Juno News - EXCLUSIVE： Smith’s plan to SECURE Alberta & FIX U.S. trade stand-off

00:00:00.000 Well, hello, Premier. So I wanted to start by talking, you had a big announcement on Thursday

00:00:22.980 morning about bolstering security at the southern border, Alberta shared border with Montana.

00:00:28.960 I think it's fair to say that of all the premiers, you've really been the strongest on this issue,

00:00:33.420 really pushing the federal government to take this seriously. And I can't help but wonder,

00:00:38.640 you know, with these new measures that you announced, I know you said this is something

00:00:41.160 your government's been working on long before U.S. President-elect Donald Trump raised those

00:00:45.220 trade irritants. But is part of this the reason that you've sped this process up so that when

00:00:52.480 U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is looking at Alberta and he's looking at tariffs and he thinks,

00:00:57.080 you know, that Danielle Smith, she's taking this seriously and he might be more willing

00:01:00.860 to grant Alberta energy an exemption from those 25 percent tariffs?

00:01:05.640 Well, I won't deny that's certainly a part of it. We think that when the president-elect

00:01:11.960 tells you what he's concerned about, you should take him seriously. And so he's identified the

00:01:17.220 cross-border trade and drugs and illegal migrants. He's identified that as an irritant. So we believe

00:01:26.420 we should solve that. We think in our part of the province, we don't know at the moment what the

00:01:30.880 illegal flow of people is. We do know we have a human trafficking problem. We partnered with Paul

00:01:35.260 Brandt over a year ago on his Not In My City campaign for exactly that reason, that we know we've

00:01:41.480 got to address that issue. And we also know we've got a serious fentanyl crisis. We had some of our

00:01:45.800 highest overdose deaths take place just over a year and a half ago. And so, well, we want to address

00:01:52.780 these issues because it's killing our people. So that's part of the reason why we identified the

00:01:56.180 need to have a dedicated sheriff-border team as well as a dedicated sheriff-fentanyl team. Mike has been,

00:02:02.480 my public safety minister, has been working on training that group up. And we were going to go

00:02:08.480 through process to get the budget allocation and announce it in March. And with the urgency that

00:02:15.680 we're now seeing, we did accelerate it with the Treasury Board. And so we were able to announce it

00:02:19.640 just this past week. So we absolutely think it's the right thing to do for Albertans. Happens to have

00:02:25.480 a happy consequence, but this is something the Americans are concerned about too. And we really do

00:02:30.860 hope that by demonstrating we're serious about this, that they'll work with us on giving a car vote

00:02:35.700 for ideally all of Canada when it comes to tariffs. I know you said that you're not sure exactly what

00:02:41.600 the flow of illegal people over the border. Obviously, another big factor here is human

00:02:45.760 trafficking. You know, that movie, The Sound of Freedom came out a little bit a while ago. And

00:02:50.640 I remember seeing a lot of people on the left being like, the problem is not as bad as you think

00:02:54.260 it is. And I was just like, isn't one child being human trafficked too much? Like, shouldn't we

00:02:59.340 strive for zero? Does your government know what those numbers look like? Human trafficking across the

00:03:05.120 Alberta-Montana border? I don't know. But I do want to know. I saw the movie as well. And when I

00:03:10.800 talked to Paul Brand, who just tells such a heartbreaking story about why he cares so much

00:03:15.360 about this issue, he tells a story about Cambodia and the sex tourism that was happening with young

00:03:21.440 children and how he just stepped in and said, you know what, I'm going to buy that hotel so that can't

00:03:26.320 happen. And he saw that those kinds of actions are able to make a big difference. So he knows what to look

00:03:34.960 for. That's why we wanted to have him come in and assist us with that. And we're very hopeful that

00:03:42.240 we'll be able to make an impact on it. So whether it's trafficking for sex or whether it's trafficking

00:03:47.920 with people being told one thing, promised one thing, when it comes to working in Alberta and

00:03:54.640 they're given conditions that don't live up to the contract, we've got to solve those issues,

00:03:59.120 absolutely. And I think it is the case that when you're dealing with the sexual exploitation of any

00:04:05.680 individual, one is too many. On the border, I know that you said that you've been in touch with the

00:04:10.320 Montana governor. I'm wondering, have you been in touch with the incoming Trump administration? Have

00:04:15.920 you heard any response from them about how they're feeling about the changes you're making at your

