Rowdy crowd settles as PM pivots to child care
He said he was worried Trudeau was breaking promises to First Nations and on how he would deal with public-sector unions.
Many at the conference were public-sector employees, including Lauren Bart, 30, a Sarnia-based young workers’ representative for PSAC.
She said her friends and fellow union members were upset, among other things, about screw-ups with a new federal payroll system, Phoenix, and with what they see as bad faith in bargaining new collective agreements.
“We haven’t seen the change,” she said before Trudeau arrived.
Once the prime minister was there, he was asked, “When the hell are we gonna get paid? Why are (you) sticking with the Conservative mandate? I’m so confused.”
Trudeau won modest applause at the end of the event when he was asked about child care.
Erin McAlister of New Brunswick, who described herself as a young mother and a young worker, wanted to know what the federal government was doing about affordable, accessible child care.
“Different provinces have different approaches,” Trudeau said. “So a one-size-fitsall approach by Ottawa is not going to work.”
He then reminded the crowd about his government’s Canada Child Benefit which, provides more than the previous government’s combination of benefits and tax breaks for most families.
By the end of the session, the prime minister and his detractors appeared to have come to a standoff. He left with about one-third of the crowd giving him a standing ovation; about one-third standing or sitting silent and stony-faced; and the rest applauding politely.