Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs (SACPA)

Voter turnout has dropped in almost every advanced industrial country but Alberta’s voter turnout has dropped even more precipitously. According to the speaker, the reduced voter turnout is a symptom of a larger problem: people have become disengaged from government, and they have to be reconnected. What is to be done about such disconnection? The speaker will argue that a provincial constitution would give people control over their government and reconnect citizens with government. It would provide Albertans with a document to inspire our future and reflect our past. Mr. Sindlinger is trying to build a coalition of individuals throughout Alberta to build a citizen’s constitution for the province. Speaker: Tom Sindlinger Tom Sindlinger is a Canadian Economist with a focus on the marketing of natural resources and transportation, and governance. He is a former elected member of the Alberta Legislative Assembly and has successfully completed 18 international projects in 12 countries for both private and public entities (such as the Canadian International Development Agency; The National Democratic Institute in Washington; and, The Jimmy Carter Center in Atlanta).

Some may think medicare issues have gone away with the election of a more liberal Tory Premier. Are things going just fine with health care in Alberta? How is this Provincial Government under Allison Redford doing as stewards of Alberta Health Services? Should we be concerned about the state of primary health care? Is creeping privatization of health care still an issue and are the recent cuts to home care the right way to go? What are the pressing decisions and choices facing Albertans and particularly our elected Government in the coming months? Where do we need to be alert, vocal and informed, as we move forward? The speaker will explore and discuss these issues and choices . Speaker: Sandra Azocar Sandra is the executive director of Friends of Medicare for Alberta and has been a social activist for more than 30 years in this province. Previously, she has worked as a child protection employee, a community organizer and a labour activist. Prior to coming to Friends of Medicare, Sandra was elected as a vice president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE). She was a member of the board of Directors of Friends of Medicare for six years before becoming its executive director.

Some may think medicare issues have gone away with the election of a more liberal Tory Premier. Are things going just fine with health care in Alberta? How is this Provincial Government under Allison Redford doing as stewards of Alberta Health Services? Should we be concerned about the state of primary health care? Is creeping privatization of health care still an issue and are the recent cuts to home care the right way to go? What are the pressing decisions and choices facing Albertans and particularly our elected Government in the coming months? Where do we need to be alert, vocal and informed, as we move forward? The speaker will explore and discuss these issues and choices . Speaker: Sandra Azocar Sandra is the executive director of Friends of Medicare for Alberta and has been a social activist for more than 30 years in this province. Previously, she has worked as a child protection employee, a community organizer and a labour activist. Prior to coming to Friends of Medicare, Sandra was elected as a vice president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE). She was a member of the board of Directors of Friends of Medicare for six years before becoming its executive director.

SACPA and the Lethbridge Public Library present a special evening session of the Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs on Tuesday Feb 5, 2013 from 7-9pm MLA for Calgary-Buffalo Kent Hehr presented a Private Member’s Bill in November 2012 that called on the Alberta government to eliminate public funding for private schools. Alberta is one of only five provinces that subsidizes private students. Furthermore, Alberta provides 70% funding to private schools, the richest subsidy to private schools in the country. Hehr has said that the $130 million set aside to support private schools in the 2012-13 budget is desperately needed in the public school system to implement programs like full day kindergarten and a school lunch initiative. Defendants of private schools have argued that private schools offer educational choices not available in the public system but Hehr counters that he is not calling for an abolition of private schools but the public funding for them: "I believe our public school system is an excellent place for kids to learn," he said. "If people do not want to take part in the public school system, that is their right. But it's not a corresponding right for the taxpayers to fund that choice for a religious or cultural option." Speaker: Kent Hehr Kent Hehr has served as MLA for Calgary-Buffalo since 2008. Born and educated in Calgary, Kent Hehr is a proud Albertan with many ties to his hometown. He was named Graduate of the Decade by the University of Calgary Alumni Association. Before entering political life, Kent Hehr practiced law with the prestigious national law firm Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP. Kent has served as Chairman of the Canadian Paraplegic Association (Alberta), Chairman of the City of Calgary Advisory Committee on Accessibility, Director of the Downtown West Community Association, board member for the Calgary Canucks Junior ‘A’ Alumni Society and member of the leaders committee of the United Way of Calgary.

