Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs (SACPA)

For the Love of Headwaters: What Can We Do? (Part 2 Q&A)

Our drinking water comes from the Oldman River, but where does this river start? The tributaries that feed a river are collectively called headwaters, the source or ‘birthplace’ of our river. Located along the Eastern Slopes of the Rocky Mountains, the headwaters of the Oldman River flow from an increasingly busy landscape - one that includes mining, logging, grazing, and recreation. This unique area offers important habitat for threatened species, as well as ecological services beyond providing most of the water used by over 210,000 people living, working, and playing in our watershed. In response to public concern, the Oldman Watershed Council (OWC) has made the headwaters a priority through education and restoration. Their unique approach is based on social science methodologies and involves talking (and listening!) to people through face-to-face conversations; boots-on-the-ground events to restore streambanks together with partners and volunteers; testing strategies like signs and pledges to change behaviour; and ultimately, engaging hearts, heads, and hands. Since 2015, OWC has conducted 283 surveys, talked to more than 5,600 people, and helped plant over 4,300 willows and trees. The speaker will describe these local, grassroots efforts aimed at improving conditions in our headwaters, and will discuss some actions we can all take to help care for this special place. Speaker: Sofie Forsström Sofie Forsström is the Education Program Manager for the Oldman Watershed Council. Since 2015, Sofie has been coordinating education and restoration activities in the headwaters and beyond in order to promote watershed literacy and cultivate a strong sense of place. Sofie earned a Master of Science in Applied Ecology from the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK and a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies from U of A, Augustana Campus. Prior to joining OWC, she worked as a science educator at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller. In her free time, Sofie enjoys hiking with her dog and volunteering with a local Scout Troop. Moderator: Michelle Day Date: Thursday, January 30, 2020 Time: Doors open 11:30 am, presentation 12 noon, buffet lunch 12:30 pm, Q&A 1 – 1:30 pm Location: Royal Canadian Legion (please enter at north door) 324 Mayor Magrath Dr. S. Lethbridge Cost: $14 buffet lunch with dessert/coffee/tea/juice or $2 coffee/tea/juice. RSVP not required

Transitioning to a Low-Carbon Future and a new Economy: What are the main Barriers? (Part 2 Q&A)

Canada has joined many other national and regional jurisdictions in declaring a climate emergency. Recent reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warn of increasingly deterioriating conditions across the globe in the face of unchecked global heating. While human generated emissions of CO2 and other greenhouses gases are accepted as the major cause, efforts to bend the emissions trajectory are still not sufficient. The world’s economies must rapidly decarbonize over this decade to avoid lock-in to a future of climate extremes and damaging impacts to society. Canada will not be immune to the effects of global market de-stabilization, economic losses, climate migration, etc., and will witness gradual erosion of its economic basis. This is Alberta’s challenge – how does the province transition away from an economy based heavily on hydrocarbon production without increasing social tensions and job losses? The fact is that action on the environment does not need to be set against a backdrop of job losses, but in order to achieve this we must visualize the full potential of a future economy, an economy that places greater emphasis on social factors, in which GDP is not the predominant measure of a society’s success. Making the transition to a low carbon future cannot be denied or deferred and there is no longer time for half measures. Leadership must have the vision to invest in new technologies and re-training that builds on our legacy industries. In particular, Bruce will discuss how a hydrogen economy could be pivotal in shaping Alberta’s trajectory of change. Speaker: Bruce Wilson Bruce is an engineer and a former GM of Shell, now an independent consultant on the energy transition including carbon capture and the hydrogen economy. He is a board member of non-profit ‘Iron + Earth’. Born and raised in Scotland, he trained as structural engineer, joining an oil company directly from university. Following an industry downturn he worked firstly in Africa before traveling to Canada where he met his wife, Terry Anne, in Calgary during the ’88 Olympics. Over the next almost 30 years they have worked and lived around the world, the latter half of Bruce’s career spent with Shell International. In much of this time, Bruce has supported environmental causes, exemplifying the dichotomy between caring for the environment and powering our society. Finally, dissatisfied with the too gradual pace of Shell’s transition to renewable energies, Bruce parted with the company to take more direct action. He is an advocate for the vast potential of emerging low-carbon technologies that offer us the opportunity to thrive in this transition. Moderator: Laurie Schulz Date: Thursday, January 23, 2020 Time: Doors open 11:30 am, presentation 12 noon, buffet lunch 12:30 pm, Q&A 1 – 1:30 pm Location: Royal Canadian Legion (please enter at north door) 324 Mayor Magrath Dr. S. Lethbridge Cost: $14 buffet lunch with dessert/coffee/tea/juice or $2 coffee/tea/juice. RSVP not required Visit the SACPA website: http://www.sacpa.ca

