Government & Policy
Post-Secondary Learning Act:
Bill 43 Gets First Reading
The Alberta government’s proposed Post-Secondary Learning Act was introduced in the Legislature this past May. As Bill 43, it received First Reading, but further debate was postponed until the November sitting of the House, to allow time for consultations with stakeholders and the public over the summer. Amendments to the legislation are expected before it is passed this fall.
The new Act is intended to amalgamate and update four existing statutes: the Colleges Act; the Technical Institutes Act; the Universities Act; and the Banff Centre Act. This is more than just a housekeeping measure; according to the Ministry of Learning, the revised legislation is designed to “support a seamless learning system and benefit students through increased access to degree-completion opportunities and greater flexibility for institutions to respond to student needs.”
The Minister, Dr. Oberg, emphasized that Bill 43 is meant to underpin the Campus Alberta concept of “an accessible, responsive, and flexible learner-centred system,” and to set the stage for future developments. In specific terms, the Campus Alberta initiative aims to promote collaboration between post-secondary institutions in education delivery, “while protecting the unique differences between the sectors” enshrined in existing legislation.
The proposed Act, as it stands, provides for the establishment of a Campus Alberta Board of Accreditation and Co-ordination “to facilitate the development and expansion of degree completion opportunities.” Details of the new board’s composition, responsibilities, and working methods are left to policy regulations, which are currently being developed to support the legislation.
To ensure system-wide coordination, public post-secondary institutions will be required to have their mandates approved by the Minister, and will be prevented from carrying on activities which do not fall within their mandates. However, at the same time, under the new Act, the boards of the institutions will also be given greater flexibility to conduct their activities, “so they are better able to respond to the needs of their learners.”
Of particular interest to college and institute academic staff is section 88 of the Bill, which expressly prohibits strikes and lockouts in all public post-secondary institutions. Currently, the Mount Royal Faculty Association is the only association in the system with the right to strike, but academic staff associations at other colleges, having given up the right to strike in collective bargaining, are free to negotiate it back. The new legislation curtails the freedom of academic staff associations and the boards to choose strike/ lockout as a dispute resolution mechanism. ACIFA has been working to have Section 88 deleted from the amended Bill.
Other controversial provisions of the new Act include a section (64) giving the boards the power of final “settlement of questions” concerning the “powers and duties” of officers, employees and bodies (such as academic and non-academic staff associations, and students associations and councils). There is also new language on the “ownership of intellectual property” (section 69).
Consultations on these and other provisions of Bill 43 continue between the Ministry and stakeholders, including ACIFA. An amended version of the Bill is expected to pass in November.