All Out for the Ontario Day of Action!

Click to enlarge poster.

Saturday, April 21 -- 3:00-5:00 pm
Queen's Park, Toronto

For further information visit the OFL website

Reject the Budget! No to Irrationality!

How is it possible for the workers and people of Ontario to discuss the Ontario 2012 Budget when the whole premise on which it is based is irrational? The very idea that the path to economic stability and prosperity is to take $17.7 billion out of the economy over the next 3 years is irrational! It can only make matters worse.

Ontario is in crisis. It calls for real solutions, not more of the same failed economics imposed upon society by governments at the disposal of the monopolies. Ontario lost 14,500 full-time jobs in January alone. The government covers this up when it says that 7,000 new part-time jobs were also created in January. It suggests the net loss is thus only 7,500 jobs not 14,500 but this calculation is also irrational. How do you offset the loss of full-time jobs with precarious part-time jobs?

Official unemployment in January stood at 8.1 per cent. The trend continued in February with another 5,400 full time jobs lost and 40,000 people who simply stopped looking for work. Unemployment amongst youth aged 15-24 climbed above 17 per cent.

One third of all Ontario's children are living below the official poverty line. People living on Ontario Works earn 60 per cent less now than in 1995 and this government announces a freeze on social assistance or disability pensions to people whose incomes are insufficient to both pay rent and buy food. This is not only mean, it is irrational.

"Everyone must do their part!," McGuinty says. That is the response of the rich from Queen's Park. But it only applies to the interests of the rich, not the people. When it comes to the people's interests, then the mantra is, "The deficit must be eliminated. Debt obligations must be respected." "Take it out of the hides of the workers and people. Reduce salaries and pensions of health care workers, teachers and education support workers, public service employees and the broader public sector."

The McGuinty government remains silent about the record profits Canadian banks are reaping. No recovery problem there! The issue remains, how is taking another $17.7 billion out of the economy to further line the pockets of a wealthy minority at the expense of society and the vast majority of its members going to turn things around? For whom is it going to turn things around?

To cover all their bases, the McGuinty Liberals say it is now up to "business" to make investment decisions that will drive the economy out of the crisis. And what business decisions would those be exactly? Xstrata's decision to close and destroy the Kidd Creek Metallurgical facilities in Timmins; or the U.S. Steel decision to ship steel to Canada from the U.S. rather than return Hilton works in Hamilton to full production; or Caterpillar's decision to close operations in London and take the technology back to non-union plants in the U.S.? Why do McGuinty and the media not look at the business decisions which have already been taken in recent years and tell us who benefitted. More importantly, why do the media and those called economic experts not trace the investments which are said to bring prosperity?

Government is supposed to make decisions in the public interest not defend monopoly right! The future the McGuinty Liberals have charted for Ontario is one where the rich continue to get richer while the poor increase in numbers and get poorer. We defy the Opposition in the Legislature to bring down this government for its refusal to act in the public interest. We call on the workers and people of Ontario to look at the future this budget has in store for society and say No!

The Interests the McGuinty Liberals Represent

Premier Dalton McGuinty suggests that he represents the interests of all by claiming that the budget protects health care, education and jobs while at the same time paying down the deficit and debt. But two days after tabling the provincial Budget 2012, the Premier rose in the Legislature and said:

"I have quotes here endorsing our budget from the Royal Bank of Canada, from TD Bank, from Scotiabank, from the Dominion Bond Rating Service, from BMO Nesbitt Burns, from the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, from the Certified Management Accountants of Ontario, from the Ontario General Contractors Association, and a host of others."

The interests these organizations represent are certainly not the same as the public interest of the working people of Ontario who face a serious jobs crisis, wage freezes, underfunding of education, deteriorating conditions in their health care, cuts to benefits for the most vulnerable, theft of pensions and a decreasing standard of living.

But it is no wonder that the only ones content with this budget are the banks and other private financial institutions. The Canadian Bankers Association (CBA) said the following:

"The Canadian Bankers Association (CBA) welcomes the acknowledgement in today's Ontario budget of the key role of the banking sector in the long term economic growth of the province. As noted in the budget, Ontario's financial services sector is a world leader that provides thousands of jobs and drives significant economic activity. In addition, the CBA commends the government's continued commitment of moving to a competitive tax structure for businesses and individuals."

For their part, unions representing various sectors of the economy have rejected the austerity measures in the 2012 Ontario Budget delivered March 27.

