The Alberta Federation of Labour translates MacKinnon report
Edmonton: “The MacKinnon report is a prescription for disaster and will not lead Alberta to prosperity,” says AFL president Gil McGowan. “It is an attack on our public services, our children’s education and jeopardizes the future of all working Albertans, just to justify UCP policies taking tens of billions of revenue out of the Alberta economy.”
Since the report is long and filled with deceptive language, the AFL has translated some of the recommendations:
In terms of healthcare, they are recommending private clinics, which have already been proven to be bad medicine in Saskatchewan, and cuts for nurses and doctors. This will most likely lead to poorer quality services as providers look to make cuts to staff to ensure they can make a profit.
For education, they want to cut funding for K-12 education which will likely result in even larger classroom sizes; they also actually specified cutting funding for schools where students are struggling, according to standardized tests. They want to remove the tuition freeze for university so the cost of secondary schooling will increase which means less access to education for students and workers looking for retraining. Rural areas may be particularly hard hit as cuts force colleges and universities in their communities to close.
For the public sector, they are recommending back-to-work legislation which could result in increased legal costs as the government attempts to strip workers of their constitutional rights. At the same time, they are creating a loophole so they can give individual pay increases to their friends and political donors.
“Kenney promised no cuts, but this report recommends massive cuts to education and services Albertans need most,” says McGowan. “And if these recommendations are put into place, they will make Alberta’s economy sicker.”
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