March 7, 2012 - No. 30

Alberta

Health Quality Council Releases Report

Albertans fight to defend their right to health care. (AUPE)

Health Care Is a Right
• Health Quality Council Releases Report - Peggy Morton
• Council's CEO -- The Fox Guarding the Hen House

Water Is a Human Right, Not a Commodity!
• Students, Faculty and Staff Denounce University Award to Nestlé CEO
• No to University of Alberta's Water Privatization Agenda! The Right to Water Must Be Provided with a Guarantee

Transportation for People with Disabilities Is a Right, Not a Privilege
• HandiBus Operators Defend Their Rights and Dignity and the Service They
Provide - Peggy Askin 
• Interview - Mike Mahar, President, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 583

No to the Trans-Pacific Partnership!
• Harper's "Free" Trade Threatens Agricultural Supply Management Systems - Dougal MacDonald

Health Care Is a Right

Health Quality Council Releases Report

- Peggy Morton -

The Health Quality Council of Alberta (HQCA) released its review of issues related to quality of care and safety of patients on February 22. The Council was tasked with the review by Premier Alison Redford. During her campaign for leader of the Alberta Progressive Conservatives, Redford promised a public inquiry into wait times in emergency departments and their impact on care, and issues of threats and intimidation against physicians who spoke out to advocate for their patients.

The report was authored by Dr. John Cowell. The monopoly press discussed it as a "scathing" report for acknowledging a culture of intimidation in the province's health care system, specifically of physicians advocating for their patients. But there is nothing scathing about it. The report refuses to acknowledge that "physician intimidation" is a symptom of the complete breakdown of trust in the Alberta Health Services administration and the government. Alison Redford makes the ludicrous claims that she stands for "no political interference" in the health system. But the reason that the health superboard was created was to bring the entire health system under the direct control of the executive power. It was the final act of dismantling any local voice in control of hospitals and health care. It was the icing on the cake of planning and directing everything in secret, whether it's Phase 2 of the privatization plan in the Health Act or the 10-year plan for continuing care. Once bitten, twice shy as the old saying goes, and the Tories have learned that public disclosure of their schemes only builds resistance, so they are not going there. Cowell gravely states that the system needs "stability" -- which in effect means consolidating the executive power.

Does Cowell hold the government to account for the disasters that have ensued from its failure to carry out its social responsibilities? Not for a second. Cowell doesn't know if more beds are needed. In passing he mentions that it might be a good idea to find out how many acute care beds there are for different services -- information which he claims was "not available." He has no interest in finding out what kind of "community spaces" are being built for long-term care and seems oblivious to the reality that the supportive living spaces the government is building cannot provide the care that seniors waiting for placement in acute care beds or in their homes need. He pays no attention to the lack of mental health beds and facilities. He gave no thought to the plans to close hundreds of psychiatric beds at Alberta Hospital Edmonton, a plan put on the back burner after a vigorous campaign led by health care workers, patients' families, doctors and others involved in the care of the people needing mental health services. He does confirm what everyone already knows, that there are unacceptable waits in emergency departments, that people coming to emergency are sicker, and that emergency departments are filled with people waiting for beds.

Instead, of holding the government to account, behind the nice phrases that there should be a "just culture" there is a chilling message -- the problem with the health system is that it does not function enough like a giant U.S. health management organization (HMO). When Cowell speaks of accountability, it is not the government which he is going to hold to account, but the health care providers and staff who try to make this broken system function.

Cowell's solution is to reduce inpatient acute care occupancy, i.e., leave more empty beds for patients being admitted from emergency. Cowell singles out the Edmonton region for longer patient lengths of stay than Calgary and other regions, using long discredited methods that pay no attention to the fact that Edmonton serves a wide area of northern Alberta. These patients often require longer stays in hospital because they lack access to physicians and hospital services when they return home. He uses HMO-style "benchmarking" where hospital length of stay is a race to the bottom: patients are costs, costs are to be cut, and this exercise should not be complicated by focussing on the needs of the patients and their outcomes.

