Thread by @yomeeks

This is your daily pension announcement. The Pension War Room™️ declares it Licia Corbella day! She is being paid to offer her opinion, which I have no quarrel with. However, we do need to examine critically some of the evidence she uses. #ABLeg
calgaryherald.com/opinion/column…

First, do remember that she was a card carrying UCP member while also commenting on them. (I do think she has let her membership lapse in order to keep her job. That whole affair was a really bad look for the Calgary Herald which is in its own struggle for relevance.) #ABLeg

Second, please remember that she is is delivering the UCP message that Travis has okayed. He will introduce legislation enacting a 5% rollback for public servants. It has been rumored since April that he has minions in the bowels of the leg writing just such a law. #ABLeg

I will stay in my lane and comment directly on education, though I have much more to say about health:

"Toews’ statement is not in code. It’s clear. Alberta’s public service will be expected to either cut their pay or cut their staffing levels and work more efficiently —" #ABLeg

So that much is clear, exactly the same as with Ralph back in the day- take a 5% pay cut or we will stack so many students up in your classes you will need a census worker to take attendance. #ABLeg

“That’s absolutely essential. Alberta can no longer afford to be an outlier in terms of the cost of delivering services to Albertans,” added Toews, referring to revelations made in the MacKinnon report..."

Again, Travis should be more careful in his remarks. #ABLeg

The MacKinnon report shows clearly that Alberta spends less than average on education. The only big province that spends less per student is BC. And, Travis could fix that if he cut student transportation and support for private schools. #ABLeg

"As for Alberta’s doctors, the highest paid in Canada, their legitimate beef with Health Minister Tyler Shandro is not that he wants to cut their pay — they have repeatedly offered a five per cent cut across the board as their opening offer." #ABLeg

I think the MacKinnon report showed they were the highest BILLING doctors in Canada. Up until a little while ago everything cost more in AB including doctor's overhead. #AbLeg

Shandy has steadfastly refused to release any studies showing where the take home pay is at for docs.

Remember that MacKinnon's first recommendation was "engaging nurses, doctors, other health professionals, stakeholders and the public where appropriate."

How is that engagement with doctors going, Shandy? You have already failed at recommendation number 1. #ABLeg @AB_MD_WarRoom

"Prior to COVID, things were looking good for Alberta."

Nope. Just nope. I can't even dignify that with a response. #ABLeg

AB was a job destroying fiscal dumpster fire before COVID.

"Economist Jack Mintz wrote recently in the Financial Post: “Almost all of the current job losses (96 per cent) are in the private sector . . . ."

What Jack and Licia fail to mention is that most of the job losses occurred in retail sales and food service occupations. #ABLeg

And, those occupations are not prevalent in the public sector. Very few if any. (Way more professionals in public sector.)

So, it isn't the entire private sector that has been affected. But one portion of it has been affected in a very profound way. #ABLeg

So why you would separate out the public sector alone to deal with the very real and deep pain of a portion of the private sector? That is illogical. And stupid. #AbLeg

As to Licia's employer cutting pay, that has more to do with being in a dying industry that needs to adapt.

I hate to say it, but you can't live in the past. Major daily newspapers better adapt or they will go extinct. If we want to talk poor financial shape look at post media. Up to their eyeballs in debt. Anyway, I digress. #ABLeg

"A 2020 Fraser Institute report found government employees earn about 9.4 per cent more than people doing similar work in the private sector."

It wasn't a 2020 report it was a 2016 report rehashed with a bit more 2018 data.

The Fraser Institute reports are nearly worthless.

The Fraser report says....
"When the wage difference between unionized and non-unionized workers is taken into account, the wage premium for the government sector declines to 5.8%."

So it isn't a 9.4% wage premium it is 5.8%. Licia? Licia? Material misstatement? #ABLeg
.

...and that 5.8% difference is entirely attributable to compensation for skills not capture in the (limited) occupational description.

Don't get me started at how they purport to compare teacher, firefighters, and nurses whose pay does not have a sizable private market. #ABLeg

Here is a Fraser Institute admitting that they used the wrong data set in the report that Licia is referring to. They should have used the census not the Labour Force Survey.

Look closely, this is what an admission looks like from Fraser:

fraserinstitute.org/article/we-nee…

The Fraser Institute report also lumps municipal, provincial and federal civil servants together. So using it to conclude that provincial employees should get their pay cut 5% is also illogical. #ABLeg

(Other economic studies suggest federal employees are slightly overpaid, provincial employees are right on the mark and municipal employees are underpaid relative to the private employment market.) #ABLeg

Other labour economists theorize a small wage premium exists because gender pay equity is strictly enforced in the public sector. Private sector...not so much. #ABLeg

Licia needs to look up the purpose of inflation in a good economics textbook.

One of the purposes of inflation is theorized as a method to give workers a pay cut without actually cutting pay. So year and years of no raise is a cut. #ABLeg