Opposition calls out “double-standard” during Calgary by-election
Posted Mar 2, 2016 2:15 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It appears an announcement from Education Minister David Eggen over new teachers may not be having the impact, the government had been hoping for …
Eggen announced $104-million in addiitonal funding in front of a chemistry class at Bishop Grandin High School to hire 740 new teachers province-wide.
He justified his announcement during a by-election in the city (Calgary-Greenway) by telling reporters this was a different riding.
The NDP government had been a vocal opponent of the former PC Education Minister Gordon Dirks after he had made similar funding announcements in his own riding of Calgary-Elbow.
“This is an ongoing process, we just had the Q3 report and it’s very important during budget deliberations and so forth that people understand that we’re making a strong commitment to public education right across the province,” he said. “This is a province-wide responsibility that I have and I take it very seriously.”
Calgary Catholic School District itself has seen more than 1,350 additional students and has added more than 50 teachers in the last year.
Eggen says many families are struggling during this economic downturn and sacrifices need to be made to ensure priority service, he couldn’t elaborate on what those sacrifices might be.
Finance Minister Joe Ceci is expected to roll out the province’s budget in early April.
Wildrose MLA for Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre Jason Nixon says it’s not as clear-cut as the government would have you believe.
“The Premier of Alberta when she was in Opposition fought so hard against this, why she would move to this sort of behaviour in under a year in office, is shocking,” he told 660 NEWS. “It’s clearly using government resources, tax-payer resources to make an announcement to give the governing party an advantage in a by-election.”
Nixon says it’s inappropriate for her to allow her ministers to carry on as the previous Progressive Conservative government.
He believes it could have waited or could have been done before the by-election, he’s calling on legislation similar to what MLA Rick Strankman had tried to introduce.
“It was a bill that was written similar to the NDP, a bill that was put in place in Manitoba over similar issues, and what the government chose to do was kick that to committee and ultimately kill that bill, so we need the government to bring similar legislation forward to make sure it’s illegal.”
He adds their position is interesting given Infrastructure Minister Brian Mason had been a vocal opponent to using kids as part of their backdrop.
