Alberta
More dollars going into classrooms to support today’s students
Staffing projections show up to 1,600 more teachers and support staff will be hired in the upcoming school year. Alberta’s government is also providing school authorities additional funding to support higher salaries for teachers, address enrolment growth and support francophone education.
More staff in schools
School authorities are projecting up to 800 more teachers and principals will be hired in the upcoming school year. This represents an increase of 2.2 per cent from the certificated staff in the 2021/22 school year and means more teachers in the classroom supporting Alberta’s students.
Additionally, an increase of approximately 800 support staff is also expected. This includes classroom-based educational and teacher assistants and represents an increase of 3.1 per cent from the previous school year.
“I’m thrilled to see more teachers and educational assistants will be hired in the coming school year. Alberta’s school board reserve policy has played an important role in directing today’s education dollars towards today’s students.”
Funding to support higher salaries for teachers
Alberta’s government is also providing up to an additional $50 million in 2022/23 to cover recently ratified bargaining agreements with teachers. By funding these agreements, Alberta’s government is further ensuring stability for school authorities.
“ASBA appreciates that the government will provide funding for the recently ratified teacher bargaining agreements in addition to providing targeted supports for enrolment growth as school boards face rapidly increasing student populations. This funding will help offset pressures and enable boards to address operational needs while they continue to make informed decisions in support of students and their local school communities across Alberta.”
“ASBOA welcomes the commitment to fund teacher collective agreements, and the additional funding to support enrolment growth and francophone education in Alberta. This announcement provides greater funding certainty for publicly funded education as we are about to start a new school year.”
Additional funding for enrolment growth
More than $7 million in additional funding will be provided to school authorities through a new enrolment growth grant. Early childhood services (ECS) operators will also receive support if they see significant enrolment increases.
The funding available through this new supplemental enrolment growth grant provides for additional student funding for authority enrolment growth above a set threshold, with higher rates for more growth.
“While the CASS Board of Directors recognizes that the current funding formula softens the impact of enrollment decline, we are pleased to see that this announcement will allow divisions to better meet their needs when addressing significant enrollment growth.”
“The Association of Independent Schools & Colleges in Alberta appreciates the additional funding that is being allocated to school authorities that are seeing significant growth. The Supplemental Enrollment Grant will allow schools to better meet the needs of a growing student population, and ensure their students receive an educational experience that prepares them for future success.”
Redesigned grant for francophone school authorities
About $5 million in additional funding will be provided to francophone school boards through an updated francophone equivalency grant. This increased investment means that in the 2022/23 school year, Alberta Education will allocate $7 million to francophone school authorities to support francophone education in Alberta.
“The Fédération des conseils scolaires francophones de l’Alberta welcomes the announcement of an adjustment to school funding to better meet the needs of francophone students in the province. We appreciate the collaborative work that has taken place over the past few months to make the challenges faced by francophone school boards heard. Their reality is unique and the response to their challenges must, by that very fact, be unique.”
Quick facts
- Increased staffing levels will be supported by the use of operating reserves in the 2022/23 school year.
- The Minister of Education recently approved 64 requests to use operating reserves for the 2022/23 school year. This included $88 million in requests for reserves to be spent on staffing, instruction and educational assistants.
- By the end of the 2022/23 school year, maximum operating reserve amounts will be set for school boards, as described in the Funding Manual for School Authorities to ensure public dollars go to educational purposes in the same year the funding is provided.
- The limit on allowable reserve balances was signaled to school jurisdictions with the new funding model in 2020.
- School authorities will also receive additional funding from the province to support higher than expected fuel costs, while monthly average diesel prices exceed $1.25 per litre.
Making utility bills more affordableAlberta’s government is taking action to protect Alberta’s ratepayers by introducing legislation to lower and stabilize local access fees. Affordability is a top priority for Alberta’s government, with the cost of utilities being a large focus. By introducing legislation to help reduce the cost of utility bills, the government is continuing to follow through on its commitment to make life more affordable for Albertans. This is in addition to the new short-term measures to prevent spikes in electricity prices and will help ensure long-term affordability for Albertans’ basic household expenses.
Local access fees are functioning as a regressive municipal tax that consumers pay on their utility bills. It is unacceptable for municipalities to be raking in hundreds of millions in surplus revenue off the backs of Alberta’s ratepayers and cause their utility bills to be unpredictable costs by tying their fees to a variable rate. Calgarians paid $240 in local access fees on average in 2023, compared to the $75 on average in Edmonton, thanks to Calgary’s formula relying on a variable rate. This led to $186 million more in fees being collected by the City of Calgary than expected.
