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Alberta

Alberta Day Trips for the first long weekend of the summer

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1796 fur trade history at Fort George and Buckingham House, one of many Alberta history experiences at heritage facilities across the province.

From the Province of Alberta

Sites, museums and archives open for summer

Everyone can enjoy affordable adventures over the May long weekend and all summer at Alberta’s heritage facilities.

The summer season begins May 15 as provincial historic sites, museums and archives open the doors or start summer hours. From antique vehicles, Ukrainian dancing and vintage food, to dinosaurs and ancient bison-hunting culture, there is something for people of all ages.

“We are opening our doors and calling all Albertans to discover our beautiful province through our historic sites, museums and archives. I know you will be inspired and moved by the stories and people that have shaped Alberta.”

Leela Aheer, Minister of Culture, Multiculturalism and Status of Women

New and favourite experiences

There are many different things to do at Alberta’s 20 provincially owned and operated historic sites, museums and Provincial Archives. From special events and one-time exhibits to new programs and old favourites, here is a sample of what is happening:

  • The Vikings are here at the new Royal Alberta Museum

    Check out the museum’s first international travelling exhibition, Vikings: Beyond the Legend, and then relax at the outdoor café, now open with the museum’s summer hours.

  • Vintage food at the Provincial Archives of Alberta

    Food and Community, the newest gallery exhibit, features historic images of how food brings people together. It opens May 22.

  • Tea time at Victoria Settlement

    On May 19, celebrate Queen Victoria’s 200th birthday over tea and cake, and continue the tradition with Tea and Tales Tuesdays in July and August.

  • Hike an ancient trail at Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump

    Starting May 18, and every other Saturday throughout the summer, travel the ancient drive lanes and hear the stories of how the plains people hunted the mighty buffalo from Blackfoot guides.

  • Full week of fun at the Oil Sands Discovery Centre

    Still looking for summer activities for your children? Summer science camps are now weeklong.

  • Spotlight on the past at Historic Dunvegan

    Behind the Scenes exhibit includes an archeological dig experience. On May 18, you can join interpreters for a humorous and interactive outdoor show.

  • Feats with feet at the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village

    Step into an authentic early 1900s pioneer experience when the village opens its doors on May 18 and enjoy Ukrainian dancing at the Celebration of Spring on May 20.

  • Fast and furious at the Reynolds-Alberta Museum

    Sports car enthusiasts will want to see the two new exhibits: Our Checkered Past: Racing in Alberta and Honda Motorcycles of the ’70s & ’80s.

Plan your summer in Alberta

Explore and discover our common heritage with the Experience Alberta’s History annual pass. Pay one fee and enjoy access to all the provincial historic sites and museums, and stay at a nearby Alberta Parks’ campground for an authentic Alberta experience.

Share your moments during #MuseumWeek

May 13-19 is #MuseumWeek, a worldwide celebration of culture on social networks, and International Museum Day is on May 18. Share your favourite moments at Alberta’s historic sites, museums and archives throughout the week using #ABhistory.

After 15 years as a TV reporter with Global and CBC and as news director of RDTV in Red Deer, Duane set out on his own 2008 as a visual storyteller. During this period, he became fascinated with a burgeoning online world and how it could better serve local communities. This fascination led to Todayville, launched in 2016.

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Alberta

Is Canada’s Federation Fair?

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The Audit David Clinton

Contrasting the principle of equalization with the execution

Quebec – as an example – happens to be sitting on its own significant untapped oil and gas reserves. Those potential opportunities include the Utica Shale formation, the Anticosti Island basin, and the Gaspé Peninsula (along with some offshore potential in the Gulf of St. Lawrence).

So Quebec is effectively being paid billions of dollars a year to not exploit their natural resources. That places their ostensibly principled stand against energy resource exploitation in a very different light.

You’ll need to search long and hard to find a Canadian unwilling to help those less fortunate. And, so long as we identify as members of one nation¹, that feeling stretches from coast to coast.

So the basic principle of Canada’s equalization payments – where poorer provinces receive billions of dollars in special federal payments – is easy to understand. But as you can imagine, it’s not easy to apply the principle in a way that’s fair, and the current methodology has arguably lead to a very strange set of incentives.

According to Department of Finance Canada, eligibility for payments is determined based on your province’s fiscal capacity. Fiscal capacity is a measure of the taxes (income, business, property, and consumption) that a province could raise (based on national average rates) along with revenues from natural resources. The idea, I suppose, is that you’re creating a realistic proxy for a province’s higher personal earnings and consumption and, with greater natural resources revenues, a reduced need to increase income tax rates.

