Education

EDMONTON&mdashPublic Interest Alberta launched the first of five animated commercials today to build public pressure on Premier Prentice to fix Alberta’s flawed and unfair tax system so that we can invest in public services like full-day kindergarten in the future.

“If we don’t challenge the Premier to establish a progressive income tax and fair corporate taxes today, then in future years we not be able to invest in important services that matter to Albertans,” says Bill Moore-Kilgannon, Executive Director of Public Interest Alberta.

"While many school boards across Alberta, including those in Calgary, offer some full-day kindergarten programs, the province only provides funding for half-day programs, which requires boards to allocate money from their budgets. Julie Hrdlicka, outreach co-ordinator for Public Interest Alberta, said full-day kindergarten helps kids — particularly ones from low-income families that can’t afford costly early childhood care — achieve equal footing with their classmates by the time they enter Grade 1."

We recently had the below video commissioned to commemorate our 10th anniversary advocating for the public interest in Alberta. Please share it widely to bring greater awareness to what we do and the issues we advocate for. The video was made by Don Bouzek, and the music is by Maria Dunn. [VIDEO]

We have a new handout for our Alberta Could campaign! Check out the media section of our "Alberta Could" website, where you can download the handout and check out other materials from the campaign for fair taxation in Alberta.

"The dollars are there. With no tax increases, everyday Alberta families could see smaller class sizes, more child-care facilities and long-promised nursing care spaces for their elderly parents. What’s more, says Bill Moore-Kilgannon, hard-working Albertans earning anywhere from $25,000 to $90,000 per year would actually pay less income tax. That could happen, he says, if the Alberta government collected income tax in the same way as every other province."

Our Executive Director, Bill Moore-Kilgannon, was recently on Alberta Primetime raising concerns about private schools getting public funding. A private school in Calgary is being shut down due to misuse of tax dollars, including the founder of the school getting a $94,000 BMW through the school. [VIDEO]

"Public Interest Alberta recently began a year-long campaign called 'Alberta Could' in order to talk with Albertans about improvements that could be made in the province if a progressive tax rate was reintroduced. 'In a lot of people’s minds, they think that Alberta’s flat tax equals Alberta’s low taxes,' says PIA’s executive director Bill Moore-Kilgannon. 'But they don’t realize that it’s actually low- and middle-income earners who are paying a higher percentage of the total amount we would pay in taxes than if we had a progressive tax system.'"

Our Executive Director Bill Moore-Kilgannon was recently on Alberta Primetime debating our new "Alberta Could…" campaign with a representative of the Canadian Taxpayers' Federation. The campaign advocates for a progressive income tax and fair corporate taxes in Alberta to invest in better public services.

New advocacy campaign shows Alberta Could invest in public services with a progressive income tax and increased corporate tax

"Public–private partnerships, which have been thoroughly discredited in the United Kingdom, are 'the big engine' of a massive privatization of public services that is sweeping the world. That’s what Allyson Pollock, professor of public health research and policy at Queen Mary University of London, and one of the United Kingdom’s leading authorities on public–private partnerships and the privatization of public services, told participants at Public Interest Alberta forums in Calgary and Edmonton."