ALF V1

AFL calls for immediate implementation of Auditor General's recommendation for a crackdown on employers who repeatedly break the law

Yesterday's report from Alberta's Auditor General reveals a fundamental flaw that lies at the heart of the Alberta government's approach to workplace health and safety.

It's a flaw that threatens the lives and well-being of thousands of working Albertans. And it's a flaw that needs to be fixed immediately, says the president of Alberta's largest labour advocacy group.

"The problem is that this government just can't bring itself to crack down on employers - even if those employers have repeatedly violated the law," says AFL president Gil McGowan.

"The Conservatives pride themselves on being pro-business. But nothing justifies allowing bad bosses to ignore workplace safety laws and, in the process, put their employees at risk."

The Auditor General's report identified "serious weaknesses in the (government's) system for dealing with persistent non-compliance." In particular, the report said the government doesn't have a clear "decision ladder for escalating compliance action from promotion and education to enforcement."

The Auditor General says he identified more than 100 companies that have repeatedly broken health and safety laws and which have workplace injury rates three to four times higher than the provincial average. However, as a result of inadequate system of enforcement, these companies have been allowed to continue operating without penalty.

Many of these same employers have even been given so-called Certificates of Recognition (CORs) that are supposed to be reserved for employers who meet high safety standards. CORs are valuable because they can be used to help win contracts and qualify for reduced WCB premiums.

"You know your system is badly broken when companies are not only allowed to break the law, but they're actually handed rewards that are supposed to be reserved for companies that play by the rules," says McGowan.

McGowan is asking for an urgent meeting with Employment Minister Thomas Lukaszuk to discuss a timeline for implementing the Auditor General's recommendations on enforcement.

"Frankly, this situation has been allowed to go on for too long," says McGowan. "Voluntary compliance can only take you so far. Sometimes, for the good of all Albertans, the government has to be willing to take out the big stick and punish employers who break the law. This is a lesson the Conservative government needs to learn - and learn soon. Because, if they don't, more working Albertans are going to pay with their lives."

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Media contact:
Gil McGowan, President, AFL @ 780-483-3021 or 780-218-9888 (cell)

Finance minister downplays seriousness of issue and suggests the problem can be addressed by increasing the retirement age and requiring more seniors to sell their homes to raise cash

CALGARY -- Is the Alberta government stepping back from earlier promises to lead a nationwide fight to improve Canada's system for providing retirement income for seniors?

Based on remarks made this morning by Ted Morton, Alberta's new finance minister, that seems to be what's happening.

"Pension reform has risen to the top of the political agenda across the country," says Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan. "And the Alberta government can take a lot of credit for putting it there. But, based on the minister's comments this morning, it looks like the Stelmach government's commitment to push for meaningful changes is starting to evaporate."

In his opening remarks to the National Retirement Income Summit, being hosted today by the University of Calgary's School of Public Policy, Morton downplayed the seriousness of concerns being raised about the inadequacy of retirement savings and retirement income for millions of Canadians.
Among other things, Morton said that if seniors find themselves without adequate retirement income, they should simply continue working or consider selling off or re-mortgaging major assets like their homes.

Morton also said the Alberta government would not support an expansion of the Canada Pension Plan(CPP) - a reform that is supported by numerous seniors groups and labour groups and which is being given serious consideration by several provinces.

"The previous finance minister said that all options were on the table, but clearly that's no longer the case," said McGowan, who is also attending the summit in Calgary. "That's more than a little disappointing, especially considering the fact that an on-line public consultation process aimed at getting the views of ordinary Albertans doesn't wrap up until the end of the week."

McGowan says he was particularly disappointed in the Minister's suggestion that the private investment industry should be given another ten years to find ways to help Albertans save more appropriately for retirement.

"The investment industry has already had 30 years to prove that they have the solutions Canadians need - and they've failed miserably," said McGowan. "High fees, risky products, questionable advice, and grossly inadequate savings - that's what an over-reliance on private RRSPs has brought us. The minister needs to take his ideological blinkers off and become a little more open-minded about low-cost public solutions like expanding the CPP."

