Media releases

EDMONTON - As the UCP government rolls out its flawed affordability package this month with application details expected Monday, Public Interest Alberta’s Executive Director Bradley Lafortune issued the following statement: 

“Albertans are suffering under this affordability crisis. Food banks can’t keep food on their shelves. Homelessness has more than doubled across the province, and families are sinking further and further into debt. Albertans deserve better than sleepless nights with their stomachs in knots wondering how they will pay their utility bills, feed their families, or make rent or mortgage payments. 

EDMONTON - As Edmonton City Council enters its second full day of budget deliberations, Public Interest Alberta’s Executive Director Bradley Lafortune issued the following statement:

EDMONTON - Today, following sustained advocacy from the child care sector, the Government of Alberta announced a one-time payment and modest wage top-up for Alberta’s Early Childhood Educators, effective January 2023. While child care advocates are happy to see some investment into the wages of this critical workforce, the policy does not go far enough to address the working conditions of ECEs in the province.

EDMONTON - To mark the National Day of Action for Child Care, Public Interest Alberta and Child Care Now Alberta joined early childhood educators, child care operators, and parents to demand that the government recognize the importance of quality in child care, and address the dire shortage of early childhood educators (ECEs). 

EDMONTON - Today marks National Housing Day. Advocacy organization Public Interest Alberta is calling on the City of Edmonton to commit to new funding for affordable housing during the upcoming municipal budget deliberations.

EDMONTON - Friends of Medicare and Public Interest Alberta, the two advocacy organizations behind the campaign Alberta Seniors Deserve Better, have sent a letter to Jeremy Nixon, the newly-appointed Minister of Seniors, Community and Social Services. The groups are demanding to meet with the minister to urgently address the state of continuing care. 

EDMONTON -  Today, Premier Smith announced her new cabinet to be sworn in this upcoming Monday. While many critical portfolios, like Health, Education, Justice, and Advanced Education, saw individual ministers slotted, there is one absence which is a major cause for alarm: housing.

Coalition of organizations requests urgent meeting with new Premier to discuss public interest

EDMONTON - Last night, Danielle Smith became the new UCP leader and premier of Alberta. In response, Public Interest Alberta and its partners are demanding an urgent meeting with Premier Danielle Smith to renew its calls for massive reinvestment in our public services and a reversal of Premier Kenney’s failed experiments in privatization:

EDMONTON - Public Interest Alberta’s Executive Director Bradley Lafortune made the following statement in response to the UCP government’s “framework on affordable housing:”

EDMONTON -  On the first day back to school, thousands of parents and advocates are calling on the provincial government to stop the implementation of the new curriculum that has been roundly rejected by families, teachers and education experts. Instead, Public Interest Alberta, Protect Public Education Alberta, Youth Voice Alberta, and Support Our Students Alberta are demanding a process led by education experts to develop a new curriculum that will set all Alberta students up for success.