Juno News - Alberta BANS Feds from Oil and Gas Sites

00:00:00.000 Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has taken her ongoing war against federal intrusion to provincial

00:00:16.400 jurisdiction to a new level, this time banning federal enforcement officers from conducting

00:00:21.600 emissions cap inspections or collecting data in the province. The announcement followed Canadian

00:00:26.960 energy leaders, calling on federal leaders to declare a quote, Canadian energy crisis. The

00:00:32.480 province also took aim at the UBC Okanagan Student Union, saying it will not follow in its footsteps

00:00:38.480 of suppressing free speech on post-secondary campuses. The Alberta government also filed

00:00:43.600 its statement of defense against former Alberta Health Services CEO, Athana Mensalopoulos,

00:00:49.600 saying she was fired for being bad at her job, not for retaliation for investigating AHS procurement

00:00:56.000 processes. The province also greenlit 14 new school projects in Edmonton and its surrounding areas

00:01:02.400 to deal with a continuously surging population. Lastly, we'll discuss how Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet

00:01:08.320 Sohi's poor approval ratings have not stopped him from stepping in to the ring for the next federal

00:01:13.840 election. All of that and more on this episode of the Alberta Roundup. I'm your host, Isaac Lamoureux,

00:01:19.920 let's get the show on the road. So, starting off with the big news out of Alberta, the province is

00:01:25.040 proposing amendments to the Critical Infrastructure Defense Act to stop unconstitutional federal

00:01:31.360 overreach. The amendments will feature updates to the definition of essential infrastructure to

00:01:37.440 encompass oil and gas production facilities where emission data and records are held. Here's some

00:01:42.880 of what Alberta Premier Danielle Smith had to say about the incoming amendments and Prime Minister Mark

00:01:48.160 Carney. Let's take a listen. This amendment to the Critical Infrastructure Defense Act provides an extra

00:01:53.200 tool to safeguard essential infrastructure from interference, and that includes interference

00:01:58.000 from Ottawa. I would certainly hope that the new Prime Minister has taken the time to read our

00:02:02.560 constitution, and I would direct him to pay specific attention to Section 92A, which gives the province,

00:02:08.320 not the federal government, the exclusive jurisdiction over non-renewable natural resource development.

00:02:13.520 Alberta will continue in its pursuit of doubling our oil and gas production to meet the growing global

00:02:19.120 demand for energy. And we will not let Ottawa stand in our way. We will not tolerate the continuous

00:02:24.720 unconstitutional overreaches made by the federal Liberal government. Measures like the emissions cap,

00:02:30.000 the net-zero electricity regs, the net-zero electric vehicle mandate, and the energy industry advertising

00:02:35.280 ban must be stopped now. And make no mistake, Alberta will do whatever it takes to shield our economy

00:02:41.680 from the Liberals' growth-killing lunacy. These amendments we're introducing today would include

00:02:46.960 denying federal workers access to our facilities and the information they contain. I will continue to

00:02:53.120 fiercely and unapologetically stand up for Albertans and defend the best interest of our province, our

00:02:58.400 economy, and our industry." Wow, some strong language from Smith there. The amendments align with the Alberta

00:03:05.120 Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act, which was passed in December 2024, that says all emissions data

00:03:11.440 are exclusively owned by the province and that if the federal government's proposed emissions cap is

00:03:16.800 found to be unconstitutional, as it previously has been, federal enforcement officers would have no reason

00:03:22.640 to conduct emissions cap inspections or collect data. The amendments specifically state that the act is applied

00:03:29.120 to the federal government and creates offences for trespassing, interfering with operations, or causing damage.

00:03:36.160 The province said the amendments also build on the two-kilometer border red zone,

00:03:41.040 determined to be essential infrastructure in the previous border regulations. As I mentioned at the

00:03:46.160 top, this announcement from Alberta came very shortly after top energy executives from 14 companies called

00:03:52.640 on the federal leaders of the top four federal parties to declare a quote, Canadian energy crisis.

00:03:59.760 Some of the companies in the letter include Synovus, Suncor, Enbridge, and TC Energy. All of these energy

00:04:07.040 companies are obviously headed in Alberta, given our oil and gas reserves. The open letter contained five

00:04:12.800 key demands from the federal political leaders. Among the demands were reviewing the Impact Assessment Act

00:04:19.200 and West Coast tanker ban that are impeding development, immediately scrapping the oil and gas emissions cap,

00:04:25.280 and getting rid of the carbon tax. The letter was addressed to Mark Carney, Yves-François Blanchet, Pierre Polievre,

00:04:32.800 and Jagmeet Singh. While Carney claimed to cancel the consumer portion of the carbon tax, a federal

00:04:38.240 carbon pricing law remains on the books. And of course, the industrial levy still stands.

