Juno News - December 23, 2023
Danielle Smith trashes Trudeau's EV mandate
Episode Stats
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Summary
A high school in Medicine Hat, Alberta is receiving backlash after providing students with instructions on how to safely prepare illicit substances for consumption. The Chief of Edmonton Fire Rescue Services says there is a growing number of serious, injury-causing and even fatal fires in the city s homeless encampments. Canada will have to be zero emissions by 2035 under a new electric vehicle availability standard, and you better believe that Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has some thoughts.
Transcript
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Hey everyone, welcome back to the Alberta Roundup. I'm your host, Rachel Emanuel.
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We have a great show for you guys today. I thought there wouldn't be a lot of news headed into
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Christmas, but there is never any shortage of controversy in Alberta. Taking a look at what
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we're going to be talking about on today's show. A Medicine Hat High School is receiving backlash
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after students sought instructions for how to safely prepare illicit substances for consumption.
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The chief of Edmonton Fire Rescue Services says there's an unacceptable number of serious
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injury-causing and even fatal fires in the city's homeless encampments. And finally,
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Canada will have to be zero emissions by 2035 under a new electric vehicle availability standard.
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And you better believe that Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has some thoughts.
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All that and more happening now on the Alberta Roundup.
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Starting with our first topic here, a Medicine Hat school is receiving backlash after students
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were given pamphlets informing them how to safely consume illicit substances. Pamphlets included
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information on quote, safer crystal meth smoking, safer crack smoking, and safer snorting. The material
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was made available by a booth from Safe Link, Alberta, a harm reduction organization. The pamphlet
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was among several distributed at a wellness booth at the school earlier this month. Sarah Anderson,
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a parent at the high school, told Chat News she was disappointed with the pamphlet, adding that she was
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so mad and that the information was inappropriate for high school students. Safe Link said pamphlets were
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not actively handed out and were removed from the booth after a request by school administrators
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within an hour of the start of the event. In a letter addressed to parents, Principal Dean Brown
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apologized. He said quote, to be clear, we are not okay with content being shared in our school
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and we are committed to doing better. We want to share a sincere apology with our students and
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families. In a statement, Safe Link said that students using amphetamines is not uncommon across
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southern Alberta. Safe Link said quote, in sharing this information, our intention is not to promote
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substance use, particularly in youth. Instead, Safe Link said they hope the information would be used
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by students who are already using to prevent disease transmission and overdose deaths. Mark
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Davidson, the superintendent of the Medicine Hat School Division, said the pamphlet came as a surprise.
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He said quote, as a father, educator, superintendent, and member of our community, I was angered by the
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materials Safe Link displayed for students. He said the materials were not reviewed ahead of time by high
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school staff and that they will now work harder to make sure they screen what comes into schools.
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He added quote, as a result of this incident, we are redoubling our efforts to ensure all outside
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agencies understand the need for caution, respect, and sound judgment when they are guests in our
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schools. Moving into our next story here, the Edmonton Fire Rescue Services says there is an
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unacceptable number of serious injury-causing and even fatal fires in the city's homeless encampments.
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Joe Zatlany described the camps as extremely unsafe for the people living there, as well as for the
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fire rescue service and the surrounding neighbors. Zatlany said there are issues of crime and safety,
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particularly in the camps that are close to the river valley or near buildings. He described what
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it's like for the fire rescue services when they have to attend an incident in one of these
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encampments, saying quote, they're made of materials not meant to build, tents and structures.
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There's all sorts of storage and materials and items that can easily explode in these structures.
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People are cooking in them and they're struggling with all sorts of issues, right from addictions
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to mental health. And it is an extremely unsafe situation and presents many challenges for our
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first responders. Our firefighters have risen to this challenge and continue to do incredible work
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for our most vulnerable. He said the people living in these structures need more resources
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and the encampments need to be taken down immediately. Alberta Premier Daniel Smith responded
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to the chief's comments, saying they are another example of how quote, organized crime operating
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drug markets is making encampments dangerous for our most vulnerable and the surrounding community.
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Moving into what we're watching in the weeks to come, the federal government has announced
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that it will appeal the federal court's decision to overturn its plastic span. Alberta Premier Daniel
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Smith said her government will keep fighting for what's right. Here's what that sounded like.
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Alberta will keep standing up for what's right. And in this case, what's right is the fact that
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plastics aren't actually toxic. If they were, they wouldn't be in nearly every product in the economy.
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And Alberta can't regulate, or Ottawa can't regulate whatever it wants by arbitrarily classifying
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something as a toxic substance. But we shouldn't be surprised by this, which should come as no surprise
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to Ottawa that we intend to continue pushing back on their unreasonable and unconstitutional orders.
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We were interveners in the original case, and we will stay involved throughout the appeals process.
