This study, based on survey and interview data, seeks to understand how and why teachers in Catholic schools can be supported in their own spiritual development. The research describes and suggests ways to support and nurture spiritual formation for those who accept the vocation of teaching in Catholic schools. Employing survey and interview methods, this inquiry is philosophically rooted in four Lonergan precepts of human consciousness. Be attentive; be intelligent; be reasonable; be responsible. The study begins with attentiveness to the researcher's personal experience followed by an attending to the literature relevant to that lived situation. The formation of an intelligent inquiry into the questions arising from the named experiences deepens into a reasonable and responsible summary of the knowledge gained through the research. Teachers from a small urban/rural Catholic school district were surveyed. Of the 267 surveys distributed, 112 were completed and returned (42%). From those surveyed, five volunteers were selected to be interviewed, responding to nine questions regarding spiritual formation and the factors contributing to it. Recommendations that may nurture the spiritual development of teachers in Catholic schools are put forth in the concluding chapter of the thesis. These include recognizing teaching as ministry and supporting it as such; remaining attentive to the life questions of those in the vocation of teaching; leadership through example and witness; and nurturing the building of rich, authentic relationships in the school community. / x, 143 leaves ; 28 cm.

Irrigation is central to the functioning of the southern Alberta economy. Irrigation also uses a significant amount of what is expected to be an increasingly scarce resource: water. The Alberta government is embarking on a long-term water management strategy in which irrigation water management will be pivotal. The government is considering a range of economic instruments to assist in this management. One instrument already implemented is the ability of private irrigators and irrigators within irrigation districts to trade irrigation water rights on a temporary and permanent basis. This has established the foundation for water markets. The research presented in this thesis centers on establishing the characteristics of irrigation water markets in southern Alberta. The research also aims to determine whether the markets are behaving according to basic economic principles and whether they are supporting government's goals of increased water productivity, efficiency and conservation. The findings reveal that characteristics of irrigation water markets in southern Alberta. The research also aims to determine whether the markets are behaving according to basic economic principles and whether they are supporting government's goals of increased water productivity, efficiency and conservation. The findings reveal that characteristics of water markets in southern Alberta are very similar to markets elsewhere and the markets are behaving in a manner one would expect. However, markets are also creating activity that at one and the same time support and contradict government's water management goals. In addition, the small degree of market activity in general suggests that if government is relying on markets to contribute to these goals to any significant extent, it will need to create conditions that promote greater water market activity. / x, 184 leaves : ill., maps ; 29 cm.

Growth of riparian cottonwoods along regulated rivers can be limited by water availability. In this study we associate seasonal variation of environmental conditions and stream flows with water relations of a natural cottonwood grove located along a regulated river in southern Alberta. To link elements in the river-soil-plant-atmosphere continuum, river and groundwater levels and precipitation were monitored; sap flow was continuously measured with thermal dissipation probes in eight trees and stomatal conductance and leaf water potential were measured monthly; and weather conditions were monitored. From June through August, stomatal conductances at both leaf and canopy levels were increasingly limited by decreasing water availability. Artificially increasing the soil moisture in August resulted in an increase in sap flow and stomatal conductance at leaf and canopy levels. These responses can be attributed to seasonal changes in the water potential difference between soil and leaves or an alteration in hydraulic conductance, or a combination of both. / xiv, 135 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm

