Media advisory P3 highway 104

RFP for Highway 104 twinning project kept secret

The president of CUPE Nova Scotia, Nan McFadgen, is appalled that the Department of Transportation has blocked the union’s application to view the Request for Proposals for the Highway 104 (Sutherlands River to Antigonish) twinning project. “Our researcher was told he would receive a redacted RFP for which we would have to pay around $1100,” says McFadgen. “Our deposit was cashed in April, and we told residents in Pictou County at a community town hall in June that we would release the information, which should have been public in the first place. Now the government has pulled the plug on our request.” CUPE received a letter from Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal Deputy Minister Paul LeFleche this week stating that the RFP would not be released, based on exemptions in the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. “This lack of transparency is one more example of why P3 highways are a bad idea,” says McFadgen. … Read more…

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All early childhood educators in Nova Scotia deserve fair compensation including living wages, pensions and benefits

All early childhood educators (ECEs) in Nova Scotia deserve to be compensated the same wages, pensions and benefits, regardless of where they work, says the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), representing hundreds of ECEs in both pre-primary school classrooms and child care centres across the province. At a news conference held today in Halifax, Nova Scotia Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development Zach Churchill announced that more spaces will be created in child care centres. However, once again, the minister failed to address serious issues of fair compensation, recruitment and retention in the sector. “The people who educate our children deserve to make living wages that allow them to lead healthy, productive lives and to retire with dignity,” says CUPE Nova Scotia President Nan McFadgen. “Most of the early childhood educators who currently work in child care centres will retire in poverty. That’s unacceptable.” “All ECEs work under … Read more…