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Edmonton - Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan will participate in the pre-budget lock-up alongside other stakeholder groups.

McGowan says he has concerns about the direction that budget discussions have taken, and is glad to have an opportunity to look over the document in advance.

“Ralph Klein celebrated getting us out of debt by putting us back on the road to debt,” AFL president Gil McGowan said. “The reason that the Redford Government is having problems with budgeting is that they haven’t stopped giving Ralph Bucks to the province’s super rich.”

The lock-up, which allows media and stakeholders to read and analyze the budget before it goes public, is a longstanding parliamentary tradition. This is the first year that the AFL has been allowed to join the lock-up.

“We appreciate the unique role that journalism plays in a democracy, and we therefore have always supported media organizations being granted early access through the lock-up,” AFL president Gil McGowan said. “But the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation is not a media organization. They’ve used their exclusion from the lock-up to create unnecessary drama.”

When last-minute collusion with the Wildrose Party allowed some other groups to join the lock-up, the AFL made a formal request to the office of Finance Minister Doug Horner.

“We’re pleased to have been given an advance opportunity to see how this budget will affect the more than 160,000 union members we represent,” McGowan said.

MEDIA AVAILABILITY:

Immediately following release of the provincial budget (Estimated at 3:30 pm)
Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan
Legislature Rotunda

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 MEDIA CONTACTS:

For more information, please contact Olav Rokne, AFL Communications Director at 780-289-6528 (cell) or via email [email protected].

Gil McGowan, President, Alberta Federation of Labour will be available by phone at 780-218-9888 (cell) to out-of-town media following his in-person availability.

CALGARY — As the legislature opens today with the provincial budget ready for Thursday delivery, a new poll suggests the government has lost the trust of many Albertans.

Sensing weakness, political wolves from across the spectrum are starting to circle the PC campfire.

A big-sample survey from Marc Henry's ThinkHQ Public Affairs says only 29 per cent of Albertans feel the government can be trusted.

It's a dangerous number for Premier Alison Redford, whose personal approval rating has also dropped 25 points since last August, according to the survey of 1,214 Albertans.

Fifty-eight per cent of Albertans now disapprove of her performance, while only 33 per cent like it, says the poll conducted last month.

Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith gets 46 per cent approval, NDP Leader Brian Mason has 40 per cent, and Liberal Leader Raj Sherman scores 37 per cent.

Yes, the leaders of the two smaller opposition parties, with a total of nine seats in the legislature, both have higher popularity ratings than the premier.

If an election were held now, Wildrose would win 38 per cent of the decided popular vote, and the PCs only 26 per cent.

Most of those numbers have little meaning, of course; an election is three years away. Last April taught us all how polls can swing.

But the plunge in public trust is something different — and critical.

Once lost, trust is difficult to regain. A string of polls like this could feed into a serious challenge to Redford's leadership at the party's mandatory review in November.

Her sliding support is already lighting a fire under her former allies in the unions, who seem propelled by a fine rage at what they consider betrayal.

Nurses, teachers and other labour groups met in Edmonton on Monday to condemn the government's "Klein-style cuts." Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, said the budget will be "Klein lite."

He was talking about ex-premier Ralph Klein's severe cost-cutting agenda that began in 1993.

At the same time, the right-wing Fraser Institute accuses the government of reckless spending and incompetent saving.

To all this the government responds in its usual fashion — by trying to say two things at once.

Finance Minister Doug Horner, at a party fundraising event last week, said "it's important that government show you we can be lean and we can be mean in what we're doing.

"So we're going to head in that direction in a big way, probably bigger than what's happened in the province in the past 20 to 25 years."

He's saying the budget will be tougher than any of Klein's, right?

But no, the PCs won't engage in Klein-style "hacks and slashes across the board."

So it will be tough; except, don't worry, it won't be so tough.

This is how the government lost trust.

Many Albertans simply can't decipher what they mean, or what they are.

The contrast with Klein is stark. In his worst moments, when he did the most difficult things, everybody knew exactly what he meant. Even his enemies trusted him to do what he said, even if they hated it.

These Redford PCs have lost the art. Now, mistrust leaves all their efforts open to attack.

One medical leader, Calgary's Dr. Lloyd Maybaum, even accused the premier Monday of having a "revenge problem" that prompts her to get back at doctors for past criticism.

And so, the PCs are bleeding support to both the right and left, confining themselves to a shrinking centre where even their backers don't know quite what to make of them.

