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Legislation would require workers to reaffirm unions with votes every 3 years

In an effort to loosen labor's grip on workers, two GOP lawmakers want legislation that would require workers to re-affirm the existence of their unions with new votes every three years.

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch of Utah and Rep. Tim Scott of South Carolina are pushing the Employee Rights Act that also would place limits on strikes, how fast a union can organize and how membership fees may be used to support political candidates. The bill has yet to receive a committee hearing in either chamber.

"It's neither anti-union, nor pro-employer," Mr. Hatch told The Washington Times. "It's pro-worker."

The move comes as unions are showing new signs of a turnaround in growth. The number of members spiked by about 50,000 workers to nearly 14.8 million in 2011, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That follows two years of declining membership, during which unions lost nearly 1.4 million workers.

Conservative groups are joining in the fight to handicap unions. The Center for Union Facts recently started running a $10 million campaign to promote the bill. The advertisements are running in the District and were aired nationally on Fox News during the South Carolina presidential primary debate.

Supporters of the bill are taking a new approach. Rather than pitting unions against businesses, they are spinning it as unions against workers.

"There's not a single provision in this bill that will empower employers at the expense of the union," Mr. Hatch said. "The only parties whose position will be improved by the Employee Rights Act are employees."

They paint a picture of workers in the middle of a spectrum, surrounded by businesses on the right and unions on the left.

"It's about time we start worrying about the employees and the workers, rather than unions and management people," Mr. Hatch said. "It is fair to both employers and unions, and, far more importantly, it's fair to workers."

Secret-ballot elections, instead of card checks, would be the voting method of choice under the Employee Rights Act, which was introduced last August in both chambers.

Few workers - less than 10 percent of union members - vote to organize. Instead, most workers join an existing union as a condition of employment.

This bill, however, would give workers a chance to voice their opinions. Union officials would be up for re-election every three years. At that time, employees could decide whether to keep or eliminate their union.

"My goal is to make sure that employees of a company make the decision on joining unions," Mr. Scott said. "This just gives them an opportunity to say, 'Yes, I want to be a part of the union.' "

"Voters get to choose senators every six years, they decide on the president every four years, and on me every two years," he said. "To me, it makes sense that union members should decide on their leaders at least every three years."

Mr. Hatch agreed.

"I think the right of an individual to not join a union is just as essential as the right to unionize," he said.

In the instances of nonunion workplaces that want to organize, the bill would require a minimum of 40 days between the time a petition is filed and a vote is taken. That would give employees time to hear from both unions and employers before they decide.

This provision comes in response to the National Labor Relations Board's recent decision to speed up union elections, including in some cases to less than 10 days.

"Nobody has enough time in 10 days to decide the benefits and the negatives of joining a union," Mr. Scott said.

The bill would also combat strikes. It would streamline the federal process, requiring a majority of union members to approve a strike.

"Strikes can be damaging," Mr. Hatch said. "Employees lose work and may not get back to work. Shouldn't they at least have a chance to vote on whether to go on strike?"

He pointed out that strike funds, which provide financial assistance to union members during work stoppages, rarely pay more than 20 percent of an employee's salary. And they usually have to be actively involved in the strike, such as on the picket line, to get that money.

Unions also would be required to receive written consent from each member before donating portions of their membership fees to political candidates. This would be determined individually, member by member, so some members could agree to support a certain candidate, and others could decide against it. Their money would be split up.

Union membership is split fairly evenly between Democrats (49 percent) and Republicans (47 percent). But 93 percent of campaign contributions go to Democratic candidates.

"I'd like anyone who would oppose this provision to explain to me why it is fair to force workers to contribute to political campaigns at all, regardless of the party on the receiving end," Mr. Hatch told the Senate when he introduced the bill in August.

The penalities would also be updated, so unions that violate labor laws are held to the same disciplinary measures as businesses that do so.

"We've all heard the accounts of unions obtaining signatures through deception and intimidation," Mr. Hatch said.

The AFL-CIO and SEIU did not respond to requests for comment.

