The shine is off a province that now offers sluggish wages and Canada’s fastest inflation.
“Think I’ll go out to Alberta, weather’s good there in the fall, I got some friends that I can go to workin’ for…”
That’s not just a famous lyric by Ian Tyson. For years it’s been a siren song luring workers from other parts of Canada in search of a better life. From B.C. to Cape Breton, thousands of workers would migrate to Alberta each year in search of better jobs and higher wages.
For a decade, wages have grown more slowly in Alberta than in any other province. And workers’ real pay (adjusted for inflation) has been going backward — fast.
The latest statistics confirm that painful trend continued in 2024. Average hourly wages (for workers paid by the hour) grew 2.2 per cent last year — third worst of any province. (Most recent available wage data covers the first 10 months of 2024.) Across Canada as a whole, hourly wages grew 3.8 per cent.
But sluggish wages didn’t protect Albertans from inflation. To the contrary, Alberta recorded the fastest inflation of any province, with annual average consumer prices rising 2.9 per cent in 2024. Slow wage growth plus faster inflation means bad news for workers. The real value of the hourly wage (adjusted for inflation) declined 0.8 per cent in 2024. That marks the fourth year in a row, and the ninth year in the last 11, that real hourly wages in Alberta went backward. In contrast, real wages in other provinces have been rebounding briskly. On average across Canada, hourly wages (adjusted for inflation) grew 1.3 per cent in 2024.
The news was shocking to many non-Indigenous Canadians, while many Indigenous Peoples either witnessed the graveyards being created, or grew up hearing about the graveyards from survivors. The missing children and the graveyards were also disclosed in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) final reports. Experts expect that many more graves will be found.
What if I told you there is another entity that no one is talking about that also played a major role in the operations of these schools? My research has documented how appeals to Canadians and English citizens helped fund residential schools in the Anglican Diocese of Calgary.
Partly I have accomplished this to date through visiting nine museums and archives across Canada to learn my people’s history through historical documents. These documents reveal some details of how three different Christian denominations (Anglican, Roman Catholic and Methodist) were involved with running colonial schools, including an Indian Residential School on the Blood Reserve.
Some of my research has examined Anglican Diocese of Calgary archival records pertaining to Anglican-run residential schools in Treaty 7 territory. I examined the 1892-1908 annual reports related to St. Paul’s Mission, Kainai Reserve; St. Peter’s Mission, Piikani Reserve; St. John’s Mission, Siksika Reserve, and St. Barnabas Mission, Tsuu T’ina Reserve. In early years, these mission schools received government sponsorship through rations of beef and flour or biscuits and milk for the pupils.
Later, the government would provide a small government grant to help with the building of the school’s infrastructure. After this, the government provided a maintenance grant for children enrolled in the schools. Despite the government’s financial help, it was still not enough to cover costs needed to operate a school. This left the denomination to make up the monetary difference.
Cover of Diocese of Calgary Report on Indian Missions, 1892. The report included a list of donors and subscribers. The General Synod Archives, Anglican Church of Canada.
Mission reports solicited funds
My research has shown that to remedy this problem, the diocese decided to appeal to peoples’ caring natures in a very systematic way. Each year the Diocese of Calgary would publish a report on their evangelizing efforts for each mission within their diocese. The missions included the residential schools.
The preface mentions that the report was meant for all who may be interested in supporting the missionary work among Indigenous Peoples. Thus, potentially anyone, regardless of their religious background, could donate to the Diocese of Calgary.
The report encompassed the following sections: a short statement made by the bishop of the diocese, a missionary report for each mission, a financial statement, a list of subscribers and donors, pictures of the missions and a subscription card for donations.
Such a report caught not only the interest of national citizens but international citizens as well. The diocese listed the names of their donors, including the place where they were located. The majority of the donors came from Canada and England.
The reports do not detail the religious background of the individual donors, however the Methodist Church was listed as donating funds one year.
The TRC’s Canada’s Residential Schools: The History, Part 1 also shares that the Oblates, the Roman Catholic order that “established and managed the majority of church-run Canadian residential schools in Canada” had two “French missionary fundraising bodies that funded their work.” First is the l’Oeuvre de la Propagation de la Foi (Society for the Propagation of the Faith). Second is the l’Oeuvre de la Sainte-Enfance (Society of the Holy Childhood).
As the TRC noted: “The Protestants, like the Catholics, encouraged church members to make regular contributions to overseas missionary work … The financial support the missionaries received from outside Canada was considerable.”