The Ontario Federation of Labour has called for an Ontario Day of Action, April 21, from 3 - 5 pm at Queen's Park to Demand Prosperity, Not Austerity! Ontario Political Forum calls on everyone to get into action and go all out for the success of the Ontario Day of Action.

Vesting Ourselves with Decision-Making Power by Setting Our Own Agendas and
Working to Realize Them Is Crucial

The atmosphere created in Ontario and Canada by governments in the service of the rich reveals a relentless attack on the rights and social consciousness of people who seek to participate in determining the direction of their society. The recent provincial and federal budgets, for example, reflect that people have no say in determining the economic necessities as they see fit for themselves and society. The same phenomenon of being shut out of the decision-making process exists in the workplaces, schools and communities. The current conditions negate the fact that we now live in a modern society that has the potential to be planned in such a way that it serves our well-being.

The control of society is being taken away from people who exercise no control over the decision-making power but at the same time they must deal with society and its problems. This is particularly true for all workers that produce the wealth and provide services. Workers in different manufacturing industries such as auto, steel, mining and transportation know all too well the necessity to determine their working lives to plan their own future but also how they contribute to the development of their communities. Likewise, public sector workers such as those in education have to deal with social problems like poverty and drug use in addition to their primary responsibilities as educators of future generations.

All workers are dealing with the fact that they must solve the problems around them. What is lacking is their ability to set the agendas to solve these problems in both their immediate surroundings and for society. Workers have to look into how they can gain decision-making power so that people who deal with social problems can do so in constructive and supported ways.

The necessity to develop organized discussion among one's peers at the workplaces, schools and communities, and to look into solving problems in their interests, is becoming clearer every day. Such work will serve to resist the anarchy of current decision-making power as people will develop their own independent outlook and guide to action.

Shameful Attack on the Poor

The 2012 Ontario Budget includes several measures that in the name of deficit reduction will make the situation for Ontario's poorest people and low-wage workers much worse. These measures show again that the government does not accept any responsibility for guaranteeing people even a minimum standard of life, considering this instead as a matter of fiscal or political convenience.

The budget announced that Ontario Works (OW) and Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) benefit rates for people unable to work or unable to find work will be frozen at their current levels, which is $599 per month for a single person on OW and $1,064 for a single person on ODSP. When the rising costs of food and other necessities is taken into account, this will mean a reduction of 2.9 per cent in the already inadequate living standards for the 900,000 people in the families receiving these benefits.

In his budget speech, Finance Minister Dwight Duncan tried to differentiate his budget measures from those taken by Harris in 1995 when social assistance rates were cut by 22 percent. Duncan said the Conservatives "balanced their budgets on the backs of those who need assistance." However, with only two small increases since taking office, the McGuinty government has allowed inflation to reduce the benefit rates another 33 per cent since the Harris cuts.

As well as freezing benefit rates, several important support programs for OW benefit recipients are being cut in the budget, including emergency housing supports and support for medical and funeral costs. This will result in another $30 million a year in reduced social spending. Specialized employment services aimed at helping people receiving OW find a job or enter the workforce also face unspecified cuts.

It was also announced that the scheduled increase in the Ontario Child Benefit (OCB) paid to all low-income families with children will also be postponed for a year. Postponing OCB increases will affect over 600,000 poor families with children, including families of 480,000 workers employed at low-wage jobs. The expected reduction in government spending from postponing the scheduled OCB increase is $90 million.

Workers in low-wage jobs will also be affected as the minimum wage will be frozen at $10.25/hour for another year. At the time of the 2011 budget, the minimum wage was frozen for a year in the name of what the government called "striking a balance between a fair wage and our businesses' need for stability and certainty." A review was promised by the Minister of Labour before the 2012 budget but no action has been taken. When inflation is taken into account, the minimum wage freeze for 2011 and 2012 amounts to an $80/month reduction for a worker receiving minimum wage on a 40-hour week.

Not including the effect of freezing the minimum wage, the government's deficit reduction measures on OW, ODSP and OCB will remove an estimated $150 million from the pockets of those unable to work or working at low wages. This is completely unacceptable. The claims of those unable to work, the claims of families for social supports and the claims of all for a decent livelihood have to be put in first place, ahead of the demands of the moneylenders for deficit reduction.

