Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs (SACPA)

The past two years have been exceptionally challenging for all Alberta Post-Secondary students, and the Student body at the University of Lethbridge has been no exception.  Budget cuts by the Alberta government, with more anticipated, increasing tuition and education costs, housing issues, racism, Covid-19, online learning and transitioning back to on campus learning and employment uncertainty are but a few of the challenges experienced by Students. In addition to these issues, Affordability and Food Scarcity challenges are an ever-present reality for far too many post-secondary Students.  The “Feed or Famine Food Drive” is one of the critical projects the University of Lethbridge Students Union (ULSU) sponsors to meet the nutritional needs of students.   The Speaker will discuss the Feed or Famine Food Drive project and share some insights as to how students are faring, along with other supports the ULSU Student Affairs undertakes to assist students to have a successful academic year.     Speaker:     Amy Me

Sustaining medical services in smaller communities is challenging at the best of times. Doctors have been working without an agreement for almost two years, and the unstable relationship with our government has made it nearly impossible to recruit and retain physicians to rural areas. The gaps in services are widening provincially, and instead of addressing the worsening underlying issues, government and AHS have dismissed the numerous closures as pandemic or vacation related. Dr. Myhr questions whether maintaining services for rural populations is a priority- especially in light of the February 2020 review of AHS that suggested reductions or closures would save the system money. Dr. Myhr will give an overview of the current crisis and why it should matter to everyone. Speaker: Sam Myhr, Rural Medicine President for the Alberta Medical Association           Sam Myhr is a family physician in Pincher Creek, where she and her colleagues are true generalists - a now endangered species in medicine. Together they

The Liberal Party retained power in a close-run 2019 federal election where the Liberals won 157 seats and 33% of the popular vote, enough to form a minority government. The opposition Conservative Party won more votes, but far fewer seats. This was the first time since 1979 that the winner of the most seats wasn’t also the winner of the most votes. The NDP and separatist Bloc Quebecois parties both ended up holding the balance of power. The speaker will unpack the results of the September 20, 2021 federal election and outline some of the main issues including why the Liberals called the election in the middle of this current 4th COVID pandemic wave.  Speaker: Dr. Melanee Thomas                 Melanee Thomas is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Calgary. Her research focuses on the causes and consequences of gender-based political inequality in Canada and other post-industrial democracies. She has published research in journals such as Politics & Gender, Electoral Studies,

Lethbridge’s 2021 Municipal Elections has the potential to be very interesting.  For sure, the City will have a new Mayor and several fresh faces on Council.  Many issues are up for debate and there are questions on the ballot: Is there a need for a third Bridge and should Lethbridge adopt a ward system?  Additionally, the Province is asking Albertans for their opinion on equalization and daylight-saving time.  The speaker will give an overview of these and other pressing issues such as homelessness and the overdose crisis.  She will also supply information on what it takes to be a public servant and as well, provide a brief comparison between Bill 29: Local Authorities Election Amendment Act 2020, Bill 45: Local Authorities election Amendment Act 2020 (no. 2) and the previous Bill 23: An Act to Renew Local Democracy in Alberta from 2018.  What impact might these changes have on the current and future municipal elections?    Speaker: Maria Fitzpatrick                  Maria was born and raised in St. John’s,

The Covid-19 pandemic has been a historic public health crisis that has had drastic and long-lasting effects on global health and the economy. This has also been the first pandemic where updates have been provided on a nearly instantaneous basis to both biomedical researchers, healthcare workers and the public. Over 20 plus months, research from across the globe has allowed us to understand SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, in details normally taking years to decades. However, many questions remain. Namely, how did this happen? When will it end? How do we navigate this new frontier between these points? The Speaker will provide some background context to describe our current state of knowledge of the virus, the illness and the vaccines and interventions being implemented to get the pandemic under control. Speaker: Dr. Jason Kindrachuk PhD            Dr. Kindrachuk is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases, University of Manitoba, Canada, and holds

