ATHABASCA — Three NDP MLAs took a tour of the Athabasca area this month to speak with local leaders and see for themselves some of the concerns residents have been raising.
MLA for Calgary-Buffalo Joe Ceci, the Municipal Affairs critic, Transportation critic MLA Lorne Dach for Edmonton-McClung and Edmonton-Northwest MLA David Eggen, the Advanced Education critic, met with the Athabasca University Faculty Association (AUFA) Sept. 7 and discussed many items including the concerns brought forward by the Keep Athabasca in Athabasca University (AU) ad hoc group.
“It's a reflection of how important Athabasca University is to the town and to the whole region and quite frankly, colleges in towns across Alberta are in jeopardy with the cuts that the UCP has made to post-secondary,” Eggen said in an interview later that day.
“What we see here play out will be reflected in what happens in other parts of Alberta as well, so we are very concerned, as the Official Opposition, to see an investment in post-secondary generally and in these mid-size and smaller colleges across the province, specifically, because we know it's not just to help keep the population stable, to give young people a choice to study closer to home, but it's economic stability too, during difficult times."
He added the people of Athabasca are doing the right thing by fighting for the university and deserved to see a response and some results from the Alberta government.
Eggen also noted university leadership needs to return to Athabasca being the hub, instead of an inconvenient spoke they need to travel to and the university has established itself as a unique entity around science and Indigenous issues and more, making it even more confusing as to why it appears to be slowly moving out of the area.
“It's an asset that we need to invest in, we can't afford to lose it now, especially here.” he said.
“It's very short sighted of this UCP government; they just don't see the value in post-secondary education. They've cut hundreds of millions of dollars across the province, and at the worst possible time — there's never a good time — but here we are trying to recover from COVID and economic recovery, and transition to a more diverse economy. Post-secondary is the biggest asset we have.”
Dach said AU is considered a backbone employer in the province and it makes sense to keep it in Athabasca and Eggen questioned why there isn’t more support being shown by Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock MLA Glenn van Dijken.
“It's good for the local community to have a grassroots movement to support Athabasca University, but this is the job of the MLA too,” said Eggen. “I haven't heard hide nor hair from the local MLA supporting this at all; that's kind of his job far as I know.”
Ceci noted the local ad hoc group has paid money to hire a lobbyist and also questioned why van Dijken hasn’t been fighting for the group instead of them having to raise $15,000 to hire someone.
However, van Dijken has spoken with several members of the committee, as well as publicly and in interviews saying he supports keeping the university here but the Keep Athabasca in Athabasca University group went forward with hiring Canadian Strategy Group.
“It’s kind of a pattern across the province right now,” said Dach. “Municipalities hiring outside lobbyists to do the job of their MLAs.”
Meeting with Town of Athabasca Council
Prior to sitting down with Town of Athabasca council before council’s regular meeting Sept. 7, Ceci said nothing specific had been put on the agenda, but he had an idea of the types of things which would be brought up.
“It’s to touch base with them to find out what their challenges and issues are and they're similar to other councils in other places I've been to; a big concern around the potential replacement of the RCMP with the Alberta police force,” said Ceci.
“Even before hearing from them, they're probably going to say things like ‘We're not signed up, it's going to cost us more, and we're not sure we're going to get any more service, so why would we change.’ I don't think they've had a good enough explanation from Solicitor General or anyone in government, including Glenn (van Dijken), why this is being undertaken at this time.”
He said other municipalities have brought up the cuts to the Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI) and capital infrastructure grants and fiscal mismanagement of the current government.
“They are right to ask the question ‘Why is the government wasting so much money on other things?’ and then sticking to them? We know that $1.3 billion gamble on KXL (Keystone pipeline); the provincial government made a bet on Trump coming back in and it didn't happen so that $1.3 billion is gone out the window, we got nothing for it. And things like the corporate tax giveaway, that hasn't resulted in any more jobs, and costs $4.7 billion dollars. It looks like to everyone that the provincial government is sticking it to everybody else because of their fiscal mismanagement.”
Dach also noted there has been no progress on moving Highway 55 up the list to be repaired since the last time he was in the area and work on the bridge seems to have stalled as well.
“We’re definitely going to be keeping the screws turned on the new transportation minister, Rajan Sawhney,” he said. “She doesn't have a lot of institutional memory so we're going to make sure that she knows that Highway 55 needs work.”
Town of Athabasca mayor Colleen Powell said Sept. 9 she knows some will question why council met with the Opposition MLAs, but said that is part of their job and confirmed Ceci was correct in what was discussed.
“To anybody out there saying ‘What are you listening to those guys for?’ the opposition is there to hold the government to account and the government is there to do their thing,” she said. “We will give both sides the same time because both sides need to be heard. It isn't called Her Majesty's loyal opposition for nothing.”
She added the MSI funding was discussed with municipalities facing a 26 per cent cut in funding on top of the downloading of costs from the province on things like police funding which is hidden in the tax notices.
“(The UCP government are) hiding it in property taxes and I don't like the formula they've got but they have it; it is a requisition,” Powell said. “(They should) let every resident know where that money is going; it impacts our ability to raise property taxes.”
Powell noted the money raised isn’t transferred to the RCMP either. They will receive a funding letter based on the most recently passed budget and will then invoice the province quarterly.
“As a result, the RCMP cannot fully account for how this revenue has been spent,” said Powell. “Both the former and current Solicitor General had committed that the funds raised by the model would be reinvested in frontline enforcement but there's a need to clearly detail how the $15.4 million was spent. And there's a reduction in the 21-22 provincial policing budget so, all this money we're sending to Edmonton, where did it go?”
As for AU, Powell said if rural areas are to prosper, institutions like the university must stay in place to ensure jobs are in the communities.
“We're going to have to start cutting services or get tax rates that are beyond what people are willing to pay; it's one of those two things. So, it's a critical issue for us.”
As for Highway 55, Powell isn’t surprised it hasn’t filtered to the top of the list.
“(Alberta) Transportation’s budget has been cut quite a bit and so even noxious weeds aren't being torn down unless they get yelled at and that's not because they're slothful and silly, it's because they haven't got a budget for it.”