The Washington Times, Sun Jan 29 2012

Three years have passed, but Tories fail to act on judge's recommendation in farm-death inquiry

Today marks an unhappy anniversary for an important group of Alberta workers whose safety has been neglected by the Alberta government.

"Three years ago, after investigating the death of farm worker Kevan Chandler, Justice Peter Barley recommended that farm and ranch workers be included in Alberta legislation governing workplace health and safety," says Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL), which represents 145,000 workers.

"Sadly, the government has chosen to ignore this recommendation, leaving agricultural workers to face the kinds of risks at work that no other Albertans are asked to face."

About 160 farm workers have died in Alberta in the last decade, but this remains the only province in Canada that maintains 19th century rules where these workers are excluded from occupational health and safety laws, as well as legislation governing hours of work and overtime, statutory holidays, vacation pay, the right to refuse unsafe work, being informed of work-related dangers and compensation if they are injured on the job.

"There is no credible reason to continue to exclude these workers. Today's farms are industrial worksites like any found in urban areas, involving heavy equipment and overhead power lines. The simple fact is that the rights of paid farm workers continue to be ignored because the government has chosen to bow to pressure from the industrial agribusiness lobby, rather than listen to an unbiased judge or the many voices of Albertans calling for change," says McGowan.

"The government's proposal for a farm-safety education campaign run by the industry instead of real action was a joke – and one in very poor taste," he says.

"During her campaign to become Premier, Alison Redford promised to extend rights to farm workers. With a new session of the Legislature set to begin soon, Albertans are waiting to see if this important change is made, or if are we on the cusp of another broken promise."

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For more information:

Gil McGowan, President, Alberta Federation of Labour (780) 218-9888

When will Harper stop thinking as an oil CEO and start acting like he is prime minister of Canada?

VANCOUVER, BC, Jan. 27, 2012/ Troy Media/ – One of the most startling assertions contained in Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver's controversial open letter, which was released on the eve of public hearings into Enbridge's tanker and pipeline proposal to B.C.'s West Coast, concerns how he equates shipping oil to Asia as unquestionably being in the "national interest."

There are at least five key reasons why he's wrong.

1) Protecting B.C.'s coast is about protecting B.C. jobs. According to a B.C. government report, more than 45,000 people are permanently employed by B.C.'s coastal seafood and ocean recreation industries. We're not just talking the fishing fleet, but also processors, anglers and tour operators. Enbridge's pipeline and tankers project will create 560 long-term jobs in B.C., but an oil spill could wipe out 45,000 jobs – in other words, B.C. would be risking 80 jobs for every one it stands to gain.

2) Canada's already got a bad case of Dutch Disease. When a currency becomes tied to the price of a single commodity, such as oil, due to a rapid surge in exports, it frequently causes job losses in the manufacturing sector. When this happens, it's called Dutch Disease. A recent University of Ottawa study found that Dutch Disease was responsible for 42 per cent of currency-related job losses in Canada between 2002 and 2007. That works out to about 140,000 jobs lost in the manufacturing sector because of the rapid expansion of the oil sands.

3) Exporting raw bitumen exports Canadian jobs. A recent public opinion survey by ThinkHQ shows 84 per cent of Albertans would prefer to see oil sands bitumen refined in their province. Further to that, 81 per cent of Albertans think the government should be taking steps to increase the amount of oil sands upgrading and refining provincially.

Even the Alberta Federation of Labour, which represents 29 unions and 145,000 workers, has spoken out against Enbridge's tankers and pipeline proposal because it would export unrefined bitumen – and 50,000 high-quality jobs – to China. Dogwood Initiative is not prescriptive about whether new refineries should be built or where (because we believe local people should make those decisions), but one thing is certain: it never makes sense to sell the wood and buy back the chair.

4) Half of Canada is reliant on foreign oil. Most of eastern Canada is currently dependent on foreign oil from declining or volatile reserves in the North Sea and the Middle East. If our government really cared about the best interests of Canadians, they'd be at least considering Canadian domestic energy security. Instead, they are selling off our oil to foreign oil companies and pushing to allow them to ship it to Asia on supertankers through an ocean environment that Environment Canada rates as the fourth most dangerous body of water in the world (which also just so happens to be one of the last remaining pristine places on the planet).

