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!

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 …

At the Canada Day celebrations in Vancouver

With the Fraser Valley Labour Council at the Canada Day parade in Abbotsford.

At Canada Day celebrations in Cloverdale

At the COPE fundraising BBQ

PSAC members also attended events on Vancouver Island, the Interior and Northern BC. The campaign will continue through the summer at community events, bbqs, meetings, and the like. If you would like to get involved with the Public Services Are Cool summer campaign, contact your local Area Council Representative, or Regional Office.

Stay tuned for more!

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”

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.