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Alberta

Reading and math scores plummet across Canada after COVID school closures

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4 minute read

From the Fraser Institute

By Derek J. Allison – Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Education, The University of Western Ontario

Canada’s losses were similar, with a drop of 13 points in reading and 15 points in math. For context, a 20-point decline in test scores equals roughly one year of learning loss.

COVID school closures took a heavy toll on student learning. For parents in Canada, that’s the main takeaway from the new Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) test results, which show substantial declines from 2018 pre-pandemic results in reading and math among 15-year-olds (the only age that participates in PISA testing).

Among high-income OECD countries, average PISA scores dropped by an unprecedented 10 points in reading and 15 points in math. Canada’s losses were similar, with a drop of 13 points in reading and 15 points in math. For context, a 20-point decline in test scores equals roughly one year of learning loss.

How did the provinces do? This is an important question, as we don’t have a national education system in Canada.

Reading scores dropped in all provinces, with the worst decline in Newfoundland and Labrador (34 points) followed by Nova Scotia (27 points), New Brunswick (20 points), Quebec (18 points), Saskatchewan (15 points), Ontario (12 points), British Columbia and Manitoba (8 points), and Prince Edward Island and Alberta (7 points).

A similar pattern emerges in math, with Newfoundland and Labrador again suffering the greatest decline (29 points) followed by Nova Scotia (24 points), New Brunswick (23 points), Quebec and Ontario (18 points), Saskatchewan (17points), Manitoba (12 points), P.E.I. (9 points), B.C. (8 points) and Alberta (7 points).

In science, the news was somewhat better, with some provinces modestly improving and only Nova Scotia (16 points) and Newfoundland and Labrador (15 points) dropping by more than 10 points. Clearly, with the exception of P.E.I., the Atlantic provinces had the greatest losses between 2018 pre-pandemic and 2022 post-pandemic test scores.

Despite the broad harvest of decline across Canada, the distribution of provincial scores remains similar to earlier results. As in 2018 and earlier, the four largest provinces—Ontario, Quebec, B.C. and Alberta—have the highest scores in all three subjects. Quebec continues to be the highest-scoring province in math, with overlapping margins of error for the other large provinces. Math scores for the remaining provinces cluster together at a significantly lower level, with P.E.I. in the middle and Newfoundland and Labrador replacing Manitoba in last place.

Reading and science scores follow a similar pattern, but with Alberta in pole position with significantly higher scores in both subjects, the other larger provinces forming a second rank cluster, and the remaining provinces a third.

The new PISA results include a rich body of information on both the extent and nature of the pandemic disruptions, which casts revealing light on the unprecedented collapse in test scores. But crucially, the large differences in score declines between the provinces cannot be simply explained by how long schools were closed. The extent and quality of learning alternatives, teacher and parental support, and socio-economic status also played important roles.

While it will take time to better understand how some provinces and schools weathered the pandemic disruptions better than others, the drops in PISA test scores underscore the challenges students and teachers face today, especially in the hardest hit provinces.

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Alberta

The beauty of economic corridors: Inside Alberta’s work to link products with new markets

Published on

From the Canadian Energy Centre

Q&A with Devin Dreeshen, Minister of Transport and Economic Corridors

Devin Dreeshen, Alberta’s Minister of Transportation
and Economic Corridors.

CEC: How have recent developments impacted Alberta’s ability to expand trade routes and access new markets for energy and natural resources?

Dreeshen: With the U.S. trade dispute going on right now, it’s great to see that other provinces and the federal government are taking an interest in our east, west and northern trade routes, something that we in Alberta have been advocating for a long time.

We signed agreements with Saskatchewan and Manitoba to have an economic corridor to stretch across the prairies, as well as a recent agreement with the Northwest Territories to go north. With the leadership of Premier Danielle Smith, she’s been working on a BC, prairie and three northern territories economic corridor agreement with pretty much the entire western and northern block of Canada.

There has been a tremendous amount of work trying to get Alberta products to market and to make sure we can build big projects in Canada again.

CEC: Which infrastructure projects, whether pipeline, rail or port expansions, do you see as the most viable for improving Alberta’s global market access?

Dreeshen: We look at everything. Obviously, pipelines are the safest way to transport oil and gas, but also rail is part of the mix of getting over four million barrels per day to markets around the world.

The beauty of economic corridors is that it’s a swath of land that can have any type of utility in it, whether it be a roadway, railway, pipeline or a utility line. When you have all the environmental permits that are approved in a timely manner, and you have that designated swath of land, it politically de-risks any type of project.

