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AFL president apathetic with Shandro taking over labour portfolio

Alberta Minister of Health Tyler Shandro speaks during a press conference in Calgary on Friday, May 29, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

CALGARY — After being in charge of the health portfolio for two years, Tyler Shandro has now moved to a new position as Minister of Labour and Immigration at the peak of the fourth wave of COVID-19.

Although the president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, Gil McGowan, says Shandro isn’t being welcomed with open arms.

He didn’t mince words on social media and backed it up by saying Shandro’s resume speaks for itself.

“In normal times we would give the new guy time to prove himself one way or another. But these are not normal times, this isn’t a normal government and Tyler Shandro isn’t a normal minister, he’s Kenney’s chief attack dog. We saw that in health care and we expect the same in labour,” McGowan said.

He added the newly appointed Labour Minister has shown he’s been difficult to work with and McGowan doesn’t have a lot of confidence in the way the government stands.

“Building a relationship with Tyler Shandro would’ve been difficult under the best of circumstances, now I don’t think it’s even worth putting the effort in because I don’t think this guy or this government are going to be in place for very much longer,” he said.

There have been ongoing discussions about how Premier Jason Kenney has lead the province through the pandemic and some displeasure among multiple UCP Caucus members.


RELATED: Kenney says he won’t be resigning over pandemic management


Now when it comes to the relationship with former Labour Minister Jason Copping, McGowan said it wasn’t blooming either before the swap.

“We didn’t have a productive relationship with Copping. We expect we’d have even less of a productive relationship with Shandro based on his track record as being a bully in the health care portfolio,” McGowan said as much of the issues were not addressed.

“Over the last two years, Copping basically ignored every single concern and suggestion that the labour movement raised,” he said.

But in a statement, Shandro said he’s looking forward to the new role.

“I am committed to continuing dialogue and working with all ministry stakeholders on how to promote safe, fair and healthy workplaces in Alberta, get Albertans back to work, and supporting our economic recovery,” Shandro said.


RELATED: Shandro, Copping swap roles as Kenney shuffles cabinet


But overall, McGowan says the problems are too deep and could lead to Albertans heading back to the polls again.

“I think the United Conservative Party is clearly no longer united. The knives are out for Jason Kenney and I think most people don’t believe he’s going to come out of this as premier. So, whether Tyler Shandro is the Minister of Labour now is almost an academic point,” he said.

“I think we’re going to be back in an election sooner than people might have expected,” McGowan added.

Some UCP MLA’s have also voiced their displeasure with how Kenney has handled the reopening and fourth wave of the pandemic.