Juno News - May 25, 2024


More human caused fires in Alberta

Topics
human-caused fires in Calgary Forest area
Mentioned
Chris Tucker Danielle Smith Club Monage Alberta Wildfire Randy Boissoneau Adriana LaGrange Brendan Miller Richard Bakudo Matthew Mills Jim Stanford Nick Delvin Todd Lowen Scott Jett Lethbridge
Liberals resort to abortion scare tactics Liberals might let illegal immigrants stay in Canada

Episode Stats


Length

10 minutes

Words per minute

197.67

Word count

2,018

Sentence count

101

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Toxicity

1

sentences flagged

Hate speech

6

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Wildfires have been raging across Alberta over the long weekend, and many of them are human-caused. Is it human idiocy or maliciousness at play here? In this week's Alberta Roundup, we take a look at the alarming number of fires that have broken out across the province over the past weekend.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 It's not even summer and already headlines about wildfires are dominating our timelines.
00:00:05.020 We all remember last year. The wildfire smoke was so thick that it rolled across Canada
00:00:09.800 and into the US for much of the summer. Since I moved to Alberta, I've been hearing the same
00:00:14.660 thing from all of you. It wasn't like this when I was a kid. Now we all know that the so-called
00:00:19.140 experts want to blame us for drinking out of plastic straws or something, but I think there's
00:00:23.180 more than meets the eye here. This week, fire officials announced that of 33 fires ongoing
00:00:27.900 in the Calgary Forest area, 26 of them were man-made and were left unattended. And while we all know
00:00:34.020 that the quality of the human race is declining along with the departure from religion and the 0.96
00:00:37.620 family, I think it's time we all start asking ourselves an important question. Is it human
00:00:42.660 idiocy or maliciousness that's at play here? I'm Rachel Emanuel and this is the Alberta Roundup. 1.00
00:00:57.900 Okay, everyone, taking a look at our first story here, wildfire officials keeping an eye on fires
00:01:03.660 say there's been an alarming number of fires over the long weekend, with most of them occurring in
00:01:08.420 the Calgary Forest area. In an update on Thursday, officials said that 33 new fires were recorded in
00:01:13.580 Alberta between Friday and Monday. Christy Tucker, an information unit officer with Alberta Wildfire,
00:01:19.020 said 26 of those were human-caused and all but one were in the Calgary Forest area. Officials said
00:01:24.920 all of the fires were quickly extinguished by patrols. Tucker said, quote, obviously Calgary and
00:01:29.700 around Calgary is a popular place for people to go on the long weekend, and there are a number of
00:01:34.740 popular random camping sites. Our staff know those areas well, and that's part of their long weekend
00:01:40.020 routine. There were more than 1,700 interactions with Alberta in the Calgary Forest area. Forest and
00:01:45.700 Parks Ministry Todd Lowen said all of the fires were campfires that were left unattended, but posed a
00:01:51.680 quote, huge risk to become larger wildfires if they were ignored. Here's what else he had to say.
00:01:57.020 Any of these starts are alarming, especially the ones that are human-caused and especially the ones
00:02:01.640 that are just out of, you know, carelessness. I mean, that's alarming. The cost of wildfires is
00:02:08.360 extreme, and I think if people realize how much just leaving a campfire unattended, the cost to
00:02:16.580 taxpayers, cost to people's disruption, people's lives, I think that's important to get across to
00:02:23.040 the people of Alberta. Moving into our next story here, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is moving ahead
00:02:27.760 with her promise to break up Alberta health services into four different departments. Of course, that's
00:02:32.220 primary care, acute care, continuing care, and mental health and addictions. This week on the radio
00:02:36.960 show, Your Province, Your Premier, Danielle Smith was asked if there's a concern that the separate
00:02:41.120 agencies will run the risk of becoming too independent. Here's what she had to say about it.
00:02:45.320 Well, I think that we'll be able to manage that issue better than having everything under one
00:02:50.220 umbrella because I'll tell you what's happened is that AHS has pretty well conducted itself in a way
00:02:55.920 that everything leads to an emergency room. So if you don't have a doctor, you go to an emergency
00:03:00.080 room. If you fall and hurt yourself and then need to go into long-term care, oftentimes you're waiting
