Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs (SACPA)

Canada Pension Plan Under Threat: How Can We Save Our Retirement Security? Speaker Brad Lafortune from Public Interest Alberta

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Take Back Alberta supporters in the United Conservative Party arguably want to take Albertans out of the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and substitute an “Alberta Pension Plan” (APP). Given its possible long-term effect on the lives of Albertans, this should have been one of the more important issues in the recent election campaign. Instead, the Premier refused to discuss it at all, and now the provincial government is spending more than 7.5 million dollars promoting the plan. This means that Albertans don’t have meaningful information about the proposed new plan. The benefit structure is likely to be similar to the CPP (although probably not identical), but the risks are many …

Join us to hear Brad Lafortune discuss the specifics about how the CPP works. He will also discuss what civil society, businesses, seniors, and many Albertans are doing to come together to make sure CPP is there for all Albertans – and all Canadians – for generations to come.

Speaker: Brad Lafortune, Public Interest Alberta

Brad has worked most of his life on Treaty 6 territory in Alberta as an advocate for worker rights and social, economic, and environmental justice. Before becoming ED at PIA, Brad served as the Chief of Staff to the Minister of Labour for the Alberta New Democrat government, where he helped implement Alberta’s $15 dollar minimum wage and set up North America’s first Coal Workforce Transition Fund.

Organizing, advocacy, and political action that centers on real stories and builds power are the principles that guide Brad’s work. He is committed to building diverse, inclusive, and equitable networks with Public Interest Alberta to help shape our province’s future. When he’s not working on campaigns or advocacy work, you can find Brad running around with his brilliant daughter Maven and their dog, Rufio.

Unethical oil and gas: Alberta’s shameful secret? with speaker Markham Hislop

Arguably, Alberta’s hydrocarbons are not ethical, at least no more so than what is produced in most other oil and gas producing jurisdictions. The speaker will contend that both UCP and NDP governments have subscribed to some version of “ethical oil,” which holds that Alberta’s are some of the most environmentally responsible hydrocarbons in the world, bolstered by democratic institutions and a “world class” regulatory regime.

In fact, “ethical oil” is a facade to hide the truth: that oil companies, the provincial government, and Alberta’s various energy regulators have long conspired to put profits above the public interest, with the province now potentially on the hook for hundreds of billions of dollars to clean up abandoned wells and leaking tailings ponds.

Speaker: Markham Hislop

Markham Hislop is an energy journalist and publisher of Energi News (formerly North American Energy News). Hislop uses a technology adoption model of his own design to analyze and report upon all the facets of the energy industry, from oil and gas to EVs and renewables.

Over the past seven years, Hislop has probably reported about the Energy Transition more than any other North American journalist. His work has been published in Canadian Business, Alberta Oil Magazine, Hart Energy Publications, World Oil, Vancouver Magazine, and other publications. Hislop’s most recent book is The New Alberta Advantage: Technology, Policy, and the Future of the Oil Sands.

 

Developing a collaborative climate resiliency and adaptation plan.Tristan Walker

In October 2022, the Town and MD of Pincher Creek collaborated with the Piikani Nation land department to begin developing a Climate Resiliency and Adaptation plan. This process was enabled due to funding provided by the Municipal Climate Change Action Center. The plan development focused on a stakeholder-driven methodology to identify key climate risks in the region and develop plans to adapt to those risks within a changing environment. The project was led by a team consisting of members from the Town, MD, regional emergency management organization, and Piikani Nation. The outputs included full climate models for the MD of Pincher Creek to identify what may change based on a 3-degree global warming level, an economic analysis of the cost of not adapting to climate change, and finally a risk assessment and adaptation plan. This presentation will describe the key outcomes, the process for developing them, and lessons learned that can be leveraged by other organizations looking to undertake similar processes.

Speaker: Tristan Walker, Municipal Energy Project Lead for the Town & Municipal District of Pincher Creek

Moderator: Gord Grimes

Tristan grew up in Northwest British Columbia where he developed a passion for playing within the vast natural playground. With a Master’s degree in sustainable energy, Tristan is keen to develop solutions within our way of life to sustain that natural playground so future generations get the opportunity to enjoy it the way we have. In his role with Pincher Creek, Tristan focuses most of his efforts on energy management activities such as energy audits, retrofits, and analysis to the tune of an 8% reduction in corporate GHG emissions over the last two years and a total reduction of $90,000 in utility spending annually. Further to this role, Tristan led the project team for the Climate Resiliency and Adaptation plan that sought to identify pressing climate risks as we move into the future with adaptation measures to address those risks. Currently, he continues to support the municipality in reducing utility costs and is working on implementing items identified in the adaptation plan.

