Media releases

EDMONTON—The National Council on Welfare’s report released today shows that in most categories and by most measures, our social assistance rates in Alberta are either the lowest or the second lowest in Canada. Only in a couple of categories does Alberta measure up to what is happening in other provinces. While Alberta just increased our rates as of November 1st 2008, we still will be well below the national average in most of the categories studied by this report.

EDMONTON—A new provincial report on Child and Family poverty released today by the Edmonton Social Planning Council (ESPC) reveals that 77,595 children are living in families below Statistics Canada’s Low Income Cut Off (LICO). This means one in ten children in Alberta live below the poverty line.

EDMONTON—Citing disturbing census data on high child and family poverty rates in major Canadian cities, the national anti-poverty coalition Campaign 2000 today urged all federal party leaders to commit to a Poverty Reduction Strategy for Canada.

EDMONTON—“Albertans should to very shocked to hear the price tag for building and maintaining 18 new schools in Edmonton and Calgary is now a whopping $634 million dollars when only a year ago the catholic and public school boards in those cities had predicted the total costs would be less than $240 million to build,” said Bill Moore-Kilgannon, Executive Director of Public Interest Alberta. (For Edmonton, the costs were reported to be $117.8 million according to the June 15, 2007 article by David Howell in the Edmonton Journal)

EDMONTON—Representatives from human service agencies announced today that they are deeply concerned the provincial budget will not resolve the on-going crisis facing community organizations to find and keep staff to provide services to children, youth and families in crisis and adults with disabilities.

EDMONTON—Three advocates for seniors met for an hour on April 30th with Premier Stelmach and Mary Anne Jablonski, Minister of Seniors and Community Supports, to discuss aspects of the continuing care system for Alberta seniors.

EDMONTON—“The announcement today that the minimum wage will rise from $8.00 to $8.40 per hour will provide some help for low-income Albertans, but we need to put this increase in the context of sky rocketing costs,” said Bill Moore-Kilgannon, Executive Director of Public Interest Alberta.

EDMONTON—Public Interest Alberta (PIA) released the findings of their freedom of information request into the $25.9 million dollars the federal government gave Alberta in the summer of 2007 to create more childcare spaces.

Democracy is not a monologue