President’s Blog

 The Harper Conservative government is ramming through far-reaching legislation that will forever change how Canadians live and work.  Among the many changes in Bill C-38 that are of grave concern:

 -  Increasing the use of Temporary Foreign Workers in Canada’s workforce while simultaneously allowing employers to pay these workers 15% less than minimum standards.  This will lead to increased exploitation of Temporary Foreign Workers and will undermine the bargaining power of workers across the country

 -  Changing the age of eligibility for Old Age Security (OAS) from 65 to 67.  This pits older workers against younger ones and will affect workers aged 54 and younger.  It is also financially unnecessary as numerous experts, including the Parliamentary Budget Officer, have stated OAS is sustainable at its current levels

-  Changes to food security by lowering the number of inspections and increasing the ability of agri-business to “self-regulate”.  Our food security should not be left up to the private sector

-  Changes to Employment Insurance wherein workers may now be forced to take low skilled work despite being over-qualified.  The changes proposed also eliminate the tripartite EI Board of Referees where the representatives from business and labour will be replaced by a single arbitrator.

-  Numerous environmental changes and overhauls that will greatly affect our air, soil, and water quality.

-  Undermining democracy by refusing to allow for full debate on so many vital issues of social policy by burying them in an omnibus budget bill.

This is just the tip of the iceberg.  The federal NDP has been working tirelessly to stop this bill, but are being halted at every turn by a Conservative government hell bent on preventing open and public debate on these issues.  The NDP has launched a website and are asking for input from Canadians. 

Please take a brief moment and share your concerns with the federal government.

  Here is the web address: 

 http://budget2012.ndp.ca/

Please fight this bill and forward to your contacts.

 

posted Friday May 8, 2012

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