Juno News - Danielle Smith agrees — immigration is too high

00:00:00.000 Following months of criticism, Alberta Premier Daniel Smith is finally starting to change her

00:00:04.720 tune on immigration. The incident serves as an important reminder as to why it's important to

00:00:10.360 hold our leaders to account. Holding a Conservative politician to account does not mean you hope for

00:00:15.960 a Liberal or NDP government. Instead, it means you hope they actually enact the common sense

00:00:21.300 Conservative policies that will create a popular government and will ensure re-election in the

00:00:26.120 future. I'm Rachel Parker and you're watching the Alberta Roundup.

00:00:30.000 All right, everyone, and for this very important story today, I caught up with my colleague Isaac

00:00:42.660 Lamoureux. As some of you know, he does most of the Alberta coverage. I was able to do a little

00:00:46.680 interview with him to talk about this brewing story about Alberta and immigration, and he's going to

00:00:51.440 give us the breakdown as to what happened with the Premier this week. We'll go to him now.

00:00:55.380 Hey, everyone. So joining me today to discuss is my colleague, Isaac Lamoureux. As you guys know,

00:01:00.700 Isaac has taken over much of the Alberta coverage. In my absence, I'm obviously still doing this show

00:01:05.800 and doing a little bit, but as many of you know, I've had a baby, and so Isaac has been filling in,

00:01:10.360 and he primarily does the Alberta coverage right now. Isaac, I wanted to have you on today to discuss

00:01:15.260 what is really a brewing controversy in Alberta right now. Danielle Smith's base and Conservatives,

00:01:21.380 sort of writ large, are very unhappy with her proposals regarding immigration. She, you know,

00:01:27.260 a few months ago said she wanted to double Alberta's population by 2050. She's come under a lot of fire

00:01:33.420 for that. Our colleague, Corey Morgan over at the Western Standard had the opportunity to ask her if

00:01:39.940 this was still her plans, given the controversy surrounding it. Let's just play this clip now so the

00:01:44.640 audience has a chance to see exactly what we're talking about. Seems like Danielle Smith is 1.00

00:01:48.220 backtracking. Take a listen to her answer for yourself. My thinking about it was that we were

00:01:54.380 already growing at 200,000 a year based on those numbers. So if you just do the math by 25 years,

00:02:00.540 it would be 5 million population. And I have often thought that we would have more political clout if

00:02:06.640 we had a higher population than Quebec. But what I'm seeing, and I'm doing a lot of roundtables and

00:02:12.580 town halls across the province, people are worried, people are very nervous about our ability to be

00:02:18.340 able to keep up with that pace of growth. And I think we're beginning to see it. So I'm listening to

00:02:24.000 people, I'm having to recalibrate a little bit on what our aspirations should be. I think what we

00:02:30.280 really need is a sensible immigration policy, similar to what we had under Stephen Harper, where we had a

00:02:36.780 point system for bringing people in, we made sure that newcomers match the economic needs of our

00:02:41.620 economy, we made sure that we had a level of newcomers coming to our country that matched our

00:02:46.520 ability to keep up with housing. And I think what we're what we're seeing is that especially in

00:02:51.880 Alberta, we're beginning to feel some of the pressure of that growth. And I think that that's

00:02:55.840 what people are responding to. So Isaac, this is a pretty sizable change from the Premier, who's always

00:03:01.020 been pretty pro-immigration. What do you think is marking this change in policy?

00:03:05.580 Well, several things, I think. And interestingly, that short clip you showed from their roughly

00:03:12.520 15 minute interview kind of covered most of the things they discussed, which which was a nice

00:03:16.940 surprise. But firstly, I should say Smith basically said, look, if we just continue on our numbers,

00:03:24.200 as she said in the clip, we will reach 5 million. So this isn't a stretch that that I'm doing. But

00:03:29.580 one thing she talked about, of course, was education and that they just don't have enough

00:03:34.900 schools for the amount of students that are coming into the education stream. And that

00:03:40.000 obviously schools take multiple years to build. So this isn't something you can do overnight, per

00:03:45.960 se. But she talked about all the social services can't handle the level of immigration that we're 0.96

00:03:53.380 currently experiencing that being health care education. I mean, the list goes on if people

00:03:58.160 use it and it's free, put those quotations there, because obviously the taxpayers are paying for it,

00:04:04.720 then those things will get overrun if our immigration is out of control.

