AFL urges Trudeau not to hand Kenney ‘blank cheque’ he’s asking for

WINNIPEG (660 NEWS) – A leader of Alberta’s labour movement is urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the federal government to deny Premier Jason Kenney‘s request for financial aid from the Fiscal Stabilization Fund.

In a press release, Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, stated that he is advising the prime minister to say “no” to the Alberta government’s plea for cash.

“We’re asking the prime minister to say no to Kenney’s demands–at least without attaching a few strings. We want to make sure that federal money isn’t used by the UCP to subsidize more corporate tax cuts at the expense of our public services.”

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McGowan, who is in Winnipeg for a meeting with union leaders, stated that the Fiscal Stabilization Fund should not be used by the Alberta government for fear of more corporate tax cuts at the expense of public servants.

“We also think the federal government should make the money contingent on the Alberta government addressing the real problems facing our province, as opposed to manufactured boogeymen like the so-called foreign-funded campaign to landlock our oil or the conspiracy of ‘Laurentian elites’ that Kenney and his surrogates have been babbling about lately.”

Instead of gifting the money to Kenney, McGowan encouraged Trudeau to take a closer look into Alberta’s revenue system before awarding it.

“The first real problem that the federal government should require Kenney to address is our broken revenue system that relies on billions in resource royalties to pay the bills and balance the books each year. Why should the rest of the country help Alberta maintain irresponsibly-low taxes on corporations and the wealthy?”

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He said the future of Alberta is not in the oil and gas sector.

“Albertans understand that there won’t be another boom. We need the rest of the country to help us prepare for a future that isn’t going to look like our past,” insisted McGowan.

“That’s the kind of help Alberta needs from Ottawa, not a blank cheque that will help Kenney pursue an ideological agenda that doesn’t really help our province.”