Alberta Health Services (AHS) (the Alberta Government) are demanding across-the-board pay cuts of 3 percent, plus additional monetary cuts that would raise the cost of the rollbacks to an average 5 percent in their negotiations with United Nurses of Alberta (UNA) members who have already endured six years of zero percent increases. All this arguably amounts to a relatively large reduction in nurses pay under the guise that Alberta nurses are being paid more than their provincial counter-parts.   The government claims it respects the sacrifice and dedication of Alberta’s nurses throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, which is continuing. Under these circumstances, with pay cuts and major rollbacks still on the table, this appears to compound the disrespect shown by AHS during these negotiations. The speaker will clarify where negotiations are at between AHS and UNA. She will also dig deeper into the current healthcare staffing crisis, challenges of COVID, and the UCP privatization agenda attacking health care in A

Educators know all curricula need timely revision and many are concerned about the most recent draft K-6 curriculum proposed by the government of Alberta. The wheels began turning over a decade ago for a comprehensive K-12 curriculum review and rewrite, beginning with the “Inspiring Education” framework of 2009 under PC Premier Stelmach and Education Minister Hancock, followed by a 2013 Ministerial Order under PC Premier Redford and Education Minister Johnson. Prior to these directives, curriculum in Alberta was updated for individual subject areas at various times. The comprehensive K-12 approach came to fruition in 2016 under NDP Premier Notley and Education Minister Eggen with a planned 6-year curriculum writing project involving hundreds of educators meeting in expert working groups.  A K-4 draft curriculum was completed and presented in draft form for piloting in 2018 but was cancelled following the Provincial election by the UCP, and was replaced by a 12-member advisory committee charged with developing

At least 150,000 Indigenous youths were forced into Indian Residential Schools (IRS) between the 1870s and 1990s. They were run by Canadian/Provincial governments and religious authorities. The aim was to strip the young of their language/culture and force them to adopt to the colonizer's way of life. In other words, cultural genocide, but with the recent discovery of 215 indigenous children at a Kamloops IRS in unmarked graves, with many more to be found all over Canada, it can be argued that it’s more than cultural genocide.   Out of the 139 IRS in Canada, 26 were in Alberta. Among those, six were in Southern Alberta. It is known that thousands of Indigenous children died needlessly while attending IRS. The speakers will describe their experiences with IRS and relate to how the generational trauma have affected large portions of Indigenous Peoples and their communities. Healing remedies and the importance of teaching all kids about the horror of IRS in K-6 and beyond, will also be discussed.     Speakers: D

In October 2020, the Federal Government announced its 2021-2022 Immigration Level Plan. The government is hoping to bring a targeted 1.2 million immigrants into the country to help the Canadian economy recover from the Covid-19 pandemic and drive future growth.   Canada is often referred to as a land of immigrants because of the millions of newcomers who have settled there since the first colonies were built by the English and the French on Indigenous territories. However, despite this history of immigration, many immigrants encounter discrimination and social exclusion upon their arrival.   Much of the discrimination and difficulty encountered originate in common myths and beliefs held by those already living in Canada. In this presentation we will visit the new Immigration Level Plan introduced by the Federal government to shed light on the different immigration categories and discuss the reasons for this increase to immigration targets. Along the way we will try to bust common myths about newcomers to Cana

While painkilling medicine has been around for a very long time, Fentanyl is a powerful addictive opioid painkiller, the use of which has caused an increasing public health threat in Canada and elsewhere. Fentanyl was initially approved in 1960 and used for the treatment of moderate to severe pain, especially cancer pain. However, recent years have seen a growing use of fentanyl and its analogs that are widely synthesized in laboratories and adulterated with illicit supplies of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and counterfeit pills, contributing to addiction and the exponential growth in the number of drug-related overdose deaths.   The southern Alberta community of Kainai First Nation has been hit very hard by the Fentanyl overdose crises and since 2014 in particular, hundreds in the community have died tragically. The speaker will describe the early circumstances of the crises and as well, more recent measures taken to mitigate the loss, which includes a harm reduction strategy, since conventional abstinen

