Juno News - Nova Scotia health authorities admit to gender surgeries on teens

00:00:00.000 in a true north exclusive nova scotia health authorities admit that they've greenlit multiple

00:00:10.880 gender surgeries for patients under 19 years old ontario premier doug ford and alberta premier

00:00:17.160 danielle smith signed two memoranda of understanding to boost interprovincial trade

00:00:21.700 the alberta prosperity project is promising tax cuts and budget surpluses if the province

00:00:27.800 separates from canada hello canada it's tuesday july 8th and this is the true north daily brief

00:00:34.260 i'm cosmon gerja and i'm jeff knight we've got you covered with all the news you need to know

00:00:39.860 let's discuss the top stories of the day and the true north exclusives you won't hear anywhere else

00:00:45.760 exclusive documents reveal that doctors in nova scotia greenlit five surgeries to create

00:00:56.140 artificial vaginas for patients listed as under 19 years old citing privacy laws the provincial

00:01:03.480 health authority refused to reveal whether any of the patients were minors but acknowledged that

00:01:09.340 nova scotia health funds transgender genital surgeries for minors as of this year as per policy and

00:01:16.860 procedures federal officials and canadian medical organizations have long assured the public that

00:01:22.680 bottom surgery a euphemism for irreversible genital procedures like vaginoplasties or the surgical

00:01:31.200 reshaping of tissue into an artificial opening are not performed on minors however newly released

00:01:39.020 documents from nova scotia's public health system show otherwise the citizens alliance of nova scotia

00:01:45.820 provided true north with demographic data obtained through freedom of information requests the data

00:01:52.420 shows age breakdowns of both surgical and non-surgical gender-related interventions the

00:01:58.460 findings reveal that minors in nova scotia are receiving irreversible transgender medical treatments

00:02:04.540 including puberty blockers cross-sex hormones and in some cases genital surgeries the number of

00:02:11.580 transgender treatments for all ages in nova scotia are trending upward at a time when other jurisdictions

00:02:17.580 such as the uk and several european countries are retreating from such interventions due to mounting

00:02:24.140 evidence of harm and a lack of long-term data to back claims made by transgender activists and proponents

00:02:32.060 in the medical community that such procedures lower the risk of suicide the 2023-2024 annual report from nova

00:02:40.780 scotia's health insurance program reveals that five genital procedures were approved for patients under

00:02:48.060 the age of 19 additional surgical procedures also appear in the same age bracket but the actual figure

00:02:55.100 remains suppressed under a section of nova scotia's freedom of information and protection of privacy act

00:03:02.540 which exempts disclosure when the number of patients is fewer than five true north sent several emails to

00:03:09.420 nova scotia health asking if any of the patients in the under 19 column were minors and to verify the age of

00:03:15.980 those listed stacey burges executive director of clinical care at nova scotia health would not specify

00:03:23.260 any ages but admitted that genital surgeries continue to be funded by the province even for minors nova scotia

00:03:30.940 health policy states that minors over the age of 16 can request exemptions for such surgeries under certain

00:03:37.660 conditions these revelations contradict public facing guidance from health canada and several provincial

00:03:44.220 health authorities which explicitly state that bottom surgeries are not available to individuals under 18.

00:03:51.660 puberty blockers particularly luprolide the generic version of lupron are being prescribed to children

00:03:58.860 under the age of 15 teens age 16 to 18 are being given testosterone and estradiol often in combination

00:04:07.420 with anti-androgens the costs associated with this care are significant nova scotia budgeted 1.7 million

00:04:15.580 for gender related health care in 2023 to 2024 alone that figure does not represent a fixed cap as internal memos

00:04:25.100 state that departments are encouraged to quote adjust forecasts upward if demand increases between 2021

00:04:33.100 and 2024 the province spent just over 2 million dollars on 187 all ages mastectomies this figure

00:04:41.660 includes hospital costs physician fees out of province costs like airfare accommodations and post-operative care

00:04:49.900 jeff it's confusing to me when you have a province that is run by a conservative party the progressive

00:04:59.020 conservatives of nova scotia and you see the extent of gender ideology going all the way to impacting

00:05:10.220 minors potentially receiving life-changing life-altering procedures so why is it that a supposedly

00:05:18.860 conservative province that elected a conservative government is funding these treatments when even

00:05:26.860 the medical community in some countries are backing out especially when it comes to the care of minors

00:05:34.380 yeah cosmon the decision by nova scotia which is often seen as a conservative province to fund harmful

00:05:39.820 transgender treatments for minors likely stems from a series of progressive policy shifts legal pressures and

00:05:45.820 a lack of political pushback the juno news article highlights that nova scotia health's 2023 to 2024

00:05:52.220 data obtained via freedom of information by the citizens alliance of nova scotia reveals five

