Union members and various other concerned citizens gathered at the United Steelworkers Local 6166 Steel Centre in Thompson May 15 to discuss provincial government cutbacks and budget tightening and the effect they are having on Northern Manitoba.
The group calls itself Communities Not Cuts: A Call to Action and was formed in response to actions taken or not taken by Premier Brian Pallister's Progressive Conservative government since it defeated the long-governing NDP a little over a year ago.
"Investment has practically stopped in Northern Manitoba," said Blair Hudson, a union representative with the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 832, and one of the meeting organizers. "We want to send a message to the government that it's not acceptable to just absolutely quit spending money and quit investing in Northern Manitoba. We're not going to sit idly by while the government completely abandons Northern Manitoba."
Among the government's actions that Hudson criticized were eliminating the cap on class sizes for kindergarten to Grade 3, planning to cut $1 million out of the Northern Patient Transportation Program by tightening the regulations regarding escort travel expenses, moving to dismantle the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation, not spending as much on northern highways, as well as its moves regarding Manitoba Hydro and its failure to move forward with a planned trades centre at Thompson's University College of the North (UCN) campus.
"The idea of UCN it's a university and a college," Hudson said. "Without the trades component I believe we're missing one leg of the university college. They're talking about changing how we're paying for our Hydro projects, changing the amortization rates, saying we need to pay quicker than we initially planned. Frankly, this isn't what we voted for. This isn't what people in Manitoba voted for."
Wabowden Mayor Reg Meade said commercial fishing had been vital to his community when other industries closed up shop.
"The community of Wabowden survived, when mines petered out and the logging was up and then it was down, by commercial fishing and I think personally it would be devastation," said Meade. "We don't feel that the north can survive without a single desk corporation."
Kathy Pellizzaro said removing the cap on class sizes for kindergarten to Grade 3 classes has a huge effect.
"I was a teacher in the '90s," she said, with 30 students in kindergarten classes. "I could not get to every child. Teachers are human beings and its really hard in K to 3 to get to every child."
She also said that the minimal budget increase the School District of Mystery Lake got this year has resulted in job losses.
"They cut all out teacher-librarian positions all in one sweep except for the high school," said Pellizzaro. "All our elementary school librarians are gone and we have the high school one, we're hanging on to her as long as we can. We have wonderful clerks in the USW but the teacher-librarian used to teach, used to find books, extra literacy projects that the clerk may not have time for, so that's huge."
Elimination of the tuition tax credit was Karen Amyotte's concern, as her son is just finishing his studies at the University of Manitoba.
"With the elimination of that I can see my son wanting to go to Ontario or to Yellowknife to raise his family because the wages are better and the opportunities are greater," she said. "So we're not keeping our kids any longer in Manitoba and they're going to move, they're going to want to leave and families will leave and we don't need to lose our kids."
USW Local 6166 president Les Ellsworth made his feelings about the provincial government clear.
"Tory times are hard times," he said. "They're looking after their friends called the employers. They don't want to hear from us."
He also said people are now starting to see the government's true colours.
"Be careful what you ask for because you just might get it," he said, also urging that people take action to make their opposition known. "We will organize and take busloads of people [to Winnipeg]."
Former Thompson MLA Steve Ashton said that the north is facing challenging times.
"We need a government that's on our side and we need it especially in tough times," he said. "The worst thing we can do right now is what's happening: jam on the brakes."
Ashton also said plans to increase tourism in Northern Manitoba are good for diversifying the economy but no replacement for mining and construction and Manitoba Hydro jobs.
"We are going to oppose these cuts," he said.