While the measures announced by McGuinty will have a big impact on the lives of the poor, they will have very little impact on Ontario's $127 billion budget, amounting to only 0.1 per cent of the budget and only 0.9 per cent of the deficit. This raises the question of why the McGuinty government is going after the most vulnerable, especially when it makes a mockery of the government's claim to be committed to poverty reduction. As well, why did McGuinty go out of his way to draw public attention to these social assistance cuts by announcing them in media interviews two days before the budget?

McGuinty's squeezing of the poor in the name of the fiscal crisis has a political aim. It will be used in attempts to justify the austerity budget's broad attack on all the working class in Ontario, using the spin "Look, even the poorest of the poor are making sacrifices for the sake of deficit fighting! You should be prepared to make sacrifices too." Despite its rhetoric about poverty reduction, the government is quite prepared to sacrifice the livelihood of the poor for fiscal policy. It is also prepared to use the poor as convenient pawns in the political game where the interests of one section of the people is driven down and then the demand is made that others reduce their expectations in the name of "equity" and "fairness."

The working class has complete contempt for the austerity agenda that the financial oligarchy is trying to impose on society and for the neoliberal political games of the bankrupt politicians serving it. To undermine the resistance of the working class, these politicians attempt to establish "equity" based living conditions below Canadian standards. A Canadian standard of living needs to be guaranteed for all, as a right not as a matter of fiscal or political convenience.

Ontario Charts a Course in the Wrong Direction
for Education

The Ontario government under the McGuinty Liberals announced changes to the education system in Ontario in the March 27 budget which will adversely affect universities, colleges, elementary and secondary schooling in Ontario. The teachers and education workers who deliver these public services, students and their families are assessing the effects of the proposed changes and are discussing how they should look at these developments and what they should do about it.

The discussion promoted by the political parties and some media outlets promote the austere direction of the economy through this budget as a necessity due to the financial crisis the province finds itself in and all political parties agreed in the last provincial election there would be a need to "balance the budget" by 2017-2018.

The public view that politicians want the working class in Ontario to have is that the spending has to stop, that the debt and deficit are at crisis proportions and that this crisis has to be solved by everyone tightening their belts and abandoning their rights to programs and services.

The threat that is held over the people of Ontario is that the province will become another Greece.

The politicians and media are promoting the legitimacy of the credit rating agencies that they hold to high regard as gods who are the legitimate body that must be convinced that Ontario is not a risk for investment by corporations and financial speculators. So determined are they to promote this that the federal finance minister rushed to Ontario the day after he delivered the Federal budget to announce on CBC that," "This is a serious problem, when a large government in Canada is not trusted by the rating agencies around the world."

"The real criminals here are the likes of Standard and Poor's, Moody's and other agencies of the rich who certified the creditworthiness of the useless paper-backed assets American banks were flogging, which precipitated the 2008 financial crisis in the first place. In 1993 Standard and Poor's downgraded Ontario's AAA rating to AA to force the Bob Rae government to get with the program of the anti-social offensive, which he did to his everlasting infamy. Creditors have been reaping the rewards of that downgrade ever since. Throughout the Mike Harris and McGuinty years the financiers never restored Ontario's AAA credit rating. Why isn't the Minister responsible for Ontario's finances demanding compensation or even jail sentences for Standard and Poor's and their ilk for their crimes against society!"

The government in this budget has set the stage to attract all kinds of speculators to gratify their need to offset declining rates of profit. They are doing this on the backs of public services and the workers that deliver them. It must not pass!

Budget Opposes Investment in Education

The budget calls for the merging of the school boards but provides no details. School boards will not be receiving the necessary funding required to meet the needs of the education system. This has already come to light as the Toronto District School Board meets to decide job cuts and other austerity measures. The special board meeting where trustees are called on to vote no to these measures was postponed and will now take place April 4.

Since the 1998-99 fiscal year the government of Ontario has lowered education property taxes. Although in this budget they have frozen the decline until the years 2017-18, the government is committed to continuing this direction at that time despite the effect on school boards and the services they provide. They have stated that they will not reverse these cuts.

The budget reports state that the highest Business Education Tax (BET) rates have already been cut by more than 50 per cent, while average BET rates have been cut by 28 per cent. The Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) in their review of the 2012-1013 Ontario Budget dispels the view that the sky is falling when one looks at the deficit relative to the size of the economy.

