Media releases

EDMONTON - Today, on the two year anniversary of the World Health Organization’s declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic, a coalition of seniors’ advocacy organizations are launching a campaign demanding that the government legislate a Seniors’ Advocate, a role that the UCP axed early in their tenure in the legislature.

EDMONTON - “Everyday Edmontonians are hurting after two years of living through this pandemic as the cost of everything skyrockets,” said Bradley Lafortune, Executive Director of Public Interest Alberta. “There is simply no reason for EPCOR – which is wholly owned by the City – to be paying its CEO north of $2 million dollars a year. At a time when frontline workers are getting wage freezes or layoffs, it’s absurd.”

EDMONTON - Today, Jason Kenney commitment to amending the Municipal Governance Act is a gross overreach of provincial powers. As a result, Public Interest Alberta today called on all government members of the Legislative Assembly to oppose any amendments introduced. Public Interest Alberta also committed to a province-wide dialogue to reconsider the special relationship between the province and municipalities.

EDMONTON - With the release of the 2022 Provincial Budget, Public Interest Alberta is ringing the alarm on the UCP’s reckless agenda of cuts, deregulation, and privatization. 

“The budget is balanced, but it is balanced on the backs of Albertans,” said PIA Executive Director Bradley Lafortune. “When Public Interest Alberta released our own budget priorities document, we had the audacity to hope for a budget that puts Albertans first. We called on the UCP to do something they’ve never done before: listen to everyday Albertans and prioritize their well-being over shareholder interests and corporate profits. Clearly, we were talking to a brick wall.”

EDMONTON - In advance of the provincial budget, Public Interest Alberta released its own budget priorities document to promote a just recovery for all Albertans. After nearly two full years of a pandemic that has rocked healthcare, education and public services across the province, now is the time to reinvest in a recovery for Alberta families starting with a budget that puts people at the center of fiscal and economic policy.

Post-secondary education is a cornerstone of Alberta. Post-secondary education creates hundreds of thousands of jobs, and is one of the major employers in the province. It trains the workforce of tomorrow and works tirelessly to promote the public interest through ground-breaking research, teaching, and community engagement. 

EDMONTON - The announcement yesterday by Alberta Health Services (AHS) that DynaLife will expand its share of laboratory services is a clear sign of the UCP government’s ideological privatization agenda. Despite Alberta Health Quality Council’s 2017 report recommending an integrated and public laboratory testing system the UCP government is moving forward at a time when our lab services require stability.

EDMONTON - In response to Councillor Anne Stevenson’s motion to withdraw $37 million in funding from the Qualico Station Lands project, Public Interest Alberta Executive Director Bradley Lafortune issued the following statement:

EDMONTON - Today is the first day of back-to-school after the winter break. Public Interest Alberta’s Executive Director Bradley Lafortune issued the following statement: 

“Despite shuttering schools for another week after the scheduled winter break to ‘prepare,’ the Kenney government has utterly failed Alberta’s teachers, students, and parents.