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Six of Saskatchewans largest unions, representing 113,000 front-line workers, are demanding stricter COVID-19 regulations.

Union leaders in the healthcare and education sectors are demanding the province implement a gathering limit of 10, creation of a new public health order to limit non-essential contacts, establishing a consistent bubble, and enforce reducing non-essential travel between communities.

Tracy Zambory, president of the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses, says workers are stretched thin and health-care facilities dont have staff or space for more patients.

Involved organizations include the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Saskatchewan Federation of Labour, Saskatchewan Teachers Federation, Saskatchewan Union of Nurses, Saskatchewan Government and General Employees Union, and the Service Employees International Union West.

Saskatchewans chief medical health officer Dr. Saqib Shahad said a peak in cases could come in the next two weeks, in light of record-high positivity.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe denounced lockdowns last week, and continues to provide justification for that decision. He caught COVID-19 the next day.

ICU admissions and COVID-19 related deaths remain significantly lower than other provinces that have strict lockdown policies in effect, said Moe on Twitter.

Omicron is spreading across Canada and around the world, whether there are lockdown policies in place or not, so we are not going to impose new restrictions and lockdowns that cause significant harm for no clear benefit.

Moe pointed out there have been zero COVID-19 deaths in the province in nearly two weeks, compared to more than 700 COVID-19 related deaths in Quebec this month.

Saskatchewans current hospitalization rate is 16 per 100,000 population and our current ICU rate is 1.5 per 100,000 population, said Moe.

Quebec has had the most extreme lockdowns policies in Canada since before Christmas, and their current rates are about 40 hospitalizations and 3.3 ICU admissions per 100,000 population more than double Saskatchewans rates.

The Saskatchewan government has not responded to the union demand or updated restrictions since January 12.

Ewa Sudyk is a reporter with the Western Standardesudyk@westernstandardonline.com

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Liberals removed tax breaks, 86% of middle class will see higher income taxes - Western Standard

THE BC Liberals on Thursday said they were renewing their calls for the NDP to focus on increasing housing supply something the Housing Minister has only recently conceded is critical to improving affordability as the cost of housing in British Columbia continues to soar to new heights.

After more than half a decade of blaming B.C.s housing crisis on speculators, Attorney General and Minister Responsible for Housing David Eby hasfinally begun to acknowledgethe need to get serious about increasing housing supply, said Ben Stewart, BC Liberal Critic for Housing. We have beensounding the alarm on this for years, but the NDP were too busy scapegoating andblaming everyone but themselves for the problem, wasting precious time that could have been used to fast-track the construction of housing that is desperately needed in B.C. We need to see a massive investment in building new homes in this province from affordable rental units, to new homes for sale but unfortunately, the NDP has built lessthan 5 per cent of the housing units they promised in their 10-year plan.

The BC Liberals pointed out that in 2017, the NDP promised to build 114,000 new homes over 10 years. Four years later, only 5,269 units have been completed, and 1,109 of those were first announced by the previous BC Liberal government. In the current market, the National Bank reports it would take 34 years to save for a down payment on a home in Vancouver and renters are paying $2,532 more per year under the NDP versus 2017. Meanwhile, inflation was up 3.9 per cent year over year in December, marking six straight months of elevated inflation above 3 per cent.

The NDP has spent years talking while taking no real action on housing affordability and its gotten worse under their watch. They chose instead to levy new and higher taxes that haveactually contributed to declinesin available housing, and broke their promise of a $400 renters annual rebate that would have provided relief to families, said Mike Bernier, BC Liberal Critic for Finance. Like theminister himself recently said, new taxes are not going to put a roof over the head of someone in need, whats needed is to actually build homes. I sincerely hope we are going to see a shift in NDP policy, but Im not getting my hopes up. Four years under the NDP has only produced higher rents, increased unaffordability, and record low levels of housing supply. We need real action to get affordable housing built in this province, but that has yet to be seen under this NDP government.

The NDP twice promised voters a $400 annual renters rebate, first in 2017 and again in 2020. As of today, people are still waiting for that relief.

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NDP admit their housing plan is a resounding failure: BC Liberals - Voiceonline.com

Thursdays meeting could endorse Mr Judah, who was the Liberal candidate for Bentleigh at the 2018 state election, overturn the result and order a fresh preselection, or wait for further information.

Last week upper house Liberal leader David Davis, representing Opposition Leader Matthew Guy, and Sarah Henderson, representing federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, spoke in favour of the status quo.

State party president Robert Clark recommended that the partys constitutional committee examine the vote.

If the committee members loyal to Mr Clark decide the electoral irregularities are too great, then the preselection would be overturned by a vote of 10-9.

Party state secretary Sam McQuestin is yet to give a recommendation to the committee.

