Democracy

Today, Public Interest Alberta Executive Director Brad Lafortune made the following statement in response to the UCP Government’s sudden decision to suspend the legislative sitting as of Monday, May 3:

And so Alberta’s long anticipated provincial election has come and gone. UCP supporters are celebrating, and progressives are not only dealing with feelings of loss, but also varying degrees of dismay about what might be ahead in the next four years, until another opportunity to vote comes to pass.

The government’s long-awaited move to strengthen democracy in local elections is both welcome and substantially helpful in a number of important ways.

Public Interest Alberta is pleased to release Priorities for Advancing the Public Interest.

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.”

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.

Our province needs to move forward, not backward, and it needs to do so by moving in more fair, equitable, and effective directions, both in terms of public services and tax revenue in this budget.

EDMONTON - Public Interest Alberta is attending a Government of Alberta consultation regarding the 2018 provincial budget in order to encourage major changes in the province’s approach to revenue and spending.

The Government of Alberta has announced they will introduce legislation to regulate Political Action Committees (PACs), or so-called “dark money,” in Alberta’s political system. Public Interest Alberta welcomes the changes as a necessary and important contribution to further strengthening democracy in the province.

EDMONTON – The Alberta Electoral Boundaries Commission has issued its final report, which recommends new electoral boundaries to be adopted in time for the next provincial election.