A pep-rally style address insisting Alberta return to its rightful place as Canada’s economic darling set the scene Wednesday as the new UCP government said it plans to move aggressively to stimulate the provincial economy.
The steps to turn Alberta into a free enterprise magnet will result in a smaller public sector, and, likely, the elimination of some public programs, Premier Jason Kenney told reporters at a Wednesday news conference. Any public sector job losses would hopefully be through attrition, he said. Governments that prudently balance their budgets are always re-elected, Kenney said, pointing to Saskatchewan’s Roy Romanow of the NDP and the federal Liberal Jean Chretien government.The UCP government’s throne speech is about half the length of the NDP government’s last such address. Kenney told reporters he doesn’t like the Queen’s non-partisan Alberta representative speaking for an hour about a political agenda. But the speech did spell out some details of the UCP’s first dozen bills.
The speech mentioned “further labour reforms to protect workers and help employers create more jobs” to come in autumn, but did not provide specifics. It’s based on the “misguided belief that the road to job creation is paved with abandoned workers’ rights,” Notley said, pointing to the UCP plan to reduce the minimum wage for youths and amend overtime pay rules.
What tough decisions? He said there woukd be no cuts