May 13, 2003

CANMORE – AUPE’s annual Education Sector Conference in this mountain community was a resounding success, says AUPE President Dan MacLennan.

"More than 80 of our members who took part in this conference were engaged by the ideas discussed and had the opportunity to express their views and their concerns to the province’s learning minister and other leaders in the area of post-secondary education," MacLennan said.

"Members came away from this conference energized, and more determined than ever to fight hard for appropriate funding for post-secondary programs and institutions in Alberta," he said.

"Front-line members made it clear to the minister, the chair of the Standing Policy Committee on Learning and Employment and the leader of the Opposition that we believe a part of appropriate funding must be paying for staff to properly maintain and service education facilities and equipment," MacLennan said.

Thanks to the efforts of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s Calgary Radio One staff, AUPE members and others at the conference had the opportunity to take their message right from the conference floor to the people of Alberta province-wide.

"We’re very grateful to CBC and Wild Rose Forum host Don Bell for broadcasting our debate on the best way to finance public post-secondary education on Friday, May 9," MacLennan said. "We were glad that the Albertans who called into the program seemed to clearly support AUPE’s vision of a strong, publicly supported post-secondary education system."

"We’re also grateful to Learning Minister Lyle Oberg for agreeing to speak to our conference, and for choosing to show his respect for AUPE by using our meeting to make a major policy announcement on the new Post-Secondary Learning Act," MacLennan said.

Among the speakers at the conference was Dr. Douglas MacRae, Executive Director of the Alberta Association of Colleges and Technical Institutes, who argued that employees, faculty and students of post-secondary institutions all need to co-operate to press the government for adequate funding.

"We’ve got to get the attention of this government and this minister," MacRae said. "We have to be more aggressive in our stance and we have to talk in terms of this system in crisis."

For his part, Oberg told delegates I will commit to you (that) my department, myself and my government are 100 per cent committed to education." However, he warned, "we do have some realities as well. … There is only one taxpayer!"

Erika Shaker, Education Project Director for the left-of-centre Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and Fred McMahon, Director of the Centre for Globalization Studies of the right-wing Fraser Institute, took part in the debate on how best to finance post-secondary education broadcast by CBC.

University of Calgary President Harvey Weingarten and Mount Royal College President Thomas Wood told delegates that they believe demand for post-secondary education will continue to grow strongly in Alberta.
"Money that you put into education is not an expense, but one of the best investments that a province can make," Weingarten said.

Yet of 10 provinces, he said, Alberta ranks only eighth in the number of post-secondary degrees awarded. "Students graduating from Alberta high school have less opportunity to pursue academic studies."
Other speakers included Opposition Liberal leader Ken Nicol, Haskayne School of Business Professor Dean Neu and Calgary Egmont Tory MLA Denis Herard, chair of the Standing Policy Committee on Learning and Employment.

MacLennan praised the AUPE members present for welcoming people with a diversity of views and political positions to take part in the conference. "Too often groups like ours sit around and just talk to ourselves and the people we agree with," he said. "If we want to make change, we also have to talk to the people who are in power."