In his Globe and Mail column of Wednesday, April 18, 2012 (What if the U.S. becomes an oil exporter?), Jeffrey Simpson points out that, with abundant natural gas, the Bakken field, and better fuel efficiency, the USA may, by 2030, not want Canadian (Alberta) oil. (Further, the world may wake up and decide that fossil hydrocarbons are better used to manufacture things than burn for energy.) Then what of Harper's and others hell-bent drive to develop the oil sands? Better to follow the Alberta NDP's plan to process the bitumen here. Further, we should also export the resulting synthetic crude to Eastern Canada. Finally, we need to develop Alberta's abundant renewable energy--sun, wind, biomass, geothermal. See this link.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Post-secondary funding not keeping up with the times
Editor:
Re “Weadick defends post-secondary funding” (2012-Apr-6) . Lethbridge West NDP Candidate Shannon Phillips has pointed out several times that, because government support to the colleges and universities has not kept up with inflation, there have been, in effect, cuts. In responding, Mr. Weadick asserted “There has never been even one year of cutback in funding to the postsecondaries.” If the size of your grant each year doesn’t keep up with inflation, and you can purchase less and less, this is, in effect a cutback. To quote from the Report of the [U of L] Budget Committee (March 2012, http://bit.ly/IeocD4), “[It] is important to note that [2% operating grant increases for each year] will not fully offset the cost of expenditure increases for these years and thus we will still be experiencing reductions."
Colleges and universities have fixed costs: their electricity and heating bills for example have gone up faster than inflation, as have everyone else’s. Furthermore the rate of inflation in the PSE sector is higher than the consumer price index (CPI). Equipment and supplies for labs, books for the Library, for just two examples increase in price far faster than general inflation. The U of L’s labs are using some of the original equipment acquired when the University moved its science departments to the present campus in 1972--they can’t afford newer. High school students coming to the University are taught using equipment that’s older than the equipment they used in grade 12.
Having been a faculty member at the U of L for over 30 years, including stints as President of the University of Lethbridge Faculty Association and President of the Confederation of Alberta Faculty Associations, I have to say that grants by the Alberta government to the PSE sector actually have seldom kept up with inflation.
When Greg Weadick was a university student, he could work at a minimum wage job from about May 1 to mid- or late June and earn enough to pay for one year of university tuition. Now, to earn enough to pay today’s higher tuitions you have to work from May 1 to the end of August or later. Squeezing students and burdening them with huge debts is bad economics: those with large debts are less likely to buy houses or start families, but Albertans have grown too used to the bad economics of Tory governments.
Mark Sandilands
Professor Emeritus
This letter appeared in the Lethbridge Herald 2012-04-14
Re “Weadick defends post-secondary funding” (2012-Apr-6) . Lethbridge West NDP Candidate Shannon Phillips has pointed out several times that, because government support to the colleges and universities has not kept up with inflation, there have been, in effect, cuts. In responding, Mr. Weadick asserted “There has never been even one year of cutback in funding to the postsecondaries.” If the size of your grant each year doesn’t keep up with inflation, and you can purchase less and less, this is, in effect a cutback. To quote from the Report of the [U of L] Budget Committee (March 2012, http://bit.ly/IeocD4), “[It] is important to note that [2% operating grant increases for each year] will not fully offset the cost of expenditure increases for these years and thus we will still be experiencing reductions."
Colleges and universities have fixed costs: their electricity and heating bills for example have gone up faster than inflation, as have everyone else’s. Furthermore the rate of inflation in the PSE sector is higher than the consumer price index (CPI). Equipment and supplies for labs, books for the Library, for just two examples increase in price far faster than general inflation. The U of L’s labs are using some of the original equipment acquired when the University moved its science departments to the present campus in 1972--they can’t afford newer. High school students coming to the University are taught using equipment that’s older than the equipment they used in grade 12.
Having been a faculty member at the U of L for over 30 years, including stints as President of the University of Lethbridge Faculty Association and President of the Confederation of Alberta Faculty Associations, I have to say that grants by the Alberta government to the PSE sector actually have seldom kept up with inflation.
When Greg Weadick was a university student, he could work at a minimum wage job from about May 1 to mid- or late June and earn enough to pay for one year of university tuition. Now, to earn enough to pay today’s higher tuitions you have to work from May 1 to the end of August or later. Squeezing students and burdening them with huge debts is bad economics: those with large debts are less likely to buy houses or start families, but Albertans have grown too used to the bad economics of Tory governments.
Mark Sandilands
Professor Emeritus
This letter appeared in the Lethbridge Herald 2012-04-14
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