February 17, 2010 - No. 35

Alberta Budget

What Is the Aim?

• What is the Aim?
• Attacks on the Most Vulnerable - Peggy Askin
• Further Attacks on the Right to Health Care - Peggy Morton
• Education Is a Right, Not a "Balance" - Kevan Hunter
• Letter to the Editor

Venezuela
• Day of Youth: Tens of Thousands of Students Rally in Support of Chavez - Kiraz Janicke, Venezuelanalysis.com

Alberta Budget

What Is the Aim?

Following the February 9 release of the 2010-11 Alberta budget, the monopoly press and the parties in opposition made the $4.7 billion deficit a major issue. The Wildrose Alliance howled that Finance Minister Ted Morton was betraying his fiscal conservative roots. The NDP said the government was spending like drunken sailors. The Liberals said that the budget put Alberta's future prosperity in jeopardy. The barrage of disinformation from the monopoly press claims that so-called huge increases in health care spending and increased funding for education are the cause of the deficit.

The 2010-11 budget estimates total Alberta government revenues at $32.6 billion and expenditures at $37 billion. The total of all goods and services produced in Alberta in 2009 was $291.7 billion.  Thus total government expenditures are approximately 11 percent of the provincial GDP. These expenditures include social programs as well as funds which are used to pay the rich.

While the budget is indeed a "deficit budget," it is important to recall that Alberta has no debt and the projected expenditures in excess of revenues will be drawn from the Sustainability Fund which comes from previous years' non-renewable resource revenues. TML calls on Alberta workers to not get fooled by the pressure which seeks to line them up "for" or "against" deficits but to investigate what is going on and whose interests are served, and to do so for purposes of working out the stand which serves the interests of the working class and its allies.

Why Is the Conservative Party in Power Putting Forward a Deficit Budget and Who Benefits?

With the onset of the global economic crisis, many projects in Alberta were cancelled or put on hold. In December 2009 the Alberta government estimated that $80 billion in projects were on hold, including an estimated $66 billion worth of projects in the oilsands. In this situation, owners of monopoly capital look to the state as an instrument to employ their capital. State financing of large guaranteed projects is one way of doing so.

Many of these projects involve the construction of badly needed infrastructure, whether it be health care facilities, schools, affordable housing etc. But the demands of monopoly capital trump the demand that the government uphold its social responsibility. As a result this investment in social infrastructure is distorted to guarantee profits for a few at the expense of the needs of the society and its members.

Substantial investments in health care and hospital infrastructure have taken place in recent years. Despite this, Alberta has only half the number of hospital beds it had 20 years ago. This budget allocates $2.5 billion for health capital projects over three years. Even if this brings new beds on stream, which is highly unlikely, no funding is being provided to staff them. The construction monopolies will be the big beneficiaries of this spending, while long wait lists for surgery and necessary hospital admissions will continue.

The government has refused to construct any new public, not-for-profit long-term care beds. It has even announced that the Villa Caritas long-term care beds now under construction will not open as a long-term care facility. Instead beds will be closed at Alberta Hospital and patients transferred to Villa Caritas. Instead of funding and building public long-term care beds, under the "Affordable Assisted Living Initiative" private monopolies can receive up to half the total capital costs to build private, for profit "assisted living" facilities. These assisted living facilities provide minimal levels of care for frail seniors. For an additional fee, patients can receive more than one bath a week or be escorted to their meals. One of the major players is a former executive of the Calgary Health Authority.

The scam in the field of education is no different. In 2008 the Alberta government gave a 32-year contract to build and maintain 18 schools to Babcock and Brown under a private-public partnership deal. At that time, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) which represents school board workers pointed out that an additional 10 elementary schools could have been built with a conventional public financing arrangement. Babcock and Brown has since gone into liquidation. Now five inner-city schools in Edmonton alone are threatened with closure under the guise of necessary budget cuts.

