Manitoba provincial budget: no grounds for celebration, says PIPSC

OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - April 12, 2017) - Yesterday's provincial budget will do little to address the sustainability of Manitoba's public sector, according to the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC).

"This budget is no grounds for celebration," said PIPSC President Debi Daviau. " The small increase in spending on health care and education barely accounts for inflation. And public-private partnerships are just another form of contracting out, which could mean a loss of thousands of jobs in Manitoba."

A pillar of the Government's expenditure restraint strategy, The Public-Sector Sustainability Act remains a bigger concern to Institute members in the province. Tabled in March, it imposes a two-year wage freeze and two additional years of increases below inflation. "The Government is bypassing the collective bargaining process to meet its fiscal objectives and that is a serious problem", said Daviau.

PIPSC represents some 55,000 professionals across Canada's public sector, including approximately 340 engineers and health-care professionals employed by the Government of Manitoba.

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