Reaction to Provincial Budget – NDP Finance Critic, ATA, AUPE

Although school divisions say they’re encouraged to see the budget addressing enrolment growth by putting more teachers in classrooms, the Alberta Teachers’ Association says this budget does not go far enough. BCN’s Jeannette Rocher also has reaction to the budget from the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees and NDP Finance Critic Shannon Phillips.

In a statement the Alberta Teachers’ Association says they set out a three-part test to judge this budget and it appears to have failed on all three parts. Not only does president Jason Schilling say the budget doesn’t fully address enrolment, he points out it also does little to address inflation and does nothing to repair years of underfunding. According to the ATA Alberta schools are the least funded in Canada. Schilling also points out that public schools will see a 4.4% increase compared to private schools which will see a 13.5% increase. He sums it up by saying, “Last year we saw what a pre-election budget looks like. Today we see what a post-election budget looks like.”  

And according to NDP-Finance Critic Shannon Phillips, not only will this budget affect education but she says it’s going to hit…healthcare workers the most.  

“I think the healthcare system is doomed with this budget,” says Phillips. “Already we are seeing so many closures of emergency departments, we’re seeing limited hours throughout rural areas in particular. We’re seeing entire communities that have to drive two and three hours in order to have a baby or have some procedures done. You have 60% of our family doctors who are looking at leaving their practice – and that was before this budget came out.”

Phillips adds that, “in our hospitals it’s worse. There is a 1 per cent increase projected for our hospital budget when the government’s own figures – that we know are conservative – are inflation of population at 6.2 (per cent). So if you think that everything’s fine in the hospitals now, which it’s not, just wait for it to get worse,” she says.

According to the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees’ president Guy Smith, this could have been a good news budget, but he says “it’s not”.  Adding that in a 6.4 billion dollar surplus, the province should have invested in Alberta’s neglected public services and crumbling infrastructure, but it did not. Instead, he says now Albertans will wait longer for wildfire response times, court services, educational support, critical health and social services.  

“Whether it’s in government services, healthcare, post-secondary, um, our members are kind of stretched to the limit,” says Smith, adding, ” they’re proud of the work they do and the services they provide Albertans – it’s becoming more and more difficult and as we’re seeing the population of Alberta is growing and the demand on services is growing – um, yet there’s not the requisite investment in those services. So, yeah, it’s frustrating.”

Smith also says it’s a collective bargaining year for more 82,000 AUPE members, most of whom work for the government of Alberta and Alberta Health Services and he says these workers plan to fight for better working conditions whether the government budgets for it or not.