Juno News - Alberta’s $13 billion SURPLUS pays off for Albertans

00:00:00.000 Hello everyone and welcome back to the Alberta Roundup. I'm your host Rachel Emanuel and a

00:00:16.180 happy belated Alberta Day to you all. You might remember Premier Jason Kenney announced that

00:00:20.900 Alberta would celebrate Alberta Day on September 1 during the Calgary Stampede. It's not a stat

00:00:25.800 holiday but some years it will fall on Labor Day so you will get the day off. We celebrated the first

00:00:30.580 Alberta Day on Thursday on Alberta's 117th birthday. Here's what Premier Jason Kenney had to say about it.

00:00:37.180 Alberta Day is an opportunity for us to stop for a moment and not to take that for granted. It is too

00:00:44.920 easy for us to focus on our flaws and to take for granted our achievements. Today let's focus

00:00:54.860 on how it is that we have built a society that is in so many ways the envy of the world.

00:01:03.560 Today we'll be discussing Premier Jason Kenney who announced that Alberta will bring personal

00:01:07.560 income taxes in line with inflation. Deputy Prime Minister Chris Giffreland was cussed out while

00:01:12.400 visiting Alberta. UCP leadership candidate Danielle Smith says a member of her campaign is being

00:01:17.340 harassed following reports that he used to be a Liberal. Alberta's left-hevenant governor has waded

00:01:22.100 into the UCP leadership race and people are not happy. We'll have our usual UCP leadership race

00:01:27.080 update and UCP leadership candidate Todd Lowen absolutely roast Justin Trudeau. Let's move into

00:01:32.820 today's topics. Premier Jason Kenney announced on Tuesday that Alberta will bring personal income

00:01:37.860 taxes in line with inflation for the 2022 tax year because the government's finances are back in order.

00:01:44.060 The government de-indexed income taxes in 2019 meaning tax levels were no longer tied to inflation.

00:01:49.460 In a video posted to social media Kenney said his government is forecasting a surplus of $13.2

00:01:54.660 billion because of oil royalties and because government spending is under control. Here's

00:01:59.260 what the Premier had to say about it. I want to share with you some great news about Alberta's

00:02:03.120 improving provincial finances. When our government came to office over three years ago we inherited a

00:02:09.300 deficit of nearly $9 billion and Alberta had been racking up more and more debt for over a decade

00:02:15.600 and that's why we gave Alberta's a commitment that we would get our spending under control

00:02:20.700 and grow the economy to bring our provincial finances back in order so we could begin reducing

00:02:27.520 that debt instead of constantly increasing it as a mortgage on the future. Well we've done just that

00:02:33.480 we kept our word and in fact in the last fiscal year we reported a substantial surplus for the first

00:02:39.340 time in 14 years and I'm pleased to report today that based on our first quarter projections for

00:02:45.780 the current fiscal year we won't have a surplus of $515 million that we originally projected in the

00:02:53.940 February budget but instead a surplus of $13.2 billion. Of course a lot of that is thanks to growth in

00:03:02.240 commodity prices and royalty revenues but fundamentally we never would have had a balanced budget on the

00:03:08.120 books this year had it not been for getting our spending under control and the broader growth in

00:03:12.940 Alberta's economy. Let's move into the controversy of the week. I'm sure you guys have seen videos of

00:03:18.160 this circulating online by now. Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Christy Freeland was cussed out

00:03:24.300 by a protest while she was in Alberta. She was in Alberta for about a week and the incident happened

00:03:29.140 in Grand Prairie. During the stop some Albertans made it very clear that they were not happy to see the

00:03:34.340 Deputy Prime Minister and that they don't think she belongs in Alberta. Take a listen to the exchange. 0.62

00:03:39.340 Oh right there she is. Elliot. Right there. That's Christy. Christy. Yes. What the f**k are you doing in Alberta?