Cowell provides a lot of information on a scheme to reduce length of stay in emergency at the University of Alberta Hospital which cost $13 million plus undisclosed fees to "external consultants." The project had absolutely no effect on reducing the length of time people waited in emergency. The only reductions were accomplished by moving the patients to inpatient wards where three patients occupied a small semi-private room designed for two beds. Cowell's conclusion is completely self serving. Instead of concluding that the project did not work because it did not provide what was actually needed -- fully staffed inpatient and long-term care beds -- Cowell concludes that people did not "buy in" to the scheme, accountability was not clear and there was no accountability model for inpatient bed use. In other words, there were no rewards and punishments for reducing length of stay, however it was done.

According to Cowell, occupancy rates over 90 per cent are difficult to handle. Hospital workers could tell Dr. Cowell that such low occupancy rates have not been seen in Alberta for about 30 years. Nonetheless, somehow hospitals are supposed to end over-crowding in emergencies, reduce wait lists for elective and urgent surgery, look after a growing population and lower occupancy rates.

Dr. Cowell was the CEO of the Alberta Workers' Compensation Board (WCB) during the Klein era. He supposedly carried out the $3 billion "miracle" where he reduced employers' premiums, deprived untold numbers of workers of their right to WCB benefits and introduced a bonus system for case workers who cut the number of people receiving benefits. Is this what he means by an "accountability model?"

The government's attempt to provide a cover and divert from its failure to carry out its social responsibilities and to provide the right to health care with a guarantee is not going to fool anyone. Health care workers, seniors and others are actively organizing to hold the government to account, and are demanding the expansion of free, high quality, comprehensive health care available to all when needed as a right.

Council's CEO -- The Fox Guarding the Hen House

Dr. John Cowell became CEO of the Health Quality Council in 2003. After working for monopolies like GE and Nova, Cowell became CEO of the Alberta Workers' Compensation Board from 1992 to 1997. Cowell's tenure as WCB chieftain during the Klein years, which brought untold hardship to workers in Alberta, was hailed by the monopolies as a $3 billion turnaround. Employer premiums were reduced while increasingly workers found their claims simply refused. How this was accomplished paints an ominous picture of what Cowell means by making staff "accountable" with respect to Alberta's health care system. During this time the bonus system was introduced where WCB case managers are paid bonuses to get workers off compensation, regardless of how this is accomplished. Bonuses are also paid to sign up companies for improperly monitored safety programs which entitles the companies to rebates on premiums. These programs are well known to workers where the "safety meeting" consists of the foreman saying, "Well, accidents will happen, please sign the attendance sheet, back to work." When he left the WCB, Dr. Cowell received a severance package of more than $500,000, an enormous sum in 1997.

Dr. Cowell also served for a time as Chief Operating Officer of the private, for-profit "surgical facility," Health Resources Group (HRG), later Networc Health which operated out of the old Grace Hospital in Calgary until it filed for bankrupcy. HRG/Networc relied heavily on contracts from WCB as well as Alberta Health Services. Dr. Cowell's time at HRG/Networc is no longer mentioned in his biographical details.

He also worked as a health care consultant, pushing the sort of HMO-inspired practices that he recommends in the Health Quality Council's report.

It would indeed be difficult to find anyone more suited to defend and advocate that public services be handed over to private interests. As CEO of the WCB, Dr. Cowell would have gained first-hand knowledge and experience running a system in which staff are rewarded for being the gatekeepers who deny people the services they require. Such systems are also known to include disincentives in the form of intimidation and harassment of staff who do not take up this organizational mission as their own.

Water is a Human Right, Not a Commodity!

Students, Faculty and Staff Denounce
University Award to Nestlé CEO

More than 150 students, staff, and faculty from the University of Alberta, as well as people from the community, gathered in freezing temperatures outside the University of Alberta Timms Centre on March 1 to protest the "honorary" degree awarded to Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, CEO of Nestlé. Protestors put up a huge banner reading "U of A Don't Honour Nestlé," and many waved signs with the same slogan. Nestlé is the world's biggest bottled water business and a company that has come under heavy fire for years for many of its dubious practices. Over 70 organizations around the world have condemned the awarding of the degree.

