Education Budget Will Come Before the House April 19

During Question Period at the Alberta Legislature last week, Harry Chase, MLA for Calgary Varsity, questioned whether education was actually protected in the budget this year as the government claims. He has heard from parents, teachers and school boards who have been working through the numbers and the situation is looking bleak for many – staff layoffs and larger classes. It is clear during this exchange that the Minister of Education, Hon. Dave Hancock, has struggled with some tough decisions particularly around AISI.

At the last CAPSC meeting, we talked about a window of opportunity of several weeks where the public could influence the Education budget. We can now give you a date. During this exchange, the Speaker of the House, the Hon. Ken Kowalski interceded and made the following statement, “I would like to remind all members again that this is question period. Budgetary questions and particularly Education’s budget will come before the House on the afternoon of April 19. There will be three hours that could be devoted to this subject.”