Wednesday, February 14, 2018
Last week, AMAPCEO submitted its formal 2018 Ontario Budget recommendations to the government of Ontario.
The union, which represents over 14,000 professional public servants, called on the government to:
- fix the sunshine list by making it anonymous and indexing it to inflation;
- cease privatization initiatives; and
- capitalize on the opportunity to embrace the Community Benefits framework, as outlined in the Long Term Infrastructure Plan.
AMAPCEO also applauded the government for moving forward with important, though still imperfect, changes to the province’s labour and employment legislation.
Earlier this month, Vice-President Cynthia Watt pointed out the government’s increased reliance on precarious work. In a Pre-Budget Consultation with Minister of Finance Charles Sousa, Watt explained that “much of the [precarious work] crisis is of the government’s own making, as we drive more and more towards privatized, low-wage, and temporary jobs.”
Fix the Sunshine List
When the Sunshine List was first introduced in 1996, $100,000 was a figure which captured only senior managers in the OPS. It had just 984 OPS names—approximately 1.4% of the whole OPS staff complement.
The most recent Sunshine List included approximately 21.5% of all OPS staff—an increase of 1,834% over a 20 year period. AMAPCEO has to ask, was the original intent in 1996 to capture employees making $100,000 or was to capture employees making $55,000-$60,000? With inflation unaccounted for, the latter has in fact happened and the very purpose of the list has been defeated.
AMAPCEO President Dave Bulmer pointed out how easy it would be to peg the Sunshine List to inflation. “It just requires a simple regulatory change,” he said. “We’ll even do the math for the government—$100,000 in 1996 dollars is approximately $146,000 today.”
It’d be just as easy to protect employee’s privacy rights by removing their names from the List.
The current practice of listing employees’ names not only serves virtually no public interest but it also represents a significant violation of public servants’ privacy—and puts women in particular at risk. Unfortunately, AMAPCEO knows of at least one instance where a stalker was able to locate a member by way of their being named on the Sunshine List.
Cease privatization initiatives
The recent collapse of private contractor Carillion has again brought the government’s continued reliance on private contractors for public services into focus.
As the Auditor General has pointed out, Carillion, who was hired to provide highway maintenance, is a perfect example of how privatization delivers less for more:
- private contractors used less equipment, resulting in a deterioration of service
- private contractors used less treatment materials, resulting in a deterioration of service
- private contractors patrolled less often, resulting in service failures.
Put simply, the contractors were unable to meet contract requirements.
The end of Carillion’s contract presents an excellent opportunity to move highway maintenance back in-house, Bulmer noted. “And if this government is truly committed to evidence-based policy, they will protect precious public dollars by stopping the privatization agenda.”
Capitalize on the opportunity to embrace the Community Benefits Framework
Community Benefits Agreements are a formal mechanism to incorporate public benefit into infrastructure development, with a particular focus on community economic development and apprenticeship opportunities for historically disadvantaged and equity-seeking groups.
The Premier has been a vocal advocate for the community benefits model, and AMAPCEO encourages the government to follow through on this commitment.
AMAPCEO believes there’s an exciting opportunity to do so through the reconstruction of Macdonald Block, also known as the Queen’s Park Reconstruction Project. This six-year, $300 million project to rebuild the seat of government could showcase how community benefits agreements can be incorporated into government infrastructure projects.