00:04:44.080 The energy leaders said that Canada is at a turning point in its history and national interest. As public

00:04:50.400 support grows for the energy sector and its infrastructure, the group said Canada can defend

00:04:55.360 its sovereignty and become a key player in determining the world's future. While the business leaders said that a

00:05:01.520 stronger energy sector would improve Canadians' living standards, they added it could address

00:05:06.560 the world's energy poverty emergency. The letter cited that over 4 billion people, more than half

00:05:12.880 the world's population, currently live below modern standards of living and require reliable energy for

00:05:18.400 basic needs. Additionally, 8.3 million people die annually due to inadequate access to heating and cooling

00:05:25.760 and indoor air pollution from burning dirty energy like animal dung. The letter reads, quote,

00:05:31.280 Canada has the resources to responsibly meet this demand as one of the top five global oil producers and

00:05:37.280 one of only two democratic oil producers in the top ten. Canada could also help reduce global

00:05:42.960 carbon emissions, according to the letter's authors. This could be done by supplying more clean

00:05:47.760 Canadian energy to replace emissions-intensive coal-fired plants supplying oil and gas throughout Asia.

00:05:54.080 Deputy leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, Melissa Lansman, told True North that the Liberals

00:05:59.600 have done everything in their power to attack Canada's world-class energy sector. She told

00:06:04.960 True North that the Conservatives have opposed the Liberals' quote, radical agenda since it was

00:06:10.080 introduced. Lansman said the Conservatives will repeal Bill 69, aka the No More Pipelines Act,

00:06:16.320 and replace it with a law to approve projects within a year of application. She also said the party would

00:06:22.160 repeal the energy cap and axe the carbon tax, including the industrial component. Lansman said, quote,

00:06:28.560 only common sense Conservatives will support our energy sector, pipelines, LNG plants, mines, mills,

00:06:34.240 and lowering the cost of work and making things in Canada to unleash the power of our economy.

00:06:40.320 Bring home powerful paychecks and put Canada first. You might remember the recent report from the

00:06:45.280 Parliamentary Budget Officer, which showed that the emissions cap would result in losing 54,400 jobs

00:06:52.160 and a $20.5 billion decrease in Canada's GDP in 2032. The province backed the call. Alberta's

00:07:00.160 Environment Minister Rebecca Schultz said that Alberta backs the call, quote, 100%. Alberta Premier

00:07:06.160 Danielle Smith and her Energy Minister also joined the effort. So moving on to our next story here with an

00:07:11.600 exclusive from True North, you may have seen us cover at True North that the UBC Okanagan Student

00:07:16.880 Union recently banned a Conservative club from forming on campus before reversing the decision

00:07:21.760 after facing severe backlash. This ban came despite the Student Union allowing a Liberal campus club to

00:07:27.680 operate freely for years. The Student Union initially justified the ban by claiming that the Conservative

00:07:33.280 Party's views would make Black and LGBTQ students feel, quote, unwelcome. Alberta's Minister of Advanced

00:07:39.760 Education, Rajon Sawney told True North that this is not the culture her ministry supports. She said,

00:07:46.480 quote, we recognize that these actions represent an attack on freedom of speech and to fostering a

00:07:52.160 healthy academic environment. We need to ensure that we have free speech on campus where people are

00:07:56.880 allowed to explore their ideas and be able to debate them freely. Separately, the province established an

00:08:02.480 expert panel to review post-secondary school funding and competitiveness. While the panel's report,

00:08:08.080 due in late 2025 aims to make recommendations addressing the impacts of federal immigration

00:08:13.040 policies, the cost of administrative and regulatory burdens on post-secondary institutions,

00:08:18.240 and more, it does not include a pledge to look into student union reform. Alberta's United

00:08:23.360 Conservative Party required all 26 publicly funded post-secondary institutions to endorse the Chicago

00:08:29.360 Principles in 2019, a set of guidelines on free expression and academic freedom. Starting last fall,

00:08:35.520 institutions have been required to report their free speech policies, cancelled events,

00:08:39.600 and free speech-related complaints to the provincial government. While Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said

00:08:45.360 she hadn't seen student unions as a problem, she told journalist Kian Bexty that she'd raised the

