Smith’s speech was a tipping point. AFL president calls on fellow Albertans to unite against UCP privatization onslaught

EDMONTON – Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) president Gil McGowan made the following statement in response to Premier Danielle Smith’s televised address on school funding:

“Under Premier Danielle Smith’s extremist leadership, the UCP government has been using the crisis they created in health care to justify privatizing the system. Now they’re doing the same thing in education. Smith’s televised address to the province last night was an admission that her government has failed miserably to keep up with the needs of a rapidly growing province. But, even worse, she wants to use the crisis in our classrooms as cover to advance her agenda of undermining public education in favour of private and religious schools.

“I just got back from Fort McMurray where the UCP used its legislative power to quash a strike that would have highlighted the real problems in our schools: chronic underfunding and profound staff shortages. Nothing in Smith’s speech addressed those issues. Buildings don’t teach kids, people do. And we can’t attract and retain the people we need if we don’t budget for training and hiring new staff – and for wage increases that keep up with the rising cost of living.

“Smith’s speech should be seen as a tipping point. I’m calling on my fellow Albertans to unite against the UCP’s extreme and irresponsible privatization onslaught. In particular, I encourage individual Albertans and Alberta organizations to start saying publicly what so many of us have been saying privately: it’s time to end public funding of private schools.

“No other province funnels as much public money into private schools as Alberta. In fact, most provinces don’t give them any public dollars. And now, we’re going to become the only province that gives private schools public money – potentially billions of dollars – for capital construction.

“Albertans need to speak out and push back against this nonsense. Yes, we need to be spending more on education. Much more. But that money should go to building schools in the public system that all Albertans can attend. And it should be used to pay for training, hiring, and pay increases for the staff – things that are needed to transform those buildings into real centres for learning. That’s what we really need right now, not billions of public dollars being spent to support Smith’s Maple MAGA fever dreams for the province.”

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MEDIA CONTACT:
John Ashton
Director of Communications, AFL
Email: jashton@afl.org