Constructive solutions

I’ve taken two extended posts now to heavily criticize the University of Alberta’s current move to tax students to make up for their growing deficit, but rather than merely oppose, how would I fix the problem?

While I’m no economist (likely a good thing in this case), and don’t have access to the entire financial records, a few methods strike me as immediately effective at easing the deficit crunch that they’re facing.

First off, change has to start at the top. While the combined $2.6 million salaries and benefits of 4 of the executive are not enough to cover the deficit, the leadership must take ownership of not just the success of the university, but also it’s failures.

A 30% paycut to each of the administrators would bring their salaries and benefits down from the mid $600,000s to roughly the level of University of Toronto president’s reported $430,000. Clearly a large, successful school does not need to pad the pockets of its administrators as lushly as the UofA does, especially in these tough economic times. This represents a savings of $780,000 among the top four, and similar cuts across the rest of the administration would likely add up to a million dollars. It may also be higher once all faculty deans and related administrators are taken into account. This move is in part punishment for mismanagement, but also symbolic of the fact that if students must shoulder some increase, than the administrators must also.

Obviously, there will be resistance to a large pay cut and the UofA will lose some of its administrators. To them I say, good riddance. This new higher wave will allow the university to analyze which administrative positions are positively contributing to the university, and which are superfluous positions. Further, fresh ideas from a new crowd could actually help turn the school around. Poach administrators from small to mid-size schools that are not having as much difficultly succeeding in these tough economic times and use their ideas to restructure the UofA so this doesn’t happen again.

Similar to cutting the budgets of the administrators, the university needs to re-examine its role as a contractor. I’ve seen no evidence that contracting out labour tends to save costs, and if anything, tends to exacerbate disparity as contractors tend not to have the protections afforded to university unions.

Next, cancel the Physical Activities & Wellness Centre and other proposed new buildings and halt construction on several others. When I left the university last year there was over $1 billion in construction projects occurring. A lot of that money was coming straight out of the university’s budget, so until they can afford to, no more massive construction projects.

Finally, the hardest suggestion I have is to cap or even decrease enrolment levels for the next few years. While there will be a small loss in revenue by having fewer students enrolled, it will offer a chance to ensure those who are there get a good education, and that the university can afford to teach them. This will also negatively affect high school students who are just at the edge of academically acceptable for the university, however, we ought to be basing university enrolment on academic and not economic merit. I’d rather a poor student with a 95% average got in then a rich one with 75%.

By capping enrolment the university can scale back its absurd vision of its future expansion and focus on the present. This will also ease the pain of freezing capital projects until they are absolutely necessary.

It doesn’t seem like it’s that hard to me to get this deficit under control. Unfortunately the university administration has convinced many students that more money is necessary for a steady-as-she-goes approach. Meanwhile, no one has questioned the actual causes for the current situation, and as the saying goes, “those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.”

Even more disappointing, however, is that the current hierarchical structure of the university will prevent almost any of these changes from being implemented by the current administration who only stand to lose in this scenario, but win under any other (even the university going under and them taking home giant severance packages). So to affect these changes, students need to get vocal and resist every tax and fee increase.

Tacit acceptance in not an option if you care about the future of the University of Alberta.

Where did the UofA’s money go?

Further to my comments yesterday about the University of Alberta’s Engineering Student Society endorsing plans to tax students, Brendan Taylor, with the Student Worker Action Group of APIRG has linked me to his complete financial analysis of the operating budgets of the UofA (plus many other institutions) over the past decade. To complement his analysis, I thought I’d highlight some striking differences between the UofA and Simon Fraser University (my current school).

First, If we look just at surplus, until 2008, the UofA had a steadily increasing budget surplus while SFU has actually been running a deficit for the past 8 years, only getting the deficit under control in the past year. So while this current deficit may seem radical for the UofA, it seems peculiar and more likely to be in part due to a one-off lost in investments as opposed to evidence that they aren’t ripping students off enough.

Next, we can see that SFUs funding has been mainly attacked by a 12% reduction in provincial funding over 10 years, while the UofA has maintained a constant proportion of provincial funding. That last data point for the UofA getting 15% more funding in 2007-08 represents a large sum of money going only to capital projects. SFU clearly made its budget losses from the provincial government up by raising tuition while the UofA shows a small drop in percentage funding from tuition. However, non-tuition fees at the UofA have nearly doubled in the past decade, and with the proposed COSSS fee and “Market Modifiers” tuition will increase by roughly 20% or more in the next five years.

