Good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to what Ron likes to call the Working Person’s Business Dinner.

 

I think it appropriate at such an event to begin my remarks by thanking the people who prepared and served us the excellent meal we enjoyed this evening – Bob and Colleen Machnaic from Stan’s Diner and Catering and their hard working staff.

I’d also like to thank all the generous sponsors as well as the dedicated organizers and volunteers form the Regina Northeast Executive for their commitment and effort.

I appreciate your hard work and I know that Ron appreciates your hard work.

That appreciation of the hard work of others is evident in his office in his Hall of Labour. I’m sure many of you have had occasion to visit the Hall of Labour, decorated with posters from the labour movement. Ron has been quoted as saying that, "We often fail to recognize the amount of human toil that goes into providing us our services."

According to Ron, the Hall of Labour is a way to say, "Thank you to the many people who work hard on our behalf."

I also want to thank Ron for all of his hard work.

A little over a year ago it was Ron provided the big push behind the tools tax credit, one of the most innovative budgetary features I’ve seen.

That innovative thinking and commitment to working people made Ron the logical choice to lead consultations in northern Saskatchewan to examine the impact of the overtime exemption that currently exists there.

Not surprisingly, he did a remarkably thorough job.

I’ve received Ron’s report and recommendations and I look forward in the days to come to making a formal announcement of our government’s response to his excellent work.

Friends, Ron Harper is a tireless and effective supporter of Saskatchewan working families. He is also a tireless representative of his constituents, the people of Regina Northeast.

Ron is an MLA whose constituents always come first. Whether they vote for him or not, the people of Regina Northeast know they’re going to see Ron on their doorsteps more than once every four years. They know he’s there to represent them. They know he’s there to work for them.

Friends, the Regina Northeast Spring Banquet is one of my favourite annual events because nobody has to get dressed up, the food tastes like it was made with love, and I get to speak about the issues that matter most to working men and women.

I get to speak about the hard won benefits that we have achieved by working together.

In the province that witnessed the creation of North America’s first occupational health and safety legislation, I get to speak about how working people continue to benefit from the most progressive labour legislation on the continent.

Working people benefit from the Action Plan for Healthy and Safe Workplaces, emphasizing education and enforcement of workplace standards and resulting, over the past four years, in an 18 per cent reduction in the time lost due to workplace injuries.

Working people benefit from the Occupational Health and Safety Council’s extensive and comprehensive review of The Occupational Health and Safety Act, and regulations and the government’s commitment to move ahead with the Council’s recommendations beginning with those that will have highest-impact on the workplace injury rate.

Working people benefit when we commit to developing and distributing a user-friendly guide to The Occupational Health and Safety Act and regulations.

Working people benefit when our NDP government introduces an amendment to The Occupational Health and Safety Act to expand the definition of harassment to provide protection for workers from personal and psychological harassment such as bullying, intimidation, and abuse of power.

Friends, working people benefit when the minimum wage increases by almost one third in less than six years.

Working people benefit when our NDP government amends The Labour Standards Act to require that the Minimum Wage Board review the minimum wage at least every two years.

Working people stand to benefit when the Minister of Labour asks the Minimum Wage Board to consider tying the minimum wage to the Low-Income Cut Off (LICO) and indexing it to inflation, as Dave Forbes did earlier this week.

Working people benefit from the creation of a Compliance and Review Unit within the Labour Standards Branch to investigate anonymous and third-party complaints and a Collections Unit to assist in recovering wages owed to workers.

Working people benefit from beefed-up whistleblower protection under The Labour Standards Act.

Working people benefit when the NDP government amends The Labour Standards Act to ensure job protection for employees who qualify for the federal government’s Employment Insurance compassionate care benefit.

Working people benefit when an NDP government establishes the Commission on Improving Work Opportunities for Saskatchewan Residents.

Working families benefit when an NDP government commits $2.5 million to provide supplementary eye care and prescription drug benefits for approximately 30,000 vulnerable workers, as recommended by the Commission.

Working people benefit from amendments to The Trade Union Act that provide first contract provisions, speeding up first contracts and ensuring that stall tactics can’t be used to avoid free collective bargaining.

Friends, miners benefit from new regulations inn 2003 making the industry as safe as possible and drawing worldwide attention and praise when 70 miners are safely rescued after a fire in a potash mine in Esterhazy.