All this is happening just as the budget is about to formally break many promises from the last election campaign. As Horner said, dating his vocabulary in a mid-Elvis fossil, it will be "hairy."

Maybe he was talking about the wolves.

Don Braid's column appears regularly in the Herald.

The Calgary Herald, Tuesday, Mar. 05, 2013
Byline: Don Braid

Days ahead of the provincial budget, Alberta's largest unions are calling on Premier Alison Redford to avoid Ralph Klein-like cuts to the public service in a bid to balance the books.

Speaking jointly in Edmonton Monday, Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) president Gil McGowan said Ms. Redford's warnings of "tough choices" in Thursday's budget – which is expected to cut some services, abandon other earlier promises of increases and still deliver a deficit – amounts to "something close to a betrayal" for a premier who campaigned on preserving services and social programs.

"There's absolutely no doubt we're disappointed with Alison Redford, and frankly we think most Albertans should be disappointed as well," Mr. McGowan said, adding the premier's "promises and reassurances are starting to ring hollow."

Mr. McGowan was joined Monday by leaders from the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE), the Alberta Teachers' Association (ATA), the United Nurses of Alberta (UNA) and the Health Sciences Association of Alberta (HSAA). Altogether, they represent over 160,000 public employees in the province.

Under Mr. Klein, who famously slashed public services two decades ago to balance Alberta's budget, union uproar would hardly be surprising. But Ms. Redford has relied on union support in both her campaign for her party's leadership and last year's provincial election. She's since had to backtrack on funding promises and has been locked in bitter contract battles with doctors and teachers.

Debt-free Alberta is poised to table what's expected to be its sixth consecutive deficit budget on Thursday, despite a strong economy, steady growth and low unemployment. In explaining Alberta's inability to balance its budget during a boom, Ms. Redford has pointed to what she's called a "bitumen bubble," referring to the "differential" between global benchmark oil prices and the lower price Alberta's oil sands bitumen fetches. The differential customarily fluctuates, but has widened lately.

Ms. Redford has said the "bitumen bubble" crisis was unforeseen, though industry had warned about it for years and the province's past budget documents predicted the discount would be, in fact, larger than it is now. The labour leaders, as such, dismissed the "bubble" as a misnomer.

"I think that's part of the whole game, to create that sense of panic," said AUPE President Guy Smith, adding: "Those of us who were around in the Klein years, the early 90s, are beginning to smell it in the air again a little bit."

Even if funding for a program holds steady, it's a de facto cut in the fast-growing province, ATA vice-president Mark Ramsankar said. Without previously promised education increases of 2 per cent, which are now in doubt, "we'll see 12,000 students wedged into classrooms [next year] with no funding or services to support them," he said.

Ms. Redford has said Alberta needs to totally overhaul its fiscal formula, but has been vague in how she plans to do that. "I think we have the opportunity to change the parameters of the discussion about what the future of this province looks like," she said in a speech last week.

That means cuts, tax hikes, borrowing or some combination thereof. Ms. Redford already plans to take on billions in debt to pay for infrastructure, but has ruled out borrowing for operating expenses. The province has frozen salaries of its managers and said it will cut about 10 per cent of those positions over three years. Raising taxes in this particular budget, she has said, "is taking the easy way out."

But Albertans have little appetite for cuts, according to an Environics Research Group poll commissioned by the AFL and released Monday. Of 1,014 respondents, 73 per cent saw no need for public service cuts.

Instead, to make ends meet, 77 per cent favoured higher taxes for corporations and the rich, while 72 per cent feel Alberta should reintroduce a progressive income tax, where the rate increases for higher earners, and that the province should hike oil royalties.

Alberta is the only province without a provincial sales tax, and the poll shows little appetite for that to change: 82 per cent were somewhat or strongly oppose introducing a PST. The poll is considered accurate within 3.1 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

All told, it means voters aren't buying into the crisis the Redford government is trying to raise the alarm on, argued Elisabeth Ballermann, president of the HSAA, which represents a total of 23,000 health care workers. "Albertans aren't buying it. Albertans are saying we should be able to afford this," she said.

Ms. Redford won a majority in last year's spring election by steering her party to the centre and fending off the right-wing Wildrose Party, which she argued would hurt Alberta by cutting spending on social programs and infrastructure. Now she finds herself considering similar moves.

