Juno News - Does Alberta’s local election reform law go too far？

00:00:00.000 The Alberta government is in its second week of defending controversial Bill 20 legislation which

00:00:05.040 would ban tabulators and allow political parties in municipal votes. But the good in the bill is

00:00:10.740 being overshadowed by this bit which would allow the Alberta cabinet to fire city councillors and

00:00:16.040 overturn local bylaws when it's in the public interest. Now listen you don't have to look far

00:00:21.320 in Alberta to find an example of a city council which is running their municipality into the

00:00:25.500 ground. If you live in Red Deer you either have to look an hour and a half to the south or to

00:00:29.900 the north to find an example of a city council that's wreaking havoc on hard-working tax-paying 0.99

00:00:35.620 citizens. But more government is not the solution here. If you don't like your city councillors or

00:00:40.620 city council then the onus is on you to organize to remove them. If you're still unconvinced imagine

00:00:46.300 the damage a future NDP government could do with this type of legislation. Those rare voices of

00:00:51.400 common sense on your city council would become less and less common. But even if the conservatives are

00:00:56.880 the only government to use this legislation and they use it to remove politicians I don't like

00:01:01.840 I still won't support it. Because whether the politicians want to act like it or not we still

00:01:07.000 live in a democracy. And in a democracy the will of the people not the government will be imposed.

00:01:12.100 I'm Rachel Emmanuelle and this is the Alberta Roundup.

00:01:25.920 Okay everyone taking a look at our first story here. The Alberta government is once again defending

00:01:30.660 controversial legislation, that's Bill 20, saying it could stop non-citizens from voting in Calgary.

00:01:36.080 The Alberta government's Bill 20, the Municipal Amendment Statues Act, would give cabinet the power

00:01:41.480 to fire councillors or overturn local bylaws when it's in the public interest. The proposed legislation

00:01:48.000 comes as Calgary City Council last week passed a motion to allow non-citizens to vote in municipal

00:01:53.600 elections. Speaking specifically about Calgary's decision to allow non-citizens to vote, Premier

00:01:58.700 Smith said quote, that is simply not appropriate nor within their authority. Bill 21 will provide the

00:02:04.180 province with a tool to deal with these rare but serious examples of municipal overreach.

00:02:08.280 However, Municipal Affairs Minister Rick McIver has already said that he will not change the rules

00:02:13.580 to allow non-citizens to vote in municipal elections, begging the question why is Bill 20 needed?

00:02:20.200 Certainly there are some good aspects of the bill as I mentioned earlier in the show,

00:02:24.320 but the parts that would allow the province to dismiss city councillors or overturn bylaws

00:02:28.540 might be a step too far. Taking a look at our next story here, by now you've likely seen some

00:02:33.040 images of pro-Palestinian protesters holding encampments at Canadian universities all across

00:02:38.060 the country. The latest of these happened at the University of Calgary, but protesters weren't there

00:02:42.860 very long with Calgary police coming and disbanding the protest on Thursday night. In some scenes that

00:02:47.900 appeared very Freedom Convoy-esque, police came and marched through the encampment and forced

00:02:52.620 protesters to move. Some of the best coverage of that night was from Rebel News. Here's some images

00:02:57.440 taken by a friend of the show, Sid. I'm going to play a bit of a longer clip for you guys so you can

00:03:02.120 get a real sense of what happened on Thursday night.

00:03:04.200 .

00:03:34.200 Let's go!

00:04:04.200 Go, go, go.

00:04:11.200 Go, go, go.

00:04:27.200 And if you guys thought that was the craziest clip

00:04:31.200 I was going to play for you on today's show,

00:04:33.200 on today's show, you would be wrong. You're never going to believe what Alberta bureaucrats are

00:04:37.700 spending your money on now. This week, I had Chris Sims, the Alberta director of the Canadian

00:04:42.880 Taxpayers Federation on my show, and she told me a little bit about the Teddy Waste Awards.

00:04:47.360 Those are awards that are given to the person who wastes the most amount of money. In Alberta,

00:04:51.480 the award was handed to the Alberta Foundation of the Arts for giving $30,000 to a so-called artist

00:04:57.760 to produce some rather interesting work. I could explain what your money is funding,

00:05:01.680 but I think it's better if I let the images speak for themselves. We'll play that clip now.

