By Alexander Delorme, Communications Staff
Rural Alberta is under attack.
Premier Kenney set his sights on making huge cuts to Alberta's public services before the UCP even won the 2019 Alberta election, and despite the COVID-19 pandemic forcing Albertans to rely on health care and social services like never before, the province’s unpalatable, unpopular premier cannot bring himself to repent and reverse course.
This comes as no surprise. Kenney has made crushing public services the primary focus of his political career, after all. What he conveniently neglects to mention is that these new cuts come at the expense of the very Albertans he most frequently calls on for support.
Most of Kenney’s cuts disproportionately hurt rural Albertans. These include cuts to jobs in Wildfire Management, Forest Management, Forest Health, Agricultural research, support for farmers, and post-secondary institutions across the province, not to mention the 11,000 health care professionals his government has already begun firing. The negative impact Kenney’s ideological agenda will have on rural communities is immeasurable.
"It’s unconscionable, and I don’t know how they will find workers in rural areas if they keep paying bottom dollar and contracting-out work."
AUPE Vice-President Darren Graham works for Alberta Health Services’ procurement and supply management in Red Deer. Years of experience have given him first-hand knowledge of how public services and good jobs are essential for rural communities.
"AUPE members and the work they do are critical for rural Alberta and our smaller cities," says Graham. "So many AUPE members are the breadwinners for their families now, especially over the last number of years during the recession and energy sector downturn.
"Then with COVID, they have put in even more hours, more sweat, more tears, and more heartbreak. And now those members are being treated as disposable assets by their employers. It’s unconscionable, and I don’t know how they will find workers in rural areas if they keep paying bottom dollar and contracting-out work."
AUPE members are fighting for higher wages and against cuts, but we have not won every battle. The remainder of publicly operated hospital laundry services—which were steady, family-supporting jobs in rural communities—have been outsourced to the company K-Bro. Alberta Health Services has also sent out a request for proposals for privatizing hospital retail food services.
Post-secondary education has suffered as well. Skyrocketing tuition and cuts to post-secondary institutions can be catastrophic for rural Alberta; institutions like Olds College, Lakeland College, and Northern Lakes College are economic engines for their communities, and damaging their ability to help train the next generation of working Albertans helps no one.
"When you drive up costs, you have fewer students come in," says Graham. "Then they lay off people at those institutions, which all has a domino effect on the community and the local economy."
"We must fight to make sure employers do not take advantage of our compassion and sense of community."
More recently, Kenney’s government has been playing a dangerous game with Alberta’s wildfire preparedness. Climate change is making the wildfire season longer and more dangerous, but the government has reduced the official wildfire season to a handful of months, which effectively means a 12 per cent budget cut and Alberta being short 68 wildfire-fighting staff.
For a politician who claims to love the prairies, Kenney does not seem to understand that rural Albertans cannot stand strong unless we are standing safe.
Small-town strength also comes from knowing your neighbours and caring about each other's well-being. But Graham notes that this strength is also something employers and the government try to take advantage of.
"I remember one instance in Hannah," he says, "We had members who worked in food and nutrition who—because they knew the majority of the of the patients in the hospital—would come in and do their work early.
"They did that because they’re committed to helping their friends and neighbours. But it also means the employer would get a couple of hours of unpaid work out of them. We must fight to make sure employers do not take advantage of our compassion and sense of community."
That compassion and sense of community is not going anywhere, no matter how hard Kenney tries to beat rural Alberta down. AUPE members do not just provide services for rural communities, we make those communities our home. We are all woven into the fabric of each other’s lives, and we will not stop fighting for our jobs, our public services, our families, and all Albertans.