Rachel Notley was joined by 20 members of United Nurses of Alberta to call out the UCP government over what she’s calling “cruel job cuts for health care workers.”
A letter from Alberta Health Services was sent to union leaders late last week outlining a plan to eliminate an estimated 500 full-time registered nurse jobs over three years.
Notley says this is not what the Premier campaigned on.
She says “Jason Kenney has two problems. He ran on creating jobs and growing the economy. He is failing profoundly on both of those fronts. Two, he promised that he would not attack the front line services that Albertans care deeply about particularly education and health care and he has lied about both of those things.”
UNA President Heather Smith says from the tone of what she’s been told, this is just the first wave of layoffs affecting union members.
She says the plan to eliminate an estimated 500 full-time equivalent Registered Nurses equates to over a million fewer hours of care and affects every Albertan and their ability to access quality, safe, staffed health services in the province.