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Media contact:
Gil McGowan, President, AFL @ 780-483-3021 or 780-218-9888 (cell)

Andrew Kohsel can testify on multiple fronts to a growing problem plaguing many of today's seniors -- and will soon spread to a large swath of baby boomers.

As the head of a Calgary seniors group and part-time financial adviser in his retirement, he knows that while the ranks of greying Canadians are growing, their bank accounts aren't.

Only 38 per cent of workers in Canada are covered by a pension plan, and only 33 per cent in Alberta -- one of the worst ratios in the country, according to provincial government data.

What's more, only two in 10 employees in the private sector have a company pension to help pay for expenses in their golden years. At the same time, the number of retirees is expected to swell as more baby boomers stop working.

The numbers don't add up. "There's a lot of people who aren't going to make it," Kohsel, president of the Calgary-based Coalition of Seniors Advocates, said of the plight facing some of the group's members.

"There's people that don't have enough money to put food on their shelves."

Indeed, insufficient retirement savings and lack of pension plans for millions of Canadians is the dilemma facing federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and some of his provincial colleagues, who are in Calgary for the two-day National Retirement Income Summit that starts today.

Conference participants will examine the financial challenges facing retiring Canadians, as well as how to reform the country's pension system and encourage more people to save for their golden years.

"The lower number in Alberta that actually have a pension plan is of concern," said Alberta Tory MP Ted Menzies, the parliamentary secretary to Flaherty and Ottawa's point man on pensions.

He cautioned, though, that federal and provincial governments must not adopt knee-jerk reforms that could cripple the current system.

"There isn't the immediate panic that we have to fix this tomorrow," Menzies added. "Let's make sure we fix it right, whatever we do."

Alberta Finance Minister Ted Morton, who is scheduled to speak at the conference, wasn't available for an interview.

Wild Rose Country has been seeking a pan-Canadian voluntary pension plan to supplement the Canada Pension Plan, but failing that, is prepared to establish a regional scheme with B.C. and possibly Saskatchewan.

The province has launched its own public consultation, seeking input on how to strengthen the retirement income system, including whether to adopt a voluntary, defined-contribution plan and boost payments to CPP, among other options.

Noel Somerville, chairman of a seniors task force for Public Interest Alberta, said the issue of retirement income should be a growing concern. Many Albertans don't understand the financial pressures once they retire, such as additional costs of health care often covered by employee benefit plans, he said.

"Many people find themselves with inadequate savings," Somerville said. "We are very concerned about the baby boomers who aren't ready for retirement."

The seniors task force is worried about the limited number of workplaces offering pensions, and disappearance of defined-benefit plans in favour of defined-contribution. The group wants a national supplemental plan that establishes uniformity across the country rather than scattered regional plans.

Kohsel and his Calgary-based COSA group, meanwhile, want the province to adopt a mandatory, defined-benefit plan that forces people to save for retirement and promises a specified monthly benefit.

"No matter how hard you try to do this voluntarily, there will be a hell of a lot of people who won't do it," he said.

The numbers suggest Canada's savings system certainly needs reform. Statistics Canada reviews in recent years of wealth, debt and savings have shown nearly one-third of working Canadians had no retirement savings, while many of the rest weren't socking away enough cash.

At the same time, the country's population is quickly aging. By 2031, about a quarter of Canadians will be older than 65, compared with 13 per cent in 2005, the federal agency forecasts.

Flaherty's stop in Calgary is part of the federal government's cross-country consultation tour. Public input is being sought on proposals such as fattening Canadians' retirement income through a mandatory enrichment of the CPP and a voluntary pension scheme to supplement the public system.

The results of the national consultations will be debated by federal and provincial finance ministers in either May or June, and then taken to individual cabinets for further discussion. No timetable has been set for a final decision, and the provinces have the option of proceeding on their own.

However, Menzies believes provinces are now stepping back from adopting a pan-Canadian or regional supplemental plan, instead focusing their efforts on other priorities and looking at alternatives.

