Juno News - Smith asks Carney to repeal anti-Alberta laws

00:00:00.000 Alberta Premier Daniel Smith is demanding the Kearney government repeal several anti-Alberta

00:00:09.380 laws by the fall. Canada's leading taxpayer's advocate has awarded former Prime Minister

00:00:14.460 Justin Trudeau with the Lifetime Achievement Award for government waste. Ontario's Ministry

00:00:19.020 of Education is taking over four school boards due to financial mismanagement. Hello Canada,

00:00:24.420 it's Monday, June 30th, and this is the TrueNorth Daily Brief. I'm Isaac Lamoureux.

00:00:28.360 And I'm Noah Jarvis. We've got you covered with all the news you need to know.

00:00:32.180 Let's discuss the top stories of the day and the TrueNorth exclusives you won't hear anywhere else.

00:00:40.520 Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says Ottawa has until the end of the fall to repeal

00:00:44.600 anti-Alberta laws, warning that rising separatist sentiment in a recent by-election shows Albertans'

00:00:49.600 patience is time limited. During an exclusive interview with Juneau News' Kian Bextie,

00:00:54.680 Smith said she'll be watching Prime Minister Mark Carney when Parliament resumes in the fall

00:00:58.240 to see what kind of accommodations, revisions, and revocations of anti-Alberta bills he will be

00:01:03.420 making. Although the Alberta United Conservative Party retained its old Stidsbury Three Hills

00:01:07.860 riding in the by-election with 61.12% of the vote, the Republican Party of Alberta secured 15.6%

00:01:14.880 of the vote. Smith says she's not taking the victory for granted. Smith told Juneau News,

00:01:19.620 quote, we have always had independence parties on the ballot. I've seen them get as low as a couple

00:01:24.740 hundred votes. Sometimes, you know, three, four, or five percent. This admittedly is the highest

00:01:29.660 percentage that I've seen of a separatist candidate in my time watching politics. He said her government

00:01:35.240 will put the issues on the table and attempt to negotiate with the federal government to combat

00:01:39.420 Ottawa's policies, which has held Alberta back. He said those negotiations are on a timer though,

00:01:44.480 as Albertans are giving Carney the benefit of the doubt. He agreed that bills such as Bill C-48,

00:01:49.880 the Oil Tanker Moratorium Act, and Bill C-69, the No New Pipelines Law, are some of the anti-Alberta

00:01:56.360 legislation Ottawa needs to remove to return investment and allow production in Alberta during

00:02:00.880 the fall setting. She said the introduction of workaround legislation to those anti-energy laws

00:02:05.600 in the omnibus Bill C-5 is a recognition that those laws have created such a chill on investment that

00:02:11.100 is unworkable. Smith said she is already disappointed with the federal government,

00:02:14.780 as Carney appears to have not even started pre-positioning to make any changes to anti-energy

00:02:18.960 legislation. She named the Liberals' net zero car mandate, which is set to begin in January and

00:02:23.940 will mandate 20% of new car sales to be net zero vehicles, as one idiotic example coming out of 0.99

00:02:29.400 Ottawa. So Noah, how likely is it that Prime Minister Mark Carney and his government will meet Premier 0.97

00:02:33.500 Smith's demands in the time she specified? I don't think it's very likely. I don't think that

00:02:38.260 Mark Carney has demonstrated that he is willing to move forward on these priorities, such as revoking

00:02:44.780 bills C-48 and C-69. It doesn't seem like that's a priority for the Carney government at this moment.

00:02:51.660 And there might be some decent reason for that, but, you know, Premier Smith, before the election,

00:02:57.900 she indicated that Ottawa has to move quickly on addressing the issues and concerns that Albertans

00:03:03.960 have. And Mark Carney has instead decided that he is going to focus on negotiations with the American

00:03:11.400 administration, which so far has not been going well, as President Trump said that he is ending

00:03:18.660 negotiations with Canada over the digital services tax. So the Carney government has shown a lack of

00:03:26.060 commitment to repealing a lot of the counterproductive taxes and regulations that the Trudeau government has

00:03:32.520 implemented with the example of the digital services tax, which likely is the catalyst for the trade

00:03:39.600 negotiations breaking down. And the Carney government's insistence that it needs to remain shows their

00:03:46.240 priorities when it comes to taxation and regulation. We're likely going to see something similar.

00:03:52.420 Mark Carney has not committed to repealing the oil tanker moratorium, which is Bill C-48.