Speakers declared that Nestlé is causing water scarcity and is trying to privatize a public resource. "The university is positioning themselves on the side of the commodifiers, the people who want to say that water is not a human right that everyone has the right to, but is just a product that can be bought and sold," said Scott Harris from the Council of Canadians. "What Nestlé does is take what clean water there is and which poor people are relying on, bottle it and then sell it to wealthier people at an exorbitant profit," said Professor Martin Tweedale. Professor Laurie Adkin told the crowd that the award was a sign that the university increasingly serves private interests rather than the public good.

Following the outside rally, many demonstrators entered the Timms Centre where the brief awards ceremony was held. As Brabeck-Letmathe stood to receive his award and began to speak, protestors rose from their seats. They clapped and chanted, "Shame! Shame! Shame on the U of A!" Some turned their backs. Protestors then filed out. Activists have pledged to continue the campaign by thoroughly investigating the new University of Alberta "water initiative" which is now nominating an international advisory board heavily loaded with advocates of water commodification, including Brabeck-Letmathe and several representatives of energy monopolies active in Alberta's oilsands.

No to University of Alberta's
Water Privatization Agenda! The Right to Water
Must Be Provided with a Guarantee

Protest at Universtity of Alberta against honouring former Nestle CEO, Edmonton, March 1, 2012.

University of Alberta President Indira Samarasekera announced February 28 that the university is forming an advisory group for a new university-based water initiative to "enhance its leadership role on water on the global stage." The provincial government has identified water as a key priority. Premier Alison Redford stated in Medicine Hat on October 20, 2011: "Whether we move to market or not it's about what we do with respect to water for life and what we do with respect to a price on water." To kick off its initiative, the university sponsored a March 1 panel discussion involving three recipients of University of Alberta honorary degrees: Dr. Steve Hrudey, U of A professor emeritus and public health specialist in safe water, Sunita Narain, director-general of the Centre for Science and Environment in India, and Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, CEO of the much-criticized Nestlé monopoly. A successful protest was held that same day against the awarding of a degree to Brabeck-Letmathe.

The university's water initiative comes as Alberta Environment and Water Minister Diana McQueen has promised public consultations in 2012 on the government's review of the provincial water trading system, i.e., the process of buying and selling water access rights. To divert and use surface or (under)ground water in Alberta requires a license under the Water Act. The licence identifies the water source, location of the diversion site, volume, rate and timing of water to be diverted, priority of the "water right," and any conditions the diversion must adhere to. Licences can be issued for temporary diversions up to a maximum of one year, or for longer periods depending on the project. Licencees can sell unused portions of their licences, presumably to the highest bidder.

Three reports released in November 2009 clearly indicate the Alberta government wants a provincial water market that favours privatization and a so-called free market. There are two main forms of private sector participation in water supply. In a full privatization, assets are permanently sold to a private investor. In a public-private partnership (P3 or PPP), which is most common, ownership of assets remains public and certain functions are delegated to a private company for a specific period.[1] Most of the financing comes from public resources. The three main forms of P3s are management contract, where the private operator runs the system for a fee; lease contract, where the assets are leased to the private operator who receives a share of the revenues; and concession, where the private operator runs the entire system typically for 20 to 30 years.[2]

The pro-privatization, pro-market stance of the university's water initiative is reflected in the selection of a number of the nineteen members listed in the latest public version (end of January 2012) of the water initiative's advisory board members. Three members are connected with companies active in the Alberta oilsands, which are major users of water: Syncrude, Total Canada and Nexen. Another member is with IHS CERA, which advises energy companies. Brabeck-Letmathe and another member represent, respectively, Nestlé, a major private water user, and Belmont Capital, a private Ontario investment firm. Another two members represent Water Health International and Global Water Partnership, two companies closely connected with the U.S.-controlled World Bank, notorious for inflicting "privatization solutions" on countries in debt to the financial oligarchy. Another member, Asit Biswas of the Third World Centre for Water Management, advocates public-private partnerships and has previously collaborated with Nestlé CEO Brabeck-Letmathe.