"They've really backed off," Menzies said about the push from various provinces. "(Morton) shares our concern, but it will be interesting to see how hard he wants to push this."

Alberta's Official Opposition, though, is joining seniors groups in demanding the provincial and federal governments act quickly and adopt a mandatory supplemental plan.

"They definitely have to do something," said Alberta Liberal finance critic Hugh MacDonald. "When you see how many workers in the private sector don't have pensions, it should be made mandatory."

MacDonald stresses that any supplemental plan must be portable.

Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan said he's encouraged by the recent push to address what he believes is a looming pension crisis.

However, he argued a series of policy changes are needed to ensure future generations have appropriate retirement savings, including doubling CPP benefits over the next 15 years; making any supplemental plan mandatory; and introducing a federal pension insurance system.

"Many workers, especially when they're young, don't fully understand the importance of setting money aside for themselves for their retirement," McGowan said.

Calgary Herald, Mon Apr 12 2010

Byline: Jason Fekete

With the latest Statistics Canada figure showing Alberta's unemployment rate has risen to 7.5%, the province's largest union group says the numbers reflect the Tories' lack of stimulus spending.

Despite little change in Alberta's employment in March, the unemployment rate rose 0.6 points to 7.5% as more people entered the labour force, according to StatsCan. The agency March's rate is the highest since 1996, and Alberta is the only province with an employment decline since July last year.

"Governments across the country and around the world have been following the advice of economists who recommend public spending increases to offset declining investment and job creation in the private sector," said Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour in a press release.

McGowan said there are 87,200 fewer Albertans working in full-time jobs today than there were at the top of the pre-recession boom around October 2008, even though province's working age population has increased by 99,000.

Since the recession began, McGowan figures about 22,000 jobs have disappeared in construction, 31,000 in manufacturing, 22,000 in engineering and technical occupations, 33,000 in trade and about 7,500 in oil and gas.

"The recession has had similar effects on private sector employment in other provinces," McGowan said in the statement.

McGowan said in other provinces, the investment of public dollars kept people working through the worst of the recession and is now fuelling an economic resurgence as the private sector gets back on its feet. However, the lack of stimulus spending is making the recession deeper and longer than it needed to be in Alberta.

Fort McMurray Today, Mon Apr 12 2010
Byline: Carol Christian

Where did 9,700 Albertans ready to work if they could only find a job come from?
A surge in jobseekers boosted Alberta's unemployment rate 0.6 percentage points to 7.5 per cent in March, its highest level since 1996, Statistics Canada reported Friday.

Much of the increase is attributed to the labour force, or those seeking work, growing by those 9,700 people.

That factor overshadowed the fact the province also lost 3,400 jobs in the month. While employment fell by 4,500 full-time jobs, it was partially offset by the gain of 1,100 part-time jobs.

Compared to a year ago, Alberta's labour force has grown by 13,200 people.
Alberta is the only province where employment is below the level of July, when the national recession bottomed out.
It's the third month in a row the rate has risen in Alberta.
"This morning's job report is a disappointment for Alberta, which continues to lag the rest of the country in employment," said ATB Financial senior economist Todd Hirsch.
Different theories emerged Friday on where the new jobseekers who boosted Alberta's unemployment rate came from.

Hirsch said they could be relatives of the unemployed entering the job market.
"Alberta households may still be under some financial stress as total employment is still falling a bit, and part-time work is up. That may be drawing other household members into the job market to help make ends meet," Hirsch said.

Alberta Employment and Immigration Minister Thomas Lukaszuk said most unemployed Albertans are still looking for work and are counted in the labour force, unlike provinces such as Newfoundland, where many jobless have stopped looking for work.

Non-Albertans also continue to migrate to Alberta based on its reputation as an economic hot spot, Lukaszuk said.

"But the bulk of the explanation is the fact that we are just recovering from a recession."
Lukaszuk said he has directed his department in helping Albertans connect with "large numbers of employers looking for workers in this province."