Transitioning to a Low-Carbon Future and a new Economy: What are the main Barriers? (Part 1)

Canada has joined many other national and regional jurisdictions in declaring a climate emergency. Recent reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warn of increasingly deterioriating conditions across the globe in the face of unchecked global heating. While human generated emissions of CO2 and other greenhouses gases are accepted as the major cause, efforts to bend the emissions trajectory are still not sufficient. The world’s economies must rapidly decarbonize over this decade to avoid lock-in to a future of climate extremes and damaging impacts to society. Canada will not be immune to the effects of global market de-stabilization, economic losses, climate migration, etc., and will witness gradual erosion of its economic basis. This is Alberta’s challenge – how does the province transition away from an economy based heavily on hydrocarbon production without increasing social tensions and job losses? The fact is that action on the environment does not need to be set against a backdrop of job losses, but in order to achieve this we must visualize the full potential of a future economy, an economy that places greater emphasis on social factors, in which GDP is not the predominant measure of a society’s success. Making the transition to a low carbon future cannot be denied or deferred and there is no longer time for half measures. Leadership must have the vision to invest in new technologies and re-training that builds on our legacy industries. In particular, Bruce will discuss how a hydrogen economy could be pivotal in shaping Alberta’s trajectory of change. Speaker: Bruce Wilson Bruce is an engineer and a former GM of Shell, now an independent consultant on the energy transition including carbon capture and the hydrogen economy. He is a board member of non-profit ‘Iron + Earth’. Born and raised in Scotland, he trained as structural engineer, joining an oil company directly from university. Following an industry downturn he worked firstly in Africa before traveling to Canada where he met his wife, Terry Anne, in Calgary during the ’88 Olympics. Over the next almost 30 years they have worked and lived around the world, the latter half of Bruce’s career spent with Shell International. In much of this time, Bruce has supported environmental causes, exemplifying the dichotomy between caring for the environment and powering our society. Finally, dissatisfied with the too gradual pace of Shell’s transition to renewable energies, Bruce parted with the company to take more direct action. He is an advocate for the vast potential of emerging low-carbon technologies that offer us the opportunity to thrive in this transition. Moderator: Laurie Schulz Date: Thursday, January 23, 2020 Time: Doors open 11:30 am, presentation 12 noon, buffet lunch 12:30 pm, Q&A 1 – 1:30 pm Location: Royal Canadian Legion (please enter at north door) 324 Mayor Magrath Dr. S. Lethbridge Cost: $14 buffet lunch with dessert/coffee/tea/juice or $2 coffee/tea/juice. RSVP not required Visit the SACPA website: http://www.sacpa.ca

Climate Change, Hunger and Migration: Can we attain the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals? (Part 1)

