BEDMONTON — Alberta is chopping $12.5 million in payments to welfare recipients trying to upgrade their education and Premier Ed Stelmach is warning of more cuts ahead.
Stelmach said Friday that his government has no choice but to cut spending in some areas as it wrestles with a record $4.7-billion deficit.
“It may mean that some services are reduced,” said the premier. “But my objective and those of the ministers is to take whatever steps we can to minimize the impact on clients.”
He said he knows his government will be getting a rough ride as the impact of the cuts is felt by Albertans.
“We have to make some choices,” he said. “Core programs are being protected, but there may be some programs or services that will be impacted.”
The welfare cuts were tempered by an announcement that Alberta is extending benefits to a handful of victims of human trafficking — people who were taken from other countries and forced to work in Alberta, often in the sex trade.
Employment and Immigration Minister Thomas Lukaszuk said he met a month ago in Ottawa with his provincial and federal counterparts to discuss the issue.
“We came to the conclusion that, frankly, it is the right thing to do,” said Lukaszuk, who added Alberta has three or four people who are victims of the crime in any given year.
“If we are going to play a role that’s internationally recognized as the right thing to do — liberating individuals from horrible situations — we just can’t allow them to starve.”
Welfare assistance will be paid to the victims while they remain in Canada to testify against the people who enslaved them, the minister said. The federal government will make the determination whether the victims are eventually deported or can remain in Canada.