Editorial
Despite the premier's assertion that her government made “tremendous progress” in 2013, the PCs will be facing significant challenges in 2014, not the least of which may be a looming war with thousands of public service employees.
In her year-end wrap up of the government's 2013 achievements, Premier Alison Redford says she believes things went very well over the past 12 months.
“I'm so proud of what we've accomplished this year,” said Redford. “In the face of the bitumen bubble and the worst flooding in Alberta's history, we made some difficult choices, but they allowed us to keep our economy on track.
“We are working hard to ensure we're building Alberta for the four million Albertans today and the million more who we'll welcome over the next decade.”
Under its Building Alberta Plan, the PCs introduced and passed almost three dozen pieces of legislation. The premier cited the Flood Recovery and Reconstruction Act and the Enhancing Safety on Alberta Roads Act as highlight legislation in 2013.
Interestingly the premier did not mention the Public Service Salary Restraint Act in her wrap up – but maybe that's because Alberta labour groups and others have come out very strongly against that act, calling it an unprecedented attack on workers' rights in this province?
If a negotiated new agreement cannot be reached between the province and Alberta Union of Provincial Employee (AUPE) members by Jan. 31, 2014, the act will allow the province to impose a settlement.
“Even the one route that we have to go to arbitration is being blocked, undemocratically, by what is being seen or increasingly being seen as a dictatorship in this province,” said AUPE president Guy Smith.
Minister of Finance Doug Horner has been spearheading the government's response to the protests, saying the act adheres to the government's overall fiscal policy.
“When you look at the fact that we believe that there is an opportunity for a negotiated settlement, this is something that the two parties should be working on, not a third party independent from what the taxpayer might be looking at,” said Horner.
If the Redford government cannot reach a new agreement with the AUPE by the end of January – and an imposed settlement is then put in place under the new act – it could lead to all-out-war between the government and the province's largest union, with literally millions of Albertans caught in the middle.
And make no mistake, a Redford-AUPE war would be a crisis of the first order for the PC government now celebrating its “tremendous progress” over the past year.