As former senior federal government geologist David Hughes writes in his 30-page report submitted to the joint review panel: "The proclivity to liquidate these resources as fast as possible in the name of economic growth is a very short-sighted policy practised by the Alberta and federal governments at the expense of the long-term energy security of Canadians."

5) What's the hurry? It is former Alberta premier Peter Lougheed who says that we should go slower on oil sands/pipeline expansion and use the oil we have left in the ground wisely. And one of Canada's top investors, the 85-year-old Stephen Jarislowsky, has said: "Long term, I think oil in the ground is a good asset."

Enbridge's pipeline and tanker scheme is predicated on the assumption that oil sands production could (and should) be tripled in less than 25 years – that calculation goes beyond even the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers' predictions. Without that expansion, there is no oil to fill West Coast pipelines.

Given the plethora of unaddressed environmental and social concerns related to oil sands developments (as pointed out by six independent reports in 2010 and 2011), Canadians should be thinking long and hard before embarking on further rapid expansion. After all, this is a valuable non-renewable resource that we only get to dig up and use once. Let's use it in the best interests of Canadians, not for the short-term gain of multinational oil companies.

Every time you hear the federal government say "national interest," insert "corporate interest" and you'll see a clearer picture. The prime minister is abdicating his responsibility to serve in the best interests of Canadians – and Canadians, such as University of Alberta political economy professor Gordon Laxer, are right to be asking: when will Harper stop thinking as an oil CEO and start acting like he is prime minister of Canada?

Emma Gilchrist is a former Calgary Herald reporter who is now the communications director for Dogwood Initiative, a Victoria-based non-profit that brings together British Columbians to reclaim decision-making power over their air, land and water. Sign Dogwood's petition at notankers.ca.

Troy Media, Fri Jan 27 2012
Byline: Emma Gilchrist

EDMONTON – Ever wonder why Alberta, Canada's wealthiest province, is running a $3-billion deficit and saying it can't afford to maintain middle-of-the-road spending on vital public services?

That's the question that a coalition of labour and community groups want Albertans to start asking in the run-up to the next provincial election, expected to be called within the next two months.

"Why in a province as wealthy as Alberta is the talk always about cuts and freezes to things that Albertans value, like education and health care," asks Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL).

"The truth is the only reason our government is running deficits and talking about cutbacks is because they've blown a hole in the revenue base we need to fund services. The cupboard is bare because Alberta's irresponsibly low royalty and corporate tax rates have made it bare."

In an effort to highlight the unnecessary damage caused by years of tax and royalty giveaways, the AFL has teamed up with Public Interest Alberta (PIA), a network of community groups and activists, to launch an advocacy campaign on tax and royalty reform called the Better Way Alberta campaign (click here for Backgrounder).

The campaign includes a website (BetterWayAlberta.ca); direct mail advertising; and a series of humorous radio and web-based ads.

"Albertans are being told they have no choice but to accept cuts to things like post-secondary education and various services for the disadvantaged or expand public health services to our growing seniors population" says PIA Executive Director Bill Moore-Kilgannon.

"But the truth is we DO have choices. By re-establishing a progressive tax and improving our royalty rates, we could generate the money we need to maintain the kind of high-quality services that Albertans need to face the future with confidence."

"What we're trying to do in Alberta is what President Barack Obama is doing in the U.S.," concludes McGowan. "And that is to make the upcoming election campaign a forum for a discussion on tax and royalty fairness."

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For more information:

Gil McGowan, President, Alberta Federation of Labour (780) 218-9888

Bill Moore-Kilgannon, Director, Public Interest Alberta (780) 993-3736

EDMONTON - A pair of left-leaning advocacy groups have teamed up on a new pre-election advertising campaign to attack the Alberta government's tax and royalty structure.