Five years ago, in 2015, the governments of the United Nations agreed on a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that we would need to attain by 2030 to make life better and more sustainable for future generations. Our governments had come to accept that we were rapidly overpopulating the planet, depleting our natural resources and destroying our environment. These goals cover the full range of socio-economic and environmental factors that our governments agreed were essential for our peace, wellbeing and prosperity. They called these goals our 2030 Agenda. Since then, a wave of populist nationalism has swept much of the globe. Support for the multilateral approach, which has kept most of the world at peace since World War II, is in decline. Foreign aid, which governments agreed in 2015 would need to be boosted in order to help developing countries attain their SDGs, is down. And global hunger, exacerbated increasingly by climate shocks, is up, causing mounting numbers of desperate people to leave their homes where eking out a living is no longer sustainable. Migration is not one of the Sustainable Development Goals. It is largely an outcome of inadequate progress towards attaining these goals. Orderly migration is essential to maintaining our economic wellbeing. Disorderly migration is not. Uncontrolled migration continues to end tragically for many refugees and those seeking a better life. In destination countries in Europe and the United States, it has become an emotive election issue. The UN’s Global Compact on Refugees and Migration that was designed to bring order to the chaos does not have universal support. Speaker: Trevor Page Trevor Page worked for the United Nations for 31 years. Most of his work was with the World Food Programme in Africa and Asia, but he was also seconded to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, the Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, and the UN‘s Department of Special Political Questions, Regional Cooperation, Decolonization and Trusteeship. He has served as Head of Mission in major countries, including China and India, and at the headquarters of the World Food Programme in Rome, Italy, as the Director of emergency humanitarian relief, worldwide. Some of Mr. Page’s most challenging assignments were as the chief troubleshooter for the UN’s relief operations during the Great Sahelian Drought; in the Sudan, at the height of the civil war in the south; as the first head of the UN in Eritrea at the end of its 30-year civil war with Ethiopia; in Uganda and Congo for the Rwanda crisis; and opening and managing the WFP office in North Korea when devastating floods on top of a collapsed economy caused the DPRK to appeal to the outside world for help. Moderator: TBA Date: Thursday, January 16, 2020 Time: Doors open 11:30 am, presentation 12 noon, buffet lunch 12:30 pm, Q&A 1 – 1:30 pm Location: Royal Canadian Legion (please enter at north door) 324 Mayor Magrath Dr. S. Lethbridge Cost: $14 buffet lunch with dessert/coffee/tea/juice or $2 coffee/tea/juice. RSVP not required

Climate Change, Hunger and Migration: Can we attain the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals? (Part 2 Q&A)

Five years ago, in 2015, the governments of the United Nations agreed on a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that we would need to attain by 2030 to make life better and more sustainable for future generations. Our governments had come to accept that we were rapidly overpopulating the planet, depleting our natural resources and destroying our environment. These goals cover the full range of socio-economic and environmental factors that our governments agreed were essential for our peace, wellbeing and prosperity. They called these goals our 2030 Agenda. Since then, a wave of populist nationalism has swept much of the globe. Support for the multilateral approach, which has kept most of the world at peace since World War II, is in decline. Foreign aid, which governments agreed in 2015 would need to be boosted in order to help developing countries attain their SDGs, is down. And global hunger, exacerbated increasingly by climate shocks, is up, causing mounting numbers of desperate people to leave their homes where eking out a living is no longer sustainable. Migration is not one of the Sustainable Development Goals. It is largely an outcome of inadequate progress towards attaining these goals. Orderly migration is essential to maintaining our economic wellbeing. Disorderly migration is not. Uncontrolled migration continues to end tragically for many refugees and those seeking a better life. In destination countries in Europe and the United States, it has become an emotive election issue. The UN’s Global Compact on Refugees and Migration that was designed to bring order to the chaos does not have universal support. Speaker: Trevor Page Trevor Page worked for the United Nations for 31 years. Most of his work was with the World Food Programme in Africa and Asia, but he was also seconded to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, the Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, and the UN‘s Department of Special Political Questions, Regional Cooperation, Decolonization and Trusteeship. He has served as Head of Mission in major countries, including China and India, and at the headquarters of the World Food Programme in Rome, Italy, as the Director of emergency humanitarian relief, worldwide. Some of Mr. Page’s most challenging assignments were as the chief troubleshooter for the UN’s relief operations during the Great Sahelian Drought; in the Sudan, at the height of the civil war in the south; as the first head of the UN in Eritrea at the end of its 30-year civil war with Ethiopia; in Uganda and Congo for the Rwanda crisis; and opening and managing the WFP office in North Korea when devastating floods on top of a collapsed economy caused the DPRK to appeal to the outside world for help. Moderator: TBA Date: Thursday, January 16, 2020 Time: Doors open 11:30 am, presentation 12 noon, buffet lunch 12:30 pm, Q&A 1 – 1:30 pm Location: Royal Canadian Legion (please enter at north door) 324 Mayor Magrath Dr. S. Lethbridge Cost: $14 buffet lunch with dessert/coffee/tea/juice or $2 coffee/tea/juice. RSVP not required