00:04:19.120 border? I have some contacts within the administration, or at least close to the to some of the senior

00:04:25.360 decision makers. And so I'm making sure that we tweet out everything that we're doing. And I'm

00:04:30.800 texting to make sure that those who are in a position to, I think, have influence know that we're

00:04:36.640 taking it seriously. We'll see if it has some impact. I'll be going down to the inauguration,

00:04:43.520 January 18th to 23rd. So I hope to be able to have some more conversations one-on-one. When I was down

00:04:48.560 in the Western Governors Conference, I can tell you it was a pretty eye-opening for the governors when I

00:04:53.520 told them how large Alberta is, how much oil we provide, and the kind of impact it would have on

00:04:58.320 gasoline prices if there was a 25% tariff slapped on Canadian energy. We've been told it would be

00:05:03.760 up to a dollar a gallon. So I think that we have a really good story to tell about how we're helping

00:05:10.160 the Americans achieve energy affordability, energy security, and also national security, because

00:05:15.760 energy and being able to provide it to American allies is also a strategic advantage that we have to

00:05:21.360 offer. So I think that's what we should lead with. Let's address some of the trade irritants that the

00:05:25.760 president-elect has identified in a meaningful way. And then let's talk about, from a position of

00:05:30.720 strength, about the things that we add that assist the American consumer and the American government.

00:05:36.480 When you first announced that you were going to be bolstering the security at the border,

00:05:39.920 you know, some of the media said, ah, this isn't really your jurisdiction. You said, no, it is.

00:05:43.920 Look at what happened in Coutts. And when that went live, some in the freedom movement seemed very

00:05:49.440 ired by this. They seemed to take it as an indication that you were trying to further

00:05:53.120 distance themselves from the movement as some have felt that you have. What's your response to this?

00:05:58.000 Well, I think I demonstrated that everything I promised to do, I've done. We have no mandates.

00:06:04.240 We will never have mandates that put in respect for bodily choice in our Bill of Rights. When the

00:06:11.840 health orders were declared illegal, we refunded all of the fines. I've done as much as I can. There are some

00:06:18.720 things, unfortunately, that I can't weigh in on once a court process has started that has to play itself

00:06:26.240 out. But we have to take responsibility for how the contract services that we have in our province

00:06:32.240 conduct themselves. The RCMP are on contract to us. The sheriffs are our law enforcement. The police

00:06:38.720 services get their power from the legislation that we pass. And so policing in this province is our

00:06:44.480 jurisdiction. And so that's why I would say I hope that we can make amends for some of the ways in

00:06:50.400 which policies were enacted wrongly in the past. And I think we have. But in going forward, people want

00:06:57.200 us to address criminals. That has always been what you want your law enforcement to focus on is illegal

00:07:04.720 guns, illegal drugs, human trafficking, organized crime, gangs. And that's what I think the appropriate use

00:07:13.040 of the police power is. That's why we've also given direction to our RCMP that it's not our priority to

00:07:20.880 confiscate guns from law-abiding gun owners. We've told our municipal police forces that if they want to

00:07:28.320 participate in a federal gun grab, that they have to get permission from us and we won't grant it.

00:07:32.880 That's why we passed the Firearms Act and why we have Terry Bryant, our firearms officer, taking control

00:07:38.160 over firearms registration. So I hope people see that I take the policing power very seriously,

00:07:43.600 but let's focus it on the things that we should be focusing it on, which are the real bad guys.

00:07:48.400 On that gun grab issue, the Trudeau Liberals are now saying, hey Canadians, we need your guns. We're

00:07:53.280 going to be sending them to the Ukraine to help fight Putin. Everyone I've talked to has said this

00:07:58.240 is the biggest joke. The guns that we have here in Canada are not going to be used in the Ukraine.

00:08:02.560 They need to be standardized. It's almost like a new level of propaganda that they're telling Canadians

00:08:07.520 they need to forfeit their guns so that they can be used in the fight against Russia. What do you

00:08:13.280 think about this? Is this just a new level of propaganda that we're seeing from the Trudeau

00:08:16.720 government or is this just more kind of par for the course? When I saw those tweets, I thought this

00:08:20.880 must be fake news. Somebody must be making up some ridiculous tweet to put that out there. And then, 0.95

00:08:27.920 sure enough, it turned out to be true. I think that probably some of the commentary where they said,

00:08:33.280 well, if it does happen and Ukrainians open up the craze, all they're going to see is a bunch of 1.00

00:08:37.200 hunting rifles. That is not... They're trying to mischaracterize what these firearms are.

