The News Rundown

Alberta earmarks $72 million for charter schools, plans for possible new 'collegiate' model

This week most of the focus in Alberta has been on Brian Jean’s by-election win in Fort McMurray Lac La Biche. He won that with over 60% of the vote which is unsurprising.
The questions that have swirled is whether or not Jason Kenney’s leadership vote will be successful next month. And for all intents and purposes, this has been the shiny object in the room to the detriment of other news.
It is our analysis that most of the outrage towards Jason Kenney and the UCP comes from the core of the big cities who’d never vote for him anyways or rural folks who were fed up with COVID restrictions and had their feelings manipulated either by the mainstream media or independent media doing advocacy journalism.
In essence this news cycle was a creation of the media’s own doing once again to the detriment of other news, that’s why we’re going to talk about a different story that didn’t receive its fair share of coverage this week.
And that topic is charter schools in the province.
This week the Alberta government announced that over the next 3 years they will spend $72m to expand existing charter schools and encourage the creation of new schools.
A charter school is a school that receives government funding but operates independently of any existing public school system.
The government is doing this because charter schools often have long wait lists and don’t always have access to the same programs that a public school would (for example, special needs.)
There are 16 publicly funded charter schools in Alberta and some of them have aging capital needs, meaning they need maintenance and repair they haven’t been able to do because they get much less money than public schools.
In total Alberta charter schools receive 5% the funding that public schools do.
The government is looking into a campus model where several charter schools could be hosted in the same area with shared spaces like gymnasiums and science labs to save costs.
The province is also looking into a potential collegiate model where schools could be supported by post secondary institutions or industry directly.
The idea behind this is that a post secondary institution could tailor its educational program at the lower years to facilitate entry into certain programs.
The same goes for industries like the energy industry or high tech industry, those industries could sponsor schools creating fast tracks to get kids into those industries.
As it stands today, there are those who will go to post secondary just to claim a basic post secondary degree as a checkbox to enter the workforce rather than utilizing post secondary to specialize in a field.
One of the discussions that took place in the lead up to the 2019 campaign was that there needs to be more pathways into the labour market rather than just post secondary.
This angle of the story was missed by the mainstream media and any parent or anyone who advocates for school choice should see the benefit of charter schools given what they could enable going forward.
The Alberta Teacher’s Association and Edmonton Public Schools board is skeptical of what the government is doing as both wanted more funding for schools this year.
The stance of the ATA is that it takes money away from the public system but one really has to ask, if charter schools only receive 5% of funding, how much has been taken away and how much is lost due to administration and bureaucracy?
Edmonton Public School board chairwoman Trisha Estabrooks was frustrated as well since Edmonton Public wanted more money for a new school this year but funding wasn’t provided.
She said, “Charter schools do offer that choice, I hear that, but the public schools offer the same choice. So let’s truly fund the system that is truly accessible to everybody.”
The thing is, if public schools did offer that choice, we’d see a different result when it comes to students entering the labour market directly out of high school.
The NDP were in with their usual line that this was an attack on public education but remember that based on the definition, charter schools are government funded as well, i.e. publicly funded.
Charter schools are often confused for private schools and that’s an option parents have as well. But charter schools in Alberta are required to accept all who apply and are not allowed to charge tuition.
What we see here is a defence of the existing public systems, while they are decent, there’s nothing wrong with providing more choice for parents and students who may want to specialize earlier in life than post secondary to position themselves to enter the labour force.
Supplementals:

https://globalnews.ca/news/8644982/alberta-teachers-charter-school-budget-2022-reaction/

The British Columbia government is increasing the minimum wage by 45 cents to $15.65 an hour, starting June 1. The increase is the first to be tied to B.C.'s annual inflation rate, which was 2.8 per cent last year.
Labour Minister Harry Bains says it means B.C. will have the highest minimum wage of any province. Bains said the decision to use the provincial rate of inflation rather than the national rate was made to better reflect the needs of B.C. workers. He said the increase is expected to attract more workers to the province, while providing certainty of costs for businesses.
Bains said: "We fully understand that businesses are still hurting coming out of the pandemic and that workers, living in one of the highest living cost areas, are still struggling. Having a fair minimum wage is a key step in our effort to lift people out of poverty, to make life more affordable and to continue B.C.'s strong economic recovery."
As per usual, the B.C. Federation of Labour said it was happy with the news, but that the minimum wage is "still well below" the amount a family needs to cover basic expenses, otherwise known as a 'living wage'.
Also predictably, The B.C. Chamber of Commerce said in a statement that while it supported a fair wage for workers, the timing of the increase would negatively impact small and medium-sized businesses.
Alex Hemingway, a senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, said the wage increase was good news in the broadest sense for the province's lowest-paid workers, but it does not go far enough to address the spiking cost of living. He said the province's decision to peg the wage increase on the provincial rate of inflation last year — measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) — was not keeping up with the actual cost of living in 2022.
Hemingway says: "Over time, linking wages to the CPI would just mean treading water. That would mean that low-wage workers would never get a raise, in real dollar terms, in ... their purchasing power. The economy grows over time, and the benefits of those gains are flowing somewhere. But they're not flowing to those workers if their wages only go up at that CPI inflation rate."
A raise in the minimum wage also only helps low income workers if their taxes do not increase as well. Much publicized this week has been the BC government's plan to include the PST on used car sales, which we discussed 2 weeks ago on episode 258.
There is not much that has been discussed about the major impacts on both inflation in BC, which is rising at an astounding rate, or on businesses that are attempting to recover from punishing shutdowns during the pandemic. The media has been completely absent on these issues. One thing's for sure, unless you're working for minimum wage yourself, this news announcement is not actually going to help you very much, despite what all the articles about it say.

