them to vote in favour of Bill C-257 and working people. The following MPs particularly need to hear from their constituents:

• Ron Cannan (Kelowna Lake Country)
• Raymond Chan (Richmond)
• Hedy Fry (Vancouver Centre)
• Colin Mayes (Okanagan-Shuswap)
• Keith Martin (Esquimalt- Juan de Fuca)
• Sukh Dhaliwal (Newton- North Delta) Update: We have been informed Mr. Dhaliwal supports the legislation and will vote in favour of it.
• Stephen Owen (Vancouver Quadra)

Please take a moment to call or send an email to your MP and let them know that replacement workers are bad for working families, bad for business, and bad for Canada!

• By phone: MP’s contact information.
• Email your MP at the regional website.

In Solidarity, Janet Routledge, BC Regional Coordinator, Public Service Alliance of Canada

Are you active in advancing public health care or medicare issues? The PSAC  B.C. Region would like to sponsor a member active in these areas to attend the following conference:

• S.O.S Medicare 2: Looking Forward
• May 3-4, 2007 in Regina at the Queensbury Convention Centre

This is a two day national conference sponsored in part by the Canadian Health Coalition and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. The conference is open to the general public and will have representation from a wide spectrum of sectors including community, health care, labour, and anti-poverty.

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As most of you are aware, the PSAC has been actively participating in a national campaign led by the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) to have changes made to the Canada Labour Code to retract the use of scabs in the event of a strike or lock-out. Visit the national website for more information.
MPs will vote on the final reading of the Anti-Scab Bill (Bill C257) during the week of March 19, 2007, and we need your help. Please take a few minutes to call your MP or send an email to let your MP know how important this bill is for working people in Canada and to urge them to support it. MPs are back in their ridings March 2, 2007, through to March 16, 2007, and they need to hear from their constituents who support the bill.

Contact your MP and help make sure that anti-scab legislation is adopted once and for all.

Tuesday, February 20 is BC Budget Day. The Campbell government began this year by cutting the child care budget. Any announcements they make now will likely be one-time only, stopgap funding that does not even begin to fix the child care problems they’ve caused.

British Columbians are urged to flood the Campbell government with a strong message – restore child care funding and build a child care system!

Please take a moment to fax:

• Premier Gordon Campbell at 250-387-0087
• Minister of Finance Carole Taylor at 250-387-5594
• Minister of State for Child Care Linda Reid at 250-356-8337

Download the fax form here (pdf), and please send a copy of your message to your Liberal MLA. Click for MLA fax numbers.

Working families in every BC community need child care. The provincial government’s funding cuts and attacks on child care programs affects us all, but especially children in BC. By cutting child care funding again, the Campbell government has shown it doesn’t care about the future of our children or working families.