00:05:05.760 Here quickly in Alberta, actually the provincial category, it was the Alberta Foundation for the

00:05:11.320 Arts. They won it for the provincial category here in Alberta because they gave something like $30,000

00:05:17.740 to an Alberta artist who drew a painting that Franco Teresano described as ants on a pop tart

00:05:24.960 is what it looked like. That was in New York. And another performance she did was in South Korea,

00:05:29.960 which was I think about eight minutes long, and it was a video, and it was her on one of those lawn

00:05:35.300 chairs, you know, the ones that fold up like a lounge, and she was rolling around on it for like

00:05:41.080 eight minutes. Moving on to our next story here, the Alberta government has launched phase three of

00:05:46.380 its Alberta is Calling campaign, hoping to attract skilled workers from other parts of the country.

00:05:51.380 But at a time when Alberta is seeing record-breaking population growth, some worry that the province is

00:05:56.280 moving too fast. Phase three of the Alberta is Calling campaign launched on May 1st and is

00:06:01.740 running ads in British Columbia, Quebec, and Ontario. This phase of the plan offers skilled

00:06:06.320 tradespeople a one-time $5,000 refundable tax credit to entice skilled trades workers to come

00:06:11.880 to Alberta and help build housing and infrastructure. Here's what Matt Jones, the Alberta Minister of

00:06:16.380 Jobs, Economy, and Trade had to say about the phase in an interview with Global News this week.

00:06:20.720 It's laser-focused on attracting skilled trades that we need to build Alberta's houses, schools,

00:06:27.760 hospitals, and job-creating infrastructure. According to Statistics Canada, Alberta's population

00:06:32.900 surged by more than 200,000 residents last year. That's the largest annual increase in the province's

00:06:38.100 history, and it's the equivalent to 550 people moving to Alberta every single day. My question of

00:06:43.780 the week for you all is, do you want more people moving to Alberta, or do you think it's time to end

00:06:48.840 the Alberta is Calling campaign? Obviously, the province is seeking to attract skilled workers

00:06:52.480 this time, but I think it's safe to assume that lots of others will come along with them. Let me

00:06:56.720 know what you think in the comments below. Moving into the controversy of the week, the United

00:06:59.980 Conservative Party government is seeking to move the date of the election so that it won't collide

00:07:04.460 with natural disasters. But in doing so, the opposition Alberta NDP says Danielle Smith's government

00:07:10.060 is seeking to conveniently grant itself six extra months of power. The UCB government this week

00:07:14.920 tabled legislation to move the scheduled date of the provincial vote from the fourth week of May

00:07:19.940 every four years to the third week of October. That would mean the next election would be October

00:07:24.640 18th, 2027, a time when there is less risk of wildfires, droughts, and floods. Smith told reporters

00:07:31.860 that last year's election was a prime example of the dilemma, as her government had to campaign while

00:07:36.600 also fighting fires and organizing evacuations. The premier said she had to be careful not to use the

00:07:41.800 crisis to boost her profile while also needing to get word out to Albertans on what's happening with

00:07:46.980 the fires. She said, quote, running an election parallel to this crisis made a difficult situation

00:07:52.080 more challenging. The premier also said that she and government ministers faced fines from Elections

00:07:57.040 Alberta for using government resources during the campaign. She said, quote, I also found myself

00:08:02.400 answering questions about the election at wildfire briefings, as well as questions about wildfires at

00:08:07.540 campaign events. Here's what else the premier had to say. Albertans need their government's undivided

00:08:12.700 attention during an emergency. Opposition leader Rachel Notley, who we know will be resigning soon

00:08:17.040 once the Alberta NDP select a new leader, said the UCB government is simply trying to give themselves

00:08:21.360 more time in power. Take a listen. You know, it could have been February of 2027,

00:08:28.680 or it could have been October of 2026, but giving themselves an extra six months seems very self-serving

00:08:37.340 and opportunistic. And finally, moving into what we're watching in the weeks to come, following the

00:08:41.860 city's largest ever public hearing, Calgarians will learn next week whether city council heard

00:08:47.240 their concerns and abandon a proposal for citywide rezoning. Councilors will be able to question city

00:08:52.780 administrators at a meeting on Monday. Following that, councilors will be able to vote on the proposed

00:08:57.520 motion and any amendments that might be put forward. That's the warning for all of you who are living in

00:09:01.520 Calgary. This weekend is your last chance to email your councillor and have your concerns about the

00:09:06.760 rezoning proposal be heard. Calgary Mayor Jodi Gondek said she thinks debate could last two to three days.

