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Alberta’s unemployment rate was 7.2 per cent in February. It’s about to climb to levels unknown because of COVID-19 and crashed oil prices.

And now, your Alberta government is adding up to 20,000 layoffs from K-12 education until kids are back in the classroom.

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This latest move by a government in hyperdrive is almost beyond belief.

How can politicians claiming to be “obsessed” with job creation and retention inflict by far the biggest single batch of layoffs in Canada?

These people are education assistants, drivers, secretaries and other support staff. The UCP thinks they’re lounging about uselessly because kids aren’t attending schools.

By dumping them for as long as the crisis lasts, about $120 million will be freed up to help with the COVID-19 fight. So says Education Minister Adriana LaGrange.

But many of these people are working on the complex business of setting up home learning, and actually delivering it.