"Albertans who elected this government believed they were not electing a Wildrose policy government," UNA President Heather Smith said. "In fact, I've heard people say, if what we're going to get is Wildrose policy, maybe we should have just voted for them, right? [Ms. Redford's Progressive Conservatives] weren't elected to do the kinds of slash-and-burn to social programs," that labour leaders now fear.

The legislature is scheduled to resume its session on Tuesday, with the budget coming two days later. Ms. Redford's government has signalled it will split the budget into an operational plan, capital plan and spending plan. It will borrow for capital project to avoid what the premier calls a "social infrastructure deficit," or a shortage of schools and hospitals as new residents flock to her province.

The Globe and Mail, Monday, Mar. 04, 2013
Byline: Josh Wingrove

Nurses, teachers, health sciences professionals, and public employees urge government to listen to majority of Albertans

Edmonton - Labour leaders are standing up for the majority of Albertans who do not want to see public services cut on March 7.

At a joint press conference on Monday, March 4, at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Edmonton, the presidents of the province's six largest public sector unions and associations urged Alison Redford to listen to Albertans, most of whom want their public services protected. The Alberta Federation of Labour, Alberta Teachers' Association, Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, Canadian Union of Public Employees-Alberta, Health Sciences Association of Alberta and United Nurses of Alberta have decided to join their voices together to send a clear message about the upcoming budget.

Polling, conducted by Environics from February 14-21, 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.

Far from thinking the government should cut public services, the majority of Albertans believe we should be investing more in health care, education, and other services. Albertans see a growing province, a booming economy, soaring corporate profits and low unemployment, and they're confused as to why health care, education, and community services still don't have the resources they need to do the job right.

Albertans were clear in their message that they support the need for some increased revenues, but that they reject the idea of a sales tax. Only 17 per cent of those polled were in support of a provincial sales tax, 72 per cent said they would be in favour of returning to a progressive income tax, and 77 per cent were in favour of increased taxes on corporations and those who make more than $200,000 per year.

When asked about spending, respondents identified several priorities: Creating a provincial strategy for long-term care for seniors was a high priority for 70 per cent of respondents, while protecting publicly-funded health care against for-profit health care was identified as a high priority by 57 per cent. Nearly half of respondents said that hiring more teachers and support staff for elementary and secondary schools was a high priority.

The government is trying to justify massive cuts to health care and education by saying oil prices have dipped. Albertans aren't buying it. Albertans know a growing economy needs adequate investment in public services.

Because labour leaders were concerned about the direction that budget discussions had been going, they commissioned a poll by Environics Research Group to find out what Alberta are looking for. The poll, which surveyed more than 1,000 Albertans, is considered to have a margin of error of +/- 3.1, with a 95% confidence level.

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MEDIA CONTACT:

Olav Rokne, AFL Communications Director at 780-289-6528 (cell) or via email [email protected].

Fact sheet–Revenue, spending & public sector wages (Revised March 2013)
Fact sheet–Oil companies' profits (March 2013)

Podcast of today's conference

EDMONTON - Labour leaders in Alberta have joined forces to say they don't want to see public services cuts in Thursday's provincial budget.

The group consists of the Alberta Federation of Labour, Alberta Teachers' Association, Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, Canadian Union of Public Employees-Alberta, Health Sciences Association of Alberta and United Nurses of Alberta.

They said in a joint release Monday that the majority of Albertans don't want public services cut and would rather see an increase in taxes for the wealthy and corporations.

The group says Albertans see a booming economy, soaring corporate profits and low unemployment.

So they're confused as to why health care, education, and community services still don't have the resources they need to do the job right.

The group says the Conservative government is trying to justify massive cuts to health care and education by saying oil prices have dipped, but the labour leaders say Albertans aren't buying it.

Huffpost Alberta, Monday, Mar. 04, 2013

Fact Sheet_Oil Companies' Profits

March 2013

EDMONTON - In a show of unity, nurses, teachers and labour groups joined Monday to condemn "Klein-style cuts" they say are coming to public services in Thursday's provincial budget.

Premier Alison Redford was elected for her "progressive" Conservative agenda, but she is betraying those promises with a "slash and burn" budget rather than moving ahead with tax reforms to cover the deficit, Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour. told a news conference.

"The (budget) will be Klein light and this is not what Albertans thought they were getting when they voted for Alison Redford as opposed to the Wildrose party,'' McGowan said.