The UofA has also shifted its budget from the academic ranks and increased benefits and non-academic salaries. The largest increase is the doubling of expenses on external contractors. Meanwhile, SFU slashed academic funding from its budget in roughly 2003-05 and cut other salaries equally. We do notice with SFU a steady increase in student support that is absent from the UofA. This funding likely explains SFUs consistent top-notch performance in comprehensive university rankings.

As I mentioned, the UofA got 15% more provincial funding in 2007-08 than average, but similarly capital costs were up 15% as well, so that more likely represents singular grants for construction costs. This does help confirm the scenario where the UofA tried too hard to expand too fast under the “Top 20 by 2020” mandate that the administration has now disowned.

Brendan’s best graph for the UofA compares the runaway costs to students to cover the runaway costs of the university executive:

Tuition is legislated to rise no faster than CPI, hence the nearly perfect correlation, meanwhile, we can see that before the market modifier tax is applied (which will raise engineering student’s tuition by an additional 10-15% per year) students are already being forced to pay almost exponentially increasing amounts to cover salaries that are fast outgrowing inflation.

Education may cost money, but it’s clear that education is no more expensive then it was a decade ago, the only change has become this competitive drive to “be the best” school which has brought on overpaid bureaucracy and unaffordable expansion.

The free market model of competition between universities does not seem to make them any more efficient, in a story almost identical to Wall Street, we see corporate execs earn top dollar while those on the bottom continue to suffer.

Ashamed of my peers

That’s my naked right pinky finger. On most engineers (who are right-handed) you will typically find a piece of iron (actually stainless steel) that represents their obligation to engineering. I didn’t get mine because I refused, and still do, to sign the Obligation that would have required me to hypocritically betray my conscience while pledging to be honest. While I would still appreciate being offered the olive branch to be included in that ceremony, I’m growing even more ashamed of the people who were once my peers.

Today’s Facebook check brought an invite to the page “Engineers in favour of improving our faculty and supporting the ESS" which lists a statement by the University of Alberta’s Engineering Student Society’s Board of Directors, a body made of up of the democratically-elected presidents of each discipline plus the executive of the ESS.

The statement outlines how the Board has consulted with the faculty administrators and decided that the best when to ensure that the “world class facilities and faculty” are kept in place is to tax students.

Oh wait, they don’t use the word tax, they call it a “Market Modifier.”

Market modifier my ass, the ESS has just sold the average engineering student up shit creek without a paddle.

I’m glad my finger is naked, because I’m ashamed of these tools.

Currently the UofA administrators are pushing forward, almost without protest, a mandatory tax, sorry “Common Student Space, Sustainability and Security Fee,” of $570 per student per semester to recoup some of it’s $57 million deficit. This fee is on top of the market modifiers, so the ESS is proposing that engineering students ought to pay even more than the average student.

But don’t worry says the University and the ESS, some of these fees will go straight back into scholarships!

So to help the un-affordability that extra student taxes are creating, they offer to throw a few bucks back, at only a few students. But don’t worry, titles like “ESS President” look really good on scholarship applications, so our wonderful Board members may be able to get their funds back, plus a little of their peers.

But why is the UofA in such dire straights?

Having the highest paid administrators in Canada can’t have anything to do with it, I mean, combined they only take in $2.57 million. That’s not even counting how much the deans and their staff are bringing in. Their vision of making the UofA “top 20 by 2020” (whatever the fuck that means, remember how they never explained it) has come at the financial stability of the school and now they’re pinning the exorbitant costs on students.

Where’s the lobbying to Stelmach? Where’s the lobbying to Ottawa? These people are also in part to blame.

But instead, you have students being manipulated by these people trying to protect their overpaid jobs.

I thought it was bad enough that far too many engineers are creationists or anti-science climate change denialists. But this takes the stereotypical right-wing engineer to a far new level.

Notice how they even tilt the language, using the word “market” as though a degree is a mere product to be traded, not earned. Entitled shits. Universities used to be about higher learning and expanding your mind. If this is the future of engineering, move it back to technical school and leave university for the actual academic pursuits.

