Premier addresses education in Airdrie
Alberta Premier Alison Redford recently told a gathered crowd of Rocky View Schools’ students, parents and teachers, that addressing the needs of fast-growing communities, including Airdrie, Chestermere and Langdon, is a priority for her government.
Redford, along with Education Minister Thomas Lukaszuk and Service Minister Manmeet Bhullar, were at Airdrie’s Muriel Clayton Middle School on Jan. 25 as part of the four-day Government Cabinet Tour, which swept across the province last week.
She said health care and education are two of the main issues in communities such as Airdrie, Chestermere and Cochrane, especially due to the number of young families in the area.
“(Airdrie is) a community that is also connected to rural communities, it’s connected to a large city, it has growing families, it’s got health-care issues, it’s got education issues, economic development issues – all of these pieces need to come together,” said Redford, who took office in October as Alberta’s 14th premier.
“Airdrie is a community that speaks to the particular challenges that we have with growth. The annexation work that’s going on, the size of the community, just how quickly it’s growing – even in terms of redistribution, as Airdrie itself will be a constituency in the next election. What we need to do as a provincial government, is be flexible enough to know that when those issues come forward, that we have to find ways to be able to respond to them.”
Three new schools will open in Airdrie by 2014, as well as one in Chestermere. Both Redford and Lukaszuk said these buildings would help alleviate some of the current classroom shortages, but that further infrastructure development would still need to take place following their integration.
Lukaszuk, who sent a letter to students across the province recently asking what they would do if they were in his position, said the government would look at potentially constructing future schools in some different fashions by including public libraries or community recreation centres.
“Some of the best ideas I’m getting right now in my office are actually coming from students,” he said. “Construction will be beginning very soon in Airdrie. I know that is just the beginning, because there must be something special about Airdrie, as it is growing really fast.”
“The school announcements for 2014 are terribly important,” Redford said. “It is very important, that as this community grows, that we listen to everything that is going on in the community, we listen to community leadership, so that all of this is happening in an integrated way.”
Others in attendance at Muriel Clayton included Crossfield Mayor Nathan Anderson, Airdrie Mayor Peter Brown, RVS Superintendent Greg Bass and RVS board chair Bruce Pettigrew.
Redford and Lukaszuk both gave brief speeches and then opened the floor to questions from students and parents.
They were asked about classroom sizes, the affordability of post-secondary institutions, plans about further technological integration, as well as what they considered to be the priorities of the education system.
“People are concerned about their school experience and no doubt that those issues are front and foremost in their mind,” Redford said. “I was happy with the questions and I think it reflects what people are thinking right now. We have taken the time to go out as ministers, and not so much to give the speeches as to why we’ve done what we’ve done or talk about our long-term policy plans, but to listen and to ensure that some of our objectives are actually having the impact that we’d like them to have.
“This is a time where we can come together and share information in a more integrated way. It allows us to change the dialogue amongst ourselves, but also with people in the community. Sometimes it’s nice to hear when things are going well, but it’s just as important to hear when they’re not.”
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