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February 2, 2012 - No. 11 Alberta Ideological Assault on Public Services
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The paper "Public Sector
Wage Growth in Alberta"
authored by Ken Boessenkool and Ben Eisen and published in the January
2012 Research Papers of the School of Public Policy at the University
of Calgary constitutes a deliberate assault on public service workers
and an insult to their dignity. It is part of the
assault being organized across the country under the guise of
eliminating deficits against public services and the workers who
deliver them.
Corporate income taxes
contributed only 10.1 per cent of the total revenue collected by the
Alberta government in the last fiscal year, or less than $4 billion
dollars, while resource revenues were only 23.4 per cent of revenue.
But when it came to paying the rich, this budget broke the bank.
Stimulus spending
in the form of infrastructure, much it built by public-private
partnerships (P3s) was $6.6 billion in 2011-2012 alone. The three-year
total for infrastructure spending is set at $17.6 billion. This
included $2 billion to the oil monopolies for carbon capture and
storage and other pay-the-rich schemes. 2002 protest against living and working conditions in Alberta, especially the plight of injured workers. |
When investments are made in social programs, this puts revenue back into the economy. Consider how the violent assault on public services and public sector workers in the 1990s in Alberta, which Boessenkool and Eisen praise to the skies, prolonged the economic crisis and made its impact on the working people of Alberta even more onerous. On the other hand, when these programs are eliminated or privatized, it is the rich who benefit and revenues are not invested back in communities but used in search of a big score and return for the owners of capital.
To suggest that there is no link between quality public services and the rights of public service workers is absurd. One cannot exist without the other as they both originate in the same human- centred aim. The right of public sector workers to bargain in good faith for wages, benefits and working conditions agreeable to their peers and for a say in upholding the quality of the public service must be guaranteed under all conditions. To suggest that public sector workers are causing deficits which must be eliminated by slashing public services and attacking the rights of the workers who provide them is to turn truth on its head.
Working people are demanding a say. An important part of this striving for empowerment and control over the direction of the economy is the striving for control over public services. Handing these services over to the rich deprive people of this control while private interests trump public interest.
Dignity and security in employment is a right which belongs to all workers. When the right of public sector workers to determine their wages and working conditions is attacked, this is directed against the Canadian standard of living, dignity, respect and security of all workers in Alberta and across Canada.
The rich would have everyone accept that to be an Albertan is to fend for yourself. This is the mantra used to justify the monopolies running roughshod over all rights, both individual and collective. There is nothing modern about such an outlook and it goes against the striving of the working people for empowerment and control over the direction of the economy. An important aspect of this fight for empowerment is control over public services and not permitting them to be usurped by private interests for private gain. Public service workers are an important bulwark in this fight in defence of public services and in fighting for their own rights are contributing to the defence of public services and the humanizing of society.
For Your
Information: Ken Boessenkool
Ken Boessenkool is currently BC Premier Christy Clark's Chief of Staff. Boessenkool has been a Harper policy advisor, Tory election strategist and a policy advisor to two Alberta Finance Ministers. He has been a lobbyist for companies such as Northern Gateway Pipeline builder Enbridge Inc., several pharmaceutical firms and Taser International (which in 2008 lost a $6.2 million jury verdict over the death of a California man who died after police shot him multiple times with the weapon). He was a senior economist at electricity monopolies Transalta Corporation and U.S.-owned Aquila (which in 2007 was fined $10.5 million for steering its employees into heavily investing their retirement savings in company stock). Boessenkool was formerly a policy analyst with the C.D. Howe Institute and is a staff member of the Canada West Foundation in Alberta. He serves as a volunteer board member of the Canada-Israel Committee. Boessenkool is a member of the evangelical Canadian Reformed Church which subscribes to the dominionist belief that the Christian Bible is the ultimate authority in all matters.
Boessenkool is Chairperson of the Alberta Blue Committee, which aims as its first two principles to create a single right-wing Alberta political centre and cut investments in social programs by billions of dollars. In 2001, Boessenkool signed the notorious firewall letter, also signed by Stephen Harper, which called for Alberta to establish a provincial police force, replace the Canada Pension Plan with an Alberta Pension Plan, and collect its own income tax. During a debate at the Manning Centre in 2009, Boessenkool said that by far the most important thing the Harper government has done is that it "stopped cold...a national, government-run, unionized child-care system."
