How this record is built

The changes on this site are a curated set assembled by the editorial team. Every entry links to the cited government documents and, where relevant, sector or journalistic responses. Source URLs are included on every entry.

Alongside the published record, the team maintains a research backlog of items it intends to evaluate next. The backlog lives in the repository at specs/content.json and is not displayed on this site. Items move from backlog to published record only after they meet the standards described below.

We catalogue actions by the Government of Alberta — bills, regulations, policies, ministerial directives, court-related moves, and significant administrative decisions — that shift power, restrict rights, change institutional independence, or affect local autonomy. Time scope: 2023 to today.

We do not record every action of the provincial government. We record ones that meet at least one selection criterion below.

A change is in scope if it does at least one of the following:

• Shifts decision-making authority upward (toward cabinet, the Premier’s office, or a single minister) from a previously local or arms-length body.
• Restricts a right or freedom that previously existed in practice or in law.
• Changes the independence, governance, or reporting structure of a watchdog, regulator, board, or local government.
• Limits access to information, materials, or institutions that were previously open.
• Constrains the scope of professional or scientific judgment in a public institution.

Selection is editorial. We do not include every controversial policy choice — only those that meet one of the criteria above and have sufficient public-record evidence to be described accurately.

Each change is tagged with:

• One or more themes (e.g., privacy, local autonomy, censorship). Themes describe the kind of change.
• One or more institutions affected (e.g., municipalities, schools, libraries). Institutions describe the locus of impact.
• Zero or more rights affected (e.g., expression, due process, voting). Rights describe what protections are weakened or restricted.
• A severity level (low / moderate / high / entrenched). Severity reflects scope of impact and reversibility, not editorial outrage.
• An evidence type (enacted, in-force, tabled, announced, reported, alleged) so readers can judge how settled each change is.

A primary source is published by the entity that acted. That includes: government press releases on alberta.ca, bill text and Hansard from the Legislative Assembly, regulations on the King’s Printer, ministerial orders, court filings and judgments, and official documents from the affected institution.

A secondary source is reporting or analysis about the change: journalism, sector responses (e.g., Alberta Municipalities, professional associations), civil-society analysis, and academic commentary.

Every published change must have at least one primary source. The build will refuse to publish an entry without one.

When we correct or update a published change, we stamp it with a new updated date and append a short change note. The detail page displays “Updated YYYY-MM-DD” with the most recent note. We do not silently edit published entries. The “last updated” stamp in the footer reflects the most recent edit to any entry in the record.

When an item from the editorial backlog meets these standards, it is promoted into the public record under a dated change note.

This site is not a legal opinion, not a comprehensive index of every government action, and not a partisan instrument. We track patterns of institutional change and make the underlying evidence inspectable. We let readers draw their own conclusions about whether a given pattern is acceptable.