- ...I found that privatization of garbage collection in the "old City Of York" wa reliable and less costly and the only reason it was cancelled was because Comrade Miller's support by city unions. By the way Paul Moist is a CUPE National President and he might, and I stress might, have an axe to grind.
- Paul Moist: Privatizing city services has never worked, and won't work in the future
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In these pages and in other media, the issue of contracting out city services — most recently garbage collection — has been bandied about as a way to punish unionized public sector workers for everything from striking to costing too much to "monopolizing" the public sector. Some columnists, such as Lawrence Solomon, even contend that public sector workers weigh too much — or so he alleged in a National Post column last week when he claimed that private sector workers "tend to be fitter" than public sector workers.
What Solomon and other critics tend to forget is that Canadians have already tried a system wherein municipal services were delivered by private entities. It didn't work then, and it wouldn't work any better now.
Solid waste collection and disposal, water, hydro and transportation were in private hands until the turn of the last century, when municipal governments assumed control of these services after years of poor quality, low accountability, a lack of universal access and an absence of regulation to protect the health and safety of citizens.
- Podcast: Reintroducing the labour movement
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13/08/09: The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) has a serious public relations problem — and the reasons are more fundamental than anything to do with the recent municipal workers strikes in Toronto and Windsor, Ont. Even at the best of times, many Canadians are confused about the labour movement's goals and tactics. For example: Unions often argue their victories help all workers. But how? Why would union members make Torontonians wait three hours to dump their garbage? And why do unions seem so obsessed with the Israeli/Palestinian conflict? Paul Moist, national president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, joins host Chris Selley to answer these and other basic questions that often get lost amidst all the shouting.
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