“The major economic problem faced by Canadians is a very slow recovery and weak job market, not government deficits or rising debt. But public spending cuts at the federal and provincial level will make the real problem even worse.”

-- Andrew Jackson, Chief Economist, Canadian Labour Congress

Attacks on jobs, wages and services in a

time of rising profitsSummer 2012

People who depend on public services – which is everybody – are seeing many of those services weakened or wiped out entirely

The 2012 Ontario Budget will cut $17.7 billion from public services over the next three years

Public employees are facing direct attacks on their jobs and wages

The government is cutting jobs and demanding a wage “freeze” (really a wage cut equal to the rate of inflation) for all provincial workers

Private sector wages are not keeping up either. In Ontario, overall wages went up just 0.7 per cent from Feb. 2011 to Feb. 2012. But inflation was 2.9 per cent. In other words, real wages (after inflation) fell by 2.2 per cent

Premier Dalton McGuinty is making these big problems worse

McGuinty says more deep cuts to public services, wages, and jobs are needed to get the deficit to zero by 2017-18

The government has exaggerated how bad the deficit is

In the early 1990s there were five years when the deficit was worse than it is now

The deficit is manageable

Taking advice from banker Don Drummond, McGuinty wants cuts that are deeper and last longer than those of the 1990s

Drummond was happy to ignore options for raising revenues because it helped “keep the screws on” spending

Based on this, you might think the deficit was caused by public spending. It wasn’t

Ontario’s deficit was caused by the recession, which cut tax revenues to governments everywhere

Ontario had balanced budgets for three years before the recession

Ontario has the lowest spending per person of any province in Canada

Ontario’s program spending is 11 per cent lower than the average of the other provinces

Spending is not the problem

Spending cuts will hurt the economy and reduce government revenues

The Centre for Spatial Economics, a mainstream forecasting firm, estimates that the 2012 Budget will cost 7,000 jobs in 2012

But by 2015, Ontario will have 105,000 fewer jobs

In 2015, the unemployment rate will be 0.9 per cent higher as a result of the Budget

Of the 105,000 jobs missing in 2015, 65,000 will be public sector jobs and 40,000 will be private sector jobs

Cutting spending on public services hurts the economy more than an equivalent increase in taxes:

“Raising taxes rather than cutting spending imposes lower costs on society in terms of reduced jobs and GDP while achieving the government’s objective of reducing the deficit.”

- Centre for Spatial Economics, April 2012

Cuts and privatization will cut wages and jobs for workers while creating more profit opportunities for investors.

They won’t help struggling households – in the public sector or the private sector

Consumers and governments have been propping up corporate profits for close to three decades – by going into debt

Meanwhile, corporations in Canada are sitting on $527 billion in cash that they are not spending or investing

The global economy is like a Monopoly game in which one player has all the money and the others are broke

It’s time to start a new game. That can only happen by redistributing money from corporations and high-income

individuals to workers and governments to get the economy rolling again

Around the world, citizens are fighting back, demanding solutions that don’t mean lower wages and higher profits, or fewer public services and more private ones

In the last two years, OPSEU has:promoted fair taxation at the G-20 campaigned to reveal the link between the McGuinty wage freeze and corporate tax cutslaunched the satirical “People for Corporate Tax Cuts” campaignSupported the Occupy movement and its opposition to growing inequalitysponsored the Commission on Quality Public Services and Tax Fairness

The 2012 provincial Budget deal that raised taxes on those earning more than $500,000 a year will raise around $500 million a year for public services

More needs to be done to support jobs, wages, and public services

In 2012, we are fighting “austerity” in our communities and at the bargaining table

Working people did not cause Ontario’s problems….

Photo

: Ja

ckso

n

Chui