Showdown Looming
Thanks to the “spend now ask questions later” behaviour of Manitoba’s NDP government we now find ourselves with a projected $600 million budget deficit. As a result, the Dippers find themselves in the uncomfortable position of potentially alienating the public service sector.
In an effort to get a handle on the province’s finances, Finance Minister Rosann Wowchuk wants all public employees to take a two-year wage freeze. The problem is the government is currently in the middle of negotiations with its nurses. It also starts to bargain with the Manitoba Government Employees Union next month.
The timing of Ms. Wowchuk’s announcement didn’t go over to well with MGEU president Peter Olfert who accused the Minister of “negotiating in the media”.
Citing healthcare wages and civil servants salaries of nearly $4 billion Ms. Wowchuk said,
“Those are big costs. If we can contain those costs, maintain them where we are without having increases then we can look at ensuring that we don’t layoff people and maintain services.”
I can only imagine what an NDP Opposition would have said in response to a Tory government that said that. The next few months are going to be very interesting.
Credit: www.winnipegfreepress.com
Len has been blogging for over 10 years. He is active in numerous places on the web including being a Moderator at BloggerForum and Administrator at Weblog Tools Collection Forum. You can also find him at his other site - WordPress Canada.
huh, i think there was another ndp govt once upon a time in this country who alienated its base due to reality. funny how history repeats itself and the highly educated lefty’s still dont get it.
Funny how reality does that.
i get so frustrated about how the so called enlightened members of society cannot see how destructive their policies are in the end, not to mention the fact that they have at their disposal at least 2000 years of history to prove that everything they do now has been before with disastrous results.
some people i know call me a “typical angry right winger”. i constantly have to remind them that it is liberal stupidity that causes it.
I don’t even know where that phrase originated. My political leanings are conservative and I’m quite jovial, most of the time.