Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Regina
Another Brad Wall election promise was broken today as the Sask Party government used its
majority to force through legislation to enable privatization of Crown corporations.
“Bill 40 has one goal: to make it easier to sell off our Crown corporations,” said Joie Warnock, Unifor
Western Region Director. “Privatization of any fraction of Crown corporations is a betrayal of what Brad
Wall told voters in 2016.”
Warnock is referring to a promise made by Brad Wall last year during the provincial election.
On March 15, 2016 the Premier swore that no amendments would be made to the Crown Corporations Protection
Act, yet that is exactly what Bill 40 does.
“Privatizing Crown corporations has failed Manitobans and cost the government hundreds of millions of
dollars in revenue that’s desperately needed right now,” said Warnock. The share sell-off of the
Manitoba Telephone Service (MTS) in the 1990s has resulted in higher phone bills compared to
Saskatchewan. During the last decade, the Manitoba government only received 0.08% of the revenue
that SaskTel has generated for Saskatchewan.
The Sask Party has a long record of privatization, which includes Heritage Gas, Navigata, and DirectWest
Canada. Over the last two terms, Brad Wall has also privatized portions of SaskTel via contracting out,
including Operator Services, Max Television Service Installations, and Satellite High Speed Internet
Service.
Unifor is Canada’s largest union in the private sector, representing more than 310,000 workers. It was
formed Labour Day weekend 2013 when the Canadian Auto Workers and the Communications, Energy
and Paperworkers unions merged.
For more information, please contact Unifor Communications Representative Ian Boyko at
ian.boyko@unifor.org or 778-903-6549 (cell).