Five of the biggest public sector unions — the Alberta Teachers' Association, Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, United Nurses of Alberta, the Health Sciences Association and the Canadian Union of Public Employees — also released polling data showing that most people do not want to see public service cuts and instead favour some kind of tax reform — higher royalties or a return to progressive income tax — to reduce the red ink in the budget.

A deficit of $4 billion is expected at the end of this fiscal year as energy revenues plunged by an estimated $6 billion due to low bitumen prices.

The unions also took aim at the comments from conservative lobby groups like the Fraser Institute that Alberta has the highest per capita spending of all provinces and that spending is out of control.

Alberta is the middle of the pack, spending about $10,623 per person while Newfoundland is at the top with spending of $12,029 per person, and Ontario and Quebec are lowest at $9,359 and $8,800 respectively, McGowan said. The AFL research is based on provincial budget documents across the country.

Alberta also has the second lowest number of government workers per capita, he. Ontario has the lowest and Prince Edward Island has the highest number of civil servants per capita.

"So we are wealthy like Saudi Arabia and spending like New Brunswick," McGowan said.

Late last month, Redford announced a three-year wage freeze for managers in the civil service and plans to cut their ranks by 10 per cent — more than 400 jobs — as she struggles to rein in spending.

For education, even a freeze in funding would amount to a cut because 12,000 more students are expected to enter the school system this year and have to be accommodated, ATA vice-president Mark Ramsankar said.

"Redford promised stable, long-term funding and full day kindergarten, but it's not clear either of those promises will be delivered," Ramsankar said.

The union, which is currently in bargaining, also fears the province will axe the professional development fund.

Former premier Ralph Klein used a strategy of creating a climate of crisis around government deficits and unions vowed not to succumb to that again.

"My message to Redford is don't panic," said Heather Smith, president of UNA. "This is a revenue problem, not a spending problem, and you are prescribing the wrong treatment."

"Albertans believed they were not electing a Wildrose-policy government. If that's what they are going to get, I've heard many are wondering if should vote for them."

UNA's contract ends at the end of March. AUPE also begins bargaining this spring.

The poll done by Environics Research Group in February shows that 72 per cent of Albertans favour going back to progressive income tax, and 78 per cent supported increasing taxes paid by corporations and high income earners.

In the poll, 71 per cent agreed with the statement that Albertans are not getting their fair share of royalty revenue — though the number fell to 64 per cent in Calgary Calgary.

The poll of 1,014 people is accurate to plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

McGowan said Redford is blaming the "bitumen bubble" though the real problem is the government does not raise enough revenue to pay for services.

"Redford should fix the revenue hole. That's what she was elected to do. If it is not betrayal (of promises), it is close to betrayal."

The Edmonton Journal, Monday, Mar. 04, 2013
Byline: Sheila Pratt

Nurses, teachers, health sciences professionals, and public employees urge government to listen to majority of Albertans

Edmonton - Labour leaders are standing up for the majority of Albertans who do not want to see public services cut on March 7.

At a joint press conference on Monday, March 4, at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Edmonton, the presidents of all five public sector unions and the Alberta Federation of Labour will urge Alison Redford to listen to Albertans, most of whom want their public services protected.

When:
10 AM, March 4, 2013

Where:
River Valley Room, Lobby Level
Crowne Plaza Chateau Lacombe Hotel
10111 Bellamy Hill Rd NW, Edmonton

Who:
Canadian Union of Public Employees, Alberta President Marle Roberts
United Nurses of Alberta, President Heather Smith
Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, President Guy Smith
Health Sciences Association of Alberta, President Elisabeth Ballermann
Alberta Teachers' Association, Vice President Mark Ramsankar
Alberta Federation of Labour, President Gil McGowan

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MEDIA CONTACT:

Olav Rokne, AFL Communications Director at 780-289-6528 (cell) or via email [email protected].

In front of a government panel on Tuesday, a labour group argued in favour of increasing refining operations in Alberta, instead of sending unprocessed bitumen to foreign refineries.

Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan told the province's Standing Committee on Alberta's Economic Future that upgrading bitumen locally should be a top priority for resource development and job growth.

The committee was debating whether or not Alberta should renew the Bitumen Royalty in Kind program, where the province receives oil from producers instead of royalties and then uses that bitumen to feed upgraders.

Under BRIK, the program has created capacity to upgrade up to 75,000 additional barrels per day. Established by former premier Ed Stelmach in 2007, Stelmach pledged to upgrade 72% of Alberta's bitumen locally by 2016.

