Juno News - Liberal legislation spells bad news for Alberta businesses

00:00:00.000 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government might be down 20 points in the polls but they had another

00:00:04.420 small victory this week. It wasn't a victory for the Canadian people or for truth or freedom of

00:00:09.660 expression but that's pretty much par for the course at this point. Oil and gas companies have

00:00:15.500 begun scrubbing their websites over fear of facing fines of millions if they don't comply with

00:00:21.120 Trudeau's latest censorship crackdown. Now these companies have budgets of billions of dollars

00:00:26.980 and access to the best lawyers in the country. If that's what tyranny can do to them just imagine

00:00:33.300 what it can do to you. I'm Rachel Emanuel and this is the Alberta Roundup.

00:00:47.760 Okay everyone taking a look at our first story here. The Pathway Alliance group of oil sands company

00:00:53.280 has removed all content from its website and social media feeds citing uncertainty over a new

00:00:59.640 anti-greenwashing rule poised to become federal law which says it applies a standard so vague as to

00:01:05.720 lack meaning. The bill triggered a rallying cry on Thursday from the energy industry and led many

00:01:11.280 companies to follow suit in deleting content from their websites citing confusion around the new

00:01:15.920 legislation. The Pathways Alliance is a consortium of Canada's six largest oil sands companies which

00:01:21.800 together have publicly committed to reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions from oil sands production

00:01:26.640 by 2050. The consortium has previously spent millions of dollars on a countrywide public relation blitz

00:01:32.600 aimed at demonstrating the oil sands is committed to helping fight climate change. But as of Thursday

00:01:37.780 all that remains on the group's website is a notice saying Pathway has removed all its content due to

00:01:43.300 concern around an anti-greenwashing provision in federal bill C-59. Pathways published a Thursday

00:01:49.120 afternoon statement signed by its six members and Pathways president Kendall Dilling saying the

00:01:54.560 decision to pull its online content was quote a direct consequence of this legislation and are not

00:02:00.200 related to our commitments or belief in the accuracy of our environmental communications. The statement

00:02:05.960 continues the result of this legislation which has been quickly put in place with little or no

00:02:10.960 consultation is to silence Canadian businesses taking climate action. The group says it's continuing to

00:02:16.680 advocate to the federal government for clarity on the amendments. The omnibus bill C-59 passed third

00:02:22.560 reading in the Senate on Wednesday and will soon become law. It contains a truth in advertising

00:02:27.600 amendment that would require corporations to provide evidence to support their environmental claims. The

00:02:32.800 provision is not fossil fuel specific but applies to all businesses and economic sectors. The bill's wording

00:02:38.680 says businesses must not make claims to the public about what they are doing to protect the environment

00:02:43.360 or mitigates the effect of climate change unless those claims are based on quote adequate and proper

00:02:48.840 substantiation in accordance with internationally recognized methodology. Pathway and other groups

00:02:53.960 on Thursday said such methodology has not been defined. In its statement Pathway called it so vague as

00:02:59.320 to lack meaning and said it quote opens the door for frivolous litigation particularly by private entities

00:03:05.240 who will now be empowered to directly enforce this new provision of the Competition Act. The passage of the

00:03:10.560 provision is a win for Canadian environmental groups who have been mounting a full-fledged campaign against

00:03:15.440 greenwashing. That's a term the left has given to companies they say are marketing their products as more

00:03:21.040 sustainable than they really are. In the last year Canadian green groups have lodged at least four formal

00:03:25.720 complaints with the Federal Competition Bureau alleging greenwashing or false environmental claims by fossil fuel

00:03:31.740 companies or banks. The Pathways Alliance was the target of one of those complaints. Environmental groups have said the

00:03:37.720 consortium's ads and public claims about net zero are misleading as the Pathways Alliance has not yet made a final

00:03:43.720 investment decision on its proposed 16.5 billion dollar carbon capture and storage network. Pathways is not the

00:03:50.600 only organization that's responded to Bill C-59 by pulling its online content. The Clean Resource Innovation Network,

00:03:57.400 a group that connects Canada's oil and gas industry, innovators, technology vendors, academia, research institutes,

00:04:03.620 finance years, and government wrote in a social media post that the amendments have introduced

00:04:07.700 uncertainties and it quote cannot currently publicly share environmental performance metrics for the

00:04:13.060 projects we support. As of Thursday the Clean Resource Innovation Network's website was under maintenance.

