Alberta Politics & Government Thread 3.0

[woob]

Thanks for the info Muta! That's good to know. Are these for the public systems? Hopefully this will release some of the pressure.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Muta

I hate the UCP with a ####ing passion, but I will say that there are schools getting built (or existing ones modernized/expanded); my firm is currently leading the design on 10+ of these projects at this very moment, and that's only a small handful of them underway. There are also more public school projects scheduled to come out.

I cannot speak to the quality of education being delivered in the schools themselves, but I do know that there are quite a bit of public schools being built/renovated across the province at this moment.

It's a good thing they waited until crisis to do anything.This is a massive failure to plan for the future, and should be no surprise, as they absolutely suck at it.

[Muta]

Originally Posted by woob

Thanks for the info Muta! That's good to know. Are these for the public systems? Hopefully this will release some of the pressure.

They are public; you can see all of the ones funded for construction/design/planning, since 2019, here:

https://www.alberta.ca/planning-and-...ls#jumplinks-0

[aaronck]

Absolute shocker I tell you- Kenney gets another board post

https://financialpost.com/news/jason...ostmedia-board

[puffnstuff]

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/busi...as-wells-with/

An Alberta government panel is proposing a series of actions to deal with the massive cleanup bill for aging and uneconomic#oil and gas#wells, some of which would see taxpayers backstop activities that the industry has long been responsible for, a leaked document shows.

The recommendations include establishing special-purpose companies to acquire mature wells, produce the remaining hydrocarbons and use the cash flow to fund cleanup, and also setting up an insurance fund financed by the industry but guaranteed by taxpayers.

And then...

https://globalnews.ca/news/11087428/...andoned-wells/

Brian Jean says it will never be an option, despite a newly leaked government-funded report listing recommendations for how Alberta should reclaim its nearly 80,000 inactive wells.

Really hard to know who to believe here, the leaked report that says they will or the liar.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by woob

Really? Difficult to solve? C'mon. The only reason it's difficult to solve is because the government chooses not to address many of the funding issues, teachers pay, etc. And they choose not to implement a PST to flatten out the peaks and valleys of funding provincial budgets.

Education funding and class sizes are not a new thing. Teachers get vilified on this very board when they seek more equitable pay. Poor funding, planning, and education is an issue which has been around for years. And yes, it's gotten even worse with the population increase, but it's been an issue prior to that.

Well, teachers get vilified (really not teachers, but the union), because the focus is on more teachers, which also means more union members. But leaving that aside, there’s only so fast new schools can be built.The NDP was in power for four years, and they dealt with the same issues. These just aren’t issues that can be solved in a year or two.

It is interesting to me though; our class sizes when I was a kid were too large also, according to the teachers union. My kids class sizes were too large rolling throughout their school career. I don’t know if there’s ever been a time when we’ve had small enough class sizes, and yet we continue to produce students who have been well educated and have the skills and knowledge necessary for their further education.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Slava

Well, teachers get vilified (really not teachers, but the union), because the focus is on more teachers, which also means more union members. But leaving that aside, there’s only so fast new schools can be built.The NDP was in power for four years, and they dealt with the same issues. These just aren’t issues that can be solved in a year or two.

It is interesting to me though; our class sizes when I was a kid were too large also, according to the teachers union. My kids class sizes were too large rolling throughout their school career. I don’t know if there’s ever been a time when we’ve had small enough class sizes, and yet we continue to produce students who have been well educated and have the skills and knowledge necessary for their further education.

That's a bit of a weird way to look at it, because the top and mid students can probably make it through, it's the ones that need more attention that are getting left behind. I could say "it seems like we have a lot more lost and hopeless youth ending up OD'ing because they couldn't get enough support in school," and I'm not sore it woudl be any less valid than your metric.

[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by Slava

Well, teachers get vilified (really not teachers, but the union), because the focus is on more teachers, which also means more union members.

Who wants to tell him?