Market modifiers my ass. A tax is a tax, and this is only going to hurt the University of Alberta. Tuition only goes up, and letting them raise it will only screw students in the long run.

I’m glad I got out. I feel sorry for those who will no longer be able to get in.

Published in The Peak

Recent levels of conservative articles in SFU’s student newspaper The Peak prompted me to submit an article which got published today. While this isn’t my best writing (a few awkward sentences survived the editor), I am planning to write a bit more frequently for the weekly paper, so hopefully it improves.

It’s also worth noting that my story was one of the highlights listed on the front page.

My article, appearing on page four is reprinted here:

Conservatives are eroding Canadian values

Stephen Harper hates Canada, or at least he has indicated as much. He and his brand of Reform Party theo-cons have every intention of tearing down the institutions that make our country great.

The most recent evidence of this is Immigration Minister Jason Kenney’s personal interventions to remove references to homosexual rights from Canada’s latest immigration brochures. Rather than have new immigrants know that Canada was among the first countries in the world to extend the right of marriage to same-sex couples, the Conservatives would rather paint a picture of Canada as they want to see it. Similarly, the brochure also omits any reference to health care and feminism, and plays up our history of armed conflict while downplaying our role as world peacekeepers.

Yet these Conservatives’ pasts haunts them. In 2003, as a member of the neoconservative group, Civitas, Harper stated that to achieve the goal of a conservative social policy, the Conservatives must win over immigrants and make “incremental” movements to the right, knowing full well that an abrupt change of course toward their true goals would scare most Canadians.

So after six years as leader of a minority government, we have watched Harper make deep cuts to our federal income streams. Lowered income from the GST, as well as corporate and personal income taxes has put the country in a deficit, to which the only available answer for the neoconservative is an attack on the foundations of our modern Canadian society – the welfare state.

In a similar vein, to reform our society, we have witnessed massive cuts and legislation changes to cripple several decades of progress fought for by this nation’s feminists. Status of Women Canada is a shell of its former self, and, after the 2009 budget, it is now harder for women to achieve equal pay for equal work.

Even our democratic systems suffer as our prime minister is in contempt of the will of Parliament, and thereby the will of the majority of Canadians, who are demanding documents that will confirm the claims of whistleblower Richard Colvin or clear the names of our soldiers. Rather than provide these documents, Harper again dishonestly shut the door on democracy and hid behind claims that the opposition hates our troops. If Harper truly cared about our troops he would present the documents that clear their names of what must be wrongful accusations. At least, they must be wrongful as that is what the government keeps saying.

But we don’t have to look as far as Ottawa to see the anti-progressives at work. Mirroring tactics that were used by Ontario campus conservative groups to destroy their Public Interest Research Groups; campus conservatives here have taken up a crusade against SFPIRG under the banners of “democracy” and “accountability.” The argument is that SFPIRG needs improvement, and few would disagree, yet the claim that they are arbitrarily appointing people to their board is absurd. Have these conservatives attempted to join SFPIRG and reform the group from the inside?

As was pointed out, if there are too few candidates for the board, acclamations are granted to those few who step forward to actually do the work. Otherwise you have shit disturbers who lobby the SFSS and student body to destroy a group that they have the ability to opt-out of.

But it is too easy to write these actions off as a grand right-wing conspiracy. Rather, we have a minority subset of society that hates the institutions we have fought for in this country, and is working incrementally at various levels to take away many of the things we take for granted.

Most of my future articles will be on skepticism / atheism / Humanism, and I’m hoping to have something to submit most weeks (I may post here even if it ends up on the digital floor of the Peak).

Whiny corporate shills and the Corporate Vote

People generally acknowledge that BC politics is messed up, but this push to regain the corporate municipal vote [pdf] here really takes puts the ass in asylum.

The claim is that businesses are being unfairly taxed without representation, ergo businesses ought to have a vote at the municipal level.

Never mind that every business owner and employee that actually lives in the city they operate in already has a vote.

Never mind that the only other place in the world that shills like this is the business district of London, England.

Never mind that the guy who wrote that trite in the Vancouver Sun is “known for showing up at Burnaby council meetings wearing his scoutmaster uniform.”

Just remember that democracy is, in it’s most pure form, a system of people governing themselves. In Canada, at least, corporations are not people.

Remember when the Carbon Tax ruined BC?

