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Braid: Kenney's budget undercuts education, an employment engine for Alberta

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Premier Jason Kenney’s popularity has dropped below 50 per cent, according to an Angus Reid Institute poll.

It seems obvious that his cuts are sinking in, and they’re hurting the UCP less than a year into its term.

Many people are starting to wonder if the government really knows what it’s doing or how much harm it’s causing in pursuit of fiscal goals.

The iron-fisted treatment of the doctors is one case in point. Another is government handling of the universities and colleges.

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The UCP is turning them upside down and shaking out their pockets.

At the same time, they’re commanding the post-secondaries to do a much different job with less money.

These are fundamental challenges that would be difficult if done one at a time. Together, they have the institutions in turmoil.

Some results already contradict precisely what the government is trying to accomplish.

The UCP wants more graduates in trades and practical areas that are directly tied to jobs and future income.

That’s exactly what SAIT and NAIT in Edmonton have been doing for decades, turning out employable tradespeople in everything from cuisine to aviation.

And yet, they’re two of the hardest-hit schools in the province.

Because of funding cuts, SAIT will eliminate 230 jobs. NAIT is offering retirement packages expected to reduce staff by 240.

All of the post-secondaries have been hit by a triple whammy.

Last fall’s late budget, the UCP’s first, cut their spending sharply. Then last week’s budget did it again.

The 2019 cut had already resulted in 250 job losses at the University of Calgary. There will be more there and at Mount Royal University as well.

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Then comes the hard part — adapting to the government’s demand that post-secondaries hitch themselves firmly to economic outcomes.

Future funding will depend on performance measures, perhaps including the employment record of graduates.

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On Tuesday, the UCP brought down a bill to “require post-secondary institutions to enter into three-year Investment Management Agreements with the minister of advanced education.”

The investment is the government’s money, and the schools will be expected to manage it to UCP specifications or lose it entirely. Some of the performance measures, it appears, will be entirely beyond the control of the schools.

One possible metric could be the average income of a program’s graduates a few years out. If it’s low, funding could be cut.

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These things aren’t yet set in stone, according to people in the schools, but they’re supposed to be formalized by April 1.

There is a noticeable bias against traditional academic education — even last week’s throne speech praised a woman who pursued a trade rather than take “outdated” advice to focus on academic studies.

That makes the heavy hits on the two technology institutes seem even stranger; an early example, perhaps, of unintended consequences.

The other notable trend is the concentration of authority in Travis Toews’s ministry, treasury board and finance.

The bill brought down Tuesday, mostly about education, was introduced by Toews as the Fiscal Measures and Taxation Act.

Part of Bill 5 moved the authority for a key K–12 teachers’ bargaining act from the education department to treasury.

The straight line between Kenney and his finance minister is the power conduit of this government.

None of their actions should surprise anyone. It’s all in the MacKinnon report, the secular bible for the UCP.

President of Treasury Board and Minister of Finance Travis Toews speaks about Bill 5, the Fiscal Measures and Taxation Act that he introduced at the Legislature Tuesday in Edmonton, March 3, 2020. Ed Kaiser/Postmedia
President of Treasury Board and Minister of Finance Travis Toews speaks about Bill 5, the Fiscal Measures and Taxation Act that he introduced at the Legislature Tuesday in Edmonton, March 3, 2020. Ed Kaiser/Postmedia

The report commissioned by Kenney singled out advanced education as the main target for cuts, based on the conclusion that the system is inefficient, too expensive, and not keyed to economic needs.

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Whether all those findings are correct is open to doubt. I think the report comes down awfully hard on Alberta’s excellent post-secondaries.

But you can read MacKinnon and quite literally see what the government is going to do, with a success rate of about 90 per cent.

One MacKinnon recommendation is: “The government should move quickly to address the future of those post-secondary institutions that do not appear to be viable in future funding scenarios.”

It is quite likely that some smaller schools will be closed and others amalgamated.

Combining of SAIT and NAIT?

Union of U of C with Mount Royal, and the University of Alberta with MacEwan University?

The UCP moves fast. Count nothing out.

Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Calgary Herald.

dbraid@postmedia.com

Twitter: @DonBraid

Facebook: Don Braid Politics

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