Juno News - May 25, 2024


More human caused fires in Alberta


Episode Stats

Length

10 minutes

Words per Minute

197.66872

Word Count

2,018

Sentence Count

100

Misogynist Sentences

1

Hate Speech Sentences

6


Summary


Transcript

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
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.
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
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
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
00:09:44.620 five years. Yes, I suggested that maybe the solution to some of these issues would be to pause immigration
00:09:48.960 for three to five years. Honestly, seven to 10 might even be a better number. Basically pause immigration
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
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.