Alberta Politics & Government Thread 3.0

[Mr.Coffee]

Originally Posted by Wolven

Thanks for sharing this.

It is hugely important that people keep in mind the government had a surplus in the last fiscal year and how they dumped all of the money into the Heritage Fund. This is including a $700M payout that Alberta received from a big tobacco lawsuit that was meant to help cover the extra costs that the health system incurs by smokers.

The UCP could have easily used a cool billion of that to invest in healthcare and negotiate with the teachers in good faith to restore the "Alberta Advantage". Instead they are trying to make that money disappear and now are walking around with their pockets inside out pretending to be broke and hoping that Albertans are too dumb to remember.

Also, this is one of Nenshi's talking points, the UCP has tied the government budget more closely to the oil industry. This has resulted in one of Alberta's largest financial swings in our history from a big surplus to an even bigger deficit in the matter of months. The volatility of the industry, and now our budget as well, makes it even more important to not be a goldfish and do not fall for the UCP's short-term-memory ploys.

The UCP is being ridiculous. Oil goes up and down. It’s a commodity. It’s looking not great on the near term outlook, but, guess what happens after that?

Pay the god damn teachers. It’s gross what’s being offered and I don’t want my kids having a ####ty education.

Stop funding private schools. This one bugs me. What makes Alberta not a total dog#### province is decent healthcare and education so stop ####ing with it for #### sakes. Leave them alone and pay the bills. I’d way rather have a 5% PST if it meant my kid wasn’t being taught by some burnout and the classroom gets cleaned vs. making sure I retain every red cent and my kids going to school in garbage conditions.

Like this is getting pretty stupid. The offers to-date are insulting and if I was a teacher I know what I’d be saying.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by Mr.Coffee

Stop funding private schools. This one bugs me. What makes Alberta not a total dog#### province is decent healthcare and education so stop ####ing with it for #### sakes. Leave them alone and pay the bills. I’d way rather have a 5% PST if it meant my kid wasn’t being taught by some burnout and the classroom gets cleaned vs. making sure I retain every red cent and my kids going to school in garbage conditions.

Like this is getting pretty stupid. The offers to-date are insulting and if I was a teacher I know what I’d be saying.

But they are funding private schools while dismantling public education and public healthcare. They also ran on this **** and no one paid any ****ing attention!!!.

[Mr.Coffee]

Originally Posted by jayswin

But they are funding private schools while dismantling public education and public healthcare. They also ran on this **** and no one paid any ****ing attention!!!.

Didn’t vote for them. I recall sabre rattling about privatization of health care but I definitely do not recall on them running on we’re going to go #### up education and rip teachers off.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by Mr.Coffee

Didn’t vote for them. I recall sabre rattling about privatization of health care but I definitely do not recall on them running on we’re going to go #### up education and rip teachers off.

Oh sorry, didn't suggest you personally did. But yes, I definitely remember them being big on privatization of education and cutting funding to public education when running. But hey also ran on "cut the FAT!!!!" which our dumb public just eats up.

[GordonBlue]

####ing piece of crap UCP government.

Alberta to become 1st province with mandatory 'citizenship markers' on driver's licences

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...ship-1.7634163

[direwolf]

Originally Posted by GordonBlue

####ing piece of crap UCP government.

Alberta to become 1st province with mandatory 'citizenship markers' on driver's licences

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...ship-1.7634163

Sounds like Provincial governments likely don't even have the authority to do this, so WTF are they trying to pull here? I hope the UCP gets sued up the arse for this stunt.

From the article above:

David Fraser, a privacy and civil liberties lawyer based in Halifax, called the move unprecedented.

"[Provincial governments] don't have jurisdiction to determine citizenship or even, I would think, to give a binding opinion on whether or not you are a citizen or you have any sort of lawful status in Canada," he said.

He pointed to privacy concerns around having citizenship status, or a lack thereof, displayed on a driver's licence, as people are often required to show identification in situations like traffic stops or buying alcohol.

"The police have the authority to ask you for your licence, but your citizenship status has nothing to do with your ability to to drive a motor vehicle," Fraser said.

Fraser said citizenship status on a licence could have adverse impacts on non-Canadians.

"I think [it] probably opens up the door, at the very least, to accusations of discrimination but probably opens the door to actual discrimination," he said.
Fraser further said it is very rare that anybody has the right to demand or require your citizenship status.

"The concern isn't that it's accessible to people who might have a lawful, legal need to know. It's that all of a sudden it's accessible to anybody who has a reason to ask you for ID and that in and of itself is problematic," he said.

[Fuzz]

####ing fascists.

[Drak]

We had enhanced licenses with citizenship in BC but it wasn’t mandatory.

[direwolf]

Yea, I think the way it works in BC is in lieu of a passport, you can get your citizenship on your license if you want. And we all have our health care #s on our licenses. But no, it's certainly not mandatory to have your Canadian citizenship on there.

[IliketoPuck]

Originally Posted by jayswin

Yeah, they have to be better at getting through to the Sliver's of the city, for sure. It's hard to do.

Write it in a way that someone in grade 8 could understand. If I recall correctly, that's the target the Calgary Sun tries to hit.

(Not poking fun at you, Sliver).

[Hot_Flatus]

Originally Posted by Mr.Coffee

The UCP is being ridiculous. Oil goes up and down. It’s a commodity. It’s looking not great on the near term outlook, but, guess what happens after that?

Pay the god damn teachers. It’s gross what’s being offered and I don’t want my kids having a ####ty education.