Almost two years ago the naysayers were coming out:

To launch a carbon tax now in the face of a potential recession would be foolhardy. Those gouged by it would be forced to cut spending on other goods and services, aggravating the slowdown and triggering further unemployment.

While I don’t like Gordon Campbell and his party, and Carole James attack of the tax was very misguided, you have to admit the tax hasn’t crippled BC. BCs GDP hasn’t dropped any more than the rest of Canada, and it looks like BC will actually be doing quite reasonably next year.

Now, the actual environmental effects of this tax may take a while to see, but it is good to point out that you can have both an economy and an environmental platform.

It’s also worth noting that some of the arguments against the HST (that it will slow spending) were the same as those against the Carbon Tax, and I’ll agree that they’re likely alarmist arguments. But I still oppose the HST since it fails to do anything for the people of BC and Ontario. Since tax cuts are just being straight shifted to large businesses, and is costing every Canadian $200 ($6 billion in handouts from Ottawa) before the tax is even in place. Further, the tax comes with a load of strings, limiting the ability of BC and Ontario to exempt products from the tax in the future. While harmonization may make sense, using it as a method of tax structure shifting is wrong.

What no one seems to want to say

China is pissed at Harper and Canada?

Good. May we piss them off more!

China has an abhorrent, dictatorial record as a human-rights abuser and deserves to be called as such.

Someone has to stand up to China. The Liberals don’t want to, the NDP is makes minor mutterings about human rights concerns but still focuses on good relations, and now even Harper’s realized he needs to suck up to get the Chinese money.

How many people need to go silent before we take notice?

Update: It looks like Harper will do the right thing and continue to press for human rights from other regimes:

“In relations between China and Canada, we will continue to raise issues of freedom and human rights, and be a vocal advocate and an effective partner for reform, just as we pursue the mutually beneficial economic relationship desired by both our countries,” he declared.

Now, if only he would stand up for those rights within his own empire-lite.

“Shock and horrors” to come in BC?

The [BC] government has warned that a prolonged HST protest could result in — shock and horrors — an NDP government.

Restaurants are pissed.

Restaurants like “McDonald’s, Tim Hortons, White Spot, {and] Cactus Club.”

They claim that the HST will cost their businesses $750 million and 10,000 ($8 minimum wage, the lowest in Canada) jobs.

Remind me why this is “good policy?”

Remember that it’s costing the federal government almost $6 billion that the Liberal and Tory dissenters are passing onto the shoulders of the provincial governments. Even the Bloc is going to push this on provinces where it has no sitting members (they should really abstain from this debate).

Finally, remember that this new tax raises no additional funds, as both provinces are implementing it as a “revenue neutral” tax. This means they drop corporate taxes and raise taxes to consumers.

Let the shock and horrors begin.

Canada’s Economic Inaction Plan continues

Layoffs and longer hours are on the horizon for the employees of the private but formerly public Canadian National Railway Co. since Harper and Ignatieff think the government ought to stick their hands in a company that was privatized in the early 1990s by the Chretien Liberals.

Naturally the railway is vital to our economy, vital enough that the government can crush union demands for fair treatment from their employer, but is not so vital that it ought to be a crown corporation.

The strike began Saturday, and Minister Ambrose was hopeful that something would get hashed within a few hours before she decided that legislation was needed.

So remind me again why…

The “hands-off business” Conservatives feel the need to stick their hand in business affairs
Something that can lead to layoffs and longer hours (meaning less time to spend consuming) is good for the economy
We even privatized CN Rail in the first place
People consider Michael Ignatieff and the Liberals to be a progressive party if they privatized CN Rail in the first place and now can’t wait to legislate the strikers back to work.

What does the Wildrose Alliance promise?

With news from Daveberta (the National Post link is dead at the moment) that the Wildrose Alliance has surged to 28% to the Stelmach PC’s 34% support (just over half of what they had less then a year ago), let’s look at the Wildrose Alliance Party platform looks like (note to federal Liberals, want to look like a government in waiting? Get a platform):

All Policies are preceded by: “A Wildrose Government will….”

DEMOCRATIC REFORM

Federalism

defend Alberta against intrusions by the federal government by protecting the property, legal, constitutional and democratic rights of Albertans.

