June 19
Opening Keynote, 6:30 – 8:30 PM
The economy is us: demystifying economics
With Jim Stanford
Jim Stanford is the Economist and Director of the Centre for Future Work, and is one of Canada’s best-known economic commentators. He served for over 20 years as Economist and Director of Policy with Unifor, Canada’s largest private-sector trade union (formerly the Canadian Auto Workers). Jim is the author of Economics for Everyone: A Short Guide to the Economics of Capitalism (second edition published by Pluto Books in 2015), which has been published in six languages. Read more »
Respondents
Marliss Taylor, Streetworks, Edmonton
Marliss Taylor is the Manager of Streetworks and Director of Health Services at Boyle Street Community Services in Edmonton. She has worked in Harm Reduction for the past 27 years. She was the first to initiate the use of community-based naloxone in Canada in 2005. She was a member of the Alberta Health Services Board of Directors from 2015-2019, and was a member of the Minister’s Opioid Emergency Response. She is the Chair of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition. Read more »
Crystal Lameman, Beaver Lake Cree Nation
Crystal Lameman is a nêhiyaw mother of two and a proud member of the ᐊᒥᐢᑯᓵᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐃᐧ ᐯᔭᑰᐢᑳᐣ ᐅᐢᑌᓯᒫᐅᐧᔭᓯᐁᐧᐃᐧᐣ ᓂᑯᑖᐧᓯᐠ amiskosâkahikan nêhiyaw peyakôskân, ostêsimâwoyasiwêwin nikotwâsik Beaver Lake Cree Nation, Treaty Six, where she currently works as the government relations advisor and treaty coordinator. Read more »
Mark Anielski, wellbeing economist, Alberta
Mark Anielski has operated his family-owned economic consultancy since 1995. He consults several First Nations across Canada on building new economies of well-being. His mastery is measuring happiness, well-being and economic progress. He is the author of the award-winning The Economics of Happiness and An Economy of Well-being: Building Genuine Wealth and Happiness (2018). Read more »
Moderator
Bob Ascah, ABpolecon.ca and Parkland Institute
Bob Ascah was Director of the Institute for Public Economics from 2009-2013. He is the editor and contributor to A Sales Tax for Alberta: Why and How. His articles have appeared in Alberta Views, The Conversation, Calgary Herald, Canadian Accountant, and The Globe and Mail. Read more »
June 20
Session Two: 9:00 – 10:45 AM
Financing and democratizing well-being policy in Alberta
Public banks: decarbonization, definancialization, and democratization
with Thomas Marois and respondents
Thomas Marois is a Reader in Development Studies, SOAS University of London and incoming Professor in Political Science, McMaster University, Hamilton. Thomas is a leading scholar of public banks and author of the book Public Banks: Decarbonisation, Definancialisation, and Democratisation (2021, Cambridge University Press). Read more »
Respondents
Bob Ascah, ABpolecon.ca and Parkland Institute
Bob Ascah was Director of the Institute for Public Economics from 2009-2013. He is the editor and contributor to A Sales Tax for Alberta: Why and How. His articles have appeared in Alberta Views, The Conversation, Calgary Herald, Canadian Accountant, and The Globe and Mail. Read more »
Niall Harney, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Manitoba
Niall is a Senior Researcher at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives - Manitoba, where he holds the Errol Black Chair in Labour Issues. Niall's research covers topics in the areas of labour studies and political economy, including alternative budgeting, living wages, income inequality, and fiscal policy. Read more »
Jared Blustein, Arusha Centre Society, Calgary
Jared Blustein, after completing a graduate degree investigating contemporary economic issues and potential solutions, he cofounded The Allium Restaurant and Bodega Worker Cooperative (The Allium). In addition to co-operating The Allium, Jared is also a manager at the Arusha Centre Society, a non-profit organization that works on a variety of social, economic, and environmental issues in Calgary. Read more »
Moderator
Gwendolyn Blue, University of Calgary
Gwendolyn Blue is an Associate Professor in Geography with appointments in the Faculty of Science Natural Science interdisciplinary program. Read more »
Session Three: 11:00 AM – 12:45 PM
Examples of a well-being economy in practice (interactive panel)
with Amanda Janoo, Derek Walker, Ben Geselbracht, Lindsay Tedds, and Stan Houston
Speakers and panelists
Amanda Janoo, Wellbeing Economy Alliance
Amanda Janoo is the Economics & Policy Lead for the Wellbeing Economy Alliance (WEAll), which is a global collaboration of organizations, governments, movements and changemakers committed to designing economies that work in service of people and planet. Amanda is an economic policy expert with over a decade of experience working with governments and international development institutions around the world. Her work aims to build just and sustainable economies through wellbeing-oriented and participatory policy design processes. Read more »
Derek Walker, Well-being of Future Generations Commissioner, Wales
Derek Walker was previously the CEO of Cwmpas, the UK’s largest co-operative development agency, where he worked to support people and communities to create jobs and strengthen communities, and changed the organisation’s focus to development that meets the needs of current generations without compromising the needs of future generations. Read more »
Ben Geselbracht, Nanaimo City Councillor
Ben Geselbracht is a Nanaimo city councilor and Regional District director. He is currently the 2nd Vice President of the Association of Vancouver Island Coastal Communities. Ben is working with his colleagues to apply the doughnut economics framework to the city of Nanaimo’s programs and planning to guide developing a thriving city that respects the health of the whole planet and well-being of all people. Read more »
Lindsay Tedds, School of Public Policy and Economics, University of Calgary
Dr. Lindsay M. Tedds is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics, University of Calgary. Her primary research fields are in tax policy, public economics, and public policy design and implementation. Her transdisciplinary approach to research harnesses the strengths of economics, law, public administration, and intersectionality in the study of public policy problems. She has served on several expert panels, is the co-author and editor of a number of books, and has published a number of book chapters, technical reports, interactive guides, and papers in peer-reviewed journals. Read more »
Moderator
Stan Houston, University of Alberta
Dr. Stan Houston graduated MD from the University of Saskatchewan and obtained qualifications in Family Medicine, Tropical Medicine, Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases. He worked in primary care in a northern Saskatchewan indigenous community and in rural Lesotho and taught for four years at the University of Zimbabwe. He participated in TB control projects in Ecuador and South Sudan for over 10 years. He was director of the Northern Alberta HIV Program and active for many years in the development of Harm Reduction services and refugee health in Edmonton. He is a former Parkland board member. Read more »
SESSION FOUR: 1:00 – 2:45 PM
Facilitated small group dialogue:
How to strengthen and energize public understanding, support, and advocacy in Alberta?
David Richard Swann, Canadian medical doctor and politician
David Swann was the leader of the Alberta Liberal Party and Leader of the Opposition in the Alberta Legislature from December 2008 until resigning as party leader in September 2011. He returned as interim leader of the Alberta Liberal Party on February 1, 2015, following the resignation of Raj Sherman and led the party through the 2015 provincial election. Read more »
