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October 3, 2011 - No. 6
40th Ontario General Election
The Provincial Government and Municipal
Services and Social Programs -- A Central Election Issue
- David Greig -
 
• The
Provincial Government and Municipal Services and Social Programs -- A
Central Election Issue - David Greig
• Defence of
Toronto Transit Workers -- Also An Election Issue -
Pierre Chénier
• The Concerns of TTC Workers -
Interview, Bob Kinnear, President, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113
40th Ontario General Election
The Provincial Government and Municipal Services and
Social Programs -- A Central Election Issue
- David Greig -
The final responsibility under the existing arrangements
for
provision of many public services and social programs lies with the
municipal governments of Ontario's cities, towns and rural areas. Many
of these municipalities find themselves in varying degrees of financial
difficulty, a situation that provides a pretext for the neoliberal
drive to privatize what has remained public to date
and eliminate programs, services and jobs. The most notorious case of
this at the present time is the city wrecking agenda of the current
Toronto executive.
Ontario's municipalities are closely governed by the
provincial government with respect to what they must do and can do and
how they can raise
revenue. With respect to the latter, their main source continues to be
property taxation, with user fees and some provincial funding making
up most of the remainder. In recent
years some changes have allowed, at least in Toronto's case, the
creation of a
municipal vehicle registration fee (now cancelled) and land transfer
tax (slated for elimination).
As the anti-social offensive escalated under the
Conservative Harris
and Eves regimes after 1995, important provincial (and federal)
responsibilities like the provision of low cost public housing, were
downloaded to municipalities without dealing with the
costs. While some adjustments have been made recently, this aggravation
of the municipal situation has remained
largely unresolved. Keeping the existing arrangements together with
changes like the downloading makes sense for the neoliberals in power
and the monopoly interests they serve: the burden of financing the
municipalities and the lack or
loss of programs, services and jobs falls even more heavily upon the
poor and vulnerable, middle strata and the public and private sector
workers who create the wealth.
The status quo of these arrangements and the direction
in which they
are evolving fly in the face of the modern concept that, by virtue of
being human, people have a right to social services and programs,
shelter, health services and cultural amenities at Canadian standards.
Instead, the rights of the very rich and
their monopolies, based on the wealth and power they possess are being
enforced.
 Instead of these services
being guaranteed as a responsibility of
all levels of government, and the financing of them placed ahead of the
claims of the very rich upon the wealth of society produced by workers,
they end up limited by the circumstances of local municipalities and
the existing provincial constraints
upon them. Does a municipality have a deficit or surplus? Does it have
a rich tax base or not? Are its executives anti-social warriors bent on
destroying services and programs? How vulnerable is the municipality to
the pressures from monopoly interests and how willing is it to resist
them? In other words, rather than
being affirmed, the rights of the people and responsibility for their
well-being are left hanging in the air and, to a growing extent,
denied,
degraded or threatened.
The situation of Ontario's municipalities and of their
residents and
the relationship of the provincial government to them -- the existing
arrangements -- are indeed an election issue. The Ontario government
and
all levels of government have responsibility for the security and
well-being of the people and whatever government
is formed on October 6 must fulfil and be held accountable for that
responsibility. What it does in relation to Ontario's municipalities is
an important part of that responsibility.
40th Ontario General Election
Defence of Toronto Transit Workers
-- Also An Election Issue
- Pierre Chénier -
 Public transit workers in
Toronto are under extreme
pressure from the anti-worker, anti-social offensive of the governments
of the rich.
In March 2011, the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) was
declared an "essential
service" when the Ontario Legislature passed the TTC Labour
Disputes Resolution Act (Bill 150) at
the request of the Ford administration in Toronto. It is now illegal
for the TTC workers to withdraw their labour to defend their working
conditions. With the legislation,
the political authorities declared that good faith bargaining with
these workers has been killed once and for all. Now that transit
workers are bound with compulsory
arbitration, politicians of the rich are calling for "fixing" Ontario's
arbitration system so it is even more stacked against workers.
The TTC workers have been put in this situation where
their struggle is being criminalized while their working conditions are
attacked under the hoax of eliminating
wasteful spending.
At the same time that public transit has been declared
an
essential service, the workers who provide this service are being
declared redundant and even part of the "gravy
train" that the Ford municipal administration has pledged to stop. This
month the TTC announced layoffs of 250 salaried employees and
the elimination of 130 unionized
positions as part of the Ford administration cuts. A new round of
contracting out is also being considered.
To enable these job cuts, a smaller number of streetcars
and buses will
operate on fewer routes, at a time when ridership is at record levels.
The result will be the deterioration of services
and reduced safety for transit workers and passengers. Even Wheel-Trans
service is being considered for cuts on the basis that some people who
use the system are a
"liability" not covered by provincial funding. For example, trips for
dialysis by people on artificial kidneys aren't covered by provincial
Wheel
Trans grants.
