In January, as the Globe and Mail put it in a colourful old-timey headline last week, Canada’s job market blew past the forecasts for the month. Unemployment also fell.
In Alberta, not so much.
Tag Archives: Kenney
Alberta’s UCP hits universities with red tape
Notwithstanding the UCP’s creation of a “Ministry of Red Tape
Reduction,” if we judge the UCP by its actions and not its words, we can
see that what the Kenney clique hates is regulation that costs big
business money, even if it saves workers’ lives, preserves the
environment, or protects vulnerable citizens from commercial predators.
Reduction,” if we judge the UCP by its actions and not its words, we can
see that what the Kenney clique hates is regulation that costs big
business money, even if it saves workers’ lives, preserves the
environment, or protects vulnerable citizens from commercial predators.
But they adore regulations intended to harass people and
organizations they don’t like, for example, trade unions, teachers, and
most recently, high-quality academic institutions like the University of
Alberta.
Jason Kenney’s approval rating plummets in the wake of Alberta budget cuts
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney is feeling the political effects of
budget cuts his government announced in October, with his approval
rating plummeting 15 percentage points in a matter of months.
budget cuts his government announced in October, with his approval
rating plummeting 15 percentage points in a matter of months.
Kenney
is now the third-least popular premier among the provinces included in
the poll conducted by DART and Maru/Blue Voice Canada and provided
exclusively to Postmedia. That’s a startling drop from September when
Kenney was third from the top, behind Quebec Premier François Legault
and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe.
The slide in approval comes in
the wake of a United Conservative government budget that plans to bring
expenditures $1.3 billion below last year’s spending levels. Over the
next four years, the government expects to cut $4 billion worth of
provincial spending.
Unions told thousands more job cuts coming to Alberta public service | CBC News
The union received the letters
in advance of bargaining for 2020 collective agreements. The letters are
not formal notices of layoffs, but as required under the collective
bargaining process, outline cuts the provincial government might make.
The potential cuts would impact 2,500 Government of Alberta positions
across several ministries, as well as the following positions at Alberta
Health Services:
- 1,000 to 2,000 housekeepers;
- 350 administrative support and medical transcription employees;
- 250 general support staff, such as maintenance employees;
- 235 laundry and linen operations staff;
- 200 auxiliary nursing employees, such as licensed practical nurses and health-care aides;
- 200 home care services staff;
- 165 foodservice employees.
Just the same, it was mildly encouraging to hear a few boos for Alberta Premier Jason Kenney in a recording of the the opening ceremony of Sunday’s Grey Cup game — in Calgary, of all places.
I suppose those boos could have been because Mr. Kenney was dressed like dweeb in a lame “I-heart-mapleleaf-oil-&-gas” bunnyhug, thereby “politicizing” one of the sacred rituals of Canadian professional sports. You know, the east-versus-west championship contest of our very own underpaid American-style football league, which comes complete with its own esoteric rulebook that still astonishes our cousins south of the 49th Parallel. Twelve players? Three downs? Say what?