The $200,000 campaign from Public Interest Alberta and the Alberta Federation of Labour makes the case that budget deficits run by the province are due to the government's unwillingness to get more revenue from high-earning individuals, corporations and energy companies.

"We are here to say Alberta has a broken tax and revenue system," Bill Moore-Kilgannon, executive director of Public Interest Alberta, said Wednesday.

He made reference to U.S. President Barack Obama's state of the union speech Tuesday, in which Obama called for the wealthy to pay more.

The Better Way Alberta campaign features a website, betterwayalberta.ca, a mail-out, and a series of radio ads that will run over the next two weeks, mostly in Edmonton.

Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan called the campaign "cheeky." One of the radio ads features a fake foreign oil billionaire praising the Alberta government for its tax policies, while another features a shot at education cuts by depicting a child struggling to sing the alphabet song.

The campaign cannot run when the election is called due to new rules restricting third-party advertising. McGowan said his group is consulting with lawyers to see if the website can remain operational during the election, expected this spring.

The AFL was involved in the Albertans for Change campaign during the 2008 election that targeted the Conservatives for having "no plan." Since the Conservatives won that election with another huge majority, McGowan said his group learned a lesson to "focus on issues rather than personalities."

He said Better Way Alberta is designed as a challenge to all political parties to declare the positions on various questions, such as whether they agree with Alberta's flat-tax rate and whether royalties should be raised.

"We're not trying to paint anyone as a bogeyman," he said.

Many of the arguments and statistics used by the campaign are from the work of Liberal MLA Kevin Taft in his new book, Follow the Money.

Edmonton Journal, Wed Jan 25 2012
Byline: Karen Gerein

EDMONTON – Ever wonder why Alberta, Canada's wealthiest province, is running a $3-billion deficit and saying it can't afford to maintain middle-of-the-road spending on vital public services?

That's the question that a coalition of labour and community groups want Albertans to start asking in the run-up to the next provincial election, expected to be called within the next month.

"Why in a province as wealthy as Alberta is the talk always about cuts and freezes to things that Albertans value, like education and health care," asks Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour.

"The truth is the only reason our government is running deficits and talking about cutbacks is because they've blown a hole in the revenue base we need to fund services. The cupboard is bare because Alberta's irresponsibly low royalty and corporate tax rates have made it bare."

A news conference will be held tomorrow, Wednesday, January 25th to officially unveil the advocacy campaign that the AFL has developed in partnership with the Public Interest Alberta (PIA), a network of community groups and activists.

The news conference will be held at 11:30 a.m., Wednesday, January 25th in the MacDougall Room, 3rd floor, Chateau Lacombe Crowne Plaza Hotel in downtown Edmonton (10111 Bellamy Hill).

"Albertans are being told that they have no choice but to accept cuts to things like health care, post-secondary education and various services for the disadvantaged," says PIA Executive Director Bill Moore-Kilgannon.

"But the truth is we DO have choices. By introducing modest increases to tax and royalty rates we could generate the money we need to maintain the kind of high-quality services that Albertans need to face the future with confidence."

At the news conference McGowan and Moore-Kilgannon will unveil three radio ads, a direct mail piece and a campaign website. All of this is in addition to work that the AFL and PIA did to assist in the publication of the book Follow the Money that was released last week.

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For more information:

• Gil McGowan, President, Alberta Federation of Labour (780) 218-9888

• Bill Moore-Kilgannon, Director, Public Interest Alberta (780) 993-3736

Partisan political operators are battling to define the debate over one of the most explosive issues in the coming provincial election: Why can't a wealthy province like Alberta make ends meet?

The ruling Conservative party has passed deficit budgets four consecutive years, even though the province earned between $6.7 billion and $11.9 billion in natural resource revenue in each of those years. On Feb. 9, Premier Alison Redford is widely expected to introduce a fifth deficit budget.

A conservative, right-wing analysis released Thursday blamed the deficit on skyrocketing public-sector salaries, while a liberal, left-wing explanation released Tuesday blamed ballooning corporate profits.

Who to believe.

