The Queens are crowned ACAC Champions for the first time in program history

Raymond, October 30 – After the final whistle was blown, history was made at the ACAC Women’s Soccer Championships. The Queens stormed the field off the bench to go celebrate with their teammates as they take home the gold and go off to nationals for the first time in program history.

As the Red Deer Polytechnic Queens soccer program entered the gold medal match of the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) Soccer Championships, they were looking for their first championship in program history. In order to so, they had to get through the Concordia University Thunder in Sunday’s matchup in Raymond.

The Thunder are fourth in the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) rankings and were ranked number one in the ACAC North Division at the end of the regular season with an 11-1-0 record. For the Queens, they finished off the season in first in the South Division with the same win-loss record and placed 12^th in the nation in the final rankings before the championship.

Going into this match, the Queens have yet to concede the first goal all season and have not trailed since the 56^th minute in their season opener against the SAIT Trojans way back on September 10.

The polytechnic does not have history on their side. In the last 15 seasons, a North Division team has won the ACAC Championship 13 times. SAIT (2021-2022) and Mount Royal College (2007-2008) in Calgary, now known as Mount Royal University, are the only teams who have won from the South Division in that time frame.

It was a usual southern Alberta October day with the wind blowing hard from the west. This made it difficult for the Queens and Thunder to play, especially on a pitch they are not so familiar with. The ball was rolling all over the place and each team had troubles with distributing the ball to their teammates.

Through the first 15 minutes, not much was going for either team as they were stuck playing in the middle third of the field with hardly any offensive zone time or any goal opportunities. It was the typical championship match the teams and spectators would expect which is a very physical and defensive game.

Queens Captain Alisha Coules (Bachelor of Science Nursing) was sent on a breakaway near the 20^th minute, but she was just a step offside and forced to give it back to the Thunder for a free kick.

The biggest chance for the Thunder to open the scoring came at the 33^rd minute mark. The ball was sent in from half and made it through the Queens back line. Third-year midfielder Brooke Lesoway struck the ball with one touch, but a sliding Queens keeper Abby Kotyk (Bachelor of Kinesiology) kept the ball out of her net as she stacked the pads.

At the half, it was all tied up at zero with each team minimalizing the goal opportunities for the opposing side and making it difficult for one another.

Queens Captain #9, Alisha Coules

During the half-time break, Head Coach Mazhiar Peyrow substituted Jenica Swartz for the ACAC South Player of the Year Sein Furuyama. 24 hours ago, Swartz ran in the 6 km race at the ACAC Cross-Country Championship in Edmonton where she would take home the bronze medal in the women’s division. With this, Swartz was not available for the Queens semi-final match yesterday against the Lethbridge College Kodiaks.

Furuyama was later substituted back into the match in the 75^th minute for first-year midfielder Paige Kalbfleisch (Bachelor of Science Nursing).

The dead lock tie finally was broken in the 64^th minute with the Queens striking first. It was some great pressure by Coules challenging the ball that was sent back to the Thunder keeper Monica Dickson that led to the goal. The captain from the Queens did not give up on the ball. She was able to sneak it through the keeper and it would slowly roll to the back of the net.

Coules was pressuring the opposing team and not giving them any time on the ball all game which finally paid off for her with a goal.

Moments later, the Queens would send in a ball into the Thunders box where Coules and Dickson collided hard with each other, leaving the Concordia keeper on the ground in pain for a few minutes.

A huge concern for the Queens as Furuyama went down hard and awkwardly bending her left leg back. It looked like a knee injury, and she was in a lot of pain, but she was able to walk off with the help of the trainers.

In stoppage time, a Thunder player went in for a tackle against Queens striker Corbynn Fujimoto and would hit her head on the turf with an incredible amount of force, leaving her still on the ground. The trainers would help her as much as they could and kept her head still. She needed immediate medical attention and an ambulance was called to stretcher the player off the field.

With these couple of injuries and having to wait for an ambulance, the game was delayed quite awhile before it would resume.

After the match finally restarted, Swartz and the Queens had the opportunity to put the Thunder down 2-0 in the late stages of the second half. The tall-striker from Red Deer was sent on a breakaway but could not shot it past the Thunder keeper as she stood tall in her net and made a sliding save.

Not as much time was added on as some of the players were expecting and the Queens came away with the gold medal and will await nationals in a couple weeks.

The player of the game went to Sofia Quinteros for her outstanding effort in the midfield, shutting down the Thunders offence but also contributing to her own team’s offensive effort.

At the end of the match Alisha Coules, Sein Furuyama, Kayla Yeo, and Estel Quinteros were named to the All-Tournament team. Midfielder Sofia Quinteros was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Tournament.

The CCAA Soccer Championships will be hosted by Champlain College Saint-Lambert in Quebec on November 9-12 at Seaway Park 3. But the teams will be arriving in the province on Monday, November 7.

Red Deer Polytechnic and the Athletics department congratulate the Queens on this gold medal and wish them luck in Quebec at nationals.

