News Events

Service Canada's “Foreign Worker” Regulations

Service Canada has implemented new 'foreign worker' regulations that may have a negative impact on camps that hire non-Canadian summer staff. The Ontario Camping Association has started to circulate an email educating their members on this issue and asking them to respond. The Alberta Camping Association would like to join this effort and invite the membership of the ACA (and non-members too) to join as well.

There are three serious problems with the new "foreign worker" regulations:

Service Canada now requires ALL international staff to be students. No work permits will be issued to non-students.
There will be no work permits for support staff.
No 3rd party representatives (like NYQUEST Training and Placement Inc. or BUNAC) will be allowed to help camps get work permits for international staff. They will have to work with Immigration Lawyers which will add to the cost.

What can we do?

We can email our local Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) and express our concerns regarding these new policies.

The OCA has drafted a letter you can use when can emailing your MP, or to use as talking points for a conversation with him/her. Feel free to copy and paste the email and send it to your MP, or to use it as a guideline to compose your own letter. Letter to your MP.

To find the contact for your MP on this Canadian Members of Parliament click here.

Membership Renewal

Please be sure to fill out the Membership Renewal Form and Survey and renew your ACA Membership for 2012. A late fee of $20.00 will be charged to those memberships who register after February 22nd.

Click here to renew your membership.

If you have any questions regarding your membership, or the new membership/payment structure please contact the ACA Office at 780-427-6605.

From HPEC

This year's annual HPEC (Alberta's Teachers Association Health and Physical Education Council) conference will be held in Camrose May 3 - 5, 2012. Find the Call for Presenters & Conference Overview attached in the links below if your organization is interested in presenting this year. The deadline for the call is February 22, 2012.

ABOUT THE HPEC CONFERENCE

The Health & Physical Education Council of Alberta hosts its annual conference in May, which provides an opportunity for participants to build skills and knowledge by networking and participating in various professional development sessions to support the implementation of the Physical Education and Health programs of study.

Health and physical education sessions will be offered over the two-day conference. Session proposals will be selected to ensure a balance of active, interactive & research-based presentations. Topics could include Games, Gymnastics, Individual Pursuits, Alternate Environments, Dance, Health and Life Skills, CALM, Daily Physical Activity (DPA), Inclusive PE, Intramurals and Athletics.

Call for Presenters
Conference Overview

ACA Annual Conference 2012

Located in beautiful Kananaskis country, this year's conference is themed "Strategies for Success" and will feature useful workshops, sessions, the ACA's Annual General Meeting, and a keynote address from Dr. Stephen Fine. Learn more about the ACA Annual Conference.

We are looking forward to a time of friendship, sharing, networking, and brainstorming as we work together to promote, organize and advance camps in Alberta. There will also be an opportunity to present your questions to the ACA Board of Directors. Please plan to join us and register soon!

Registration Form
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*We offer an Education services grant to people who haven’t been to the conference before or haven’t been for a long time. Upon acceptance the Education Services fund could provide $200 towards attending conference. Requests for funding can be made via: info@albertacamping.com

Annual General Meeting

The AGM for Alberta Camping Association Members will be held on March 17th at 11:00AM at Camp Chief Hector, Kananaskis, AB during the annual conference.

ACA Awards

The annual Alberta Camping Association Awards Ceremony will be held at the ACA Annual Conference. If you have an individual, group, or camp that should receive one of these awards please nominate them by March 7th, 2011.

Forms and requirements for nominations can be found here. We are looking forward to recognizing those in our industry who go above and beyond and make a real difference!

Camps Tour

The ACA is also planning to have a Camps Tour on Friday, March 16th before the conference registration at Camp Chief Hector YMCA begins at 4:00PM.

Join us as we visit camps 'on the way' to the conference in the Canmore-Kananaskis area. This has always been a fun time of friendship and sharing new ideas between camps. We recommend attending! If your camp is interested in being one of the visited camps on the tour, please let us know! Tours of Camp Chief Hector will also be available before the conference program begins. Details on the Camps Tour to follow.