00:04:18.360 Meanwhile the Petroleum Technology Alliance of Canada has also taken down its website though it's unclear

00:04:23.620 whether that's in response to Bill C-59. As I mentioned last week the government of Alberta is gearing up to fight

00:04:29.500 this legislation. They are looking at the options of a constitutional challenge and also utilizing the

00:04:34.620 Alberta sovereignty within United Canada Act. That was Alberta Premier Daniel Smith's hallmark piece of

00:04:39.480 legislation that was the first bill she passed when she became premier and it seeks to bar federal

00:04:44.100 legislation deemed harmful to Alberta and its interests. In a statement from Alberta Premier Daniel Smith,

00:04:49.120 Environment Minister Rebecca Schultz, and Energy and Minerals Minister Brian Jean, they said the bill appears to be

00:04:54.760 part of an agenda to create chaos and uncertainty for energy investors with a purpose of phasing out

00:05:00.600 the energy industry altogether. The statement continues quote ironically this kind of absurd

00:05:05.780 authoritarian censorship will only work to stifle many billions in investment in emissions reducing

00:05:11.320 technologies. The very technologies the world needs to reduce emissions while avoiding energy poverty for

00:05:17.340 billions around the world. As I mentioned in the introduction these are companies that do have quite extensive

00:05:22.580 budgets to fight what the federal government is doing here to take the federal government to court.

00:05:27.140 My question of the week for you all is do you think it is the right decision from these companies to

00:05:31.260 scrub their websites or do you think they should leave the content up and be willing to go to court with

00:05:35.140 the federal government to fight the regulations that we're seeing? Let me know in the comment below.

00:05:39.520 Delete the websites or fight the federal government even though it could cost them hundreds of thousands in

00:05:44.860 legal fees would be my estimate. Okay everyone moving on to our next story here this one takes a closer look at

00:05:50.020 what's going in Alberta schools. The Alberta government announced this week that they would be

00:05:53.860 banning cell phones in kindergarten through grade 12 classrooms though they are going to be giving

00:05:59.160 school boards significant autonomy over how these policies are adopted. This ban will come into effect

00:06:04.800 at the start of the next school year beginning on September 1st and it will apply to all public

00:06:09.160 schools, separate francophone, public charter, independent school authorities and early childhood service

00:06:14.620 operations. The decision comes after the Alberta government polled over 68,000 respondents who

00:06:20.140 are primarily teachers and parents. Minister of Education Dimitris Nicolaitis said it was the most

00:06:25.300 responded to survey in the province's history. Take a listen to what else he had to say.

00:06:28.960 The survey results were clear that the use of cell phones is of significant concern and that additional

00:06:37.760 measures should be taken to limit cell phone use in our classrooms. The minister also said that 90%

00:06:44.480 of respondents were concerned with school cell phone use, 85% believe cell phones hurt student

00:06:49.900 achievement, 81% believe cell phones increase instances of bullying and 60% of parents believe

00:06:56.000 that cell phones negatively impact their child's mental health. Paige McPherson, Associate Director of

00:07:00.760 Education Policy at the Fraser Institute, told the Andrew Lawton show that research on cell phone use

00:07:05.940 in classrooms is very clear. Take a listen to what that research shows.