Over the summer the party secretariat, who have been installing a new membership database, took to calling members in an attempt to ascertain their eligibility, which is determined by residence of an electorate, length of party membership and payment of membership dues.

In October the independent Electoral Boundaries Commission created the new seats of Ashwood, taking in Burwood and Box Hill, and Glen Waverley after scrapping the eastern seats Burwood (held by Labor), Ferntree Gully (Liberal), Forest Hill (Liberal) and Mount Waverley (Labor).

Analysts say the new seat is nominally held by Labor on a margin of 2.1 per cent. Burwood was held by Labor on 3.3 per cent.

The Liberal Party, which replaced Michael OBrien with former leader Matthew Guy in a September coup, must win back lost eastern suburbs seats, such as Ringwood, to have a chance of winning the state election in November. The Coalition has 28 fewer seats than Labor, and is behind in the polls.

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The Victorian branch has been mired in factional infighting for years. The controversial preselected candidate for Ringwood, Cynthia Watson, was overwhelmingly formally endorsed by the administration committee last week.

Moderate faction members had wanted to dump the former mayor of Boroondara, a Mormon, because of her conservative and religious views.

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Liberals in a lather over preselection irregularities for newly minted seat - The Age

Healthy, delicious school food could soon be on the plates of millions of Canadian children after the federal government recently committed to tackling the issue at a national level.

In December, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tasked the ministers responsible for agriculture and children and social development with creating a national policy for school food. It is the first time the federal government has committed to supporting school food programs. These programs typically provide free or heavily subsidized breakfasts and lunches to all students, and have been shown to improve public health, support learning, and boost economic growth.

Canada is the only G7 country without a national school food program, ranking 37th out of the world's 41 wealthiest countries when it comes to feeding schoolchildren, according to a 2017 UNICEF study. The situation is particularly dire in Qubec and the Western provinces, where only a fraction of schools have food programs. In contrast, almost all schools in the Atlantic provinces and the three territories have meal programs, according to 2021 research from the University of Guelph.

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After the pandemic hit, "school food was revealed to be essential" as food-insecure children who previously relied on schools to eat at least one healthy meal a day were left hungry, explained Debbie Field, executive director for the Coalition for Healthy School Food. The non-profit organization has spent the past several years advocating for a national school food program, but the health crisis was an "epochal moment" enough to spark major change.

Researchers studying school food on a global scale say a lack of nutritious meals for students has a negative impact on all children, not only those who are food-insecure. Eating enough healthy food is vital for brain development, making it essential to help kids get the most benefit from their education, explained Donald Bundy, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

"It's not actually about feeding children, it's about making sure that (their) nutrition is right at a time that determines the rest of their lives, what they achieve in the rest of their lives."

School meal programs also promote community building and food education, and can be an important market for local farmers, fishers and food processors, the University of Guelph study noted.

For instance, Prince Edward Island implemented Canada's first universal pay-what-you-can school meal program in 2020 with the intention of supporting the province's students and farming community. Moreover, several Indigenous governments from Haida Gwaii to Yukon are using school food programs to bolster cultural, language and land-based education, Field said.

While developing a federal school food program will take time, Field said support for pre-existing programs in the next federal budget would be a good start to tackling the issue. In their 2021 election platform, the Liberals pledged $1 billion over five years to help the provinces, territories and Indigenous governments implement school food programs. If the funding comes through, it will be the most ever spent on food policy in Canada.

The Coalition for Healthy School Foods estimates a well-crafted school food program would cost about $2.6 billion, or "about $5 a day per kid," Field said. Yet even if the government ends up spending less, it would be a "great first step."

Helping schools build kitchens and other infrastructure is key, she added. So is ensuring that existing programs follow the 2019 Canada Food Guide not just by putting healthy meals on children's plates but by teaching students about food and cooking.

Strengthening Canadas food system, with a particular emphasis on developing a National School Food Policy and working towards a national school nutritious meal program is a priority for the Government of Canada," said a spokesperson for Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau. They did not provide a timeline or details on how much the government plans to spend on the issue.

Still, Field is hopeful the pandemic has encouraged the government to take on this issue. She wants to see the Liberals act swiftly in the next budget to ensure kids have food universally available at school.

"It will make a big difference," she said. "During COVID and during high food prices, it's important to roll it out soon and not spend the next 20 years talking."

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Finally, Liberals are putting school food programs on the menu - National Observer

The Liberals' 2021 election platform did not include a timeline for eliminating the deficit, nor did Finance Minister Chrystia Freelands December fiscal update.GEOFF ROBINS/AFP/Getty Images

Federal government spending on outsourcing contracts has increased by more than 40 per cent since the Liberals took power, a trend at odds with the partys 2015 campaign promise to cut back on the use of consultants.