Under the Advanced Education section, this budget contains numerous other handouts to the monopolies, including $237 million for "innovation, research and technology commercialization initiatives." Grants to students are being cut back, forcing students to take loans and indebt themselves to the banks, while funding is put in place to hand over the research and technological innovation carried out in publicly-funded universities to the big monopolies.

The energy and environment portfolio includes handouts to big oil for carbon capture and storage and other dubious schemes. The list goes on.

The direction guiding the budget was set out in the clearest possible terms in the Throne Speech. Everything is geared to making the monopolies competitive internationally, which is set as the aim for the whole society. The change of direction from a "no deficits" stand reflects the changing demands of the monopoly capitalist class. Prime Minister Stephen Harper was severely chastised by the financial oligarchy and had to fall in line. So too Ted Morton and the Stelmach government are doing the bidding of the rich. Infrastructure spending by the province is also a requirement in order to access federal funding for construction projects, including social housing.

The aims set by the party in power to serve the interests of the oil monopolies and other sectors of the financial oligarchy and to put everything at their disposal in the name of making the monopolies internationally competitive is anti-worker and anti-national. It is based on the outlook that there is no alternative but to try and weather the crisis by putting all the resources of the society at the disposal of the rich.

The budget is an occasion to discuss what the ruling class is up to for purposes of better organizing to defend the interests of the working class and its allies. The ruling class is showing its its inability to resolve the crisis. Its utter refusal to bring into being new arrangements for a pro-social a self-reliant economy are leading to further crisis.

The Alberta provincial committee of CPC(M-L) holds monthly discussions at which all are welcome to discuss political affairs, including the aim of this Alberta budget. For information and to join in, contact alberta@cpcml.ca.

Attacks on the Most Vulnerable

- Peggy Askin -

The February 9 budget decreases funding in fourteen departments in a manner that will affect the lives and livelihoods of millions of Albertans. The government considers funding for Children and Youth Services, Advanced Education and persons with developmental disabilities -- programs to meet the needs of the most vulnerable -- and the lives and future of our youth as costs to be slashed. Those who use the social programs and need the funding, and the workers and professionals who provide the services have to turn their lives upside down to "make do," all in the name of high ideals. Meanwhile, the propaganda machine churns out disinformation according to which funding has been increased and this is why we have a deficit budget!

Commenting on the massive cuts, Guy Smith, President of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) stated: "But positive policies in healthcare are offset by massive cuts in the budgets for important public services like Child Intervention Services and the enforcement of environmental laws. These cuts could have tragic consequences for Alberta and its citizens.... We have seen a 6.8-per-cent cut in the budget for Child Intervention Services and a 3.9 cut in the budget for the Sustainable Resource Development which enforces environmental laws and regulations, compared with its actual spending last year.... Something is clearly wrong when the government would cut $27 million out of Child Intervention Services but allocate $25 million to horse racing and racehorse breeding."

AUPE pointed out that the number of people who will lose their jobs as a result of the budget does not tell the whole story. A hiring freeze has been in effect since July 2009, leaving many positions unfilled. The budget will only exacerbate an existing crisis in staffing levels.

"Our members are already experiencing high job stress and burnout because so many positions have not been filled. Albertans are certainly going to feel the impact of this in many areas as work takes longer to complete and expected public services can't be provided," Smith stated. AUPE will work with government to mitigate the effect on the delivery of important public services, but there is no way AUPE will help the government find ways to cut positions, he said.

Agencies providing services to persons with developmental disabilities are also concerned about the fact that the budget provided their concerns with a zero increase in funding even though they are expecting at least one hundred new people to need funding and support through this program in 2010. Based on the predicted rise in demand, they say that the zero increase will actually mean a shortfall in funding of close to $20 million dollars. Late in 2009 agencies providing support and services to persons with developmental disabilities were ordered to slash their existing budgets. Thirty-eight agencies in Edmonton voted to refuse to do so. In response to the government directive late in 2009, Ryan Geake, executive director of the Calgary Scope Society, told the provincial government that his agency would not obey orders to cut spending for adults with developmental disabilities. "We believe that currently any reductions to our contract will greatly jeopardize the lives of the people we care about and support," he stated.