00:07:09.360 And what it found is that there's actually a measurable impact on math scores in particular when it comes to

00:07:17.920 digital distraction in classrooms. So that's from people either being distracted by their own devices or people

00:07:24.480 being distracted by the devices of people in the classroom around them. And that's really informative for when it comes to

00:07:31.280 crafting smartphone ban policies in classrooms. As British Columbia's economic rating continues to slide off the deep end,

00:07:38.540 Alberta has taken a step in the other direction. Alberta's long-term credit rating has been upgraded

00:07:44.620 from AA- to AA. The inverse occurred in British Columbia where the province credit rating was

00:07:50.180 downgraded from AA to AA- in April. That marks the third time their provincial credit rating has been

00:07:56.160 downgraded. Alberta Finance Minister Nate Horner said in a press release, quote,

00:07:59.760 This upgrade confirms that Alberta is on the right path, as only one of two Canadian provinces to balance

00:08:05.380 their budget this year. Our economy is growing rapidly across a variety of sectors. And with new

00:08:11.120 added pipeline capacity, we will only see that continue. Alberta's most recent budget showed the

00:08:16.220 province with a $367 million surplus. Conversely, British Columbia posted a record-setting $7.9

00:08:23.240 billion deficit. Alberta's other provincial neighbour, Saskatchewan, also had a deficit

00:08:27.880 of $273 million. Here's Deborah Yedlin, the CEO of Calgary Chamber of Commerce, talking about what the

00:08:34.820 upgrade means for the province of Alberta on CBC Radio this week. Take a listen.

00:08:38.920 It's really good news. And it also shows that we are moving ahead in terms of strengthening the economy,

00:08:46.680 diversifying the economy, and that the rating agencies have confidence in our fiscal structure

00:08:51.360 and how we're managing our finances. So it's a really good news story for the province.

00:08:56.560 Okay, everyone, moving into the controversy of the week, more than 2,200 Calgarians think their

00:09:01.840 neighbours aren't doing an adequate job of conserving water as the city is in stage four

00:09:06.320 water restrictions and has called a city bylaw officer to complain. This week, the city said that

00:09:11.720 they would be moving from education to fines with those fines beginning at $3,000. I'm not going to spend

00:09:17.740 a lot of time on the story because I spent an entire show talking about it this week. You can go

00:09:22.380 back and find that episode. It was posted on Wednesday. If you want a sneak peek at what that

00:09:26.280 looks like, take a listen. And this week, city officials announced that they were moving past the

00:09:30.520 education portion and telling officers to begin ticketing with fines beginning at $3,000. This is

00:09:37.080 Canada in 2024. If you're found guilty of not being sufficiently stronger together or whatever the latest

00:09:42.420 saying is, then you'll have to pay through the nose. Or in the case of pastors and COVID-19,

00:09:47.620 you'll be put in jail. But the politicians and government officials that screw up time and time

00:09:52.540 again, their worst case scenario is not being re-elected and instead receiving a cushy six

00:09:58.020 figure consulting job with a hefty expense account. It really is one rule for thee and another rule for

00:10:04.540 me. And the sooner we all realize that, the sooner we can start doing something about it.

00:10:08.980 Finally, moving what we're watching in the weeks to come, the Alberta NDP is selecting their new

00:10:13.940 leader today on Saturday evening. You guys are going to want to keep an eye out for that. I will

00:10:18.040 have a story posted to the True North website so you can go find that over the weekend. It is the

00:10:22.680 Alberta NDP leadership race. I doubt many of you will be rushing to learn the results of that

00:10:27.360 leadership race, but we will have it on our website on Saturday for all of you. More than 85,000

00:10:33.280 party members are expected to cast a ballot for the new leader and there's four contenders in the

00:10:37.740 running. Of course, that's Calgary Mayor Nahed Nenshi. He is largely expected to win the contest.

00:10:42.820 His other main competitor would be former cabinet minister and Alberta NDP MLA Kathleen Gainley.

00:10:49.120 There's also Jody Calhose-Stonehouse. She's a relative newcomer to politics and Sarah Hoffman, 0.76

00:10:53.700 the former Alberta NDP health minister. So I'll have that story for you guys on our website on

00:10:57.920 Saturday evening. And of course, there will be lots of coverage of the leader in future weeks.

00:11:02.680 Okay, everyone, finally time to move into our weekly comment roundup. So many good comments

00:11:07.560 to dive into today. Starting off, user Ben Vollman says, quote, yet the stampede goes on. I think I'm

00:11:13.300 being played. How can we have a million visitors if we're in such an emergency? Gondek says, drink beer

00:11:19.380 instead of water. This world just keeps on getting weirder. So that of course was in response to the

00:11:24.500 news that we're in a crisis, but City of Calgary is going to go ahead with a stampede.