Just how far the anti-social offensive has gone in
de-humanizing society was revealed in the comments made to the media by
TTC Board
Chair Karen Stinz about
cutting off dialysis patients from the Wheel Trans service.
"We're working very hard with not just the provincial
government but with the Kidney Foundation to find ways that we can
continue to service dialysis patients." Stinz
said, but if funding isn't found, "that's a decision we'll have to
wrestle with in December." Dialysis patients may be cut off as a "cost"
that has
been eliminated for the greater glory of the budget.
An
atmosphere of complete hysteria has been created
around the figure being put forward as the budgetary deficit of the
City/TTC and around declarations that it is illegal for the City/TTC to
not balance the budget. TTC workers and the service they provide are
being
submitted to the dictate of the "projected budgetary shortfall." Under
this dictate, any notion that workers have rights
or that governments have the obligation to provide public services at
the highest standards are thrown out the
window.
The budget issues of the City and the TTC are being
considered by the people in authority without demanding at the very
least that provincial funding for the TTC
that was eliminated be re-established, the workers' Union points out.
The TTC operating costs not
covered by fares were in the past split 50/50 by the City and the
Ontario government. In 1991, for
example, the City contributed $104 million and the province $101
million to the operating costs. The government of Mike Harris
eliminated this funding by the provincial
government in 1997 and it has never been restored. Twenty years later,
the operating costs have more than doubled, leaving the City on the
hook for more than $400
million in operating costs not covered by fares.
TTC workers are demanding that TTC management and
the City join them in demanding the restoration of funding but in
vain. The Ford administration is part
of the neo-liberal forces that advocate that governments at all levels
withdraw from providing public services in order to free massive
amounts of money for the rich and to open new markets for their private
investments. Mayor Ford is now famous for saying that "Toronto does not
have a revenue problem; Toronto has a spending problem."
Restoring the provincial contribution should be the
minimum the City administration demands from the Ontario government. As
well, it should demand stable capital
funding from the provincial and federal governments rather than the
current chaotic "project funding," which is wrecking the system by
leaving long-term capital maintenance
costs unfunded. This wrecking puts more costs in the operating
budget for day-to-day maintenance to keep everything from falling
apart.
The scenario being played out against TTC workers has
been seen by other sections of the working class such as the
postal and railway workers. Services are
attacked to the point of collapse, the struggle of workers to defend
their working conditions and the services they deliver is criminalized.
The deterioration of the service
the wreckers have brought about then becomes a justification for
privatization as the only alternative for "saving the system."
In this election, the crucial issue is to provide a new
direction for Ontario. The right of the TTC workers to wages and
working conditions commensurate with the services they provide,
including their right to defend these by
withdrawing their labour power, would be recognized if the people
fought for governments that recognize the necessity to provide rights
with a guarantee. So long as matters of fundamental right are
considered "policy choices," then the politicians who come to power
impose their policy choices and that is that. It is considered a
democratic right of the decision-makers who are said to have a mandate.
But why are matters of fundamental right left up to politicians elected
in a manner such that nobody can exercise control over them once
elected and
why are the people affected by the decisions not the decision-makers?
This is the issue. Matters of right cannot be arbitrarily determined by
politicians who represent vested interests, no matter how good they or
those who elected them may think these vested interests are.
The legislation declaring TTC workers an "essential service" so that
they cannot exercise their right to strike clearly shows that working
people have to solve the problem of how to get political
authorities to uphold good faith bargaining with them as well as with
all public
service workers. In this day and age we cannot make it debatable
whether or not there should be good faith bargaining. The workers are
an important part of establishing the wages and working conditions they
require. It is not acceptable to make them targets of law and order
campaigns when they uphold the dignity of labour.
Ontarians are faced with the necessity to work out the demands which
should be put to whatever government is elected on
October 6, including the need to re-establish provincial funding of the
TTC. The
current wave of attacks by
the TTC authorities on transit workers and services must also be
withdrawn. In all Ontario cities public service workers must be treated
with respect.
The Concerns of TTC Workers
- Interview, Bob Kinnear, President,
Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113 -
 TML: The Ford
administration says that the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC)
workers are part of the gravy train that has to be stopped in the City
of Toronto. The monopoly media echo this campaign, presenting TTC
workers as loafers who are
abusing taxpayers' money. How do your workers react to this campaign?
Bob Kinnear: They are obviously not
pleased with that assertion by the Mayor. They feel that this lack of
recognition of the importance of the
services they provide and how we provide them in challenging times
is very demoralizing. Our members are disheartened considering also,
and the Mayor should know
this, that we have been living year to year for the last decade and a
half since the provincial government withdrew the operating funding.
For us to have been able to survive
for the last 15 years is a reflection of the diligence of our workers
and the commitment they have to delivering public transit. They are
disheartened that the service they
provide is being minimized and discredited as being not important.
