February 18, 2014 - Vol. 3 No. 15

By-Elections in Niagara Falls and Thornhill

A New Rejection of Blackmail
and Austerity

By-Elections in Niagara Falls and Thornhill
• A New Rejection of Blackmail and Austerity
• Results
• Liberals and PCs Desperately Respond: "But It Can't Be Done Across the Province"
• Legitimacy Crisis of Austerity Deepens

Legislature Resumes February 18
• All Out to Say No! to Anti-Worker Legislation!

Government's "Consensus Report" on Minimum Wage
• Fraud Is the Name of the Game

By-Elections in Niagara Falls and Thornhill

A New Rejection of Blackmail and Austerity 

Ontario Political Forum congratulates the 16,125 people in the riding of Niagara Falls who made their votes count to defeat the Liberals and PCs. In so doing they have affirmed the rights of all and have shown that by rejecting blackmail it can be done! In the face of the destruction of manufacturing, extortion by the monopolies and the claim that the only role for the working people is to pick which version of austerity they "choose," this section of voters in Niagara Falls has said No! on behalf of all Ontarians. 

OPF also congratulates the parties not in the Legislature and independent candidates who ran. Most of the small parties and independents made advances in their votes compared to when general elections are held. This shows that new sections of the electorate were convinced to reject the blackmail of the electoral system that disenfranchises them by marginalizing those parties and candidates who do not submit wholeheartedly to the neo-liberal agenda. This was not the case in Thornhill where the working people have yet to see the space for change and how to occupy it.

OPF congratulates all those individuals, unions and other organizations that activated themselves to be a factor in the by-elections to defeat the Liberals and PCs. Given that the difference in the vote between the NDP and the PCs was only 962 votes, it shows that taking an initiative can make the difference. The actions taken by teachers and education workers especially to hold the Liberals and PCs to account for passing Bill 115 convinced those in their own ranks and in the ranks of health care workers they took their call to, to make their vote count by rejecting these champions of austerity. Many of these may have voted "strategically" for the Liberals in the past and might not have voted in the by-election had they not been given an argument to do so. As in the case of past by-elections where the working people intervened actively, this swing of voters from Liberal to NDP is what resulted in defeats for both the Liberals and PCs.

The defeat for the champions of austerity in Niagara Falls is especially significant considering the vicious blackmail heaped upon the electorate. In no uncertain terms they were told they must give up their demand to hold governments to account for the anti-social austerity agenda championed by the Liberals and PCs. The electorate in Niagara Falls was not fooled by the blackmail of the Liberal Party that made the most cynical promises for a new hospital after closing health care facilities to pay the deficit. It also promised other funds for the agricultural sector after facilitating the importation of foreign grape juices for use in Ontario wines, and then days before the by-election announced funding to allow the Fort Erie Racetrack to open after decimating the town's main industry by arbitrarily cutting horseracing out of access to slot machine-generated revenues. The electorate did not submit to the disgraceful blackmail from the mayor of Niagara Falls who tried to convince voters in that city to give up their right to conscience for fear of being "out of line" with the government by not electing a Liberal and running the risk of not getting the hospital they were "promised." Nor did they submit to the blackmail of the PCs that unions are the cause of the destruction of Ontario's manufacturing base at the hands of the monopoly gangsters. The working people were determined to hold the government and opposition PCs to account as has been done in by-elections before, and they did so.

All of this shows there are positive conditions for the working people of the riding of Niagara Falls to build their own organizations that can work to further empower the electorate. They have the opportunity to say no to war and aggression for Canada's future by working to unseat Harper's Minister of Aggression and War, Rob Nicholson, in the federal election. The by-election defeat for the Liberals and PCs in the riding shows it can be done.

OPF calls on the working people not to rest on their laurels but to continue to take the initiative to defeat the anti-social austerity agenda and its champions, the Liberals and PCs. This can be done by carefully studying the space for change and occupying it. When it comes to elections, the working people are the majority across the province and country, and many of them do not vote any more because the party system does not represent them and they cannot hold these parties to account, let alone elected governments which bring political parties or coalitions of political parties to power. Only by combining their superior numbers and new forms of organization where they get to set the agenda and implement it will this problem be sorted out. By putting their numbers and organization into play they can challenge the power of the monopolies to wreck the province and Canada with impunity, annex it to the United States of North American Monopolies and put its territory and resources at the disposal of war and aggression internationally.

Results

On February 13 by-elections were held in two Ontario ridings to fill the seats of Liberal MPP Kim Craitor in Niagara Falls and PC MPP Peter Shurman in Thornhill, both of whom resigned. All results for the current by-elections are unofficial. Eligible voters are based on the number of voters on the official list of electors following the 2011 General Election. Official results and eligible voters were not yet available from Elections Ontario at time of publication.

