A8 O THEGLOBEANDMAIL| THURSDAY,OCTOBER24,
Teachers in Alberta can only con-
fine students to seclusion rooms
in emergencies, when a child is on
the verge of self-harm or endan-
gering others, according to the Al-
berta government’s new rules
governing controversial methods
of addressing problematic class-
room behaviour.
Alberta Education Minister
Adriana LaGrange on Wednesday
said schools must also document
all seclusion incidents, including
details on attempts to de-escalate
worrisome behaviour. The guide-
lines take effect Nov. 1 and include
standards for physical restraint.
The government, under the
United Conservative Party, also
released new expectations for
time-outs in classrooms.
The new standards are a com-
promise between the previous
government’s order to ban seclu-
sion rooms after some parents
said the spaces were overused and
traumatizing kids with special
needs, and calls from some educa-
tion organizations to keep them
in place so teachers have a power-
ful tool available to control crisis
situations. Seclusion rooms must
only be used to thwart dangerous
situations rather than end disrup-
tive behaviour, thegovernment
said. They must not be used to
punish children.
“Seclusion rooms [must only
be used] as a last resort,” Ms. La-
Grange told reporters. “The stan-
dards provide requirements for
schools [that] choose to use se-
clusion where a student’s beha-
viour poses significant, imminent
danger of serious physical harmto themselves or to those around
them.”
Teachers must be trained be-
fore they can use seclusion rooms
or physically restrain children,
the government guidelines said.
Parents, principals and superin-
tendents must be notified as soon
as possible when a teacher uses
the measures,the government
added. Further, all staff at the
school must be debriefed within
three days.
The government also outlines
preventive measures, particularly
for children with complex beha-
viours. For example, schools
should develop crisis and safety
plans for students who display
signs that could potentially en-
danger themselves or others, and
for children who do not respond
to de-escalation techniques.
The students’ respective guard-
ians must be involved in develop-
ing these plans and must provide
consent. Further,the government
recommends that the studentswho require seclusion and re-
straint plans should be involved
in writing their respective road
map, when appropriate.
The New Democratic Party,
when it held power, ordered an
end to seclusion rooms. The ban
was scheduled to take effect in
September. The UCP, elected in
April, nixed the ban at the end of
August.
Seclusion rooms attracted at-
tention after Marcy Oakes and
Warren Henschel, parents of a 12-
year-old with autism, claimed
their son was stripped of his
clothes, locked in a room and
found covered in his feces. They
sued; the allegations have not
been tested in court.
Trish Bowman, chief executive
officer of Inclusion Alberta, said
she’s pleased thegovernment is
putting in clear guidelines de-
signed to limit the use of seclusion
rooms and to track the practice.
“This is the first time in Alberta
that we have actually had clearand enforceable standards for the
use of seclusion and restraint,”
Ms. Bowman said. “The standards
are pretty clear – it’s only to be
used in the event of an emergency
and an emergency is clearly de-
fined. So multiple emergencies in
any school or with any one child is
an indication that something isn’t
working.”
Ms. Bowman said her group’s
ultimate goal is to end the use of
seclusion rooms. Still, she said the
new policy is better than the pre-
vious government’s attempt to
ban seclusion rooms because that
policy allowed entire school
boards to apply for exemptions.
Inclusion Alberta, which lob-
bies for people with developmen-
tal disabilities, previously deter-
mined more than half of parents
who have children with special
needs in Alberta said their chil-
dren were restrained or restricted
to seclusion rooms at school. The
group reviewed survey data in-
cluding roughly 400 families.RulesrevisedforseclusionroomsinAlbertaschools
Guidelinesgoverning
controversialmethod
ofbehaviourregulation
totakeeffectNov.
CARRIETAIT
JAMESKELLERCALGARY
A U.S. House of Representatives
impeachment inquiry devolved
into chaos on Wednesday as Re-
publican lawmakers, encouraged
by President Donald Trump to
get tougher in fighting Demo-
cratic efforts to impeach him
over dealings with Ukraine,
stormed into a high-security
hearing room and delayed testi-
mony by a witness.
More than two dozen Repub-
lican lawmakers, who were not
authorized to attend the hearing,
entered before Laura Cooper, the
U.S. defence official who over-
sees Ukraine and Russia matters,
was set to testify behind closed
doors.
The Republicans yelled com-
plaints that the Democrats in
charge of the inquiry were con-
ducting it in private, lawmakers
and aides said. After a delay of
about four hours, Ms. Cooper be-
gan her testimony.
It was a dramatic confronta-
tion in the House of Representa-
tives inquiry that threatens Mr.
Trump’s Republican presidency
even as he seeks re-election next
year.
Democrats are investigating
whether there are grounds to im-
peach Mr. Trump over his July 25
request in a phone call to Ukrai-
nian President Volodymyr Zelen-
sky to investigate a domestic po-
litical rival, former vice-presi-
dent Joe Biden. Mr. Biden is a
front-runner for the 2020 Demo-
cratic presidential nomination.
