Sunday, November 17
Plenary 4
9:00 - 10:15 AM
Disinformation: The First Step in Dismantling Systems of Care
Ginetta Salvalggio
Over the past several years, a troubling pattern of information control has emerged to impede transparent public discourse in Alberta. The Alberta disinformation “formula” includes: 1) suppressing public data; 2) blocking ideology-threatening science; 3) sponsoring ideology-supporting pseudoscience; and 4) creating formal structures to disseminate disinformation narratives. Dr. Salvalaggio will walk us through the Alberta substance use disinformation timeline and its very tangible consequences. Substance use policy is but one example, and she will explain why this pattern ought to concern every Albertan, across all matters of public policy.
Ginetta Salvalaggio is a practicing Edmonton family physician, Professor with the University of Alberta Department of Family Medicine, and Associate Scientific Director with the Inner City Health and Wellness Program. She co-leads a community based program of research with structurally vulnerable people who use drugs. Her academic interests include social accountability, co-design in healthcare, and partnered advocacy.
Breakout sessions
10:30 - 11:45 AM
Session 3a
Inflation, Its Causes, and the Way Forward, with Gillian Petit and Silas Xuereb
Disinformation: The First Step in Dismantling Systems of Care
Silas Xuereb
During the pandemic, corporate profits reached record levels in Canada. Around the same time, inflation reached levels not seen since the early 1980s. This was not a coincidence, nor an inevitable consequence of living in a market-oriented society. Rather, it reflects the outsized power of large corporations to set prices. Corporations used those profits to pay shareholders rather than reinvest in the economy, exacerbating inequality. Rent prices continue to accelerate, driving a rental affordability crisis. We will discuss solutions to tax excess profits and prevent corporations from being able to profiteer during future crises.
Silas Xuereb is a Researcher and Policy Analyst with Canadians for Tax Fairness and a Fellow with the World Inequality Database. His research on the causes and consequences of economic inequalities has been published by academic journals, Oxfam Canada, Campaign 2000, and the World Inequality Lab. Supported by a SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship, he is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in political economy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.</em
Saying the Quiet Part Out Loud: Confronting the Current Reality of Increasing Low-Income and Low Wage Growth in Alberta
Gillian Petit
While the days of Ralph Klein, a booming oil economy, and the “Alberta Advantage” loom large in many Albertan’s minds, a history of wage suppression policies and the ignoring and mis-handling of programs intended to meet the needs of those most in need combined with recent worldwide economic events has led to a new Alberta reality for many. Alberta no longer has a wage advantage and the poverty rate and food insecurity rate in Alberta has grown faster than in Canada as a whole. This talk will examine these trends and how Alberta’s policies could be reformed to provide, at a minimum, a basic quality of life to those most in need and help those struggling with rising costs.
Gillian Petit is a Senior Research Associate at the University of Calgary. She holds a PhD from the University of Calgary and a JD from Queen’s University. Her research focuses on Canadian income and social supports spanning several areas including tax policy, municipal policy, poverty policy, and access to justice. She has advised expert panels, published peer-reviewed journal articles and co-wrote a book on basic income. She works on intersectionality-informed, data-driven solutions to economic and social issues. </em