00:08:44.480 And that's the thing I find frustrating. I also find it frustrating that they keep doing these things

00:08:49.200 at a time that we are trying to have a new relationship with the American administration,

00:08:53.840 which is Republican, which is far more supportive of the rights of law-abiding firearms owners.

00:09:00.400 So it's almost like the federal government is trying to antagonize on this issue, and I don't

00:09:05.600 understand it. But my position is the same today as it was when the first gun grab was announced,

00:09:11.600 that they, I believe, have now spent $70 million and they haven't confiscated a single gun. And I hope

00:09:18.160 that continues. I hope they do not confiscate a single gun because we believe that the real issue

00:09:24.560 that we have is the cross-border illegal trade and guns ending up in the hands of gangs and organized

00:09:30.880 crime. That's what we should be going after. And that's what we announced in our border announcement.

00:09:35.920 We're going to go after the criminal use of firearms. We're not going to go after law-abiding gun owners.

00:09:40.400 Speaking of Canada's relationship with the U.S., Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau obviously

00:09:45.280 flew down to Mar-a-Lago in the days since President-elect Donald Trump has been making

00:09:49.440 a lot of jokes about Canada becoming the 51st state. Assuming you are someone who doesn't think

00:09:55.120 that Canada should join the U.S., are you looking at this as something that is comical or something

00:09:59.920 that's concerning? I mean, I think that Trump does like to make jokes and I think he is trolling Trudeau.

00:10:07.360 I mean, let's remember Trudeau spent the last two years making derogatory comments about Trump in

00:10:16.000 trying to discredit Pierre Polyev. So you have to imagine that if you're going to weigh in on their

00:10:22.800 politics, they're going to weigh in on ours. I would say that at this point, it's not helpful

00:10:27.520 for the Prime Minister to be trying to engage in any tit-for-tat and offering an opinion about who he

00:10:34.480 would prefer to have won in the White House. I think that makes things a lot more difficult.

00:10:38.960 The Americans chose who they chose and that's who we have to deal with. That's who we have to negotiate 0.94

00:10:46.160 with. So I don't think that what we're seeing is a sign of a very positive turn in the relationship,

00:10:52.720 but I think it's up to our Prime Minister to maybe reset, identify the things that we can do to work

00:11:00.400 more collaboratively and hopefully we'll be able to take the temperature down on that. But I think

00:11:06.080 it is also a recognition. I mean, when I look at what the President is saying there, the American

00:11:15.360 economy is $27 trillion. Ours is about $2.7 trillion. There are American states that do have an economy

00:11:24.320 that is larger than all of Canada. And so I think we have to be mindful of that. If anybody starts

00:11:30.720 threatening tariff wars, this is not a war that we can win. It's not going to turn out well for Canadians.

00:11:35.600 So I think that in his own way, yeah, he's sort of reminding us of that imbalance, which says to me

00:11:42.640 that we've got to try to find a way to get to a solution that is going to be mutually satisfactory for

00:11:49.120 both of us and try to avoid antagonizing the US president too much. Yeah, you've said a couple

00:11:54.560 times that we need to avoid antagonizing. Justin Trudeau obviously recently went out and sort of

00:11:59.280 chastised the Americans for not voting for female Kamala Harris. Do you feel like that's undermining

00:12:04.720 the efforts that you're doing here at the border in Alberta? Well, what I would point out is Alberta

00:12:09.840 has had three female premiers. The Liberal Party of Canada has had zero female leaders. So I have to say

00:12:16.800 that maybe the Prime Minister should look a little bit more closer to home if he's going to be

00:12:21.520 criticizing on those things. I want to talk a little bit about an issue closer to home,

00:12:26.000 the Alberta Bill of Rights. It's been something that for a lot of people, you know, they feel

00:12:30.800 very good about. Other people feel like it doesn't go far enough. In your own words, what would you say,

00:12:34.800 what rights does it give Albertans that they didn't have before? The most important thing that we did

00:12:39.200 was affirm the right to be a legal firearms owner and to be able to acquire, keep and use firearms.