Their report states: "Fifteen billion dollars sounds big, but compared to what? Any government's ability to pay depends on the size of its economy. Viewed in that way, $15.3 billion is about 2.4 per cent of the province's economy. To put that in context, Ontario's deficit was worse than that for five years in a row from 1991-92 to 1995-96 as the chart below shows. If the government's goal is simply to balance the Budget, it seems obvious that this can be done without the severe cuts..."

The blueprint for the austerity measures affecting public services and public service workers was prepared for the government by the Commission to Reform Public Services chaired by former TD Bank Senior Vice President Don Drummond who recommended serious cuts to all public services including attacks on teachers and education workers and students. They have been creating an atmosphere that there is no alternative. The role of the Drummond Report, along with the media hysteria, was to get the people to debate what should or should not be cut. Cut all-day kindergarten or teacher sick days. Lay-off early childhood educators or increase class sizes and cut teachers. Contract out education workers, close down schools, freeze wages and the list goes on.

To dispel the myth that Ontario has a spending problem, OPSEU's report shows that Ontario's spending per person is the lowest of any province in Canada.

Ontario's education system continues to have the lowest per student funding of all the provinces. The colleges continue to be run with over 55 per cent part-time faculty and support staff with no unions who have been on a two-year wage freeze along with all other non-union public sector workers. This budget does nothing to redeem those wages due to their corrosion from the cost of living.

The budget states, "While the length of individual collective agreements may vary, restraining public-sector compensation costs for the full five years of the plan is critical to balancing the budget."

It is not clear whether those workers who have endured two years of wage freeze are to face the same conditions in years to come.

The discussion to have now is how to resolve the crisis in favour of the working people, not the rich.

It begins by saying no to these cuts, no to wage freezes, no to attacks on collective bargaining rights, pensions and benefits.

It begins by demanding that governments Stop Paying the Rich and Increase investments in social programs.

It begins by organizing teachers and education workers to take decision-making power in their own right.

Education Organizations Speak Out
Against Liberal Budget

Unions representing education workers have pledged to fight for the interests of the teachers, students and people of Ontario by demanding more funding for education and other social programs. They are demanding that the McGuinty Liberals uphold their social responsibility to Ontarians.

Ken Coran, President of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation, stated that the budget disrespects teachers and threatens the "open dialogue and progress in education" of the last eight years. Coran stated: "We have seen that imposing legislation upon workers, and not negotiating with them in good faith, leads only to further discontent and distrust" and calls on the government to respect the bargaining process and the rights of the teachers and other workers.

Sam Hammond, President of the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario notes: "Whether you're working or not, or whether you're unionized or not, ordinary Ontarians are being asked to take a hit that many economists say is not necessary." He called for increased investments in social programs and denounced "cuts to vital public services built with our tax dollars being used to pay for a deficit that working people did not create" and "the loss of thousands of good jobs through cuts and privatization initiatives in infrastructure, health services, and Service Ontario."

The Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Association (OCUFA) notes that despite the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities' (MTCU) assertion that the budget will increase operating grants to universities by an average of 1.1 per cent over the next three years, there will be an actual decrease in funding for universities of 2.0 per cent for 2012-13 and 2014-15 respectively, when Gross Domestic Product (GDP) inflation is factored in. According to the OCUFA, "Even if one accepts the government's assertion that it is providing funding for enrolment growth, the constant-dollar value of per-student funding will decline by 5 per cent over the same period." The OCUFA states that the only way to ensure high quality and affordable higher education in our province is to increase operating grants and invest in the future success of Ontario. In real terms, per student operating funding from the province has been in decline since 2008-09. With this budget plan, the cumulative reduction in per-student funding by 2014-15 will be 16 per cent.

The Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association President Kevin O'Dwyer also spoke out against the McGuinty government's actions. He said: "continuing to deal with bargaining issues and threatening legislative action in the media is detrimental to the constructive dialogue that is needed at this time."

The Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) which represents public service, college and other educational workers denounced the attacks on the wages and working conditions of education sector workers and other workers in the budget, pointing out amongst others things that the Ontario Public Service has 14 per cent fewer workers now than in 1995. It notes that in 2010, the McGuinty government enacted legislation to freeze the pay of all non-unionized provincial employees for two years. In bargaining with unionized workers, the government took a hard line, forcing many, although not all, to accept a wage freeze (which is really an annual pay cut equal to the rate of inflation). In the 2012 budget, of the $17.7 billion the government wants to save over the next three years, a full $6 billion of it is to come from "compensation restraint for school boards, payments to physicians and public servants." A further $6.8 billion is to come from cost-cutting across the broader public sector, costs that are certainly attached to wages and jobs. OPSEU further denounced the high-handed and hypocritical stand of Finance Minister Dwight Duncan who, while piously stating that the government "respects the collective bargaining process," went so far as to say that the "Supreme Court of Canada requires it," then added that the Liberals are "prepared to propose the necessary administrative and legislative measures to protect the public from service disruptions" -- meaning taking away the workers' right to strike in order to fight for their rights and demands.