Liberals and PCs Desperately Respond:
"But It Can't Be Done Across the Province"

Following the by-elections, both Liberal leader Kathleen Wynne and PC leader Tim Hudak claim that far from being a rebuke for their different versions of the same anti-social austerity agenda, the results in Niagara Falls should not be expected to change anything in terms of the common agenda they pursue of targeting the working people and cutting the social programs they rely on as a means to pay the rich. Instead they assert that the same results could not be repeated in a general election so they mean nothing. In fact, they are reflecting the growing fear amongst the ruling circles that the working people will not succumb to hesitation and will organize to do the same across the province, which will be decisive in uniting the people to defeat Harper.

The ruling circles, especially those who wish the PCs would win a majority from which to destroy workers' ability to participate in politics, cite Thornhill as the reference for why they claim it is not possible to defeat the Liberals and PCs province-wide. The main feature of Thornhill however was its voter turnout of only 27 per cent and the fact that generally all the parties obtained the same proportion of the popular vote as in the general election. In other words, where the workers don't intervene, it is the status quo within which the parties, with their advanced microtargeting techniques and other forms of voter suppression, get the results they pay for.

When the PCs speak about their win in Thornhill, they spread half truths in order to convince the working people that in the GTA in particular they cannot organize to win. Both the Liberals and PCs desperately want to maintain their grip on the GTA and it appears the NDP is reluctant to challenge this. This is not an option for the working people. It was in the GTA that Harper was able to divide the people, keep them from voting and win his majority in 2011 despite the unity of the Quebec working people to defeat him.

The working people have proven capable in some by-elections of mounting an effective campaign to identify those voters who want to express opposition to austerity and attacks on workers' rights and getting them out to vote. In these cases, the NDP has managed to muster its electoral machine to clinch the vote. However, what is required is to mobilize the masses who do not vote, which is the decisive force the working people must organize in order to defeat Harper and put all governments on notice that they must defend public right, not monopoly right.

The interests of the working people are favoured by discussing the importance of taking up their own program to establish committees in all the ridings, especially in the GTA, from which they can set their own program to involve the majority of the electorate in the new type of politics. This new type of politics breaks through all the limitations imposed on the people by the current non-representative electoral system. It is a matter of taking up the independent politics of the working class, of and for itself. In KW this resulted in a by-election turnout that matched most general election turnouts. This type of politics is the key to empowering the people and enabling them to break out of the neo-liberal straitjacket and bogus "options" forced on them through the party system.

Legitimacy Crisis of Austerity Deepens

The defeat of the Liberals in Niagara Falls and Thornhill, as well as the loss for the PCs in Niagara Falls has sunk both parties into deeper crisis. For the Liberals the results put the final nail in the coffin of their claim that they have reset and that the workers will now accept austerity through "negotiation." For the PCs, they have once again been defeated in a riding that according to all the polls and pundits was theirs to win. But it was not for lack of trying. The PCs maintained their votes in Niagara Falls but were defeated as a result of the initiative of the working people. The fact that both parties tried to blackmail electors openly and still lost in Niagara Falls means that they are seen as more discredited and disreputable in the eyes of the people everywhere.

Far from drawing any warranted conclusions about their agenda, these parties will now likely try to overcome their crisis with even more blackmail, thinking that if only they had done so earlier in the election they would have kept enough people away from voting to maintain their share of the vote from the last election à la Thornhill. The working people should make sure they strengthen their independent organizing so that they are not fooled by this manipulation, stick to their own program to defeat the austerity agenda and its champions and defend workers' rights.

This is especially important given that a budget will likely be released soon that will once again be used to make it appear as if the working people merely want to negotiate how the austerity agenda will be implemented. The budget may or may not be followed by a general election, but either way the working people are in no mood to be blackmailed into giving up their independent demands for their rights and against austerity.

Legislature Resumes February 18

All Out to Say No! to Anti-Worker Legislation!

The Second Session of the 40th Parliament of the Ontario Legislature is set to resume on February 18. The last session rose on December 12. The last sitting of the legislature was characterized by continued attempts by the governing Liberals and opposition PCs to pass their versions of austerity and anti-worker legislation. Despite the fact that workers and the electorate have repeatedly rejected this direction and that no mandate exists for it, all indications are that both parties will carry on business as usual further exacerbating the legitimacy crisis for the austerity agenda and the party system which does not permit the the public will to be translated into the legal will.

The agenda of the new sitting of the legislature will include debate on several pieces of anti-worker legislation previously introduced by both the governing Liberals and opposition PCs. Of note is that legislation that would impose a new system of provincial bargaining onto teachers and education workers will likely be rushed through the legislature in this session in order to have its powers in place for a new round of negotiations where the government will seek to impose austerity in a new form.

