Alberta
Province completely revamps funding for K-12 education – Adriana LaGrange announcement
From the Province of Alberta
Transforming K-12 education funding
A new way to fund Alberta’s K-12 education system will drive more dollars to the classroom where they can deliver the best outcomes for students.
The new model streamlines operations and directs more dollars to each school division. In the 2020-21 school year, every single division will see an increase in operational funding.
The model also provides more predictability in funding by changing from one-year enrolment counts to a moving three-year average, minimizing the need for mid-year adjustments to school budgets. The move will help school divisions plan their finances well in advance of the start of the school year.
“Alberta will continue to have one of the best-funded education systems in the country. This new model will drive more money to our school divisions for use in the classroom and provides them with the flexibility they need to meet the unique needs of their students. These changes will ensure our divisions continue to be equipped to provide our students with a world-class, high quality education.”
The new model also reduces red tape and gives more flexibility to school divisions to determine how to best invest taxpayer dollars. By simplifying the number of grants to 15 from the current 36, while still maintaining education funding, school divisions will have reduced reporting obligations and more leeway to direct funding to support the needs of students.
“This government is committed to cutting unnecessary red tape by one-third to reduce costs, speed up approvals and make life better for Albertans. I am thrilled that we are updating and streamlining the K-12 funding model, while maintaining robust measures to ensure money is being directed to the classroom. School boards can now spend less time on unnecessary reporting and administration work and more time focusing on students.”
Highlights of the new model include:
- Ensuring funds are directed to classrooms by providing a targeted grant for system administration, instead of a percentage of overall funding. This will standardize administrative and governance spending to within a reasonable range and maximize dollars intended for classrooms. The new model will also simplify grants to reduce red-tape for school authorities.
- Protecting our most vulnerable students by providing funding intended to support specialized learning needs or groups of students who may require additional supports from school authorities, including Program Unit Funding, funding for English as a Second Language students, French as a Second Language students, refugee students and First Nations, Métis and Inuit students.
- Better managing system growth, specifically enrolment growth and associated costs. Instead of funding based on a student count each year calculated in the fall, the new model will adopt a weighted, moving three-year average when calculating enrolment for funding. Using a weighted moving average means school boards will no longer have to wait until they have a confirmed number of students — typically at the end of September when the school year is already underway — to determine how much funding they will have for the year. This should minimize school authorities having to adjust their revenue forecasts and/or staffing levels throughout the school year.
- Providing funding predictability for school authorities by confirming their funding commitments from the province by the end of March each year, instead of the end of September when the school year has already begun. This will minimize the need for mid-year adjustments to budgets and staffing, create better alignment between the school year and the government’s fiscal year, and provide boards with more predictability in their planning and budgeting processes. A move to a block-funding model for small rural schools will also ensure the long-term viability of these schools where per-student funding does not provide adequate resources to properly deliver programs and services.
- Enhancing system accountability for school jurisdictions. The new model will include new accountability measures keeping school boards accountable for student outcomes, community engagement and continuous improvement.
“Our new funding model gives schools more of what they want – flexibility, stability and predictability. Flexibility to invest provincial dollars in areas that make the most sense for their communities. Stability in the number of grants and what the province expects for reporting. And predictability in their funding envelope to allow for better planning well ahead of each school year.”
The funding model for K-12 education has not changed in more than 15 years. The province met with each public, separate and Francophone school division, along with other system partners, in the fall of 2019 to discuss improvements to the way funding flows to school divisions. Overall, divisions wanted more predictability in their funding so they could better plan for each school year, more flexibility in how they spend provincial dollars based on their own needs in their communities, and reductions in provincial red tape.
Specific details for each grant and each school division’s funding will be available in Budget 2020, and will take effect for the 2020-21 school year.
“The College of Alberta School Superintendents recognizes the significant efforts Minister LaGrange has taken to engage with individual school authorities, the CASS Board and other education partners in the development of this new funding framework. The Minister’s willingness to listen and incorporate this feedback is clear as the new funding framework reflects a return to increased autonomy for local board decision making coupled with a reduction in the red tape school authorities have been challenged with in recent years. Finally, while we certainly recognize the fiscal challenges our province is currently experiencing, we are gratified to hear the Minister’s commitment in this budget to an increase in overall projected budget for every Alberta school authority over the previous year’s funding.”
“We appreciate that the government considered input from the education system as they developed the new funding model. This new model will reduce some of the red tape associated with accessing certain grants. It will also give school boards the ability to better predict the amount of funding they will receive in future years within the new, simplified model.”
“Alberta School Boards Association (ASBA) is pleased that government consulted with us on the new assurance and funding framework. We appreciate that government has released the funding framework, as ASBA requested, in advance of the budget. This allows boards time to review and understand the implications within the context of their local realities. ASBA will work closely with school boards and government to support implementation upon release of the budget.”