00:05:57.340 neovaginal surgeries approved for patients under 19 contradicting health canada's public stance against

00:06:03.180 such procedures for those under 18. this funding part of a 1.7 million dollar budget with no fixed cap

00:06:09.980 reflects the province's adoption of the rights of indigenous peoples act and its alignment with the united

00:06:15.100 nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples which emphasizes inclusivity and has

00:06:20.780 extended to gender affirming care policies the province's move likely stems from legal and ethical

00:06:26.060 obligations under its health policies which allows 16 year olds to request exemptions for genital surgeries

00:06:31.820 driven by advocacy from transgender rights groups and medical bodies like the canadian pediatric society

00:06:37.660 which has pushed for such care since 2018. the juno news piece notes the influence of internal memos

00:06:43.020 encouraging upward budget adjustments suggesting a bureaucratic momentum rather than a conservative

00:06:47.980 ideological stance despite its conservative label tied to figures like former premier john ham's fiscal

00:06:53.660 restraint nova scotia's ndp government which has been in power since 2019 has embraced progressive

00:06:59.660 social policies including a 2021 gender affirming care framework to signal modernity amid a 2 million

00:07:05.980 dollar spend on 187 mastectomies from 2021 to 2024 the lack of robust opposition with only 38 of nova

00:07:14.140 scotians opposing such treatments per a 2024 forum research poll and the suppression of exact minor patient

00:07:20.780 numbers under privacy laws allow this to persist prioritizing compliance over the growing european

00:07:26.780 evidence of harm like the uk's 2023 cass review calling for caution due to insufficient long-term data

00:07:37.100 the premiers of alberta and ontario signed two new memoranda of understanding regarding new

00:07:42.300 transformational interprovincial trade agreements and their commitment to bolstering the energy sector

00:07:47.260 in a press conference announcing the agreements premier smith said quote today marks an important step forward

00:07:53.260 in uniting our country as alberta joins forces with ontario to pursue our shared goals of economic growth

00:07:59.740 opportunity and prosperity the province's commitment to maximize canada's energy resources

00:08:04.860 and global competitiveness the second will have alberta explore ways to prioritize the

00:08:09.580 procurement of made in canada vehicles to support ontario's automotive industry and boost

00:08:15.020 interprovincial trade of liquor products the agreements will see alberta and ontario work together

00:08:20.300 to repeal or amend the impact assessment act the oil tanker ban net zero power regulations the oil

00:08:26.700 and gas production cap and the federal government's electric vehicle mandate premier ford said quote

00:08:32.780 no one will build a pipeline to tidewaters if there's a ban on tankers that's the craziest thing i've ever

00:08:38.220 heard a ban on tankers no one will invest in opening a mine if it takes 10 years to get a yes

00:08:43.820 ford said the memorandums would diversify trading partners make canada less reliant on the united

00:08:49.900 states and secure the future when asked whether the federal government would push back on the

00:08:54.380 newly announced goals ford said he was more optimistic about prime minister mark carney

00:08:59.180 than former prime minister justin trudeau smith said that she spoke with carney in calgary over

00:09:03.820 the weekend and that the prime minister told her that the potential to build a bitumen pipeline to the

00:09:08.300 bc coast was very likely however smith said that carney quote can only talk the talk for so long

00:09:15.100 before he would have to start putting some real action around it she added that she would like

00:09:19.740 to see a full list of provincial and federal projects by the fall so cosmon are these agreements

00:09:24.940 a substantive step towards boosting interprovincial trade or are they merely symbolic gestures

00:09:30.860 while they're not legally binding but they are politically meaningful and when you have things like

00:09:37.740 developing steering committees and plans to implement it could actually result in action and reshape how

00:09:46.460 provinces work together on areas like trade and energy and with the tariff situation happening and

00:09:55.020 the impact on our trade with the united states the conversation has really shifted inwards to interprovincial

00:10:03.180 trade and these new memoranda of understanding build on a prior agreement that was signed in june

00:10:10.060 when all the premiers got together and discussed lowering trade barriers and such so like i said not

00:10:18.540 legally binding but there are there is substance in this so it's not entirely just a photo op ontario and

00:10:26.140 alberta are planning on aligning on pipelines energy exports and critical mineral infrastructure

00:10:33.020 ontario in particular is rich in critical minerals that go into electric vehicle batteries electronics

00:10:39.660 etc and obviously alberta is wealthy in terms of oil and energy and gas resources

00:10:47.820 part of this will translate to feasibility studies on how these things can be streamlined and you know barriers

00:10:54.620 reduced but additionally it also signals that they're pushing back on ottawa and one of the

00:11:01.820 positive developments despite some of the disagreements between premiers is they're sort of realizing

00:11:09.260 the potential and the power to push for independence of provinces and i don't mean that

00:11:17.500 in terms of a separatist independence but even within confeder even within confederation and independence