00:03:50.340 You f**king traitors. Get the f**k out of this province. You don't belong here. You're a f**king traitor. 1.00

00:04:02.040 Yeah go ahead and hide. All right now you got a traitor in the f**king elevator. Christy Freeland I'm going. 1.00

00:04:07.260 Most people including most of the UCP leadership candidates quickly condemned the words and said

00:04:12.020 this exchange was not appropriate and wouldn't result in a better deal for Alberta. However not

00:04:17.240 everyone agrees that the Freeland deserves their sympathy. Some people were quick to note that the

00:04:22.200 Deputy Prime Minister was responsible for freezing Canadians bank accounts during the Freedom Convoy

00:04:26.560 and an old video of Freeland resurfaced which appears to show her laughing while discussing freezing

00:04:31.720 bank accounts of some Freedom Convoy organizers. Okay guys what we're watching in the weeks ahead

00:04:36.880 Alberta's left-heavened governor has waded into the UCP leadership race and now people are calling for

00:04:42.360 her resignation. Left-heavened governor Salma Lakhani on Thursday told reporters her office would 1.00

00:04:48.100 independently evaluate UCP leadership frontrunner Danielle Smith's Alberta Sovereignty Act to

00:04:53.260 determine whether it's constitutional before signing it into law. This is what she said quote

00:04:57.740 and we will get the appropriate advice that we need as to whether we can sign it whether it's

00:05:02.560 against our constitution end quote. We've talked about the Alberta Sovereignty Act a lot of times

00:05:07.320 it is sort of dominating conversation in the UCP leadership race right now. Danielle Smith says

00:05:12.920 that it would bar federal legislation deemed harmful to Alberta and its interest. Now the Queen's

00:05:18.340 representative in Canada is considered a ceremonial role by many but Lakhani said she's prepared for any

00:05:23.700 backlash from people who believe she should play solely a ceremonial role. Now people are very angry

00:05:29.340 they're calling for her resignation. We'll see what happens in the weeks ahead if those words have

00:05:33.400 any teeth to them or if it's just talk. Let's move into our UCP leadership race update. Former UCP

00:05:39.200 leadership contender John Horseman has endorsed Travis Taves. You guys might remember Horseman he was

00:05:44.640 only in the leadership race for about two weeks. He dropped out just before the first cutoff on July

00:05:49.600 20th. He dropped out less than an hour before that cutoff hit saying the race was just too crowded.

00:05:54.900 I spoke with him on Thursday and he said the leadership race is about forging the leader Alberta

00:05:59.040 needs. And he thinks Travis Taves has grown the most since putting his name forward for the

00:06:04.140 premiership. Take a listen to what the two gentlemen had to say about the endorsement.

00:06:08.140 I'm here tonight with John Horseman. John, thank you for your endorsement. That's such a significant

00:06:14.100 endorsement from an individual such as yourself with such street credibility in the business community

00:06:19.020 here in Alberta and such a strong legacy of leadership at the ATB. Thank you.

00:06:24.120 Yeah, thank you, Travis. And I'm happy to be supporting Travis as the, as I believe he's a

00:06:29.300 candidate that's the best path forward for, for Alberta. And I look at where we are in the world

00:06:33.640 and I look at the future for Alberta and I cannot be more optimistic. We are entrusted with energy

00:06:39.600 security, food security, innovation, and frankly, because these are export industries, it's life or

00:06:46.940 death depending on how Alberta performs. UCP leadership candidate Danielle Smith says a member of her

00:06:52.680 campaign is being harassed following reports that he used to be a liberal. Okay, guys, here's what

00:06:57.140 happened. On Sunday, the National Telegraph reported that Mike Butler, Smith's deputy campaign manager

00:07:02.620 for Northern Alberta, used to run for the federal and provincial liberals and NDP. He is in the

00:07:09.000 lobbying industry. So he has lots of photos of himself online with politicians of all stripes,

00:07:13.820 including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, former NDP leader Jack Layton, as well as Ontario liberal

00:07:19.780 leader Kathleen Wendt. And these are a lot of people that conservatives normally wouldn't

00:07:23.540 associate with. After this report broke, Butler wrote a column for the Western Standard and Rebel News,

00:07:29.740 basically saying that he was converted to conservatism during the COVID-19 pandemic,

00:07:34.560 specifically after he declined the COVID-19 vaccine and saw how the unvaccinated were treated