It Takes a Community: Why community needs to take action on child abuse. Speaker, Kristine Cassie.

Each year the Government of Alberta acknowledges October as Child Abuse Prevention Month. Recently the Chinook Sexual Assault Centre renovated space in downtown Lethbridge to accommodate the needs of the Chinook Child and Youth Advocacy Centre – a program that provides coordinated, multidisciplinary approach in a safe, comfortable environment to address the needs of abused children, youth and their families. The talk will explore the prevalence of child sexual abuse, long standing implications of abuse when left unaddressed, and why it is important, as a community, to take action.

Speaker: Kristine Cassie

Kristine has worked in the human services sector for more than 39 years with substantial experience and advocacy efforts in the areas of youth empowerment, housing, domestic and sexual violence. Skilled at the development of programs, policy development, and risk management, Kristine has been instrumental in a number of community networks including: the Sexual Violence Action Committee; Domestic Violence Action Team; Southern Alberta Network of Children’s Services; Social Housing In Action; Coalition of Municipalities Against Racism and Discrimination; YWCA Canada Atlantic Expansion Project; YWCA Canada Integrating Committee; Miner’s Days Historical Association of Coalhurst; Association of Alberta Sexual Assault Services, Provincial Child Advocacy Centre Network, Alberta Council of Women’s Shelters and is a member of the Coaching Association of Canada Task Force on Gender Based Violence and Teen Dating Violence which will conclude its work in the fall of 2023. Kristine served one term as a School Board Trustee at Palliser School Division continues to serve on the Board of Governors at Lethbridge College, and currently is the CEO of the Chinook Sexual Assault Centre. Kristine is a registered social worker, holds a master’s in leadership and is a certified community traumatologist. Kristine is Metis and a lifelong Albertan, having been raised in Grande Prairie, she currently resides in Southern Alberta in the Town of Coalhurst. Together with her husband of 38 years, they have raised a wonderful young man, Gabriel, who now resides in Ottawa.

 

Food, Funds or Free Time! With Danielle McIntyre , Executive Director - Interfaith Food Bank

Interfaith Food Bank is on the front lines of addressing food security issues in our community, and is an organization that has had to grow and adapt to the ever-evolving food security crisis in order to meet community needs. Food banks in Alberta experienced a 73% increase from 2019 – 2022 and in just the last year, local need has increased again by 30%. This presentation will discuss the rise in food insecurity and how community members can lend support by offering food, funds or free time to food security initiatives.

Speaker: Danielle McIntyre

Moderator: Terry Shillington

Danielle McIntyre has been involved with the non-profit, charitable sector for over 20 years, and has worked as Executive Director with Interfaith Food Bank since 2006. A graduate of Winston Churchill High School in Lethbridge, Danielle holds a degree in Recreation Administration, with a special focus on leisure and community development from the University of Alberta. Grateful to have the opportunity to work for a cause she believes in, Danielle notes it’s the community nature of Interfaith Food Bank that keeps her excited about coming to work every day – working with great people, on initiatives and projects that make a true difference in the lives of the families they serve.

What is the difference between donating Blood and Plasma? With Brenna Scott Business Development Manager at Lethbridge’s Canadian Blood Services Plasma Centre

While many have heard of donating blood, donating plasma is still a relatively next concept. Some people still believe that donating blood and plasma are one and the same, and while both have you sitting in a chair hooked up to a machine, they are different processes with different purposes.

When people think of blood donation, they are typically thinking of whole blood donation. Whole blood donations include all four blood components–red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, and plasma and are used to treat blood loss, typically due to injury or surgery. In contrast, when donating plasma, the straw-colored part of your blood, only that one part is collected with the other three parts of your blood returned to the donor.

Plasma is used to create different therapies to help replace missing, deficient, or malfunctioning proteins in individuals with serious, often life-threatening diseases, such as hemophilia and primary immunodeficiency. The speaker will explain further and make clear that right now, there is a global need for more plasma donations as the usage of plasma-based therapies are becoming more widely accepted for a larger number of disorders.

Speaker: Brenna Scott

Brenna is the Business Development Manager at Lethbridge’s Canadian Blood Services Plasma Centre. Canandian Blood Services is a non-profit organization that manages the national supply of blood products for patients across Canada.

The Lethbridge Plasma Centre was the second of its kind in Canada and opened in December of 2020. Brenna helped not only with the hiring of the staff, but the promotion of the Centre to ensure donors would be aware of the importance of plasma and ready to book appointments and support the Centre as soon as it opened. Brenna plays an integral role in ensuring that the organization can continue to provide life-saving treatments to those in need and she has helped bring the Centre to where it is today with over 27,000 donations of plasma collected.

Brenna is now responsible for overseeing the center’s donor base, educating the public about the need for and importance of plasma, and developing partnerships with local businesses and community organizations.

