NDP releases drafts of new school lessons
Government posts curriculum after accusations of secrecy
EDMONTON Alberta Education posted drafts of its proposed new kinder-garten-to-Grade 4 curriculum on its website Thursday afternoon as observers debated the transparency of the process.
Facing accusations from the opposition United Conservative Party that the curriculum is being developed “with a great deal of secrecy,” Education Minister David Eggen said Thursday morning the draft documents will go on the Alberta Education website in a less polished format than he wanted.
“To suggest anything (is) political about it, I think is very misleading and confused,” Eggen told reporters gathered outside a Thursday meeting where academics, non-profit organizations, and others were giving input into the new math curriculum.
Eggen on Thursday defended his move to keep the documents under wraps until Postmedia obtained copies of the material from a source. The initial plan was to publish drafts in the fall after curriculum writers had received feedback from teachers, school boards and parents. Writers are updating the drafts with that feedback now.
Hundreds of Albertans are involved in Alberta’s first major overhaul of the K-12 school curriculum, in which all subjects and grades will be updated in English and French concurrently.
Any good things Donald Trump brings to the world are unintentional. But there could be one for Canada.
He’s the best argument for a truly national economy that levels internal trade barriers and freely enables export of resources to Asia and Europe.
This was overdue a decade ago. Now, it’s imperative.
Before long, that guy might decide to throw tariffs on everything. How about, say, 20 per cent on Alberta oil?
Enough of internal beer wars and licence-plate revenge. Enough of provinces flying into partisan heat and violating their own free trade agreements.
Enough of B.C. Premier John Horgan, too. His government’s obstruction of the Kinder Morgan pipeline now looks even more un-Canadian.
The stakes appear to be sinking in. The Trudeau government is changing tone, both in public and in private.
Oil and gas exports are in. Social licence isn’t exactly out, but it’s wearing a gag.
Those used to be the first words federal Liberal ministers uttered about pipelines.
Now the order tends to reverse. Ministers are gung-ho about selling resources. Vows of doing it responsibly are secondary.
Somewhere between Trump’s election and Horgan’s obstruction, light bulbs snapped on in high places.
Just as a car licence is meaningless without cars, a social licence is ridiculous if there’s no project to stick it on.
The feds certainly aren’t abandoning their environmental and climate-action goals. But the need to find alternative markets is suddenly imperative.
The City of Burnaby, which refuses to pay policing costs for protests at the Kinder Morgan site, has issued eviction notices at the protest camp.
Nobody will say it outright, but direct federal pressure on Burnaby is part of this.
So is pressure from right across the street. Burnaby residents with “good middle-class” jobs don’t want riots on their front lawns.
The new natural resources minister is Amarjeet Sohi, from Edmonton.
He is immediately a rare specimen. Many eastern Liberals worry that an Albertan in the top energy job will not be sufficiently contemptuous of the industry.
The last Liberal in this post was Edmonton MP Anne McLellan, who, like Sohi, counted her victory margins in tens.
This appointment is a big boost for Sohi’s hopes. It’s also a clear signal from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that developing non-U.S. markets is now a key priority.
Ottawa is in the process of buying Trans Mountain for $4.5 billion, so it would be damn peculiar if Sohi started dissing it. He also supports Line 3 and Keystone XL, cross-border projects already in the works
But the larger emphasis now is on ways of shipping east and west, rather than south.
“We are committed to selling our resources and expanding our markets not only internally, but also externally, to non-U.S. markets,” Sohi said in an interview.
“Relying on a single customer is not a good thing, and that’s becoming more and more clear now, with the uncertainties around NAFTA ... we need to sell our resources to other markets.”
Alberta PCs backed the worldmarket strategy, of course. Ex-premier Alison Redford was a key driver of the failed Energy East project.
The Alberta NDP has pressed the importance of non-U.S. export for nearly two years. The United Conservative Party constantly demands wider market access.
Leader Jason Kenney congratulated Sohi in a video but also said if the Liberals really want to help they should dump Bill C-69, which imposes many new rules on projects, as well as Bill C-48, the north coast tanker moratorium.
Sohi says Bill C-69 is designed “to get good projects built as quickly as possible.” He offers no hope for tankers to B.C.’s north because, he says, the coast is too remote to ensure quick spill response.
These bitter partisan differences endure.
But there’s something new; signs that all parties are starting to agree on greater export capacity to west and east, not just for oil and gas, but for minerals, agricultural and wood products and manufacturing.
With Trump looming over the border, the public might support this goal enthusiastically.
That’s good. But how sad that Donald Trump has to push us to it.