00:09:13.200 Gondek closed the hearing on Monday night after hearing from 736 speakers and 238 panels. City council

00:09:20.520 also received over 6,000 written statements, now part of the public record. Councilor Dan McLean told us what we

00:09:26.400 can expect on this show a few weeks ago. Let's take a listen to that now.

00:09:29.040 So what we're going to be having is a few more, several more days of debate. And then we will

00:09:36.000 debate amongst ourselves or several more days of public hearings. And then that's when the councils

00:09:40.680 will debate and put amendments forward. The first thing I would like to do is put it back on the floor

00:09:45.480 to bring it to a plebiscite, to refer it back to administration and say this is 70, 80% of the

00:09:51.160 population does not want this. Let's put it on the ballot and let's come back and at least we're

00:09:55.800 working on something that people is more tenable, that more people will support. We will see how

00:10:00.760 that goes. I need eight votes. It failed last time by one vote to take it to a plebiscite.

00:10:05.800 So the odds are they might not pass this time. But again, Rachel, there's been so many people

00:10:13.800 speaking against this. And so there's a few councillors that are really listening and have

00:10:18.520 done polls in their own wards. So we need people to possibly vote with the public when it comes time.

00:10:26.200 And again, not to go on too long, but there will be some amendments that some councillors will put

00:10:31.800 forward to maybe try to water this down instead of maybe four, eight, 12 units. They might make

00:10:36.760 some concessions. But in my opinion, it's going to be, yeah, I can't tell how people are going to

00:10:46.600 vote, but it's going to come down to one or two councillors to see which way this goes. 0.99

00:10:50.120 Okay, everyone. And finally, moving into our weekly comment roundup, I pulled these comments

00:10:54.040 from my midweek episode, which covered Alberta's plans for a high-speed rail, mostly because I was

00:10:59.720 very curious what people think about the proposal. There were some pretty funny comments. Let's dive

00:11:03.240 in. User Anolf Adventure said, I am really old and they have been talking about a high-speed train

00:11:08.600 since I was a kid. Studies mean that some people are getting our money and producing nothing. I agree

00:11:13.400 with this comment. The government is going to be spending $9 million on a study to see ridership

00:11:18.600 demands as well as infrastructure needs. That is $9 million before anything is even being built.

00:11:23.480 I think if there is actually demand for high-speed railway, let's just leave that up to the private

00:11:27.320 industry. We don't need to be spending our taxpayer dollars on this, especially at a time when we're

00:11:31.960 really in a financial crisis as a province. And as a people, I constantly am getting messages from

00:11:36.040 people talking about how they're a couple hundred dollars, if not a hundred dollars away from making

00:11:39.720 ends meet every month. So I don't really think this is a time for a high-speed rail line. That's just me.

00:11:44.920 User Izzard P said, I'll bet Banff and Jasper are really excited to have the homeless drag addicts 1.00

00:11:50.280 from Calgary and Edmonton chasing tourists away all summer. I had a pretty good laugh at that.

00:11:55.320 Actually, when I first moved to Calgary, something I heard a lot from people was that Tuscany

00:11:58.920 used to be a really nice place to live and then they built the LRT out to Tuscany and then they

00:12:03.640 started to have issues with homelessness out there. So it is interesting that wherever there is these

00:12:07.400 LRT lines cropping up, it just gives the homeless more ability to travel throughout the city and

00:12:12.520 creates more problems that were once so much focused downtown. And it's true when you're driving

00:12:16.520 around Calgary now, I feel like you see homeless people kind of all over the place, walking along the

00:12:20.760 highways in places that you wouldn't have expected to see them even just a few years ago.

00:12:24.360 That being said, my favorite comment of the week goes to Tragically Clef, who said,

00:12:29.880 we going to get Homer Simpson to drive this monorail. Definitely the best ever episode of

00:12:35.080 The Simpsons. If you're a fan, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Okay, everyone, that's all

00:12:39.720 we have time for today. Thank you so much for tuning in. Please like this video and subscribe to

00:12:43.800 TuneNor so you don't miss any of our content. I will be back on Wednesday with my regular programming.

00:12:48.840 I hope that you guys have a great weekend. God bless.

00:12:54.360 God bless.

00:12:54.920 God bless.

00:12:58.840 You

Juno News - May 11, 2024

Does Alberta’s local election reform law go too far？

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