Should Bison be restored to Eastern slope public Wildlands? with Mike Judd

For more than 130,000 years, bison roamed the ecosystems of western Canada and US and while doing so, influenced the lives of Indigenous Peoples and every other species they shared space and time with, before they were hunted to near extinction in the late 1800s.

The speaker will talk about his journey to the Bob Creek Wildlands in Alberta’s foothills and finding evidence of past bison existence there, which led a group of hikers to start investigating the possibility of returning bison to this part of the Eastern slopes. Reintroducing bison populations to some areas of their former range can arguably help re-establish relationships to that land and other species while improving ecological diversity.

Speaker: Mike Judd

Mike was born and raised on the East slope of the Alberta Rockies in the Foothills west of Pincher Creek. His education includes book learning and accompanying old Mountain men on their travels. For much of his life, Mike has been a guide and outfitter involved in hunting, trail riding along the continental divide and dog sled tours in the winter.

Mike’s reverence for nature has also led to many attempts to throw sprags in the wheels of progress and the relentless encroachment on our last remaining intact wilderness with occasional success! Currently he is one of the founding members of a new organization, the Foothills Bison Restoration Society. Mike is also a painter

Whacky Alberta History

Alberta has a lot of history, but no one has pulled it together. Some say we struggled against an unfriendly land, others say we struggled against eccentric governments, and others against an always evil East. Some say we are just misplaced Americans? But are these just old comfortable sawhorses. What are the alternatives? The speaker will offer one.

Speaker: Frits Pannekoek

Frits Pannekoek has been Director of Historic Sites for Alberta, for 25 years and involved in over a dozen of Alberta’s heritage centers. Today he is Professor of History at Athabasca University. He has published widely on Alberta’s heritage and on Alberta’s Indigenous history. He was awarded an Honorary doctorate from the University of South Africa and an Alberta Order of Excellence for his work in heritage preservation and online learning.

Parkrun – A Global Fitness and Well Being Phenomenon

Back in 2004, in a London, England Park, a global fitness and well-being activity, named Parkrun, was born. Parkrun is a network of free and computer timed 5-kilometer runs and walks held every Saturday morning at 9am local time at over 2200 locations in 26 countries around the world. There are over 5 million Parkrunners registered worldwide. Parkruns are community-based events that encourage physical fitness, health and wellness, and socialization for people of all ages and abilities. Parkrun’s mission statement is to help create a “healthier and happier planet’’!

The Henderson Lake Parkrun in Lethbridge is one of 43 Parkruns in Canada. It provides Lethbridge residents and tourists, an opportunity to participate as a runner, walker or volunteer in a free, outdoor activity on a weekly basis. The speaker will describe the many benefits of Parkrun participation, and will review the history of Parkrun and the process for participating in the weekly event.

Speaker: Jim Carter

Jim Carter is the Event Director for the Henderson Lake Parkrun. Jim is a retired Royal Canadian Air Force Officer, a Chartered Professional Accountant and an avid marathoner and triathlete. Jim and his wife, Ellen, started Parkrun in Lethbridge in March, 2019.

Will Danielle Smith Heed the Election Message Urban Voters in Alberta Sent Her? With speaker Dr. Duane Bratt

The 2023 Alberta provincial election is history and the UCP won a majority government. However, their majority was reduced from 63-24 to 49-38, which included several cabinet ministers losing their seat. As expected, the UCP almost swept the rural vote where they have 37 out of 41 seats. The NDP dominated Edmonton and made strong inroads in Calgary to the point where a few thousand total votes in six ridings could have changed who formed government.
As a result of the election, Danielle Smith’s UCP is likely to have more rural representation in cabinet than it did in the 2019-2023 term. The speaker will analyze the key elements and results of Alberta’s 2023 provincial election as well as give his thoughts on what another four years of UCP rule means for Albertans.

Speaker: Dr. Duane Bratt

Duane Bratt is a political science Professor in the Department of Economics, Justice, and Policy Studies at Mount Royal University (Calgary, Alberta). He teaches in the area of international relations and Canadian public policy. His research interests include Canadian nuclear policy, Canadian foreign policy, and Alberta politics. Recent publications include: co-editor of Blue Storm: The Rise and Fall of Jason Kenney (University of Calgary Press, 2023), co-editor, Orange Chinook: Politics in the New Alberta (University of Calgary Press, 2019), co-editor, Readings in Canadian Foreign Policy: Classic Debates and New Ideas 3rd edition (Oxford University Press, 2015) and author of Canada, the Provinces, and the Global Nuclear Revival (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2012). Current projects include a book on the politics of covid in Alberta. Duane is also a regular commentator on political events.