OPSEU also noted that the budget contains provisions for the Liberal government to legislatively "pool investment management function." The pension plans of college and university workers are going to be attacked and concessions demanded that would reduce the pension benefits of these workers, creating insecurity for them as they approach the end of their working lives. "OPSEU will be fully engaged in any and all pension discussions, and will work to mobilize members to ensure that their interests are safeguarded as we continue to work for retirement security for all working people..." said the union.

Full Weight of Society Must Be Put Behind the Just Demands and Cause of City Workers

As March 2012 draws to a close in Toronto, three of the four units of the more than 20,000 inside workers represented by CUPE Local 79 have new collective agreements and the fourth unit -- long-term care workers designated as essential -- is headed to arbitration. The 2,400 Public Library workers of CUPE Local 4948 have approved a contract, ending an 11-day strike, while in mid-February, the about 6,000 outside workers of CUPE Local 416 likewise accepted a new contract. Early in 2011, thousands of TTC transit workers were subjected to provincial legislation and the imposition of a contract. Only contracts for some smaller units, the Toronto Community Housing workers of CUPE Local 416 for instance, remain to be realized.

The main collective agreements for the thousands of city workers have officially been settled and largely cover the period to the end of 2015. This took place in the wake of the Ford regime's drive to impose terms in line with its anti-social agenda rather than to negotiate putting in first place the well-being of the city, its residents and the workers who provide the services and programs. Most blatantly, the city administration threatened to unilaterally impose its terms on both the inside and outside workers, and in the case of the transit workers, instigated back-to-work legislation in collaboration with the McGuinty provincial government.

The city workers resisted the Ford regime's effort to dictate terms to them over the months of negotiations and, in the case of the Public Library workers, that culminated in an eleven day strike. Their resistance did limit to an extent the regime's drive for concessions to gut previous guarantees and protections. As an organized force, these workers continue to confront the city administration and the retrograde forces at other levels of government standing behind it. But significant concessions were made, with regard to job security, among other things.

The new contracts bear the imprint of the anti-social, anti-worker aims of the forces in power in Toronto, Ontario and Canada. The situation shows that the resistance of the workers and struggle for modern social infrastructure that serves the needs of society is crucial and that it must be taken further so as to renew the society so that it upholds public right not monopoly right. The workers' defence organizations and all those involved in this fight must demand that services be kept under public control.

Far from privatizing, they must expand the public sector to meet all the claims upon it of an increasingly diverse population and ever greater social responsibilities. All Ontarians must fight so that the full weight of society is put behind the just cause and demands of city workers! Stem the tide of the anti-social offensive now!

Ontario Launches $33 Billion Nuclear Power Program

On March 1, the first contract was signed launching the Ontario government's $33 billion program for refurbishing existing nuclear power plants and building new nuclear reactors by 2030. The Ministry of Energy's 20-year plan calls for continued reliance on nuclear energy as the base of Ontario's electricity generation system, with nuclear power plants providing 50 per cent of total electricity production.

The contract issued was for replacing the cores of four nuclear reactors at the Darlington Generating Station near Toronto. The core replacement is expected to cost between $6 billion and $10 billion. The Darlington facility produces 3,512 megawatts of power, representing about 20 per cent of Ontario's existing generation capacity. The cores of the Darlington reactors have reached the end of their safe working life.

Ontario Power Generation (OPG), the government owned power production corporation, signed the contract with SNC Lavalin Group and Aecon Construction which formed a joint venture for the project. Lavalin is an aggressive international engineering monopoly based in Montreal. Aecon, based in Edmonton and Toronto, is the largest publicly traded construction company in Canada and specializes in government infrastructure projects.

The Darlington project will be done in two stages, with the first running from 2013-16 and the second from 2016-23. The contractors will receive $600 million for the first phase and an undisclosed amount for the second. The first phase is building a mock-up of a reactor and developing tools, knowledge and technique for replacing the cores of four reactors. In the second phase the cores will be replaced one after the other.

