Gilles Prefontaine

bsky.app/profile/jant...
I still can't thread, but I do know $750 million is more than $400 milion
#AbLeg #AbEd

This was a MASSIVE concern when it came to the ‘offer’ to teachers. If ‘growth’ (WMA was funding less teachers than necessary to keep up) required 1K+ new teachers a year anyway, 3K teachers over the next 3 years means not only is classroom complexity NOT getting better, it is getting worse.

For those keeping score, the premier:
🔵has already started picking her voters (through voter suppression laws).
🔴wants to choose who can run for office (only "serious" candidates qualify).
⚪️now wants to decide which MLAs deserve to be recalled (and which ones get to keep their seats).

Regarding Prime Minister Carney’s federal budget: I don’t pretend to fully know it, and there are elements that concern me, but if I were the NDP I’d pledge to support it if a significant investment in urban public transit (nation-building, climate etc) was added, and if I were PM Carney I’d agree.

Union representing 16,000 Alberta nurses and healthcare staff vote 98 per cent in favour of striking Alberta Union of Public Employees (AUPE) representing nurses and health care staff say 98 per cent of members have voted to strike.

Union representing 16,000 Alberta nurses and healthcare staff vote 98 per cent in favour of striking

edmontonjournal.com/news/local-n...

Such an interesting phase of governance we come to find normal. Like our MAGA neighbours to the south, the UCP are encouraging pay-to-play advocacy to make (and remake) laws.

So many conservatives have falsely suggesting unions were funding political parties, will they also speak out in this case?

Graphic full of stats on vehicle inefficiencies.

A typical European car is parked 92% of the time. It spends 1/5th of its driving time looking for parking. Its 5 seats only move 1.5 people. 86% of its fuel never reaches the wheels, and most of the energy that does, moves the car, not the people.

Sound efficient?

HT @ellenmacarthurfdn.bsky.social

Similar to Alberta, there are also some fractures in the ‘big-tent’ Conservative party as progressives are not in line with the maple-MAGA leadership.

The AG should make all the files public record - no redaction - and walk away. It’s time for the UCP grift to end.

I guess if the rules the UCP put into place for recall are too expensive, they could simply call an election…

If you were being ushered out, through no fault of your own, I would hope Wylie shows the same courage as Athena Mentzelopoulos. It’s past time.

Elections Alberta says second legislature member, Angela Pitt, facing recall petition EDMONTON - A second member of the Alberta legislature is facing a citizen petition to recall her from her job.

And then there were two.

"Chief electoral officer Gordon McClure says a recall campaign has been approved on United Conservative member Angela Pitt."

www.thestar.com/politics/ele...

This morning at the Standing Committee on Legislative Offices...UCP majority introduces a motion starting a search committee for a new auditor general.

NDP MLA David Sheppard says Doug Wylie wants to stay on two more years. Wylie is reviewing the allegations of inappropriate health contracting.

No corner coffee shops: Toronto committee waters down neighbourhood retail plan It’s the second time in less than a year councillors balked at allowing certain businesses to open on some residential streets

"Neighbourhood interiors were never intended for commercial activity", says one letter writer. To be fair, this is true, if you toss the entirety of human history and modern day Earth outside North America in the trash, and think that urban planning less than a century old is ironclad natural law.

a cartoon says we 've tried nothing and were all out of ideas ALT: a cartoon says we 've tried nothing and were all out of ideas

The UCP’s use of the Notwithstanding clause always makes me feel like…

But I KNOW it was to avoid going to binding arbitration with teachers.

Notice how the UCP equates constitutionality with necessity & merit?

Re: the notwithstanding clause...

"Just because something is possible doesn’t mean we have to do it, and just because we do it doesn’t make it a good idea."

🔗https://drjaredwesley.substack.com/p/can-they-must-they-should-they

Can the Federal Government use the Notwithstanding Clause to override the UCP’s use of the Notwithstanding Clause?

So the problem isn’t employers not paying wages that keep up with the cost of living or companies drastically raising prices for essentials.

The reason Gen Z can’t make that downpayment is a $7 treat once a week. If they saved that money they may get a downpayment saved in as little as 68 years.

Province misses OIPC deadline to release Alberta Next survey results The government has refused to release results of the surveys following multiple access to information requests from Postmedia.

“The Alberta government has missed a deadline from the office of the information and privacy commissioner (OIPC) to release access to information requests that include the results of the province’s Alberta Next surveys.”

#abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli

edmontonjournal.com/news/politic...

Danielle Smith may have legislated teachers back to work, but my son is still trying to learn in an overcrowded classroom room waiting for an IPP that teachers can’t even properly address because of to many kids so boat $600+ a month for a private tutor as her majesty desires

If they are 18 they can also sign the recall petition. Nothing like those directly impacted by this government’s funding (or lack of) decisions having their voice heard.

Anytime anyone claims that Smith used the Notwithstanding clause in a way that Peter Lougheed would have approved of…

Feel free to share this from his 1998 paper that makes it clear that absolutely isn’t the case.

#abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli

Ready to Resist Danielle Smith and her UCP government have stripped teachers of their constitutionally protected right to strike and bargain collectively. This is a government that is: This is NOT what Albertans…

Time to suit up Alberta!

#abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli #abed

afl.org/action-pages...

Nenshi and the Alberta NDP have just made what appears to be one of their first campaign promises!

Not only will they never use the notwithstanding clause, they’ll pursue legislation to make sure future governments don’t use it unless as a last resort.

#abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli

Today, I submitted 456,365 Albertans’ signatures to Elections Alberta, petitioning the Premier to do the right thing, avoid a divisive and economically harmful referendum, and allow MLAs to vote and reaffirm that Alberta’s future is in Canada.🇨🇦

Alberta is #ForeverCanadian

Striking Alberta teachers forced back to work by fast-tracked legislation, notwithstanding clause | CBC News Bill 2 passed early Tuesday morning after a long night for lawmakers in the provincial legislature. Premier Danielle Smith’s government introduced the legislation the day before.

At 2 a.m., the Alberta legislature passed a bill that will force 51,000 teachers back to work, impose a four-year contract and use the notwithstanding clause to stave off a legal challenge and suspend teacher bargaining at the local level. It includes fines for Ts and the ATA if they defy it. #AbLeg

ATA to file a legal challenge against bill 2

ATA response to bill 2