Sweetgrass and CFWE news - March 17, 2016

Calgary-Greenway voting underway

March 17, 2016. Advanced polling will continue until Saturday in the provincial by-election in Calgary-Greenway. Vying for the seat left vacant after the tragic death of PC MLA Manmeet Bhullar are Thana Boonlert (Green), Prabhdeep Gill (PC), Khalil Karbani (Liberals), Roop Rai (NDP) and Devinder Toor (Wildrose). Election day is March 22. There are 28,278 electors registered. 

Royal Alberta Museum looking for Aboriginal intern

March 17, 2016. Applications are now being accepted for a paid summer internship being offered to post-secondary Aboriginal students by the Friends of Royal Alberta Museum Society. The Aboriginal Museum Internship program offers a 16-week, hands-on placement for a qualified student to work at the Royal Alberta Museum in an area related to his/her post-graduate studies. Since the AMI program’s inception in 1998, more than 40 Aboriginal post-secondary students have worked in numerous curatorial programs at the Royal Alberta Museum on projects related to their fields of study. This internship opportunity is funded by FRAMS, with additional support from Peace Hills Insurance. Deadline for applications is March 31.

Province hires coal-phase out facilitator

March 16, 2016. The province has hired Terry Boston to lead Alberta’s transition from coal to cleaner sources of power. On Wednesday, Deron Bilous, minister of economic development and trade, announced that Boston would work with coal-fired electricity generators, the Alberta Electric System Operator, and the government to develop options to phase out emissions from coal-fired generation by 2030, as outlined in the Climate Leadership Plan. Boston is tasked with presenting options to government that will strive to maintain the reliability of Alberta’s electricity grid, maintain stability of prices for consumers, and avoid unnecessarily stranding capital. Boston recently retired from PJM Interconnection, the second-largest centrally dispatched power system in the world, where he served as president and CEO from 2008 to 2015. During Boston’s tenure, about 16,000 megawatts of coal-fired generation retired, with an additional 7,000 megawatts expected to retire by 2019.

Woman who brought Alberta’s eugenics practise to light passes away

March 15, 2016. Leilani (Muir) O’Malley, the woman who brought to light Alberta’s practise of forced medical sterilization from 1928-1972, passed away on Tuesday, at the age of 71. Health Minister Sarah Hoffman called O’Malley a “tireless advocate for people with disabilities, and a champion for those who are unable to fight for themselves.” O’Malley was one of 2,800 Albertans to be medically sterilized during that time period and the first to successfully sue the province. She won a $740,000 settlement in 1996. Under the Sexual Sterilization Act, young Albertans who were declared “defective” and unfit to produce children, were sterilized. This law was most often applied to poor women from First Nations or with an ethnic background. The Sexual Sterilization Act was repealed in 1972. Lawsuits resulted in the government settling more than 800 claims at $142 million.

Swann urges province to fund affordable housing

March 15, 2016. Alberta Liberal Leader David Swann is concerned that the government might be planning to use an NDP Private Members’ Bill to delay putting new money toward affordable housing in this year’s budget. “Bill 202 could provide a convenient excuse to delay affordable housing funding for another year while the NDP waits for oil prices to rebound,” said Swann in a statement. He noted that the NDP’s first budget – for the 2015-16 fiscal year – did not include new money to build or operate affordable housing units. Swann said he is not opposed to a review of affordable housing, but says issues around housing and homelessness have already been studied and reported on extensively by Alberta’s seven municipal homeless management bodies and the Alberta Interagency Council on Homelessness. Swann says the solutions are largely known, and he doesn’t want to see a duplication of work.