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By Gates Guarin

Second forum tonight in Brooks

First of three Brooks-Medicine Hat byelection forums in the books

Nov 2, 2022 | 4:14 PM

BROOKS, AB – Less than a week away from election day in the Brooks-Medicine Hat riding, forums to question the candidates kicked off last night. The first of three public forums was held at Griffin Park School in Brooks, with all five candidates participating. The forum was held by the Alberta Teacher’s Association Grasslands Local #34, and centred on education in the region.

“It was important for us as educators, and parents were invited to this forum as well to hear what the candidates had to say about the issues that members had identified were important,” said Jason Schilling, ATA president. Schilling was in attendance at last night’s forum, and spoke about what he heard from the candidates.

Among the topics was the issue of class sizes.

“We have class sizes across the province that are ballooning in some areas, and we need to address that, especially in our Grade 4, 5 and 6 areas,” Schilling says. “In some jurisdictions, class sizes are 30, 35 kids, and you go back to the [Alberta’s Commission on Learning] recommendations that were done years ago, it says you should have about 20 kids in those classes, and some of those are over 30.”

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Other issues, such as the lack of in-class supports, mental health and the role of educational assistants were also discussed. Region-specific ideas were also talked about during the forum.

“One of the things I heard yesterday as well was making sure that rural areas, especially in the Brooks-Medicine Hat area, have access to the programming we might see in larger jurisdictions as well,” Schilling says. “So career technology studies and other things, you know, people would traditionally call shop or foods, making sure kids have access to those courses as well in areas that might be shrinking in population.”

“…sit down and talk with [teachers] and actually listen and believe them…” _{-Jason Schilling, ATA President}

While Schilling did not comment on what he did or did not agree with from the candidates, there was one universal issue which was addressed by all the candidates.

“All of them talked about funding. Some candidates talked about where do we get the money, or is moving funding around more appropriate. I think [Alberta Party candidate] Barry Morishita talked about priorities funding, so where are hotspots, attack those and then move on to the rest of the system.”

Questions from the audience were also posed to the candidates, and ranged from the importance of anti-racism education in the province, to a question about being prepared for diploma exams amidst a chaotic few years under the pandemic, to the lack of pay for educational assistance.

Schilling says the elected candidate should be re-engaging with the ATA and teachers across the region and the province.

“A lot of problems that we see in the rough relationship that we’ve had with government is the fact that teachers feel like government doesn’t listen to them or their concerns, or take their concerns seriously, and that’s really one easy initial step to take with teachers in that area in particular, but across the province, is to sit down and talk with them and actually listen and believe them when they say, we need these things to help our students.”

The second of three public forums is being held Wednesday night in Brooks at the Heritage Inn & Convention Centre, and will be hosted by the Brooks & District Chamber of Commerce. The forum will begin at 7 p.m. The final forum, hosted by the Medicine Hat & District Chamber of Commerce, takes place Thursday at Medicine Hat College, starting at 7 p.m.

The five candidates running for the vacant Brooks-Medicine Hat seat are: Independence Party’s Bob Blayone, Alberta NDP’s Gwendoline Dirk, Wildrose Independence Party’s Jeevan Mangat, Alberta Party’s Barry Morishita, and the UCP’s Danielle Smith.