EDMONTON – Alberta Premier Alison Redford was named the winner of a “Political Academy Award” this afternoon for her remarkable promise-breaking performance persuading so many Albertans she would fight to protect their right to a secure retirement.

“When Ms. Redford said she wanted Alberta seniors to be able to live their lives with dignity and respect, who could have imagined she would attack the modest pensions of her own government’s employees,” asked Alberta Federation of Labour President Gil McGowan, speaking on behalf of the Labour Coalition on Pensions.

The mock “Oscar” award ceremony in Churchill Square during which Premier Redford was also nominated for convincing Albertans she would protect their public health care system and for convincing them she would protect their public education system may have been light-hearted, but it had a serious point.

“The point was that the Progressive Conservative government is breaking promises to many groups of Albertans and attacking public services that Albertans value,” McGowan said. “What incredible acting skill it took for them to get elected!”

The judges picked the premier’s broken pension promise because her government is consistently doing the opposite of what it claims to be trying to achieve.

• It says its policy on public sector pensions is designed to make the plans sustainable, while the report of the Auditor General of Alberta says it in fact puts the survival of the plans at risk
• It says it wants to encourage inter-generational fairness while it in fact it intends to treat younger workers much worse in future
• It says it wants to encourage recruitment and retention of the best public employees in government and health care, while it is in fact likely to prompt a serious skill shortage in those fields as workers rush to depart

Premier Redford did not attend the ceremony. Her award was accepted on her behalf of the thousands of Albertans who voted for her party thinking she would deal fairly with public employees, all Albertans and our public services.

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MEDIA CONTACT:

Olav Rokne, Communications Director, Alberta Federation of Labour at 780.289.6528 (cell) or via e-mail orokne@afl.org