00:11:28.800 This is one of the more controversial things I might say on this show. So don't hate on me. I'm

00:11:35.720 just going to be honest. I'm doing this in the spirit of free speech and free discussion. I don't

00:11:39.800 really care for the Calgary stampede. I think it's kind of just a big drink fest and I don't really

00:11:44.120 drink alcohol at all. Maybe the occasional drink with some friends here and there. So it's not my

00:11:48.920 cup of tea. And of course, it's just so busy. It's so hot. I'd rather be like in the mountains or

00:11:53.580 at the lake on a hot July day. Like I said, I know that's controversial. If there's someone here who

00:11:58.500 really loves a stampede, maybe I'm missing out. I've never actually been to the fairgrounds to get

00:12:03.360 food and things like that. I mostly go to like networking events. So I don't know, maybe I just

00:12:08.840 haven't experienced the full stampede. Maybe I need to pay a lot of money to go on some, you know,

00:12:13.000 circus rides, that type of thing. But it's not my cup of tea. That said, I know it brings a lot of

00:12:17.120 money to the city. So obviously they desire to keep that open. They would have a lot of really angry

00:12:21.500 businesses if they had to close that down. It brings in a lot of tourism dollars. But I think you raise a

00:12:26.120 really good point here. This is actually an emergency. I feel like the stampede would probably

00:12:30.020 be canceled. Now I'm by no means calling for the stampede to be canceled. I just think it's a little

00:12:34.300 bit ironic that Calgarians can't go swimming this summer and we're having all these visitors here

00:12:39.040 for a big drink fest while, you know, Calgarians are being asked to just accept a lower quality of

00:12:45.160 living. And then on the other side of the coin, the Calgary stampede was obviously canceled during

00:12:48.920 COVID. And I think we can all agree that that wasn't really a real crisis. So this is what happens

00:12:54.060 when the government did what they did during the last couple years with the COVID restrictions.

00:12:58.360 Everything was closed down. Everything was considered a crisis. And that's left all of us

00:13:01.940 really scratching our heads and wondering when we can trust the government and how much. And I think

00:13:05.460 most of us are erring on the side of caution and questioning everything, which is probably the best

00:13:09.460 approach. So just some of my thoughts on that issue. Taking a look at our next comment here from

00:13:13.600 user at Mateen Harris. EB speaking like his not on team Trudeau. How stupid does he think BC people are?

00:13:19.640 Yeah. So that of course was in response to BC Premier David Eby last week taking a really strong 1.00

00:13:26.420 stance against the Trudeau government and kind of complaining that they weren't getting the same

00:13:29.340 immigration dollars that Quebec was getting. Definitely something different from what we've

00:13:33.480 seen from him. His polling numbers are also dropping. And I think that's why we're seeing him

00:13:38.300 getting, you know, frustrated with the Trudeau government. And especially in what he was saying

00:13:42.340 last week, he was saying young people are having a really hard time affording homes because of all the

00:13:47.240 newcomers coming here. And so BC deserves the same amount of dollars. So he's obviously making a

00:13:52.300 pitch to the young people there. We often see that with lefty politicians. They make a pitch to the

00:13:58.360 younger people, hope they can get out those votes because a lot of times those kids don't really come

00:14:01.900 out to vote for anyone. They're not interested in politics. So I think that's probably why we see

00:14:05.520 him, you know, attacking the Trudeau government. He's seeing his polling numbers and he's like,

00:14:09.240 I got to do something about this. Finally, I got this really thoughtful message on X from a viewer

00:14:14.560 named Drew. He said, Rachel, I love your show. It is quickly becoming my favorite True North podcast.