This has included organizing job fairs in employment offices, allowing job postings on the government website and redirecting ministerial spending from attracting outside-of-Canada workers to servicing those already here, he said.

But Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan said the provincial government was to blame for continuing job losses by not increasing public spending to stimulate growth.

"Stimulative spending has helped keep people working in other provinces, and it's helping to resuscitate the economies in places like the United States and Europe," McGowan said in a statement.

"But the Alberta government continues to cling to the nonsensical notion that the best way to deal with an unemployment problem is to lay more people off."

Alberta's unemployment rate is the third-lowest in Canada behind Saskatchewan at 5.1 per cent and Manitoba at 5.2 per cent.

Edmonton's rate rose 0.5 percentage points to 7.3 per cent. Calgary edged up one-tenth of a percentage point to 7.2 per cent.

Most of the 12,100 jobs lost in Alberta were in educational services; public administration; and professional, scientific and technical services, says Alberta Employment and Immigration.

Goods-producing sectors such as forestry, fishing, mining, oil and gas, manufacturing and construction gained 8,600 jobs.

"While Alberta lost jobs overall, there were gains posted in the three areas of employment hit hardest by last year's recession," Hirsch said.

"Despite the lousy first quarter, jobs are bound to return as the economy gains momentum in the rest of 2010."

Edmonton Journal, Sat Apr 10 2010
Byline: Bill Mah

Alberta lost jobs for the third consecutive month in March as the unemployment rate rose to its highest level in 14 years, figures released Friday show.

Despite signs of an economic rebound, the provincial unemployment rate rose to 7.5 per cent, from 6.9 per cent in February, Statistics Canada reported Friday. That's the highest level since 1996 and another sign Alberta's economic recovery may lag the rest of the country, said one analyst.

"It still looks like we're the ones left out of that recovery despite all the positive news that we've been hearing," said Jacques Marcil, economist with Canada West Foundation, a think-tank based in Calgary, noting higher oil prices and recent announcements of oilsands projects starting to move ahead again.

"The jobs are certainly not materializing."

There were 3,400 fewer jobs in the province last month than in February. More Albertans were also looking for work, pushing up the unemployment rate.
Premier Ed Stelmach said rising unemployment is top of mind for the provincial government.

"We want to, of course, reduce our unemployed numbers and (get) our rates down, so we're going to keep working on that," he said in Calgary.

But Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, said other provinces have offset job losses by increasing public spending. Alberta, on the other hand, is cutting public service jobs, he notes.

"The lack of stimulative spending is making the recession deeper and longer than it needed to be," he said in a statement.

Calgary's jobless rate rose to 7.2 per cent in March, from 7.1 per cent the previous month.

More troubling, noted Marcil, is the continued rise in youth unemployment rates, which have more than doubled in the past two years.

"It's really striking," he said. "The 15-19 age group has lost almost 20,000 jobs over that two-year period in Alberta."

Those are typically the young men who have left school to work on rigs, or other oil and gas related jobs, he noted. But even faced with daunting job prospects, they don't appear to be heading back to school or other training.

"The unemployment rate is still quite high; that means they are still looking for work . . . as opposed to going back to school," said Marcil.

Canadian employment continued to rise in March, but at a slower pace than expected, as the country's economic recovery maintained its momentum.

Across the country, Statistics Canada said Friday that 17,900 jobs were created last month, with the unemployment rate remaining at 8.2 per cent. Economists had expected between 20,000 and 26,000 new positions in March and a jobless rate of 8.1 per cent.

The federal agency said the March number brings total job gains since July 2009 to 176,000. In February, 20,900 positions were created and 43,000 were added in January.
BMO Capital Markets economist Benjamin Reitzes said "despite the below consensus gain, Canadian employment has risen in the first three months of 2010, the best string since late 2008."

The biggest job gains in March came in the professional, scientific and technical services sectors, as well as construction and natural resources, Statistics Canada said.
The Canadian economy grew by 0.6 per cent in January, beating forecasts and indicating the pace of recovery will be much stronger than anticipated this year.

