Budget's medicine wrong for Canada, claim nurses; They wanted to see extra money for additional workers
The Daily News (Prince Rupert)
March 4, 2008
By: Kris Schumacher

Nurses across the country have joined together in criticizing the federal government for its new budget, which they say has thrown away opportunity to invest in vital programs for improving Canadian health and well-being….

"While the finance minister claims his budget is 'prudent,' the truly prudent course would have been to invest in programs to address the critical shortage of health care providers in this country so that we can provide the quality of care Canadians need and deserve under public medicare," said Linda Silas, president of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions.

"Unfortunately, the government gave away its ability to advance these needed initiatives during the last two years through ill-advised tax cuts, and now that the economy appears to be slowing they are saying 'the cupboard is bare.' But this was a self-inflicted problem."….

The unions were also critical of the government for not taking any steps toward investing in a national child care program or expanding social housing to combat growing homelessness in Canada. They also felt the budget had little to say about the critical shortage of nurses in communities all over Canada….