The current study investigated the relationship between social support and quality of life (QoL) as well as social support and community functioning among persons with severe and persistent mental illness (SPMI). Empirical data from Phase II of the Continuity of Mental Health Services (COMHS) Study of Alberta (Adair, Wild, Joyce, McDougall, Gordon, et al., 2003) were used to comprehensively examine these variables among a broad-based sample of 301 people with SPMI receiving a mix of inpatient, outpatient, and community services. Multiple measures administered in Phase II of the COMHS research program provided comprehensive data on QoL (i.e., disease-specific and generic QoL), functioning (i.e., community ability), and objective (OSS) and subjective (SSS) measures of social support. Higher ratings of both OSS and SSS were associated with better QoL and functioning at outcome. Participant ratings of objective dimensions of their own social support were shown to be most important in determining life quality and functioning at outcome. Of the two SSS variables, the one most predictive of life quality was the participants’ sense of the provision and receipt of social support. Clinician-rated OSS was a significant predictor of QoL only for participants who rated social support availability as poor. The results of this study may inform policy development, planning, and resource allocation for community treatment programs in Alberta and elsewhere, as there is widespread support both provincially and nationally for increasing community support services and decreasing the number and length of inpatient admissions (Kirby & Keon, 2006). A better understanding of the relative impact of social support variables is essential for further development of effective psychosocial rehabilitation programming. / xvii, 217 leaves ; 29 cm.

The objective of this study was to determine the impacts of irrigation tailwater and sewage lagoon discharge on the water quality of Crowfoot Creek, Alberta, Canada. The monitored irrigation tailwater accounted for more than 55% of the water flow in the basin. With the exception of the early part of the 1997 irrigation season the irrigation tailwater only impacted the phosphate and total phosphorus levels in the creek. High values for all parameters were recorded in the early part of the 1997 irrigation season, due to irrigation source water quality or deposition of contaminants into the irrigation canals during the 1997 spring runoff. The impact of the sewage lagoon effluent on the water quality of the creek was minimal to insignificant. The primary sources of contamination in the watershed are thought to be direct cattle access to the creek, soil erosion and surface runoff.

The property development industry in cities such as Calgary, Edmonton, Denver and Houston experienced a boom characterized by compulsive speculative growth in the 1970's and then a dramatic collapse in 1982. In the wake of the collapse came a crisis in the financial as well as the development sector, which to 1987 is nowhere near resolved. The expansion and decline in the property development industry is seen as a subset of a classical business cycle fueled by the world oil and gas economy, Canadian government regional and economic policies, and changes in money supply and interest rates. These factors are recognized as being contributory, but not a sufficient explanation for the property boom and bust. Additional understanding is offered by an analysis of the decision making process in the development industry. The research, focusing on key decision makers, revealed that repeated decision errors made by developers on strategies related to growth, diversification, and financing contributed significantly to the industry problems. The sources of strategic errors were found to be associated with the key developers' personalities and their perception of the business environment, as well as group and organizational behaviour. In 1976-77 opportunities to gain windfall profits in real estate development encouraged developers to travel from city to city continent wide in search of opportunities. Their fast-paced activity brought key developers stunning successes. Their perceived brilliance attracted followers from the rest of the industry and captured the imagination of the financial community. In 1979-80, as land values began increasing at rates far faster than interest rates, land banking superceded land development as a principal activity. Developers not only borrowed to the maximum under conventional project lending, but they also invented the concept of "appraisal surplus" (the difference between market value and debt) as a measure of their enormous "equity". This in turn permitted them to raise additional capital corporately through debentures and share offering to purchase even more land. By 1981 companies were highly levered financially making them extremely vulnerable to the slightest changes in the marketplace. Rather than recognizing that they were swept up in a property' boom developers, individually and as a group, chose to continue to believe that their "exceptional ability" to turn a profit was the basis for their successes. As the boom accelerated developers abandoned all caution committing to some of their largest and most daring acquisitions at the very peak of the boom. Then, in 1982 the inevitable happened, the bust in the property market. Those public companies with huge financially levered land banks, whose strategies were predicated on continuing inflation and ever increasing market share failed. Those companies, often private, with low debt to equity ratios, conservative financial practices, and income property portfolios survived. Since both sets of companies operated in a similar environment, but one failed and the other survived, the argument that decision making was a crucial factor in understanding the boom-bust property cycle is strengthened. The understanding of change in the activity patterns and in the structure of the built environment is elucidated by the study of decision processes. Insights into decision making and business cycles create a new awareness of the development process. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