[Slava]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

That's a bit of a weird way to look at it, because the top and mid students can probably make it through, it's the ones that need more attention that are getting left behind. I could say "it seems like we have a lot more lost and hopeless youth ending up OD'ing because they couldn't get enough support in school," and I'm not sore it woudl be any less valid than your metric.

All I’m saying is that we’ve heard this argument for decades, and yet the quality of education is still excellent.

[puffnstuff]

Smith keeps saying AHS is the problem, maybe she is right. Looks who runs AHS.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...ange-1.7483084

The provincial government has for years kept a hand in the contracting-out of private surgeries through Alberta Health Services, despite repeated comments by the premier and health minister that any potential issues with procurement are AHS's own responsibility.

Multiple documents obtained by CBC News show direct interventions by Alberta's health minister into AHS contracting matters, as well as entities specifically set up to give the health ministry more oversight and influence in recruiting and dealing with private contractors.

[indes]

Originally Posted by Slava

All I’m saying is that we’ve heard this argument for decades, and yet the quality of education is still excellent.

I guess it's hard to tell when our overlords decided it wasn't worth tracking anymore.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...izes-1.6957313

We've also dropped in education funding from a decade ago when we spent among the highest per student in the country.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...scan-1.7468262

[Harry Lime]

Originally Posted by puffnstuff

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/busi...as-wells-with/

An Alberta government panel is proposing a series of actions to deal with the massive cleanup bill for aging and uneconomic#oil and gas#wells, some of which would see taxpayers backstop activities that the industry has long been responsible for, a leaked document shows.

The recommendations include establishing special-purpose companies to acquire mature wells, produce the remaining hydrocarbons and use the cash flow to fund cleanup, and also setting up an insurance fund financed by the industry but guaranteed by taxpayers.

And then...

https://globalnews.ca/news/11087428/...andoned-wells/

Brian Jean says it will never be an option, despite a newly leaked government-funded report listing recommendations for how Alberta should reclaim its nearly 80,000 inactive wells.

Really hard to know who to believe here, the leaked report that says they will or the liar.

Haven't we paid for the companies to do this themselves, twice already? The first time, the large companies just drained the shell companies that had the obligations, and folded the shell. The second time, I'm guessing that the large companies created a shell to accept the public funding to cleanup the wells, then drained the companies and folded the shell.

I wonder what happens this time?

[Harry Lime]

Also, if anyone is interested, Alberta is Calling is still fully active.

The UCP is trying to move as many people to Alberta as possible. It's almost as if their goals don't match with the reality of life in the province.

[Monahammer]

The gobsmacking, apparent and evident solution is to unmercilessly tax the #### out of these bastards, set up a crown corporation and clean them up ourselves using the tax proceeds.

But it will never happen under this government. Which is hilarious because they are actually doing far worse things to upset industry, like whatever the #### premier is doing with the APMC currently. TC is irate.

[edslunch]

Originally Posted by Monahammer

The gobsmacking, apparent and evident solution is to unmercilessly tax the #### out of these bastards, set up a crown corporation and clean them up ourselves using the tax proceeds.

But it will never happen under this government. Which is hilarious because they are actually doing far worse things to upset industry, like whatever the #### premier is doing with the APMC currently. TC is irate.

Taxing these companies? Some don't even pay their property taxes to the localities they operate in.

[woob]

Just got my first ever Measles Parent Letter from AHS/CBE! So exciting!

[#-3]

Originally Posted by woob

Just got my first ever Measles Parent Letter from AHS/CBE! So exciting!

Over/under on Smith saying something stupid about how AHS/CBE didn't have the right to push this propaganda on us?

[puffnstuff]

I would put money on vaccines arent settled science so she feels parents should do their own research.
Its a longshot but the payout could be huge.

[Torture]

Originally Posted by woob

Just got my first ever Measles Parent Letter from AHS/CBE! So exciting!

As in, your child was exposed to an area where there was a known Measles case? Or that you should get your child vaccinated?

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by Torture

As in, your child was exposed to an area where there was a known Measles case? Or that you should get your child vaccinated?

Just a general info letter. What is measles and how to protect yourself.