2020 Black History Month Celebration at the Alberta Legislature has been confirmed. The Speaker’s Office will be hosting the annual celebration at the Legislature Rotunda on Monday, February 3rd, 2020, at 6:00 pm. NDP Reception to follow.
It is often said that failure to plan, is planning to fail. In the same line, I will say failure to budget is budgeting to fail. Whatever we do, we need a plan to help us get there. So too are the political parties, ruling and opposition.
Last time we analyzed the budget of the ruling UCP and how it impacts the lives of Diversity Magazine’s over 50K audience across Alberta. The opposition NDP put out its own budget this week. This budget might not see the light of day as the NDP is not in power, but it however gives an insight into the direction they plan to lead the province as an alternative to the UCP. We have to also take a look at the Shadow Budget such that we know where the NDP focus is and as a shadow to the UCP, it’s important to know if they take multicultural issues seriously enough – watching on your behalf while you are busy with other things.
Multicultural issues include but not limited to racism, discrimination, lack of opportunities, lack of recognition of foreign credentials, and like everyone else; social services, healthcare, and jobs.
The Shadow Budget put forth by the NDP this week balances one year later than the UCP Budget but restores the cuts made by the UCP budget, restores funding to the grants that support Alberta’s multicultural communities. It’s also heavy on pipelines, the tech sector, jobs, and most importantly diversifying Alberta’s oil and gas-dependent economy.
The no go area of the Shadow Budget is the no mention of racism and discrimination, multiculturalism, neither does it make mention of diversity and inclusion from an NDP that organized so many multicultural events while in power such as; Black History Month and Diwali.
Is the NDP walking back its glowing multicultural past? Is having a diverse caucus enough to ignore multicultural issues? Is the NDP building an effective Obama-like coalition of minorities, LGBTQ2S+, unions, and middle class to take on the fading Premier Kenney or are they hoping for a miracle from moderate conservatives and disgruntled social conservatives?
We reached out to the NDP and we got this response:
“…Alberta’s NDP Caucus values the province’s diverse population and will always ensure we fight for more inclusive policies in our schools, in our workplaces and in our communities. Our team of MLAs and our opposition caucus and constituency staff is a strong reflection of our province – we come from many different walks of life and cultural backgrounds…”.
The statement continues: “… In this past legislative session, we have seen first-hand that Jason Kenney and the UCP are willing to sacrifice a great deal of essential services and programs to pay for the $4.7 billion hole they blew in the province’s budget with their massive corporate giveaway. Along with cuts to Alberta’s education and health care systems, they are also willing to cut right at the heart of Alberta’s communities, including cutting over $56 million from grants like the Community Initiatives Program (CIP) and $13 million to the Community Facilities Enhancement Program (CFEP) this year alone. One group we know that is directly impacted is MAC Islamic Centre Rahma Mosque, which relied on CFEP funds to fix the heating in their mosque that serves thousands of Muslim Edmontonians…”.
