Lethbridge-West MLA and Opposition Finance Critic Shannon Phillips. (Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko

NDP calls for reversal of post-secondary education cuts as means of economic recovery

May 26, 2020 | 1:07 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – “The UCP have been dealt a pretty tough hand with the pandemic, but what they’ve done is make a bad situation worse for cities like Lethbridge.”

Those were the remarks of Lethbridge-West MLA and Opposition Finance Critic Shannon Phillips.

Alberta’s New Democratic Party (NDP) wants the provincial government, lead by the United Conservative Party (UCP), to restore funding to the post-secondary education sector.

Between 16 colleges and universities, the NDP claims that 3,538 jobs have been lost as a direct result of budget cuts.

LNN reported in February that Lethbridge College and the University of Lethbridge lost a combined $10-million in funding, which resulted in the institutions reducing staffing levels by nearly 400.

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Then in May once the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the U of L announced that 145 continuing support staff were either being temporarily laid off or had their hours reduced.

“What I’ve heard already from the Chamber of Commerce and from others in the business community is that these cuts have an effect across the Lethbridge economy because our public sector and our private sector work so collaboratively together,” says Phillips.

“[The Government of Alberta has] not been straight forward with the extent of the effect and the impact on our city and beyond.”

As Alberta desperately tries to assemble plans for economic recovery during the public health crisis, Phillips believes post-secondary education needs to be part of that.

She told LNN that training and education are part of any recovery when there is a “very deep and severe recession.”

“We know that, when there are job losses, people go back to school. We also know that some of those new skills are so key to diversifying the economy.”

The NDP is also renewing calls for other actions that they would like to see the government take.

One of those is to restore the tuition freeze that the party enacted when they were in power.

“It means that rural kids can come into Lethbridge College or over to Medicine Hat College and get a reasonable, affordable, entry-level college certificate or other education right here at home without having to go to Calgary or Edmonton for that.”

Phillips says it is hard to say for sure just how much money has been taken out of the advanced education budget since the UCP assumed office last spring, but claims that it is more than the party admits to.