Provincial budget makes families pay for Sask Party's mistakes

REGINA, March 22, 2017 /CNW/ - The Sask Party has introduced measures that punish families and could slow the economy even further—exactly the opposite of what the province needs, says Unifor.

"The Sask Party has failed voters. This government has created a mess of our province's finances yet they've asked families, the working people of the province, to bail them out," said Paul McKie, Unifor Area Director. "Brad Wall has effectively told Saskatchewan voters that they're to blame for the deficit."

The 2017 budget increased the provincial sales tax, increased fees for long-term care, cut student aid, cut public sector wages, cut library funding, cut bus service, cut parks funding, and increased a variety of other fees and taxes.

"Trying to eliminate a deficit this big in three years is too fast and too hard on families," said McKie. "This budget reeks of a government in desperate free-fall. Our Crown corporations are not safe with a government this desperate."

Unifor says that the principle of austerity—dramatic spending-side cuts to curb deficits—has been widely discredited. In many countries around the world, including Greece, experiments with austerity have made matters worse by suffocating the economy.

Unifor is Canada's largest union in the private sector, representing more than 310,000 workers. It was formed Labour Day weekend 2013 when the Canadian Auto Workers and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers unions merged.

SOURCE Unifor

please contact Unifor Communications Representative Ian Boyko at [email protected] or 778-903-6549 (cell).