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The stakes are too high to do anything less. If Ottawa's approach ultimately wins, it will be a
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disaster for Alberta's and Canada's economy. It would destroy our petrochemicals industry,
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driving away tens of billions of dollars in investment and eliminating tens of thousands of jobs.
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And it will harm the progress that's occurring in plastics, reuse and recycling.
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Ottawa should listen to these objections. They come from the courts and the constitution and the
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provinces and the people Ottawa claims to serve. And finally, moving into the controversy of the
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week, the federal government has announced that all new vehicles in Canada must be electric vehicles
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by 2035. That falls under its new electric vehicle availability standard. The federal government is
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pitching the program as a means to ensure that EVs are available quickly for people who want to get
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them, which is interesting when you consider how little uptake there's been on electric vehicles
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in Canada. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said her government will do everything within its legal
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jurisdiction to thwart implementation of the unconstitutional regulations in the province.
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She added, quote, in another show of total disregard for the well-being of Canadians,
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the federal government has unilaterally imposed an unconstitutional edict with a bizarrely impossible
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timeline that will result in massive increases in the cost of vehicles and utility bills, vehicle
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rationing and weightless, increased cost to businesses and elevated difficulty and safety risk for
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hundreds of thousands of Albertans and Canadians just trying to get to work and family activities
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in our unpredictable and often cold climate. Later on, while speaking about the announcement on the
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Sean Newman podcast, Premier Smith said that soon Canadians will have to put their name on a list
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at the beginning of the year in hopes of being able to get a new vehicle. Take a listen to her
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comments for yourself. I'm beginning to wonder what in the world, why this federal government has handed
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over all of the reins of decision making to somebody who is so clearly destructive, destructive
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national unity, destructive to our economies. I was on a show on the weekend and I said, you know,
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maybe the rest of the country doesn't have a lot of sympathy for Alberta because we have been a
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major oil and natural gas producer and it has caused tension because we are so wealthy. But if they
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allow Gibault to come and kill our principal industry, it'll be their industry next. And we're
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seeing it. They're about to set out on destroying the auto manufacturing industry with aggressive targets
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that everyone is going to have by electric vehicles as their new vehicle by 2035. There's no way to
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to force people to buy electric vehicles. So it just means what they're going to do is start
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ratcheting down the amount of production they do on regular cars. We're entering into a world where
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we're going to literally have to sign up at the beginning of the year because they're going to
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ration the number of vehicles that are sold into a given market. This is crazy.
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Okay. And finally, you guys moving into our weekly comment roundup. Jim BD said, I am in complete
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agreement with Premier Smith's assessment of Gibault. He is a zealot, an extremist, and he hasn't changed
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from his days in Greenpeace. On top of that, he and his crowd are dead wrong about the imminent threat
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of climate change. Yes, it is a problem, but not one that threatens our immediate future as Gibault
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and his band of climate alarmists would have us believe. User KT Jane wrote, great job, Rachel.
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I am so tired of the woke BS. I've watched both those documentaries and Aaron Gunn has done an
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incredible job in reporting what's really going on. I live in BC and it's horrible what is going on
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here at so-called Safe Supply. What a joke. Don't have a favorite song, not really an X-mas person,
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sorry. I agree that we need prayer and lots of it. For those of you who missed last week's episode,
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I encouraged all of you to go watch Aaron Gunn's documentaries. I believe you can get them for
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free on YouTube. Canada is dying and Vancouver is dying is a two I recommended. Now those are not
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necessarily some light material for Christmas, but nonetheless, I always encourage you guys to
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stay educated and I think that you would all really appreciate the information you can find in the
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films if you haven't seen them already, especially if you're wondering why our cities are looking so
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badly right now with the many homeless encampments that we're seeing and the extreme rise in violent
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crime. Lastly, I just want to thank you guys for your Christmas song suggestions. You guys really
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understood the assignment and I have some great additions to my new playlist. Also just a shout
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out to the person, I don't remember who it was, who recommended Boney M, Zion's daughter. I've been
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listening to Boney M since before I could speak. I listen to them every year. One of my favorite
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Christmas albums for sure. My brother kind of makes fun of me for that. He doesn't think they're very
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good. Actually, I noticed that last year and this year they performed in Alberta. So I'm wondering if
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they do that every year. I had hoped to go, but I actually can never find anybody who wants to go
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with me. So let me know if you're a big Boney M fan. Maybe we'll have to make that arrangement to
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go together next year. Okay guys, that's all I have for you today. Thank you so much for tuning
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into the Alberta Roundup so close to Christmas. I hope that you all have a very blessed Christmas
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celebrating with your friends and family. As always, if you enjoy our work over at True North,
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you can support us over at donate.tnc.news. Thank you so much. Have a great weekend. God bless.