The other thing that is very frustrating for our
members is the fact that this same individual a year ago talked about
the importance of public transit as an essential
service to the City and said that the City could not do without it.
Well suddenly the service actually is not essential any more. It is
only essential when it comes to taking
away workers' rights. When it comes to providing the service suddenly
it is not essential and they can reduce it.
We believe that possibly the objective of Mayor Ford
may be to completely discredit the TTC. We already know that there is
dissatisfaction with the TTC because
of the lack of services, overcrowding and some other things we are
facing. If Mayor Ford compounds that dissatisfaction with the transit
that may enable them to achieve
their objective and contract out the entire system. That is
something they want to achieve. I don't know if it will get to that
point because the people in Toronto recognize
the importance of having their city representatives responsible for
public transit rather than this unknown quantity whatever contractor it
is, who are not accountable to the
people of Toronto. The Mayor's Office, they believe that they can
discredit the TTC even more with service reductions so that people will
look for alternatives.
TML: The TTC management announced a
new round of cutbacks in September. What are they and what is going to
be their impact?
BK: One of the proposals is they want to
eliminate some of our maintenance jobs. They are not planning on having
any layoffs. In fact they cannot
have layoffs because we have a provision in the contract that
stipulates that there can't be layoffs as a result of contracting out.
They cannot do both. They are not planning
to layoff any hourly rated (workers) at this time because as soon as
they layoff
hourly rated (workers) that restricts them from contracting out. What
they are
doing is they are slowing down
the hiring and not bringing new people in so when they do contract out
the work they can absorb whatever employees are in that classification.
What they are planning on doing, at least it is the
suggestion they have made to us at this point, is that through
attrition they will begin to reduce the workforce and
the service that transit provides. In other words janitors, cleaners,
is one area that they are focusing in on. They have proposed that they
want to contract out that work.
There is no doubt that their intent is to contract out
as many jobs as they can. The big concern with that is that we have an
integrated system. We have a system
of procedures and policies that all employees are trained on. If there
is an incident in the subway, our cleaners are thoroughly trained on
what the process is to communicate
those issues -- an emergency, for example, where someone falls onto
track level. Not only are they trained on how to communicate that to
the appropriate authority through
transit control but we are all trained on the electricity running
through the subway system, how to cut power and all those things. We
are very concerned that if a private
contractor is brought in, and we know a private contractor is going to
pay these cleaners $11-12 an hour, they are not going to have the
capability to ensure that we have
a safe system and we maintain a safe system. There is going to be that
disconnect because we are going to have people working in the system
that are not actually TTC
employees and they won't be trained properly to make sure that the
proper responses are made.
On Monday, September 19, approximately 250 notices were
served to eliminate positions that are mostly middle management jobs.
TML: For a long time now you have raised
the issue of the funding of the system and you are doing it again in
the context of the Ontario provincial election.
BK: The problem with the funding is that
nowhere in North America is the city or the municipality responsible to
subsidize all the operating costs.
There is always a higher level of government that helps offset the
operating costs. Only in the city of Toronto is it the city that is
responsible for any deficiencies
in the operating costs.
The funding changed in 1997. Up till 1997, whether it
was a Liberal, a NDP or a Conservative government, they all absorbed
50 per cent of the operating costs. The
operating subsidies being currently allocated to the TTC are about $400
million a year. In the past the province would always kick in 50 per
cent, which
is about $200 million a
year.
Andrea Horwath of the NDP has already committed to
restore that. What is so perplexing to us, and should be for the city
also, is why is Mayor Ford not
acknowledging that commitment that could alleviate $200 million in
shortfalls that we are currently seeing. He is not acknowledging that
because Andrea Horwath and the
NDP do not fit his political alliances. We are saying that Mayor Ford
needs to do what is in the
interest of the city of Toronto and the people he represents not his
political alliances and his political preferences.
We are demanding that whichever government is elected
on October 6 restores the 50 per cent cost sharing on the operating
costs.
TML: Is the federal government providing
regular funding to the TTC?
BK: No. The federal government
periodically will kick in some money for capital expenditures, for
expansions, for example. But there is no set
formula that they have to commit a definite number. Periodically they
jump in.
TML: What would you like to say in
conclusion?
BK: The workers have to stand up and
make these elected officials recognize the importance of the services
that we provide not only to our city
but to our province and our country. We cannot continue to allow
corporate Canada and the Conservative right-wingers to minimize the
importance of the services and lay
any financial burden they have on us. Look at the financial
institutions. Three years ago they were in chaos needing billions of
dollars to bail them out and now they are
back to making record profits but yet the focus is turned on the little
guy and the individual who has got a pension and somehow we cannot
afford that pension any more. Corporate Canada can still make record
profits and put millions of dollars in bonuses into CEOs pockets and at
the same time they are focusing on the average working
guy that may have a pension. We need to stand up and rally against that.
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