Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

The April 4 Speech from the Throne will set out the agenda of Canada’s new Conservative government. This is a crucial moment for the government to commit to more and better aid.

All leaders of opposition parties in the last Parliament (including Stephen Harper) called for a legislative mandate for aid through a new law that would commit foreign aid spending to one goal – ending poverty. So even with a minority government now in power, Members of Parliament from all parties can collaborate to Make Poverty History.

Visit www.makepovertyhistory.ca to send an email to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, as well as your own Member of Parliament.

Wear your White Band on April 4! And make your voice heard!

Here is a letter the co-chairs of Make Poverty History sent Stephen Harper on March 1st …

Dear Prime Minister,

Congratulations on your election as Canada’s 22nd Prime Minister.

Make Poverty History is a broadly-based campaign, linked to a global effort active in more than 80 countries. Here in Canada over 700 organizations and a quarter million individuals have endorsed the campaign objectives of more and better aid, trade justice, cancellation of the debts of the poorest countries, and eradication of child poverty in Canada. During the recent federal election, sixty Conservative candidates publicly supported these goals. One hundred and seventy eight members of the new Parliament, from all parties, have publicly supported our campaign objectives. Now is the moment to transform this majority support into concrete action.

Mr. Prime Minister, we are writing to request your leadership to Make Poverty History at two crucial moments in the near future.

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One of our new Prime Minister’s first acts was to strongly advise another newly-elected government to honour the agreements negotiated and signed by its predecessor.

Yet, that’s what his new government wants to do. It wants to scrap the child care agreements signed last fall by the federal government and each province. Five-year funding deals will be terminated in March 2007, over the strong objections of provincial governments who made plans to better serve young families and their children.

Why do this? What makes the Prime Minister’s own vision of child care so compelling that it should override and cancel the vision each and every premier signed onto in their contract with Ottawa? Why take away badly-needed child care spaces – like the 6000 spaces that would have been created for working families in Toronto alone.

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It’s time to rise again – we all need a universal child care program

International Women’s Day represents nearly a century of struggle for the equality of women world-wide.

This March 8th women in the PSAC are not only celebrating the gains we have achieved over the last century, we are also actively participating in a campaign to ensure that child care is publicly (and not for profit) delivered, universal and affordable.

Given the election of the Conservative government, the challenges facing working women and their families are greater than ever. In fact, the threats to the rights we have won at are stake and PSAC women will not stand by and allow those rights to be eroded.

That is why the PSAC has made CHILD CARE one of our main priorities this year. We know that the number of women in the labour force is high and growing. At the same time, the overwhelming responsibility for the care of children remains with women and the lack of affordable child care spaces in quality public and not for profit centres remains a major obstacle to women’s full equality.

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Dear Friends of Child Care:

Code Blue for Child Care is a national campaign that is being led by the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada and a coalition of our partners. Code Blue means “medical emergency”. Canadian politicians need to know that saving child care is an urgent need. Make your voice heard before Parliament resumes on April 3.

Do your part by signing the open letter online or  download the PDF to collect signatures on paper and mail them to the CCAAC: http://www.buildchildcare.ca/updir/buildchildcare/code_blue_letter.pdf

Circulate this to as many people as you can - friends, co-workers, family, daycare parents - so that they can add their voices to those telling Stephen Harper that he can’t take away our child care!

The letter is linked on the CCAAC website with other resources for Code Blue.  Check it regularly for updates.

Sincerely, Debra Mayer and Jamie Kass, CCAAC Co-chairs

At least two premiers want to raise the thorny issue of day-care funding when they meet with Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Ottawa on Friday night.

Harper’s human resources and social development minister, Diane Finley, sent letters this week confirming that the Conservatives will terminate a $5-billion series of federal-provincial child-care deals after the first year is up.

Read more at cbc.ca.

Tell Stephen Harper to honour the promise of a national child care program: sign the open letter at buildchildcare.ca!

A vote to take away equal marriage is coming, and we must take action to defend our rights. That’s why Egale has decided to resurrect Canadians for Equal Marriage.

After years of debate and unanimous rulings by courts in 8 provinces and the Yukon, on Wednesday, July 20, 2005 equal marriage became the law of the land.

Parliament decided. It clearly and loudly proclaimed that same sex couples are equal in value and equal in law.

Now that is threatened. Despite polls showing 2/3 of Canadians do not want a Harper government to bring the equal marriage issue back to Parliament, Prime Minister Harper insists there will be a vote on rolling back equality.

Read more at Canadians for Equal Marriage.

I want to extend a special congratulations to all of the union brothers and sisters who ran and were elected to parliament on January 23rd. We look forward to meeting all of you over the next few months.

While we may have our differences with the new Conservative government, we intend to see what we can get done for working people between now and the next election. While many Canadians clearly voted for a change, many also voted for candidates whose party offered working families the most. We look forward to the positive and productive parliament that was promised. Read the rest of Ken Georgetti’s message at the CLC website.

Read the text of letters sent to the Party Leaders by the CLC here: Letter to Jack Layton | Letter to Paul Martin | Letter to Gilles Duceppe | Letter to Stephen Harper (all ).

Now that the election is over and PSAC members and all Canadians are waiting to see what the new Conservative minority government’s first actions will be, National President Nycole Turmel has written to the incoming Prime Minister and the leaders of the opposition parties to put some of our members’ concerns before them and to ask for an early meeting to discuss these concerns, read the letters here: Letter to Stephen Harper | Letter to Paul Martin | Letter to Jack Layton | Letter to Gilles Duceppe (all )

VANCOUVER — The Conservative justice critic says the party will stand behind its promise to give guns to Canadian border guards.Vic Toews’ pledge comes a day after two murder suspects from California made a run for the border south of Vancouver before they were stopped in a shootout.

Toews says it’s just a matter of how soon the Canadian officers can be trained and the firearms issued.

His comments came as B-C Solicitor General John Les was calling on the new Tory government to arm border guards.

Toews says he was disturbed Canadian guards left their posts yesterday as the gunmen approached, but he understands because of the threat to their personal safety.

Read more at ctv.ca

Congratulations to all of you who contacted your federal election candidates and encouraged them to endorse the Make Poverty History goals! Thanks to you, more than 75% of candidates from all parties have endorsed the Make Poverty History goals of more and better aid, trade justice, 100% debt cancellation and an end to child poverty in Canada. In all, 987 candidates responded by our deadline, and even now, more are contacting us.

To find out how the candidates and their parties responded, visit the Make Poverty History website. You can also find out about the different party platforms to see how the different parties plan to act.

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The following statement is signed by a cross-section of organizations and individuals who believe that we all have a stake in helping parents raise the next generation of Canadians

OTTAWA, Jan. 12 /CNW Telbec/ - As the federal election draws near, Canadians concerned about the country’s future should closely examine the Conservative child care promises. These promises are a throwback to the past. They will not deliver the kind of high quality child care our children deserve nor the support today’s parents need. Instead, a Stephen Harper government would erase the progress we have finally begun to make towards building a system of accessible care for children across Canada.

The Conservatives say they would create 125,000 child care spaces through a $10,000 tax credit to employers.

Past experience with this trickle-down approach has been dismal. Mike Harris’s government used the same scheme-a tax incentive to employers for workplace child care-and no new spaces were created. Saskatchewan and New Brunswick had similar programs with poor results. In any case, most workplace child care in Canada is associated with public sector employers who can’t take advantage of tax credits.

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