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NDP & UPC Caucuses support World Catholic Education Day - Thursday, May 10, 2018

The Speaker: The hon. Member for Sherwood Park.
Catholic Education

Ms McKitrick: Thank you. Merci, M. le Président. Alberta’s
Catholic community makes an enormous contribution to our
province. This is why I’m rising today to recognize World Catholic
Education Day. Every year Catholics across the world give thanks
for the gift of Catholic education. Alberta has a long and wonderful
tradition of publicly funded education. Every day Catholic schools
teach students the skills they need to be leaders in their communities
and to build a bright future for themselves, their families, and the
province as a whole.
The government is proud to support all of our students. We are
hiring new teachers, reducing school fees, and making investments
we need to make in our children. In my constituency we are
celebrating the announcement of the modernization of l’école Père
Kenneth Kearns Catholic elementary school, which will provide
modern learning spaces for students for generations to come.
Alberta’s greatest strength is its diversity. Alberta is home to
many faith communities, who have contributed greatly to the
identity of this province. While each of us in this province lives out
our own values, there is more that unites us than divides us: our
sense of fairness, our compassion, our sense of justice, our desire to
ensure that all children are nurtured and cared for, our pioneer spirit,
and for many of us the centrality of our faith to our daily lives,
myself included. I love walking into Archbishop Jordan school in
Sherwood Park and seeing the 12 chairs and the statue of Jesus,
where students meet and develop community. It brings the
centrality of faith into the everyday life of the students.
I hope that World Catholic Education Day brings Albertans
marking the occasion inspiration and grace and that together we can
continue to do the important work of ensuring that our children can
reach their full potential.
Merci.

The Speaker: The hon. Member for Drayton Valley-Devon.
Catholic Education

Mr. Smith: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is my pleasure to rise and
highlight today as World Catholic Education Day, which is being
celebrated across Canada. Catholic education has served parents,
their children, and communities in countries across the world. In
Canada Catholic education is an integral contributor to our
Canadian identity and culture, serving the nation through faithbased
leading and learning. Catholic education, with its deeply
rooted teachings of social justice, service to the community, and
ongoing promotion of respect and dignity for all persons, values
which are inherent to our identity as Canadians and Albertans, has
helped define who we are.

Catholic schools provide an environment for the students which
encourages not only high academic achievement but strong
emphasis on love of God, self, and others. This is achieved by
permeating all curriculum with faith, emphasizing sacrificial love,
respect for creation, and academic development in an effort to form
the student’s whole person.
Mr. Speaker, the strength of Alberta’s education system is built
on the foundation of choice. Parents have a variety of options to
choose from as they decide what the best avenue of education is for
their kids. With steadily increasing enrolment numbers, parents in
Alberta continue to demonstrate that Catholic education remains a
primary option for many families across the province.
I would like to offer my most sincere congratulations to all who
are involved in Catholic education in our province, and I would ask
all members of the Assembly to join me in congratulating all of our
fantastic English and francophone Catholic schools across this great
province and wishing them the best as they celebrate World
Catholic Education Day.