"The fiscal challenge facing the province is likely to be the dominant issue in the campaign," MacEwan University political scientist Chaldeans Mensah said Friday. "The general public is not open to increases in taxes; it's not in the culture of the place. But we are beginning to see - even on the political right, among conservatives - a questioning of over-dependence on natural resources, especially the oil sector.

"In other words: Is Alberta open to looking at maybe boosting its revenue sources?"

On Thursday, a research paper published by the University of Calgary School of Public Policy revealed Alberta's public-sector wage bill shot up 119 per cent since 2000 - almost double the rate of growth in the rest of Canada, which stands at 63 per cent.

The study was authored by Ken Boesenkool, a former adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and founder of the Alberta Blue Committee, a group that aims in part to establish a "single right-of-centre political party" in Alberta. Co-author Ben Eisen is a senior policy analyst with the market-oriented Frontier Centre for Public Policy.

The pair explain that by 2010, wages and salaries for each Alberta civil servant were $83,326, a 103-per-cent increase from a decade earlier. Those wages took up 95 per cent of the increase in provincial revenues in the past decade, the report says.

The increase in the rest of Canada was 40 per cent.

"These numbers suggest that if the Alberta government is looking for ways of reducing spending to eliminate its deficit . they could do much worse than setting an objective of bringing their wages in line with those in other Canadian provinces," the pair says. "While this paper does not conclusively demonstrate that public sector wages in Alberta are too high, the data presented here - and the sheer size of the per-employee wage gaps - certainly place the burden of proof on those who claim that Alberta public sector wages are reasonable."

The release of that report came two days after former Liberal leader Kevin Taft released a book called Follow the Money, in which he highlights spectacular growth in corporate profits in Alberta.

The Alberta Federation of Labour, a left-wing labour organization, paid the $50,000 cost of publication.

The book, written with University of Alberta economist Mel McMillan and researcher Junaid Jahangir, also relies on Statistics Canada data, as well as government documents and TD economic reports.

Taft reveals that between 1989 and 2008, corporate profits increased from $4,400 per capita to $16,000.

During the same period, corporate profits more than doubled their share of Alberta's GDP, growing from 9.6 per cent to 22.8 per cent. By comparison, corporate profits in the rest of Canada hover at 12 per cent and in the U.S. corporate profits are historically 12 to 15 per cent of GDP.

"In this election, the province needs to have a discussion about how we will pay for public services," said AFL president Gil McGowan.

"The Wildrose party wants the election to be about deficits and cutbacks. We say it should be (about) the province's low royalties and low corporate tax rates."

The attempts to garner public attention in the weeks before the election is called for this spring may be an attempt to work around new laws that restrict third-party advertising during an election.

Under the new rules, spending is not restricted, but contributions are limited to $30,000 per donor in an election year, and forces third parties to be more creative about getting their message to the public.

Edmonton Journal, Thurs Jan 19 2012
Byline: Karen Kleiss

EDMONTON - You can hear it on the floor of AltaSteel's east Edmonton mill when the hourly price of electricity spikes. Virtually everything goes quiet.

For almost two full days this week, there was no jet engine-like roar from the massive furnace, no crackle of melting scrap metal and no sirens indicating that red hot liquid steel was about to pour into the ladle below.

"We turn off when the price per kilowatt hour hits a certain threshold," AltaSteel president David Knights said Thursday. "At a certain value, it becomes uneconomic for us to operate the steelmaking facilities."

Electricity use in Alberta is on many people's minds. Earlier this week, the Alberta Electric System Operator, which oversees the operation of the electricity grid, reported two records for energy consumption. Hearings also are taking place in Edmonton about the future of a controversial power transmission line proposal.

For some big electricity users, however, dramatic hourly price fluctuations due to consumer demand, extreme cold and a number of forced outages at power generators in the province, are a concern.

The highest possible price per megawatt hour in Alberta is $999.99, said AESO spokeswoman Dawn Delaney. "We have hit that this week."

Industrial and commercial users account for nearly 85 per cent of demand for electricity in the province. For industrial electricity consumers who aren't on a fixed-rate contract in this deregulated electricity market, those hourly price fluctuations are serious business.