Mr. Zelensky agreed during
the call. U.S. security aid that was
being withheld from Ukraine
was later provided.
Federal election law prohibits
candidates from accepting for-
eign help in an election.REUTERSRepublican
laîmaers
disruptTrump
impeachment
inÄuiry
RICHARDCOWAN
MARKHOSENBALL
PATRICIAZENGERLEWASHINGTONPremier Jason Kenney has warned Alber-
tans in a televised address to brace them-
selves for a difficult budget with significant
cuts over the next four years, but he prom-
ised the pain wouldn’t match the wide-
spread austerity of the 1990s.
The Alberta Premier said his United
Conservative government’s first budget on
Thursday sets the stage for spending cuts
as well as a corporate tax cut to 8 per cent
from 12 per cent after five years of econom-
ic malaise in the province. Overallgovern-
ment spending will be reduced by 2.8 per
cent over four years while funding for
health and education will be frozen.
Mr. Kenney has promised to end a string
of multibillion-dollar deficits within four
years. Speaking on a provincewide broad-
cast on Wednesday night, Mr. Kenney char-
acterized the impact on staffing levels in
the public service as “modest” and said
most savings will come through attrition.
The decision to freeze spending for
health and education, which together
make up 55 per cent of the provincial bud-
get, means a 2.8-per-cent overall reduction
will translate into much deeper cuts in oth-
er areas. Economists have pointed to post-
secondary education and spending on cli-
mate change mitigation as potential tar-
gets.
“Let’s be clear: This will not be an easy
budget,” Mr. Kenney said in the 13-minute
address. He noted that the pain will be
small compared with the steep cuts to gov-
ernment spending that began in 1993,
when then-premier Ralph Klein used his
first budget to start cuttinggovernment
spending. He took a jackhammer to pro-
vincial finances the following year and, by
1996, Mr. Klein'sgovernment had cut
spending by 18 per cent.
The province will be aiming to cut the
deficit and taxes at a time whengovern-
ment revenues from corporate taxes and
resource royalties – both linked to a down-
turn in the oil patch that started five years
ago – continue to suffer. To that end, Mr.
Kenney said the budget would outline pro-
grams to boost other sectors such as tou-
rism and the film industry.
Mr. Kenney won Alberta’s election last
May with a relentless focus on improving a
weak economy and building pipelines. He
emphasized that unemployed Albertans
need to get back to work – the province’s
unemployment rate, at 6.6 per cent last
month, has been stuck above the national
average for years.
The former NDP government ran four
years of deficits as it increased services and
embarked on an aggressive infrastructure
program to match a quickly growing pop-
ulation and provide work during a reces-
sion.
Former Alberta treasurer Jim Dinning,
who held the job during the Klein budget
cutting years between 1992
and 1997, said he hopes Mr.
Kenney’sgovernment will in-
troduce a budget and legisla-
tion that will be “construc-
tively disruptive” to improve
the quality of services in Al-
berta.
“I trust them to be careful
and not careless,” Mr. Din-
ning said. “It will affect peo-
ple, period, full stop.”
Saying it would be “im-
moral” to leave a massive
debt for future generations, Mr. Kenney
pointed to a report he commissioned from
former Saskatchewan finance minister
Janice MacKinnon as rationale for the cuts.
“The MacKinnon panel was clear on how
we got to this point: We have a spending
problem,” he said of Alberta’s continued
deficits.
Ms. MacKinnon concluded that if Alber-
ta spent the same amount of money oneach citizen as the average spent by the
governments of Ontario, Quebec and Brit-
ish Columbia, the province’s $7-billion def-
icit this year would turn into a $4-billion
surplus. University of Calgary economist
Trevor Tombe said that while the Premier’s
arithmetic is right, the province could raise
taxes to the average level of
the same three provinces
and similarly end the deficit.
“Alberta is lucky because
we can solve our budget
problem on either side of the
ledger, through either
spending or revenue. We
have a lot of options,” he
said.
The Alberta Federation of
Labour said its own analysis
shows the MacKinnon re-
port’s assumptions on GDP
growth and revenue growth are flawed,
tens of thousands of job losses are possible
and Mr. Kenney’sgovernment is ignoring
the role of the public sector in the econo-
my.
Alberta’s Opposition NDP pointed to
layoffs at Husky Energy Inc. in Calgary this
week, arguing thatthe government’s strat-
egy of forgoing revenue to provide corpo-
rate tax cuts isn’t keeping jobs in Alberta.ntelevisedaddressb enneyîarnsofausteritybudget
JUSTINGIOVANNETTI
KELLYCRYDERMANCALGARY
AlbertaPremierJasonKenney,seeninEdmontononTuesday,saysthesizeofthecutsin
theprovince’scomingbudgetwillbesmallcomparedwiththe18-per-centreduction
togovernmentspendinginthe1993budget.AMBER BRACKEN/THE CANADIAN PRESSThe province will
be aiming to cut
the deficit and taxes
at a time when
government
revenues from
corporate taxes and
resource royalties ...
continue to suffer.| NEWS