Common Front for Social Justice

SPEECH FROM THE PEOPLE

November 26, 2007

Investment in local living economies, a provincial ban on the cosmetic use of pesticides, anti-scab legislation, pay legislation, living wage legislation, accessible child care, education and health care, and the elimination of poverty are among the significant initiatives and policy directions included in today's "Peoples' Throne Speech" at the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick.

Joan McFarland, economist at St. Thomas University:

New Brunswick is a beautiful place to live. We are endowed with abundant natural beauty and renewable resources; from the Bay of Chaleur to the Bay of Fundy and all points in between, where diverse Acadian forest flourish and mighty rivers flow. Our province is also blessed with diverse cultures. Perhaps one of our province's greatest assets is its citizens, and we want to publicly acknowledge that our government is here today because of them. It is the thousands of citizens paying taxes day in and day out who make both this government and our society work for the well being of everyone. We have ingenious, innovative and hard working people who, with their sweat and brains, have made this province what it is today. They are the ones who turn our wood and fish into products we can consume and export. They are the ones providing public services in hospitals, nursing homes, schools, universities and colleges, municipalities and governments. It is these women and men who are turning new ideas into realities and developing new services or products for the benefit of all. Our government wants to publicly recognize that these women and men are the true heroes in our society.

Our government recognizes that in our changing world we also face many challenges. We have put too much emphasis on exporting our raw natural resources and not enough on transforming them, leaving our province and its citizens vulnerable to the ups and downs of the international markets. We have not taken seriously the environmental impact of our type of economic development and now we are left to deal with plunder and pollution. Human caused climate change is a reality. We are starting to feel its impact and we will certainly need to change the way we produce and use energy if we want to lessen its effects.

We need to turn the tide. Our government will use full cost accounting so that environmental and social costs will be considered in our public policies and spending. We will invest in building local living economies to ensure that economic power resides locally. Our communities can and should locally produce and exchange as many products needed by their citizens as they reasonably can, while reaching out to other communities to trade products they cannot reasonably produce at home. We will invest in the diversification of our economies to ensure that long-term economic viability is achieved for our communities. We will invest in initiatives to create closed loop systems that effectively manage our urban energy, transportation, manufacturing, waste and water needs. We will work on reducing the amount of toxins added to our environment and move quickly to place a provincial ban on the cosmetic use of pesticides. We will make New Brunswick an attractive and just place to work by adopting pay equity legislation and living wage legislation. We will make child care, education and public programs accessible and affordable. We will eliminate poverty in our province.

Debbie Lacelle, New Brunswick Federation of Labour:

In the past, New Brunswickers have witnessed many lengthy labour conflicts. For example, the lockout at Lamèque Quality Group, which lasted three and a half years, the lockout at Allsco, which lasted four years, the strike at Dairy Town which lasted four years and more recently, the strike at Château Bathurst which lasted two and a half years. These lengthy conflicts had a negative effect on the workers, the communities and the economy. We believe these could have been easily avoided if New Brunswick had better labour laws and we intend to change that situation.

We would bring legislation outlawing the use of scab labour. Existing laws in Québec and British Columbia, and earlier in Ontario, show that a ban on scabs reduces picket line conflicts and shortens labour disputes. A prohibition on scab labour protects the right to strike and strengthens democracy in the workplace. But more importantly, outlawing the use of scab labour will drastically shorten labour disputes. This would certainly help the labour relations climate in our province.

We intend to bring First Contract Arbitration which would discourage employer conduct aimed at undermining collective bargaining and serve as an incentive to the parties to bargain a first collective agreement in a timely manner, or have one imposed by a third party. We are convinced that having First Contract Arbitration in New Brunswick would be a step in the right direction to avoid lengthy labour disputes and add balance between employers and employees.

In New Brunswick, there is a longstanding and profound injustice in the public sector: casual workers. There are more than 6,000 people across the province that are not considered employees as defined in the Public Service Labour Relations Act. This translates into violations of their rights, deteriorating working conditions, and wage reductions. Casual workers make an enormous contribution to society and to the economy of New Brunswick. They deserve to be treated equitably.

Therefore, we were very pleased that the Supreme Court of Canada recently ruled that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects bargaining rights for all workers in this country. We will immediately implement that ruling and give all casual employees in New Brunswick full collective bargaining rights.

