Broken promises

Re: “Redford pays a price for alienating ‘everybody,’” Graham Thomson, Opinion, April 10.

When Alison Redford was elected, she promised to end child poverty in five years. As a social worker who has worked with families who struggle in poverty, I felt encouraged. When Redford pledged to develop a progressive social policy framework, I thought that perhaps positive change might happen.

It was obvious to those of us who regularly heard the stories of hardship that the rates of poverty were ever increasing, and still are. Any government attempt to address these issues were welcome. Sadly, the release of the provincial budget has left those with whom we work reeling.

Sweeping cuts across all levels of education, health and social services will leave the vulnerable — especially impoverished children — even more at risk. There is a huge body of evidence about how to end child poverty: we can create affordable housing, accessible education, quality child care and jobs that pay a living wage.

This most recent slashand-burn budget is reminiscent of the Alberta of the 1990s, when the rich became filthy rich and poor, even poorer. Redford’s budget can never end poverty; it will only increase the suffering and exclusion of the most marginalized. Premier Redford has failed to keep her election promises to build a prosperous Alberta for all. Worse, she has failed the children she vowed to protect.