CEC: A key focus of your ministry has been expanding trade corridors, including an agreement with Saskatchewan and Manitoba to explore access to Hudson’s Bay. Is there any interest from industry in developing this corridor further?

Dreeshen: There’s been lots of talk [about] Hudson Bay, a trade corridor with rail and port access. We’ve seen some improvements to go to Churchill, but also an interest in the Nelson River.

We’re starting to see more confidence in the private sector and industry wanting to build these projects. It’s great that governments can get together and work on a common goal to build things here in Canada.

CEC: What is your vision for Alberta’s future as a leader in global trade, and how do economic corridors fit into that strategy?

Dreeshen: Premier Smith has talked about C-69 being repealed by the federal government [and] the reversal of the West Coast tanker ban, which targets Alberta energy going west out of the Pacific.

There’s a lot of work that needs to be done on the federal side. Alberta has been doing a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to economic corridors.

We’ve asked the federal government if they could develop an economic corridor agency. We want to make sure that the federal government can come to the table, work with provinces [and] work with First Nations across this country to make sure that we can see these projects being built again here in Canada.

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2025 Federal Election

Next federal government should recognize Alberta’s important role in the federation

Published on

From the Fraser Institute

By Tegan Hill

With the tariff war continuing and the federal election underway, Canadians should understand what the last federal government seemingly did not—a strong Alberta makes for a stronger Canada.

And yet, current federal policies disproportionately and negatively impact the province. The list includes Bill C-69 (which imposes complex, uncertain and onerous review requirements on major energy projects), Bill C-48 (which bans large oil tankers off British Columbia’s northern coast and limits access to Asian markets), an arbitrary cap on oil and gas emissions, numerous other “net-zero” targets, and so on.

Meanwhile, Albertans contribute significantly more to federal revenues and national programs than they receive back in spending on transfers and programs including the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) because Alberta has relatively high rates of employment, higher average incomes and a younger population.

For instance, since 1976 Alberta’s employment rate (the number of employed people as a share of the population 15 years of age and over) has averaged 67.4 per cent compared to 59.7 per cent in the rest of Canada, and annual market income (including employment and investment income) has exceeded that in the other provinces by $10,918 (on average).

As a result, Alberta’s total net contribution to federal finances (total federal taxes and payments paid by Albertans minus federal money spent or transferred to Albertans) was $244.6 billion from 2007 to 2022—more than five times as much as the net contribution from British Columbians or Ontarians. That’s a massive outsized contribution given Alberta’s population, which is smaller than B.C. and much smaller than Ontario.

Albertans’ net contribution to the CPP is particularly significant. From 1981 to 2022, Alberta workers contributed 14.4 per cent (on average) of total CPP payments paid to retirees in Canada while retirees in the province received only 10.0 per cent of the payments. Albertans made a cumulative net contribution to the CPP (the difference between total CPP contributions made by Albertans and CPP benefits paid to retirees in Alberta) of $53.6 billion over the period—approximately six times greater than the net contribution of B.C., the only other net contributing province to the CPP. Indeed, only two of the nine provinces that participate in the CPP contribute more in payroll taxes to the program than their residents receive back in benefits.

So what would happen if Alberta withdrew from the CPP?

For starters, the basic CPP contribution rate of 9.9 per cent (typically deducted from our paycheques) for Canadians outside Alberta (excluding Quebec) would have to increase for the program to remain sustainable. For a new standalone plan in Alberta, the rate would likely be lower, with estimates ranging from 5.85 per cent to 8.2 per cent. In other words, based on these estimates, if Alberta withdrew from the CPP, Alberta workers could receive the same retirement benefits but at a lower cost (i.e. lower payroll tax) than other Canadians while the payroll tax would have to increase for the rest of the country while the benefits remained the same.

Finally, despite any claims to the contrary, according to Statistics Canada, Alberta’s demographic advantage, which fuels its outsized contribution to the CPP, will only widen in the years ahead. Alberta will likely maintain relatively high employment rates and continue to welcome workers from across Canada and around the world. And considering Alberta recorded the highest average inflation-adjusted economic growth in Canada since 1981, with Albertans’ inflation-adjusted market income exceeding the average of the other provinces every year since 1971, Albertans will likely continue to pay an outsized portion for the CPP. Of course, the idea for Alberta to withdraw from the CPP and create its own provincial plan isn’t new. In 2001, several notable public figures, including Stephen Harper, wrote the famous Alberta “firewall” letter suggesting the province should take control of its future after being marginalized by the federal government.

The next federal government—whoever that may be—should understand Alberta’s crucial role in the federation. For a stronger Canada, especially during uncertain times, Ottawa should support a strong Alberta including its energy industry.

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