By Amy Badry
Rob Solinger grew up in Calgary-Varsity and graduated from the University of Calgary with a business degree. Solinger has worked in oil and gas for 20 years. He worked for Truax Resources, Outlook Energy, Defiant Resources and Ironhorse Oil & Gas.
Solinger’s website says his experience raising his five children and volunteering with many youth-related charities allows him to understand the challenges and obstacles that confront young people today.
“I believe a strong post-secondary education system is essential to unlocking opportunity for tens of thousands of Albertans. It is also critical for our province’s long-term economic prosperity. As more Albertans seek the education and training necessary to succeed in the global economy, we need to tailor our post-secondary system to better suit the needs of Albertans.”
The Wildrose Party platform on post-secondary includes reviewing the Alberta student loan application process to ensure loan amounts meet the basic living needs of students, collaborating with the federal government to expand tuition and other education-related tax credits and also using tax credits to promote donations to scholarship, research and university endowment funds. The Wildrose also hopes to encourage online teaching on campuses to increase capacity without having to increase the infrastructure.
“It is imperative that we attract more private-sector research funding into our universities while at the same time ensuring that Alberta taxpayers receive a return on investment for the commercialized technology which results from publically-funded research grants.”
As well, the Wildrose wants to work with schools and industry to enable trades students to have the option of taking verbal certification exams and use of loan forgiveness strategies to keep graduates working in the province.
Voting takes place on April 23. Polls are open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. If you reside in Varsity, you can vote at 300 Lounge Varsity Courts, 3735 32 Avenue NW. To be able to vote, you must be 18 years or older on election day, be a Canadian citizen and must have had Albertan residency for six months immediately proceeding the election.