00:03:59.580 And he has also not committed to repealing Bill C-69, the quote unquote, no new pipelines law,

00:04:07.140 which makes it significantly harder to get pipelines built in this country. Even though he

00:04:12.600 has a spouse flowery rhetoric, Alberta Premier Daniel Smith has always tried to keep him to account,

00:04:18.180 keep him accountable for the many commitments that he made on the campaign trail and to get him to move

00:04:23.780 quickly on this. And it does merit a quick action by the federal government. We see that the

00:04:29.440 separatist movement in Alberta continues to grow on a weekly basis, even though some may call the

00:04:35.800 results in Old Didsbury Three Hills a disappointment for the Republican Party and the overall separatist

00:04:41.900 movement. The vote tally that the Republicans gained does not necessarily measure the separatist

00:04:48.180 sentiment in that riding. And then it wouldn't really measure the separatist sentiment province-wide

00:04:54.020 because there could be some UCP voters who are still separatists, but who's decided to park

00:05:00.180 their vote with the party that they have greater familiarity with. And Premier Daniel Smith seems to

00:05:05.840 be concerned about the growing separatist sentiment in our country. And there's a petition that will

00:05:11.140 likely move forward in the coming weeks and months that will have Alberta go into a referendum on the

00:05:18.580 separation question. And if Prime Minister Mark Carney isn't able to convince Albertans that the

00:05:23.940 federal government is actually taking action and removing a lot of the barriers that the federal

00:05:29.940 government has placed in front of Albertans in the past several years, then we could see a separation

00:05:36.900 referendum where the results are close and possibly even see Albertans decide to separate in that

00:05:45.320 referendum. And that would be an absolute disaster for Mark Carney. It would be a stain that he would

00:05:50.760 never be able to scrub off of his legacy. And quite frankly, it would mean that he would be one of the

00:05:56.920 worst prime ministers in history and maintaining the national unity based on the back of many of the

00:06:02.680 Trudeau era policies. So I think that they have to move quickly in order to meet many of Premier

00:06:08.760 Smith's demands. But do I think that is likely? I do not think so. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation

00:06:16.440 held its awards ceremony for the worst use of public funds in 2024, with former Prime Minister

00:06:21.400 Justin Trudeau receiving the lifetime achievement for a decade of federal waste. The CTF presented its

00:06:27.080 27th annual Teddy Waste Awards last week, which are doled out at the various levels of government.

00:06:32.840 The award, a golden pig shaped trophy, gets its name from Ted Wetherill, a former federal appointee

00:06:39.240 who was fired in 1999 for leaving taxpayers with a host of dubious expense claims, including a $700

00:06:46.120 lunch for two in France. Trudeau received the lifetime achievement Teddy Waste Award for his

00:06:50.760 contribution to doubling the federal debt in less than a decade and his penchant for hotel suites

00:06:55.720 and fine dining. Global Affairs Canada was named the federal Teddy winner for spending an average of $51,000

00:07:01.560 per month on booze, $8,800 on a sex toy show in Germany and $1,700 on a musical featuring lesbian

00:07:09.400 pirates. New Brunswick won the Provincial Teddy Award for spending $77,000 on an eight-day trip to

00:07:16.440 Europe attempting to boost European terrorism in the province. Their campaign ads also included

00:07:21.640 incorrect information about the province. The city of Calgary took home the Municipal Teddy Award for

00:07:26.600 spending $65,000 so people could call a hotline that played sound recordings to the Bow River,

00:07:32.840 which failed to work. So Isaac, former Prime Minister Trudeau is many things, but one thing

00:07:38.760 he is not is a great manager of the country's finances, as demonstrated by the results in the

00:07:44.680 past nine and a half years. So Isaac, do you think that fiscal impropriety will become a defining

00:07:51.560 feature of Justin Trudeau's legacy as Prime Minister? Yeah, no, I certainly think it will,

00:07:56.280 especially considering during Trudeau's tenure, Canada's debt doubled. That's right. Trudeau took

00:08:01.960 office in November 2015, when Canada's federal debt was $616 billion. So to double the debt,

00:08:07.880 it had to reach $1.232 trillion, which occurred on August 30th, 2024. Of course, despite Trudeau's

00:08:15.240 previous pledge, the budget did not balance itself. But perhaps something even more interesting,

00:08:20.680 which I saw someone recently highlight on X was that Trudeau showed the level of fiscal

00:08:25.080 incompetence you can have without being ostracized in a way that being his party was, of course,

00:08:30.600 reelected, despite its fiscal mismanagement. So the tweet said something along the lines of,

00:08:35.640 the scariest thing about Trudeau was that his predecessors thought they had to adhere to a

00:08:39.960 certain economic standard to remain in office. But perhaps he showed that isn't the case. Of course,

00:08:44.760 Trudeau wasn't reelected, but his party has largely the same people and the same policies that led to the

00:08:50.120 aforementioned debt increase. And some people are suggesting that Prime Minister Mark Carney will

00:08:54.680 be even worse. He keeps making economic pledges and promises, but nobody knows where that money

00:08:59.880 is coming from. Remember, Carney is not presenting a budget this year. Canadian Taxpayers Federation

00:09:05.800 Federal Director Franco Terrazzano said that even in World War II and the Great Depression,

00:09:10.680 budgets were presented. So there really is no excuse. So if printing money doesn't increase the cost of

00:09:15.960 living enough, surely the tariff situation we're in right now will. Well, remember, and you mentioned

00:09:20.600 this briefly, Noah, that the U.S. recently ended all trade negotiations with Canada due to its digital

00:09:25.960 services tax, which taxes tech conglomerates like Meta and Netflix. And remember, they aren't going to

00:09:30.920 stomach that tax without passing it on to the consumer. So when your prices start to increase, don't be surprised.

