Read Letter - Proposed Cuts to Funding to Post Secondary institutions and social services
By Rachael Crowder
Written Jan. 28, 2010
A letter written to Mr. Greg Weadick, Lethbridge-West
Dear Mr. Weadick I am writing today to state my opposition to the proposed deep and unnecessary budget cuts to our public services and infrastructures. As a social worker and university teacher, I have witnessed the mean-spirited cuts to social services during the Mike Harris regime in Ontario as well as Ralph Klein's Alberta, and was appalled by the devastation this caused in those communities. The proposed cuts in Alberta are unnecessary when you consider the wealth of this province, and the bad spending decisions that have been made elsewhere i.e. not in social service spending: Alberta has one of the lowest per capita spending rates in Canada. These cuts will disproportionately affect women as social workers, nurses, and care givers; and the most vulnerable in our communities, economically disadvantaged families including the working poor, persons with disabilities, the ill and elderly. I also fear for the complete collapse of our provincial healthcare system due to the unwise decisions to close beds and lay off nurses. During a time when our population is both growing and becoming more elderly, we should be making choices to strengthen healthcare, not decimate it. As a member of the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Calgary I have concerns about the additional debt burden on our students by increasing their tuition, and the additional barrier to education this creates to those who aspire to a post-secondary education. We should instead consider adequate funding for post-secondary education a wise investment in our youth and our future. I call you and your government to do the right thing and put community well-being before political and economic ideology. This is about more than the next election. This is about peoples' lives and the very fabric of our communities.
Written Jan. 28, 2010
Dear Mr. Weadick I am writing today to state my opposition to the proposed deep and unnecessary budget cuts to our public services and infrastructures. As a social worker and university teacher, I have witnessed the mean-spirited cuts to social services during the Mike Harris regime in Ontario as well as Ralph Klein's Alberta, and was appalled by the devastation this caused in those communities. The proposed cuts in Alberta are unnecessary when you consider the wealth of this province, and the bad spending decisions that have been made elsewhere i.e. not in social service spending: Alberta has one of the lowest per capita spending rates in Canada. These cuts will disproportionately affect women as social workers, nurses, and care givers; and the most vulnerable in our communities, economically disadvantaged families including the working poor, persons with disabilities, the ill and elderly. I also fear for the complete collapse of our provincial healthcare system due to the unwise decisions to close beds and lay off nurses. During a time when our population is both growing and becoming more elderly, we should be making choices to strengthen healthcare, not decimate it. As a member of the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Calgary I have concerns about the additional debt burden on our students by increasing their tuition, and the additional barrier to education this creates to those who aspire to a post-secondary education. We should instead consider adequate funding for post-secondary education a wise investment in our youth and our future. I call you and your government to do the right thing and put community well-being before political and economic ideology. This is about more than the next election. This is about peoples' lives and the very fabric of our communities.
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