The Wildrose Party became the official opposition in the 87 seat Alberta Legislature on April 23, 2012. Despite capturing 34 % of the vote, only 17 Wildrose MLA’s managed to get elected including party leader Danielle Smith. During the 2012 fall session of the Legislature, the Wildrose Party was very active introducing numerous amendments to proposed legislation, but usually to no avail. The Wildrose believe they heard loud and clear from Albertans that they want solutions to balance the budget, improve health care and education and to put an end to what appears to be a PC Government culture of corruption, conflict of interest and entitlement. Following through on an election promise, Wildrose MLAs exercised their free-vote policy throughout the recent session in the Legislature, while the PCs continued to toe the party line on every vote. “We know the role of MLAs is to listen to their constituents and thoughtfully consider every piece of legislation that comes through the house,” Smith says. “Our Wildrose team is committed to listening to Albertans and implementing true and meaningful democratic reform.” Speaker: Danielle Smith, leader of Alberta’s official opposition Danielle Smith was elected as the Member of the Legislative Assembly for Highwood on April 23, 2012. She was elected as leader of the Wildrose Party of Alberta on October 17, 2009. She sits on the Special Standing Committee on Members’ Services and the Standing Committee on Alberta’s Economic Future. Prior to entering politics, Danielle was the director of provincial affairs for Alberta with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, CFIB. She worked with all levels of government to represent the interests of CFIB’s 10,000 small-business members in Alberta. Before joining CFIB, Danielle had extensive experience in the media. She was an editorial writer and columnist at the Calgary Herald for six years. She has served as host of the TV program Global Sunday and also hosted radio programs in Calgary. Her public policy experience began with an internship at the Fraser Institute. She was also elected as a trustee for the Calgary board of education and served as the director of the Alberta Property Rights Initiative and the Canadian Property Rights Research Institute. Danielle received her B.A.in both English and Economics from the University of Calgary

The Wildrose Party became the official opposition in the 87 seat Alberta Legislature on April 23, 2012. Despite capturing 34 % of the vote, only 17 Wildrose MLA’s managed to get elected including party leader Danielle Smith. During the 2012 fall session of the Legislature, the Wildrose Party was very active introducing numerous amendments to proposed legislation, but usually to no avail. The Wildrose believe they heard loud and clear from Albertans that they want solutions to balance the budget, improve health care and education and to put an end to what appears to be a PC Government culture of corruption, conflict of interest and entitlement. Following through on an election promise, Wildrose MLAs exercised their free-vote policy throughout the recent session in the Legislature, while the PCs continued to toe the party line on every vote. “We know the role of MLAs is to listen to their constituents and thoughtfully consider every piece of legislation that comes through the house,” Smith says. “Our Wildrose team is committed to listening to Albertans and implementing true and meaningful democratic reform.” Speaker: Danielle Smith, leader of Alberta’s official opposition Danielle Smith was elected as the Member of the Legislative Assembly for Highwood on April 23, 2012. She was elected as leader of the Wildrose Party of Alberta on October 17, 2009. She sits on the Special Standing Committee on Members’ Services and the Standing Committee on Alberta’s Economic Future. Prior to entering politics, Danielle was the director of provincial affairs for Alberta with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, CFIB. She worked with all levels of government to represent the interests of CFIB’s 10,000 small-business members in Alberta. Before joining CFIB, Danielle had extensive experience in the media. She was an editorial writer and columnist at the Calgary Herald for six years. She has served as host of the TV program Global Sunday and also hosted radio programs in Calgary. Her public policy experience began with an internship at the Fraser Institute. She was also elected as a trustee for the Calgary board of education and served as the director of the Alberta Property Rights Initiative and the Canadian Property Rights Research Institute. Danielle received her B.A.in both English and Economics from the University of Calgary

Energy drives life. Energy use has been a great advantage to our species. However, we are moving toward a compelling predicament as our societies thrive and our population grows. With population growth our energy needs increase. Our current sources of energy are thought by many to be leading to harmful climate change – and at the same time they are depleting at a rate we find discomforting. The consequences to our complex society and to other life forms on earth are uncertain. Do Alberta and Canada need an energy strategy to guide us in our challenge? Global society is seemingly coming to an energy supply and use crisis: how much energy, produced how, in which location and how distributed. The present system of energy supply and distribution based on uncoordinated short term ventures will not be adequate for our future needs. Energy supply and use begs for integrated planning over the long term. The size and nature of the infrastructure required does not allow for abrupt changes. The time for thoughtful knowledge driven planning and action is now. Our two speakers will address these issues, making cases for a long term energy strategy and a basis for rational implementation. Speakers: Kent Peacock and Cosmos Voutsinos Dr. Peacock attained his PhD in Philosophy from the University of Toronto in 1991. In 1996 he joined the University of Lethbridge. His special interests are professional ethics, environmental issues and foundations of physics. These interests impelled his inquiry into issues related to acquiring and applying energy to the needs of modern global society. Mr. Voutsinos is a professional mechanical engineer who graduated with a B.Sc. from the University of Waterloo and with a M.Sc. from McMaster University. Mr. Voutsinos has worked internationally in the field of energy conversion to electrical energy. He has developed keen insight into global and local energy issues and how policy might be established to guide effective and economic energy development.

