Juno News - Danielle Smith pushes Ottawa back

00:00:00.000 Hey everyone, welcome back to the Alberta Roundup. I'm your host Rachel Emanuel. Let's take a look

00:00:16.460 at what we're going to be talking about here today. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has said

00:00:20.320 she's open to pulling out of new federal programs. Failed UCP leadership candidate Leila Heer has 0.88

00:00:25.460 said she won't run for the party in the next general election. The Alberta NDP meanwhile

00:00:29.740 want to lower the voting age and expand access to abortion across the province. And Daniel Smith

00:00:34.400 has denounced the WEF. We're also going to be giving you the latest update to the Trudeau

00:00:38.440 liberal gun grab scheme. All that and more happening now on the Alberta Roundup. Up first, Alberta Premier

00:00:43.440 Danielle Smith has said she's open to pulling out of new federal programs or avoiding federal

00:00:48.280 consultations when they aren't in the province's best interests. The Premier published a letter on

00:00:53.040 Thursdays that she had sent to her cabinet ministers outlining the strategies they must use when they're

00:00:58.200 dealing with the federal government. Let's take a look at that now. In the letter, Smith said,

00:01:02.360 quote, there may be cases where Alberta will seek to opt out of new federal programs if they aren't in

00:01:07.180 Alberta's best interest. The new Premier said Ottawa often avoids meaningful engagement with Alberta.

00:01:12.760 That has to change, she said. Ottawa must provide open, honest, and early communication with the province.

00:01:18.600 Quote, if the federal government does not honour cooperative federalism through meaningful engagement,

00:01:22.580 we will simply not participate in their consultations. This announcement comes after Premier Smith's speech

00:01:28.760 at the United Conservative Party annual general meeting last weekend, in which she said Alberta under her

00:01:34.280 leadership will not enforce federal laws or policies that interfere in Alberta's jurisdictional rights as

00:01:39.760 outlined in the Constitution. Take a listen to her comments from last week Saturday.

00:01:42.740 Finally, you see Ottawa problem. There can be no doubt that the current NDP Liberal Alliance is just the

00:01:49.500 latest in a long line of Ottawa governments that have frustrated the legitimate aspirations of

00:01:56.740 hard-working Albertans. That stops now. When Ottawa announces policies and laws that attack our economy

00:02:03.960 or violate the rights of our people, or when Ottawa seeks to take control of our sovereign areas of

00:02:10.560 provincial jurisdiction, our UCP government will not enforce those laws and policies in this province, period.

00:02:40.560 And let me be very clear, I will never, ever apologize for standing up for the people of Alberta and the province that I serve.

00:02:59.560 So, we will pass the Sovereignty Act, work that has already begun on crafting it. We worked on a

00:03:10.380 earlier this week at the caucus retreat. We still have further work to do, but I've asked for it to be ready by the time I take my

00:03:16.300 seat in the legislature. We will then introduce it, and we will pass it, and we will use it to push Ottawa back into its own

00:03:22.800 lane every single time that they step out of line and intrude on our constitutional rights. Alberta will no longer ask

00:03:30.280 permission from Ottawa to be prosperous and free. UCP MLA and failed leadership candidate Lila here has said she won't run for the UCP in the next

00:03:39.380 general election, which is in spring 2023. As you guys know, Lila here was the first to fall off the ballot in the party leadership 0.96

00:03:45.000 contest earlier this month. She had just 1.7% of party member support when she fell off. She was also a vocal critic of 0.96

00:03:52.120 Danielle Smith during the campaign, and was the only of the seven leadership candidates not named in Smith's cabinet.

00:03:57.860 The Chestermere Strathmore MLA posted a lengthy statement on Twitter in which she said she was grateful for the opportunity, and that the

00:04:04.040 United Conservative Party members have chosen a new direction, and she respects that decision. Quote,

00:04:08.580 I am so unbelievably grateful for the time I have been privileged to serve all Albertans. Okay guys, time to move to your

00:04:14.160 favorite topic. That's right, the Alberta NDP. The party hosted its convention last weekend in Calgary, and they passed a couple

00:04:20.500 interesting resolutions. Let's take a look at them. One of the resolutions sought to lower the voting age from 18 to 16.