We realize that workers in New Brunswick have witnessed the elimination of the historical balance between worker and employer interests in workers' compensation laws. We would restore that balance by improving the Workplace Health, Safety and Compensation Commission (the WHSCC). More concretely, we will: eliminate the three-day waiting period, expand coverage, improve rehabilitation and return to work, put more emphasis on prevention and improving the appeal system.

We are very concerned by the number of working families who are living in poverty. We need to do more and that is why we are taking the important step of gradually raising in the upcoming years the minimum wage so that at the end of our mandate it would be close to $10 an hour. This would give the working poor a decent living wage, more purchasing power, which in turn, would be good for the economy.

Dan Weston, Fredericton Anti-Poverty Organization:

Our government is very serious in wanting to address the situation of poverty in our province. We believe we need to work on the root causes of poverty and take concrete urgent steps needed right now to help our citizens living in poverty. We will set a target of reducing the poverty in the next year. In order to achieve part of this goal, besides raising the minimum wage each year to bring it to at least $10 an hour, we will increase social assistance rates to the average rate of the other three Atlantic provinces in order to meet minimum basic needs as calculated by Statistics Canada's Market Basket Measure. We will index these rates so as to keep up with inflation. We will also revise policies of the Department of Family and Community Services and remove many articles, which are detrimental to the poor. For example, we will increase the amount, which social assistance recipients are allowed to keep to $500/month from their occasional earnings, and this will be calculated on an annual basis, not on a monthly basis. We will also abolish the "Economic Unit" policy. Our government will pressure the Federal government to make genuine improvements to the Employment Insurance program so that it is accessible to all those who need it.

Elizabeth Blaney, New Brunswick Coalition for Pay Equity:

For centuries, New Brunswick women have played an active role in the social and economic development of the province. Even though more and more women are working in non-traditional fields, still thousands are working as secretaries, nurses, cashiers, office workers, retail salespersons, teachers, etc. Our government acknowledges their contribution to the economy - a contribution that must be rewarded with pay equity. We believe that everyone employed in jobs traditionally or predominantly held by women should have a right to equal pay for work of equal value. Our entire society will benefit from the elimination of wage discrimination. Therefore, we will adopt pay equity legislation in both the public and private sectors in New Brunswick, within a year.

Tracy Law, New Brunswick Child Care Coalition:

Our provincial government recognizes that an investment in quality early learning and child care is good for children, parents, communities and the economy. Our government is pleased to announce that it is increasing the direct funding available to child care programs. This stable funding will allow programs to plan ahead and diversify. It will also lead to a reduction in fees and an increase in staff wages. Because we recognize the important contribution that small private facilities are making to child care in New Brunswick, they will be grand-parented but all new spaces will be offered on a non-profit basis. This will prevent corporate child care from setting foot in the province. We are also pleased to announce that we are tying our Community Schools Initiative to our Child Care Development Plan and will be spearheading the creation of after-school programs in our community schools. Our goal is that by 2018, every child in New Brunswick can access child care in their community where fees are affordable to families and the quality is high.

Graham Cox, Canadian Federation of Students:

In light of public outcry to our government's controversial $1.2 million post-secondary education report, we have decided that deregulating tuition fees, and eliminating the existing $2,000 grant for first-year students is not where we want to go. Recognizing that students in the Maritimes have the highest debt in Canada, we will provide more grants to students in need and we will reduce tuition fees to limit the burden of debt on students and make education more accessible to all.

Debra Lindsay, UNBSJ professor:

We reject the recommendations made in the Commission on Post-Secondary Education's report to downgrade the two satellite campuses of Université de Moncton and the Saint John campus of the University of New Brunswick to polytechnic institutes. Since 1974, UNBSJ has offered university degrees. More than 6,500 undergraduate and post-graduate students are UNBSJ alumni. Presently, 78 per cent of its students are from New Brunswick, many from the greater Saint John area. Annual revenues from its extensive activities now exceed $15 million and it continues to play a vital educational, social, cultural, and economic role in the Saint John community. Ironically, the report has adopted a corporate agenda in which post-secondary education focuses on specific areas of short-term economic growth, providing "just in time" training to be overseen by local business people who have little interest in the value of liberal arts or general sciences. We will work to reverse the notion that post-secondary education should be market-driven, in order to benefit the private sector, and that UNBSJ is responsible for labour shortages in the trades and technical sectors. We need to ensure access to liberal arts degrees. A study of students graduating from Maritime universities (MPHEC 2003) found that 70% of those graduating from our universities find work "at home" in New Brunswick and that these graduates were very satisfied with their university education, saying that they got good value for their tuition dollars. It is contrary to common sense to close, or in other ways undermine, an institution that provides inestimable service to the people of this province. It is common sense to support academic institutions in our communities.

