Child Intervention Panel
On January 24th, after a year of meeting with indigenous communities, parents, front-line workers, agencies, foster parents and government officials, the all-party Ministerial Panel on Child Intervention agreed to 26 recommendations to help improve the lives of children in care, and hopefully prevent many kids from entering in care in the first place.
While the recommendations aren’t perfect, I would have preferred we took one final step to have the panel ensure the recommendations have measurable outcomes and are time-based, in the end I’m comfortable saying that our work will help improve Alberta’s child intervention system. The next steps are to allow the expert panelists to work with the department to add more details to the recommendations and ensure Albertans can track the government’s progress implementing these important changes.
The work to implement system-wide changes must be done in partnership with families, staff, agency partners, and especially with indigenous communities. I will stay engaged and ensure that these recommendations don’t end up gathering dust on a shelf, and that we see real action to improve the lives of children.
Spring Sitting of the Legislature and Budget 2018
As I write this newsletter, I am preparing for the spring sitting of the Legislature which will begin with the Speech from the Throne on March 8th followed by the budget later in the month. I fully expect another deficit budget; the only question is how large it will be. For the third year in a row, the Alberta Party Caucus will be releasing our own shadow budget to show Albertans how we would address the challenges facing our province. We will focus on job creation, creating an attractive investment climate and support for the energy industry while ensuring high-quality front-line services are maintained. Our budget will also put forward a concrete plan to not only balance the budget, but to start paying down debt.
On April 7th, I will be hosting my annual Budget Open House. Please join me at the Glamorgan Community Hall (4207 41 Ave SW) from 10 am to noon to discuss the 2018 Alberta Budget. For more information please visit www.calgaryelbow.ca.
