Alberta Education Minister Adriana LaGrange is very concerned that teachers in classrooms across the province are turning students into anti-oil zealots. Her evidence? Two multiple-choice questions from a grade 10 Social Studies test, reportedly sent by a parent, that appear to cast aspersions on oilsands development (the offending options have…
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On October 24 (halfway through the fiscal year) Alberta finance minister Travis Toews tabled the 2019-20 Alberta budget. The first provincial budget of Jason Kenney’s UCP government, it announced substantial spending cuts—specifically, a 2.8% reduction in nominal spending by 2022 (or 0.7% per year on average between now and then)….
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People without affordable housing suffer from poor health outcomes, have difficulty finding and sustaining employment and are at greater risk of having their children removed by child welfare authorities. Here are 10 things to know about affordable housing in Alberta specifically: 1. The previous provincial government undertook important initiatives pertaining to affordable housing….
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The Alberta Alternative Budget (AAB) is an annual exercise whose working group consists of researchers, economists, and members of civil society (full disclosure: I’m the Editor). Our general mandate is to create a progressive vision for Alberta to boost economic growth and reduce income inequality. This year’s document was released…
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The urgency of the global climate crisis could not be more obvious than in India right now, where a 50ºC heatwave is causing “heavy casualties” both directly through heat-related deaths and indirectly through water and food shortages. Canadians have been spared that kind of heat so far, but it’s little…
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I was recently invited to give a presentation at a two-day event discussing the overdose crisis and First Nations, with a focus on southern Alberta. My presentation (slide deck available here) focused on homelessness, substance use, harm reduction and Housing First. With this in mind, here are 10 things to know: Indigenous peoples…
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On November 16, I participated in a workshop organized by the Alberta Alternative Budget Working Group. Held at the University of Alberta’s main campus, speakers discussed macroeconomic, health care and social policy considerations for the next Alberta budget. Here are 10 things to know: 1) Alberta’s still recovering from a…
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A cross-country scan of the state of public primary and secondary education in Canada for November 2018. View the story Menu British Columbia Alberta Saskatchewan Manitoba Ontario Nova Scotia Our Schools | Our Selves November 2018 Edited by Erika Shaker As part of its new digital format, Our Schools /…
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Carey Doberstein, a professor at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus, has written a book about homelessness governance in Canada. The book’s focus is on the way homelessness funding is targeted and allocated in three cities: Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto. It focuses on the 1995-2015 period. Here are 10…
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The federal government’s decision, announced this morning, to purchase the existing Trans Mountain pipeline and the pipeline expansion project from Kinder Morgan for $4.5 billion is politically risky, economically perilous and, as we’ve said many times before, impossible to justify on environmental grounds. It all looks even worse when you…
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