The Bank of Canada has projected first-quarter growth of 3.5 per cent, but some economists now say GDP could advance by as much as five per cent during the January-to-March period.

Federal Human Resources Minister Diane Finley said the latest job numbers shows the recovery, while still fragile, is producing more jobs.

"What we are seeing is small, but steady gain in employment across the country," she said Friday.

"We have said all along that the recovery is fragile and so I'm pleased to see steady progress rather than hockey-stick type improvements that could rebound back."

Still, the improving employment picture and the steady recovery from recession could heat up inflation, which is now running at an annual pace of 1.6 per cent. Core inflation -- which strips out volatile items -- stands at 2.1 per cent, above the Bank of Canada's target of two per cent.

The central bank has pledged to keep its trendsetting interest rate at a record low 0.25 per cent until the end of June, unless higher prices begin to pose a threat.

Calgary Herald, Sat Apr 10 2010
Byline: Lisa Schmidt

Alberta is only province in Canada that continues to shed jobs - and it's also the only province that didn't increase spending to deal with the recession.

It's no coincidence that Alberta is the only province in Canada that continues to shed jobs, says the president of the province's largest union group.

"Governments across the country and around the world have been following the advice of economists who recommend public spending increases to offset declining investment and job creation in the private sector," says Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour.

"Stimulative spending has helped keep people working in other provinces - and it's helping to resuscitate the economies in places like the United States and Europe. But the Alberta government continues to cling to the nonsensical notion that the best way to deal with an unemployment problem is to lay more people off."

Figures released today from Statistics Canada show the unemployment rate in Alberta has risen to 7.5 per cent - its highest level since 1996. There are 87,200 fewer Albertans working in full-time jobs today than there were at the top of the pre-recession boom (October 2008) - even though province's working age population has increased by 99,000.

Since the recession began, McGowan points out that about 22,000 jobs have disappeared in construction; 31,000 in manufacturing; 22,000 in engineering and technical occupations; 33,000 in trade and about 7,500 in oil and gas.

"The recession has had similar effects on private sector employment in other provinces," says McGowan. "But in other provinces, those losses have been offset by the jobs created in both the public and private sectors by increases in public spending."

McGowan says that, in other provinces, the investment of public dollars kept people working through the worst of the recession and is now fueling an economic resurgence as the private sector gets back on its feet.

"But here in Alberta, the lack of stimulative spending is making the recession deeper and longer than it needed to be. I guess we can call it the Alberta Disadvantage," he concluded.

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Media contact:

Gil McGowan, President, AFL @ 780-483-3021 or 780-218-9888 (cell)

Leticia Gladue is a little embarrassed to admit it, but her bathroom at home is an outhouse.

Dawn Seeseequon has no running water in her home so she showers at school. But she can't shower and classes are cancelled when the school runs out of water, which it did for three days last week.

Gladue, Seeseequon and Daphne Ominayak live in Third World conditions in the richest province in one of the richest countries in the world. They are three of about 500 members of the Lubicon Cree who live in Little Buffalo, a six-hour drive north of Edmonton.

The Lubicon have been locked in a long struggle with the federal government over a land claim and development has been stalled there for decades.

But Seeseequon, 17, Ominayak, 16, and Gladue, 15, got a taste of the outside world last week when they got a chance to take a bite out of the Big Apple.

The trio flew to New York as winners of a human rights essay contest sponsored by Amnesty International, the Canadian Friends Service Committee (Quakers), KAIROS, the Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives, the Alberta Federation of Labour, and the Agriculture Union (PSAC).

Their five-day whirlwind trip included visiting the United Nations as part of a human rights delegation. The visit coincided with the 20th anniversary of the United Nations Human Rights Committee resolution that Canada had violated the human rights of the Lubicon Cree by failing to recognize and protect Lubicon rights to their lands, and that intensive oil and gas development had devastated the local economy and way of life.
The resolution urged the Canadian government to start respecting the Lubicons' human rights.

The girls read the essays about their lives to the Human Rights Committee.