While residential electricity bills are calculated based on a monthly rate, industrial users are metered and billed hourly.

That is why companies such as AltaSteel and Whitecourt's Alberta Newsprint Company keep a close watch on those fluctuating prices. Like AltaSteel, Alberta Newsprint Company's mill is typically a 24-hour-a-day operation. Electricity accounts for 40 per cent of its costs.

"The very first thing you see when you go into our mill is this screen where you see the power prices," Alberta Newsprint's director of energy Surendra Singh said.

On both Monday and Tuesday, those electricity prices prompted the newspaper mill's shutdown from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. The decision, Singh said, was obvious. "At that price, it is completely uneconomical to run our mill. We lose money to produce paper at that price."

AltaSteel employs about 400 workers. Alberta Newsprint has 190 employees. In both cases, the workers remain on-site and are paid to tend to other duties as they wait for prices to dip low enough to restart the plants.

AltaSteel was back in production Thursday morning, but staff kept an eye on AESO's website, which tracks electricity use across the province and prices.

Paul Perreault, an AltaSteel employee and president of the Local 5220 of United Steelworkers of America, which represents most AltaSteel's workers, said the spikes in electricity prices concern workers worried about the effect on the mill's future

Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan want the province to again regulate electricity prices. It would help people with their power bills at home and help keep jobs here, he said. "If you can keep power prices lower, that's a competitive advantage. It's a consumer issue, but it's also a business issue."

NDP Leader Brian Mason also called on the province this week to end deregulation. Alberta Energy spokesman Bart Johnson said Thursday there are no plans for that to happen.

"Most industries in the province do not buy their power in real time," Johnson said. "Most have contracts and therefore aren't affected by the sudden spikes, whether they be up or down. Any industry or company that doesn't like the spikes can buy into a contract like other companies do."

This week's shutdowns were not the first for AltaSteel. Knights said the plant does loses some hours each month because of high electricity prices, typically in the afternoon when people get home. "This is the longest period we've been down," he said of this week.

For OneSteel, AltaSteel's Australian parent company, electricity prices here are at the high end compared to its four facilities in Australia. "Steel is a low-margin business. It's a competitive business. There's oversupply in the steel industry," Knights said. "The power prices are putting us at a competitive disadvantage to our competition overseas and across the border."

A fixed-price contract is not an option for AltaSteel because those prices are "prohibitive," he said, urging the province to review its deregulated model.

Alberta Newsprint Company's Singh said his company is concerned about too little generating capacity in the province. In the meantime, it is working to be more energy efficient and is proposing to build its own on-site power plant.

"This kind of prices, we can't afford them and we can't have our plant going up and down the way we have right now," Singh said.

Edmonton Journal, Thurs Jan 19 2012
Byline: Sarah O'Donnell

It's no secret that Alberta's finances were mismanaged for years under Ed Stelmach and that the situation has only become worse since Alison Redford took office. That the richest province in the federation has the second highest per capita spending and is expected to run a $3.1-billion deficit this year, while depleting the reserves it had built up in good times, is a case study in fiscal mismanagement.

The obvious solution would be to decrease government spending, in order to bring it in line with the national average, while maintaining low tax rates as an incentive for businesses to grow the economy, which would serve to grow the tax base as well. But not if you ask former Alberta Liberal leader Kevin Taft who, in a new book produced in partnership with the Alberta Federation of Labour, argues that Albertans are being "played for fools" by greedy corporations that are making windfall profits, while the government scavenges for pennies.

But Mr. Taft doesn't blame the corporations, he blames "the trustee of the people's wealth — the government of Alberta — for failing every citizen and their future." The solution, according to Mr. Taft, is to throw out the province's policies of maintaining low corporate taxes and a competitive royalty regime, and start collecting a fair share of revenues for Albertans.

Now where have I heard that one before? Oh right, Ed Stelmach made the same argument when he first came to power in 2006. He tried increasing oil royalties and — surprise, surprise — investment in the oil sector dried up. The Stelmach government was forced to do an embarrassing about-face and return the rates to their original levels.