Both parties have also said that they plan to introduce new legislation once the legislature resumes that will target for erosion the wages and pensions of public sector workers. The Liberal government has also been forced to extend its consultations on the Benefits Policy Renewal and Evaluation Initiative which seeks to impose new measures to eliminate the bogus unfunded liability of Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) on the backs of injured workers. In both cases it is clear that the opposition of the working people will be decisive in this sitting to hold both parties to account for their attacks on workers rights.

Ontario Political Forum calls on the working people to keep the momentum on their side by continuing to organize to defeat the anti-social austerity agenda and attacks on workers' rights, no matter what the pretext or the source. From March 21-23, the Liberals will hold their Annual General Meeting at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre Toronto. It will be another opportunity for the working people to oppose the Liberals for their "balanced" version of austerity and anti-worker legislation and to reject the blackmail that they should only be concerned with an "extremist" version represented by Hudak and the PCs.

Status of Anti-Worker Legislation

The legislature will resume with various anti-worker proposals on the agenda which include second reading of the following private members bills introduced by the PCs in 2013:

- Bill 17, An Act to amend the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997 to provide employers with the right to participate in alternate insurance plans;

- Bill 62, An Act to amend the Labour Relations Act, 1995 to increase the rights of members of trade unions with respect to the certification of trade unions;

- Bill 63, An Act to amend the Labour Relations Act, 1995 with respect to the Ontario Labour Relations Board and other matters; and

- Bill 64, An Act to amend the Labour Relations Act, 1995 to protect the rights of employees in collective bargaining and the financial interests of members of trade unions.

The following bills are before the Standing Committee on The Legislative Assembly:

- Bill 5, the Comprehensive Public Sector Compensation Freeze Act, 2013;

- Bill 50, An Act to require the introduction of legislation to allow for pooled registered pension plans, 2013;

- Bill 122, An Act respecting collective bargaining in Ontario's school system, 2013.

Government's "Consensus Report" on Minimum Wage

Fraud Is the Name of the Game

During the Harris years the minimum wage in Ontario was frozen for nine years at $6.85 an hour. The Liberals raised it by 50 per cent between 2004 and 2010 with the promise that it would rise to $11 in 2011. It never took place and the minimum wage has been frozen for four years under the current government. This at the height of fallout from the economic crisis, increasing costs of gasoline and other staples people rely on, increases in the costs of post-secondary education and other user fees of all kinds.

Mass action in Toronto to demand an increase to minimum wage, November 27, 2013. (OFL)

In this context, the Liberal government announced on January 30 an increase to the hourly minimum wage that will take effect on June 1. The rate will go from $10.25 to $11.00 for those that fall under the General Minimum Wage category. The rate for those falling under "Student Minimum Wage" (under the age of 18 who work 28 hours a week or less when school is in session or work during a school break or summer holidays) will go from $9.60 to $10.30. The rate for Liquor Servers (employees who serve liquor directly to customers or guests in licensed premises as a regular part of their work) will go from $8.90 to $9.55 and for Homeworkers (employees who do paid work in their own homes; for example, they may sew clothes for a clothing manufacturer, answer telephone calls for a call centre, or write software for a high-tech company) it goes from $11.28 to $12.10. Hunting and Fishing Guides will see their minimum wage increase but it is not based on an hourly rate ($51.00 to $55.00 for those working less than five consecutive hours in a day, $102. 28 to $110.00 for those working five or more hours in a day, whether or not the hours are consecutive).

The government also announced that it would introduce legislation that "would tie future minimum wage increases to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to ensure the minimum wage keeps up with the cost of living, and that increases are predictable for businesses and families." Many have already pointed out that the CPI does not take into account the specific items which the working poor spend most of their resources on which typically increase at a higher rate than CPI. The government has also announced that there would be a six-month notification for all future raises to the minimum wage. According to the Office of the Premier's statement on the announcement, it is part of the provincial government's commitment to fairness.

Government's Advisory Panel on Minimum Wage

The announcement of the change to the minimum wage and the way it will be increased going forward coincides with the release of recommendations from the Ontario Government's Minimum Wage Advisory Panel established in May 2013. Although the impression given is that the panel would recommend what an appropriate minimum wage would be, something that could be established in a straightforward manner, this was not the case. Instead the panel was only permitted to recommend a method for the minimum wage to increase, but not from what level.

The panel was made up of various "stakeholders." The panel included Anil Verma (Chair), Professor, University of Toronto, Laura D'Amico, Student, Wilfrid Laurier University, Beth Potter, Tourism Industry Association of Ontario, Gary Rygus, Retail Council of Canada, Antoni Shelton, Ontario Federation of Labour and Adam Vasey, Pathway to Potential. Despite its mandate which did not permit it to recommend a definite minimum wage, it carried out consultations, hearing from hundreds of participants, many of whom called for the minimum wage to be raised to at least $14 so as to be above the poverty line.

