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Question Period
20 March 2012
Home-schooling March 20, 2012
Mr. Hehr: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Nothing a society does is more important than educating its children, but this government is caving in to a very noisy minority who would like to see Alberta’s education system fragmented into tiny bits and have the taxpayer cover the costs. To the Minister of Education: given the direction the government is going with public education, what is to prevent the public funding of a school of Scientology or Druids or a school for witches and Wiccans?
20 March 2012
Edith Cavell Continuing Care Centre Collective Bargaining March 20, 2012
Dr. Swann: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Human Services minister. For the third time in a year this government has flexed its muscles and intervened in a legitimate bargaining process between workers who feed and care for our seniors and a private seniors’ care operator, the Lethbridge Edith Cavell Care Centre. Despite these centres receiving public dollars to allow staff salaries equal to those at Alberta Health, the employer has refused to give salaries equal to those in Alberta Health Services. Surely dissatisfied staff and frequent turnovers do not serve seniors’ interests. Why is the minister repeatedly disrespecting the bargaining process and the nursing and support staff?
20 March 2012
Health Care System,Education Funding,Provincial Budget March 20, 2012
Dr. Sherman: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What good is universal health care if it’s universally inaccessible? It’s a well-known fact that agonizingly long waits for essential surgeries, emergency care, and 911 calls are due in large part to our seniors being warehoused in acute-care beds because of grossly underfunded and understaffed publicly delivered home care and long-term care. To the Premier. Your plan includes a paltry $25 million for home care, 30 long-term care beds, and 500 private beds. Why do you persist in supporting a failed seniors’ policy which continues to leave our health care system in crisis?
19 March 2012
Sand and Gravel Extraction Management March 19, 2012
Ms Blakeman: Thanks very much, Mr. Speaker. Gravel is big business in Alberta, we think, but it’s a bit tricky to know quite how big given this government’s continuing failure to track it. The government has no real way to track what is being taken from the ground so has no clue about what kind of revenue is due. As we have seen with the oil and gas infrastructure, this government has no idea how much Albertans will be on the hook for in the reclamation of gravel sites in the future. To the Minister of Sustainable Resource Development: why is this government unwilling to ensure that Albertans are getting their fair share from this resource?
19 March 2012
Workforce Employment Services March 19, 2012
Mr. Kang: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The government recently announced amendments to the employment agency business licensing regulations, that are to come into effect on September 1. My questions are to the Minister of Service Alberta. Why is the government making it expressly illegal for employment agencies to intimidate or threaten individuals seeking work, but it won’t do anything about its own intimidation of health care workers? Why the double standard?
19 March 2012
Primary Care Networks March 19, 2012
Dr. Swann: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Recently the minister of health unilaterally imposed a one-year payment on the province’s doctors, including after nine years of no increase the equivalent of a cost-of-living increase for the primary care networks. On this they’re supposed to expand their services to the public. He also talks about restoring a, quote, just culture, end quote, for staff working in the health system. Does the minister not see how hypocritical these sentiments are in light of his arbitrary actions?
19 March 2012
Education Funding March 19, 2012
Mr. Hehr: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Education minister has made much ado about his recent budget, but the facts get in the way of his rhetoric. To the Minister of Education: how is it that there are 480 fewer teachers in Alberta schools right now than there were this time last year?
19 March 2012
Noninstructional Postsecondary Tuition Fees March 19, 2012
Dr. Taft: Mr. Speaker, the minister of advanced education has brought in so-called best practices for postsecondary institutions to follow before they charge mandatory noninstructional fees to students, but frankly students are disappointed and angry with these. Since it is students who are forced to pay these fees, why didn’t the minister protect the interests of the students and require student approval of mandatory noninstructional fees?
The Speaker: The hon. minister.
19 March 2012
Postsecondary Education Costs,Intimidation of Physicians,AIMCo Investments March 19, 2012
Dr. Sherman: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Premier, welcome back. Societies that outeducate us today will outperform us tomorrow. The education of Albertans will determine the future prosperity of our province. In Alberta we have Canada’s highest high school noncompletion rate and lowest postsecondary participation rate. This is because Alberta has the nation’s highest tuition fees, highest noninstructional fees, a form of backdoor tuition that allows institutions to skirt government rules and tuition increases. To the Premier: will you please stop gouging our students and cap tuition and noninstructional fees charged by our institutions?
15 March 2012
Post secondary Institution Spending Accountability March 15, 2012
Dr. Taft: Thanks, Mr. Speaker. When it comes to academic freedom, this government must keep its hands off Alberta’s universities and colleges, but when it comes to proper management controls, it has to ensure each institution is doing its job. The Auditor General’s report this week makes clear that several of these institutions are failing this test badly. To the minister of advanced education. This government claims it wants world-leading postsecondary institutions, but after reading the AG’s report, I must ask him: is this his definition of world leading?
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