Persons with developmental disabilities, their families, and those who provide residential and community support are acutely familiar with what their needs and funding should be. It sharply brings to mind the question of who decides when it comes to budgets and other government policies. It is not acceptable that budgets are set on the backs of the most vulnerable while the government and parties in power pay the rich though carbon capture schemes and in many other ways.

The fact that Albertans are so marginalized and shut out from decision making should alert people to the need to engage themselves in a movement for democratic renewal. Join the discussions organized by the Marxist-Leninists on how things can be done differently by actively building Committees for Democratic Renewal.

Further Attacks on the Right to Health Care

- Peggy Morton -

The starting point for a discussion of resources allocated to providing health care is the recognition of the social responsibility of a modern state. This responsibility requires a publicly funded not-for-profit comprehensive healthcare system for all without user fees, corruption, privilege or prejudice. It requires that this healthcare system be provided with the resources required so that people can access the services they need when they need them.

There can be no doubt that Albertans, like all Canadians want this system defended and expanded. People in Alberta have been fighting vigorously in recent months for the preservation and redevelopment of Alberta Hospital Edmonton, for an increase, not a cut in the number of hospital beds, for expanded public

Edmonton rally for health care, September 25, 2009.

long-term care for seniors. Albertans recognize that governments have a social responsibility to provide the right to health care with a guarantee and develop a health care system consistent with the level of development of the society. However, neither the party in power nor the parties in opposition even recognize that health care is a right, and they refuse to provide the information which would permit people to engage in informed discussion as to what resources should be allocated to health care. Not only do they refuse to do so, but the ruling party is engaged in deliberate disinformation, an exercise which the opposition parties and the monopoly press eagerly participate in. The whole budget announcement is an exercise in smoke and mirrors and an assault on the right to informed discussion. Even the presentation of the most basic information about the budget becomes an occasion for disinformation.

For example, the health budget is described as  being increased by 17 percent. The monopoly press states that the "health system [has been] given billions of dollars in new funding." Edmonton Journal columnist Graham Thompson stated: "This is a budget that talks about cutting but gives a record $2.1 billion more to the health department..." The leaders of the Liberals called it a $2 billion increase. CBC News ran with the headline "Health costs push Alberta deficit to $4.7B." These pronouncements then became the occasion for attacking the government for "spending too much" on health care.

The facts are very different. The funding allocation for Alberta Health and Wellness for 2010-2011 is $15 billion. This includes "one-time funding" of $759 million to pay down the Alberta Health Services (the Alberta health superboard) deficit. The actual budget for 2010-2011 is therefore $14.3 billion. The budget for 2009-2010 was nominally $12.7 billion, but actual spending including the $759 million deficit was $13.5 billion. The budget allocation for 2008-2009 was also $13.5 billion.

This means that the real increase to the health budget over two years is not "billions of dollars" or 17 percent but $800 million or a 6 percent increase over two years. This is barely more than the population increase of more than 4.5 percent in the same period.

What is the government's aim in this disinformation campaign? The Conservatives have not been able to sell their health care agenda to the people of Alberta. The budget shows that once again the Conservative party in power has come up against the determination of Albertans to defend and expand their public health care system. Attempts to target the most vulnerable including the mentally ill and frail seniors have sparked outrage.

By creating this illusion of increased spending for healthcare needs, the government is preparing its next assault. In its Speech from the Throne delivered at the opening of the third session of the 27th Legislature, the government outlined its strategy to "consult" with Albertans about health care. It is already framing the content of this discussion. We have thrown all this money at the health care system and it hasn't fixed the problem, the government will say. Once again Ralph Klein's "third way" is emerging from the shadows. If public health care can't fix the problem, this shows the need for a two-tier system and for more private delivery of health care, the government will claim. In fact they have already begun this campaign by handing over millions to the private clinics to "help reduce wait lists." The fact that this tired mantra has been rejected again and again doesn't faze the party in power, because they have the power and do whatever they like. And that is the problem which the working people and their allies must take up for solution.