But the devil is in the details, and I think there are some questions worth asking:

  • Whichever way you measure fiscal capacity there’ll be both winners and losers, so who gets to decide?
  • Should a province that effectively funds more than its “share” get proportionately greater representation for national policy² – or at least not see its policy preferences consistently overruled by its beneficiary provinces?

The problem, of course, is that the decisions that defined equalization were – because of long-standing political conditions – dominated by the region that ended up receiving the most. Had the formula been the best one possible, there would have been little room to complain. But was it?

For example, attaching so much weight to natural resource revenues is just one of many possible approaches – and far from the most obvious. Consider how the profits from natural resources already mostly show up in higher income and corporate tax revenues (including income tax paid by provincial government workers employed by energy-related ministries)?

And who said that such calculations had to be population-based, which clearly benefits Quebec (nine million residents vs around $5 billion in resource income) over Newfoundland (545,000 people vs $1.6 billion) or Alberta (4.2 million people vs $19 billion). While Alberta’s average market income is 20 percent or so higher than Quebec’s, Quebec’s is quite a bit higher than Newfoundland’s. So why should Newfoundland receive only minimal equalization payments?

To illustrate all that, here’s the most recent payment breakdown when measured per-capita:

Equalization 2025-26 – Government of Canada

For clarification, the latest per-capita payments to poorer provinces ranged from $3,936 to PEI, $1,553 to Quebec, and $36 to Ontario. Only Saskatchewan, Alberta, and BC received nothing.

And here’s how the total equalization payments (in millions of dollars) have played out over the past decade:

Is energy wealth the right differentiating factor because it’s there through simple dumb luck, morally compelling the fortunate provinces to share their fortune? That would be a really difficult argument to make. For one thing because Quebec – as an example – happens to be sitting on its own significant untapped oil and gas reserves. Those potential opportunities include the Utica Shale formation, the Anticosti Island basin, and the Gaspé Peninsula (along with some offshore potential in the Gulf of St. Lawrence).

So Quebec is effectively being paid billions of dollars a year to not exploit their natural resources. That places their ostensibly principled stand against energy resource exploitation in a very different light. Perhaps that stand is correct or perhaps it isn’t. But it’s a stand they probably couldn’t have afforded to take had the equalization calculation been different.

Of course, no formula could possibly please everyone, but punishing the losers with ongoing attacks on the very source of their contributions is guaranteed to inspire resentment. And that could lead to very dark places.

Note: I know this post sounds like it came from a grumpy Albertan. But I assure you that I’ve never even visited the province, instead spending most of my life in Ontario.

1

Which has admittedly been challenging since the former primer minister infamously described us as a post-national state without an identity.

2

This isn’t nearly as crazy as it sounds. After all, there are already formal mechanisms through which Indigenous communities get more than a one-person-one-vote voice.

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Alberta

Big win for Alberta and Canada: Statement from Premier Smith

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Premier Danielle Smith issued the following statement on the April 2, 2025 U.S. tariff announcement:

“Today was an important win for Canada and Alberta, as it appears the United States has decided to uphold the majority of the free trade agreement (CUSMA) between our two nations. It also appears this will continue to be the case until after the Canadian federal election has concluded and the newly elected Canadian government is able to renegotiate CUSMA with the U.S. administration.

“This is precisely what I have been advocating for from the U.S. administration for months.

“It means that the majority of goods sold into the United States from Canada will have no tariffs applied to them, including zero per cent tariffs on energy, minerals, agricultural products, uranium, seafood, potash and host of other Canadian goods.

“There is still work to be done, of course. Unfortunately, tariffs previously announced by the United States on Canadian automobiles, steel and aluminum have not been removed. The efforts of premiers and the federal government should therefore shift towards removing or significantly reducing these remaining tariffs as we go forward and ensuring affected workers across Canada are generously supported until the situation is resolved.

“I again call on all involved in our national advocacy efforts to focus on diplomacy and persuasion while avoiding unnecessary escalation. Clearly, this strategy has been the most effective to this point.

“As it appears the worst of this tariff dispute is behind us (though there is still work to be done), it is my sincere hope that we, as Canadians, can abandon the disastrous policies that have made Canada vulnerable to and overly dependent on the United States, fast-track national resource corridors, get out of the way of provincial resource development and turn our country into an independent economic juggernaut and energy superpower.”

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