Hatters gather Saturday to protest provincial government, rally for public services

By Mo Cranker on February 29, 2020.

Mo Cranker

Around 200 people gathered at city hall Saturday to rally in support of public services they say are being impacted by the provincial government’s budgets.

The group was made up of teachers, health care workers, supervised consumption site advocates, doctors, agriculture workers, retail workers, students and others speaking out against this week’s provincial budget, as well as last year’s.

The event ran for a couple hours and was held in conjunction with rallies in major city centres across the province.

“This is a province-wide day of action,” said organizer Caelan Hart. “We’re speaking out against the budget. We’re speaking out against cuts. We’re speaking out against tax breaks for corporations.

“Today is a day where all Albertans can come together and try to make progressive change.”

Hart says the turnout of roughly 200 was great to see.

“It’s great to see so many people here,” Hart said. “We knew we would find real strength in unity — in bringing everyone together.

“This is a common cause that impacts everybody who lives in Alberta — it’s time to come together to raise our voices.”

Cypress-Medicine Hat MLA Drew Barnes told the News that the UCP is working for Albertans.

“We’re spending the same in all key areas that the NDP used to,” he said.

Eagle Butte High School teacher Scott Raible was at the rally and says unity is important during tough times.

“We’re here in solidarity with the public sector,” he said. “We’re speaking out against cuts from the last budget and the 2019 budget.

“The concerning part is massive cuts to health care. We have massive cuts to education and huge cuts to municipal funding.

“We’ve got a government that we feel is lying about these cuts and not even being honest about it all.”

Raible says he and many others are concerned.

“These cuts are going after people who are vulnerable,” he said. “They’re targeted at people on AISH, as well as our students.”

David Condon with the Council for Canadians says environmental issues and increasing deficits concern him.

“This government just got a wake up call with the Teck Mine backing out because of a lack of plan, yet there’s still no plan,” he said. “We’re again seeing an increase in debt and they’re saying the budget will be balanced in three years — that’s reliant on the price of oil.

“The price of oil and pipelines aren’t for sure things. In the meantime, people will be hurt by these cuts.”

Barnes says the UCP government is adding $12.1 billion in debt this year, pushing the government to around $80 billion in debt a year from now.

“So much of this has to do with spending that previous governments had done,” he said. “Earlier governments had created so much spending.

When asked to clarify, Barnes said he was speaking of “multiple previous governments.”

The MLA says public service workers are important to the current government.

“Nurses, doctors, teachers — it’s critical that the Alberta advantage continue,” he said. “We need to have the best social programs and workers. In order to do that, we need this economy to get going.

“I would ask those people to get behind free enterprise and our oil and gas industry.”

Crescent Heights High School teacher Heather McCaig says there are many teachers who support the oil and gas industry.

“We have many students who are kids of oil and gas workers — we spend time with them every day,” she said. “We see the challenges that those kids are going through and that their families are going through.

“We support that sector and we need the government to support us, so we can give those kids the best education possible.”

As for the supervised consumption site, Barnes says he believes in what the UCP is doing for addictions.

“The supervised consumption site — there’s a way better way to do it,” he said. “The UCP is on track to put the resources into wraparound services, counselling, more beds.

“I’m confident in meeting with the cabinet last week that it will happen.”

The 2019 budget can be found and downloaded here.

To read the 2020 budget, click here.

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