Well they start off quick with the anti-Ottawa stance. It’s big in rural Alberta, and remember that one of Danielle Smith’s early opponents for leadership called for referendums on seperation every time a federal Liberal government was elected.

work to remove inter-provincial trade and professional certification barriers by the expansion of the Trade, Investment, and Labour Mobility Agreement to other Provinces.

Electoral Reform

institute fixed election dates for Provincial Election every 4 years. The Legislative Assembly will be able to call a vote of non-confidence at any time.

be accountable to the people of Alberta by having free votes with the exception of the budget and votes of non-confidence.

institute the right of recall of elected officials if 20% of the electorate sign a petition calling for such an action and 25% if the electorate is less than 1000.

hold elections for Alberta Senators at the same time as Provincial Elections.

Government Reform

establish an independent agency to determine the compensation, pension, and severance packages of elected governmental officials.

limit the Provincial Cabinet to 16 members.

institute strict conflict of interest guidelines facilitated through the Provincial Ethics Commissioner’s office.

establish set dates for Throne Speeches, Budget Announcements, and Legislative Sessions.

institute an open and comprehensive Freedom of Information Act.

Municipal Government

follow any downloading of services from the province to municipalities with the appropriate amount of funding.

extend greater autonomy and better planning tools to local governments to reduce pressure on property taxes.

ensure that crown corporations are subject to local zoning and land-use by-laws.

Just about all of these points I agree with, I’d go farther and push for electoral reform, but remember that the federal Conservatives promised many changes too. A big one they missed is banning corporate and union donations, but there’s only one party in Alberta that really wants to do that. Of course any party/election financing reform would be a huge step.

Property Rights

entrench individual property rights within an Alberta Bill of Rights.

Human Rights

strike section 3 of the Human Rights and Multiculturalism Act.

Of course section 11 is just fine…

Referenda

institute legislation allowing the citizens of Alberta to call for a binding referendum on a matter of significant public concern upon the presentation of a petition signed by at least 10% of the total voters of the last Provincial election in Alberta.

only use Section 33 (the Notwithstanding Clause) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, with the consent of the Alberta people in a referendum.

Again, both reasonable.

ECONOMY

Agriculture

support the elimination of all indirect taxes and tariffs on farm inputs and the reduction of provincially controlled input costs.

support marketing programs for Alberta agricultural products, nationally and internationally.

support research and education into enhancing agricultural productivity and value added production for agriculture.

oppose international agriculture subsides.

develop an effective and financially viable long-term agriculture safety-net program.

encourage private sector value added opportunities for Alberta’s agriculture sector.

support Alberta producer market choice to sell grain independent of the Canadian Wheat Board or to sell through the Canadian Wheat Board voluntarily.

take on the responsibility to negotiate commercially competitive access to international markets with respect to beef marketing.

base government regulations of the beef industry on appropriate management of real risks and an accurate analysis of the costs and benefits of these regulations.

leave investment in business and the development of beef marketing as the responsibility of the industry, not government and must be based on market signals rather than government programs.

will allow government support for the beef industry to come from national programs that minimize the risk of adverse impacts on international and interprovincial trade, and do not distort free market behavior.

My only comment here is that the Wheat Board maintains a competitive advantage by having a monopoly, I’m not sure whether we should castrate it. Most of the rest seems reasonable enough. Of course that last point is completely contradictory.

Budget

institute a zero based budgeting program in all government departments. The program will require justification of all new funds spent each year.

I have no clue what “zero based budgeting” is.

pass legislation that ensures all provincial finances are fully, accurately and honestly reported under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.

limit growth in program spending to the rate of inflation and population growth of Alberta.

support the Auditor General’s Office to help identify and prevent wasteful spending in order to ensure value for money.

use budget surpluses to pay debts owed by the Alberta Government first and secondarily deposits to the Heritage Fund.

Seeing as Danielle Smith has a business background, these seem like they’re straight out of accounting school. Of course I could see the need for funding to exceed inflation to make up for infrastructure deficits.

Energy

support a stable and price sensitive approach to energy production.

ensure an internationally competitive fiscal regime that attracts investment capital and makes reinvestment attractive.

support education and research into energy-efficient homes, businesses and government offices.

require building and land use-planning codes to have high-energy conservation standards.

recognize the importance of the energy sector to the province and strive to reduce the cost of doing business.

support the diversification of Alberta’s energy supply.

support the development of value added facilities through tax incentives.