Education Is a Right, Not a "Balance"

- Kevan Hunter -

On February 9, the government of Alberta released its 2010-2011 budget with the slogan "Striking the Right Balance." The overall education budget has been increased by $43 million from the 2009-10 budget, to a total of $6.1 billion. It seems that after raising the alarm for months prior to the budget about massive cuts, teachers, school board workers, parents and students are now supposed to breathe a sigh of relief that there has been a stay of execution.

In Education Minister Dave Hancock's press release and other government sources, it is stated that this money will cover the anticipated increase of 4,200 students in the province, as well as an increase in the number of students requiring English as a Second Language (ESL) support and those with special needs. This is complete disinformation because, as Hancock himself points out, the budget does not even provide for funding to meet its contractual obligations for teachers and education workers. There is not a single penny for increased enrollments and program needs.

The budget documents present cuts made to Alberta Education as positive. "The government is making cuts to its own departmental expenditures, such as curriculum development and information technology support." The government has framed the cuts to their department's spending as being savvy, as if it were like switching to no-name toilet paper. There is absolutely no discussion what this means in concrete terms or why curriculum development or information technology support are considered so trivial.

In 2008 the Conservative party in power intervened directly in the negotiations between school boards and the local unions. A settlement was agreed to which was ratified by all school boards and locals of the Alberta Teachers Association which tied salary increases to the average wage increase in Alberta. Similar agreements were reached with education workers. Despite this, the government has repeatedly tried to avoid living up to its commitment to provide the funding for school boards to meet their claims to their employees. When Statistics Canada amended the formula for determining the Alberta Average Weekly Earnings in order to improve its accuracy, the 2009 increase in average wages was determined to be 6 percent. The government refused to pay, arguing that under the old formula the increase was 4.6 percent, forcing the teachers to take the matter to arbitration. The arbitrator recently ruled that the government must uphold its obligation to teachers.

Hancock points out that teachers are owed $23 million for the 2009-10 fiscal year and $40 million in future years based on the difference between 4.6 percent and 6 percent. To this we must add the wages for other school staff such as custodians, educational assistants, and secretaries where 17 locals still have outstanding grievances going to arbitration. The $43 million increase in the budget does not even leave school boards with enough to meet these obligations, let alone handle a larger student population in need of more supports.

The provincial government has retained the archaic and outmoded education property tax, but it has stripped school boards of all authority to set the rate in order to secure the funding they require. What are boards to do if the government's budget does not account for salary increases? Boards will be left with no choice but to lay off teachers and/or support staff, fail to hire the necessary numbers of teachers and support staff or make cuts to the infrastructure required for good education. Graduating education students are being forced into a position of total insecurity and uncertainty about their future. This is unacceptable.

In a letter sent to teachers, Education Minister Dave Hancock says that first the government must pass the budget and afterwards he will go back and ask for more money. Hancock said: "One of the quirks of our parliamentary system is that a budget cannot be modified until it has been passed by the Legislature." Any sane person would say "well, then we have to reject the budget," just as you would reject a household budget if the person preparing it forgot that your rent goes up in September.

Another "quirk" of our parliamentary system is that the party in power can do whatever it likes, and the budget is going to pass. We are then basically told that our role is to be "relieved" that the government did not carry through with the hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts that it hinted at last year, and glad that we have a minister who is going to 'work for us' in cabinet.

The education minister is a member of cabinet who, one might reasonably assume, was consulted in the preparation of the budget. But he's not explaining how this budget came about and why it wouldn't factor in funding for increased enrollments, necessary additional special programming or contractual obligations. Yet another "quirk" of our parliamentary system.

True, the budget is up $250 million instead of being down by that amount or more. But how can the right to education be reduced to a discussion as to whether there are cuts or no cuts. Such an approach cannot be accepted in a modern society.