To protect Alberta’s ratepayers, the Government of Alberta is introducing the Utilities Affordability Statutes Amendment Act, 2024. If passed, this legislation would promote long-term affordability and predictability for utility bills by prohibiting the use of variable rates when calculating municipalities’ local access fees. Variable rates are highly volatile, which results in wildly fluctuating electricity bills. When municipalities use this rate to calculate their local access fees, it results in higher bills for Albertans and less certainty in families’ budgets. These proposed changes would standardize how municipal fees are calculated across the province, and align with most municipalities’ current formulas.
If passed, the Utilities Affordability Statutes Amendment Act, 2024 would prevent municipalities from attempting to take advantage of Alberta’s ratepayers in the future. It would amend sections of the Electric Utilities Act and Gas Utilities Act to ensure that the Alberta Utilities Commission has stronger regulatory oversight on how these municipal fees are calculated and applied, ensuring Alberta ratepayer’s best interests are protected.
If passed, this legislation would also amend sections of the Alberta Utilities Commission Act, the Electric Utilities Act, Government Organizations Act and the Regulated Rate Option Stability Act to replace the terms “Regulated Rate Option”, “RRO”, and “Regulated Rate Provider” with “Rate of Last Resort” and “Rate of Last Resort Provider” as applicable. Quick facts
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From LifeSiteNews
If Trudeau’s National Urban Park Initiative is implemented, Alberta could see its parks, including Edmonton’s River Valley, hijacked by the federal government in the name of ‘sustainability, conservation, equity, diversity, inclusion, and reconciliation.’
Edmonton is working to protect its River Valley from the Trudeau government’s “diversity” park plan.
On April 15, Alberta Legislature passed MLA Brandon Lunty’s private members’ Bill 204 to protect the Edmonton River Valley from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s National Urban Park Initiative which would give the federal government power over provincial parks to enforce a variety of quotas related to the “climate” and “diversity.”
“Albertans elected our United Conservative government with a majority mandate to, among other things, protect families and communities from federal overreach and intrusion. That’s exactly what this bill accomplishes,” Lunty said in a press release.
Bill 204, titled the Municipal Government (National Urban Parks) Amendment Act, is a response to the National Urban Park Initiative which would give the Trudeau government jurisdiction over Alberta’s provincial parks.
The Trudeau government’s plan promises to “provide long-lasting benefits to the urban area” by using “sustainability, conservation, equity, diversity, inclusion, and reconciliation.”
If the program is approved, the Edmonton River Valley could be “fully owned by the Federal Government,” which will use the space to advance their values, including addressing the impacts of “climate change” and creating spaces where “diversity is welcomed.”
The plan also promises that equity will be “intentionally advanced” while “respecting indigenous rights” through “reconciliation.”
However, many Edmonton citizens were concerned with the Urban Park Initiative and met with their MLAs to discuss the issue.
Edmonton citizen Sheila Phimester worked with MLA Jackie Lovely to create a petition to prevent the River Valley from becoming federally owned. The petition has received over 5,000 signatures.
“Instead of Edmontonians making decisions about what happens in the park, Ottawa would be making the decisions,” the petition warned.
“Oh, and because it’s the federal government, their ‘priorities’ for these parks are ‘healthier communities’, ‘climate resilience’, ‘reconciliation’, ‘equity’, ‘diversity’, and ‘inclusion,’” it continued.
Already, Trudeau has attempted to assert power over Alberta’s industry by placing “climate” restrictions on their oil and gas production in an attempt to force net-zero regulations on all Canadian provinces, including on electricity generation, by as early as 2035.
However, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has repeatedly vowed to protect the province from Trudeau’s radical “net zero” push.
In December, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith blasted Trudeau’s Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault’s plan to slash oil and gas emissions by 35 percent to 38 percent below 2019 levels as “unrealistic” and “unconstitutional.”
Trudeau’s current environmental goals are in lockstep with the United Nations’ “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” and include phasing out coal-fired power plants, reducing fertilizer usage, and curbing natural gas use over the coming decades.
The reduction and eventual elimination of the use of so-called “fossil fuels” and a transition to unreliable “green” energy has also been pushed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) – the globalist group behind the socialist “Great Reset” agenda – an organization in which Trudeau and some of his cabinet are involved.
In November, after announcing she had “enough” of Trudeau’s extreme environmental rules, Smith said her province had no choice but to assert control over its electricity grid to combat federal overreach by enacting its Sovereignty Act. The Sovereignty Act serves to shield Albertans from future power blackouts due to federal government overreach.
Unlike most provinces in Canada, Alberta’s electricity industry is nearly fully deregulated. However, the government still has the ability to take control of it at a moment’s notice.
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