00:11:25.900 uh for provinces to seek out you know their own deals uh their own economic opportunities so backing a free trade

00:11:35.900 within canada vision is definitely significant and it's a mutual recognition that canada has the potential

00:11:45.580 to sustain itself if only there is a political will and that requires some cooperation

00:11:52.860 the alberta prosperity project is causing a stir after the group released its draft fiscal blueprint

00:12:04.140 claiming that independence from canada would transform alberta's economy for the better four

00:12:09.740 minute video shared by alberta prosperity projects general counsel jeffrey rath asserts the plan is more

00:12:16.620 than just the theory according to the value of freedom report alberta currently sends between 68 billion

00:12:23.260 and 75 billion dollars annually to ottawa while receiving just 22 to 26 billion in return based on

00:12:31.580 these figures an independent alberta would see a net gain of 44 to 47 billion dollars if the province

00:12:38.060 separates the report claims that while provincial expenditures could reach up to 106.9 billion

00:12:45.980 projected revenues could climb to 149.1 billion based on detailed line item calculations it estimates an

00:12:55.100 annual surplus ranging from 29.4 billion dollars to 48.3 billion dollars excluding the one-time setup costs

00:13:03.500 the path the plan outlines major one-time startup costs for creating a defense force border services

00:13:10.460 and regulatory agencies totaling up to 5.7 billion dollars the report claims the surplus would leave

00:13:18.060 room for tax reductions infrastructure investment and debt reduction some of the tax reductions proposed

00:13:25.100 would include eliminating gsd and provincial personal and corporate income tax reducing the annual tax rate

00:13:32.220 by up to 46 percent and saving albertans an average of 18 000 annually the proposal also calls for

00:13:39.980 embedding strict fiscal safeguards into a new alberta constitution including balanced budget requirements

00:13:46.380 spending caps debt limits tied to gdp and mandatory public referendums before any new taxes can be imposed

00:13:54.380 the fully costed fiscal plan was derived from a variety of sources including statistics canada

00:14:00.380 provincial budgets public documents from accounting firms and more the plan notes that any predictions

00:14:06.620 are approximate and have a variance of up to 10 percent the fiscal framework proposes that alberta

00:14:12.620 would immediately but temporarily adopt the us dollar before creating a new alberta dollar backed by oil

00:14:19.660 gold and bitcoin so this is quite an ambitious projection and we know from you know political

00:14:27.900 experience and etc that projections are not necessarily what ends up happening especially when it comes

00:14:34.140 to budgets and fiscal planning so jeff how much would an independent alberta truly be capable of reaching

00:14:46.140 these goals yeah an independent alberta's ability to achieve the lofty goals outlined in the alberta

00:14:51.500 prosperity projects report hinges on several optimistic assumptions that face significant hurdles the

00:14:57.580 reports claim of a 44 to 47 billion dollar net gain from ottawa based on current fiscal transfers of 68

00:15:04.140 to 75 billion dollars cent versus 22 to 26 billion dollars received relies on alberta retaining all its resource

00:15:10.700 revenues estimated at 149.1 billion annually while managing 106.9 billion in expenditures the juno news piece notes

00:15:19.900 expert skepticism with economists like trevor tombe from the university of calgary arguing that these figures assume seamless

00:15:27.020 market access and no trade retaliation which is dubious given canada's 97 percent oil export reliance

00:15:33.660 on the u.s per 2024 natural resources canada data the proposed one-time 5.7 billion dollar startup costs

00:15:40.780 for a defense force border services and regulatory agencies are feasible comparable to saskatchewan's

00:15:47.100 2023 security budget of 1.2 billion dollars scaled up but the transition to a u.s dollar then an alberta

00:15:53.260 dollar introduces currency risk the juno news article cites concerns from financial analyst david dodge

00:15:59.820 that a resource-backed currency could face volatility especially with bitcoin's 30 price swings in 2025

00:16:06.300 alone tax elimination and spending caps sound appealing but the 10 percent variance in projections

00:16:11.820 up to 14.9 billion dollars could erase surpluses if oil prices drop below 70 a barrel as seen in 2020

00:16:19.660 or if infrastructure costs bloom beyond the 10 to 20 billion dollar pipeline estimates alberta's debt

00:16:25.900 at 70 billion dollars in 2025 would require decades to clear even with surpluses and as the juno news

00:16:32.380 piece warns global trade isolation could shrink revenues not grow them while the plan's fiscal

00:16:37.900 safeguards offer discipline its success depends on untested economic sovereignty and global goodwill

00:16:44.620 making these goals aspirational but far from guaranteed that's it for today folks thanks for

00:16:53.660 tuning in you can stay on top of new episodes every weekday by subscribing to the daily brief

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Juno News - July 08, 2025

Nova Scotia health authorities admit to gender surgeries on teens

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