“A Five-Year-Old’s Idea of Politics,” UCalgary Graduate Students React to Provincial Priorities Act

CALGARY—The Graduate Students’ Association of the University of Calgary (GSA) is roundly condemning the Albertan government’s threat to block federal/post-secondary deals that it doesn’t agree with.

“It’s a purely ideological decision,” said James Steele, the GSA President. “There are no principles involved. You could tell just from the presser: when someone asked Premier Smith about politically motivated interference, she could only deflect the question.”

“It’s a temper tantrum being funded by tax-payer dollars,” he added.

The GSA’s Policy Library notes that over $170 million has been cut from the University of Calgary’s operating budget over the past five years, adjusted for inflation. This has led to severe cuts in essential support staff, like Graduate Program Administrators, and research supports. Furthermore, the GSA argues that funding for non-repayable student financial aid has stagnated, if not outright declined, when adjusted for inflation and population growth, even factoring in the new spending from Budget 2024.

“And now we’re being told that any research projects funded by the federal government might be blocked,” Steele said. “If Premier Smith cared about decentralization, she’d leave it to the institutions themselves to decide what funding sources they want to pursue. If she cared about the Alberta Advantage, she’d reliably fund post-secondary so that we can do our jobs.”

“Instead, students are caught in the UCP’s forever war with Ottawa. The same kind of policy uncertainty that’s driving the renewable business out of Alberta is going to drive graduate students away, too.”

The GSA is particularly concerned about the timing of this announcement, given that they anticipate either new funding for the federal Tri-Council granting agencies or an increase in the number of Tri-Council awards in the upcoming federal budget. The GSA—alongside their federal advocacy partners, the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA)—have been pushing Ottawa to increase financial support for student researchers, which has been stagnant for nearly twenty years.

“Since 2017 There are at least five Parliamentary studies, chalk-full of interviews from business leaders, that talk about the essential role that graduate students play in the innovation system and productivity,” Steele said. “That’s on top of a whole branch of economics—human capital theory—talking about the returns to investment on education. And we’ve got everyone, including the Bank of Canada, sounding the alarm on Canada’s terrible productivity growth.”

“You read these studies and you read the worries people have about our productivity, and then you see Smith’s announcement,” he added. “Does it play well with her base of support? Absolutely. But any serious person in the room will just be shaking their heads and saying, ‘what the hell is the Premier thinking’?”