Quebec won't allow Ukrainian refugee children to attend English schools

With the war in Ukraine there has been a refugee crisis not seen in Europe since World War 2.
Many countries have stepped up to house refugees including Canada.
Ukrainians who come to Canada will be able to stay for three years after applying. The process, according to the federal government, should take no more than 2 weeks.
Those who later do not apply for permanent residence or move to Canada under family reunification programs will be able to stay for three years.
Quebec as a province has a reputation for handling its own affairs with immigration, specifically, to look out for francophone cultural considerations.
With this refugee program, Ukrainian refugee children who arrive in Quebec will not be permitted to attend English schools and according to the Education Ministry, “there’s no question” about an exception to language laws on humanitarian grounds.
What this means is if a young child comes from Ukraine to Quebec who speaks English, they’d have to go to a French school and learn French.
This is a policy that has existed for years in Quebec that requires anyone arriving from outside of Canada must attend French school. The policy comes from the “Charter of the French Language.”
Réginald Fleury, a pedagogical adviser at the Centre de services scolaire de Montréal said, “We invite all our schools, when there’s a new family that arrives from abroad, to prepare meetings because a family that comes from Ukraine or elsewhere in the world isn’t the same thing as a family that’s moving from Longueuil or Chicoutimi.”
This policy is stark and effectively paints a picture of new arrivals to Quebec being told that they must assimilate into this french culture.
This story and the fact this is even happening has been quiet outside of Quebec.
It wasn’t until Thursday that Premier Francois Legault said that an exemption may be made as a temporary solution, he said, "We may have an interim situation where we can help them this way. As you know, children of people coming to Quebec have to send children to French school, but in the interim period, of course we will accommodate them.”
In the short term they can go to an English school but they will still need to assimilate and learn French. Quebec has also said there’s “no limit” to the number of Ukrainian refugees that will be allowed as have many other provinces.
Canada is long held as a bastion of freedom and equality but the policies of Quebec can be shocking for those unaware of how that province works.
If Alberta attempted to implement something similar there would likely be nationwide criticism and a push by the federal government to allow the new arrivals to speak whatever language they wanted.
This story illustrates the double standard of Quebec in Canada.
The province wants to forge its own path but still reaps the benefit of being fully Canadian, this is at odds with the strong federal system defined in the Constitution.
We also see this with Bill 21 in Quebec, the Bill that bans the wearing of religious symbols by public service workers in Quebec.
This Bill became such a hot topic that the topic was changed abruptly in the last federal leadership debate and it seems that for any party to gain support outside of Montreal or Quebec City federally, they would need to support Bill 21. None of the Liberals, NDP, or Conservatives have done this.
Outside of Quebec there’s the assumption that the province functions a lot like Ontario or Saskatchewan does but digging a little deeper, that is not the case.
Canadians need to be aware of this story since multiple levels of government and the media are allowing this Quebec double standard to exist without question.
Our immigration system is strained and there’s always wiggle room for refugees but the system needs to work Canada wide and if there aren’t key consistencies, that hurts all Canadians - new and old.
Supplementals:

