Rajan Sawhney Minister of Advanced Education or "How to Destroy Universities/Colleges to create a Blue Collar Work Force

RAJAN SAWHNEY - MINISTER OF ADVANCED EDUCATION

Or "How to Destroy Universities/Colleges to create a Blue Collar Work Force

Rajan Sawhney’s work experience is all in the Oil and Gas field. She has volunteered with 2 listed Sikh organizations.

Sawhney was elected as a UCP member under Kenney on April 19, 2019. Rajan Sawhney was re-elected under Smith in May, 2023.

So far Sawhney has held 4 portfolios:

Minister of Community & Social Services - PDD and FSCD funding, AISH, Covid Response, Disclosure to Protect Against Domestic Violence Act

Minister of Transportation - Stoney Trail, Springbank off-stream reservoir, Traffic Safety Act, Photo Radar Policy Change, Driving Back to Work Grant, Rest Stop Upgrades, Highway Improvements, Sundre Waste Water Plant Upgrades, Hwy 1 Wildlife Overpass, Funding for Municipal Transit, Red Deer Airport Upgrades

Trade, Immigration, and Multiculturalism - Anti-racism Engagement Sessions, Grants, The Alberta Anti-racism Advisory Council, and Alberta’s Anti-racism Action Plan. Updating Advantage Immigration to immigrants who already have family connections in Alberta. Invest Alberta Corporation.

Minister of Advanced Education (current) - Junior Minister, currently not in Council

Under Kenney, she served on the Executive Council. However, Smith removed Sawhney from the Council. This decision may have stemmed from Sawhney's criticism of Smith during her campaign for the UCP leadership, where she labeled Smith as “dangerous” to Alberta. In panel debates, Sawhney was notably the only candidate effectively challenging Smith.

Some of the challenges she faced in her portfolios are as follows:

Privatization of 24-Hour Government Direct Operations - On June 10, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the UCP government announced that the Ministry of Community and Social Services (CSS) was exploring "alternative service delivery models." This shift would transition from Government Direct Operations to Contracted Service Providers for families and care providers involved in 24-hour Direct Operations programs, specifically Residential Support Services (RSS) for Persons with Developmental Disabilities (PDD) in Edmonton, Family Support for Children with Disabilities (FSCD) in Edmonton, and Graduated Support Services (GSS) for PDD in Calgary. Inclusion Alberta has reported that privatizing care for residents with disabilities and children with disabilities has led to a deterioration of services. Many parents have had to give up their jobs to care for their children, and those with FSCD funding are struggling to access necessary support. Families in low-income situations have found it challenging to afford the required care. According to a statement from the Ministry of Community and Social Services (CSS) in July 2020, the changes in service delivery would affect how services are provided, not who pays for them. The government would continue to fund these services, but they would be contracted to "community-based organizations" that currently provide 99% of residential and personal care services in Alberta. On July 17, 2020, CSS published a Request for Information (RFI) to explore alternatives available in the private sector for the 24-hour Direct Operations programs in Calgary and Edmonton. This could include transitioning residential and direct client services to contracted service providers. The government has indicated that if all the affected facilities are privatized, it could save C$3.48 million. A study conducted by Mount Royal University from 2006 to 2008 revealed that the province spent over $700 million per year supporting 24,000 persons with developmental disabilities.
As Minister of Community & Social Services, she took responsibility of handling the purported (really managed by Kenney) review of AISH, with threatened cuts of participants, eligibility requirements (Kenney wanting to tighten them up so only a few Albertans could qualify), and cutbacks of payment amounts. She also caused great hardship when changing the dates of the payments to the first of the month, which made it difficult for clients to pay their rent on time. (this was done to make the province’s finances look better) There was pushback from the public and the UCP backed down on some aspects. Sawhney was Minister of Community and Social Services (CSS) when the unpopular October 24, 2019, provincial budget decision to de-index the Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH) benefit from the Consumer Price Index, was announced. This UCP policy means that the maximum AISH rate for a single person will remain at C$1,685 per month and will not increase with the inflationary cost of living until at least 2023. (currently, it is $1758/month with a 2% cola adding $37)
While Covid was a problem for the rest of Alberta, Sawhney’s Calgary’s North East riding was most at risk. On December 15, 2020, the Alberta government announced a comprehensive outreach programs and support to help residents living in communities with the highest rates of COVID-19, including upper and lower northeast Calgary. Public campaigns in several languages were launched, and walk-in clinics for vaccinations were activated. Food hampers with culturally appropriate food, hand sanitizers, and masks were available and delivered with printed material in the recipient's first language. A COVID hotline (1-833-217-6614) was set up to provide help and support for Northeast Calgarians in more than 25 languages. (this was primarily for Sawhaney’s riding)

Leadership Race

After Jason Kenney stepped down as leader of the United Conservative Party, a leadership election was called. Rajan Sawhney stepped down from her role as Minister of Transportation to compete for leadership of the UCP. Sawhney’s leadership campaign platform included: Support for the Alberta energy (oil and gas) industry and increasing trade of Alberta energy, a public inquiry into Alberta’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, addressing racism in Alberta, inflation relief payments, indexing AISH to inflation, indexing the tax system, indexing seniors benefits, indexing income brackets, strengthening the relationship with healthcare workers, "fairness" for Alberta in the Canada confederation, and expanding diabetes supports. Sawhney was also a strong opponent to the Sovereignty Act, a platform item proposed by eventual leadership winner Marlaina 'Danielle' Smith. Sawhney received 2.7% 2246 of the total votes cast (85,000 total votes cast) and was dropped on the second ballot.