Public participation is widely considered to be an essential component of any legitimate exercise of state power over resource development and environmental decision-making. A clear illustration of what can happen when public participation is excluded from the decision-making process is the public uproar concerning the abrupt rescission by the Alberta government of the 1976 Coal Policy in May 2020.  The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) is Alberta's regulator of energy development throughout the full lifecycle of an oil, gas, or coal project - from initial application to final closure and reclamation. The AER is responsible for assessing and monitoring the environmental impacts of these energy projects, and the AER implements a compliance program to enforce the applicable legal rules. This session will be a critical examination of the opportunities provided by the AER for the public to participate in its decision-making processes. While the discussion will canvass the topic broadly in relation to various compo

After Jason Kenney became Premier of Alberta on April 30, 2019, he followed through on his campaign promise and set in motion the “energy war room” or the Canadian Energy Centre CEC) as it was named when launched in Dec 2019. The purpose of the $30 million per year CEC was to fight back campaigns against Alberta’s Oil Sands etc. that, according to some sources, were funded by foreign interest money supporting several Environmental Non-government Organizations (ENGOs) Tar Sands Campaign.   Steve Allan was commissioned in July 2019 at the cost of $2.5 million to lead a provincial/public inquiry into "foreign-funded special interests" and their campaigns to stop oil sands development. Later, and when it became clear that the July 2, 2020 final report deadline would be missed, Alberta's energy minister added $1 million to the inquiry's budget and pushed back the deadline for Allan's final report, first to Oct 30, then to Jan 30 and finally to May 31, 2021.   As Alberta poured more time and resources into this inq

Over the past two years, tenths of millions of public education dollars have been cut from Lethbridge’s two post-secondary institutions budgets, resulting initially in hundreds of directly lost jobs and as well, hefty increases in tuition for students. Arguably, there are also many indirect economic and knowledge losses to consider in the longer term. The speaker will make clear that the myriad of issues related to these severe government cuts (more are promised in 2022) are not only about short-term economics, but also connected to the importance of great quality and affordable post-secondary education that will keep Lethbridge an attractive community for individuals, families and businesses to be located. Speaker: Cyndi Vos, CEO of the Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce Cyndi Vos is a double alumnus of the University of Lethbridge. She holds a Bachelor of Music, Master of Education, Post Graduate Certification in Executive Coaching and has completed Leadership Certification through the Napoleon Hill Foundation

The Grassy Mountain Open-Pit Coal Mine proposed by Benga Mining Ltd., (Riversdale) in the Crowsnest Pass has raised questions and concerns about the regulatory process in Alberta, such as the transparency, independent decision-making, and enforcement capacity of the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER). What is AER’s history and track record with regards to Coal Mining regulations in Alberta?     This presentation will provide a summary of a case study of the regulatory process for coal mining in Alberta through the application phase to operational monitoring and finally closure and reclamation using examples from regulatory documents published by and submitted to the Alberta Energy Regulator for the Cheviot (Cardinal River and Luskar) Mine operated by Teck Resources Ltd in West Central Alberta. The speaker will provide examples of predicted risks to human and environmental health from coal development and how these are monitored, mitigated or managed through regulatory oversight with supporting data from industria

Following their convincing election victory April 16, 2019, Alberta’s UCP Government led by Jason Kenney, has seen a steady decline in their support from Alberta voters, particularly in Calgary and some urban centers, where the opposition NDP and other parties have made gains according to the latest polls. While it can be argued that the COVID-19 pandemic has made life difficult for all provincial governments in Canada, it appears Jason Kenney and his party has suffered more damage than most. Right from the start of UCP forming government, many of their stated policy changes and initiatives did not age well for a variety of reason, some of which may have been out of their control. But severely lowering the corporate tax rate without creating the promised jobs hasn’t worked out so far and neither has picking fights with doctors, healthcare providers and public service workers during a pandemic. Massive funding cuts to universities and colleges, opening up for coal mining in the Eastern Slopes and blaming other