Although a new, $5.7 billion refinery is currently being built near Redwater, no new refinery has been built in Alberta since 1984, despite the sudden demand for Canadian oil.

A refinery that would have been operated by several First Nations bands was dismissed by the government in early 2012, after the project's proponents failed to impress the province with their business model.

There is also talk about creating a pipeline linking the oilsands to refineries in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick. However, McGowan and the AFL have focused most of their criticism towards pipelines that aim to send bitumen to foreign refineries.

"This is the time to be investing in the long-term prosperity of this province," said McGowan. "75,000 barrels per day may sound like a lot, but it's really little more than a drop in the bucket."

The AFL has continually argued against projects like the proposed Northern Gateway and Keystone XL pipelines. McGowan says most of the jobs created would be short-term, temporary jobs and would only provide job growth to refineries in the United States and Asia.

Government reports obtained by the AFL through freedom of information requests show exporting bitumen provides a 35% return in value, while locally upgrading synthetic crude captures 70%.

After Premier Alison Redford told Albertans that the upcoming budget would see a $6 billion loss in resource revenue – a phenomenon she called a "bitumen bubble" – McGowan has repeatedly asked the province to look into domestic refining.

"The latest government projection is that we will only be upgrading 26% of our bitumen by 2020," said McGowan. "Something needs to be done to turn this ship around."

Although Redford told Albertans that her province would be facing "tough decisions" to solve the province's current financial woes, McGowan says the bitumen bubble may offer a silver lining.

"The price of bitumen is low right now because we're flooding the market with bitumen," McGowan told Today in early February.

"The solution they're proposing is building more pipelines to flood the market even further. That's just not how markets work," he said. "We need to refine the bitumen here, so that we're selling what the international markets want: synthetic crude."

Fort McMurray Today, Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013
Byline: Vincent McDermott

In front of a government panel on Tuesday, a labour group argued in favour of increasing refining operations in Alberta, instead of sending unprocessed bitumen to foreign refineries.

Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan told the province's Standing Committee on Alberta's Economic Future that upgrading bitumen locally should be a top priority for resource development and job growth.

The committee was debating whether or not Alberta should renew the Bitumen Royalty in Kind program, where the province receives oil from producers instead of royalties and then uses that bitumen to feed upgraders.

Under BRIK, the program has created capacity to upgrade up to 75,000 additional barrels per day. Established by former premier Ed Stelmach in 2007, Stelmach pledged to upgrade 72% of Alberta's bitumen locally by 2016.

Although a new, $5.7 billion refinery is currently being built near Redwater, no new refinery has been built in Alberta since 1984, despite the sudden demand for Canadian oil.

A refinery that would have been operated by several First Nations bands was dismissed by the government in early 2012, after the project's proponents failed to impress the province with their business model.

There is also talk about creating a pipeline linking the oilsands to refineries in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick. However, McGowan and the AFL have focused most of their criticism towards pipelines that aim to send bitumen to foreign refineries.

"This is the time to be investing in the long-term prosperity of this province," said McGowan. "75,000 barrels per day may sound like a lot, but it's really little more than a drop in the bucket."

The AFL has continually argued against projects like the proposed Northern Gateway and Keystone XL pipelines. McGowan says most of the jobs created would be short-term, temporary jobs and would only provide job growth to refineries in the United States and Asia.

Government reports obtained by the AFL through freedom of information requests show exporting bitumen provides a 35% return in value, while locally upgrading synthetic crude captures 70%.

After Premier Alison Redford told Albertans that the upcoming budget would see a $6 billion loss in resource revenue – a phenomenon she called a "bitumen bubble" – McGowan has repeatedly asked the province to look into domestic refining.

"The latest government projection is that we will only be upgrading 26% of our bitumen by 2020," said McGowan. "Something needs to be done to turn this ship around."

Although Redford told Albertans that her province would be facing "tough decisions" to solve the province's current financial woes, McGowan says the bitumen bubble may offer a silver lining.

"The price of bitumen is low right now because we're flooding the market with bitumen," McGowan told Today in early February.

"The solution they're proposing is building more pipelines to flood the market even further. That's just not how markets work," he said. "We need to refine the bitumen here, so that we're selling what the international markets want: synthetic crude."

Fort McMurray Today, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013
Byline: Vincent McDermott