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Petition
Presented April 15, 2008
Calling on government to keep maintenance depots
open all year
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MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Member for the District of Port de Grave.
MR. BUTLER: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
I want to present a
petition today with reference to the maintenance depots
we have seen closing over the last few years this time
of the year. They are open in the winter months but they
close down for the summer. I understand from some of the
people in the system that the same thing is about to
happen. I know some of those people have received layoff
notices that will come into effect, I think, within the
next few weeks; the reason being that they are on in all
of those depots in the winter months as operators and
when they close down for the summer months they convert
back to labourers and they take, I think, somewhere in
the vicinity of a $3 decrease in their pay. Some of them
do stay on with the decrease in pay, but others move on
outside the Province and so on.
The problem is, Mr.
Speaker, and I know the minister has announced
tremendous sums of money throughout the Province for
roadwork this year, and my area is no different, but
this is not in reference to that; it is in reference to
some of the maintenance work that has to be done. We
know – and we are not blaming the government for it -
the condition of our roads. It is not major work that
has to be done, but a lot of maintenance has to be done,
ditching and so on.
I was just calling upon
government that hopefully they will reconsider keeping
those employees in the various depots that will close
down shortly so that the work can be done this summer.
We know that maintenance work will go ahead, but not to
the extent – by closing those depots down and having
more people employed throughout the summer.
I was just calling upon
government, if they would reconsider keeping them open,
knowing that there is a tremendous amount of work that
has to be done in different areas throughout the
Province. We hear about it every day, Mr. Speaker, in
the news, and we see it on television, and I was just
calling upon government if they would reconsider keeping
them open, at least for this year, to see that this work
is carried out.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. |
