Madam Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to rise on behalf of the PSAC workers, especially the blue collar workers of Nova Scotia and those across the country. Probably one of the most discriminatory policies of this current government is its policy on regional rates of pay.
In 1993 the Liberal government stated “The time to end regional rates is now and if elected we will eliminate that”. The government is now six years into its mandate and the President of the Treasury Board stated that he thinks regional rates of pay is a good policy.
I would like to read a card that was written in 1995:
In the opinion of this House, the government should seriously consider abolishing regional rates of pay now enforced for certain federal government employees, in accordance with its stated policy of pay equity.
That was from a formal Liberal member of parliament, Ronald MacDonald.
The current member of the House from Kenora—Rainy River stated:
The motion is a very good one and should be supported by the government and all members opposite to give people work and pay based on their abilities, their seniority and their classifications, not on where they live.
The key part of that statement is “not on where they live”. In the previous House that member was the parliamentary secretary to the minister of human resources.
No truer words have ever been spoken. The only problem is that the government has completely ignored them.
I quote the Ottawa Citizen from March 2:
The Liberal government seems intent on “breaking the back” of its unions with “hardball” labour policies that have left rank and file public servants underpaid, demoralized and facing poor working conditions, says the chairman of the Senate finance committee.
Terrance Stratton, who headed the committee's year long investigation into the brain drain in the public service, warns that the government's hardline position on capping salary increases at two per cent a year will accelerate the flight of experienced talent to the private sector. It does not help matters that, at the same time, senior executives [of the government] got raises of up to 20 per cent, plus bonuses.
Gilles Paquet, director of the centre of governance at the University of Ottawa, stated that the committee's report underscores that the Liberal government has no agenda for its public service other than the one driven by the finance department to cut costs and save money: “The government doesn't give me the feeling that it respects the public service. It ended the notion of a career public servant and then turned around and asked them for more and more loyalty. Give them less and less money and more and more work. It just doesn't add up”.
Again, no finer words have been spoken in such a long time when it comes to the issue of pay equity, regional rates of pay and the quality of life and work for our federal public service, especially the blue collar ones.
The fact is regional rates of pay are discriminatory. Just because you live in Halifax does not mean you should be paid less than if you live in Vancouver. Ninety-seven per cent of all public servants in this country, RCMP, military, members of parliament, all get paid the same base salary no matter where they live, whether it is Whitehorse, Inuvik, Vancouver or Sheet Harbour in Halifax. It does not matter, they get paid the same except when it comes to the lowest paid workers of the public service, the blue collar workers, the warehousemen, the electricians, the plumbers. It is an absolutely discriminatory policy.
It just does not fly for the Treasury Board president to say that it is because of provincial legislation and provincial responsibilities that he does not want to end regional rates of pay.