We all knew some difficult choices would be dealt in the recent provincial budget. The Progressive Conservative government made that abundantly clear when it revealed resource revenues would drop by more than $6 billion.
But out of all the budget cuts being introduced in the 2013 provincial budget this week, the most galling was the $7 million program for Student Temporary Employment Program (STEP).
It might be a small program, but it’s also very important to the community because organizations like the Westlock Pioneer Museum are entirely dependent on this program to hire summer staff. So why was it one of the first to go?
As Westlock Pioneer Museum president Steve Chodan said, they’re financially scraping the bottom of the barrel already, and this doesn’t help.
The elimination of the STEP program will jilt other non-profit organizations in this area and across the province. And the Westlock Pioneer Museum is not the only one suffering from the financial loss, although it’s the most prominent local example. In addition, the Village of Clyde also utilizes the STEP program for seasonal labour, as we understand it.
The action will likely jeopardize the prospects of students looking to find work because more jobs will be cut due to the hardships.
In a $36 billion budget, what exactly will a $7 million dollar deduction accomplish? It’s not even a fraction of the $450 million deficit estimated by the province for this year.
We recognize nobody could have anticipated lower resource revenues the province saw, but are we so adverse to finding alternatives to fund programming within the province that we have to make cuts like this?
Are we moving towards an American-based model, and will we end up dependent on donations to schedule programming and activities within the province?
Cuts like these are endlessly disappointing, especially for organizations like the Westlock Pioneer Museum who will feel its effects immediately.
Organizations that are heavily dependent on volunteers will now need more hands than ever.