Since that time, Alberta's economy has been recovering and it once again has the highest per capita GDP in the country. And the growth is expected to continue, according to a report released last summer by Scotiabank, which predicts the provincial economy will continue to outperform its neighbours this year. "Heavy oil output is being ramped up, with further investment and construction activity underpinning a multi-year period of solid growth," reads the report. "The manufacturing and service sectors will experience a positive spillover as physical and human capital are added to support the expansion."

Indeed, this is precisely how economic growth takes place. When oil companies are increasing production — and, in turn, boosting their profits — they hire more people, they buy more equipment and they build more facilities. This, in turn, creates business for construction and service companies that also hire workers and perpetuate the cycle of growth. It's no wonder that a StatsCan report released in December shows that Alberta is the top destination for Canadians and immigrants alike.

Most people would probably prefer to have prospering companies that provide jobs and put money in their own pockets, rather than a provincial treasury that's flush with cash. After all, the government would just spend it on a $25-million foot bridge, or some other useless infrastructure project. Most people, but not everyone.

"There's nothing wrong with profitable companies. I want those in my pension plan, too," said Mr. Taft in an interview with the Edmonton Journal. "But profits in Alberta are at double the rate of anywhere else, including the U.S., that's what we are looking at." Well gee, that must be bad. Loot 'em!

On second thought, maybe penalizing businesses for being successful isn't such a bright idea. It's no wonder the Liberals have been shut out of power since 1921.

Financial Post, Thurs Jan 19 2012

New book shows Alberta wealth is going to corporate profits, not public services

How is it that a province as wealthy as Alberta is running deficits and says it must cut public services? Where is Alberta's huge wealth really going?

Those are two of the central questions that author Kevin Taft attempts to answer in a hard-hitting, fact-filled new book called "Follow the Money," released today in Edmonton. Taft is a best-selling author and former leader of the Alberta Liberal Party.

The book exposes the "big lie" that spending on public services in Canada's richest province is out of control and that Alberta can no longer afford to fund things like education and health care at current levels. Oil is selling at $100/barrel, Alberta's economy is booming, and still the government is cutting services and running deficits.

"Alberta's energy resources are creating wealth on a scale and at a pace that is unprecedented in Canadian history," says Taft. "Those resources are publicly owned, but most of the wealth from them is being scooped off the table in the form of unprecedented profits for corporations. Money that is based on the development of public resources and that could be used to fund things that Albertans and Canadians value is, instead, being siphoned off to private investors. It's not public spending that is disproportionately high in Alberta, it is profits."

"This matters for all of Canada," adds Taft. "The Alberta government is only getting crumbs from the table compared to the scale of wealth being created. But those crumbs have been used to keep taxes so low that even Alberta can't afford to balance its books and pay for services any more. Unfortunately, Alberta's unsustainably low taxes put pressure on other provinces to follow, fuelling deficits and driving service cuts right across Canada. It is a race to the bottom that no government in Canada can win, or even sustain. And the losers in this race are clearly ordinary Canadians who are being told they have to accept less from the services which they value and need."

Taft's book, co-researched by economists Mel McMillan and Junaid Jahangir, was written independently. Publication was sponsored by the Alberta Federation of Labour and Public Interest Alberta as part of a campaign to start a public discussion about taxes and royalties in Alberta.

A short documentary film, produced by award-winning film-maker Tom Radford, has also been produced as a companion to the book.

Taft will be stepping down as a MLA this spring when an election is expected to be called.

"This isn't about politics, it's not even about the election," says Taft. "It's about showing Albertans that they're not getting their fair share of the wealth being created from the resources they own. And it's about drawing attention to public policies that are hurting Albertans and, indeed, all Canadians."

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For more information:

Kevin Taft, MLA-Edmonton Riverview (780-720-4479)

Gil McGowan, President, Alberta Federation of Labour (780) 218-9888

Bill Moore-Kilgannon, Director, Public Interest Alberta (780) 993-3736