Alberta
Red Deer Museum receives Alberta Heritage Award
Kim Verrier, Minister Ron Orr, Marrisa Mitsuing (and baby Mitsuing)
News Release from the Red Deer Museum + Art Gallery (MAG)
We are excited to announce that the Red Deer Museum + Art Gallery (MAG) received a Heritage Awareness Award for their exhibit Powwow! Ohcîwin the Origins. This Award was accepted in Edmonton, AB on October 3, 2022, on behalf of the organization by Marrisa Mitsuing, Co-Curator and Co-creator for the exhibit, and Kim Verrier, Exhibitions Coordinator, Red Deer Museum + Art Gallery. This exhibit is now travelling and currently on display at Musée Héritage Museum in St. Albert, AB.
The biennial awards honour the contributions of individuals, organizations, businesses, Indigenous communities and municipalities actively engaged in heritage preservation and appreciation in the following categories: Outstanding Achievement, Heritage Conservation and Heritage Awareness.
The recipients of this year’s awards follow.
Outstanding Achievement
- Richard de Boer, Calgary
- Belinda Crowson, Lethbridge
- Noreen Easterbrook, Smoky Lake
- Tofield Historical Society, Tofield
- Alberta Genealogical Society’s Provincial Archives of Alberta Volunteers
- Bodo Archaeological Society
Heritage Conservation
- The City of Calgary for the rehabilitation of its historic city hall
- Sandra Hajash for the restoration of the Duke of Sutherland Bungalow exterior
Heritage Awareness
- Powwow! Ohcîwin the Origins by Patrick and Marrisa Mitsuing and the Red Deer Museum and Art Gallery
- Métis Nation of Alberta Region 3 Historical Research by Matt Hiltermann
- Abandoned Alberta by Joe Chowaniec
The awards program is an integral part of the Government of Alberta’s commitment to support heritage preservation efforts in communities throughout Alberta. A total of 81 awards have been presented to recipients from across the province since the program was reintroduced in 2005.
Oh-cÎ-win:
Ooo-chi-win, Cree
1. “The Origin” or telling of a story of where something originated
Powwows are Indigenous cultural celebrations where many forms of dance styles are performed as part of the ceremony. These social gatherings, held across North America, bring people together to sing, dance and share teachings all while celebrating Indigenous culture. Each dance style has a meaning or origin story and a specific purpose. Regalia, the distinctive clothing and ornamentation worn by the dancers, corresponds to the different dance styles.
Powwow! OchÎwin the Origins was created by Patrick and Marrisa Mitsuing. Working with a diverse team of Indigenous Artists they assembled each of the individual dance regalia on display. During the 2019 and 2020 Powwow season, they met with knowledge keepers across North America to record the origin stories of the dances they perform.
Alberta
Alberta government should eliminate corporate welfare to generate benefits for Albertans
From the Fraser Institute
By Spencer Gudewill and Tegan Hill
Last November, Premier Danielle Smith announced that her government will give up to $1.8 billion in subsidies to Dow Chemicals, which plans to expand a petrochemical project northeast of Edmonton. In other words, $1.8 billion in corporate welfare.
And this is just one example of corporate welfare paid for by Albertans.
According to a recent study published by the Fraser Institute, from 2007 to 2021, the latest year of available data, the Alberta government spent $31.0 billion (inflation-adjusted) on subsidies (a.k.a. corporate welfare) to select firms and businesses, purportedly to help Albertans. And this number excludes other forms of government handouts such as loan guarantees, direct investment and regulatory or tax privileges for particular firms and industries. So the total cost of corporate welfare in Alberta is likely much higher.
Why should Albertans care?
First off, there’s little evidence that corporate welfare generates widespread economic growth or jobs. In fact, evidence suggests the contrary—that subsidies result in a net loss to the economy by shifting resources to less productive sectors or locations (what economists call the “substitution effect”) and/or by keeping businesses alive that are otherwise economically unviable (i.e. “zombie companies”). This misallocation of resources leads to a less efficient, less productive and less prosperous Alberta.
And there are other costs to corporate welfare.
For example, between 2007 and 2019 (the latest year of pre-COVID data), every year on average the Alberta government spent 35 cents (out of every dollar of business income tax revenue it collected) on corporate welfare. Given that workers bear the burden of more than half of any business income tax indirectly through lower wages, if the government reduced business income taxes rather than spend money on corporate welfare, workers could benefit.
Moreover, Premier Smith failed in last month’s provincial budget to provide promised personal income tax relief and create a lower tax bracket for incomes below $60,000 to provide $760 in annual savings for Albertans (on average). But in 2019, after adjusting for inflation, the Alberta government spent $2.4 billion on corporate welfare—equivalent to $1,034 per tax filer. Clearly, instead of subsidizing select businesses, the Smith government could have kept its promise to lower personal income taxes.
Finally, there’s the Heritage Fund, which the Alberta government created almost 50 years ago to save a share of the province’s resource wealth for the future.
In her 2024 budget, Premier Smith earmarked $2.0 billion for the Heritage Fund this fiscal year—almost the exact amount spent on corporate welfare each year (on average) between 2007 and 2019. Put another way, the Alberta government could save twice as much in the Heritage Fund in 2024/25 if it ended corporate welfare, which would help Premier Smith keep her promise to build up the Heritage Fund to between $250 billion and $400 billion by 2050.
By eliminating corporate welfare, the Smith government can create fiscal room to reduce personal and business income taxes, or save more in the Heritage Fund. Any of these options will benefit Albertans far more than wasteful billion-dollar subsidies to favoured firms.
Authors:
Alberta
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