As time goes on, things change, but do they? What seems consistent in Alberta is our conservative governments’ desire to do more of the same. These governments have called themselves different names throughout time (e.g., the Progressive Conservatives-PC, and now the United Conservative Party-UCP), but they have all shared the same financial goals: cash-rewards and private deals with corporations and the wealthy.
In essence, conservative governments have refined and entrenched their ideology in our province’s finances and services, and hard-working Albertans are left to pay the price.
Back in the 1980s, we all heard that the government needed to be more “efficient” for the economy to be more competitive. But being “efficient” meant selling government owned assets to the private sector such as telephone, water, power, and natural gas services. Slowly but surely, the government privatized services, forcing Albertans to pay higher costs out of their own pockets.
Through time, it became equally important for these conservative governments to cut in other areas. They started eroding the earning power of hard-working Albertans and free enterprise became a further entrenched rhetoric in government policy. Government jobs were extinguished (in the thousands), benefits were chopped, pensions were privatized, and collective bargaining became even more challenging to negotiate.
Now in 2022, just as in the ‘80s, we heard more of the same financial rhetoric by the UCP government. In their cookie-cutter fiscal plan, the UCP boasts that it is strengthening our workforce by “investing in programs to get Albertans back to work in well-paying jobs” (Fiscal Plan 2022-25, pg. 26). Meanwhile the jobs for so many AUPE members have been cut and continue to be threatened by government’s “cost-effective” measures through privatization and contracting-out.
To the UCP, “well-paying jobs” means jobs that are in the hands of the private sector with lower salaries, no benefits, and smaller pensions (or private pension schemes). Losing our jobs to privatization seriously impacts AUPE members’ livelihoods and threatens the sustainability of our union. We must look inwards, examine our financial present, and fight for a brighter, sustainable future for AUPE members.