University President Samarasekera says that the university's main aim is to create a "balanced" water advisory board. But experience shows that so-called balance in Alberta means doing whatever serves the monopolies, mainly the energy monopolies. The "balance" sought through the university's water initiative is to try to find effective ways to profit from water and to sort out the contradictions among the energy monopolies and all others who need water, e.g., farmers, ranchers, municipalities, small businesses, and so on. Oilsands monopolies are major water consumers, with strip mining operations alone licensed to divert 652 million cubic metres of water each year, about seven times the annual water needs of Edmonton. The mining process requires two to 4.5 cubic metres of water to extract one cubic metre of synthetic crude oil. Just three existing operations -- Suncor, Syncrude and the Shell-controlled Athabasca Oilsands Project -- are licensed to use twice the amount of water used by the City of Calgary.

Instead of so-called balance, what is needed is an Alberta water policy that unreservedly serves the interests of the working class and people. This policy must be first and foremost based on the fact that water is a right people have by virtue of being human, not a commodity to be traded and profited from by private enterprise. The situation is all the more urgent because Canada is expected to soon sign the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with the European Union, giving European monopolies such as Veolia, Suez, and Nestlé unprecedented access to and investor rights in our water systems. Under CETA, private monopolies could sue Canadian governments for water-related actions that lower their profits. In addition, under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), once a province lifts its voluntary ban on bulk water exports to the U.S., NAFTA rules will take effect to "legally" prevent further restrictions on such exports.

The battle against water privatization is part and parcel of the just struggle of people everywhere against the privatization of any and all public services.[3] Basic human rights such as the right to water must be put at the centre of concern of a human society and must be guaranteed. A society can only be considered humane and democratic if it recognizes the claims of all. Further, people in Alberta have the fundamental democratic right to fully participate in making decisions which affect their lives. Any decisions concerning Alberta's water must first be submitted for the approval of those whose lives they will affect. Consultations about water that are undertaken must be genuine and must not be used, as in the past, to legitimize a pre-determined agenda, such as the predetermined agenda of water privatization that is now being insidiously promoted by the University of Alberta.

Notes

1. Twenty-eight new Alberta schools will be built via P3s. See The Marxist Leninist Daily, January 28, 2012.

2. Some anti-people effects of water P3s include higher system costs, higher water rates, reduced services and water quality, loss of jobs, minimal public accountability, loss of control and flexibility, and buying and selling of water contracts to make windfall profits.

3. In Bolivia, popular uprisings against water privatization in Cochabamba in 2000 and in La Paz/El Alto in 2005 terminated private concessions held by Bechtel (U.S.) and Suez. Suez's private concessions in Atlanta and Buenos Aires were revoked in 2003 and 2006, respectively, while privatization in Manila, Philippines by Suez, Bechtel, Mitsubishi and other corporations continues to meet strong opposition. Nicaragua, Uruguay and the Netherlands have passed laws banning water privatization. In Italy, a law favoring water privatization was repealed by an overwhelming majority through a June 2011 referendum.

Transportation for People with Disabilities Is a Right, Not a Privilege

HandiBus Operators Defend Their Rights and Dignity and the Service They Provide

- Peggy Askin -

Calgary HandiBus operators are preparing for another round in their fight for job security, against contracting out and for working conditions commensurate with the essential service they provide. Their contract expires at the end of 2012. These workers are represented by the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) 583, which also represents workers at Calgary Transit.

Calgarians participate in the 12th annual Speak-Out organized by the Disability Action Hall, June 2010.

The HandiBus operators perform an essential service by providing transportation to Calgarians with temporary and permanent disabilities. This service was initiated so that people with disabilities can participate fully in all aspects of life and culture.

HandiBus has a fleet of 115 vehicles to serve 17,000 people registered with Access Calgary and makes approximately 40,000 passenger trips per month. Eleven vehicles are dedicated to the transportation of pre-school children with disabilities, aged six and under, who are attending developmental programs. Operational funding comes from passenger fares and the City of Calgary, but the City does not provide any funding for vehicle purchases and improvements, all of which come from community donations.

