Dave Hancock

Question Period: New School Construction in St. Albert

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:02:38 -0700

Mr. Allred: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The St. Albert Protestant school board has been working with a private developer to provide a new school in Erin Ridge North, a new subdivision in St. Albert, for three years now. The developer is proposing a P3 where there would be no government capital required and would follow the standard 30-year payback. My question to the Minister of Education is: what seems to be the delay in getting the proposal approved?

Question Period: New School Construction in Beaumont

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:55:53 -0700

Mr. Rogers: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The town of Beaumont is recognized as one of the 20 fastest growing communities in Canada. With a population of approximately 12,000 people, 25 per cent are under the age of 14. [interjections]

The Speaker: Leduc-Beaumont-Devon has the floor.

Mr. Rogers: Mr. Speaker, the school-age population is exploding so much that one elementary school has a classroom across the road in the community hall. The separate and public boards have agreed to a joint K to 9 facility, but there is no school in the current three-year program. To the Minister of Education: how soon can my constituents see a school in Beaumont?

Question Period: School Transportation Grants

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:24:47 -0700

Mr. VanderBurg: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. School boards in Whitecourt-Ste. Anne are concerned about education funding, not just the dollars that go into the schoolrooms but dollars that are scarce and that are needed for their transportation departments to get the students to and from their homes and schools. My questions are to the Minister of Education. With the price of oil on its rise, last year you reduced the subsidy for fuel. You eliminated that program, and that program offered lots of stability. Why did you do that?

Question Period: Aboriginal Learning Outcomes

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:14:44 -0700

Mr. Chase: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last month the government announced a memorandum of understanding on aboriginal education with treaty chiefs and the federal government. Motion, however, should not be confused with progress. On aboriginal education this government is standing still and in some areas is actually going backwards. To the Minister of Education. The partnership memorandum seems to be an agreement to come up with a strategy later, an IOU rather than an MOU. Will this MOU require the provincial government to actually come forward with any new resources to improve aboriginal learning outcomes?

Question Period: Class Size and Provincial Achievement Tests

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 11:31:28 -0700

Mr. Marz: Well, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday we heard in the Assembly that the number of teachers has increased in the province by 10 per cent while at the same time the student population has only increased by 1 per cent. My question to the Minister of Education is: have student achievement test results seen a corresponding rate of increase during that same time frame?

Question Period: Northland School Division

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 10:10:29 -0700

Mr. Chase: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This government disbanded the board of trustees of the Northland school division last month. Since then Albertans have been learning more and more about the social and economic challenges facing residents of Northland. My questions are to the Minister of Education. Given that the challenges facing Northland were beyond the capacity of the trustees alone to address, would you please describe the efforts your ministry has made to involve other ministries such as children's, Aboriginal Relations, and employment to support the work of the board of trustees, and will the minister table evidence of this previous . . .

Question Period: School Class Sizes and Utilization

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 10:05:22 -0700

Mr. Griffiths: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. After doing a little bit of research, it came to my attention that from 2004 until 2009 there was an increase of 3,300 teachers in Alberta's school system, but there was only an increase of 12,000 students. That represents a 10.5 per cent increase in the number of teachers, but the student population only went up by 1.4 per cent. To the Minister of Education: what would drive such a huge increase in the teacher population relative to a small growth in the student population?

Highway construction keeps Edmonton-Whitemud residents moving

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 09:28:10 -0700

As part of Budget 2010, the Government of Alberta is investing $1.9 billion to develop the provincial highway network. Edmontonians, and particularly residents of Edmonton-Whitemud, will benefit from a number of provincially funded road projects.

Question Period: Funding for School Boards

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:23:19 -0700

Mr. Jacobs: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our rural school board in my constituency is facing an $850,000 shortfall in the 2010-11 school year despite the announcements by the Minister of Education that school boards will receive a zero per cent increase. I don't know if zero per cent is an entirely correct figure as I have heard that school boards will in fact receive an overall budget decrease of over 4.17 per cent, 1.17 per cent in 2009-10 and approximately 3 per cent in 2010-11, due to the lack of funding for this government's negotiated settlement with the ATA. My question to the Minister of Education: when will the government provide the funding for the agreement that they negotiated?

Question Period: Education Funding

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 09:16:52 -0700

Ms Notley: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister of Education is shortchanging students by deliberately underfunding Alberta's public education system. By the time September rolls around and teachers are due for a salary increase, this minister will have racked up at least $175 million in an education funding shortfall. Why is the Minister of Education taking resources out of the classroom instead of doing what's right and providing sufficient funding up front to ensure our children's education isn't made to suffer?

Question Period: School Closures

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 12:41:10 -0700

Mr. Bhardwaj: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I have heard many of my constituents tell me that if you close down a school, you damage the community. Well, there have been lots of rumours about school closures, not just in the teachers' lounges but right here in the Legislature. My question is to the Minister of Education. What are you doing to keep schools open and keep Alberta's communities from further damage?

Question Period: Design Process for New Schools

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 12:29:41 -0700

Ms Woo-Paw: Mr. Speaker, government is using different ways to fund its new school buildings, including P3s. I've heard concerns that they are taking a cookie-cutter approach to the design of schools. I'm especially concerned that the government's plan, which includes four new high schools for Calgary, Edmonton, Sherwood Park, and Spruce Grove, will not meet the diverse learning needs of students. My question is for the Minister of Education. Did school boards have any input in the design of the four high schools to ensure that they meet students' needs?

Teachers' participation sought at Speak Out conference

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 15:33:23 -0700

Teachers across Alberta are encouraged to participate at the 2nd Annual Speak Out Conference to be held in Edmonton from May 14-16, as part of the Speak Out – Alberta Student Engagement Initiative.

Launched in 2008, the Alberta government has heard from thousands of Alberta students through the Speak Out website, student forums, the annual conference, and the Minister of Education's Student Advisory Council. Through Speak Out, students have consistently asked for the opportunity to strengthen their connections with teachers. The conference will provide this opportunity. In total, 200 students, ages 14-19, and 100 teachers from across the province will work together and discuss ways to better support one another in their schools.

Question Period: Alberta Initiative for School Improvement

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 09:05:56 -0700

Mr. Fawcett: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Approximately $572 million have been put into the Alberta Initiative for School Improvement since 2002. What I've heard from a lot of teachers and students and parents is that this money takes teachers out of the classroom and puts them into administrative or management-type roles. I'm curious as to what value taxpayers and students are receiving through this program. To the Minister of Education: are there any quantitative measurements in place to measure the outcomes of the AISI program?

Just what is Alberta's deficit?

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:47:40 -0700

With the release of Budget 2010, you may have heard a variety of numbers about the Government of Alberta's budget deficit, both in 2009 and in 2010. You may have heard that, for the fiscal year running April 1, 2009 to March 31, 2010, the deficit would be as much as $8.4 billion, or as low as $3.6 billion. For fiscal year 2010, the deficit has been said to between $4.7 and $7.55 billion. In fact, in both years, the deficit will likely be lower than even the lowest of these numbers.

The Wildrose Alliance claims that the government's numbers understate the deficit. They say that while the government has announced $7.2 billion in capital spending in 2010-11, only $4.4 billion has been budgeted for, leaving $2.8 billion which is being financed as debt. This is nonsense — the $7.2 billion that has been announced is clearly accounted for in the budget. While about a billion dollars is being financed using debt this year, it makes financial sense to do so, and that debt is clearly accounted for.