The governing United Conservative Party promised that Bill 18—the Provincial Priorities Act—would empower it to control federal research money coming to Alberta’s post-secondary institutions.
It turns out, the UCP’s rhetoric about the proposed bill doesn’t match the reality of the law coming into force on April 1.
Initially, Bill 18 appeared primarily aimed at blocking municipalities from making multi-million dollar deals with the federal government to help pay for infrastructure such as public transit or affordable housing.
In April of 2024, while discussing the “unfair advantage” that bigger cities like Edmonton and Calgary have when securing independent bilateral deals with the federal government, Premier Danielle Smith also took aim at what she called the “ideological balance” of federal grants for post-secondary research.
Smith said Bill 18 aimed to create a post-secondary environment that encourages a “robust research agenda” and debate.
“If we did truly have balance in universities,” Smith told CBC’s Power and Politics, “We would have just as many conservative commentators as we do liberal commentators.”
The proposed law would have required post-secondary researchers to get the province’s approval to accept federal research money.
Smith described Bill 18 as aligning federal tax dollars with provincial priorities, while providing her prairie province with a “fair share of federal tax dollars.”
The law was also a clear push back against so-called “federal overreach.”
Opponents, however, called Bill 18 a provincial overreach into higher learning.
Post-secondary backlash
The University of Alberta worried about the potential impact on the over $223 million in research investment money it received from the federal government. The post-secondary institution’s president also raised concerns about the proposed law’s erosion of academic freedom.
Days after the provincial bill was tabled, Liberal Edmonton Centre Member of Parliament Randy Boissonnault suggested the law could lead to federal research dollars going elsewhere.
“It makes absolutely no sense in a growing province why the provincial government would say no to money that Albertans have paid into the federal coffers through their taxes, and that they need to create a whole new bureaucracy just to be able to say ‘yea’ or ‘nay,'” Boissonault told the Edmonton Journal.
Mount Royal University’s (MRU) Faculty Association called the bill an example of an “unprecedented level of interference in academic freedom.”
Federal money for post-secondary research
The federal government spends billions of dollars on academic research.
The arms-length Tri-Council funding agencies—the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)—support research and training at post-secondary institutions. They award funding based on blind peer reviews of research proposals.
Alberta post-secondary institutions and academics worried that Bill 18 would insert the provincial government into the vetting process for this research money, creating a research system that relies on provincial approval rather than public interest.
Federal government overreach
In an interview with CBC Power and Politics, Smith said there was “enough indication” of bias in the distribution of research grants.
“The federal government uses its power through researchers to only fund certain types of opinion, certain types of researchers,” she said. “I don’t think that’s fair.”
Lori Williams, a political scientist with MRU, says if Bill 18 had gone forward as initially proposed, it would have resulted in provincial government overreach.
“Putting your thumb on the scale, saying that research should go in this direction or that direction interferes with that whole ideal of objective inquiry,” she said.
Williams says research suggests that academics tend to be center to center-left politically. Still, she argues that the perception of systemic bias, left or right wing, “doesn’t really seem to hold up.”
“The reality is, most of the research that is being done is not particularly ideological or political,” said Williams.
Williams says it can sometimes become challenging for a professor to lead an “open, respectful inquiry in the classroom.” However, she argues that the solution to this tension will not come from more “conservative” research.
“I think it’s very unfortunate that so many people want to silence those who disagree with them,” she said, “I know many of my colleagues take the roles of university in helping to foster critical assessment of ideas across the spectrum, an openness to the expression of different points of view, and to recognize that the people who disagree with you may have valid points.”
MRU Faculty Association President Brenda Lang also stresses that universities and faculty do not want additional provincial oversight.
“We’re seeing lots more government interference in the post-secondary sector, which is not helpful for any of us,” said Lang .“It’s not helpful for faculty. It’s not helpful, ultimately, for students either.”
Bill 18 in force
The Provincial Priorities Act (Bill 18) passed in Alberta’s Legislative Assembly in May 2024 and comes into effect on April 1.
But the new law does not require universities to get approval from the province to access federal research money.
“We have good news regarding the provincial government’s Provincial Priorities Act,” MRU President Tim Rahilly told staff and faculty at the Calgary university in February.
Rahilly’s email says post-secondary institutions are largely excluded from the new law’s gatekeeping powers.
The exemptions for Albert’s higher learning institution include, among other things, research agreements, fee-for-service contracts, rental agreements, and support programming for student employment and non-instructional events.
Smith’s initial rhetoric about the province acting as a gatekeeper for federal research money going to Alberta’s post-secondary institutions does not match the reality of the new law.
Advanced Education did not return the Calgary Journal’s request to comment on this fact-checking story.
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