Debbie Lacelle, New Brunswick Health Coalition:

Citizens have through the last decades built a public health care system so that we all have equal access to care, care based on needs, not on the size of our wallet. We are concerned with promoters of for-profit health care who are claiming that privatization will ease the pressure on the public system and shorten waiting lists for surgery in the hospitals. We certainly understand that our public health care system needs to adapt itself to our changing world but we feel that this can be adequately done inside the present system. There are many ways to make our public system more accessible. We will recruit and retain more health care professionals in the public system. Hiring more staff will improve services and help diminish wait time for surgeries. We will fix waiting times within the public system by managing waiting lists better. We will work with the other provinces and the Federal government to extend Medicare to include prescription drugs. We will stop contracting out hospital support services. We will improve the overall structure of health care delivery by improving front-line healthcare, delivering more public home-care and creating more public community health and long-term care facilities. We will also work on illness prevention by reducing poverty, poor nutrition and other social determinants of ill health. We will develop public education strategies to reinforce the notion that citizens have a role to play in order to remain healthy. Finally, we will work closely with the Ministry of the Environment to adopt measures that will diminish contamination of our environment, therefore improving the health of New Brunswick citizens.

Julie Michaud, Conservation Council of New Brunswick:

The global economy is consuming energy and material resources faster than nature produces them and generates waste faster than nature can assimilate them and contaminants that nature cannot assimilate whatsoever. We have exceeded the Earth's carrying capacity. For its size New Brunswick's ecological footprint is among the largest in the world. Our economy is among the most carbon intensive in the country. Ecosystem services are being compromised by pollution and destructive resource management practices. The mega project-based export driven model of development is no longer an option. We will work to make New Brunswick largely self-sufficient for energy and food. In doing so, we will cut our greenhouse gas emissions by 25 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020. We will make significant investments in energy efficiency, fuel switching, green heat and community-scale power. We will retire the power plants in Grand Lake and Dalhousie, and retire one unit at Coleson Cove every five years over the next 15 years. We will regulate industrial greenhouse gas emissions and negotiate a cap and trade system with other provinces in Canada. We will institute a convenient system of public transportation within our cities and between our regions. We will phase out the nuclear power plant at Point Lepreau. Our government will bring in regulations to eliminate the discharge of carcinogens and teratogens into our air, and we will treat violations of environmental regulations as the crimes against the environment that they are. We will bring in a system of policy measures to support the development of a local food system and a shift to organic agriculture. New Brunswickers cherish our natural Acadian forest as a source of fresh water, a place of diverse ecosystems and habitat, a critical part in the fight against climate change and as a source of meaningful employment and community economic development. These values will be incorporated in future forest management plans replacing clearcutting with selection cutting and ending the expensive and damaging practise of converting forest to plantations. New Brunswick will become known as Canada's green province, attracting young people and investment.

Tracy Glynn, Public Lands Coalition:

Our government, recognizing that many rural communities in New Brunswick depend on natural resources such as the forest and fisheries for their lifeblood, will tie timber allocations to communities and not to the mills. We will be enacting a moratorium on logging timber from public land allocated to closed mills in an effort to provide time for communities to decide on how to best use their resource. We will also ban raw timber exports as this only contributes to the further decline in jobs in the forestry sector. We will work on employing more people in the woods while incorporating public values of ecosystem and habitat protection in our future forest management plans. We will invest in smaller and medium-sized mills that employ more people per unit of timber harvested in comparison to the larger mills. We will ensure that private woodlot owners are granted fair and equitable access to markets.

Aboriginal Rights Coalition:

Our government will ensure that resources are in place to provide for public education and action programs that support the recognition of Aboriginal land and treaty rights in the Province of New Brunswick; honour the historic rights of Aboriginal peoples which have been recognized in the Canadian Constitution and upheld in the courts, including the right to self determination; enhance the economic and political development of First Nations; and reverse the erosion of basic human rights including economic access to natural resources, adequate housing, education, health care, legal support and justice.

Concluding Remarks

Our government will be working towards a sustainable future with and for our citizens. Community economic development that respects people and nature will be enhanced. We will open the door to genuine self-sufficiency by focussing on matters of relevance to the public such as respecting diverse cultures, providing good public programmes, promoting a sustainable use of our natural resources and preserving our environment while ensuring equitable opportunities and fundamental human rights for all.