Government has wrong diagnosis, prescribes wrong remedy, UNA president says

Premier Alison Redford has the wrong diagnosis for what ails the problems, and she is prescribing the wrong remedies, United Nurses of Alberta President Heather Smith told a joint news conference with leaders of four of the province’s largest public service unions and the president of the Alberta Federation of Labour this morning.

“We’ve been here before,” Smith told the news conference. “We’ve spent almost two decades trying to pull ourselves out of the hole left by the Klein cuts. … We’re not out of the hole that was created by slash-and-burn policies in the 90s.”

“Alberta needs the necessary revenue for necessary programs.” Smith said after the news conference. “We need sustained revenue for programs we all know are going to have to be sustained. And almost all Albertans agree that health care, education and social services, not to mention roads, are among those programs.”

The joint news conference at Edmonton’s Crowne Plaza Hotel was chaired by Alberta Federation of Labour President Gil McGowan, and in addition to Smith was attended by Guy Smith, president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, Elisabeth Ballermann, president of the Health Sciences Association of Alberta, and Alberta teachers Association Vice-President Mark Ramsankar. The Canadian Union of Public Employees is also part of the group. 

All the union officials at the news conference urged the government to listen to Albertans, who new polling conducted by the AFL shows mostly want their public services protected.

The polling, conducted by Environics Research Group from Feb. 14 to 21, 2013, shows that more than 70 per cent of Albertans reject the idea of cuts to public services. More than three quarters of those polled agree that there should be an increase on taxes for the wealthy and corporations.

The Environics poll also indicated Albertans clearly oppose the idea of a sales tax.

When asked about spending, respondents to the poll identified several priorities including:

- Creating a provincial strategy for long-term care for seniors, a high priority for 70 per cent of respondents

- Protecting publicly funded health care against for-profit health care, a high priority by 57 per cent

- Hiring more teachers and support staff for elementary and secondary schools, a high priority for about half the respondents

The provincial budget on Thursday, said McGowan, will likely “be ‘Klein Lite,’ and this is not what Albertans thought they were getting when they voted for Alison Redford as opposed to the Wildrose Party.”

“There’s a real issue here in that Albertans who elected this government didn’t vote for Wildrose polices,” Smith agreed. “This government is not acting in a manner we would have expected from the policy discussion during the election.”

Read the AFL’s news release, with links to fact sheets.

Read the Edmonton Journal’s coverage of the news conference.

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