Sawhaney Not Running in the 2023 Election

Sawhaney informed Premier Smith she would not be running in the next election in Calgary North-East on Feb. 18, 2022. During the leadership race, Sawhney was critical of Smith’s sovereignty act and said the now-premier should have waited for the scheduled general election this spring to seek a mandate from Albertans over the act. Sawhney was also among those who went after Smith for stating in a podcast that responsibility for early-stage cancer is within a patient’s control.

Sawhney Changes Her Mind

On April 1, 2023, Sawhney announced she was running in Calgary North-West. Premier Smith asked her to run after Sonya Savage stepped down. Due to the approaching election, Smith had previously indicated that she would utilize one of her appointments under Section 8 of the UCP's Candidate Selection Process. Ultimately, she won against Michael Lisboa-Smith from the NDP by a margin of 143 votes. The total number of votes for the other parties was 976.

Minister of Advanced Education

Sawhaney was sworn in as Minister of Advanced Education. She was responsible for the New Skilled Trades Act passed Aug 12, 2023. On April 16, 2024, the UCP introduced Bill 18 which would give the provincial Government veto power over federal research funding for Universities/Colleges in Alberta. This bill passed a third reading at the end of May and will take effect in early 2025. This bill limits the amount of funding that Post-Secondary Institutions will get. Provincial funding cuts to postsecondary education totaled over half a billion dollars between 2019 and 2023. According to Higher Education Strategy Associates data, this represents a staggering 31 percent cut to funding over the last five years.

“The provincial government is repurposing and reprogramming the role of universities, " says Dr. Spooner. “There’s a real push to move universities away from their traditional mission of serving the public and democratic society, to narrow them and reduce them to serving industry and labor market needs,” he says.

When the role of universities is reduced to serving the economy, Dr. Spooner says the many benefits a robust higher education system brings to society are at risk of being lost. “It has to be about more than just jobs.” He thinks university degrees should give students portable and flexible skills – such as critical thinking and creative thinking – that can be applied to many different types of work, including jobs that have not been invented yet.”

Major changes over the past few years include a new performance-based funding model that requires part of a university’s provincial funding be tied to measures such as enrolment targets and employment rates of graduates – a design intended to build a system that’s highly responsive to labour market needs.

Tuition has increased and programming is not as robust as it was in the past, giving students less bang for their buck. UCP is only interested in creating a workforce for Alberta’s future.

While in her current position, Bill 18, the Provincial Priorities Act passed. It prevents any direct agreements between the federal government and several provincial entities without approval from the Government of Alberta. Those entities include municipalities, school boards, health authorities as well as post-secondary institutions.

“The desire is not to impede academic freedom,” stated Sawhney, the Advanced Education Minister. “We want to ensure that this funding aligns with provincial priorities,” she added, “but I can't think of a single grant stream going to post-secondary institutions that would be problematic.”

This issue appears to be another ideological clash between Smith and Ottawa. Sawhney seems to be sidelined from Smith’s comments about how Bill 18 might affect post-secondary institutions, prompting her to make impromptu statements that suggest she has not fully considered the implications for Advanced Education. There is significant concern that this situation will influence funding for colleges and universities, as well as their research capabilities. Federal agencies provide a substantial portion of their research funding. Smith has turned this into one of her ideological battles.

“According to the University of Calgary, the federal government provided $190 million in research funding last year, which accounted for 35 percent of the total research revenue at the school,” a representative stated. Additionally, federal funds support job skills programming and workforce development, including French language education at Campus St. Jean, according to a spokesperson from the University of Alberta (Adam MacVicar, Global News, April 11, 2024). Sawhney appears to have been excluded from decision-making processes within her role and seems not to have been consulted or informed by the Premier or Executive Council regarding decisions that affect her portfolio.

Family

Her daughter Raman was on the Board of the Calgary STEM Innovation Academy. Questions have been raised about whether she may have had an overlap period there while her Mother was in her current position, with a potential conflict of interest.

Raman was a founder of the STEM Innovation Academy and Executive Director of the Board from 2021 – 2023. Raman was still on the board as of September 19, 2023, which is after her mother was sworn in as Minister of Advanced Education in June 2023. She does not appear in the 2024 board meeting minutes.

Sources

PDD and FSCD Funding Articles