This week, New Brunswick’s Finance Minister Cathy Rogers tabled her $9.6 billion budget, which contained much needed investments in healthcare, education and community care.
“This is not an austerity budget, it is a normal electoral year budget. Minister Rogers said, ‘you have to spend money to make money’, and I agree. Our sluggish provincial economy needs a stimulus, and the best way to do so is through investments in key public-sector services like childcare, education and health,” said Daniel Légère, President of CUPE NB.
The Health Department budget was increased by 3.7 per cent to $2.75 billion. Spending for Education and Early Childhood Development is at $1.26 billion — up 6.1 per cent. A notable increase was made in community care services, with $12 million in special care home employees’ and home support workers’ salaries.
“The entire $12 million should go to raise front line wages in home care and community care services. The women working in this sector deserve much more, but this is encouraging. I challenge the government to immediately adjust the wages of all workers in community care beyond the symbolic $15 an hour,” said Légère.
“As Health and Education Departments have seen their budgets go up beyond inflation, I hope workers will obtain increases in wages. It’s time we had real wage increases, because most workers’ pay has not followed cost of living increases of the last 10 years,” concluded Légère.
Disclaimer: All third-party opinions expressed via IASWI accounts linked to and from this page are those of the individuals concerned and do not necessarily represent those of IASWI or its affiliates. No copyright infringement is intended nor implied. To discuss this disclaimer or the removal of appropriate credit for materials of which you hold copyright please contact us. All the third party videos and contents found on workers-iran.org is not hosted on our servers; all third party videos or contents are hosted on a third party site. The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the various authors and news sources on the www.workers-iran.org do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the IASWI or official policies of the IASWI. These posts are only generated for the purpose of information sharing on the labour related issues.