00:08:50.960 concern with her advanced education minister. The advanced education minister told True North that

00:08:56.640 among the funding allocations, administrative and regulatory burdens, and overall competitiveness of Alberta's

00:09:02.640 post-secondary system, the panel may now examine mandatory student union fees. Following the

00:09:09.280 controversy at UBC Okanagan, the Conservative Party of BC leader John Rustad said this was a result of

00:09:15.920 out-of-control radical leftism in BC's academia. Rustad said, quote,

00:09:21.120 no woke activist student council should be allowed to determine which political parties students can

00:09:26.480 join or associate with, urging that students be able to opt out of student union dues. Sonny said an

00:09:33.200 increasing number of Albertans have raised concerns about diversity, equity, and inclusion policies

00:09:38.720 prioritizing ideology over merit. She told True North, quote, that is why through the MNCE panel we are taking

00:09:45.840 action to ensure that post-secondary funding is being used in the most effective way to support

00:09:50.880 student excellence, including an examination of funding that is used by post-secondary institutions

00:09:56.480 towards DEI initiatives. Now hopping into our latest development in the AHS saga with its former CEO,

00:10:03.520 the Alberta government has denied any wrongdoing in what it calls a wrongful dismissal lawsuit based on

00:10:09.280 false or misleading allegations from former Alberta Health Services CEO, Athana Mensalopoulos.

00:10:15.760 Alberta's Minister of Justice, Mickey Amory, shared the statement of defence to X last Thursday.

00:10:21.360 The province asserted in its statement that Mensalopoulos' termination was due to performance

00:10:26.960 failures, not retaliation for investigating AHS procurement practices. Amory said he wouldn't be

00:10:33.760 commenting much further on the development as the documents would answer any further questions.

00:10:39.280 The provincial government said that Mensalopoulos hired an independent investigator of her own

00:10:44.400 to investigate procurement processes of AHS, an entity which she herself was hired to lead.

00:10:51.280 But the investigator failed to find any wrongdoing. The statement of defence reads, quote,

00:10:56.960 Presumably to try and leverage her position to extract a large payday, the plaintiff has filed her

00:11:02.000 claim with various allegations of impropriety, interspersed with claims of political intrigue aimed at

00:11:07.760 numerous individuals within and outside government, without any regard for the effect of her attacks

00:11:13.120 on them. The province also claimed that Mensalopoulos had nothing to report on following the intense

00:11:18.400 investigations, but that she had allegedly become so, quote, obsessed and infatuated with her suspicions

00:11:24.400 that she failed to do the very task she was hired for, Alberta's healthcare refocus. The statement reads,

00:11:30.160 quote, In the end, the plaintiff was fired because she couldn't do her job, despite having been given many

00:11:35.840 opportunities to do so. Mensalopoulos was fired just days before she was scheduled to meet with Auditor General

00:11:41.520 Doug Wiley. However, the province's statement of defence claims that these events were not connected,

00:11:46.480 as Mensalopoulos had not even disclosed the meeting to anyone in the province. The statement reads, quote,

00:11:52.640 To ensure that the allegations are reviewed properly and independently, the province has appointed an eminent and

00:11:58.720 retired judge to lead a third-party investigation into the procurement processes used by the province

00:12:04.640 and AHS. For complete transparency, the final report will be made public. Alberta Premier Danielle

00:12:10.800 Smith previously denied any wrongdoing. She said, quote, As Premier, I was not involved in any wrongdoing.

00:12:17.280 Any insinuation to the contrary is false, baseless and defamatory. The province's statement of defence

00:12:23.520 also claims that Mensalopoulos was not employed by the province, but by AHS. Therefore, the province

00:12:29.200 cannot have breached a contract that did not exist. The statement of defence claims that Mensalopoulos

00:12:34.720 was provided with adequate notice or pay in lieu of notice of the termination of her employment by AHS.

