FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 25, 1998
When will budget surpluses translate into improved services for Albertans?
EDMONTON – The Alberta government’s decision to use all of this year’s huge budget surplus to help pay down the provincial debt is reckless and irresponsible because it ignores the on-going crisis in health care, education and municipal services, says Les Steel, Secretary Treasurer of the Alberta Federation of Labour. "Clearly, the only thing that this government is good at is hoarding money," says Steel. "They know how to collect tax dollars and give them to bankers and bond holders. But they haven’t figured out how to use those dollars to deliver the kind of high-quality public services that Albertans need and deserve." Steel scoffed at comments made by provincial Treasurer Stockwell when he released the budget figures yesterday afternoon. Day said the huge surplus and the decision to spend all of it on debt repayment proves that Alberta economy is healthy and the government has its priorities right. "If this government is really doing such a great job, why are our municipalities still calling for billions of dollars to fix our crumbling roads and why are classrooms in schools across the province still so over-crowded?" asked Steel. "If things are really going so well, why are our hospitals still under-staffed, why are our health officials still calling for $1.5 billion in extra funding and why are the Capital Health Authority and other regional health authorities still being forced to run deficit budgets?" Steel also criticized the government for using its annual "performance report" to mislead Albertans about the true health of the provincial economy. The report, called Measuring Up, was released yesterday along with the latest budget-surplus figures. Among other things, Measuring Up shows that the provincial GDP increased at an average of six per cent each year for the past three years. It also showed that 44,200 new jobs were created in 1997. "These figures are obviously positive," says Steel. "But they only tell part of the story about the provincial economy. What Measuring Up doesn’t say is that many of the jobs being created in Alberta are not good jobs and that the gap between rich and poor in this province is increasing. It also doesn’t say that average wages for workers who are paid by the hour are continuing to decline – even during this period of supposed prosperity." Now that the OPEC nations have agreed to slash oil production by 1.4 billion barrels a day, Steel says it seems clear that the Alberta government will continue to record massive surpluses, at least for the next few years. "The big question now is: when are Albertans finally going to see the pay-off for all the sacrifices that they’ve been forced to make?" asks Steel. "The government has now recorded more than $7 billion dollars in surpluses over the past four years. There is no longer any excuse for us to underfund our schools, hospitals and municipalities. And there is no longer any financial justification for things like contracting out of public sector-work or the expansion of private health care services. The time has clearly come for the government to take a much more balanced approach to its finances."
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