Boessenkool has worked at many jobs where his main role
is to provide disinformation. He most recently worked at lobbying
company GCI Canada in Ottawa, a member of the Hill & Knowlton
network of public relations agencies. Prior to joining GCI Canada, he
was National Practice Director of Public Affairs
at Hill & Knowlton. Hill & Knowlton, a global public relations
company based in New York, arranged the fake testimony of the Kuwait
ambassador's daughter as "Nurse Nayirah" to the U.S. Congressional
Human Rights Caucus on October 10, 1990. Nayirah falsely testified that
she had witnessed Iraqi soldiers
killing hundreds of premature babies at the al-Addan hospital in Kuwait
City. This lie was mentioned numerous times by then President George
H.W.
Bush to try to manipulate public opinion in support of the first U.S.
invasion of Iraq in 1990.
Note
1. "The Lion's Share: Corporate profits and taxes in
Alberta," Parkland Institute, June 2011,
http://parklandinstitute.ca/downloads/reports/CorporateProfitsFactSheet.pdf
Robbing the Public Treasury -- Illegal Donations to Provincial Progressive Conservatives
The Wildrose and Liberal parties have released information regarding illegal donations received by the ruling Alberta Progressive Conservative (PC) Party. The donations to the PC Party and constituency associations come from admission to PC fund-raisers such as Premier's dinners, golf tournaments, and "Meet the Minister" events. Alberta Health Services, the University of Lethbridge and Lethbridge Catholic School Board and a number of town councils and municipalities were among the donors.
There is no doubt that there is a widespread practice in which public funds find their way into the Tory vaults. It is also evident that while this practice is illegal, it is carried out with impunity nonetheless. There is no penalty for those elected using illegal donations and the maximum penalty to the party involved is $1,000.
It is one of Alberta's worst-kept secrets that public officials from municipalities, schools boards, health authorities and universities are expected to attend these events, contributing to the Tory war chest as the price of such access. Since the leader of the Liberals is a former Tory and all but one of the sitting MLAs for the Wildrose party are former Tory MLAs, they would be very familiar with how such matters are conducted; those who want an audience with the rulers must not only pay their tribute, they must be seen to be declaring their allegiance.
The Liberals describe it well enough. "[T]he Progressive Conservatives have made this a province-wide industry, especially in the more rural ridings. Their politicians swagger around their ridings like warlords, demanding fealty from their subjects. They don't act like theirs is the government party. They're acting instead like they're the ruling party. And that is what's so very wrong," said Alberta Liberal Party President Todd Van Vliet.
"It's everywhere," he said. "Everywhere you go, people will tell you that they feel compelled to donate to their local PC MLA, or to the local constituency association, if they want to do business with the province. They also feel that support of PC politicians is connected to government grants and project spending in their communities."
If the Opposition is so aware of this situation, it is incumbent on them to raise it for serious discussion and not just to seek partisan advantage in the weeks preceding the spring election. But what the Liberal and Wildrose parties do not want to touch with a ten-foot pole is that this is not just an attitude problem caused by the fact that the Tories have held power for 40 years and that this has made them extremely arrogant. Although true, this statement does not get to the heart of the matter. What is not discussed is that once elected the party in power can and does act as an elected dictatorship and that there is no opposition in the legislature which can hold the government to account.
This dictatorship acts not to serve the public good but to impose monopoly right. The fact that the government can and does function as a dictatorship in the service of the rich is a fundamental problem of the system of representative democracy in which political parties come to power. It is this system of party rule which deprives the people of power.
The manner in which the Tories carry out their fund-raising also underlines the state of the cartel parties. These parties don't need members, only money. "Membership" means absolutely nothing and one can "join" and vote for the Tory leader by paying $5.00. Members have no role in making policy which is decided at the highest levels by the most powerful monopolies. The Liberals did one better, eliminating even token membership as a requirement to vote for their leader. People could vote in the election of their leader without paying a dime or becoming members. This new system allowed the Liberals' new leader, former Tory MLA Raj Sherman to carry out an electoral coup using a demon dialer to sign up "supporters" for the Liberal leadership vote.
