Volume 55 Number 29
Friday, July 24, 2015
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NDP will reinstate home mail delivery if elected, says Churchill MP
From the land of sky blue waters
BY IAN GRAHAM EDITOR@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET
Nickel Belt News photo courtesy of Kennedy Chubb The sky above is reflected in Wabowden Lake below in this shot from Sandy Bay.
Nelson House nurses still on strike BY MOLLY GIBSON KIRBY MOLLY@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET
It’s been more than two months and five nurses from Nischawayasihk Personal Care Home in Nisichwayasihk Cree Nation are still fighting for higher pay. The nurses started a picket line on May 11 and Sandi Mowat, President of the Manitoba Nurses Union says since it’s been over 60 days the union has the right to go to the labour board, and request they impose a collective agreement, since both parties can’t agree. “The next step is that the labour board looks at it, and once
they accept the application they notify the parties, and they determine that you’re at an impasse, which will not be a problem, because both parties have agreed that, and they will decide a hearing date,” explained Mowat. The rural nurses startd the strike because they’re being paid less than other nurses in Manitoba. Mowat continued by saying since nurses are an essential service, they negotiated a essential services agreement prior to the collective agreement expiring. With this agreement, nurses are still being paid, and doing essen-
tial duties, but nothing further. “The nurses are making sure medication is given, and treatments. But all the things nurses do, that are related to resident care, but aren’t direct resident care, that is deemed to be nonessential, those nurses are not doing them. Those include ordering supplies, making sure supplies are in, processing doctors’ orders, making agreements for transfers and tests, things like that.” For now, it’s a waiting game for the nurses. Once the hearing date is confirmed, nurses will go back to work.
Churchill NDP MP Niki Ashton wants Canada Post to reconsider its plans, announced late last week and early this week, to end door-to-door mail delivery in Flin Flon and Thompson beginning in 2016. “Hundreds of people in Flin Flon and Thompson have spoken out in favour of home delivery,” said Ashton in a July 21 press release. “This is a critical service to our northern communities and we won’t stand by and let this happen.” Canada Post informed municipal officials and affected employees in Thompson July 20 that home delivery to 3,394 addresses in the city would be phased out beginning in 2016. “This is part of a five-year initiative to convert one-third of Canadian addresses who still have delivery at the door to community mailboxes in an effort to secure postal service for the future,” said John Caines of Canada Post’s media relation department in an email. “Since the program began in 2014, more than one million addresses have been or are in the various stages of the conversion process.” Caines said no regular full- or part-time employees will lose their jobs as a result of the conversion and that Canada Post aims to reduce its workforce by not replacing workers who retire. Canada Post says the service change is a result of less mail being sent. CUPW national president Mike Palecek told the Nickel Belt News that the conversion to a community mailbox system is completely unnecessary, since Canada Post is a profitable Crown corporation that made $200 million last year and doesn’t cost taxpayers a dime. “It seems to be ideologically driven,” said Palecek, noting
that other countries faced the same challenges as Canada but have opted to expand services to bring in revenue rather than cut home delivery. Postal banking is an example of the kind of services Canada Post should be looking at getting into, he said. Palecek was in Quebec City on a cross-country tour protesting postal service cuts and says nearly 600 municipalities have passed resolutions or sent letters asking that door-to-door mail delivery continue, while opposition parties are calling for the plans to be halted or scrapped altogether. “We’ve had an outpouring of support so far [on the tour] and this is no surprise,” said Palecek. “Canadians are facing a clear choice on Oct. 19. They can change this if they want and they can do that in 90 days when we go to the polls.” The City of Thompson communications officer Dawn Sands emailed a statement July 21 saying the city was disappointed in the direction Canada Post has taken to move from door-todoor mail delivery to community mailboxes. “We will continue to work with Canada Post on this issue and discuss how the implementation of their new system will affect our residents, especially our seniors, elders and those with disabilities,” the statement concluded. Ashton said the NDP is committed to reinstating home mail delivery if elected government. “Home delivery is a key service for seniors, people living with disabilities and for families in Flin Flon and Thompson,” said Ashton. “We will fight to keep it. My message to Canada Post and the federal government is hold off on cancelling home delivery because if the NDP is elected government in October we will save home delivery in Thompson, Flin Flon and across Canada.”
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