Features

Maura Hanrahan, a St. John's writer, author and researcher, distributed this letter to the local media, reacting to Friday's release from Auditor General on spending at the house of assembly. We thought you'd like to read it.

"In the 1997 budget, the Brian Tobin government implemented school bus fees for certain St. John's neighbourhoods with high concentrations of public housing. As part of the Telegram team in the media budget lock-up, I asked Finance Minister Paul Dicks for the rationale behind this decision. Dicks explained that it was "part of government's deficit reduction efforts." Note that the decision would save government $35,000 per year.

"Parents, many of them single moms, were worried about having to pay yet another bill. When the Tobin government wouldn't budge on the issue, parents and kids held a bake sale on the steps of Confederation Building to protest and to raise money to pay the new fees of $10 a month per child, significant for anyone living on minimum wage or social assistance.

"Still, Tobin and Dicks would not budge. The late Brother Jim McSheffrey, who lived in Brophy Place, one of the affected neighbourhoods, made this plea to deaf ears: "If the government has to make cuts, it should not be done on the backs of poor people."

"Thanks to the auditor-general's report, we now know what an astonishing act of hypocrisy the school bus fees decision was.

"At the very same time the Tobin government and the Internal Economy Commission barred the door to the auditor-general, some of the affected neighbourhoods were crawling with welfare cops.

"We citizens have to be vigilant so that the needs of people living in poverty are actually met, not compounded, by government. And we should lend a very critical ear indeed the next time people in poverty are told to tighten their belts."
- Dr. Maura Hanrahan, Ph.D.