Guest Column: Yes, we can make the economy work better for working Albertans
By Gil McGowan on August 29, 2024.
Labour Day has got me thinking about a line from a famous Bruce Springsteen song, the River. “But lately there ain’t been much work, on account of the economy.” As he so often did, Springsteen, the working class poet, illustrated an important truth: most working people think of the economy like they think of the weather. Sometimes it’s good. Sometimes it’s bad. But it’s always something outside of our control. It’s very convenient for the powerful minority (politicians, corporations, the wealthy) that the disempowered majority (workers, consumers, students, seniors) usually think of the economy as something they can’t really do anything about, other than grumble. But here’s the thing: the economy is NOT like the weather. It’s the product of rules, regulations and norms established by living, breathing human beings. It’s NOT a naturally occurring phenomenon. And there ARE things that can be done to make it work better for working people. As a Labour Day exercise, let me illustrate my point in the context of three issues that are currently top-of-mind for many working Albertans: wages, housing and the cost of living. As economist Jim Stanford pointed out in a recent report, entitled “The Disappearing Alberta Advantage,” Alberta recently lost bragging rights as the highest-wage province in Canada to our neighbour to the west, BC. In fact, since 2019, Alberta has lagged all other provinces in terms of average wage growth. After adjusting for inflation, the hourly wages taken home by Alberta workers have dropped by 5 percent over the past five years – for public sector workers, it’s down as much as ten per cent. No other province has experienced this kind of precipitous decline. So, what could our governments do differently? For starters, our provincial government could increase the minimum wage, which they’ve left frozen for nearly six years, despite high inflation. They could also make it easier for Albertans to join unions, thereby increasing their bargaining power; they could reverse the Kenney-era policy that makes it easier for employers to avoid paying overtime; and they could budget for wage increases for public-sector workers that actually keep up with inflation, instead of prioritizing things like tax cuts for big oil and gas companies. The federal government could also help by abolishing the low-wage stream of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program which is being used by employers in Alberta’s large service sector to suppress wages. There’s also a need to do things differently on housing. Numerous studies have shown that Edmonton and Calgary have been experiencing the highest rent increases in Canada. It’s clearly time for Alberta to consider joining BC, Ontario and Quebec by introducing rent controls. Finally, there’s the issue of the cost of living. Why aren’t we talking about re-regulating the electric power system (like virtually every other province) and introducing public auto insurance (like BC, Saskatchewan and Manitoba) to reduce costs for consumers? And why aren’t we following the lead of US presidential hopeful Kamala Harris and numerous European countries on price caps for staple products sold by grocery stores, where consumer price increases have far exceeded the increase in input costs? Corporate price gouging is real. There’s no reason why we should just meekly accept it. I started with Bruce Springsteen. I’ll end with the famous “Serenity Prayer” “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, and Wisdom to know the difference.” This Labour Day, let’s remember that the economy IS something that we can change. Our wages don’t have to stagnate. Our housing does not have to be unaffordable. We don’t have pay exorbitant prices for power, insurance, gas and groceries. In short, if the system is rigged, we can unrig it. The policy tools are there. All that’s missing is the understanding that change IS possible … and the political will to make that change happen. Gil McGowan is president the Alberta Federation of Labour, representing 175,000 unionized Alberta workers 30-29
