Media releases

EDMONTON – The Government of Alberta has introduced An Act to Combat Poverty and Fight for Albertans with Disabilities, which if passed will increase and index income support rates for its Income Support and Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH) programs. These are changes Public Interest Alberta has been advocating for years.

EDMONTON – The Minister of Advanced Education has tabled Bill 19: An Act to Improve the Affordability and Accessibility of Post-Secondary Education, which focuses on the affordability, accessibility, and quality of post-secondary education in institutions across Alberta. The legislation follows a tuition review launched nearly two years ago.

Edmonton - Public Interest Alberta has released new data from Statistics Canada showing that more than 300,000 Albertans, nearly one in six workers, will receive a raise when the minimum wage is raised from $13.60 to $15.00 per hour on October 1, 2018.

EDMONTON – The federal government has released its long-anticipated poverty reduction strategy, titled Opportunity for All – Canada’s First Poverty Reduction Strategy. The strategy sets a standard measure for poverty and aims to reduce it 20 percent by 2020 and 50 percent by 2030.

EDMONTON – Members of Public Interest Alberta’s Post-Secondary Education Task Force held a meeting with the Honourable Marlin Schmidt, Minister of Advanced Education, earlier today to discuss priorities for Alberta’s post-secondary education system.

RED DEER – Public Interest Alberta hosted a public discussion in Red Deer for its Revenue Reno campaign, which aims to stimulate a broad public conversation in the province about the government’s revenue shortage and the quality of public services.

The Alberta government has released its 2018 budget, which includes effective cuts to most areas of public services, as spending fails to keep pace with inflation and population growth.
 
“The piecemeal cuts to public services in the budget take Alberta in the wrong direction, but the striking thing is what is not in the budget,” said Joel French, Executive Director of Public Interest Alberta. “Absent are many things Albertans need, like improved classroom conditions in schools and addressing the shortage of long-term care beds for seniors.”

A new report on four school boards’ policies and procedures on sexual and gender minorities points to the need for substantial changes in order to properly protect students and their rights, according to Public Interest Alberta.

EDMONTON – Public Interest Alberta has launched a new campaign called Revenue Reno to encourage a public conversation in the province about the government’s revenue shortage and the quality of public services. The campaign emphasizes Alberta’s need to renovate its tax system with changes to personal income tax rates and the introduction of a sales tax to protect and revitalize public services.

EDMONTON – Public Interest Alberta joined with 16 other organizations today to urge the provincial government, in Budget 2018, to reduce public funding of private schools, exempting special needs schools, and reallocate the funds to improve classroom conditions in Public, Catholic, and Francophone schools.