A Globe and Mail analysis of federal records shows Ottawa spent $11.8-billion in the 2020-21 fiscal year on contracts. That represents a 41.8-per-cent increase from the $8.4-billion spent in the 2015-16 fiscal year, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus Liberal government was first elected.

Ottawa turns to consulting firm McKinsey to fix Phoenix pay system, doubling spending

The Globes analysis examined the latest available data in the governments public accounts related to spending on outside contracts in the category of professional and special services.

This category includes things such as management consulting services, legal services, IT services, temporary help and security guards.

The growth in outsourcing has not coincided with a smaller public service. The number of federal government workers increased from 257,034 to 319,601 between 2015 and 2021, a 24 per cent rise.

Queens University economist Don Drummond, who has held senior federal government roles and who once led a spending review for the Ontario government, said outsourcing can be effective and efficient when it involves bringing in specialized expertise that isnt available in the civil service.

However, it is concerning that both contract and bureaucracy costs have risen sharply, he said. To a degree, this might be related to the extraordinary increase in federal government activities flowing from COVID. But the situation calls for careful analysis that more and more inputs are not being thrown into producing about the same service. That would indicate a deterioration in effectiveness and efficiency.

The 2015 Liberal platform pledged to free up $3-billion a year through a spending review, which it said would include reducing the use of external consultants.

The increased spending on contracts continues a trend identified in a January, 2020, report by the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC), a union that primarily represents scientists and professionals in the federal public service. That report focused more narrowly on service contracts in the areas of management consulting, temporary help and IT consultants.

The report notes that spending on IT consultants and management consultants more than doubled between 2011 and 2018.

Rather than Public Accounts data, the PIPSC analysis was based on the governments disclosure of federal contracts, which is subject to frequent revisions as the terms of contracts are posted and adjusted. The union told The Globe its approach allowed for a more targeted look at the outsourcing of personnel spending, given that the Public Accounts data can include other costs, such as fees for software.

The unions report points to the problem-plagued Phoenix pay system as an example of outsourcing gone wrong.

Phoenix was designed under the previous Conservative government through an outsourcing arrangement with IBM. The Liberal government launched the system in 2016. Phoenix has since caused frequent errors that have left workers unpaid, underpaid or overpaid, resulting in widespread disruptions and distress throughout the public service.

The Globe reported in December that the government has paid $560-million in damages so far to public servants as a result of the Phoenix problems. The cost of compensation is approaching twice the $309-million spent by the federal government between 2009 and 2016 to develop the system, which was supposed to generate long-term savings.

The PIPSC analysis highlighted a common practice in which the government initially awards a contract to a company at a relatively low cost following a public competition. Then the value of the contract is increased substantially through amendments. The PIPSC analysis found that IT contracts generally end up costing more than twice what the government originally expected.

In an interview, PIPSC president Jennifer Carr said the growth in outsourcing is creating a shadow public service that works alongside public servants, but is not subject to the same rules in areas like language requirements, employment equity and diversity.

Ms. Carr said outsourcing should focus on short-term needs and allow for the long-term work to be handled by the public service, but she said that often does not happen.

Its not in the best interests of the contractor to give any of that information up to the public service, because basically they would be consulting themselves out of their own job, she said.

Because these contracts are reopened multiple times They wind up ballooning from small amounts to almost triple or quadruple the cost, and its really hard to track the final value of the real cost of the contract because of the reopening.

Isabella Brisson, a spokesperson for Treasury Board president Mona Fortier, defended Ottawas outsourcing approach.

The procurement of professional services is needed to acquire special expertise, and to meet unexpected fluctuations in workload, she said in a statement. Shortages in certain employment groups and specific geographic locations make the use of external professional services necessary to maintain operations. For example, nurses are hired through this mechanism to deliver temporary health care in Northern Canada.

The statement also noted that departments are required to exercise due diligence and effective stewardship of public funds and that all contracts must be issued in accordance with Treasury Board rules.

From a government-wide perspective, the Liberals had been falling behind their own deficit-reduction projections prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The deficit then grew dramatically as the pandemic led to reduced tax revenue, and to increased emergency spending to support Canadian workers and businesses.

The 2015 Liberal platform promised that the party would run three years of deficits of no more than $10-billion before balancing the governments books in 2019-20.

Instead, the Liberal government posted deficits of $19-billion in 2016-17, $19-billion in 2017-18, $14-billion in 2018-19, $39.3-billion in 2019-20 and $327.7-billion in 2020-21.

The Liberal Partys 2021 election platform did not include a timeline for eliminating the deficit, nor did Finance Minister Chrystia Freelands December fiscal update. That update did estimate the size of the deficit would decline to $13.1-billion by 2026-27, though those bottom-line projections do not take into account the billions in new spending promised in the 2021 platform. Updates on that spending are expected in Ms. Freelands 2022 budget.

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Liberals spend billions more on outsourced contracts since taking power - The Globe and Mail