Barret Weber
Barret Weber is a former research manager with Parkland Institute. He completed his PhD in the Department of Sociology at the University of Alberta.
Twitter: @barretweber
Detaxation got us into this mess, can Alberta’s new government get us out?
blog | Sep 02, 2015With a budget deficit approaching $6 billion, Albertans are seeing the impact of decades of Progressive Conservative detaxation policies. Albertans voted last May for a new approach to government, but it remains to be seen if the NDP government will be able to deliver.
Alberta politics, the sands, and the truth
blog | Aug 12, 2015Are Linda McQuaig's widely publicized comment that "a lot of the oilsands oil may have to stay in the ground" truly "anti-Alberta" as Wildrose Leader Brian Jean has suggested? Or is it a conversation that Albertans need to have? Parkland Institute Research Manager Barret Weber wades into the debate.
Neoliberalism and the Non-Profit Social Services Sector in Alberta
research | Jun 18, 2015Successive PC governments in Alberta experimented with neoliberal approaches to the non-profit social services sector, with negative consequences for the sector and the people it serves.
Ending Pay to Play: The Need for Political Finance Reform in Alberta
research | Jun 12, 2015A ban on corporate and union donations is widely expected to be one of the new NDP government's first bills, but it is important that the government does not stop there, but rather works to systematically change Alberta's campaign finance rules to reform the provinces’s political culture in the public interest.
A plan for Alberta’s post-secondary institutions?
blog | Apr 16, 2015Alberta Budget 2015 represents a turning point for post-secondary education funding and governance. Unfortunately, this turn signals the start of a race to the bottom, and the Prentice government’s lack of a coherent vision for the sector.
Post-secondary education not premier’s priority
media | Mar 20, 2015In late February, Premier Jim Prentice betrayed his lack of vision for post-secondary education in the province, saying: “There are always carrots and sticks.” But what’s the objective?
A modest proposal: Alberta needs income and corporate tax reform
blog | Jan 29, 2015It has now been a couple of weeks since Alberta Premier Jim Prentice floated the idea of a provincial sales tax in a speech to the Edmonton Economic Development Corporation (EEDC) luncheon (a trial balloon which Albertans soon overwhelmingly deflated, according to a somewhat-questionable poll on the issue).