Alberta unions urge Jim Prentice not to cut public services
Alberta’s largest public sector unions are urging Premier Jim Prentice to avoid cutting frontline services as he attempts to balance the province’s budget.
On Tuesday, Prentice told an Edmonton Chamber of Commerce luncheon that the dramatic drop in oil prices could leave Alberta short $7 billion in revenue.
The premier warned the “consequences” will affect everyone across the province.
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Guy Smith, president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employee, said that there is nowhere to cut in the public service.
“Already they're stretched to the limit and already we're seeing that it's not keeping up with population growth,” Smith said.
“If that's what's in Jim Prentice's mind, is to cut somewhere, there is nowhere to cut.”
United Nurses of Alberta president Heather Smith said the province is still short of health care workers.
“There's not anything more that the nurses can do to pretend and cover up for a government that's unwilling to face economic reality and taxation reality in this province.”
Prentice said that decisions will be made in the coming weeks about how the province will deal with the current fiscal situation. At the same time, he is dealing with the needs of a rapidly growing province.
Nowhere are the pressures felt more acutely than in the classroom;the president of the Alberta Teachers’ Association, Mark Ramsankar, said the cuts can’t happen there either.
“At this point, absolutely not,” he said. “We've had an influx of students that was 11,000 more than we expected last year. And we're expecting more next year.”
While Prentice is spreading the message about the need for fiscal prudence, he isn’t revealing what he has planned.
All three union leaders want Prentice to abandon the 10 per cent flat tax and introduce a progressive tax system.
Prentice hasn’t ruled that out, although he has said that he plans to keep Alberta taxes the most “competitive” in Canada.