00:04:08.220 The Premier was also asked, you know, people are concerned about whether immigrants coming to Canada

00:04:15.340 and to Alberta specifically are assimilating properly. Obviously, there's heightened stress

00:04:19.340 over that right now. A lot of people are looking at the situation in the UK very warily

00:04:22.820 and wondering if something like that could happen in Canada. And the Premier was asked about this as

00:04:27.760 well. What was her response to that? Yeah, obviously, she drew on what's happening on the UK

00:04:32.540 as a concern, though, she didn't see the very many similarities happening in Alberta. The key

00:04:40.740 example she gave was that 70,000 Ukrainians immigrated here fleeing the war. And she said only

00:04:46.980 1,700 of them are on any form of social assistance. So I mean, she didn't talk about the general numbers.

00:04:54.440 So I don't know how that compares to other immigrants. But I mean, 1,700 out of 70,000 doesn't 0.95

00:04:58.900 seem too bad to me with obviously most of the Ukrainian immigrants contributing to society. 1.00

00:05:06.140 For sure. I think that's a really good point as well. I think people want to see immigrants who

00:05:10.120 are settling in Alberta and in Canada working. I think they want to see, you know, them having jobs when

00:05:15.040 they come here and not living off of social welfare. One of the probably most important

00:05:20.720 questions that Corey asked the Premier was if there's going to be more policies coming for

00:05:26.040 immigration, and if she'll be advocating for more policies, federal policies on immigration.

00:05:31.420 What did the Premier have to say about that? Yeah, this was really interesting to me in that she was,

00:05:36.720 I guess, unsurprisingly, very critical of the federal government. She said that, look, they've let

00:05:41.260 the immigration system on all streams really get out of control. But something that took me by

00:05:48.840 surprise, I suppose, was that she said that Canada should strive towards finding a 1% of the

00:05:56.480 population target. So that would be only 400,000 people, which is less than even the permanent

00:06:00.920 residents we let in a 500,000 a year, let alone all the other immigration streams that being temporary

00:06:04.680 foreign workers, international students, the list goes on, illegal immigrants, which she said, and

00:06:10.700 Pierre's been saying the same number, which is 1.2 million. Although, obviously, Candace Malcolm,

00:06:15.420 when she previously reported, said 2.3 million in 2023. So I don't know whose number is more accurate.

00:06:21.420 But yeah, regardless, 400,000 is obviously a lot less than both of those numbers.

00:06:26.600 Yeah, and I think 400,000 is more in line that we've been seeing in Canada, and I think would be

00:06:31.860 more sustainable, especially if you consider that would be spread out over the whole country,

00:06:35.340 not just the amount that Alberta itself is absorbing. Isaac, thank you so much for joining

00:06:40.080 us today. Thanks for having me, Rachel. It was a pleasure. Okay, everyone, taking a look at our next

00:06:44.300 story here, the Alberta RCMP believe the remaining suspect involved in last week's shooting that killed

00:06:50.440 a Rocky View County employee and a young father is still in Alberta. Police told us this on Thursday.

00:06:56.600 Mounties are also ramping up communication. I believe this was in response to public outcry

00:07:02.200 over their poor response to the shooting in the initial aftermath and in the certainly initial

00:07:07.920 hours and days when the public had so little information about what was going on and whether

00:07:13.640 they needed to shelter inside. RCMP Staff Sergeant Mark Wilgaz said Thursday that police still believe

00:07:18.700 that 28-year-old Elijah Blake Strawberry remains inside Alberta borders. While the fatal shooting

00:07:24.260 near Chestermere was not targeted, Wilgaz said Albertans should quote, take some solace that

00:07:28.940 there is no indication that he actively targeting the public. However, he is armed and dangerous and

00:07:34.040 should not be approached. I personally am not terribly reassured by that. If I was in the Calgary

00:07:39.420 Chestermere area, I would be on high alert. Still, the RCMP are trying to reassure the public with

00:07:45.840 Wilgaz also saying quote, there's no information to say that Mr. Strawberry is selecting at random any

00:07:51.460 members of the public to commit violence upon. That's not to discount that he's still a dangerous

00:07:56.040 person. It is not a spree, so to speak, that he may be targeting other people for extreme violence

00:08:02.160 at random. Strawberry's alleged accomplice, 35-year-old Arthur Wayne Penner, was arrested on Sunday by RCMP's

00:08:08.940 major crimes unit. Penner has been charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder and was

00:08:13.740 remanded in custody with his next court appearance scheduled for Thursday in Airdrie. For those of you who

00:08:18.420 are feeling rather alarmed about the situation and want to know more, the Mounties are ramping up their

00:08:22.680 communications effort, as I said. So every day beginning at 3 p.m. Mountain Time, they will be

00:08:26.920 giving a briefing on the situation. Moving into our controversy of the week, the Elections Alberta has

00:08:32.260 found the Alberta NDP broke election finance rules during its leadership campaign earlier this year.

