Parkland Research

An assessment of the risks associated with the Alberta government's current initiative to reform existing health legislation and create a new Alberta Health Act.

The Stelmach government's closed-door decision to remove 246 beds from Alberta Hospital Edmonton, and redistribute them without a detailed plan, demonstrates that mental illness is not treated in Alberta with the same level of service, care, and dignity afforded other serious illnesses.

Alberta's growing inequality carries tremendous costs that cut across all of society. This policy agenda comes out of the ongoing work of the Alberta College of Social Workers to identify the sources of that inequality and recommend solutions.

Alberta ranks last in Canada on a number of measures of women's economic equality. Alberta is also the only province where there is no voice for women, either through a ministry responsible for the status of women, women's directorate, or advisory council on the status of women.

Alberta families watch a large bite of their take-home pay get eaten up by fees for critical public services. That bite will get bigger with the looming budget cuts.

Alberta could move from deficit into surplus simply by abandoning the “flat tax” which has been a massive giveaway, especially to the wealthy. Making the tax system more progressive would also stimulate the economy, creating and protecting jobs for working Albertans.

This paper is aimed at promoting a discussion of the oil and gas industry in Canada, and specifically the prospect of transforming its mandate to one aimed at serving the public interest.

Now that that boom has collapsed, comments to the effect that the Alberta government has been a big spender, is overspending and has lots of fat to cut from its programs are common. This report illustrates that the Alberta government is not the highest per capita spender in Canada.

The NWT Government has recognized the seriousness of the recession, calling it an "unprecedented economic turmoil" that is "likely to last into 2010 and possibly longer." But the budget is largely business-as-usual.

The government of Alberta has consistently used inaccurate or incomplete numbers to undermine public confidence in the sustainability of public healthcare. This report exposes the false economies used to create a sense of crisis. It illustrates the clear trends in health care spending.