00:12:40.960 The statement reads, quote, The plaintiff is not entitled to any further compensation, benefits,

00:12:46.480 or other payments arising from the conclusion of her employment. Filing her statement of claim with

00:12:51.040 allegations of political intrigue and half-truths does not change that. The province is requesting

00:12:56.640 that the court dismiss the lawsuit and order Mensalopoulos to pay for the government legal

00:13:01.280 costs due to her, quote, incendiary allegations. The Auditor General's review into AHS procurement

00:13:09.040 remains ongoing, with findings expected to be tabled in the Alberta legislature. Now, hopping into our

00:13:15.120 second-last story today, Alberta has greenlit 14 new Edmonton and surrounding area school projects to

00:13:20.560 address ongoing population growth. Alberta Education Minister Dimitrios Nikolaides said there are now

00:13:26.080 132 school building projects underway in Alberta, which he said were needed yesterday. He added that

00:13:32.800 the new schools will reduce long commutes for students and will help ease overcrowding by creating

00:13:37.440 smaller class sizes, allowing for more one-on-one interaction between students and teachers. Any

00:13:42.800 projects not yet under construction can advance through Alberta's School Accelerator Program,

00:13:47.600 allowing funding to proceed outside the regular budget cycle. The program will invest $8.6 billion

00:13:53.840 dollars to build up 90 new schools and modernize or replace 24 existing schools across Alberta.

00:14:00.960 Some of the school funding announced by the Alberta government will include additions to existing

00:14:05.440 schools for more student spaces. While Edmonton will see most of the school projects, Beaumont, St. Albert,

00:14:11.120 and Morinville will also receive new schooling capacity. The newly announced projects include K-6,

00:14:17.440 K-9, and high schools. The 14 new school projects will add around 16,400 new and updated school spaces.

00:14:25.440 Alberta's new Minister of Infrastructure, Martin Long, said three of the 36 Edmonton-area school

00:14:31.200 projects underway are expected to complete construction by the end of 2025. The three completed projects will

00:14:37.360 provide an additional 2,640 student spaces in Edmonton and Sherwood Park. Of the 36 ongoing

00:14:44.240 projects, 19 are approved for construction, 7 for design, and 10 for planning. Edmonton Public Schools

00:14:50.640 Board Chair Julie Kusiek said her division sees an average of 5,000 additional new students annually.

00:14:57.120 She anticipates welcoming 125,000 students in her division's schools next year through the

00:15:03.200 Accelerator Program. Public high school spaces are expected to surpass capacity by the 2026-27 school

00:15:10.400 year. Similarly, the Edmonton Catholic School Division projected overcapacity by 2029. Board Chair of the

00:15:17.520 Edmonton Catholic School Division, Sandra Palazzo, said that her division has seen an increase of 7,000

00:15:23.680 students over the last three years, or a 15.5% increase. Even with 33 modular classrooms added this year,

00:15:31.200 Palazzo said Edmonton Catholic Schools remain 1,000 spaces short. Palazzo said, quote,

00:15:36.800 the way to get through the space crunch isn't going to be through portables. It needs to be through new

00:15:41.600 construction. The province's budget bill still needs to be tabled and passed in the legislature,

00:15:46.080 which could be debated as early as next week. Now with a quick hit for our last story, Edmonton Mayor

00:15:50.960 Amarjeet Sohi is set to join Mark Carney's Liberals. Him departing municipal politics would trigger a

00:15:56.560 by-election for the mayor's office, which could end up being the most expensive in the city's history,

00:16:01.600 thanks to the new provincial rules. This election is said to cost an additional $4.8 million.

00:16:07.280 These new rules consist of votes being tallied by hand and municipalities keeping a permanent

00:16:11.760 electors list. Tracking finances of candidates, municipal political parties, and new requirements

00:16:16.240 for special ballots are also expected to increase costs. Since being elected mayor in 2021,

00:16:22.080 Sohi has been surrounded by controversial decisions from tax hikes, high spending,

00:16:26.800 and even rumored ties with foreign sectarian issues in India. In 2025, Edmonton homeowners will

00:16:32.640 see a 6.1% property tax increase with another 6.8% tax hike expected in 2026. Sohi's administration

00:16:40.720 also faced backlash over a $100 million bike lane project, with taxpayer groups accusing him of

00:16:46.400 wasting funds on infrastructure meant to benefit only a small portion of the population. On top of the

00:16:51.440 many controversies surrounding Sohi, his approval rating has not fared well in Edmonton. A previous

00:16:56.800 poll showed that 26% of residents thought Sohi would deserve re-election, and 47% said he was

00:17:02.240 doing a good job. Just a quick note, I've recorded this episode ahead of Sunday, which is when many

00:17:07.040 expect the federal election to be called, so this story may have evolved slightly in that time frame.

00:17:11.840 But anyways, that wraps up this week's show. My name's Isaac Lamoureux, your host of the

00:17:16.000 Alberta Roundup. Have a great weekend, thank you, and God bless.

00:17:21.440 Thank you.

Juno News - March 23, 2025

Alberta BANS Feds from Oil and Gas Sites

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