On May 29, 2009, David Swann spoke at the Alberta Union of Public Employees at their convention in Canmore:

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for inviting me to participate in your conference. It’s always a pleasure to visit beautiful Canmore and to discuss important issues with concerned Albertans.

Being in this gorgeous community reminds me why I got into politics. It’s because I love this place: Alberta.

A place of unparalleled natural beauty, rich cultural diversity, tremendous talent and limitless potential.

A place where I was born and raised, married my wife, raised my children, earned my medical degree, practiced as a doctor…this is the home of my grandchildren. Just as it’s the home of your children and grandchildren, your friends, family and neighbours.

It’s a place we all love, so we all have an obligation to work together to help this place realize its full potential.

I want Alberta to thrive. I want a healthy Alberta – healthy in all respects. A healthy Alberta means, of course, good health for all citizens, from birth to old age, with dignity and respect for every Albertan’s entire lifetime.

It only takes a sudden illness – even something as mild as a head cold – to make most people realize the importance of a healthy mind and body. Without health, life isn’t as rich and full as it should be; without health, potential remains unrealized, and happiness is harder to achieve.

The only reason I want to be Premier – the only reason I believe Alberta needs a new government – is because right now, we do not have a healthy Alberta.

We have had, up until recently, a prosperous Alberta. We have had a growing Alberta.

But I don’t believe we have ever had a truly healthy Alberta.

A healthy Alberta begins with healthy citizens, but it doesn’t end there.

Yes, a healthy Alberta would mean a functioning public health care system with the capacity to meet the needs of our population.

But it would also mean a sustainable economy with a huge savings account and freedom from the volatility of nonrenewable resources.

A healthy Alberta would include a healthy wildlife population, shrinking greenhouse gas emissions, clean air and clean, well-managed rivers, lakes and streams.

A healthy Alberta would include a thriving arts and culture sector.

A healthy Alberta would foster a solid partnership between government and industry, one based on trust and mutual respect.

A healthy Alberta would mean an end to homelessness.

A healthy Alberta would mean an end to gang violence and steady reductions in crime.

A healthy Alberta would mean affordable home heating and electricity.

A healthy Alberta would mean thriving cities with modern public transit networks and lush parks and recreation facilities.

A healthy Alberta would be a world leader in green technology – the new power generation and construction methods that will help the world fight climate change, and quite possibly save our planet.

A healthy Alberta would recognize the importance of unions and foster their growth, rather than punishing them.

A healthy Alberta would mean the best education system in the nation, from kindergarten to graduate studies. And it would include a healthy, happy workforce – and a strong, thriving union presence is essential to fulfill that goal.

In fact, I was flipping through a magazine not long ago when I noticed one of the AUPE’s ads – “Another Day, Another Mind Enriched.” A simple message, but an important one, reflecting the incredible value union members bring to our society, culture and economy every day.

As a physician, I know how important a good, well-paying, emotionally satisfying job is to any person’s quality of life. Time and time again I’ve learned that good health is very much a function of economics; the more well-paying, stable jobs we create in Alberta, the healthier we will all be – and we’ll also reduce the strain on our public health care system. I really do want to build a healthy Alberta, and quality jobs for all Albertans is a centrepiece of my strategy to accomplish that goal.
Quality jobs not only during the boom times, but quality, well-paying, satisfying long-term jobs for the long haul, jobs that persist even when oil and gas prices plummet.

Past and present governments have never learned that for every boom, there’s a bust, and now Albertans are suffering because of the Stelmach administration’s lack of foresight. Alberta has lost 45,000 jobs in the first three months of 2009, far exceeding the government’s rosy predictions.

As an aside, most of these unemployed Albertans aren’t receiving employment insurance. The federal EI system needs to be adjusted. Albertans have to work 700 hours to qualify for EI, the highest number of hours in the country. Between 2003 and 2005, Albertans paid $6.3 billion in EI premiums, but collected only $1.4 billion in benefits.