Features of dictatorial rule are increasingly revealing themselves. The Tories consider the Legislature nothing but a nuisance. The Legislature was in session for only 47 days in 2011. As NDP leader Brian Mason pointed out about the fall 2011 session: "This extremely short session, with end-to-end night sittings, prevents [the] Opposition from doing proper research on bills or consulting with public stakeholders to make sure all Albertans' views are properly represented. Premier Redford has dodged accountability to the public by allowing fewer question periods and less time for the public to react to legislation."
Legislation is drafted which says nothing and even, as in the case of the Alberta Health Act, is intended as a diversion while the real content is in the regulations which are a matter of cabinet or ministerial prerogative and never come under legislative scrutiny. Cabinet approval replaces all forms of public scrutiny as is the case with approval of electrical transmission lines.
This prerogative or privilege of the "Crown" and its ministers is used not to uphold the public good, but in the service of the most powerful monopolies and their dictate over the whole society. The illegitimacy of the authority stems from this refusal to uphold the public good. Renewal of the political process to eliminate class privilege and the feudal remnants of privileges, not rights is the order of the day. The arbitrary use of power to negate public right and to use public resources to privilege monopoly right must be ended.
The party-dominated system of representative democracy is in crisis. In the past provincial election only one in three eligible voters cast a ballot. The electorate feels disempowered and the system of party rule lacks credibility. This situation presents a challenge to the working people of Alberta -- the need to unite their ranks behind their own interests and rights and in defence of the rights of all so as to hold these governments and political parties to account and put their own representatives in the Legislature and Parliament.
What to Expect from Upcoming Legislative Session
The Alberta Legislative Assembly opens for the 5th
session of the 27th Legislature at 3:00 pm on February 7. The
session will sit for 11 days until it recesses again on February 23
until March 5. The first day for consideration of regular business will
be February 8. The session will be held under new
Premier Allison Redford, who was elected leader of the Progressive
Conservative Party on October 2, 2011. The Legislature sat for two days
in October and two weeks in November, after Redford became leader. The
current status of the bills addressed by the previous (4th) session of
the Legislature may be found here.
There are 83 seats in the legislature and the breakdown in the number of seats held by each party is currently as follows: Progressive Conservative 67, Liberal 8, Wildrose 4, New Democrat 2, Alberta Party 1, and Independent 1. The Progressive Conservatives, who have ruled Alberta for the last 40 years, hold a majority of 51 seats. Alberta has never had a minority government. The 2012 Alberta general election, formally Alberta's 28th General Election, will take place when the Premier advises the Lieutenant Governor to dissolve the Legislative Assembly. By law, the next provincial election must now be held between March 1 and May 31.
A list of legislation coming forward at the session has not been released, even to the Opposition parties. The government is keeping it secret, exercising its dictatorship as the party in power. Education Minister Thomas Lukaszuk did say recently that the new Education Act will be ready for debate. The act, also known as Bill 18, was slated to be debated during the fall 2011 session, but Lukaszuk pulled it from the schedule. If passed, the act would replace the existing School Act, which was last updated in 1988.
The session will begin with the Speech from the Throne delivered by Lieutenant-Governor Donald Ethell. The 2012-13 budget will be introduced on February 9. Already as part of her Cabinet tour of Alberta, which began January 24, Redford has made remarks about introducing zero-based budgeting and wage restraints. Even though this session will be short, the working people of Alberta should prepare themselves and continue to develop opposition to the government's further assaults on public sector workers and the public services they provide.
The proceedings of the Alberta Legislature are available online at http://www.assembly.ab.ca/. Oral Question Period is also broadcast live on CTV Two at 1:30 pm and rebroadcast on Shaw Prime Time. Transcripts of the daily proceedings of the Legislature can be found online in Alberta Hansard.