00:03:06.220 in an acute care bed in a hospital. Mental health goes to an emergency room. Addiction goes to an
00:03:10.700 emergency room. Homelessness goes to an emergency room. People who have low income and don't have a
00:03:15.100 place to go are in an emergency room. And so that's not what hospitals are for. We want hospitals
00:03:20.900 to be hospitals. And the way to do that is to have a different set of eyes and a different set
00:03:25.780 of decision makers who can provide this sort of specialized care that is needed for each of those
00:03:29.900 types of service needs. Moving into our next story here, people are living longer, but with more
00:03:36.280 complex healthcare needs. So more funding is being put towards seniors' care ahead of an expected surge
00:03:41.580 demand. The federal government and the province of Alberta have signed a $627 million funding
00:03:47.220 agreement. They say, well, it better help seniors age with dignity. Edmonton MP and federal employment
00:03:52.120 minister, Randy Boissoneau said, quote, we owe seniors the society that we have right now. After
00:03:57.220 a lifetime of work, giving back and caring about others in their communities, the least seniors deserve 1.00
00:04:02.040 is the ability to age with dignity and not to worry about what's next. The bilateral aging with
00:04:06.660 dignity agreement will see $627 million spent over the next five years on what the province said will
00:04:12.700 support home care and continuing care home initiatives. Right now, one in seven Albertans
00:04:17.380 are age 65 or older. By 2046, the province estimates that number will grow to one in five,
00:04:22.800 with Albertans over 65 making up more than 1.2 million of the total population. Here's what
00:04:27.820 health minister Adriana LaGrange had to say about it at a news conference this week.
00:04:30.840 These are dollars that are going to go towards enhancing workforce, making sure that we have
00:04:37.080 safety and safety measures in place, security measures in place, those type of things.
00:04:42.240 Listen, I generally don't like to see large funding announcements, and I think the country should run
00:04:46.480 much differently than it does. But if we are going to be giving money towards something, I think this
00:04:50.540 is one of the better types of announcements that we can make, especially when we have things like
00:04:54.200 assisted suicide. And we know a lot of elderly people, especially those with health concerns,
00:04:58.540 are opting for that because it's so difficult for them to access care in this country.
00:05:02.300 And so they often feel that it's easier to die than continuing to be on a waiting list or to
00:05:06.840 continue to suffer. So this is really the type of announcement that I think we need to see to
00:05:10.520 bolster and support life. So, you know, like I said, I don't generally support large funding
00:05:14.660 announcements from the government, but if we are going to be spending taxpayer dollars, this is the
00:05:18.080 type of thing we should be spending it on. Moving into our next story and the controversy of the week.
00:05:22.700 Group sex parties can continue to be hosted in a Calgary home, but the organizer is not allowed to use
00:05:28.220 club branding for the events, a Calgary judge has ruled. Matthew Mills began hosting ethical
00:05:33.640 non-monogamy parties at his house in the Northwest community of Silver Springs in Calgary in 2010
00:05:39.500 under the name Club Monage. The bi-leakly soires attracted 20 to 50 people on a given night
00:05:45.400 and were advertised online. Club memberships were purchased and tickets to the event were sold
00:05:50.120 for $30 to cover the associated hospitality costs. But in 2015, neighbors complained to police,
00:05:55.660 which ultimately led to Mills being served with a stop order in 2019 by the planning and development
00:06:00.700 department. The city found that Club Monage was a social organization operating on Mills property
00:06:05.760 without development authority approval in breach of municipal land use bylaw. The land use bylaw
00:06:11.720 prohibits social organizations from setting up shop in residential homes. Believing he was the target of
00:06:17.120 moralistic and disproportionate enforcement, Mills challenged the constitutionality of the bylaw.
00:06:21.920 Mills lawyer, Brendan Miller argued his client's rights to freedom of conscious, peaceful assembly
00:06:27.500 and association were violated by the city's order. The court of Kings Bend's justice, Nick Delvin,
00:06:32.880 issued a 29 page ruling last week saying, quote, essentially Mills asserts that land use planning
