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Inform Your Vote
AMAPCEO members are integral to Ontario’s high-quality public services. They go above and beyond every day, but especially over the rocky course of these last two years. To get Ontario through the pandemic and on the road back to prosperity, to the province must invest in its public services and do right by the professionals who deliver them.
AMAPCEO has written to all of the major parties, asking them for their positions on four of our top issues this election. While non-partisan, we ask our members to carefully consider which candidate in their riding will value and defend public services.
Click the issue below to see our question and each party's response, as we receive them.
Bill 124
The last two years in Ontario politics have been without precedent. Although the pandemic has made this time incredibly difficult for many Ontarians, there are many signs that better days lie ahead. As we turn our attention to the future, AMAPCEO’s priorities for the next government focus on a just recovery.
For AMAPCEO, a just recovery includes the repeal of the unconstitutional Bill 124, which limits the rights of public servants to free and fair collective bargaining. More than a million public sector workers are affected by this legislation, including AMAPCEO members in the Ontario Public Service and in the broader public sector. At a time when inflation is rising rapidly, at rates not seen in decades, the short-sightedness and unfairness of this unconstitutional legislation has been laid bare.
Question 1: Will your party commit to repealing Bill 124 and reinstituting free and fair collective bargaining for Ontario’s public servants?
New Democratic Party (NDP): "Yes, we’ll immediately scrap the wage suppressing and anti-worker Bill 124 and bring back a fair and respectful bargaining process."
Liberal Party: "The Ontario Liberal Party has been steadfast against Bill 124. The Ford Conservatives’ legislation unfairly targets some groups of public servants while others were not impacted. Once we repeal Bill 124, we will have free and fair collective bargaining in all sectors, including with Ontario’s hardworking public servants."
Stop outsourcing
A just recovery means valuing our public services. That starts with the elimination of wage-capping legislation. It also means ending the Ontario government’s over-reliance on outsourcing.
AMAPCEO’s members proudly provide the government and its agencies with non-partisan, impartial, professional advice. However, the government continues to outsource key public services, including (but not limited to) IT. This costly outsourcing of public service work to private interests stifles the growth of a knowledge base in the public service, while lining the pockets of private firms at significant taxpayer expense. Simply put: outsourcing costs more and results in a poorer outcome.
Question 2: Will your party commit to ending the costly practice of hiring private consultants to perform public service work?
NDP: "As New Democrats we believe in strong public services. That’s why we’ve committed to reverse the disastrous privatisation of Long-Term Care; expand public childcare; reverse Liberal and the Ford government’s creeping privatisation of health services; reverse the costly and secretive contracting out of employment services; bring northern winter road maintenance back in house, and work to eliminate costly and wasteful P3 contracts."
Liberals: "An Ontario Liberal government will be committed to ensuring value for money in the provision of public services. We fully understand and strongly support the need to develop OPS talent and capacity to deliver the services that the Ontario public values. We will ensure that full consideration is given to fully utilizing in-house OPS talent in the provision of those services. There may be rare instances when there may be a need to engage outside experts, but that should not replace the need to build up and support valuable OPS skills and knowledge."
End the hiring freeze in the Ontario public service
Over the last two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the importance of a competent and well-staffed public service. While health care has been in the forefront, the importance of critical public service roles extends well beyond. AMAPCEO members have worked tirelessly to meet the evolving and rapidly changing needs of the many ministries they serve. The professionalism of AMAPCEO’s members has shone through. Not only are good public services—planned and delivered by a strong public service—necessary to bridge the gap in the event of an emergency but they are also necessary ingredients in the recipe for Ontario’s economic growth.
Despite this, Ontario’s public service is, per capita, the smallest in Canada. Valuing public services means investing in them.
As part of this investment, Ontario must end the Ontario Public Service hiring freeze, which has been in place since 2018.
Question 3: Will your party commit to ending the Ontario Public Service hiring freeze?
NDP: "We’ve committed to hire 30,000 more nurses, hire 300 more doctors in the north, hire 20,000 teachers and education workers. We know that in order to deliver great public services you need the hard-working public sector workers and servants to deliver them."
Liberals: "The Ontario Liberal Party believes that a professional, dynamic and non-partisan public service is key to delivering on the key priorities that Ontarians demand of their government. All organizations, including the OPS, need to be refreshed with new ideas that recruiting a diverse group of new employees brings. We do not believe that an artificial hiring freeze, especially one that has been in place since 2018, is conducive to maintaining and developing a modern and diverse OPS. The freeze will be lifted under an Ontario Liberal government."
The future of work
From the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, AMAPCEO members continued to provide crucial public services to Ontarians. Whether working remotely or continuing to staff vital government facilities in-person; whether adapting existing programs and policies or devising new ones to deal with the pandemic emergency; whether working as policy professionals in the Ontario Public Service or working on the front lines against COVID-19 in agencies such as Public Health Ontario and Ontario Health—AMAPCEO members have consistently provided work of tremendous value for the people of Ontario.
Coming out of the pandemic, equitable access to remote work is a priority for our members across our diverse bargaining units. The next Government of Ontario will shape the future of a province. This is an opportunity to make Ontario a world leader in the development of the future of work.
As workers in the public and private sectors return to their workplaces, securing the flexibility and fairness of remote work can be an important building block for Ontario. Thousands of AMAPCEO members who were able to do so worked remotely since early 2020. The switch to remote work was successful in large part due to the professionalism of AMAPCEO members, and that same professionalism can be relied on if the next government works with AMAPCEO to inject flexibility into how remote work becomes a feature of the OPS rather than a response to emergency.
The benefits would be substantial, including lower costs by reducing leased office space, decreased pressures on overtaxed public transit infrastructure, and greater opportunities for talented Ontarians across the province to take advantage of opportunities in the OPS, regardless of where they live.
Question 4: Will your party commit to making Ontario a world leader in providing its employees with an equitable hybrid work model?
NDP: "The pandemic showed all of us – too often at great cost – that we needed to adapt and re-think old ways of doing things – that business as usual was over. Andrea Horwath frequently called on those that could stay home, or work remotely, to please do so – and for businesses and institutions to show flexibility during the worst of the crisis.
We have policies that support informal care givers; create portable benefits for self-employed, contract and gig economy workers; support workplace gender equity policies that recognize the imbalance between waged and unwaged labour work for workers. We’ve also committed to a four-day work week pilot. An NDP government would consult with public sector workers and professionals on the best ways to provide the services Ontarians depend on."
Liberals: "The last two years of the COVID-19 has required all organizations, including the OPS, to put in place alternative work approaches. Many organizations are embracing the flexibility and innovation that comes with operating in a hybrid way going forward. We understand the need to have measures that would improve work-life balance and boost quality of life. That is why we have proposed to launch a four-day work week pilot with businesses and labour groups of all types. An Ontario Liberal government will be open to developing a hybrid work model for government employees that balances all aspects of work."
Vote
Election day is Thursday, June 2, 2022. Polls are open 9 am to 9 pm ET.
You can also vote in advance by special ballot, at your local returning office, or in one of the advance polls. For more information, check your Voter Information Card, or visit elections.on.ca.
About AMAPCEO
Established in 1992, AMAPCEO is the union of choice for more than 15,000 Ontario public servants. AMAPCEO represents professionals in the Ontario Public Service and throughout the broader public sector. We provide our members outstanding representation, protect their rights, defend Ontario’s public services, and advocate for better working conditions for all Ontarians.