Editor: Public sector workers shouldn’t be scapegoats for PC mistakes.
Jim Prentice is trying desperately to run away from the PC failures of recent years and he has chosen to scapegoat the nurses, teachers, seniors’ aides and EMS staff in our communities. In one breath Prentice claims we’ve had the best of everything, then he turns around and attacks the workers who deliver those services – all for a budget crisis of his party’s own design.
While most Albertans would not agree that we’ve had the best of everything considering the sorry state of our health and education systems, one thing for certain is that the public sector workers are still trying hard to hold key services together in our hospitals, schools and elsewhere; the workers are not the issue.
The PC’s mistaken policies are to blame and will only make things worse for Alberta families.
Prentice’s favourite targets are the people that: save your life after a car accident, help you cope with cancer, educate our children, fight forest fires, care for our parents in nursing homes and enforce safe workplaces and environmental regulations, to name a few.
These people are our neighbours, sisters, brothers, parents and children. We want them to have good, rewarding jobs, and we want them to be compensated fairly so we attract and retain them in Alberta. They spend their money at local businesses near where they live to keep our economy vibrant and strong.
We depend on public services to be there when we need them. Right now, health care, education and community services are depending on us to be there for them.
Let’s work together to make sure that we don’t go further backwards. One positive step would be to end the corporate welfare and big tax breaks to large, profitable corporations. That’s the kind of leadership we need, not attacks on teachers or nurses.
Cam Westhead,
Bragg Creek