Some sounds like code words for not charging anything to big oil to steal our oil, others are reasonable (diversification and energy-efficiency).

Financial Responsibility

cut red tape and the regulatory burden by 1/3 from 2009 levels.

Does this mean drop 1/3 of the laws we have on book arbitrarily? This is really random to me.

work to eliminate the duplication of government authorities and services.

institute complete financial disclosure of all provincial finances including the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund, Crown corporations and government investments. The disclosures will be made in the Legislature with a complete accounting available to Alberta citizens.

establish a “Waste Buster” website to help report and stamp out government waste.

I wonder how much the “Waste Buster” website will cost, and how many people will complain about it through it. Great blog fodder to come with that.

grant the Provincial Auditor full access to all Government funded companies, Crown corporations and subsidiaries of Crown corporations.

have open tendering on government contracts that allow fair competition for businesses and to provide
better value to taxpayers.

If these are contracts that are going to be given out anyways, then I agree. But don’t outsource for the sake of it.

make sure the role of government is not to own and operate businesses when a competitive business market exists.

Does this include police competing with local security companies, or medical services, or charter schools?

Forestry

permit only ecologically sound and economically sustainable forestry management methods.

invest in research to promote good forest stewardship.

encourage other value-added uses of Alberta’s forestry resources.

Agree.

Heritage Fund

institute a policy of providing from the Heritage Savings Trust Fund when anticipated or prior annual Real Gross Domestic Product growth of Alberta is less than 2%.

institute a policy of depositing a set percentage of government natural resource income each year into the Heritage Savings and Trust Fund.

These both are generally good ideas. Tough economic times are nevertheless tough.

Labour

allow individual workers the choice to determine their membership in labour organizations.

allow competition to the Workers Compensation Board.

extend to workers the democratic right to a secret ballot vote on labour organization certification under the Labour Code and ensure that the same rule apply for de-certification as for certification.

restore education as an essential service under the Labour Code ensuring that no child’s right to an education is denied by school strikes or lockouts.

Up until this point I was thinking, they’re not doing that bad. Maybe they’d be an okay clean-up the leg in a minority situation. Then we get the attack on unions. WCB competition – what the hell is that about? And that last point exists to ensure that they can force those damn liberal teacher’s unions back to work rather than giving them any recognition for their work.

Pension Plan

withdraw from the Canada Pension Plan and create an Alberta Pension Plan. The Alberta plan will offer at minimum the same benefits while giving Albertans control over the investment fund.

Why do this unless you want to destroy it? Is there precedence in other provinces?

Taxation

oppose unfair and industry specific taxation from the federal government.

Aka “carbon taxes”

fight for Alberta’s deserved share of federal tax dollars through a more equitable distribution of federal transfer payments and contracts.

establish a per child income tax deduction for parents or guardians.

collect the Alberta personal income tax.

Is the current government not collecting personal income taxes?

increase the basic personal exemption to benefit the lowest income earners.

provide greater tax deductions for charitable contributions.

These aren’t bad.

Tourism

encourage tourism as a major growth area of the Alberta economy.

will stimulate tourism with international marketing in cooperation with tourism operators.

Transportation

develop new transportation corridors to relieve the pressure on current routes.

develop a comprehensive transportation strategy that recognizes the interdependence of Alberta’s economy with its neighbours.

Fluff in these two categories.

EDUCATION

Courses

ensure that the arts, music and physical education curriculums are fully funded and encourage entrepreneurial courses in Alberta’s public schools.

enhance online educational initiatives for students.

Education Standards

set high standards for education. These measured standards will include academic testing, teacher quality, and high school graduation rates including public reporting.

eliminate the policy of social promotion in Alberta’s schools. Students will be expected to meet standards in order to be promoted to the next grade.

institute methods to hold educators accountable for performance.

Again, they start out not that bad, then some odder ones. I don’t know what “methods” they’re referring to, but I will say that almost all of my grade school teachers were above average in quality compared to university professors (although I have had some great university professors, I had very few poor grade school teachers), so I’m not sure that we have a crisis in teaching quality. But we don’t need to care if the teacher’s don’t want these changes, they won’t be allowed to strike.

Post-Secondary Education

increase research and development funding for colleges, universities and institutes and encourage private sector partnerships.