In a modern society, the discussion of the resources to be allocated to education must begin with the recognition of the government's responsibility to provide the right to education with a guarantee. It must recognize the role of public education in raising the level of the whole society. It must recognize the just claims of teachers and other workers in the schools.

The right of students to the highest quality educational system must be provided with a guarantee. This means that government has a social responsibility to ensure that the necessary funding for staff, resources, infrastructure, curriculum development and everything else required is provided.

Teachers and school board workers have been fighting vigorously to demand that government provide the resources required in education. Teachers and school board workers cannot accept the role of being passive recipients while decisions are made by others. Teachers, aides, custodians, secretaries, maintenance workers and all staff in the schools play an important and essential role and know best what is required so that the needs of students can be met.

Letter to the Editor

Prior to the February 9, 2010 release of the Alberta Budget, the Government and Opposition indulged in a campaign of dire warnings, such as Finance Minister Morton's statements that the government's ten year all-you-can eat spending buffet is closing down, or the repeated charge from various opposition forces that the government has been spending like drunken sailors. This media circus is clearly aimed at maintaining the political status quo where a total distortion of the reality facing the people is presented and governments merrily continue to pay the rich. The people are relegated to the status of spectators when it comes to deciding budgets and other government policies. Meanwhile, the so-called discussion about whether the government is "fiscally responsible" covers up that all of them have the same aim of paying the rich and the issue is reduced to whether the Sustainability Fund should have been touched. One issue that is not being discussed is who should decide the budget and other government policy.

[signed]

Venezuela
Day of Youth

Tens of Thousands of Students Rally
in Support of Chavez

- Kiraz Janicke, Venezuelanalysis.com, February 14, 2020 -

Caracas, Venezuela, February 12, 2010: Youth and students hold mass rally in support of
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on the occasion of the country's national Day of Youth

Tens of thousands of students rallied in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas in a show of support for President Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarian revolution and to celebrate the "Day of Youth" on Friday.

The demonstration occurred just weeks after violent protests by hundreds of right-wing opposition students in support of private television channel RCTV made international headlines.

Robert Serra, an activist from the youth wing of Chavez's United Socialist Party of Venezuela (JPSUV) said the rally was "a clear demonstration of where the majority of the youth and student sectors of the country stand."

Dani Vallés a student councilor from the University of the East said "we are on the side of the people and we're not going to let the oligarchy destabilise Venezuela."

From the early hours of the morning thousands of students and young workers gathered at the National Experimental University of the Armed Forces (UNEFA) and marched through the opposition controlled wealthy eastern suburbs of Caracas to the Bolivarian University, where they were met by thousands more students and activists.

To the sounds of music and chants of "Chavez is here to stay" and "Expropriation, confiscation, the means of production for the people," students danced and marched along the 10 km route arriving around 5pm at the Miraflores Presidential Palace, where Chavez addressed the crowd

The president called on young people to assume a leading role, saying that the future of the revolution and the country depended on them.

In particular he called on them to be critical and to tackle bureaucracy, which he said posed the biggest threat to the revolution and pointed to the example of the bureaucratic degeneration of the Russian revolution.

Chavez also welcomed the creation of the new Bicentenary Youth Front, formed on February 2 to unite all the pro-revolution youth organizations around the country, including the JPSUV, the Communist Party Youth, and the youth section of the Homeland for All Party (PPT), as well as other smaller youth movements and currents.

Referring to the recent opposition student protests, Chavez argued they are being used by local and U.S. elites to foment a "coloured revolution" and implement regime change in Venezuela.

The sharp class divisions within Venezuela are reflected in the competing opposition and pro-revolution student movements within the politically polarised country.

On the one hand the majority of Venezuela's elite autonomous and private universities, which account for approximately 300,000 students, are dominated by right-wing U.S. backed opposition student groups, from predominantly upper and middle-class backgrounds

Meanwhile, the experimental universities, the Bolivarian universities and social missions which together account for around 700,000 students, overwhelmingly from poorer and working-class backgrounds, are strongly supportive of Chavez and the Bolivarian revolution.

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