This thesis suggests that it is impossible to consider any administrative agency in the abstract without losing important elements of the nature of the legal environment within which the agency operates. There is a large gap between the theories of formal administrative law and the experience of practice in particular administrative settings. Drawing upon the work of sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, the thesis develops the concept of the legal administrative field as a means to approach this issue. The use of Bourdieu's concepts of field, habitus and capital help to articulate and give a theoretical structure to a process and series of practices that are otherwise hard to identify or study. Two Alberta farm marketing boards, and certain specific legal issues faced by each board, are examined in detail and analyzed in terms of the concept of the legal administrative field. It is shown that for each board, the realm of what was 'legally possible' shifted despite the fact that there were no changes in the formal administrative law and that legal practice in these fields involves far more than the application of the principles of formal administrative law. The intersection of the principles and habitus of formal administrative law, the structure provided by the legislative and regulatory framework, and the respective capital and habitus of all the individuals, agents and agencies within the field all interact and these complex interactions are what structure the legal administrative fields and shape the shifts which occur within them. In the struggles of interpretation which occur in these fields an attempt to make a clear demarcation between the practice of law by lawyers and the administration of the system by administrators is inadequate; it simplifies and renders invisible much of the complex series of interactions in which the legal practitioner is a participant and which create the field in which he or she practices. The conclusion is that the heuristic value of the legal administrative field in relation to the legal issues faced by the two marketing boards, and in relation to legal practice in the farm marketing area has been established and that this concept provides a useful perspective and a valuable supplement to a more traditional approach. / Law, Peter A. Allard School of / Graduate

In Alberta, decision-making in the health system has been devolved to seventeen Regional Health Authorities (RHAs). This thesis undertakes a broad analysis of the values that underlie this regionalization. Divided into two parts, the first half of the thesis develops a liberal egalitarian theory for the distribution of resources in society that turns on the importance of providing all people with the basic resources required to plan for, develop and achieve their life goals. Four requirements for any health system that seeks to uphold the values inherent in this theory are then articulated. These requirements include the need for the health system to be sensitive to the broader determinants of health, and the need for understanding the concepts of health and disease within the context of the social and cultural communities that the system is meant to serve. Part One concludes with an argument suggesting that expressions of Canadian values cohere with the normative theory developed. In Part Two the evolution of Alberta's regionalized healthcare system is traced. The values implicit in the regionalization of the health system in this province are then examined for their congruence with the four requirements developed in Part One. Following this, the ethical difficulties faced by RHAs are considered. The thesis culminates with thoughts on the ethical challenges Alberta's regionalized healthcare system must confront, offering recommendations for how some of these challenges may be addressed. It is concluded in the thesis that while a regionalized health system is not necessary for meeting the requirements elucidated, these standards can be met with a regionalized approach. However, at least in the case of the Alberta experience, a number of important changes would have to take place for this to occur. Among these changes is a paradigm shift in the way health and disease are understood towards a more evaluative approach; the recentralization of public health initiatives to the provincial level; and an overall change in governmental health policy recognizing that many areas of society, and consequently the policies of government agencies beyond a disease-based healthcare system, impact health and well-being. / Arts, Faculty of / Philosophy, Department of / Graduate

No description available.

This thesis examines the concept of performance management in the context of program evaluation and the management of public administration systems. The thesis begins by outlining and examining the common theoretical underpinnings of performance management. Once the theory is developed, the thesis reviews and identifies the key findings of the empirical literature that attempts to identify and explain the variables that impact the implementation of performance management systems. Following this the contemporary case of Results-Based Budgeting (RBB) in the government of Alberta is examined and contrasted with the theory. The examination of RBB in Alberta reveals that the theoretical literature is useful for classifying performance management systems in practice, but that the possible outcomes of performance management reform extend beyond the typical purported benefits of efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability associated with the rational actor model of performance management. In Alberta, some of the outcomes of RBB include horizontal integration, strategic policy alignment, and cultural change. Alberta’s experience with RBB also supports the constructivist model of performance management, which suggests that these systems contribute to public sector organizations by structuring policy analysis and dialogue, enhancing strategic planning, and other benefits.