An expected $6 billion provincial revenue shortfall this year was discussed when Education Minister Jeff Johnson met Pembina Hills school board in Barrhead last Wednesday.
Declining oil and gas revenues have raised the prospect of some programs and services changing, especially those deemed unsustainable over the long-term.
After meeting the Minister, PHRD Supt. Colleen Symyrozum-Watt said the shortfall presented a challenge: How do you continue providing an excellent education with less money?
“We may have to do some belt tightening,” she said.
Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock MLA Maureen Kubinec, who attended the private meeting at Alberta Distance Learning Centre, believed the province was capable of meeting the fiscal challenge.
“We are going to turn over every stone to find savings and efficiencies,” she said.
Symyrozum-Watt and Kubinec said it was too early to say how these goals could be achieved.
Johnson, MLA for Athabasca-Sturgeon-Redwater, is on a tour around the province meeting school boards, seeking ideas about how to tighten belts without impacting children.
His Barrhead visit came just a month before Premier Alison Redford delivers her budget, which will detail Alberta’s spending plans from April 1, 2013 to March 31, 2014.
Redford has already made it clear Alberta can no longer rely on oil and gas windfalls to make up more than a quarter of its spending.
She pointed to a $6 billion “bitumen bubble” that will cut the province’s anticipated resource revenue almost by half in 2013-14 fiscal year.
“To put that in context, that’s the equivalent to all of our government’s spending on education each year,” she said recently in a televised speech filmed at her Calgary home.
The “bitumen bubble” means Alberta is getting less and less for its oil, even though the North American benchmark price remains relatively strong. Since Alberta’s sludgy crude bitumen requires extra processing it has always sold at a discount to its sole primary customer, the United States.
The situation is aggravated by swelling US production. As a result, the price differential has widened to $30-$40 a barrel, more than twice the province’s expectation.
Johnson said the March 7 budget and the fiscal challenges had been discussed during his meeting with PHRD.
Also at the talks were the Minister’s press secretary Kim Capstick and Randy Clarke, from Alberta Education.
Johnson often meets with school boards in larger groups. But occasionally boards like to have a one-on-one meeting with the Minister.
“We have 62 boards in the province and there are some we haven’t been able to get out to and meet with in their community,” said Johnson. “That’s what today was about. To talk about whatever was important to the board and make sure they have a chance to emphasize that to the Minister.”
Johnson said negotiations with the province’s teachers was another subject discussed.
The discussion comes amid reports that a legislated contract may be imposed as a last resort if talks fail and students are affected by turmoil.
“We also talked about the capital requirements,” said Johnson, referring to school modernization plans. “And we talked about some of the great work they are doing in ADLC, especially with respect to their partnerships with private sector, post-secondary and the distance learning component they are really helping deliver all over the province. They have got some real great success stories. They are doing a good job.”
Kubinec described the meeting with Johnson as “very exciting.”
She said PHRD gave a presentation about itself to the Minister, detailing board activities, its facilities and how many children attended its schools. The Minister also learned about the amazing work being done by ADLC, she said. Then the subject turned to challenges facing PHRD – one of the main ones being declining enrollment.
Bucking this trend, however, is ADLC, where numbers are going up, Kubinec said.
“The Minister also went over some of the big picture fiscal challenges that our province is going to be facing in the next year or two,” she said.
Kubinec said Johnson explained in detail the anticipated $6 billion decrease this year in royalty revenues.
So how will Alberta meet the challenge?
“Well, the Premier has promised no tax increases so we are looking at some ways to find efficiencies,” Kubinec said. “We are going to turn over every stone to find savings. All departments are looking.”
Kubinec said she was concerned by the revenue shortfall, but believed Alberta was up for the challenge.
