FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday April 8
EDMONTON — Calling the UCP the party of “wage stagnation and wage suppression,” Alberta NDP leadership candidate Gil McGowan this morning unveiled a new policy plank aimed at increasing Albertans’ paycheques.
“Alberta under the UCP has seen both the highest inflation among all Canadian provinces and the slowest wage growth,” Gil McGowan said this morning.
“A decade ago, our wages were, on average, 20 per cent higher than the next highest province. That advantage has almost entirely disappeared under the UCP. In fact, both BC and Ontario are likely to overtake us in the very near future.”
“High wages can and should be the explicit goal of government. No apologies, no hesitation.”
McGowan’s first plank, “Pivot our Energy Economy Toward the Future,” vows a Biden and Lougheed-style industrial policy push to bring investment to new Alberta industries and opportunities in a changing world.
Today’s new plank, “Give Alberta Workers a Raise! (URL hyperlink),” sets out three major policy initiatives to ensure Alberta workers benefit from the growth they create:
- a productivity agenda, including innovation and skills, to grow the economic pie
- policies increasing job opportunities and cutting unemployment, and
- ending UCP wage suppression programs and laws that hold down workers’ wages.
McGowan’s policy paper argues the Alberta NDP must become the party of wage growth to create the political coalition able to defeat the UCP. An Alberta NDP focused on economic growth that benefits workers will unmask the UCP as defenders of a low-wage Alberta, McGowan argues.
Arguing that the best friend of business is a well-paid worker, McGowan also vowed protections for small businesses from anti-competitive practices against them by monopolistic companies.
McGowan has vowed to “build a winning coalition” that adds the “missing piece” to Rachel Notley’s incredible success, the support of ordinary working Albertans. Polls show the UCP won this key group by a wide margin in 2023, an outcome McGowan vows must change.
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