Stop funding private schools. This one bugs me. What makes Alberta not a total dog#### province is decent healthcare and education so stop ####ing with it for #### sakes. Leave them alone and pay the bills. I’d way rather have a 5% PST if it meant my kid wasn’t being taught by some burnout and the classroom gets cleaned vs. making sure I retain every red cent and my kids going to school in garbage conditions.

Like this is getting pretty stupid. The offers to-date are insulting and if I was a teacher I know what I’d be saying.

Regardless of whether they choose to fund private schools or not (they shouldn't), it doesn't excuse the terrible offers from a salary increase perspective and student funding perspective on the table that haven't been adjusted by the UCP since the Spring. And sorry, anyone siding with the UCP on this because of the lies Smith is spreading about wages being comparable to other provinces, while conveniently using old numbers that are not relevant better do some research. AB teacher salaries are way behind many provinces if you look at the most recent deals coming into effect.

Hiring 3000 teachers sounds sexy if you're uninformed, but it's at best 2 teachers per school on average and many of the schools in Alberta need at least 8-12 more teachers just to be at class sizes that are considered normal. This also doesn't account for any new school openings (if they ever actually get built).

Stop the insanity of class sizes in the 35-45 range and buck up. Pay competitive wages. Regardless of the rhetoric, we still do pay a lot of taxes and make a lot of money off of oil in this province. There is zero excuse to have our teachers paid far less than many provinces and our children in classes that are catastrophically large due to poor per student funding. If you can't fund health care, education and first responder services well in this province, you might as well pack it in because there isn't anything that should be more important.

[Regorium]

Originally Posted by Hot_Flatus

Regardless of whether they choose to fund private schools or not (they shouldn't), it doesn't excuse the terrible offers from a salary increase perspective and student funding perspective on the table that haven't been adjusted by the UCP since the Spring. And sorry, anyone siding with the UCP on this because of the lies Smith is spreading about wages being comparable to other provinces, while conveniently using old numbers that are not relevant better do some research. AB teacher salaries are way behind many provinces if you look at the most recent deals coming into effect.

Hiring 3000 teachers sounds sexy if you're uninformed, but it's at best 2 teachers per school on average and many of the schools in Alberta need at least 8-12 more teachers just to be at class sizes that are considered normal. This also doesn't account for any new school openings (if they ever actually get built).

Stop the insanity of class sizes in the 35-45 range and buck up. Pay competitive wages. Regardless of the rhetoric, we still do pay a lot of taxes and make a lot of money off of oil in this province. There is zero excuse to have our teachers paid far less than many provinces and our children in classes that are catastrophically large due to poor per student funding. If you can't fund health care, education and first responder services well in this province, you might as well pack it in because there isn't anything that should be more important.

Hiring 3000 teachers is just base level "keeping the education system functional based on population growth". It shouldn't have anything to do with a union negotiation.

[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by Regorium

Hiring 3000 teachers is just base level "keeping the education system functional based on population growth". It shouldn't have anything to do with a union negotiation.

Why shouldn’t it have anything to do with their negotiations?

It has a major impact on their working conditions.

[Johnny Makarov]

Originally Posted by IliketoPuck

Write it in a way that someone in grade 8 could understand. If I recall correctly, that's the target the Calgary Sun tries to hit.

(Not poking fun at you, Sliver).

Umm it was Grade 5 Level.

Thats why the Dinger writes 6 word paragraphs.

He is no good.

One of my ex-coworkers was a sunshine girl though.

She was good.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by iggy_oi

Why shouldn’t it have anything to do with their negotiations?

It has a major impact on their working conditions.

I think he meant it shouldn't have to be a bargaining point, it should just be an automatic responsibility for government to provide a base line minimum amount of teachers.

[Fuzz]

I was just looking at the Alberta Next immigration stuff, and this is the first survey question:





The first two are almost identical, and they provide zero options for something in between. What a load of horse ####. Ok, next question.

[Yamer]

Originally Posted by GordonBlue

####ing piece of crap UCP government.

Alberta to become 1st province with mandatory 'citizenship markers' on driver's licences

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...ship-1.7634163

As usual they are throwing out the subterfuge that this is all in the name of protecting election integrity and improving efficiency. The pudding brained will certainly be satiated by that explanation and the bigots have yet another palatable justification for their prejudice, but the reality is this change has no practical or functional purpose.

That is until they start stripping rights and access to services for the people that don't wear the armbands have the sticker on their licenses.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by Yamer

As usual they are throwing out the subterfuge that this is all in the name of protecting election integrity and improving efficiency. The pudding brained will certainly be satiated by that explanation and the bigots have yet another palatable justification for their prejudice, but the reality is this change has no practical or functional purpose.

That is until they start stripping rights and access to services for the people that don't wear the armbands have the sticker on their licenses.

This is really what this comes down to. From a high level, it doesn't matter that your driver's license identifies you as a citizen, and basically makes no difference. It's just that you know that this is going to be used for other means, and be another hoop to jump through. You know how dealing with registries is already a delight? Well, now you also need to bring proof of citizenship for some things, and that's so efficient.

[socktape]

Well it sure makes it easier to identify citizens when you want to control Immigration to your province.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmon...tion-1.7636476

Premier Danielle Smith is directing her jobs minister to use all legal means possible to give Alberta more control over immigration.

In a new mandate letter given to Joseph Schow, Smith says Alberta needs more control over immigration to ensure the province sees sustainable levels of newcomers.

The letter says Canadian citizens should have first access to jobs and that young people should be prioritized over temporary foreign workers.

[WideReceiver]

What control can Alberta have over immigration? It’s federal.