Because Alberta universities aren’t sold out enough (see: Schulich School of Engineering) let’s just sell them out more. Remind me where the data is that p3s are a cost effective solution to infrastructure deficits?

give priority for admission and funding to Alberta students to post-secondary institutions.
work with employers, post-secondary institutions and the Alberta Industry Training and Apprenticeship Commission to increase training and apprenticeships in the trades and technical sectors.
reduce student loans by 10% per year to students in the educational and health care sectors attending accredited schools of education provided they work in underserved communities.
strengthen the network of colleges, institutes and on-line learning opportunities throughout the province.

School Choice

support “School Choice” Legislation.

Aka more Christian Fundamentalist schools, as well as opening the gates to any other religion that wants public money to indoctrinate their students. I could foresee a WRA government in Alberta to be the first to give money to a school for Scientology.

institute a student based funding system for financing education which will allow funding via Alberta Opportunity Scholarships to follow the student to the accredited education facility of parental choice.

Basically, trying to legitimize the fact they’re funding fundamentalist creationism.

mandate that Alberta Opportunity Scholarships include all funding for student education for instruction, support and capital.

School Safety

invest in school safety to ensure a safe secure leaning environment for students.

establish a school violence and crime electronic data reporting system.

work to reduce absenteeism and truancy.

ENVIRONMENT

Clean Water

encourage conservation of water taken from lakes or rivers for agricultural, industrial and domestic purposes.

impose strict regulations on effluent producing industries.

Develop and implement an on and off-stream fresh water storage plan.

Conservation

recognize the value of parks to society and protect these areas from intrusive activities.

require governments to meet responsible environmental standards in their procurement, recycling and construction operations.

conserve Alberta’s environment and monitor environmental impacts with enforcement provisions while balancing economic development opportunities in the province’s future.

Energy

invest in research for clean coal technology and provide tax incentives for capital investment.

Protection

establish an environmental ombudsman for Alberta.

require Ecological Impact Reports for all large projects. Projects in sensitive areas that use unproven technologies, or generate significant public concern will be a priority.

All I have to say about this section is they convieniently neglected the words “climate change,” “global warming,” and even “carbon emissions.” At least Stelmach reluctantly admits carbon dioxide ought to be buried (along with $2 billion we don’t really have lying around).

HEALTH CARE

Care of Patients

enforce the five basic principles of the Canada Health Act which are: Public Administration,
Comprehensiveness, Universality, Portability and Accessibility.

provide coverage for authorized out of province medical treatment that is unavailable in Alberta.

Why do health care here when BC is selling spots in line?

ensure the care of persons with a disability to ongoing access of medical benefits.

develop a Medical Machinery and Equipment Plan that ensures existing medical diagnostic and care equipment is adequately staffed, fully utilized and properly maintained and that provides for future investments in new equipment and technology.

establish and fund a fully independent Health Ombudsman in Alberta.

fully fund and implement a mental health initiative.

focus funding on patient care and reduce wasteful spending in the system.

provide expanded home care and palliative care services to assist chronically and terminally ill patients with supportive home environments as an option to institutional care.

Delivery

performance measures that are annually audited and publicly reported.

build a unified, universal and cost-effective health services information network that will improve care and reduce long-term costs.

give all citizens better access to their medical records and treatment histories.

institute a Health Management System that rewards cost effective cost-saving administration by providing incentives to doctors, nurses and health care professionals.

encourage and support innovations in the delivery of health care.

Do “innovations” include private/for-profit delivery?

alleviate pressure on emergency room services by expanding the funding for and the number of multi disciplinary 24-hour-a-day community based health care centres.

“Community based” often means private clinics.

work with non-profit societies to develop an Intermediate and Long-Term Care Facilities Plan which will address the needs of our aging population including increasing capacity.

establish a rural and remote health initiative to ensure Albertans get the care they need.

implement legislation protecting the “conscience rights” of healthcare professionals.

This last line is so doctors no longer have to do the job they signed up for – in providing services like contraceptives, legal abortions, or anything else they deem to be part of their religion. Could a Jehovah’s Witness or Christian Scientist doctor basically refuse to do anything for anyone but still collect a paycheque? This opt-out of work is similar to the failed attempt by a bigoted marriage commissioner in Saskatchewan to attempt to get out of performing gay marriages. Sorry bub, but that’s your job (note that he held a different position then religious officiants).

Funding

provide health care funding that will follow the service to the health care provider and approved facility of choice.