00:12:47.040 And we're hoping that that gives a bit of a shield as the federal government tries to become more

00:12:51.360 aggressive in confiscating firearms. I think it's worth a try because, quite frankly, if you're using

00:12:58.240 guns for criminal use, that does seem to be in federal jurisdiction. If it's a piece of property

00:13:02.720 and a tool, it seems to me that that's up in our jurisdiction. So I'm willing to have that fight.

00:13:07.520 The second one I would say is bodily autonomy, that if you're of sound mind, you have a right to

00:13:12.400 accept or refuse any medical treatment that you want. And we can never go to a situation again

00:13:17.360 where people are forced to take a vaccine that they don't want. So that would be the other one.

00:13:21.920 And then the third one is one I've been wanting since I was a property rights advocate back in 1997.

00:13:26.640 The guarantee of just compensation in the event that private property is taken for public use,

00:13:31.920 which sometimes happens in the case of land transfers that have to happen for developing LRT

00:13:40.320 or developing road systems. We just need to make sure that that right of fair compensation

00:13:45.760 is underscored. And so those are the three main things that I wanted to make sure that we got out

00:13:50.320 of the revisions that we made. Just quickly wanted to get your thoughts on the United

00:13:55.040 Conservative Party leadership review. Obviously, you passed with 92% approval ratings. We're a few

00:13:59.840 weeks out from that. You know, the NDP are still trailing. We used to be about 14 points.

00:14:05.200 Leader Nahed Nenshi doesn't have a seat in the legislature. You know, maybe for you, it feels like

00:14:09.840 this is like the best moment right now because the party approves of you. The NDP are really not

00:14:14.400 doing very well. What is guiding you right now when it seems like you're kind of on top?

00:14:18.880 I would say that one of the things that I have wanted to do is to campaign on bold things,

00:14:26.480 have bold ideas, and to act on them. I think a lot of Conservatives get frustrated because

00:14:34.080 Conservative leaders campaign boldly and then govern timidly. And we're in a hurry. We've got a lot of

00:14:40.320 things that we need to fix. And so we wanted to make sure that we were making major progress on the

00:14:45.200 things that we campaigned on, as well as things that have emerged along the way. And hope by

00:14:50.080 delivering a government that identifies problems, solves them, that we do so competently and cost

00:14:55.920 effectively running balanced budgets and still able to care about the things that people care

00:15:00.640 about from a service delivery point of view, but keep taxes low. We think that that's a recipe for

00:15:05.360 re-election. So we're going to keep on doing what we're doing. And as for the guys on the other side,

00:15:11.040 I guess they'll have to make their own choices. We're pretty surprised that the leader of the NDP

00:15:18.560 didn't want a seat in the legislature. I don't know if he's going to, now that the seat is open,

00:15:22.640 now that Ms. Notley has retired, I'll be interested to see if he's interested in that seat. And if not,

00:15:30.400 I guess we'll have to question whether he's serious about the job. And so we'll keep doing what we're

00:15:35.520 doing. And it seems to be working. So I'm glad for that. Just quickly, my last follow up. You talk about

00:15:40.880 governing boldly. I know a lot of conservatives, a criticism that conservatives have of their own

00:15:46.640 leaders is they run as conservatives. And then when they're elected, they lead as moderates. And

00:15:53.760 you would reject, you're not going to be doing that. I would say that there's sort of two things

00:15:58.000 that you have to make sure that you do when you get elected. One is, you have to remember who brought

00:16:02.480 you to the dance. And so the people who are involved in a political party who come to

00:16:07.840 our conventions, I look at that as a pretty big focus group about the issues that really matter to

00:16:14.800 conservative voters. And so when they pass policy, we've got to take it seriously. And we've got to

00:16:20.160 implement as much of it as we can. If we can't implement it all, then we have to explain why.

00:16:25.040 There is also though, a whole range of issues that never make it to the policy floor. When you look at the

00:16:31.600 policy process we went through, I think they debated 35 resolutions or 274 that were submitted.

00:16:37.680 And so it is also up to us to hear from other groups, stakeholders, identify the things they

00:16:43.760 care about and act on them as well. And so I think it's, it's not one or the other. It really is both.

00:16:48.880 And we're, I think we've managed to find a pretty good balance on them.

00:16:52.320 Premier, thank you. Thank you.

Juno News - December 13, 2024

EXCLUSIVE： Smith’s plan to SECURE Alberta & FIX U.S. trade stand-off

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