In the post 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) era of reconciliation, many Canadians are wondering what reconciliation might mean to their community. Among other injustices, Residential Schools and the “Sixties Scoop” particularly, generated many negative impacts on Indigenous families and communities, which continue to challenge their well-being today. However, much of Canada’s early history and relationship with Indigenous peoples is still hidden, and that secrecy is likely a serious barrier to reconciliation in Canada. How to implement the TRC calls to action are now under consideration by most levels of Government. Should the truth of Canada’s shameful treatment of Indigenous Peoples for example be told as part of the K12 school and post-secondary curriculum? The speaker will shed light on these issues and as well, address Canada’s current dilemma of protest and blockades, which arguably are caused by, for far too long, having ignored Indigenous rights and their ability to decide what happens

Join Acting Leader Jacquie Fenske of the Alberta Party for a conversation about the need for a choice in Alberta politics. The speaker will discuss what doing politics differently really means, grassroots politics, and the state of the Alberta Party. Speaker: Jacquie Fenske – Acting Leader of the Alberta Party Jacquie Fenske is the Acting Leader of the Alberta Party. She previously served as a PC MLA for Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville, and as a Strathcona County Councilor. She is a managing partner for the family business, Fifendekel Pie Shop Café. Date and time: Thursday May 6, 2021 at 10:00 am MST YouTube Live link: https://youtu.be/vFAK08JMVpQ In order to ask questions of our speaker in the chat feature of YouTube, you must have a YouTube account and be signed in. Please do so well ahead of the scheduled start time, so you’ll be ready. Go to the YouTube Live link provided in this session flyer and on the top right of your browser click the “sign in” button. If you have Google or Gm

Alberta is arguably in the midst of a generational economic shift as we face the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Looking ahead to the post-pandemic recovery, what should Albertans expect from their Government with regards to the serious economic challenges we face as a province. Alberta's government recently tabled Budget 2021 during this public health and economic crisis that has led to reduced revenue and increased costs. The speaker will argue that this budget is a responsible approach to spending, while creating more investment in priority areas like health care and job creation. As the COVID pandemic continues to affect all Albertans, the budget provides for key funding to healthcare and education as well as investments in Alberta's natural resources, tech and farming sectors beyond COVID-19. Speaker: Nathan Neudorf, Alberta MLA for Lethbridge East Constituency Nathan Neudorf was elected as the Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta for Lethbridge-East on April 16, 2019. Nathan currently cha

The fate of liberal democratic governments hinges importantly on building and sustaining political support for their agenda. Public consultation is one tool governments may use to secure this support. Public consultation, a very broad concept, may be regarded generally as the effort political and government leaders make, to seek input or comments from non-governmental actors. Consultations may be more or less inclusive, more or less wide-ranging. They may solicit the opinions of the public generally or only of selected stakeholders (individuals or groups with a particularly important interest or concern in an issue). Public consultation also is risky. Governments may not receive the feedback they expect or would like to receive from whatever version of the public they consult. For this reason, governments may be tempted to shape consultation processes in ways privileging their preferred policy approaches. This presentation will focus on the government’s public consultation approach regarding the developmen

With Alberta running an $18 billion deficit in its 2021-22 budget and more than $100 billion in accumulated debt, it appears obvious that fiscal changes are needed – spending cuts or revenue increases or both? The speaker will argue fundamental changes are needed and that his Wildrose Independence Party (WIP) plan to be a strong contender in Alberta’s next provincial election. Should they gain power, WIP would assert Alberta’s independence and redefine its relationship with Canada, create a “Constitution of Alberta” and affirm all individual freedoms and rights. An Alberta Police Force, an Alberta Revenue Agency, an Alberta Pension/Employment Insurance Plan, and an Alberta Immigration policy would be established. Under the guidance of WIP, Alberta would refine its own Environmental policies while continuing to develop and transport our natural resources responsibly. New trade agreements with other provinces and nations would be prioritized, as would improved access to immediate and high quality health care