The President of CUPE Alberta is calling on UCP leader Jason Kenney to tell Albertans what programs and services he would cut to achieve a balanced budget.
CUPE AB President Marle Roberts says you can’t talk about bringing the deficit down in isolation to the programs and people who depend upon public services.
“Which schools would he close? Which hospitals would he blow up? How many nurses, teachers and other public workers would he fire?” asked Roberts.
Roberts said the NDP plan to balance the budget by 2023 is the responsible approach, allowing for a gradual return to surplus in the provincial books.
“It’s a bit rich for Kenney to lecture the province on balanced budgets when his own party ran deficits even when oil was over $100/barrel,” said Roberts. “It would be laughable if his current proposals were not so scary.”
UCP MLAs frequently talk about reducing spending to “BC levels” which are 20% lower than Alberta. Roberts says a 20% cut to spending would “devastate public services and the people who depend upon them.”
“So I say to Jason Kenney – put your plans in writing. Let us see what stays and what goes.”
“If you want to be Premier, you owe that to Albertans.”