If Alberta had a government that was committed to creating sustainable industries, we could greatly mitigate the ups and downs of a resource-dependent economy. Right now, virtually all of our eggs are in one very unstable basket, and that needs to change. Supporting the development of green technologies, for example, could help, and organized labour could and should play a huge role in what I believe should be the next great move forward for Alberta.

Before that can happen, though, organized labour needs to be strengthened in our province. Alberta hasn’t been kind to organized labour for a very long time, if ever. So I’d like to talk a little bit about what the Official Opposition has done to support unions over the years, and I look forward to hearing from you what else we can do.

Most recently, we’ve been fighting hard against Bill 44 because of the parental opt-out clause, which we believe will have a profound chilling effect on curriculum and classroom discussion, whether the topic is biology, human sexuality, comparative religion, geology, evolution, social studies and so on. The law is simply too broad, and could very well cause complaints that send teachers or other public school staffers before human rights tribunals. Imagine if a caretaker or other support staffer witnessed one child bullying another because of his sexual orientation. It’s quite possible that if you stepped up to stop the bullying and said something as innocent as “It’s not right to bully that girl because she’s gay,” you could be brought before a human rights tribunal. That’s how pernicious this bill is.

We’re also fighting Bill 205, the government’s attempt to stifle free speech during elections. The bill requires unions and other organizations to register with the Chief Electoral Officer and reveal where your money comes from and how you’re spending it. I believe that’s an unreasonable restriction on your right to speak out on behalf of your members. Both the Conservatives and the NDP are supporting this bill; we’re dead set against it. It’s a coordinated attack on your members and on free speech, and we’re fighting it on your behalf and on behalf of free speech, a universal human right.

I believe the Official Opposition also has the best position on bitumen upgrading. We want to upgrade as much bitumen as possible right here in Alberta, because upgraders mean thousands of good, permanent, well-paying union jobs.

More upgraders also means that we’ll export a more valuable product to our trading partners, which in turn means more revenue for essential government services such as public education and library funding. The Stelmach administration is allowing bitumen to flow beyond our borders for upgrading, preventing Alberta workers from filling thousands of excellent jobs. Furthermore, their policy exports value – value that rightfully belongs to Albertans. Value that could give our children a better education, that could ease the strain on our public health care system, that could give seniors more dignified long-term care.  Value that could boost the budgets of our post-secondary institutions, resulting in more jobs for staff and a better learning experience for students. I can’t believe that our government isn’t doing more to upgrade more bitumen here in Alberta, so that Albertans can enjoy all the benefits of our nonrenewable resource wealth.

A responsible Premier would immediately sit down with labour, industry and with environmental scientists to determine what percentage of our bitumen we can upgrade right here in Alberta.

We’ll need to determine the limits of our labour resources, how much upgrading our environment can safely accommodate, and the limits of our infrastructure. When it comes to upgrading bitumen in Alberta, I’d like to come as close to 100% as we can while respecting those labour, infrastructure and environmental limits.

If it turns out that we can’t upgrade 100% of our bitumen in Alberta, then I want to make sure that the bitumen and the jobs flow to our neighbours in Western Canada. I’d like to keep it in the family.

In recent days, we’ve also stood up for worker safety, particularly with relation to farm workers, who go without union protection. We’ve tried to ensure that temporary foreign workers enjoy the same rights as other workers. And we’ve championed the Alberta Immigrant Nominee Program, because we believe that immigrant workers should become citizens, with the same rights and responsibilities as other Alberta workers, including the right to join a union.

A healthy Alberta is possible. Alberta is rich in natural resources, rich in talented, brilliant people, rich in educational and scientific infrastructure. And we have a long history of organized labour, even though Alberta has some of the worst labour laws in the nation. I’m working to change that, and that’s why I welcome your feedback, your ideas, and, I hope, your support.

Thank you again for giving me the opportunity to meet with you today. I admire the work that you do for Alberta – for public education, for our students, for our future.
Your role is crucial, and I want you to know that my colleagues and I in the Official Opposition appreciate your contributions to the province we all love, and the people who form our unique culture.

I’d be happy to listen to your questions and concerns now.

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