00:14:19.680 You've mentioned a couple of times how you would like to see an end to the Alberta is Calling

00:14:23.160 program. I disagree. I think this is the sort of program the province needs. I'm originally from

00:14:28.400 and currently living in BC. However, I have recently bought a home in Airdrie, Alberta. I am an

00:14:33.700 experienced power engineer and will be working in the energy sector. My wife is in healthcare and works

00:14:38.040 as a care aid. We are the type of people that the province should want to attract. The Alberta is

00:14:43.080 Calling program will provide us with a welcomed $5,000 tax break, but we will contribute more

00:14:47.720 than 10 times that in our first tax year alone. We will be strong contributors to the economy

00:14:52.260 and will add a lot of value to the province. These sort of value calling initiatives should

00:14:58.040 be encouraged. It is the addition of unskilled migrants, immigrants, or refugees that drain on 1.00

00:15:04.040 resources that should be limited or avoided. Keep up the great work. So he's making the argument

00:15:07.680 that what the Alberta is Calling campaign is doing is it's offering some boutique tax credits

00:15:12.460 we saw Stephen Harper's conservative government do this type of thing a lot to the type of people that

00:15:16.860 it wants to attract. So obviously in this case, skilled workers. Yes, we do need healthcare workers.

00:15:21.100 He mentioned that he was a experienced power engineer. So obviously these are people who are

00:15:25.900 going to be contributing to the economy. I don't know if everyone who is hearing about the Alberta

00:15:29.180 is Calling campaign realizes that that's the message. I am an Ontario visiting family and I've heard about

00:15:34.540 this program from so many people being like, oh yeah, I heard your province is trying to attract people here.

00:15:38.380 Not all of these people have the skilled labor that we're looking for. Not all these people

00:15:45.180 would be eligible for these tax credits. They just generally hear, oh Alberta is calling it's cheaper,

00:15:50.380 lower cost of living if we move there, we can have a great life there. And I think especially

00:15:54.460 for conservatives living outside of Alberta in places like Ontario, they sort of see Alberta as

00:16:01.660 you know this beacon of conservatism and they think, oh that's sort of like a backup option for me,

00:16:05.660 especially now with this Alberta is calling campaign. And I think it just gives a lot of

00:16:09.500 people the idea that they should move there even if they are not eligible for these tax credits.

00:16:13.500 So that is one of my arguments against the Alberta is calling campaign is that it just makes everyone

00:16:18.780 else elsewhere in Canada think that we want them to move there. And most of these people are moving

00:16:22.780 to Calgary or in one of the nearby neighborhoods. As you mentioned, you bought the house in Airdrie,

00:16:27.100 not far from Calgary. The cost of living in Calgary is so high right now. I actually think it's

00:16:30.460 comparable to the cost of living in Niagara I'm initially from. Maybe still a little bit lower,

00:16:34.780 but definitely not by much. We're actually seeing housing prices in Niagara, you know,

00:16:39.420 they're starting to come down, supply is going up and we still don't have it in Calgary. And that's

00:16:43.500 largely due to interprovincial immigration. So that's one of my arguments against the Alberta's

00:16:47.500 calling campaign. My other is I just don't really like boutique tax credits. No offense to you. I mean,

00:16:52.380 that's awesome. You guys save that $5,000. I would just like to see lower taxes for everybody.

00:16:56.460 Taxes in Canada are way too high. And when we look at Alberta, our income tax rate is actually higher

00:17:03.420 than it is in places like Ontario. I could not believe how much money I paid in taxes the first

00:17:07.820 year that I lived in Alberta. And it actually sort of decentivized me from wanting to run my

00:17:11.820 own business because of how much income tax I paid. So you seem awesome. I'm glad you and your

00:17:15.420 wife are making the decision to move to Alberta. Still don't like the program. Okay, everyone,

00:17:19.740 that's all we have time for today. Don't forget to subscribe to True North so you don't miss any of

00:17:23.100 our content and to like this video. I will be back on Wednesday with more content for you guys.

00:17:29.260 You can also head over to donate.tnc.news if you want to show some support for my work.

00:17:34.380 Hope that you guys have a great weekend. I'll see you guys next week. God bless.

Juno News - June 22, 2024

Liberal legislation spells bad news for Alberta businesses

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