The Alberta Federation of Labour urged the Federal government recently to turn its attention to restoring people programs and creating a real fiscal dividend for working families. The AFL’s recommendations came in a written submission to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance.

The House of Commons Committee is currently in its pre-budget deliberations to set budget priorities for next year.

"We have seen five years of bottom-line government, where everything was measured by its impact on the deficit phantom," said Audrey Cormack, President of the AFL. "We are urging the Federal government to start repairing the damage of the last decade."

The AFL Submission recommends a whole new set of policies for the new century: "We have a choice. We can end the millennium with a whimper, with the tired old policies of the past decade, or we can choose a new direction, one that once again puts all Canadians on the same level and once again puts the welfare of people ahead of the greed of profit."

The submission highlights a number of priorities for the new direction, including mending the social safety net, restoring UI benefits and eligibility, repaying federal government employees and implementing pay equity, and a plan for addressing economic insecurity.

"Quite simply, it is the federal government’s job to make sure the economy works for everyone. They have been failing miserably so far."

Knowing that tax cuts and further devolution is on the government’s agenda, the submission also calls for a phasing out of the GST and replacing it with a minimum corporate tax and high income surtaxes. It also calls for the government to help keep the country together by revitalizing the federal role through new initiatives and enforcement of existing rules.

Cormack said that she is more hopeful than she has been in years because the government has lost its excuse of the deficit. "Now that the deficit is gone, maybe we can force them to remember that government is supposed to serve people."