Alberta’s Alternative Budget: What is the Official Opposition NDP Proposing? (Part 1)

The Official Opposition’s 2019 Alternative Budget lays out a path for Alberta to create jobs, diversify the economy, protect vital public services, and bring the provincial budget to balance. This path is based on economic data in the government’s budget, and more crucially, on widespread consultation with Albertans. Last fall, the NDP Caucus held town hall meetings in communities across Alberta, and the people that spoke up, provided a tremendous amount of information about what values and priorities they wanted to see reflected in the provincial budget. NDP’s budget suggests that there is another way. It does not include the $4.7-billion corporate handout in the UCP Government’s budget. As Albertans have seen, that corporate handout so far has failed to create jobs and many companies distributed the money to shareholders, and or invested it in places outside of Alberta, like Newfoundland, Texas and Wisconsin. NDP’s budget reverses the hidden scheme of raising personal income taxes on every single Albertan in the UCP Government’s budget. Instead, NDP’s budget establishes a one per cent increase to personal income tax on the top one per cent. Unlike UCP, the NDP would limit tuition hikes in post-secondary to the rate of inflation and continue to reduce school/busing fees. NDP would maintain the cap on insurance premiums and electricity bills and would not download a $200-million bill for policing onto municipalities. The speaker will elaborate and detail other measures the NDP would take in order to deal with Alberta’s financial woes. Speaker: Shannon Phillips, Alberta MLA for Lethbridge West Constituency Shannon Phillips was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, representing the constituency of Lethbridge-West, on May 5, 2015, and was re-elected on April 16, 2019. She currently serves as chair of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts. During her first term Ms. Phillips served as Minister of Environment and Parks, Minister Responsible for the Status of Women, Minister Responsible for the Climate Change Office and as Deputy Government House Leader. Prior to serving with the Legislative Assembly, Ms. Phillips worked with the Alberta Federation of Labour as a policy analyst for five years. She also spent five years as a member of the board of directors for the Womanspace Resource Centre, a nonprofit organization that provides resources, referrals and education to the community and to individual women. In 1999 she received a bachelor of arts with honours in political science and in 2002 she completed her master of arts, both at the University of Alberta. Moderator: Mike Spencer Date: Thursday, January 9, 2020 Time: Doors open 11:30 am, presentation 12 noon, buffet lunch 12:30 pm, Q&A 1 – 1:30 pm Location: Royal Canadian Legion (please enter at north door) 324 Mayor Magrath Dr. S. Lethbridge Cost: $14 buffet lunch with dessert/coffee/tea/juice or $2 coffee/tea/juice. RSVP not required

Alberta’s Alternative Budget: What is the Official Opposition NDP Proposing? (Part 2 Q&A)