It is not acceptable that governments put the needs of persons with disabilities on the back burner, rather than front and centre where they belong. The people of Calgary created HandiBus to fill a need that was not being met by the city. The people who use the service, their families and allies in the community worked very hard to develop and maintain a humane, safe and secure means of transport to meet the needs of persons with disabilities. The service people created was meeting the needs of the community, but  Calgary Transit/Access Calgary has taken it over and treats both the people who use the service and the workers who provide the service as a cost. Safe and secure transport for people with special needs is a right and not a cost. The workers who provide the service are not a cost either and the conditions of their work have everything to do with the type of service they can provide. Why is the regular public system not organized to meet the needs of all the people of Calgary, including those with disabilities? 

The HandiBus drivers have been under tremendous pressure to make sacrifices in their working conditions. Calgary Transit/Access Calgary has contracted the service of providing transportation to those with special needs to private companies, mainly Southland transportation, at the expense of the service and the workers who provide it. Calgarians should express full support for the workers at Calgary HandiBus as they are defending their rights, opposing privatization and standing up for an essential service for persons with disabilities.

Interview 

- Mike Mahar, President, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 583 -

TML: Can you explain the services the workers at Calgary Handibus provide?

Mike Mahar: There are 160 operators and 12 attendants at HandiBus who provide transportation for Calgarians with disabilities. Attendants are present on each school bus for young children with disabilities. Calgary HandiBus was created thirty years ago as a non-profit organization because of a need in the community and the kind of dedication that created this service still exists with Calgary HandiBus. In 2003 Calgary Transit took over the funding from Calgary Social Services and created Access Calgary to look after all the special needs transportation. Access Calgary was born out of a business decision. It had nothing to do with the needs of the clients and that outlook has followed.

Calgary HandiBus still has their garage for the vehicles but all the schedulers and dispatchers were brought over to Calgary Transit/Access Calgary. Calgary Transit/Access Calgary has taken control not just of the operations but of Calgary HandiBus itself.

In 2006-2007, Access Calgary carved out a large amount of the Calgary HandiBus budget and sent it to a for-profit organization, Southland Transportation. Each year since then more of the service has been contracted out, including $2 million in 2010 just days before we started negotiations. Southland created a fleet which virtually mirrors Calgary HandiBus and they are non-union. The city started contracting out under the guise of a spike in demand, saying that HandiBus did not have the staff to handle the increased demand. The irony of this is that HandiBus hires staff based on how many operators or attendants Calgary Transit/Access Calgary tells them they can hire. So rather than Access Calgary saying, here is the budget, hire somebody, they got a second provider so they could create a downward pressure on the wages and benefits of the HandiBus employees.

TML: What are the main problems facing the Handi Bus Drivers?

MM: We are dealing with many grievances on shift scheduling. During the last negotiations we reached an impasse on scheduling of breaks. The employer wanted to move the breaks freely, at will. Breaks were scheduled very precisely and this is important to the drivers as they perform very critical work and have a very heavy workload. Our reluctance to allow flexibility on the breaks was that they would just move the breaks and not correct the trips, forcing the operators into overtime at the end of the day. These matters are difficult to resolve because Access Calgary, although they control and administer the day-to-day work is not present in the negotiations. We have the collective agreement with Calgary HandiBus, not with Access Calgary which controls the scheduling. We find this very frustrating.

We served strike notice for March 11, 2011 and planned to have a brief public action before service started in the morning. We guaranteed no interruption in the service to the clients. This provided us a way to visually open up the whole situation facing our operators and communicate to the public.

On March 10 the Labour Minister stepped in and appointed a Disputes Inquiry Board. Through a lengthy process we agreed that Access Calgary could schedule breaks one day in advance and move breaks by about 30 minutes or by an additional time with the agreement of the operators, and operators usually do agree. There is a complex grid laid out around the city of times when you need to be cleared from your last trip. If this system is followed properly then an operator has adequate time to finish and not be forced into overtime. But Calgary Transit/Access Calgary is not honouring the agreement ATU Local 583 made with HandiBus and drivers are constantly being forced to work past the times set out on the breaks.