Firefighters benefit from amendments to The Workers’ Compensation Act that expand the list of occupational diseases for members of their profession.

Health care and correctional workers benefit from the implementation of regulations, the most rigorous in Canada, requiring the use of safety-engineered needles in health and corrections facilities.

Canadian Forces Reservists and their families benefit, as does all of Canada, when our Saskatchewan government provides job protection for those who volunteer for active duty, as we’ve done during this legislative session.

Working families benefit when the NDP government establishes a Work and Family Unit to focus on work-family balance initiatives to help Saskatchewan workplaces become more family-friendly.

Working families benefit when an NDP government introduces a new statutory holiday, Family Day, making Saskatchewan a national leader with most public holidays and the most generous vacation provisions in the country.

Working families benefit from 1600 additional child care spaces.

Working families benefit from a 2 per cent cut to the PST, saving average families about $300/year.

Working families benefit from the lowest-cost utility bundle in the country.

Those who need it most benefit from increases under the Saskatchewan Assistance Plan and the Transitional Employment Allowance, from increased access to affordable housing through HomeFirst, and from our government’s continued commitment to literacy – a commitment we stick to despite massive cuts by the federal Tories.

Students benefit when university tuition remains frozen for third straight year, when 6,164 new training spaces are created in the space of three years and when a new five-year Graduate Tax Exemption allows them to earn up to $100,000 free from provincial income tax.

Friends, our senior citizens and our elders benefit under the new Seniors’ Drug Plan which reduces their cost to no more than $15 per prescription.

Now I happen to think the Saskatchewan Party’s opposition to this drug plan is particularly revealing, but not unprecedented.

The right wing opposed Medicare 45 years ago. They were wrong then and they are wrong now.

But friends, as fundamentally as our government and the right wing in this province disagree on issues ranging from public delivery of healthcare to the continued strength of our Crown Corporations, I think the issues that separate us from them most clearly are those related to protections for working men and women in the province of Saskatchewan.

To put it bluntly, Brad Wall and his party never met a labour law they liked.

They believe that labour laws kill jobs.

I guess they haven’t looked at the job numbers in Saskatchewan over the course of the last few months and years.

As of March, the last month for which we have statistics, we are up 20,000 jobs from a year ago. That’s the second highest year to year increase in the nation.

He’ll say that the only way to create jobs in the Province of Saskatchewan is to sign onto the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA).

He extols the virtues of the TILMA deal that he would have had us sign without study or consultation a year ago.

Well friends, during that year, Aboriginal unemployment has fallen from 18% to 11% in one year.

Youth employment is up 8,700.

Full time jobs up by 12,000.

March over March there are more jobs in virtually every sector of our economy and in every career choice.

Saskatchewan: A province with about 1 million people, a couple hundred miles from the geographic center of North America, with the most progressive labour laws on the North American continent. We compete in this context and we’re not losing jobs. We’re creating jobs – in record numbers.

And that, friends, not to put too fine a point on it, drives Brad Wall crazy.

In his own words, on the John Gormley show last year, Brad Wall declared war on Saskatchewan’s working men and women.

This is a man so ideologically bound that he would trade a great, and hard won, Saskatchewan advantage, would reverse decades of progress, to adhere to a vision of the economy that was already out of date when he served in the administration of Grant Devine.

That is the difference between the New Democratic government that I’m privileged to lead and the opposition that likes to think it’s poised for power in Saskatchewan.

We’re proud that Saskatchewan is not just different – but better.

Friends, making Saskatchewan the best place for young people to live, work and raise their families is the stated goal of our government.

Making life better for Saskatchewan families is the guiding principle of our government.

I believe that protecting and preserving the most progressive labour legislation in Canada is part of making Saskatchewan the best place in Canada for young people to live, work and raise their families – the best place in North America for young people for young people to live, work and raise families.

I believe that protecting, preserving and enhancing the most progressive labour legislation on the continent will help ensure that Saskatchewan’s working families benefit directly from our strong and prosperous economy.

And I know that, working together, we can continue to do just that.

Friends, together, we’ve made Saskatchewan the best place to live, work and raise a family.

Together, we’ll keep it that way.

Thank you.