Energy drives life. Energy use has been a great advantage to our species. However, we are moving toward a compelling predicament as our societies thrive and our population grows. With population growth our energy needs increase. Our current sources of energy are thought by many to be leading to harmful climate change – and at the same time they are depleting at a rate we find discomforting. The consequences to our complex society and to other life forms on earth are uncertain. Do Alberta and Canada need an energy strategy to guide us in our challenge? Global society is seemingly coming to an energy supply and use crisis: how much energy, produced how, in which location and how distributed. The present system of energy supply and distribution based on uncoordinated short term ventures will not be adequate for our future needs. Energy supply and use begs for integrated planning over the long term. The size and nature of the infrastructure required does not allow for abrupt changes. The time for thoughtful knowledge driven planning and action is now. Our two speakers will address these issues, making cases for a long term energy strategy and a basis for rational implementation. Speakers: Kent Peacock and Cosmos Voutsinos Dr. Peacock attained his PhD in Philosophy from the University of Toronto in 1991. In 1996 he joined the University of Lethbridge. His special interests are professional ethics, environmental issues and foundations of physics. These interests impelled his inquiry into issues related to acquiring and applying energy to the needs of modern global society. Mr. Voutsinos is a professional mechanical engineer who graduated with a B.Sc. from the University of Waterloo and with a M.Sc. from McMaster University. Mr. Voutsinos has worked internationally in the field of energy conversion to electrical energy. He has developed keen insight into global and local energy issues and how policy might be established to guide effective and economic energy development.

Ancient civilizations routinely relied on shackled human muscle. It took the energy of slaves to plant crops, clothe emperors, and build cities. In the early nineteenth century, the slave trade became one of the most profitable enterprises on the planet, and slaveholders viewed religious critics as hostilely as oil companies now regard environmentalists. Yet when the abolition movement finally triumphed in the 1850s, it had an invisible ally: coal and oil. As the world's most portable and versatile workers, fossil fuels dramatically replenished slavery's ranks with combustion engines and other labour-saving tools. Since then, oil has transformed politics, economics, science, agriculture, gender, and even our concept of happiness. But as the speaker argues in his provocative new book, we still behave like slaveholders in the way we use energy and that urgently needs to change Many North Americans and Europeans today enjoy lifestyles as extravagant as those of Caribbean plantation owners. Like slaveholders, we feel entitled to surplus energy and rationalize inequality, even barbarity, to get it. But endless growth is an illusion, and now that half of the world's oil has been burned, our energy slaves are becoming more expensive by the day. What we need, the speaker will argue, is a radical new emancipation movement. Speaker: Andrew Nikiforuk Andrew Nikiforuk has been writing about the oil and gas industry for nearly 20 years and cares deeply about accuracy, government accountability, and cumulative impacts. He has won seven National Magazine Awards for his journalism since 1989 and top honours for investigative writing from the Association of Canadian Journalists. Andrew has also published several books. The dramatic, Alberta-based Saboteurs: Wiebo Ludwig’s War Against Big Oil, won the Governor General's Award for Non-Fiction in 2002. The Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of the Continent, which considers the world’s largest energy project, was a national bestseller and won the 2009 Rachel Carson Environment Book Award and was listed as a finalist for the Grantham Prize for excellence in reporting on the environment. Empire of the Beetle, a startling look at pine beetles and the world’s most powerful landscape changer, was nominated for the Governor General’s award for Non-Fiction in 2011. Andrew’s latest book, The Energy of Slaves, gives a radical analysis of our master-and-slave relationship to energy and a call for change.

Ancient civilizations routinely relied on shackled human muscle. It took the energy of slaves to plant crops, clothe emperors, and build cities. In the early nineteenth century, the slave trade became one of the most profitable enterprises on the planet, and slaveholders viewed religious critics as hostilely as oil companies now regard environmentalists. Yet when the abolition movement finally triumphed in the 1850s, it had an invisible ally: coal and oil. As the world's most portable and versatile workers, fossil fuels dramatically replenished slavery's ranks with combustion engines and other labour-saving tools. Since then, oil has transformed politics, economics, science, agriculture, gender, and even our concept of happiness. But as the speaker argues in his provocative new book, we still behave like slaveholders in the way we use energy and that urgently needs to change Many North Americans and Europeans today enjoy lifestyles as extravagant as those of Caribbean plantation owners. Like slaveholders, we feel entitled to surplus energy and rationalize inequality, even barbarity, to get it. But endless growth is an illusion, and now that half of the world's oil has been burned, our energy slaves are becoming more expensive by the day. What we need, the speaker will argue, is a radical new emancipation movement. Speaker: Andrew Nikiforuk Andrew Nikiforuk has been writing about the oil and gas industry for nearly 20 years and cares deeply about accuracy, government accountability, and cumulative impacts. He has won seven National Magazine Awards for his journalism since 1989 and top honours for investigative writing from the Association of Canadian Journalists. Andrew has also published several books. The dramatic, Alberta-based Saboteurs: Wiebo Ludwig’s War Against Big Oil, won the Governor General's Award for Non-Fiction in 2002. The Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of the Continent, which considers the world’s largest energy project, was a national bestseller and won the 2009 Rachel Carson Environment Book Award and was listed as a finalist for the Grantham Prize for excellence in reporting on the environment. Empire of the Beetle, a startling look at pine beetles and the world’s most powerful landscape changer, was nominated for the Governor General’s award for Non-Fiction in 2011. Andrew’s latest book, The Energy of Slaves, gives a radical analysis of our master-and-slave relationship to energy and a call for change.