The Official Opposition’s 2019 Alternative Budget lays out a path for Alberta to create jobs, diversify the economy, protect vital public services, and bring the provincial budget to balance. This path is based on economic data in the government’s budget, and more crucially, on widespread consultation with Albertans. Last fall, the NDP Caucus held town hall meetings in communities across Alberta, and the people that spoke up, provided a tremendous amount of information about what values and priorities they wanted to see reflected in the provincial budget. NDP’s budget suggests that there is another way. It does not include the $4.7-billion corporate handout in the UCP Government’s budget. As Albertans have seen, that corporate handout so far has failed to create jobs and many companies distributed the money to shareholders, and or invested it in places outside of Alberta, like Newfoundland, Texas and Wisconsin. NDP’s budget reverses the hidden scheme of raising personal income taxes on every single Albertan in the UCP Government’s budget. Instead, NDP’s budget establishes a one per cent increase to personal income tax on the top one per cent. Unlike UCP, the NDP would limit tuition hikes in post-secondary to the rate of inflation and continue to reduce school/busing fees. NDP would maintain the cap on insurance premiums and electricity bills and would not download a $200-million bill for policing onto municipalities. The speaker will elaborate and detail other measures the NDP would take in order to deal with Alberta’s financial woes. Speaker: Shannon Phillips, Alberta MLA for Lethbridge West Constituency Shannon Phillips was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, representing the constituency of Lethbridge-West, on May 5, 2015, and was re-elected on April 16, 2019. She currently serves as chair of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts. During her first term Ms. Phillips served as Minister of Environment and Parks, Minister Responsible for the Status of Women, Minister Responsible for the Climate Change Office and as Deputy Government House Leader. Prior to serving with the Legislative Assembly, Ms. Phillips worked with the Alberta Federation of Labour as a policy analyst for five years. She also spent five years as a member of the board of directors for the Womanspace Resource Centre, a nonprofit organization that provides resources, referrals and education to the community and to individual women. In 1999 she received a bachelor of arts with honours in political science and in 2002 she completed her master of arts, both at the University of Alberta. Moderator: Mike Spencer Date: Thursday, January 9, 2020 Time: Doors open 11:30 am, presentation 12 noon, buffet lunch 12:30 pm, Q&A 1 – 1:30 pm Location: Royal Canadian Legion (please enter at north door) 324 Mayor Magrath Dr. S. Lethbridge Cost: $14 buffet lunch with dessert/coffee/tea/juice or $2 coffee/tea/juice. RSVP not required

Are Public Sector Workers better off in Alberta than in other provinces? (Part 1)

The September 3, 2019 release of the Report and Recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Panel on Alberta’s Finances (the MacKinnon report) argues that both the size and compensation of Alberta’s public sector are higher than comparator provinces, and suggests that the government could reduce the size of the public sector (through employee attrition), consider alternative delivery of government programs and services (through the private and non-for-profit sectors), and recommends that the government establishes a legislative mandate that sets the salary levels for all public sector employees. Those recommendations were largely followed in the provincial budget tabled on Oct 24, but the speaker had argued that in contrast to the MacKinnon report, his research concluded that Alberta does not really stand out in any way relative to the other three large provinces, Ontario, Quebec and BC, both in terms of the size of its public sector and its compensation. If anything, Alberta has tended to have a smaller public sector compared to other jurisdictions using certain measures. Similarly, the compensation to public employees in Alberta does not stand out in any way, except for the fact that Alberta was and still is a high wage province and public sector wages, at least in part, reflect this. Where Alberta does stand out is that relative to overall earnings within the province, Alberta public sector employees tend to earn relatively less than their counterparts in other jurisdictions, especially when the overall high relative real earnings in the province are considered. Speaker: Dr. Richard Mueller Richard Mueller is professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Lethbridge, academic director of the Lethbridge Branch of the Prairie Regional Research Data Centre, and associate director of the Educational Policy Research Initiative at the University of Ottawa. Dr. Mueller holds a BA (Honors) and an MA from the University of Calgary, and a PhD from the University of Texas at Austin. He taught at the University of Maine before joining the University of Lethbridge in 2000, and was seconded to Statistics Canada from 2009 through 2011. Moderator: Collen Quintal Date: Thursday, December 19, 2019 Time: Doors open 11:30 am, presentation 12 noon, buffet lunch 12:30 pm, Q&A 1 – 1:30 pm Location: Royal Canadian Legion (please enter at north door) 324 Mayor Magrath Dr. S. Lethbridge Cost: $14 buffet lunch with dessert/coffee/tea/juice or $2 coffee/tea/juice. RSVP not required

Are Public Sector Workers better off in Alberta than in other provinces? (Part 2 Q&A)