00:04:26.840 This resolution passed. Now it's worth noting that resolutions that passed aren't necessarily binding on the party,

00:04:31.340 meaning the party does not have to include them in their election platform. It's also worth noting that

00:04:35.360 the federal NDP sought to lower the voting age in a motion, which failed in the House of Commons

00:04:39.220 just last month. So it doesn't look like there's a lot of interest from this elsewhere across the country.

00:04:43.700 They also sought to expand access to abortion across the province, and another interesting resolution

00:04:48.620 focused on affordability. Let's take a look at that one. That resolution called on the United Conservative

00:04:53.380 Party government to work directly with the opposition to create an all-party committee on food

00:04:58.440 affordability and routine government reporting on grocery prices. Now I had the opportunity to ask

00:05:03.560 Premier Smith about this resolution on Monday at a press conference just after her cabinet was sworn in.

00:05:08.380 Take a listen to her response for yourself.

00:05:10.700 Rachel Emanuel, True North. The NDP at their convention this weekend passed a resolution calling

00:05:15.320 on the UCP government to work with the opposition on lowering grocery stocks. You obviously said at the

00:05:20.000 UCP annual dreading meeting, affordability was one of your caucus's key priorities. What's your response to

00:05:24.640 that NDP resolution? Well, I'd welcome Rachel Notley saying that she rejects a 300% increase in the

00:05:30.240 carbon tax. That's the number one thing that she could do, because if she wants to bring affordability 0.99

00:05:35.340 to the fore, then she can't be adding arbitrary costs on gasoline, diesel, electricity, home heating.

00:05:42.140 She's supported her leader, Jagmeet Singh, at the federal level in increasing the carbon tax. And so,

00:05:46.520 quite frankly, I don't think that any of her statements on this have any credibility until she's

00:05:51.620 prepared to argue against that. You also just spoke about the need to get mandate letters completed.

00:05:56.320 I'm wondering if you'll commit to making those mandate letters public. Yes, I've actually already

00:05:59.980 talked to my chief of staff and my director of the premier's office that I think it's a good

00:06:06.200 communication tool for the public so that the public knows what it is that we're working on. I think

00:06:10.160 it's also good for the ministers to know. And why wouldn't we want to tell? We've had such great success

00:06:14.460 in checking off the list of all of the things that had been identified. So, I think we should be

00:06:19.720 celebrating that. So, yes, they will be public. Now, at that same conference, Premier Smith also

00:06:23.760 teed off on WEF, calling the World Economic Forum distasteful. She said that she finds it distasteful

00:06:29.080 when billionaires brag about having control over political leaders. This caused quite a storm

00:06:34.680 online, but take a listen to her comments for yourself. Hi, Premier. I want to follow up on what

00:06:39.820 Dean was just asking. I just want to ask you a very simple question. What are your views on the

00:06:44.980 World Economic Forum? Well, I'm not a young global leader of tomorrow. I've never been to

00:06:53.500 one of their events. And I look at Pierre Polyev saying that he doesn't intend to go to their

00:06:58.640 events and doesn't intend to have his ministers involved in them either. And I take the same view.

00:07:04.120 But why? You're still not explaining what your views are on the World Economic Forum. What do you

00:07:09.580 find distasteful about it? I guess I find it distasteful when billionaires brag about how

00:07:15.320 much control they have over political leaders, as the head of that organization has. And I think

00:07:20.580 that that is offensive. The people who should be directing government are the people who vote for

00:07:25.160 them. And the people who vote for me and for my colleagues are people who live in Alberta and who

00:07:29.820 are affected by our decisions. And so, quite frankly, until that organization stops bragging about how much

00:07:35.580 control they have over political leaders, I have no interest in being involved with them. My focus

00:07:40.080 is here in Alberta solving problems for Albertans with the mandate from Albertans. Moving into the

