Good evening and welcome to the first stop on the Alberta Federation of Labour's People First tour. Your presence at this meeting is greatly appreciated -- it's a true sign of your commitment to your unions and your community.

My Name is Les Steel and I'm Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL. I'd like to begin tonight by making a few introductions.

First, I'd like to introduce Audrey Cormack, president of the AFL. We are also joined this evening by several (or two or whatever) of our AFL executive and staff members.

As most of you already know, tonight's meeting is just one of twelve public forums that the AFL will be hosting over the next few weeks. In addition to Peace River, we will be making stops in places like Grande Prairie, Fort McMurrary, Hinton, Edmonton, Calgary and Lethbridge.

There are two main reasons why we decided to organize a tour of the province.

First, it provides us with an opportunity to get out of our offices in Edmonton and meet face-to-face with a wide range of union members and concerned citizens from across the province.

On this tour, we want to find out what people like you are concerned about. And we want to find out what kind of actions you'd like to see the AFL taking on your behalf.

The second goal of the tour is to raise awareness and encourage debate on a wide range of economic, political and social issues.

By visiting different communities and hosting public forums, we hope to encourage people to take a more critical look at the political and economic situation in Alberta today.

Our long-term goal is to get people thinking and talking -- to make them realize that there are alternatives to the "cut-first-ask-questions-later approach" to economic policy adopted by the Klein government.

In addition, we have also organized this tour as a way to share information and ideas.

Most of you have probably heard of the Growth Summit that the Klein government held in the Fall. Well, the AFL organized its own alternative summit -- and tonight we will be talking about the ideas and suggestions for action that came out of that conference.

In particular, we will be showing a fifteen-minute video from the conference. The video includes interviews with several of the 250 people who attended the Alternative Summit -- and it gives you a real sense of what it was like to be at the conference.

When we organized the Alternative summit we wanted to give ordinary Albertans a chance to have their say. Tonight, we want to do the same for you. We are here tonight to provide a forum for you to air you concerns about health care, education, jobs or the environment -- whatever is on your mind.

Some people might ask why the labour movement is taking an interest in so many broad social and economic issues. What's in it for us or our members?

Well, there is a practical side to all of this. It's our members who are losing their jobs as a result of government cuts and privatization. And it's our members whose wages have been stagnant or falling over the past fifteen years.

But there's much more to this meeting and the provincial tour than self-interest.

We at the AFL feel that the labour movement has a responsibility to get involved and take the lead on all social, economic and political issues that effect working people.

As it stands right now unions are one of the only counter-balances left in Canadian society to the power of governments and corporations. Now more than ever, we have a duty to working people -- we have a responsibitity to find out what they're concerned about and take action on those concerns.

At this point I just like to say a few words about how we plan to proceed tonight.

First, we will show the video from our Alternative Summit which I mentioned earlier. Then, Audrey will take the floor and spend about ten or twleve minutes talking about the political and economic situation in Alberta today. She will identify some issues that we think are important -- both provincially and at the local level. And she will also pose some questions to everyone in the audience in order to stimulate discussion and debate.

Following Audrey's presentation, we will open the floor for discussion. This will be your opportunity to tell us what's on you mind. It will be your chance to identify problems and challenges facing Alberta, in general, and your community, in particular. And it will also be your chance to make suggestions about how individuals, unions and other organizations can work toegther to deal with these problems.

After the open forum -- which will last between 45 minutes and an hour -- we will wrap things up by talking about possible avenues for action. In particular, we have a few sample letters that we all could send to cabinet ministers or local MLAs.

Finally, just a few words about the kits that you recieved when you came in. Inside each kit you will find a number of interesting and useful documents. First there is an agenda for this evening's meeting.

There is also a booklet -- entitled People First -- which summarizes the conclusions and recommendations developed by delegates to our alternative Summit.

In addition, there are two documents that provide an analysis of the Alberta economy from a labour perspective. The first -- called Crumbs From the Table -- was released last year. The second -- called Missing Out on the Boom? -- is an update on Crumbs from the Table.

The kit also includes a number of fact sheets on various issues that might be of interest to you -- like the minimum wage and recent changes to the Canada Pension Program or CPP. Finally, as I mentioned earlier, the kit includes some draft letters that can be sent to cabinet ministers or MLAs on issues like job creation and funding for health care and education.

But before we get to any of these things, let's start with the video. So, once again, thank you for coming and please enjoy the rest of the evening.