Firing Line

Canada's population jumped by nearly half a million in 2021

As more and more information from the 2021 Census gets released this year, Statistics Canada is compiling the information about our country's population in the last 6 years. This is notable because it's real tangible information as to how much our country has changed since Trudeau was elected in 2015.
For instance, Canada’s population rose by 1.2 per cent, or 457,888, to 38.5 million in 2021. That’s up from 160,273 the previous year, with a number sharply higher than the depressed 2020 levels as the Trudeau government's focus on international migration returned closer to the record population-growth levels in the years before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Most of the population gain came from international migration as the Canadian government eased most travel restrictions for those coming to the country for work, school or family reunification. Net international migration levels jumped to 400,176 last year, almost four times as many as in 2020. This means that out of the total increase to Canada's population, over 87% was from pure international migration. This is the fastest population growth percentage out of all G7 countries.
In the last 3 months of 2021 alone, from October 1st to January 1st, population grew by 0.2 per cent, or 90,313. It’s the second biggest fourth-quarter population increase in the past three decades. In January 2022, 35,260 immigrants were welcomed to Canada. The reason why January's admissions figure is notable is it likely represents a low point in the monthly landings Canada should expect this year. Prior to the pandemic, Canada would typically see lower immigrant landings in Q1 and Q4 of each year, due to the colder weather and winter holiday season. Landings would rise by around 40 per cent in the warmer spring and summer months of Q2 and Q3. Given that the government is processing more applicants abroad, we should expect to see higher immigration landings in Q2 and Q3 of this year.
This lines up with the promise that Trudeau put forth in his mandate letter to Immigration Minister Sean Fraser. Trudeau’s government aims to add more than 431,000 permanent residents this year, 447,000 in 2023 and 451,000 in 2024, according to the 2022-24 Immigration Levels Plan released in February. Nearly 60% of newcomers will qualify as economic immigrants, selected on the basis of their skills and work experience.
This is the Trudeau plan to drive economic growth - to increase competition among workers. Fraser said: “Immigration has helped shape Canada into the country it is today. We are focused on economic recovery, and immigration is the key to getting there.”
There are so many immigrants that the federal department in control of processing applications, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has been shifting course by processing more FSWP applications in recent months. It processed over 9,000 people under the FSWP between the middle of December and the end of February, which is much higher than the average of 600 people it was processing under the FSWP for much of 2021.
IRCC has proven it can process even higher numbers of permanent residence applications than it did prior to the pandemic. In addition, IRCC is investing heavily in modernizing its application processing systems, and Canada has lifted most of its travel restrictions.
It's still not quick enough for the flood of people wanting to enter Canada, who are now bogging down the Federal Court system to expedite their applications. Victor Ing, a Vancouver-based immigration lawyer, said: “Facing extraordinary delays, these applicants are turning to the judicial remedy of mandamus, which is an order issued by the Federal Court to compel a government department such as (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada) to process their applications.”
‘Mandamus’ is a Latin word meaning ‘we command.’ It is a judicial remedy compelling the performance of a public legal duty that is owed to an applicant.
In an interview with New Canadian Media, Ing said he is seeing two to three clients every month seeking judicial intervention in their cases — the same number he would see annually in previous years.
Ing says: “They just can’t get any answers from Immigration Canada, or they get boilerplate responses that don’t address their concerns…My colleagues are reporting similar increasing numbers,” he said, adding that with the current backlog of nearly two million applications, “many applicants are losing patience and are looking for ways to expedite their applications.”
With 35k new people entering Canada every single month, one has to wonder where all these people are actually going once they enter the country. In news that isn’t exactly surprising, numbers from the census confirm that Canada’s supply of homes has not kept up with population growth over the 2016–21 period.
Despite Trudeau's plan to basically double immigration intake growth numbers from before he was elected, the number of new homes built in the same time period have not even come close to keeping up. This is despite the pandemic-inspired dip in immigration upon the onset of COVID-19 in 2020.
Of course, this imbalance is only compounding Canada’s dramatic housing affordability crisis — one fuelled in part by a relentless lack of supply that’s left few corners of the country untouched. The ratio of homes to population fell during the 2016–21 period, due in large part to Trudeau's majorly unsustainable population growth policy. This is reflected both throughout the country on a national level, as well as in most provinces and the 20 largest Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs).
Economist Jean-François Perrault writes that even during 2020's major dip in immigration, the ratio of homes to population STILL fell. Perrault says: “While some commentators have pointed to the Census as proof that the situation is getting marginally better, a more detailed look at the number suggests otherwise. Despite registering the slowest rate of population growth since 1972, the Census reveals that the imbalance between supply and demand for housing has increased nationwide, in most provinces and the 20 largest Census Metropolitan Areas. We do not appear to be making progress.”
Let's restate: when an economist says "we do not appear to be making progress", what they really mean is that we're regressing.
Drawing on the 2021 Census for the total number of private dwellings in relation to the 2016 and 2021 population figures, the ratio of homes to population has declined marginally at the national level. In short, zero progress has been made to close the gap between the number of homes and the growing number of Canadian residents. And the number of residents will only increase with the return of widespread immigration.
Perrault says: “We remain hopeful that the focus on increasing the supply of dwellings by all levels of government will lead to a better balance between supply and demand in time. The most recent Census is a clear indication that we have yet to make progress in meeting the housing needs of Canadians.”
That's all we have right now: hope. Hope that our government reverses its policy, or starts to build housing supply on a level hitherto undreamt of. Because until then, Canadians will not be able to afford living in their own country.
Supplementals:

Quote of the Week

“We remain hopeful that the focus on increasing the supply of dwellings by all levels of government will lead to a better balance between supply and demand in time. The most recent Census is a clear indication that we have yet to make progress in meeting the housing needs of Canadians.” - Economist Jean-François Perrault on the housing crisis and the falling home to population ratio

Word of the Week

Mandamus - Latin for “we command”, a mandamus is a writ issued by a superior court to compel a lower court or a government officer to perform mandatory or purely ministerial duties correctly

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Show Data

Episode Title: Housing Immigrants

Teaser: Alberta increases funding for charter schools, BC ties its minimum wage increase to inflation, and Quebec is forcing Ukrainian refugees into French schools. Also, the census data shows that Trudeau’s immigration plan negatively impacts the housing crisis.

Recorded Date: March 18, 2022

Release Date: March 20, 2022

Duration: 1:01:22

Edit Notes: None

Podcast Summary Notes

Duration: XX:XX