00:07:45.340 controversy of the week, national police agencies are warning MPs that policing services across Canada

00:07:51.580 will suffer if police are redirected to act as confiscation agents under the Trudeau Liberals gun

00:07:56.860 grab scheme. At a federal public safety committee hearing earlier this week, MPs heard from national

00:08:01.560 police agencies. We're going to play a couple comments for you now. First up is the president of the

00:08:05.480 National Police Federation. We have said on a number of occasions that police services in Canada,

00:08:10.520 including the RCMP, are operating at minimal levels already. We're having challenges recruiting,

00:08:16.760 we're having challenges retaining, we're having challenges attracting to the law enforcement

00:08:21.880 profession. So as every time that we increase the mandate of police officers on the street, there has to

00:08:29.720 be something that gives. And is that going to mean that we don't respond to that mental health call,

00:08:35.880 the person in crisis in the middle of the street, because police officers are now tied up,

00:08:42.040 going to pick up guns that are no longer legal to possess. So there is an impact. And in the end,

00:08:50.040 do we leave it to, as Chief Gray said, another agency that may implement? That isn't spoken to in the

00:08:56.920 legislation. It isn't spoken to within the buyback program. So it's going to fall to

00:09:04.200 the cops of the street, the members of the RCMP. Without sustained resources, something has to

00:09:11.080 fall off the plate. And now take a listen to the warning from the Canadian Association of Chiefs of

00:09:15.240 Police. Regarding the mandatory buyback program, of course, there's been a lot of talk about this,

00:09:19.800 the requirement to make assault style weapons permanently inoperable. The CACP is still awaiting

00:09:25.000 the details on the implementation of such a program and the implications for and expectations of police

00:09:30.760 services in Canada. Having said that, the CACP recognizes and understands concerns that have been

00:09:36.440 expressed by certain provinces in the country about using Canadian police resources to go out

00:09:42.280 and confiscate legally acquired firearms from Canadians. Ultimately, the buyback program,

00:09:48.040 this early part of the buyback program, is essentially an administrative process. It's not a policing issue.

00:09:54.120 As a result, such a program could be managed by entities other than police services, thereby

00:10:00.040 allowing police resources to be focused on those who refuse to follow new law, and more importantly,

00:10:05.560 on addressing border integrity, smuggling and trafficking. So in conclusion, the CACP supports

00:10:11.640 improving safety for the public and for frontline police officers. Okay guys, what we're watching in the

00:10:16.280 weeks to come. Premier Smith has said work has already begun on her controversial Alberta Sovereignty Act.

00:10:22.360 You guys know that conversation on the Sovereignty Act dominated the UCP leadership race. Now,

00:10:26.680 Premier Smith has said she's hoping the legislation will be ready by the time she takes a seat in the

00:10:30.440 legislature. She's begun her process of winning the by-election in Brooks Medicine Hat. She launched

00:10:35.400 her campaign earlier this week and she said that she could be in the legislature as early as November

00:10:40.280 29th if her bid for that seat is successful. It's worth noting that it is a conservative safe seat.

00:10:44.520 So I will of course keep you updated on that by-election as well as more news on the Alberta Sovereignty Act.

00:10:49.400 Now that brings us to the Alberta politics funny moment of the week. The Alberta NDP are also

00:10:53.640 running a candidate in the Brooks Medicine Hat by-election, and that candidate is claiming that

00:10:57.880 Premier Smith and her team were accidentally knocking on the wrong doors while they were

00:11:02.200 canvassing. They said that Premier Smith was canvassing in Cyprus Medicine Hat writing.

00:11:07.320 A little awkward. Okay guys, thanks so much for tuning in. Please subscribe to True Norse YouTube

00:11:11.560 channel if you haven't already. You don't want to miss an episode. If you want to find me,

00:11:14.760 you can reach me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And of course, visit donate.tnc.news

00:11:19.880 if you enjoy our work and want to show us your appreciation. Thanks so much. See you next week.

Juno News - October 29, 2022

Danielle Smith pushes Ottawa back

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