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Alberta

Low oil prices could have big consequences for Alberta’s finances

Published on April 26, 2025

Todayville

From the Fraser Institute

By Tegan Hill

Amid the tariff war, the price of West Texas Intermediate oil—a common benchmark—recently dropped below US$60 per barrel. Given every $1 drop in oil prices is an estimated $750 million hit to provincial revenues, if oil prices remain low for long, there could be big implications for Alberta’s budget.

The Smith government already projects a $5.2 billion budget deficit in 2025/26 with continued deficits over the following two years. This year’s deficit is based on oil prices averaging US$68.00 per barrel. While the budget does include a $4 billion “contingency” for unforeseen events, given the economic and fiscal impact of Trump’s tariffs, it could quickly be eaten up.

Budget deficits come with costs for Albertans, who will already pay a projected $600 each in provincial government debt interest in 2025/26. That’s money that could have gone towards health care and education, or even tax relief.

Unfortunately, this is all part of the resource revenue rollercoaster that’s are all too familiar to Albertans.

Resource revenue (including oil and gas royalties) is inherently volatile. In the last 10 years alone, it has been as high as $25.2 billion in 2022/23 and as low as $2.8 billion in 2015/16. The provincial government typically enjoys budget surpluses—and increases government spending—when oil prices and resource revenue is relatively high, but is thrown into deficits when resource revenues inevitably fall.

Fortunately, the Smith government can mitigate this volatility.

The key is limiting the level of resource revenue included in the budget to a set stable amount. Any resource revenue above that stable amount is automatically saved in a rainy-day fund to be withdrawn to maintain that stable amount in the budget during years of relatively low resource revenue. The logic is simple: save during the good times so you can weather the storm during bad times.

Indeed, if the Smith government had created a rainy-day account in 2023, for example, it could have already built up a sizeable fund to help stabilize the budget when resource revenue declines. While the Smith government has deposited some money in the Heritage Fund in recent years, it has not created a dedicated rainy-day account or introduced a similar mechanism to help stabilize provincial finances.

Limiting the amount of resource revenue in the budget, particularly during times of relatively high resource revenue, also tempers demand for higher spending, which is only fiscally sustainable with permanently high resource revenues. In other words, if the government creates a rainy-day account, spending would become more closely align with stable ongoing levels of revenue.

And it’s not too late. To end the boom-bust cycle and finally help stabilize provincial finances, the Smith government should create a rainy-day account.

Alberta

Governments in Alberta should spur homebuilding amid population explosion

Published on April 26, 2025

Todayville

From the Fraser Institute

By Tegan Hill and Austin Thompson

In 2024, construction started on 47,827 housing units—the most since 48,336 units in 2007 when population growth was less than half of what it was in 2024.

Alberta has long been viewed as an oasis in Canada’s overheated housing market—a refuge for Canadians priced out of high-cost centres such as Vancouver and Toronto. But the oasis is starting to dry up. House prices and rents in the province have spiked by about one-third since the start of the pandemic. According to a recent Maru poll, more than 70 per cent of Calgarians and Edmontonians doubt they will ever be able to afford a home in their city. Which raises the question: how much longer can this go on?

Alberta’s housing affordability problem reflects a simple reality—not enough homes have been built to accommodate the province’s growing population. The result? More Albertans competing for the same homes and rental units, pushing prices higher.

Population growth has always been volatile in Alberta, but the recent surge, fuelled by record levels of immigration, is unprecedented. Alberta has set new population growth records every year since 2022, culminating in the largest-ever increase of 186,704 new residents in 2024—nearly 70 per cent more than the largest pre-pandemic increase in 2013.

Homebuilding has increased, but not enough to keep pace with the rise in population. In 2024, construction started on 47,827 housing units—the most since 48,336 units in 2007 when population growth was less than half of what it was in 2024.

Moreover, from 1972 to 2019, Alberta added 2.1 new residents (on average) for every housing unit started compared to 3.9 new residents for every housing unit started in 2024. Put differently, today nearly twice as many new residents are potentially competing for each new home compared to historical norms.

While Alberta attracts more Canadians from other provinces than any other province, federal immigration and residency policies drive Alberta’s population growth. So while the provincial government has little control over its population growth, provincial and municipal governments can affect the pace of homebuilding.

For example, recent provincial amendments to the city charters in Calgary and Edmonton have helped standardize building codes, which should minimize cost and complexity for builders who operate across different jurisdictions. Municipal zoning reforms in Calgary, Edmonton and Red Deer have made it easier to build higher-density housing, and Lethbridge and Medicine Hat may soon follow suit. These changes should make it easier and faster to build homes, helping Alberta maintain some of the least restrictive building rules and quickest approval timelines in Canada.

There is, however, room for improvement. Policymakers at both the provincial and municipal level should streamline rules for building, reduce regulatory uncertainty and development costs, and shorten timelines for permit approvals. Calgary, for instance, imposes fees on developers to fund a wide array of public infrastructure—including roads, sewers, libraries, even buses—while Edmonton currently only imposes fees to fund the construction of new firehalls.

It’s difficult to say how long Alberta’s housing affordability woes will endure, but the situation is unlikely to improve unless homebuilding increases, spurred by government policies that facilitate more development.