According to the panel's report, many people that participated in the public consultations expressed concern about this limited mandate. In an interview with Ontario Political Forum, panel member Adam Vasey of Pathway to Potential, indicated that it was also an issue for a majority of the panel members.

Vasey reported that there were presentations from several United Ways, public health organizations, labour groups, mental health organizations, food banks and others who reported the significant problems in their communities where more and more working people are using food banks, mental health caseloads are skyrocketing, and United Way is saying that they can't deal with the pressures.

He said the panel heard from many who said having a livelihood above the poverty level was the most important factor when talking about the minimum wage, and that the issue of indexation was not really ever a controversial issue. He said a "straw person argument" was put forward by a lot of business groups who maintained that "since minimum wage couldn't solve poverty, there should be no talk of using it at all to address working poverty."

Among the broad cross-section of people the panel heard from, Vasey said, were mothers of children with disabilities saying they could not move up working at minimum wage or very low wage jobs in large retail corporations despite working very hard;  [...] "people juggling two and three part-time minimum wage jobs a lot to try and cobble together some semblance of income security that's going to allow them to care for their families. But in those cases, it was heartbreaking. You heard of people saying they don't see their kids, ever. They're out working sixteen-hour days. But that's the sacrifice they recognize they have to make." 

Post-secondary graduates and university students told the panel, "Listen, we're seeing there aren't opportunities for us as graduates, coming out. We have a huge debt load and we're supposed to be recipients of these great opportunities coming out of post-secondary education and it's just not the case."  A person who ran a food bank said more and more working people were coming in, indicating that the system was broken and that "we are basically legislating poverty."

"I don't think enough space was created for the panel to discuss these issues in the way they needed to be discussed--consistently, and to really work them through. I think ultimately it became clear that the Chair was sort of feeling he was under certain constraints as to what the report could reflect and so I think it was a mixture of views from that perspective, from a process perspective." Vasey said.

The final report was issued by the chair on behalf of the panel. It recommended:

Recommendation #1: Minimum wages should be revised annually by a percentage equal to the percent change in the Ontario Consumer Price Index.

Recommendation #2: Minimum wages should be revised annually, and a minimum of four months' notice of any wage change should be provided. The effective date of minimum wage changes should be April 1 of the following year. This would result in notification by December 1 of the previous year.

Recommendation #3: The Government should undertake a full review of the minimum wage rate and the revision process every five years. This review should be conducted by a panel of stakeholders and a neutral chair. The mandate of this Panel would be to review Ontario's past experience with minimum wage revisions within the context of Ontario's social and economic progress and prevailing practices in other jurisdictions to recommend changes that could better serve Ontario's future needs.

Recommendation #4: To aid the full review process, and to ensure that Ontario's minimum wage policies are in step with the needs of its citizens, the Government should establish an ongoing research program for data and information gathering and its subsequent analysis to address policy-relevant minimum wage issues.

Fraudulent "Consensus" Report

The government's Advisory Panel on Minimum Wage is said to have issued a "consensus report " giving the impression that the many consultations gave rise to a consensus in terms of how to raise minimum wage and to what level and that the report reflects this consensus. In his statement on the release of the final report, Labour Minister Yasir Naqvi said: "The panel has delivered a consensus report. We are reviewing its recommendations and will bring our plan forward shortly. This report will guide our efforts to ensure a fair minimum wage for Ontario's workers, improve living standards for the most vulnerable and keep businesses competitive."

This is a fraud as the facts reveal that the final report only contained recommendations upon which there was consensus of the panel, rather than being an actual reflection of a consensus having been reached on the issue of minimum wage. The panel was not permitted to propose a minimum wage based on what it heard, only on a method for its increase. This means that the government obtained a "consensus" on an issue that they were already likely prepared to accept, an increase based on the cost of living, without having to submit in any way to the demands the people articulated in the consultations. If this was all the government wanted to get, why did it hold consultations along with the panel?

The process the government required the panel to follow was not aimed at affirming people's right to a livelihood -- in this case establishing a minimum wage commensurate with what is required in Canada. Instead, to its shame, the government sought to create the illusion of consultation and consensus around an already worked out aim in service of their austerity agenda.

This becomes clear when one considers that the vast majority of people who addressed the panel demanded an increase in minimum wage which would be above the poverty line, an amount that has been established with precision. The subsequent announcement of an increase to $11 linked to yearly increases in the Cost of Living Index means instead that the government has legislated the minimum wage to remain well below the poverty line going forward. To now present the increase and the new method for determining increases as an advance hides the self-serving aim of the whole exercise and the fact that it does not deal with any of the serious problems people raised.

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