Access Calgary said they needed flexibility for HandiBus to stay competitive with Southland. This is why flexibility in breaks and end of shift times is connected to the whole issue of contracting out. We reached a resolution during the Disputes Inquiry Board process using an experienced single arbitrator that gave Calgary Access what they needed on the breaks and provided our operators what they needed to protect their shifts ending at the scheduled time. The whole focus from Calgary Transit/Access Calgary was that if the operators agree to make some sacrifices in the quality of their work life, then HandiBus could maintain their share of the work. On this basis we signed the agreement, and spent two or three months finalizing the grid.

A couple of months after we finalized the grid, we got notice that HandiBus was going to lose 16,600 hours. This time they were sending these trips to city taxis, equipped to provide service to people with special needs. This is a service with quite a bit of flexibility where the client pays part of the fare. We are not disagreeing with this type of service, but they cannot handle the hours that Access Calgary gives them and whenever they or Southland fail it is HandiBus that has to pick up the missed trips and push their operators into overtime.

In spite of the agreement that was finally reached on scheduling and breaks and end times, Calgary Transit/Access Calgary is refusing to implement it. Our membership made a decision to accept the contract based on their concerns about job security. There is talk now that at what point do we stop giving up working conditions when hours continue to be contracted out. The word of management has no value. It is important that Calgary HandiBus fight for the hours and the budget they need to keep providing the valuable service our operators and attendants provide to Calgarians with special needs.

TML: How are the operators affected by the situation with the constant contracting out and the refusal by Calgary Transit/Access Calgary to adhere to their agreements over scheduling.

MM: This whole situation is really affecting their morale. When you are running an operation short staffed or with a skeleton staff, workers can't get time off when they need it. Schedulers and dispatchers have been moved off site. Now most of the dispatching is done electronically by mobile data terminals. So if one of the special needs clients is late, there is no longer any interaction with the dispatcher who knows the circumstances, they have to push a late client code and wait to find out from a dispatcher whether to carry on, check the door and so on.

TML: How are the clients that use HandiBus being impacted by this situation?

MM: Customer service has deteriorated. Calgary HandiBus is an environment, not just a service for providing transportation. The contracting out of services to the disabled to for-profit companies and the deterioration of service created by Calgary Transit/Access Calgary has created a situation where Calgary HandiBus as we know it today may not be able to exist. This is a shame because it is so respected by the community and has won national and North American awards for its service and profile. Calgary HandiBus and the drivers and attendants who actually provide this service are a valuable asset to our community and should not be treated as just a cost in the Calgary Transit/Access Calgary Budget.

No to the Trans-Pacific Partnership!

Harper's "Free" Trade Threatens
Agricultural Supply Management Systems

- Dougal MacDonald -

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's campaign to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the new Asia-Pacific free trade group, is continuing. All nine member countries within the TPP talks -- the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Peru, Malaysia, Viet Nam, Singapore and Brunei -- must agree before any country can join the TPP talks at this stage. So, Canada's International Trade Minister Ed Fast jetted off to Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore in mid-February and will visit Viet Nam in March, to secure the consent of those TPP members to Canada's participation.

At the November 12-13, 2011, Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Hawaii, Fast feigned reluctance to participate in the TPP. His perceived resistance was blamed on other countries' insistence that Canada first agree to dismantle the dairy supply management system that governs production and sale of milk, butter and cheese. Dairy supply management maintains stable and consistent prices for producers, processors and consumers, eliminates reliance on subsidies, and ensures a constant and certain supply of quality milk and milk products. Since February 2001, 100 per cent of Alberta's dairy producer revenues have been derived from the market.

Less than 24 hours later, Prime Minister Stephen Harper stated that Canada wants to join the TPP. While forced to admit that supply management fosters a healthy dairy sector, he stated that everything was on the table during negotiations. Disinforming on behalf of Harper, the monopoly Globe and Mail newspaper published a vicious attack article on December 2, entitled, "It hurts dancing to supply management's tune," in which farmers who support supply management were equated with "political terrorists" and "racketeers." Harper's decision to participate in the TPP and his recent shock and awe dismantling of the Canadian Wheat Board in the face of vehement opposition by farmers, workers and their allies, indicate that he will have no qualms about dismantling the dairy, poultry and other agricultural supply management systems, regardless of the many benefits to the people of Canada and regardless of assurances to the contrary that he gives in the House of Commons.