Calgary Indian Missions subscription card. The General Synod Archives, Anglican Church of Canada
Contributions from many
The reports I examined, and other research, clearly indicate more people were involved in maintaining schools than just the leaders of the designated churches and the Canadian government. Instead, the daily operations were made possible through the financial contributions of citizens across Canada and the globe. These citizens were not required to make donations, but nonetheless did.
Through my research travels, I meet fellow Canadian citizens of European descent who feel so entitled to tell me their version of my people’s history. Largely their message has been to point their finger and condemn an opposing religion or Christian church that is different from their own.
My research suggests that just as donations from beyond immediate church leadership made these institutions possible, so must widespread public accountability play a part in responding to the urgent problem of the unmarked graves and the TRC Calls to Action.
No longer can we say as Canadians that we had nothing to do with the residential schools. Nor can we deflect the responsibility of the negative outcomes that the schools have had upon generations of Indigenous Peoples.
Instead, residential schools are a societal problem not only in Canada, but around the world. We must take action to rectify the wrongs that have happened for over a century and a half. In order to reconcile, we must first acknowledge the truth of what has happened and engage in justice so that together we can heal as a society and move forward in reconciliation.
If you are an Indian Residential School survivor, or have been affected by the residential school system and need help, you can contact the 24-hour Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line: 1-866-925-4419
SSAB, which produces approximately 8.8 million tonnes of steel every year at its production plants in Sweden, Finland and the United States, has invested in technology that uses clean hydrogen in place of metallurgical coal.
Metallurgical coal has long been used to manufacture steel, one of the most ubiquitous materials on the planet. Coal is conventionally used for heating and in chemical reactions to create iron, the essential ingredient needed to make steel. But as the world grapples with the climate crisis, the steel industry’s centuries-old reliance on coal — and its enormous carbon footprint — is being called into question.
According to the World Steel Association, the industry is responsible for between seven and nine per cent of the global emissions created from the burning of fossil fuels.
With the Paris Agreement setting out global goals to dramatically reduce carbon pollution and limit warming to less than two degrees by 2050, the steel sector is, for many, next up in the push to rethink age-old industries.
‘The world is looking for steel-making coal’: Alberta energy minister
“There is a tremendous resource of metallurgical coal in Alberta and the world is looking for steel-making coal,” Energy Minister Sonya Savage said in a press conference in February as she defended her government’s push to expand mining opportunities.
Metallurgical coal mines, Savage added, “can help Alberta businesses meet increasing global demand for steel and provide good-paying jobs for hard-working Albertans.”
Critics say UCP piling expenses onto Alberta families
The Opposition NDP criticized the new fee as another example of the UCP government making life more expensive for Alberta families.
“Working families are already being pushed to the brink by the pandemic and the long list of new costs Jason Kenney has imposed on them,” said Calgary-Buffalo MLA Joe Ceci in a release.
“More income tax, more property tax, more school fees, more tuition, more insurance costs, more utility costs and now a $90 fee for Albertans to enjoy a park that belongs to them. It’s an insult to the legacy of Peter Lougheed. The UCP should have learned their lesson from trying to sell off provincial parks and mine our mountains.”
The Alberta Wilderness Association also criticized the new fee.
A 2019 study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives showed the median monthly fee for toddler care in 2018 was $1,030 in Calgary, $875 in Edmonton. Median fees for infant care were higher – $1,100 in Calgary and $975 in Edmonton. Costs have continued to rise since then.
When the federal program reaches its fifth year, if all promises are kept, it could reduce that Calgary cost to about $2,800 a year for care of an infant, an annual saving of more than $10,000. And it would result in decent pay for child care workers – and higher tax revenues from their earnings.
So we can all see why Mr. Kenney would hate that!
Ms. Wright also suggested that Mr. Kenney’s creation of the working parents’ advisory group suggests he also has no idea what Alberta parents think. It’s more likely he knows perfectly well. Who wouldn’t be delighted at the prospect of saving $10,400 a year?
Plus, the economic benefits to Canada and Alberta of the proposal would be enormous.
But Mr. Kenney, it would seem, isn’t interested in the benefits of anything that doesn’t flow through a pipeline. Especially if it might do anything to challenge his apparent view that the 1950s were the last time God was in Heaven and all was right with the world.
Critics say UCP piling expenses onto Alberta families