The September 3, 2019 release of the Report and Recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Panel on Alberta’s Finances (the MacKinnon report) argues that both the size and compensation of Alberta’s public sector are higher than comparator provinces, and suggests that the government could reduce the size of the public sector (through employee attrition), consider alternative delivery of government programs and services (through the private and non-for-profit sectors), and recommends that the government establishes a legislative mandate that sets the salary levels for all public sector employees. Those recommendations were largely followed in the provincial budget tabled on Oct 24, but the speaker had argued that in contrast to the MacKinnon report, his research concluded that Alberta does not really stand out in any way relative to the other three large provinces, Ontario, Quebec and BC, both in terms of the size of its public sector and its compensation. If anything, Alberta has tended to have a smaller public sector compared to other jurisdictions using certain measures. Similarly, the compensation to public employees in Alberta does not stand out in any way, except for the fact that Alberta was and still is a high wage province and public sector wages, at least in part, reflect this. Where Alberta does stand out is that relative to overall earnings within the province, Alberta public sector employees tend to earn relatively less than their counterparts in other jurisdictions, especially when the overall high relative real earnings in the province are considered. Speaker: Dr. Richard Mueller Richard Mueller is professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Lethbridge, academic director of the Lethbridge Branch of the Prairie Regional Research Data Centre, and associate director of the Educational Policy Research Initiative at the University of Ottawa. Dr. Mueller holds a BA (Honors) and an MA from the University of Calgary, and a PhD from the University of Texas at Austin. He taught at the University of Maine before joining the University of Lethbridge in 2000, and was seconded to Statistics Canada from 2009 through 2011. Moderator: Collen Quintal Date: Thursday, December 19, 2019 Time: Doors open 11:30 am, presentation 12 noon, buffet lunch 12:30 pm, Q&A 1 – 1:30 pm Location: Royal Canadian Legion (please enter at north door) 324 Mayor Magrath Dr. S. Lethbridge Cost: $14 buffet lunch with dessert/coffee/tea/juice or $2 coffee/tea/juice. RSVP not required

Successes and Challenges for U of L Students Supporting Refugee Students (Part 1)

In 2016, students at the U of L established a local chapter of the World University Service of Canada (WUSC). It is a Canadian international development non-profit organization dedicated to improving education, employment and empowerment opportunities for youth, women and refugees in more than 25 countries around the world. WUSC’s Student Refugee Program (SRP) combines refugee resettlement with opportunities for higher education. The U of L WUSC program changes the lives of young people here and around the world. Crucial to the program’s success is its unique youth-to-youth sponsorship model which empowers young Canadian students to play an active role in the sponsorship of refugee students. At U of L, students play a critical role in both the financial support and the day-to-day social and academic support to SRP students. The speakers will describe the successes and challenges they’ve encountered along the way and give thoughts to what lies ahead. Speakers: Dr. Anne Dymond and Abdullah Mouslli Anne Dymond, Ph.D., teaches art history and museum studies at the U of L. Her book, Diversity Counts: Gender, Race and Representation in Canadian Art Galleries (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2019) has been called "an impressive and sobering analysis of gender and diversity in contemporary art, and a compelling call for more inclusive curating." Anne is also active in the community. She is Co-Chair of U of L's Refugee Action Committee and faculty advisor to the WUSC student club. Both these groups support and sponsor the emigration of qualified refugees to Canada. She was awarded the University's Senate Volunteer Award and the YWCA's Woman of Distinction Award for this work. Anne also sits on the Lethbridge United Way Board of Directors. Abdullah Mouslli was the first refugee student to be sponsored by WUSC ULeth local committee. He moved to Lethbridge in 2016 and now he is pursuing a combined degree in New Media and Marketing. Abdullah worked with Lethbridge Family Services as an Arabic interpreter, co-founded a social enterprise to empower newcomer women in Lethbridge, and has been the SRP coordinator with WUSC Uleth local committee which makes him the go-to person to help refugee students settling in their new home. Moderator: Jamie MacKenzie Date: Thursday, December 12, 2019 Time: Doors open 11:30 am, presentation 12 noon, buffet lunch 12:30 pm, Q&A 1 – 1:30 pm Location: Royal Canadian Legion (please enter at north door) 324 Mayor Magrath Dr. S. Lethbridge Cost: $14 buffet lunch with dessert/coffee/tea/juice or $2 coffee/tea/juice. RSVP not required Visit the SACPA website: http://www.sacpa.ca At this session, SACPA will gratefully be accepting audience donations to U of L’s WUSC program and as well, match those donations equally.