St. John's Regatta and Salmon Fesitval a Success!

We are living in a society where, because of the fallout from free trade agreements, the business community has in many instances become more powerful than government. Even though they pay less and less of their fair portion of the tax burden, they have more and more influence in what happens in our daily lives. The only control left is that of public opinion.

Witness: A pharmaceutical company commenced selling a certain drug in Canada. This drug was not permitted to be sold in the USA Understandably, the Government of Canada took the position, “We are not a third world country. If it cannot be sold in the USA, it cannot be sold here.” The pharmaceutical company responded by suing Canada for lost profit.

Result: The pharmaceutical company and the Government of Canada reach an out-of-court settlement for some three hundred million dollars for the relatively short time the company was blocked from the Canadian market.

Conclusion: It is a sad day when our government cannot protect the health of its people. The Union exists to protect the workers. We do so in various ways. One is in raising the level of consciousness of the public.

Besides lobbying members of parliament and senators, the PSAC members in the St. John’s Region undertook two projects over the summer of 2007 by securing booths at the Grand Falls Salmon Festival and at the annual St. John’s Royal Regatta. We had pinwheels, balloons and face painting for the kids and an extra gift for their caregivers(s) - our “Public Services are Cool fan” with wording designed to defend quality public services. As we gave each child a treat we presented them with the colourful fan containing our message for their caregiver. At the close of the day, we circled the field at Grand Falls and pond side at St. John’s. We did not see one single discarded fan.