The phrase “inside baseball” actually came from a form of baseball where power hitting the ball was not allowed. Instead, scores could be made through bunts, singles, walks, and stolen bases. Later it apparently came to mean highly specialized knowledge within a field, ie, what the heck a single actually is, and from there on to politics.
Now in politics, it tends to mean those things that are done quietly or behind the scenes and which only those who are really invested bother to care about. It’s also where a lot of things happen that people probably wouldn’t like if it were made public.
Case in point, Alberta’s Bill 18. “Bill 18, the Provincial Priorities Act, 2024,” reads the Alberta government website, “will support Alberta’s government in pushing back against overreach by the federal government.”
How does it do that? By requiring that absolutely ever single agreement with the federal government that any provincial agency, which includes all public-in-name post-secondary institutions, must be approved by the government. These types of agreements include things like the Canada Research Chairs, where significant funding for research comes. Given that they say this bill is for “Defending Alberta’s provincial priorities” what do you suppose might happen if there happens to be a professor attempting to do research on the environmental impact of, say, land developers in the township of Athabasca who may have been hoping for a windfall of people forced to move to Athabasca by the government’s legislation on AU? Never mind research on the oil sands.
The government can’t even say that they would not prevent such funding for political reasons when the point of the bill is to give them the ability to stop agreements with the federal government for political reasons.
But let’s imagine we get a reasonable government in power, who never actually uses this bill to block research funding from the federal government. Even then, if you’re a researcher who is focussed on how we can help our environment, that this bill exists seems a massive disincentive to come to Alberta in the first place. Getting research funding is hard enough, after all, and if you know that even if you get it, the Alberta government can prevent it from happening, if for no other reason than the minister doesn’t like you because of a tweet you made some time ago, are you going to bother coming to Alberta, or will you take your skill-set elsewhere where it might be easier to get your research done?
At best, this bill will be nothing more than a rubber stamp situation, a waste of time and taxpayer money to have no effect whatsoever. At worst it will have a chilling effect on post-secondary in the province and be used in support of a majority of oilsands shareholders who don’t even live in Canada, or to prevent research into social issues, such as those of the LGBTQ++ community, that the current Alberta government has no interest in furthering.
What can we do? Well, directly, not much, as the government website notes, “Comprehensive stakeholder engagement is expected to take place in summer 2024 following the passage of the bill.” So guess what, your opinion won’t matter (assuming it ever does) until the bill is passed. Which means that the only solution is to get ahead of it, and start writing to your MLAs and letting them know this bill will affect the way you vote in the next election.
Enjoy the read!
