Fellow Canadians,
As Business Manager of The International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT), District Council 46, representing over 8,000 Ontario workers in the painting, taping, glazing, stucco, hazmat, and other trades, I am proud to endorse Pierre Poilievre for Prime Minister.
Over the last decade, the wages and benefits of our workers have been devalued by government driven inflation. Our apprentices have difficulty paying rent and have less hope for home ownership. Rising food, energy, rent and fuel costs have cut deep into our wages. The Liberal Platform of a quarter trillion in new debt further risks higher inflation for our workers.
The Liberal Platform also plans to create a government department in Ottawa to build housing. This does not make sense. Trade workers and their employer partners build housing. Worse, the Liberal Platform focuses Government resources on building modular housing, which typically occurs in lower wage factories, leading to lay-offs for trade workers.
In contrast, Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative platform takes a more responsible approach to government spending by cutting the Liberal deficit by 70%. The Poilievre housing plan focuses on stimulating building starts in the construction sector, through lower housing taxes and regulatory costs, ensuring more work for trade workers like those at IUPAT DC46.
The Poilievre Boots Not Suits platform also more aggressively prioritizes unionized trade workers with a tenfold increase to federal union training funding (UTIP), from $25M to $250M annually, and a goal to train 350,000 trade workers. It will also eliminate the “cap” for traveling trades workers tax credits, meaning workers can write off the full cost of food, transportation and accommodation needed to go from one job to another. The Polievre platform further creates a special class of rapid EI payout for trades workers through union training centres.
Pierre Poilievre has the stronger union trade worker platform and the better plan to protect our wages, benefits and pensions from rising inflation. Pierre Poilievre has earned our support.
That is why as Business Manager for IUPAT DC47, representing over 8,000 Ontario workers in the painting, taping, glazing, stucco, hazmat, and other trades, I am proud to endorse Pierre Poilievre for Prime Minister.
In Solidarity,
Bruno Mandic
Business Manager
IUPAT District Council 46
