[mobglob-discuss] Ontario Liberal budget continues assault on workers

Wed Jun 23 16:35:53 PDT 2004

Ontario Liberal budget continues assault on workers

By Camilo Cahis

Seven months ago, Ontario voters were promised the moon by the Liberal Party
of Ontario. Dalton McGuinty and the Liberals vowed to end the attacks that
marked nine years of Tory rule. Indeed, the entire Liberal campaign focused
on the slogan of "Choose Change." Sadly, the Liberals' new budget shows that
there has been no change in Ontario, and that McGunity and his cronies are
intent on continuing the assault on Ontario's working class.

During the election campaign, McGuinty emphasized how the Liberals were
going to govern differently than the Tories. McGuinty promised to improve
working conditions in the province, particularly for non-unionized workers
who are "protected" by Ontario's draconian Employment Standards Act. He
promised to finally raise Ontario's minimum wage (which had remained
stagnant at $6.85 per hour since 1995), as well as eliminate legislation
that allowed capitalists to force workers to work as much as 60 hours per
week. He also promised to treat teachers and other public employees "with
respect," and to end attacks on unions, which had been a hallmark of the
Mike Harris/Ernie Eves years. In addition to all of this, the Liberals
promised to improve public transit, build more social housing, make
post-secondary education more affordable, protect public Medicare in
Ontario, end the privatization of government services, etc., etc., etc. In
other words, they promised workers everything that they could hope for.

However, Canadian Marxists are very much aware that the Liberal Party has
never been a champion of the working class. Instead, the Liberals are the
darlings of the capitalist class. It is no different with McGuinty's
Liberals. Just when it appeared that the Ontario Liberals might be leaning
towards the left too much, McGuinty signed a pledge with the Canadian
Taxpayers' Federation. (Contrary to their name, the CTF mainly represents
the interests of corporations.) In this pledge, McGuinty promised not to
raise taxes (especially corporate taxes) and he promised not to run a
deficit.

Lo and behold, the Liberals were "surprised" to learn that they had somehow
inherited a $5.6 billion deficit from the Tories. (This number somehow
increased to $6.2 billion in the budget.) During the entire provincial
election campaign, the Liberals had supposedly based their promises on the
assumption that the Ontario Tories had carried a balanced budget, although
even the NDP knew that Ernie Eves was carrying a massive government deficit.
Suddenly after the election, McGuinty was telling voters that "painful
decisions" were going to have to be made and that many of his promises would
not be kept.

Workers flocked towards the Liberals because they promised to be the
opposite of the Tories. Whereas the Tories had rewarded the bourgeoisie in
Ontario with massive tax cuts, loans, subsidies, "consulting" contracts,
etc., the Liberals were promising to ease the lives of Ontario workers. The
reality is completely different. McGuinty and the Liberals are attacking the
working class to a GREATER degree than the Tories did!

The main low-light of the Liberals' budget is the implementation of medical
premiums (prior to this, only Alberta and British Columbia charged medical
premiums). Instead of raising the health-care tax that is paid by employers,
the Liberals decided to place a greater burden on workers. What is offending
Ontario workers even more is who is being affected by the new premium most.

Unlike income tax, the new medical premiums are actually a regressive tax.
In other words, a poor person has to pay a greater percentage of their
income than a wealthy person does. For example, someone earning $36,600 per
year will be forced to pay $450 in medicare premiums (which works out to
1.23% of their annual income). On the other hand, someone making $200,600
per year or more will only have to pay $900 per year (or 0.45% of their
annual income). Furthermore, each working person in a household has to
deduct this premium from their individual income earned. Thus, two working
parents, each earning around $36,000 per year, will pay greater health care
costs than the CEO of a large corporation! (Figures are based on numbers
published in the Toronto Star.)

McGuinty and his finance minister, Greg Sorbara, are also trying to reassure
people that the Ontario government cares for poor people, so it is exempting
anyone earning less than $20,000 from the health care tax. $20,000? Has
McGuinty or any other Liberal crony attempted to live on $20,000 in Toronto?

The medical premium is not the only attack on working people. To cut costs,
McGuinty and Sorbara have decided to de-list several procedures that have
been covered under the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP). Beginning in
September, OHIP will no longer pay for eye exams, chiropractic care, or
physiotherapy. The latter two are especially important for workers that may
be injured on the job. Now, the Ontario government is punishing them for
working for a living! Many working class people will no longer have the
ability to take proper care of themselves because it will be too expensive
to do so.

Unfortunately, the bad news does not end there. The budget is also
increasing a number of user fees that directly impact workers. (For example,
the cost of receiving or renewing a driver's licence is going to increase by
50%.) Although the Liberals finally froze post-secondary tuition fees in
Ontario, they remain the second highest in Canada. Also, the freeze only
extends until 2006 and the Liberals have been very quiet on what will happen
to tuition fees after this date.

The Liberals have attempted to portray themselves as the friends of the
working class, and that they have had to resort to these measures because of
the "evil" Tories. They claim that unlike the Tories, they have raised the
minimum wage in Ontario (by a paltry 30 cents per hour, the first increase
in a decade), they have raised welfare rates by up to 3% (they're still 30%
lower than what they were in 1995, and this doesn't include inflation), and
they have frozen post-secondary tuition fees (they're still the second
highest in Canada).

However, McGuinty and co. continue the Tory tradition of finding new and
inventive ways of punishing workers. As mentioned before, they have
introduced the highly regressive (even by capitalist standards!) health
premium. Also, McGuinty had floated two other schemes that, thankfully, were
shot down by public outrage. McGuinty had mused about the possibility of
introducing Dalton Days, where public employees would be forced to take
unpaid "vacations." As anyone in Ontario remembers, NDP premier Bob Rae was
booted from office thanks because of the anger that resulted from Rae Days.
In addition, the Liberals had been intent on introducing a so-called Fat Tax
that would have eliminated the PST exemption on restaurant meals under $4.
The supposed rationale behind this was to convince people to eat healthier
by making fast food more expensive. However, the working poor correctly saw
this as another attempt to attack the living standards of the working class.
When someone is forced to work two part-time jobs to make ends meet, they
don't always have time (or the money) to prepare a home-cooked meal and
often have to resort to cheap fast food. By taxing these meals, working
people would have even less take-home pay and a further decrease in their
standards of living.

The Liberals have made sure that things are going to get a lot worse before
they get better for Ontario workers. Already, several media commentators are
predicting a great deal of unrest between the government and public sector
workers, including mass layoffs and pay cuts (Michael Hlincka, CBC Toronto,
http://toronto.cbc.ca/features/on_budget_2004/analysis.html). However, these
attacks are serving to increase opposition. The Ontario working class is
ready to fight! As mentioned, the McGuinty government had been fully ready
to implement Dalton Days and the Fat Tax, but it was the working class'
outrage that frightened the government off. The provincial election was also
another example of how Ontario workers have had enough with capitalist
attacks on them.

There can be no compromise with the Liberals or the Conservatives. They may
pretend to represent the best interests of the working class, but this is a
lie. These bourgeois parties represent the interests of Canada Steamship
Lines, Magna, and Bay Street. These interests are not the same as those of
workers. Capitalists aim to exploit labour to its fullest extent. (This is
one of the first lessons in Economics 101.) It is the capitalist system
itself that forces the bosses to slash and cut back. It is utopian to
believe that these attacks will end while capitalism remains. There is no
such thing as "friendly" capitalism and the movement must adopt a program
that reflects this. As evidenced in Ontario, workers are ready to fight!

June 2004

http://www.marxist.com/canada/ontario_liberal_budget04.html

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