Although financial details have not been announced, Lavalin and Aecon may benefit from private-public partnership (P3) arrangements for the project. In a press interview just before the contracts were issued Patrick Lamarre, Lavalin VP for Global Power, said the project could be structured so Lavalin and Aecon and their financiers become equity partners in Darlington and sell electricity to the grid on fixed price contracts.

An Aecon press release said the first phase of the contract has "both fixed price and cost reimbursable elements" and the second phase "will be carried out on a cost reimbursable, target price basis." Lavalin's share price shot up by 5.3 per cent and Aecon's by 4.3 per cent on the day of the contract announcement, indicating that the international financial oligarchy considers the contract a sweet deal for the contractors.

The decision of the federal government to hand over the crown corporation Atomic Energy Canada Limited (AECL) to Lavalin last year played an important part in Lavalin being in a position to benefit from this lucrative contract. AECL designed Darlington's CANDU reactors and in pre-bid qualification was the only company that could qualify to re-core the reactors. Even General Electric Nuclear failed to qualify.

For 78 years and through billions of dollars in public funds, AECL became the repository of Canada's nuclear knowledge and technique, including technique for refurbishing nuclear reactors. The sale of AECL allowed Lavalin to capture this technical capacity which it will use to turn profits in the Darlington refurbishment. Lavalin paid only $15 million for AECL, a cost more than offset by $75 million in guarantees the federal government gave Lavalin as part of the deal.

Besides the technological capacities gained through the capture of AECL by Lavalin, Aecon and Lavalin have captured vast technical expertise through work on other nuclear projects and other large public infrastructure projects. This knowledge and expertise, gained at public expense, becomes the private property of these engineering/construction monopolies. This control of knowledge and technique lets these companies dominate big projects, extract vast profits and then to extort more as cost overruns.

The high and ever increasing electricity costs users have to pay are largely the result of construction and engineering monopolies being able to treat power generation projects, especially nuclear projects, as personal cash machines. Previous nuclear projects are responsible for most of the $20 billion Ontario Hydro debt that became stranded debt when Ontario Hydro was broken up.

This debt from previous nuclear projects shows up as the Debt Retirement Charge on electricity bills. Stranded debt charges are also passed on to ratepayers through electricity and distribution charges. Now another $33 billion is being handed over to the monopolies in nuclear power engineering, construction and financing and this too will have to be "retired" on the backs of electricity users.

There are important public interests at stake in the power generation and distribution system, including access to all for this essential service and sustaining other industrial sectors. The private interests of the financial oligarchy and its allied engineering, construction and technical equipment monopolies are displacing the public interest throughout the system at a rapid pace.

In non-nuclear power generation, privatization is almost complete, having been pushed through disguised as "green energy initiatives." The conversion of coal-fired power stations to gas and building wind and solar generation have all been done by private sector enterprises.

Eighty-seven non-nuclear power projects with capacity of over 50MW each have been built or started in Ontario since 1990; all but two are privately owned. These private generating plants sell power to the grid through lucrative contracts with Ontario Power Authority. By 2020 they will be producing 9,300 MW, 25 per cent of Ontario's hydro. Private investors are also breaking into construction and operation of transmission lines and municipal electrical utilities.

With control of nuclear power being further consolidated by the aggressive nuclear power monopolies and their financiers, soon the entire electric power system will be at the service of the international financial oligarchy in extracting wealth from Ontario. Soon the only role left for government in the power sector will be to collect fees from electricity users on behalf of the monopolies and to sign the cheques.

Reject the Budget! No to Irrationality!

All Out for the Ontario Day of Action!

Reject the Budget! No to Irrationality!

The Interests the McGuinty Liberals Represent

Vesting Ourselves with Decision-Making Power by Setting Our Own Agendas and Working to Realize Them Is Crucial

Shameful Attack on the Poor

Ontario Charts a Course in the Wrong Direction for Education

Budget Opposes Investment in Education

Education Organizations Speak Out Against Liberal Budget

Full Weight of Society Must Be Put Behind the Just Demands and Cause of City Workers

Ontario Launches $33 Billion Nuclear Power Program

Vesting Ourselves with Decision-Making Power by Setting Our Own Agendas and
Working to Realize Them Is Crucial

Ontario Charts a Course in the Wrong Direction
for Education

Education Organizations Speak Out
Against Liberal Budget