'Co-operation, not confrontation': Kenney hopes to avoid public service walkout in 2020
Progress being made on oil pipelines but 'we're far from out of the woods,' premier says
In his stately wood-panelled legislature office, Premier Jason Kenney sits in a deep-set black leather chair and predicts 2020 will be a better year.
Alberta is at a "turning point," Kenney said during a wide-ranging year-end interview with CBC News.
The annual one-on-one discussion is an opportunity for the premier to reflect on the year, which saw his United Conservative Party win its first Alberta election, and talk about his priorities for 2020.
The interview comes during a period when the eight-month-old United Conservative Government has turned the Alberta agenda upside down by repealing a range of NDP policies and vowing to slash spending to reduce the size of government.
Kenney, noting that a long-anticipated major pipeline project, Line 3, is up and running and significant progress is being made on the Trans Mountain pipeline-expansion project, says, "we're far from out of the woods."
If everything goes as planned, Kenney expects that by this time next year, Alberta will be sending several hundred thousand more barrels of crude to market every day.
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But there is trouble looming in another sector which could disrupt government services and rattle the public.
The relationship between the government and its public sector unions has been deteriorating since Kenney took office in April.
General strike
To reduce spending, the government is threatening wage rollbacks and job losses in the thousands.
On top of that, the province passed legislation affecting how public-sector pensions are invested, while cuts to post-secondary institutions have already resulted in the elimination of hundreds of jobs.
Unions are raising the possibility of staging a general strike which could paralyze the public service.
"I really don't think that's likely to happen," said Kenney, noting he values the work of public servants, but that Albertans gave him a strong mandate in the last provincial election to rein in spending.
A concerted attempt at "co-operation, not confrontation" will go a long way to avert the chance of a wide-scale walkout, the premier said.
The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees ask of up to an eight-per-cent pay raise is likely posturing, a starting point for bargaining in public, Kenney said, cautioning about escalating rhetoric.
"Well, perhaps that cuts both ways," he said. "That's why we should perhaps sit down and seek sensible solutions that preserve and protect high-quality public services."
Not 'chief negotiator'
In his office are busts of admired conservative political leaders, including past British prime ministers Sir Winston Churchill and Benjamin Disraeli, and former Alberta premier Ralph Klein.
Klein, who is remembered for his drastic spending cuts in the 1990s, managed to forge lasting personal relationships with provincial union bosses in the post-cut years.
Although Kenney speaks frequently about "Ralph" and how he did things, Kenney said putting union leaders on speed-dial is not a practice he's likely to copy.
"I don't think it's the premier's job to be the chief negotiator," Kenney said.
When he was a federal cabinet minister under then-prime minister Stephen Harper, Kenney was willing to work across party lines to find middle ground.
Entering collective bargaining with government unions in 2020, he said it's a strategy he hopes to continue.
With a new budget in February, asserting Alberta's role in Canada will be a dominant theme in the new year.
Kenney is promising new legislation dealing with "democratic reform" in the spring.
He said he'll travel across Canada, and visit Europe and Asia to promote Alberta in an effort to attract investment.
"A lot of my time will be spent out there pounding the pavement to bring investment here."
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