"Some people were amazed because 20 years later, things still haven't been done, nothing has changed," Gladue said Sunday, after arriving back in Alberta.

"They were kind of surprised by our essays and the things we wrote in them.

"All they said was that they were going to keep supporting us."
Seeseequon wrote about the impact oil and gas development has had on the traplines worked by her mother and grandmother.

If things don't change, Seeseequon wrote, "our tradition will eventually fade away."

Ominayak's essay noted that "the school, health centre, band office and very few houses are the only places that actually do have a running water supply ... which has to be trucked into the community.

"Little Buffalo has no recreation, nor any indoor plumbing, no gas station, or grocery store -- not even a health facility!" Gladue wrote in her essay.
"The people of Lubicon have to travel about an hour and a half just to get to the nearest hospital and grocery stores.

"This is what grinds my gears and disappoints me," Gladue continued. "Why can't my people and I have just a nice clean, healthy, little, happy community?"

Dietlind Bork, Amnesty International's regional co-ordinator for the Lubicon, who accompanied the teens and their teacher Carol Kastelic, to New York, said Little Buffalo could have "running water, adequate health services, adequate housing once they settle" so that means the federal government has made the provision of basic human rights a condition of any settlement.

The Lubicon believe the land is theirs, but the government says Treaty 8 extinguished the rights of First Nations, even those who did not sign the treaty, to traditional lands in exchange for reserve lands and treaty rights.
The provincial government has set aside 247 square kilometres for a future reservation, but contends the federal government is responsible for negotiating a settlement.

The teens say the process of writing their essays and travelling to New York has motivated them to continue to fight for Lubicon rights. Ominayak plans to make a video of youth talking about their lives on the reserve.
"We want to keep going to help our people," Gladue said.

Edmonton Journal, Mon Mar 29 2010
Byline: Chris Zdeb

Thirteen Albertans died of farm-related injuries last year, including a six-year-old boy who was kicked in the head by a horse and a 76-year-old woman who was crushed by a bull, according to new provincial figures.

The number of deaths is down from the previous year -- when 23 people were killed -- and below the provincial average of 18.

The figures come as industry awaits word on whether the province will rework its workplace safety legislation to include farms. A judge called on the Stelmach government more than a year ago to make the changes after a man died while cleaning out a grain silo at a High River feedlot.

Alberta's labour and agriculture ministers, who are reviewing an industry consultation on the matter, haven't said when they'll decide whether to make the changes, but signs are stacking up against the move.

Last week, Agriculture Minister Jack Hayden directed $715,000 to the province's farm safety programs -- an education-first approach the Alberta government has long championed over legislative change. The minister, who wasn't available for comment, told the legislature last week the government is "concentrating on reducing fatalities and injuries rather than regulating and legislating what takes place there."

Farms have been exempted from the Occupational Health and Safety Act since 1977, and in recent years, labour leaders have renewed the push to rewrite the legislation.
Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan said it's frustrating the government has resisted the changes for so long.

"It's become clear the government doesn't plan to make any significant changes to the workplace rules, and that they, in fact, don't recognize this is a serious problem," McGowan said.

Eric Musekamp of the Farmworkers Union of Alberta welcomed the drop in 2009 fatalities, but said he hopes the figures won't be used as a political ploy by the government to avoid crafting new workplace safety laws. "My discomfort is from thinking the government is going to trumpet this as some sort of success," Musekamp said.

"Farm workers suffer mightily from the exclusion. I intend to keep chewing away at it, and I'm hopeful we can impress upon the government they need to do this thing."

The 2009 farm-related fatality figures were compiled by the provincial medical examiner's office for Alberta Agriculture, and haven't yet been finalized.
In 2008, Alberta saw deaths on farms spike to 23, including six children.

Laurel Aitken, a provincial farm safety co-ordinator with Alberta Agriculture, said 2008 was a "really tragic year," particularly considering the number of children killed, and said Alberta has been working hard to keep farms safe.