“We appreciate that Minister LaGrange has listened to our concerns and demonstrated her confidence and trust in the local autonomy of school boards to make decisions that are in the best interests of their students. While this is a complex matter that will take time for us to determine the impact on the classroom, we are optimistic that these changes will bring opportunity for our district. The reduction of red tape afforded by the new model will help reduce the complexity and workload involved in providing extensive and repetitious data, which in turn, will allow our teachers to focus on what is most important — our students.”
“Allowing important education funding decisions at a local level is a great step forward for parents’ choice in education and the ability of local school divisions — working with parents — to ensure key priorities are met. This new funding model will provide flexibility on how school divisions provide a precise and quality education to meet the needs of the students and the communities they serve.”
“We are pleased to see that Minister LaGrange has been responsive to our concerns for less red tape as well as targeted supports for small rural schools. We are also pleased to see her continued support for local board autonomy and the flexibility for our board to manage those decisions that most impact our students. We look forward to the release of the full budget details and are hopeful, even in difficult economic times, this new framework will continue to support our board as we provide high quality public education to our students.“
“We are pleased to see the government trust locally elected boards to make the right decisions for their students by providing us flexibility within our funding envelopes. The increased flexibility afforded by this new funding model will help us better allocate resources to address the unique needs of our students, while also cutting down on the significant red tape that was tied to the previous funding structure. We are looking forward to working with the government as this model rolls out for the 2020-21 school year.”
From the Canadian Energy Centre
By Will Gibson
Oil sands could maintain current production rates for more than 140 years
Investor interest in Canadian oil producers, primarily in the Alberta oil sands, has picked up, and not only because of expanded export capacity from the Trans Mountain pipeline.
Enverus Intelligence Research says the real draw — and a major factor behind oil sands equities outperforming U.S. peers by about 40 per cent since January 2024 — is the resource Trans Mountain helps unlock.
Alberta’s oil sands contain 167 billion barrels of reserves, nearly four times the volume in the United States.
Today’s oil sands operators hold more than twice the available high-quality resources compared to U.S. shale producers, Enverus reports.
“It’s a huge number — 167 billion barrels — when Alberta only produces about three million barrels a day right now,” said Mike Verney, executive vice-president at McDaniel & Associates, which earlier this year updated the province’s oil and gas reserves on behalf of the Alberta Energy Regulator.
Already fourth in the world, the assessment found Alberta’s oil reserves increased by seven billion barrels.
Verney said the rise in reserves despite record production is in part a result of improved processes and technology.
“Oil sands companies can produce for decades at the same economic threshold as they do today. That’s a great place to be,” said Michael Berger, a senior analyst with Enverus.
BMO Capital Markets estimates that Alberta’s oil sands reserves could maintain current production rates for more than 140 years.
The long-term picture looks different south of the border.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration projects that American production will peak before 2030 and enter a long period of decline.
Having a lasting stable source of supply is important as world oil demand is expected to remain strong for decades to come.
This is particularly true in Asia, the target market for oil exports off Canada’s West Coast.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) projects oil demand in the Asia-Pacific region will go from 35 million barrels per day in 2024 to 41 million barrels per day in 2050.
The growing appeal of Alberta oil in Asian markets shows up not only in expanded Trans Mountain shipments, but also in Canadian crude being “re-exported” from U.S. Gulf Coast terminals.
According to RBN Energy, Asian buyers – primarily in China – are now the main non-U.S. buyers from Trans Mountain, while India dominates purchases of re-exports from the U.S. Gulf Coast. .
BMO said the oil sands offers advantages both in steady supply and lower overall environmental impacts.
“Not only is the resulting stability ideally suited to backfill anticipated declines in world oil supply, but the long-term physical footprint may also be meaningfully lower given large-scale concentrated emissions, high water recycling rates and low well declines,” BMO analysts said.
From Resource Works
Nuclear power a key piece of Western Canadian energy transition
Just reading the headlines, Canadians can be forgiven for thinking last week’s historic agreement between Alberta and Ottawa was all about oil and pipelines, and all about Alberta.
It’s much bigger than that.
The memorandum of understanding signed between Canada and Alberta is an ambitious Western Canadian industrial, energy and decarbonization strategy all in one.
The strategy aims to decarbonize the oil and gas sectors through large-scale carbon capture and storage, industrial carbon pricing, methane abatement, industrial electrification, and nuclear power.
It would also provide Canadian “cloud sovereignty” through AI computing power, and would tie B.C. and Saskatchewan into the Alberta dynamo with beefed up power transmission interties.
A new nuclear keystone
Energy Alberta’s Peace River Nuclear Power Project could be a keystone to the strategy.
The MOU sets January 1, 2027 as the date for a new nuclear energy strategy to provide nuclear power “to an interconnected market” by 2050.