00:07:39.440 in Canada. Then after that column broke, another photo emerged of him carrying an NDP banner

00:07:46.000 during the most recent 2022 Canada Day parade. So the questions are swirling. What are his political

00:07:53.360 allegiances? Where do his values lie? That being said, while all of this has been ongoing, Smith has

00:07:58.820 said he is being harassed, as photos of his business card have been circulating online in people's videos,

00:08:04.180 including some of the articles that we have mentioned. Meanwhile, Danielle Smith gained a lot of

00:08:08.580 traction this week for two policy proposals that she put forward, including one which she said she would

00:08:13.400 amend the Alberta Human Rights Act to prohibit employers from firing employees based on their

00:08:18.260 vaccination status. Danielle Smith has also pledged to ban the province's post-secondary schools from

00:08:23.340 implementing vaccine mandates on its students. You guys might have seen some of the craziness going

00:08:27.820 on at Western University in London, Ontario. They've imposed a booster mandate, meaning that staff

00:08:33.280 and students need to have two COVID-19 vaccines and a booster to attend campus this fall. Students and

00:08:39.700 staff alike are unimpressed. About 400 people showed up to the university to protest last week and a

00:08:44.460 campaign called Enough is Enough is still working to see a reversal on that mandate. Let's move into

00:08:50.020 the funniest moment of the week. One thing we haven't covered yet was the UCP leadership debate in

00:08:54.600 Edmonton on Tuesday night. This was the last official debate. You might remember the other one was in

00:08:59.180 Medicine Hat. I didn't dedicate a lot of time to this because I felt like I didn't hear a lot of new

00:09:03.360 things from the candidates. At this point in the debate, you know, they're really solidifying their

00:09:07.060 positions. They're repeating things that they've said. They're getting good clips for Twitter.

00:09:10.280 But you know, not a lot of new policies are emerging or new ideas are emerging in these debates.

00:09:15.280 That being said, you might remember the last time we talked about this, I said Danielle Smith got so

00:09:19.040 much time during the first debate because her opponents would continually pick her to debate with

00:09:24.020 when they had the opportunity to pick an opponent to spar with. They didn't do that this time around.

00:09:28.420 I think they probably noticed that that tactic wasn't successful for them the first time going because

00:09:33.200 all it really did was give Smith so much time to speak about her ideas and she didn't lose her cool

00:09:38.440 in the face of some really personal attacks. So, you know, the debate was a bit dry, but always good

00:09:43.340 to give, you know, voters more of an opportunity to learn about their candidates. However, I thought

00:09:48.540 Todd Lowen had a really strong performance. I know that Lowen has sometimes struggled with his public

00:09:53.280 speaking. I thought he did a really good job. He brought some really good points on inflation and on the

00:09:57.100 economy. He held Travis Taves, the former finance minister's, feet to the fire on Alberta spending when

00:10:02.720 Taves was finance minister. But he also had a couple really funny moments. Take a listen to this clip

00:10:07.860 of him absolutely roasting Justin Trudeau. When it comes to grazing leases, there's a lot of

00:10:12.680 contention with grazing leases with public land, private land and that relationship with the public

00:10:17.760 and there's a lot of work that needs to be done there. But I think when it comes, you know, I guess

00:10:22.280 I kind of want to go back to the fertilizer issue and I actually think that if we, if we used Justin

00:10:27.280 Trudeau's BS, we could probably fertilize our crops with that. But unfortunately,

00:10:32.420 all right, all right, we're cutting into his time here. Maybe the world couldn't handle the crops with

00:10:41.100 all that fertilizer, but I got a good laugh out of that. I didn't really expect it because Lowen is

00:10:46.200 so nice, but I don't think anyone could say that it wasn't true what he said. Okay, everyone, thanks so

00:10:51.660 much for tuning in. That's all I have for you today. If you like Trudeau and support what we do, please

00:10:56.240 visit donate.tnc.news and support our work. Thanks so much. See you next week.

Juno News - September 03, 2022

Alberta’s $13 billion SURPLUS pays off for Albertans

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