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‘Historic’ CPP deal struck DEAL ON CANADA PENSION PLAN REFORM WAS SWIFT IN POLICY-MAKING TERMS BY THE CANADIAN PRESS OTTAWA — Higher Canada Pension Plan premiums are still more than two years off, and the ensuing benefits — meant to accrue to future generations — still several decades away. All of which makes it rather ironic
that the “historic” CPP deal reached Monday between Ottawa and most, but not all, of the provinces and territories came together in a relative blink of an eye — by policy-making standards, at least. Even federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau, himself a pension expert, had expected it to take until the end
of the year for negotiations to wrap up. Instead, the provinces are now being asked to finalize an agreement by July 15 that will eventually increase contributions and retirement benefits through the public plan. Following weeks of talks and an allday meeting in Vancouver on Monday, finance ministers emerged with an
agreement in principle. Even provinces such as Saskatchewan and British Columbia, which had expressed concerns about the timing of CPP reform, had signed on. Only Manitoba and Quebec declined to agree to the terms. Please see CPP on Page A8
NATIONAL ABORIGINAL DAY
Caribou fencing plan panned BY MARY-ANN BARR ADVOCATE STAFF Critics say the Alberta government’s plan to fence in threatened woodland caribou to protect them is an experiment and doesn’t address the real issue — loss of habitat, not wolves. The province recently released a draft plan to protect the Little Smoky and A La Peche herds in their ranges northwest of Hinton. Under the federal Species At Risk Act, Alberta is required to preserve 65 per cent of critical caribou habitat by October 2017. The Alberta Environment and Parks plan proposes to build a 100-sqkm fenced caribou rearing facility within the Little Smoky caribou range. Eventually young adult caribou would be released outside of the fenced area to help increase the caribou population. This would protect adult and young caribou from predation and allow for the removal of predators and other animals within the fenced area. There are only only about 70 Little Smoky caribou. Alberta has a total of about 3,500 caribou. The province also wants to work with industry to ensure the restoration of over 10,000 kilometres of seismic lines to caribou habitat in the two caribou ranges. Overall, it would also protect 4.4 million more acres of caribou range in Northern Alberta for a total of 12 million acres. Dwight Rodtke, retired problem wildlife specialist for Alberta Agriculture, said Tuesday that the real problem threatening caribou is their loss of habitat, not wolves. There are all kinds of problems inherent with the fencing project, said Rodtke, who lives in the Rocky Mountain House area. They will have to kill everything inside the fence area, such as wolves, and other ungulates that would compete with the caribou. Please see CARIBOU on Page A8
Photo by JEFF STOKOE/Advocate staff
From the left, Leslie Stonechild, Dakota Dion, Brandon McDonald and Dean Johnson drum and sing during a flash mob at Bower Place. The drummers were joined by The Red Feather Women in Red Deer as a surprise celebration of National Aboriginal Day at the shopping centre over the noon hour. As the men drummed, the women and some mall shoppers danced in a circle around them. See story about National Aboriginal Day on page A7.
Red Deer, Olds colleges renew partnership BY MARY-ANN BARR ADVOCATE STAFF
CAMPUS ALBERTA CENTRAL
OLDS — Red Deer and Olds colleges renewed their partnership to provide rural Central Albertans with access to post-secondary education in small communities across the region. Six years ago Campus Alberta Central (CAC) was formed by Red Deer College and Olds College, and on Tuesday they signed a renewal of their joint-venture agreement. In 2016-17, a total of 18 post-secondary programs will be available online or in classes at learning sites in 21 communities across Central Alberta. Joel Ward, Red Deer College president and CAC board chair, said discussion has also begun to expand CAC access to Ponoka, Wetaskiwin and the
four First Nations at Maskwacis. He said a significant learning site in terms of size and scope could be developed in Ponoka to serve the area. “We’ve been approached by the mayor of Ponoka and they’re looking at creating an education learning centre to house a number of different things in Ponoka,” said Ward at an event to sign the venture agreement at Olds College on Tuesday. He said an announcement on the expansion could come this year. Red Deer College will also continue to push for polytechnic university status. “We want to add that last category of credential to Central Albertans throughout the region as well. We
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Please see CAMPUS on Page A8
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believe we’ve demonstrated over six years our ability to reach out to Central Alberta and to let the government know we have the expertise and ability to offer those kinds of programming throughout Central Alberta,” Ward said. Jason Dewling, vice-president of academics and research at Olds College, said the colleges are working with the communities to find out what kind of local programs they want from Olds and Red Deer. “There is very little overlap between the institutions. It allows us to have a non-competitive partnership where we can maximize each other’s strengths,” Dewling said.
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