Regional Executive Vice President in Nunavut

  By Jack Bourassa   Red roses, thoughtful presents and beautiful words— that’s Valentine’s Day. It’s a day to celebrate love. On this Valentine’s Day, let’s be grateful and celebrate the women in our lives and beyond. Let’s raise awareness and take action to stop gender inequality that affects women nationally and around the world.

By Jack Bourassa    The secret to enjoying happy holidays this season is to live in the moment. It’s a simple concept: don’t get caught up thinking about the past or worrying about the future. Let’s get ready for the holidays with this mindset. I also want to suggest some actions that will consciously contribute to making our holidays happier.  

By Jack Bourassa  A homeless person asking for change. An unemployed hopeless youth. A single parent working two jobs. A worker earning a minimum wage that’s way below a Living Wage. A child deprived of nutritious food. A family striving to find an affordable place to call home. Poverty is real and we witness it every day.

A new year begins and with it a new hope that the working lives of Northerners continue to improve. As I have mentioned in a previous column, PSAC North is today announcing that we are starting a new campaign to increase the legal minimum wage. In partnership with other labour organizations across the North, we are calling on all three governments to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2019.

Across the country there is an increasingly accepted view that raising the minimum wage is both socially responsible and of net benefit to the economy. Within the last year, the public discourse around this subject has shifted dramatically after progressive leadership in several provinces have either announced a $15/hr wage floor before 2020; or put plans in place to work toward that figure before 2020.

PSAC North asks citizens to wear an orange shirt on Saturday, September 30 to commemorate the Every Child Matters campaign. The day recognizes all of those who experienced the trauma of residential schools and recommits our support for national reconciliation with indigenous peoples. Please see the Orange Shirt Day Shirt website for more information.

Jack Bourassa Regional Executive Vice President, PSAC North By now many labour organizations across the country have spoken out in condemnation of the acts that we all witnessed in Charlottesville, Virginia on Aug. 12. Given the tight-knit and diverse nature of our own community, I feel as REVP at PSAC North that we must not only denounce in the strongest terms what occurred, but moving forward, tackle the lingering impact of that weekend.

By Jack Bourassa, Regional Executive Vice President, PSAC North Canadian families need to have access to a universal, affordable child care system that helps everyone equally. The hodgepodge system of child care we have in Canada now, with every province and territory taking their own approach, is hurting families and failing to support Indigenous Peoples.

Political Action and Mobilization

This summer in Canada’s North has been anything but uneventful. Federally-organized town halls, bargaining challenges, community involvement and bridge-building – it’s all been fun! To make the mix even more interesting, I underwent surgery, which thankfully hasn’t succeeded in keeping me down for long. Read the rest in my report attached below.