REGINA, SK: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) is calling on the City of Winnipeg to establish a clear and firm policy to ensure that taxpayers aren’t paying the bills for unions.

“It’s bad enough to find out taxpayers are footing the bill for 60 per cent of the salary for the firefighters’ union president who is on leave from the city, but it’s even worse to find out the mayor and council didn’t even know about the one-sided deal,” said Todd MacKay, Prairie Director for the CTF. “Taxpayers shouldn’t have to cover the costs on both sides of the bargaining table – the City of Winnipeg needs to get a handle on the situation and make it clear: unions need to pay their own bills.”

Leadership costs are covered by the overwhelming majority of unions, including: the Canadian Union of Public Employees; the Winnipeg Police Association; and, the Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union.

However, recent media reports disclosed that 60 per cent of United Fire Fighters president Alex Forrest’s $116,000 salary is paid by the City of Winnipeg.

Worse, the City of Winnipeg doesn’t even track costs paid by taxpayers for union work. This fall the CTF submitted a freedom-information-request asking how much the city pays for its employees to do union work such as negotiating. City officials responded that “they have not centrally tracked the time that City Staff has spent on Union Leave.”

“Now that City Hall knows these deals are happening, it needs to start asking tough questions to root out other bad deals,” said MacKay. “And the City of Winnipeg needs to put firm policies in place to make sure taxpayers’ money isn’t covering union bills in the future.

“In the meantime, the United Fire Fighters need to do the right thing and follow the lead of other union leaders to cover the salary of their own president.”