Kenney comments at Restaurants Canada event draw the ire of Phillips

“I don’t know who he is talking about, I was shocked when I read those comments,” Phillips said. “It sounds to me like he is talking about people with disabilities. Let me be very clear, Albertans living with disabilities are not second-class citizens. Albertans living with disabilities should not be disparaged or thought of as being worth less than other Albertans like Mr. Kenney insinuated with his comments.

“His local candidates here in Lethbridge need to clarify whether they support treating Albertans with disabilities as second-class citizens. Who does Jason Kenney think he is going around judging each Albertan’s level of human capital?”

Alberta’s Opposition leader also spoke about what his party would do if they win power when it comes to the minimum wage.

Kenney says they will seriously consider reducing the minimum wage for youth and alcohol servers, something he believes would help struggling restaurants keep their doors open and hire more people.

Phillips says when Kenney talks about lowering minimum wages for workers who serve alcohol, he’s talking about a policy that disproportionally hurts women here in Lethbridge.

“It is an anti-woman economic policy that will cut wages for people here in wages. The fact is that restaurant receipts are at an all-time high in the province, there are new restaurants opening all the time and that data is very clear,” Phillips stated.

When low wage workers have more money in their pockets, Phillips says they are more likely to spend that money within the local economy and at small businesses and that it’s unacceptable that anyone should have to stop at the food bank on their way home from work in this province.

When it comes to balancing what the restaurateurs are saying against the government’s view, Phillips explained that big business lobbyists always say it’s the wrong time to raise the minimum wage for the lowest wage workers.

“When the economy is good, they say it’s not the time. When the economy is not good, they say it’s not the time.”

While the UCP have trained their focus on the carbon tax court case taking place in Saskatchewan this week, a couple of statements made by Kenney have popped up in provincial discourse at the same time.

Phillips thinks that what we’re seeing is Albertans getting to know Jason Kenney a little bit is more, and in her view, they don’t like what they see.

“They see a person who is more concerned about giving gifts to friends and insiders, tax cuts for millionaires, and then less for the rest of us. Whether it’s healthcare cuts, education cuts, meddling and rolling back the clock on women’s rights in this province, or some very egregious policies with respect to LGBT equality. Now here we have a situation where Jason Kenney is going around evaluating each Albertan’s ‘human capital’. That makes my stomach turn, the idea that different Albertans are worthless in the UCP leader’s eyes, that’s unacceptable. His local Lethbridge candidates need to clarify that they believe that each Albertan is equal,” Phillips said.

Unite Alberta, the official Twitter account for Kenney’s office, put out a statement saying that the quote about “people with modest levels of human capital” referred to people lacking certain education.

As far as when the writ is being thrown down, when asked Phillips responded, “you know as much as I do.”

by Aaron Mahoney (@Mahones93 on Twitter)

Kenney comments at Restaurants Canada event draw the ire of Phillips

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