The top official with the Alberta Chamber of Commerce is scratching his head wondering why the Alberta Federation of Labour is attacking businesses.
Chamber President and CEO, Ken Kolby was referring to a website launched by the AFL suggestion people boycott businesses that have donated to the governing UCP.
“To put on a campaign like that, during the middle of a pandemic when all businesses are struggling to survive is totally irresponsible and I really don’t understand the purpose of what Mr. (Gil) McGowan was trying to do,” Kolby tells the Trending 55 Newsroom.
According to the AFL website, the campaign is meant to make people aware of businesses that “are bankrolling an agenda that is kicking Albertans while they are down.”
The site is an interactive map which shows people the names, locations and amount donated to the UCP before the last election.
“Why should a nurse, a teacher or a firefighter buy a car from an auto dealer who wants them to be fired or have their wages cut?” is one question McGowan, President of the AFL, asks in a statement announcing the campaign.
Kolby tells us that 95 percent of all jobs in the province come from small and medium-sized enterprises.
He also states that the information the AFL is sharing is already public information.
“The campaign suggests they are releasing information that is not available to the public,” explains Kolby.
“You know what? It is. Every donor, right down to $5, is listed on the Alberta Elections website. I really do not appreciate the suggestion that all this information is hidden from the public and he is doing this great service by revealing these names.”
Kolby adds he has received countless emails and some phone calls as well asking him what he thinks the end-game is for the AFL with this campaign and he admits that he is not sure what the union is trying to accomplish.
In closing, Kolby says entrepreneurs not only bring jobs to their communities.
“They are the employers and they are also the people that who volunteer to coach baseball, hockey, volunteer at the church, maybe as a Lions Club member. They are also involved in their communities at-large, especially in smaller communities,” concludes the ACC President and CEO.
– Kenny Trenton, Trending 55 Newsroom