Workers at Waterford and Edith Cavell Seniors' Homes Fight for Their Rights
Healthcare workers, members of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) at the Waterford of Summerlea seniors' residence and assisted living facility in Edmonton held an information picket at the facility on January 26 to protest the recent firing of a coworker. The workers at the Waterford voted to join AUPE in a November vote. They have served notice to Chantelle Management Ltd. which owns the facility to begin bargaining, but Chantelle has yet to respond with dates to begin negotiations.
AUPE Vice-President Jason Heistad explained that the fired worker was instrumental in organizing her coworkers to join AUPE and that this was the real reason behind her dismissal. She was fired on a trumped-up charge of "insubordination." The definition of "insubordination" is to willfully disobey an authority. The fired worker did not even refuse a work order, but was considered "insubordinate" for commenting that "this is why we have a union." AUPE Vice-President Jason Heistad pointed out: "AUPE believes this woman's termination was unjustified. We've organized this picket to show our support for her and to show management that we will defend the dignity and livelihoods of our members."
AUPE has filed a complaint with the Alberta Labour Relations Board (ALRB). It is a violation of the labour code to fire a worker for their part in organizing a union and the ALRB is duty bound to order the employer to reinstate her. Why is such an outrageous action by the employer not cause for an immediate hearing and cease and desist order issued against the employer? Whenever workers' rights are violated, it is business as usual as far as the labour board is concerned, despite the fact that such firings are intended as broad intimidation and a warning to others. A labour board worthy of the name would take swift action to punish such outrageous actions by the employers and let them know they cannot treat workers as slaves.
The workers are having none of it and refuse to be intimidated. Speaking with TML Daily, workers on the picket line explained why it is so important to act as an organized force. They spoke about the racist discrimination they face from the employer. Particularly stressful for the workers and residents alike is the practice of requiring staff to work on units where they are not familiar with the needs of the residents, their medications and so on. The norm in continuing care or long term care facilities is to have a stable staff in each unit so they are familiar with the patients and their needs. This important demand for stable scheduling impacts both their quality of work life and their ability to provide care for residents of the Waterford. Some of the workers who had been employed at the facility for 18 to 20 years are making as little as $11 an hour, workers explained. The workers are determined to fight to defend their right to their union and to persevere in winning a first contract. They are fighting to uphold their right to determine wages commensurate with the services they provide and working conditions which provide them peace of mind and the conditions to provide good care and services to the patients.
The Waterford of Summerlea facility is owned by Chantelle Management Ltd, a Langley, BC-based company that owns and operates for-profit continuing care facilities in BC, Alberta and California. It has about 150 residents including seniors who are "living independently" and those who qualify for "assisted living" care and services including a closed unit for patients with dementia. It has four facilities in Alberta, all under contract with Alberta Health Services. AUPE represents 65 employees at the Waterford, including licensed practical nurses, health-care aides, kitchen staff and housekeepers.
The same week that the workers at the Waterford of Summerlea organized their action against the unjust firing of their co-worker, AUPE filed a strike vote application at the Edith Cavell Care Centre in Lethbridge which is also owned by Chantelle. The 120 workers in this facility provide nursing care and support services. Negotiations began in September 2011 and the union filed for a government appointed mediator in late December as Chantelle has refused to meet the just demands of the workers for health benefits and improved wages. A meeting with the mediator on January 25 failed to resolve the issues critical to the workers. The workers are fighting for long-term disability, a health spending account and wages consistent with 2011 Alberta Health Services levels.
The private-for-profit Chantelle Management Ltd, also owns the newly completed Grande Prairie Care Centre in Northern Alberta. In May 2010 the Alberta government gave Chantelle $6.6 million to build a new facility which will replace the existing facility and double the number of care beds. The Alberta government refuses to build public long-term care beds. Instead it is handing over millions to private-for-profit corporations. These private interests are enriching themselves with public funds at the expense of the residents and patients and the staff who provide care and services. There are no clear standards of care in these "assisted-living" facilities and staffing often fails to meet acceptable standards. This anti-social trend must be reversed to ensure that public funding is used to uphold the rights and dignity of seniors and the workers who care for them, not to line the pockets of the private owners.
(Photos: AUPE)
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