"We have a lot of resource development we do. We spend quite a bit of effort on awareness and doing campaigns to bring safety front of mind for people," she said.

Last week, Liberal MLA Bridget Pastoor grilled Hayden and Employment Minister Thomas Lukaszuk in the legislature over when the government will move on the provincial judge's recommendations.

Lukaszuk said the Stelmach government is committed to farmer safety, but suggested industry will have to "wait and see," whether any action will be taken.

Calgary Herald, Tues Mar 23 2010
Byline: Jamie Komarnicki

EDMONTON - Hundreds of chanting protesters from across the province marched through downtown Edmonton to the Alberta legislature on Saturday, demanding the provincial government stop spending cuts to public services.

One group, made up mainly of students, marched from Grant Mac-Ewan University. Another, made up of more than 150 people including social workers from around Alberta, seniors and people with disabilities, marched from the Shaw Conference Centre.

Cars honked to show support as the line of demonstrators paraded down Jasper Avenue, chanting, carrying flags and signs and holding lengths of coloured fabric intended to represent the fabric of Alberta's communities. Gary F. Johnston, who is blind, used the fabric to guide him as he marched to the rally.

"I don't agree with job cuts," said Johnston, who came by bus with a group from Calgary to attend the event. "It's not that Alberta can't afford it here."

About 400 people converged at the legislature early Saturday afternoon to oppose government cuts announced in February as part of the 2010-11 provincial budget. Many protesters wore plaid scarves of green, blue and gold, distributed at 22 town hall meetings across the province organized by Join Together Alberta.

The coalition of unions has been holding the meetings and urging citizens to speak out against cuts to public services they say will lengthen health-care wait times, increase school class sizes and undermine services for vulnerable Albertans such as people with disabilities.

Demonstrators waving union flags and carrying signs that read "Stop the Cuts" and "Education is a Right" cheered and chanted as they listened to several speakers, including Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour and a key organizer of Saturday's rally.
"Since the provincial budget came down on Feb. 9, I've been trying to understand the process behind it," McGowan told the crowd. "I've been trying to get into the heads of people like Ed Stelmach and (Finance Minister) Ted Morton, and I guess that might explain why I'm feeling a little under the weather."

McGowan criticized the government for responding to the global recession by eliminating public service jobs, freezing wages, cutting employment programs "and slashing services for families in need."

"Who believes that Alberta, Canada's richest province by almost any definition, can no longer afford all these services that we currently have?" McGowan said.

"We know that public services strengthen the fabric of our communities and our economy. We know that investments in things like schools and colleges and infrastructure are absolutely crucial to a more prosperous and equitable future."

Grade 11 Harry Ainlay student Mallory Chipman, who organized the student march, told the crowd she was "shocked" and disappointed at the cuts announced in the provincial budget, especially those that will drive up the cost of post-secondary education.

"A post-secondary education is beyond expensive already," Chipman said. "Increasing it by hundreds of dollars makes it that much more difficult for us as students to achieve this level of education. Is post-secondary education in this province going to be only for the wealthy? Are the oil rigs going to be the only answer for those who want to make a decent living, but can't afford to pursue a higher education?"

The government has made $1.3 billion in cuts to areas such as environment, children and youth services and employment. However, that money is being reinvested back into priority areas such as health and education, said Alberta Finance spokesman Bart Johnson.

Alberta Health Services will get a one-time debt repayment of $759 million and a massive 17-percent increase in its operating budget. School boards will receive $250 million more. Funding for programs for people with developmental disabilities will stay the same, as will the Alberta Seniors Benefit and AISH.

"So there were cuts in other areas of government, but the focus was on protecting funding in those most important areas, being health, education and supports for seniors and the vulnerable," Johnson said.

"Given what we were up against as a province -- a large deficit with our revenues having dropped off significantly in the past two years -- I think we struck a good balance in terms of reducing costs in some areas of program spending and increasing or maintaining costs in those most important areas."

Edmonton Journal, Sun Mar 21 2010
Calgary Herald, Sun Mar 21 2010
Byline: Andrea Sands