In the early 1970s, dairy became the first commodity in Canada to operate a national supply management system, managed by the Canadian Dairy Commission. Early farm organizations turned to provincial governments to create the actual marketing boards, such as Alberta Milk. Alberta Milk, provincially established in 2002, represents Alberta's dairy producers. It is funded primarily by producers through mandatory membership assessments, which can only be changed when approved by a majority vote of licensed producers. The transportation pool is operated on a cost-recovery basis, with all producers sharing equally in the cost. Alberta Milk funds research, new initiatives and nutrition education (e.g., in schools), and strives to provide dairy producers with accurate and timely information and feedback regarding the dairy industry. Other agricultural supply management systems operate in a similar manner.

The agricultural products marketed through supply management systems play an important role in the lives of the people. For example, over 10,000 Albertans rely on milk for their livelihoods, including dairy producers, veterinarians, nutritionists, researchers, professors, consultants, government workers, equipment salesmen, milk truck drivers, and many processing and retail workers. Alberta is the fourth largest milk producer in Canada, producing 8.2 per cent of all milk. In Alberta, the dairy industry is estimated to support upwards of $2.5 billion in economic activity. With the value added from all other dairy processing and manufacturing, Alberta's dairy industry contributed a record $1.27 billion to the provincial economy in 2005 (latest available figures), making it the second largest segment of the province's food processing activity.

The dismantling of the dairy and other agricultural supply management systems poses a grave threat to the well-being of the people of Alberta. Predictable consequences include elimination of self-employed farmers, loss of many other livelihoods, increased economic insecurity, unstable and rising prices, decline in production and quality, and a further opening up of the food-producing industry to foreign takeovers. Just as is the case in the arbitrary dismantling of the Wheat Board, which was strongly oppposed by farmer groups, foreign monopolies are waiting to take full control of Alberta's agricultural industries, once local producer control is destroyed.

Alberta Milk and Alberta's other agricultural commissions and marketing boards are producer-controlled organizations that developed to fulfill the needs of Alberta producers which render account to the actual producers as to the price that is put on the value they have produced. They oppose the dogma of the ruling circles that some mysterious "free market" can set "fair" prices, even when every sector of the economy is dominated by monopolies that manipulate prices to suit their narrow interests. The destruction of Alberta's dairy and other agricultural supply management systems would be another blow against thinking, social consciousness and progress, and must not pass. Everyone should stand as one against the regression that the Harper dictatorship is imposing across the country.

For Your Information
Alberta's Supply Management Systems

Alberta's fourteen Agricultural Commissions and seven Marketing Boards are regulated by the Marketing of Agricultural Products Act and Regulations (MAPA) (revised 2000). The Act provides the framework for their establishment and operation and establishes the Agricultural Products Marketing Council to supervise their activities. The Act establishes an Appeal Tribunal and provides the framework to facilitate federal-provincial agreements and delegation of authority. Within the Act, each board or commission develops a set of governing regulations. The Act specifies several different levels of regulation-making and administrative abilities, involving the Alberta government and the respective board or commission.

The Boards and Commissions' primary responsibilities are to initiate and carry out projects or programs to commence, stimulate, increase or improve the production and/or marketing of an agricultural product, and serve as the voice of the industry they represent. MAPA enables each organization to assess and collect a service charge, commonly known as check-off, to fund their operational activities and undertake various initiatives that would benefit their industry.

The existing Alberta marketing commissions are Alberta Barley Commission, Alberta Beef Producers, Alberta Beekeepers, Alberta Canola Producers Commission, Alberta Elk, Alberta Lamb Producers, Alberta Pork, Alberta Pulse Growers, Alberta Soft Wheat Producers, Alberta Winter Wheat Producers, Alberta Seed Producers, Bison Commission of Alberta and Potato Growers of Alberta. The existing Alberta marketing boards are Alberta Chicken Producers, Alberta Egg Producers, Alberta Hatching Egg Producers, Alberta Milk, Alberta Turkey Producers, Alberta Sugar Beet Growers and Alberta Vegetable Growers.

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