00:08:37.660 That ruling was found following a complaint from the United Conservative Party, who alleged that the

00:08:42.160 NDP was breaching Section 25 of the Election Finances and Contribution Disclosure Act, which states an

00:08:49.240 annual membership fee is not to be considered a contribution. In the complaint, the UCP said that

00:08:54.260 the NDP membership forms illegally equated party membership fees with contributions. It also claimed

00:09:00.000 that part of the NDP constitution that stated any donation to the party over $10 is deemed a valid

00:09:05.260 membership renewal broke election rules. This week, Election Commissioner Paula Hale wrote to the UCP

00:09:10.860 saying Elections Alberta had concluded its investigation and found that the Alberta NDP had

00:09:15.700 indeed violated the rules governing membership fees. Hale wrote, quote, based on the facts and

00:09:21.200 circumstances in this case, I am of the view that the NDP was not in compliance. Specifically, in

00:09:27.280 circumstances where memberships were being renewed as a result of an individual making a contribution in

00:09:32.300 a subsequent year. Hale's letter added that the Alberta NDP have entered into a compliance agreement

00:09:36.660 with Elections Alberta regarding its membership process to ensure continued compliance with the

00:09:42.620 legislation. In a statement to the Edmonton Journal, NDP Provincial Secretary Garrett Spilisi said the

00:09:47.840 party appreciated the clarity on how the law is to be interpreted, adding, quote, we fully cooperated with

00:09:53.680 the commissioner's investigation and we accept the compliance agreement completely. The commissioner has

00:09:58.360 impressed upon the party that unambiguous language to distinguish contributions from membership payment

00:10:03.360 is imperative and we accept that directive without reservation. Okay everyone and finally moving into

00:10:09.620 our weekly comment roundup, last week I extensively covered how the RCMP was being criticized for its

00:10:15.000 slow response after an Alberta father was killed and a Rocky View County employee was killed and a Fortis

00:10:21.860 employee was injured and you know there was a lot of concern that the RCMP had not released a photo of

00:10:27.200 the suspect, had not released a description of the suspect and many of you agreed that the RCMP's slow

00:10:31.580 response time was not appropriate. Here's what some of you had to say. User Greg Novick said, quote,

00:10:36.640 how could there be no descriptions when the Fortis guy survived and was out of the hospital that night?

00:10:42.180 The RCMP are pathetic, very good point. The RCMP merely had to ask that man what he saw and even if

00:10:48.700 the description was kind of vague because usually in traumatic incidents you know people have a hard time

00:10:52.700 remembering exactly what happened, any description at that point would have been better than nothing.

00:10:56.980 User at Blue Moon 12 said, I live in Wheatland County. They never gave us full information.

00:11:03.260 Disgraceful. I have zero confidence in the RCMP. I do have the utmost sympathy for people who are

00:11:08.720 living in the area where this shooting occurred because as a young mother myself I would simply

00:11:14.060 be terrified to go out with my children knowing that a man had been killed near where I live and that

00:11:20.240 they still had not found the alleged killer. That would be a very sobering experience I think.

00:11:26.920 Being a young mother there's already so many concerns that you have and then to feel like you

00:11:30.440 can't even go out in public safely that would just be very chilling for me. So certainly for those of

00:11:34.740 you who are living in the area I can understand that this would be rather distressing time. I am glad

00:11:39.260 that the RCMP is moving up to do those updates every day at 3 p.m and I hope that that will be useful

00:11:44.980 and beneficial to you all and that you will get the information that you need. And of course the main thing

00:11:49.080 is just that this killer is found as quickly as possible. Okay everyone that's all we have time

00:11:53.820 for today. Thank you so much for tuning in. I hope you have a great weekend. As always if you're able

00:11:57.560 you can show us some support for our work over at donate.tnc.news. Don't forget to catch my midweek

00:12:03.980 episode of Rachel and the Republic if you're interested in what is going on in the U.S. election.

00:12:08.840 I'll see you guys next week. Have a good one. God bless.

00:12:19.080 Thank you.

Juno News - August 17, 2024

Danielle Smith agrees — immigration is too high

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