“Stoking separatism is bad for business and bad for workers” – McGowan
EDMONTON – Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) president Gil McGowan made the following statement in response to the Premier’s live address made at 3pm (MT) today.
“Premier Danielle Smith’s address to Albertans today was a politically motivated provocation against Ottawa that risks creating a climate of uncertainty and potentially even chaos. Her list of demands combined with talk of referendums is a loaded gun pointed at Canada. In labour circles we call this bad faith bargaining. In today’s speech she claimed that federal laws are destroying investment confidence while the fact of the matter is that nothing kills investment like threats of separation.
“Albertans deserve better than this. We now face a double whammy: tariffs from our southern neighbour and a needless foray into sovereignty disputes that will do nothing to solve the day-to-day problems faced by workers and families across the province.
“At the recent AFL Convention, delegates voted overwhelmingly for a resolution that called on our province’s leaders to ‘demonstrate their commitment to Canada through words and actions that advance nation-building efforts.’ It was important to us to send this message to the province’s current leaders because workers have nothing to gain from Alberta separatism. The very threat of separatism is toxic to building lasting prosperity. Just look at the history of Quebec from the 1970s to the 1990s. This is not a path we want to go down.
“On behalf of the AFL, I respectfully urge the premier to walk back her divisive rhetoric and commit to constructive dialogue with Ottawa and take the threat of separation completely off the table. She should abandon the Alberta Next Panel or any idea of an ‘Alberta Accord’ and instead attend to the urgent problems requiring her attention here at home: our ongoing crises in public health and public education and families’ struggles to keep up with the ever-increasing cost of living.”
-30-
MEDIA CONTACT:
Laurence Miall
Director of Communications and Campaigns, AFL
Email: lmiall@afl.org