“Having the Wall government shut down negotiations with this insulting ‘take it or leave it’ offer just as conciliation talks have begun shows a shocking disrespect for thousands of front-line healthcare workers in our province,” Iwanchuk said. “The working women and men who provide hands-on care and support services in our health facilities deserve a far better offer and a government willing to work cooperatively with them, not one that treats them as enemies.”
Iwanchuk remained critical, as well, of the Wall government’s “essential services” legislation. In addition to the previously-exposed hypocrisy of the legislation – many healthcare jobs that would be deemed “essential” during a work stoppage are currently unfilled or vacant on a daily basis – he believes the ill-advised policy has added to the negotiation disruptions.
“When you impose such heavy-handed tactics right from the beginning, it becomes clear that there was never any intention on the part of the government to sit down and negotiate these collective agreements in good faith,” Iwanchuk said. “The Wall government’s dictatorial tactics against the professional public service in Saskatchewan continue now into the healthcare sector as well and it’s just not acceptable.”
“This is a government that has gone out of its way to promote a ‘patient-first’ model of healthcare but yet refuses to provide fair wages to the women and men providing that care,” Iwanchuk concluded.
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In September of 2005, the Saskatchewan Party promised to take action to reduce the cost of gas at the pumps, yet they have done nothing.
"They’re looking at, for lack of a better word, some surgical tourism. People coming up to British Columbia, spending some time in British Columbia, being able to get the procedure."
- Minister of Health, Don McMorris
Wall Government breaks another promise...
December 1, 2009
It was one of the Saskatchewan Party's big promises; coming up with a new way to share money with the province's municipalities; one that was tied to the economy and one which was predictable, so local politicians weren't just relying on the whims of any one finance minister. The solution? To share one percentage point of the money raised by the provincial tax, worth about 220 million dollars. The promise was to be fully implemented this coming spring. But now Finance Minister Rod Gantefoer says maybe not: "Quite simply, if the revenue isn't there to allow it..." -CBC News Radio