Scott Henuset, CEO for Energy Alberta, was pleased to see the nuclear energy strategy included in the MOU.
“We, two years ago, went out on a limb and said we’re going to do this, really believing that this was the path forward, and now we’re seeing everyone coming along that this is the path forward for power in Canada,” he said.
The company proposes to build a four-unit, 4,800-megawatt Candu Monark power plant in Peace River, Alberta. That’s equivalent to four Site C dams worth of power.
The project this year entered a joint review by the Impact Assessment Agency and Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.
If approved, and all goes to schedule, the first 1,000-MW unit could begin producing power in 2035.
Indigenous consultation and experienced leadership
“I think that having this strategy broadly points to a cleaner energy future, while at the same time recognizing that oil still is going to be a fundamental driver of economies for decades to come,” said Ian Anderson, the former CEO of Trans Mountain Corporation who now serves as an advisor to Energy Alberta.
Energy Alberta is engaged with 37 First Nations and Metis groups in Alberta on the project. Anderson was brought on board to help with indigenous consultation.
While working on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, Anderson spent a decade working with more than 60 First Nations in B.C. and Alberta to negotiate impact benefit agreements.
In addition to indigenous consultations, Anderson is also helping out with government relations, and has met with B.C. Energy Minister Adrian Dix, BC Hydro chairman Glen Clark and the head of Powerex to discuss the potential for B.C. beef up interties between the two provinces.
“I’ve done a lot of political work in B.C. over the decade, so it’s a natural place for me to assist,” Anderson said. “Hopefully it doesn’t get distracted by the pipeline debate. They’re two separate agendas and objectives.”
Powering the grid and the neighbours
B.C. is facing a looming shortage of industrial power, to the point where it now plans to ration it.
“We see our project as a backbone to support renewables, support industrial growth, support data centres as well as support larger interties to B.C. which will also strengthen the Canadian grid as a whole,” Henuset said.
Despite all the new power generation B.C. has built and plans to build, industrial demand is expected to far exceed supply. One of the drivers of that future demand is requests for power for AI data centres.
The B.C. government recently announced Bill 31 — the Energy Statutes Amendment Act – which will prioritize mines and LNG plants for industrial power.
Other energy intensive industries, like bitcoin mining, AI data centres and green hydrogen will either be explicitly excluded or put on a power connection wait list.
Beefed up grid connections with Alberta – something that has been discussed for decades – could provide B.C. with a new source of zero-emission power from Alberta, though it might have to loosen its long-standing anti-nuclear power stance.
Energy Minister Adrian Dix was asked in the Legislature this week if B.C. is open to accessing a nuclear-powered grid, and his answer was deflective.
“The member will know that we have been working with Alberta on making improvements to the intertie,” Dix answered. “Alberta has made commitments since 2007 to improve those connections. It has not done so.
“We are fully engaged with the province of Alberta on that question. He’ll also know that we are, under the Clean Electricity Act, not pursuing nuclear opportunities in B.C. and will not be in the future.”
The B.C. NDP government seems to be telling Alberta, “not only do we not want Alberta’s dirty oil, we don’t want any of its clean electricity either.”
Interconnected markets
Meanwhile, BC Hydro’s second quarter report confirms it is still a net importer of electricity, said Barry Penner, chairman of the Energy Futures Initiative.
“We have been buying nuclear power from the United States,” he said. “California has one operating power plant and there’s other nuclear power plants around the western half of the United States.”
In a recent blog post, Penner notes: “BC Hydro had to import power even as 7,291 megawatts of requested electrical service was left waiting in our province.”
If the NDP government wants B.C. to participate in an ambitious Western Canadian energy transition project, it might have to drop its holier-than-thou attitude towards Alberta, oil and nuclear power.
“We’re looking at our project as an Alberta project that has potential to support Western Canada as a whole,” Henuset said.
“We see our project as a backbone to support renewables, support industrial growth, support data centres, as well as support larger interties to B.C., which will also strengthen the Canadian grid as a whole.”
The investment challenge
The strategy that Alberta and Ottawa have laid out is ambitious, and will require tens of billions in investment.
“The question in the market is how much improvement in the regulatory prospects do we need to see in order for capital to be committed to the projects,” Anderson said.
The federal government will need to play a role in derisking the project, as it has done with the new Darlington nuclear project, with financing from the Canada Growth Fund and Canadian Infrastructure Bank.
“There will be avenues of federal support that will help derisk the project for private equity investors, as well as for banks,” Henuset said.
One selling point for the environmental crowd is that a combination of carbon capture and nuclear power could facilitate a blue and green hydrogen industry.
But to really sell this plan to the climate concerned, what is needed is a full assessment of the potential GHG reductions that may accrue from things like nuclear power, CCS, industrial carbon pricing and all of the other measures for decarbonization.
Fortunately, the MOU also scraps greenwashing laws that prevent those sorts of calculations from being done.
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