00:06:38.100 has no place in the bedrooms of the nation. Delvin went on to say that Calgarians are free to use
00:06:42.900 their homes for, quote, the private hostings of social gatherings, including when these involve
00:06:47.700 gatherings of individuals who share common sexual philosophies, interests and activities.
00:06:52.740 Personal sexual expression in all its many splendored forms is a fundamental aspect of human life,
00:06:58.240 experience and fulfillment. Well, I suspect a host of homes will be going up for sale in Silver
00:07:02.520 Springs following this ruling if anyone would dare to live there now. Moving into what we're watching
00:07:06.640 in the weeks to come, Calgarians are leaving the country's most expensive cities for more affordable
00:07:11.480 homes in cheaper regions. According to data released by Statistics Canada this week,
00:07:15.700 Vancouver saw its highest net loss to interprovincial immigration over two decades,
00:07:20.040 losing almost 5,000 people after gaining 11,000 the prior year. And of course, this data won't come
00:07:26.000 as a surprise to most of you. We've covered this on the show a lot, but Alberta gained the most from
00:07:30.240 interprovincial immigration between July 1st, 2022 and July 1st, 2023. All four of Alberta's
00:07:36.300 census metropolitan areas saw gains compared to 2005 and 2006. Calgary saw an increase of over 26,000
00:07:43.460 people, Edmonton over 16,000 people, Lethbridge over 1,600 people, and Red Deer over 1,200 people.
00:07:51.420 On the flip side, Ontario lost people in all of its metropolitan areas. In 2022, over 22,900
00:07:57.920 Ontarians left the province for Alberta, followed by more than 10,400 Ontarians moving to Nova Scotia.
00:08:03.980 I would fall in the category of people who left Ontario for Alberta in that year in search of more
00:08:08.920 opportunities and a lower cost of living. That being said, because so many people are moving here,
00:08:13.240 I don't know if we're actually seeing that lower cost of living. I saw that story. And then I also
00:08:16.940 saw this story of a report from the Alberta Federation of Labor saying the Alberta advantage
00:08:21.020 is slipping away due to declining living standards and wages. The 54-page report by economist Jim
00:08:27.040 Stanford suggests that Alberta has the slowest wage growth among all provinces, despite equally high
00:08:32.620 inflation, which caused an unprecedented downward pressure on living standards. According to the report,
00:08:36.840 annual wages increase for hourly employees from 2018 to 2023 averaged at just 2% per year. This is
00:08:43.120 slower than the national average of 3.4%. The report added that Alberta no longer has the highest hourly
00:08:49.220 wage and has been surpassed by BC, which is a stark contrast to 2013 when Alberta's hourly wage was 17%
00:08:56.440 higher than the national average. I can't help but wonder how much of this has been caused by so many
00:09:00.260 people moving here from the rest of Canada and also just so many people moving here from outside of
00:09:04.160 Canada with there's so many people looking for work. There's so many more employees that's naturally
00:09:08.340 going to suppress the value of wages. Okay guys, finally moving into our weekly comment roundup
00:09:13.800 user SunkissedGirl said quote, all by design brought to you by the WEF destroying one city at a time.
00:09:19.080 Of course that was in response to my monologue last week about how Calgary City Council's decision
00:09:23.860 to allow for citywide rezoning so that you might have 12 people living next to you in what was once a
00:09:29.600 modest bungalow is destroying the middle class, which of course it is. You will own nothing and 0.71
00:09:33.940 be happy. Most of you agreed with that. User Scott Jett said quote, this is Trudeau's way of getting back
00:09:38.660 at Alberta. And finally Richard Bakudo said quote, 100% right Rachel, pause immigration for three to 0.73
00:09:44.620 five years. Yes, I suggested that maybe the solution to some of these issues would be to pause immigration 0.69
00:09:48.960 for three to five years. Honestly, seven to 10 might even be a better number. Basically pause immigration 0.99
00:09:54.240 in all but extreme circumstances while we get caught up on our infrastructure. Let me know what you guys think
00:09:59.600 do you think we need to pause immigration? And if so, for how many years? Okay everyone, that's all we 0.66
00:10:04.660 have time for today. Thank you so much for tuning in. As always, please subscribe to True North and like
00:10:08.900 this video. I will see you guys next week. Have a great weekend and God bless.