[LabComm] NDP Opposition Bulletin: NDP holds Campbell government to account on health privatization legislation

[BC NDP NEWSWIRE]

Late yesterday, the Campbell government tabled legislation forcing privatization and wage and job cuts on workers in the health care system. The BC NDP Opposition forced the Campbell government to answer for its decision to deliberately provoke confrontation with health care workers. 

In an all-night session of the Legislature, NDP House Leader Joy MacPhail and MLA Jenny Kwan held the government to account for its legislative attack on health care and working people until six o’clock Thursday morning.

During the all-night debate, MacPhail and Kwan hammered the government on what MacPhail called the most draconian piece of legislation the province has seen in a generation. “This bill green-lights massive privatization of our health care system to an unprecedented level in British Columbia,” she said. “This bill is just a massive attack on working people, because this government doesn't have the guts to negotiate in good faith.

“They’re stealing $200 million out of working people's pockets — the very working people who deliver patient care. Day in and day out, they deliver patient care — women, visible minorities, people who perform dangerous work. They support their families on these jobs. This government – in the middle of the night – is ramming through a bill to attack them — not to support patient care. This government doesn't give a whit about patient care, and their three years of failed health care policies prove that.”

Kwan said it’s hypocritical of the government to have quietly raised the salaries of Liberal MLAs while attacking the wages and jobs of health care workers. “The Liberal government quietly changed the rules so that the largest cabinet in the history of British Columbia can collect what they call a “capital city allowance” without the public knowing that their wages have been increased,” said Kwan. “While they increased their own wages, they are now, under Bill 37, cutting the wages of the lowest-paid workers in the health care system by 15 percent.”

Commenting after the Legislation was passed, NDP leader Carole James said the Campbell government deliberately chose to take the path of confrontation in another dispute involving our health care system.

“This is hardly surprising to anyone given that the government’s clear objective from the very beginning has been to privatize public health care in British Columbia,” she said. “Mr. Campbell had the option to take a responsible position in this dispute. He could have called for a halt to privatization in health care for a reasonable period during negotiations so both parties could get back to the table and find the grounds for an agreement.

“But the government chose instead to play games. It has deliberately fanned the flames in this dispute, and now the province finds itself facing another crisis that could easily have been avoided if the government had just acted responsibly.”

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