Unions rally to reverse cuts outside Sask. legislature

Hundreds of people attended a “rally to reverse the cuts” in front of the Saskatchewan legislature just before the opening of the fall session Wednesday.

Multiple unions joined together to voice their opinions on cuts made by the Saskatchewan Party government in the budget.

“We come here and make a strong statement to this government that we’re not prepared to sit back and let them keep cutting, cutting and cutting,” said Bob Bymoen, the president of the Saskatchewan Government Employees’ Union (SGEU).

"Together we will bring this government to account for their actions" #yqr #skpoli pic.twitter.com/IMFdXfqObt

— Jessika Guse (@JessikaGuse) October 25, 2017

"The fight continues … lobby the government … we need to tell them to stop the privatization … give us back our Saskatchewan!" #yqr pic.twitter.com/Vf4kCxXwhJ

— Jessika Guse (@JessikaGuse) October 25, 2017

Bymoen is particularly pleased with the decision to repeal the controversial Bill 40 that would have allowed the province to sell off up to 49 per cent of Crown corporations without a referendum.

The union leader is also pleased with what he sees as a trend of the premier rolling back certain cuts.

Since the budget, the government has reversed some unpopular cutbacks such as library funding, along with restoring partial funding for funeral expenses for the poor.

“There’s a whole list of items that were in last spring’s budget that they have backtracked on and we hope that they continue to backtrack on them,” he said. “But we also hope that they start to take a more positive role that’s for the people of this province.”

Bymoen added that the elected government should have known before the fall session that the cuts were going to hurt the people in the province.

— With files from 980 CJME’s Jessika Guse.