EDMONTON – Albertans in the Chinook Health Region should be deeply concerned about plans to cut services and staff announced in an in-house memorandum to staff, says the president of the largest union in Alberta’s health services sector.

"Albertans have been promised time and again that the effect of changes in the health services sector will not result in a deteriorating health care system," said Alberta Union of Provincial Employees President Dan MacLennan.

"Yet here we see a case of the chief executive of a major health region informing employees that service cuts and layoffs are a certainty because of the level of government funding delivered to the region," he said.

"We need to see the government take steps to ensure that these service cuts and layoffs do not take place," MacLennan stated.

In an e-mail to all staff on March 21, Chinook Health Region Chief Executive Gil Tourigny stated that health programs will be eliminated and staff laid off.

Tourigny blamed the level of funding from the province: "The government announced a 2.7 per cent increase to our budget base for 2002-2003. This is a $5.1-million increase…Unfortunately, our projections show we need at least $16 million, an increase of 8.5 per cent.

"If we take no action and continue to run all the same programs and services we do today, we will run a deficit of about $1 million a month starting April 1. Obviously, we can’t do that."

As a result, Tourigny wrote in his e-mail, "we will not be able to operate each and every program and service that we have to date."

In addition, he stated, "such a large shortfall will require layoffs."

Other health regions have received similar lower-than-average funding increases from the province – which announced in its budget a policy of giving each region an increase based on population growth plus one per cent for inflation.

"So we don’t think Chinook will be the last region running these kind of policy ideas up the flagpole," MacLennan said.

Albertans everywhere should make it clear to their MLAs that cutbacks in service – and layoffs that will inevitably result in cuts in service – are not acceptable, MacLennan concluded.


For more information, contact:
Dan MacLennan, President, AUPE, 780-930-3301 or 780-910-8392 (cellular phone)
David Climenhaga, Communications Director, AUPE, 780-930-3311 or 780-717-2943 (cellular phone)

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