Read Letter - Please stop cutbacks on public services
By Dmytro Makovey
Written Feb. 04, 2010
A letter written to Mr. Jeff Johnson, Athabasca-Redwater
Dear Mr. Jeff Johnson, I'm deeply concerned about cutbacks in public services. It will deeply destabilize and affect in a very negative way our community in Athabasca. Things that strike closest to home for me is education spending: I work for Athabasca University and more importantly my son's school is in desperate need of funds. French immersion program my son attends is chronically underfunded. For a kids learning second language (what's more learning *everything* in second language) it's difficult enough and they need all attention and assistance they need and class size of 29 kids doesn't help situation at all. School has no funds for teacher's aids as-is and further cuts will make things even worse. instad of teaching teacher has to spend time dealing with oversized class - situation not good for kids nor teacher. Our local hospital seems to be losing qualified personnel resulting in dropping quality of service and I do not dare to imagine what's going to happen with deeper cuts. Athabasca University - very unique institution on the scale of Canada (probably even international scale) would be impacted by cuts being in the middle of internal changes. Now is the chance to seize the opportunity for growing our potential as a province - not diminishing it by cutting public services. From what I read and understand Alberta has Sustainability fund" which could help us ride through the rough times, and if that's not enough I hear a lot of people agreeing for tax increases for the sake of keeping public services at the levels where we could be proud of them. Looking around it seems that many countries and provinces take Keynesian approach to the recession - increasing spending in public sector and building infrastructure for the rapid growth that will follow soon after. I realize that Alberta government if far from Keynesian principles and I don't expect it to follow them to the letter. But I do believe that it is prudent to invest in the future rather than robbing ourselves from one. Please don't let oversimplified ideas to overshadow greater picture and greater future for this province. Cutting is always easy - it much more difficult to rebuild later.
Written Feb. 04, 2010
Dear Mr. Jeff Johnson, I'm deeply concerned about cutbacks in public services. It will deeply destabilize and affect in a very negative way our community in Athabasca. Things that strike closest to home for me is education spending: I work for Athabasca University and more importantly my son's school is in desperate need of funds. French immersion program my son attends is chronically underfunded. For a kids learning second language (what's more learning *everything* in second language) it's difficult enough and they need all attention and assistance they need and class size of 29 kids doesn't help situation at all. School has no funds for teacher's aids as-is and further cuts will make things even worse. instad of teaching teacher has to spend time dealing with oversized class - situation not good for kids nor teacher. Our local hospital seems to be losing qualified personnel resulting in dropping quality of service and I do not dare to imagine what's going to happen with deeper cuts. Athabasca University - very unique institution on the scale of Canada (probably even international scale) would be impacted by cuts being in the middle of internal changes. Now is the chance to seize the opportunity for growing our potential as a province - not diminishing it by cutting public services. From what I read and understand Alberta has Sustainability fund" which could help us ride through the rough times, and if that's not enough I hear a lot of people agreeing for tax increases for the sake of keeping public services at the levels where we could be proud of them. Looking around it seems that many countries and provinces take Keynesian approach to the recession - increasing spending in public sector and building infrastructure for the rapid growth that will follow soon after. I realize that Alberta government if far from Keynesian principles and I don't expect it to follow them to the letter. But I do believe that it is prudent to invest in the future rather than robbing ourselves from one. Please don't let oversimplified ideas to overshadow greater picture and greater future for this province. Cutting is always easy - it much more difficult to rebuild later.
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