This helps set up a competitive network within our existing health care system. I think some countries with universal health care have implemented this successfully, but call me skeptical if I doubt the WRA’s sincerity.

increase funding for home care, supported housing, assisted living, long-term care facilities and palliative care hospices to provide less expensive and more patient-friendly alternatives to hospital care.

Again, good in theory, but looks like code for moving patients to private, for-profit facilities. If this stays on the taxpayers bill, then the extra overhead of for-profit facilities will cost us much more than properly investing in medicare.

reduce transportation and lodging costs for rural patients who receive treatment that is not locally available by developing a rural medical travel assistance program.

ensure that patients living at home in palliative or long term care are entitled to the same pharmaceutical benefits they would have received as in a hospital.

deliver an annual individual statement of benefits to each resident of Alberta.

What the hell’s the point in the last line? Why not just put in online and make it publicly available via MLAs offices? This seems like unnecessary postage.

Training

expand training and post-secondary programs to graduate more Health Care professionals.

develop and implement a retention and recruitment plan in full consultation with health care service providers.

Wellness

institute a preventative health care and wellness program.

increase funding for physical fitness and amateur sports.

enhance efforts and funding to prevent drug and alcohol abuse and addiction.

JUSTICE

Courts

institute a program where all sentences given in provincial court will be subject to a truth in sentencing provision..

I have no clue what “truth in sentencing” is or why they trail off…

support the right of compensation from convicted persons to the victims of their crimes.

So someone who’s in poverty and commits a crime out of desperation, and then serves their time, can then be sued by the victim? An eye for an eye is not the appropriate path to rehabilitation.

introduce initiatives for Maintenance Enforcement to bring about improved compliance with maintenance and visitation orders.

support legally enforceable arbitration between all parties in a legal dispute to settle non-criminal actions.

all Albertans have access to legal representation and justice.

Policing

expand the role of sheriffs to handle Provincial justice issues.

ensure sufficient funding for municipal policing to allow for effective policing and protection of Alberta people.

require young offenders to participate in crime prevention courses and other measures.

System Confidence

work to ensure that the rights of crime victims take precedence over those found guilty of committing crimes.

Every human being has rights, even the evil criminals.

SOCIAL

Equality

recognize that all Albertans have equal rights, privileges and responsibilities.

Especially corporations, but not unions (neither of which are people).

Arts and Culture

encourage and support through funding community projects and school programs for arts and cultural activities as an essential enrichment of life and integral part of Alberta’s communities and cultural diversity.

Families

implement educational activities to help the abused overcome the effects of abuse and to stop further abuse from abusers. Access to therapy will be provided where required.

work with foster parents to help them improve the care and placements of foster children.

enhance and increase the training, resources and authority of social service providers to properly protect children at risk and improve services to families.

earmark a significant portion of the revenues generated from gambling for the rehabilitation of
gambling addicts and for educational programs aimed at reducing gambling.

collaborate with non-profit societies and commit funding for emergency residences for victims of
violence.

ensure people fleeing violent situations are provided with sufficient time and support including
increased stays in transition houses as necessary.

First Nations

create a permanent First Nations Forum to provide aboriginal citizens living on and off reserves direct communication with government about their priorities and ideas to materially improve their quality of life.

devote special attention and resources to addressing the challenges and needs of aboriginal women and youth.

Again, a couple sections I generally agree with.

Responsibility

support social responsibility within the framework of a free enterprise economic system and promote compassionate service, volunteerism, individual responsibility and care for those unable to care for themselves.

Aka the “get off your ass and do it yourself” mentality. Known under King Ralph as “shoot, shovel, and shut up.”

Social Assistance

implement a timely and effective Social Assistance to work program.

I’m not sure what they’re getting at here.

In general, I think I’d agree with 60-70% of every parties platform, since it’s mostly puff words meant to be appealing to everyone, but even in this fluffy web platform that exists far from any general election, there’s some very concerning positions that would cause me never to vote for this party.

From omitting climate change in your environmental platform (because she’s apparently “skeptical of climate change”) to promising greater “school choice” to attacking unions and teachers, I have to say that while the Wildrose Alliance has gotten polished up with their new leader, they are definitely not the modern centrist party that Danielle Smith claims to be.

(and forgive any formatting snafu’s since it’s late and this has way too many blockquotes)