00:09:40.520 Ontario Education Minister Paul Calandra announced the province is taking over four school boards due to

00:09:45.800 consistent deficit spending in a bid to go back to basics. Calandra announced that supervisors will now

00:09:51.240 oversee the financial decisions of the Toronto District School Board, the Toronto Catholic

00:09:55.560 District School Board, the Dufferin Peel Catholic School Board and the Ottawa Carleton District School Board

00:10:00.840 following chronic mismanagement. During a Friday press conference announcing the takeover, Calandra said the

00:10:06.440 decision will bring accountability to the school boards that have mismanaged funds, run deficits annually and

00:10:12.040 depleted reserves. Calandra said, quote,

00:10:14.600 trustees at each school board have the responsibility to manage the funds provided by

00:10:18.440 the province to directly benefit students and teachers in the classroom. Teachers should not be

00:10:22.760 struggling for resources while some boards continue to fund loaded central bureaucracies. He said recent

00:10:28.280 financial investigations have found the boards in question have been running unsustainable deficits and have

00:10:33.160 failed to manage their finances despite having multiple opportunities to address the structural financial issues.

00:10:38.840 The ministry overseers will look not only to balance the school board's budgets but also ensure that the

00:10:43.800 board eliminates wasteful spending that doesn't provide essential resources to students and teachers.

00:10:48.920 Calandra noted Ottawa Carleton District School Board has run multi-year deficits despite promising

00:10:53.960 balanced budgets while multiple trustees have resigned and parents are frustrated over things the board is

00:10:59.240 doing. The financial investigation found the board is projecting an accumulated $9.2 million deficit this year.

00:11:05.720 The Toronto District School Board was reported to have an $11.3 million deficit in 2024-25 which is

00:11:11.800 projected to rise to $58 million the following year. Calandra said the Toronto School Board has presented

00:11:17.480 a plan to balance its budget but the strategy relies on selling assets to achieve this. He told the Toronto

00:11:22.760 Public Board that it refused to deliver a recovery plan until the very last minute. He said the Toronto

00:11:27.800 Catholic District School Board has run a $75 million deficit and the Dufferin Peel Catholic Board faces a host of

00:11:33.560 other challenges including being on the brink of bankruptcy. The report stated that the Dufferin Peel

00:11:38.920 Board is projected to have a $106 million deficit at the end of 2024-25. Calandra said the government's

00:11:44.840 policy to allow school boards to manage their finances has been a way for the government and

00:11:48.680 ministry to avoid accountability but now it needs to take a more active role. He said that when a board

00:11:53.720 sells assets they should be used to repair, renovate and fix schools and they should only do so with the

00:11:58.600 intent to move back into a balanced position. The Ministry of Education will also examine any

00:12:03.480 budgets that boards have already submitted. Calandra also vowed to pause any changes to

00:12:07.480 the school history, kindergarten, financial literacy and math curricula for one year to

00:12:11.800 give teachers appropriate time to properly implement them in the classroom. So Noah, beyond financial

00:12:16.360 reforms to these school boards, what are some other policies that the Ministry of Education can change

00:12:20.920 and enforce to ameliorate educational programming for students?

00:12:23.880 I think the obvious one is removing wokeism from Ontario schools. We've seen a great proliferation

00:12:31.000 in social justice programming in the past seven years under the Ford government, even though in 2018

00:12:38.920 when Ford was initially running for premier, he stated that he would be removing the current sex ed

00:12:45.000 curriculum in Ontario. And instead of removing the sex ed curriculum, they kept the sex ed curriculum

00:12:49.880 and expanded it to include a whole bunch of LGBTQ plus issues that activists and other lobby groups

00:12:58.680 have encouraged the Ontario Education Ministry to include. So I think that if Paul Calandra, the current

00:13:07.240 education minister, is able to walk back some of these policies, in addition to many of the financial

00:13:14.600 reforms that these boards will undergo, I think that this program would be a great success and could

00:13:20.760 be applied to other school boards. But the main challenge here is definitely the financial impropriety

00:13:27.720 of these school boards, the lack of ability to basically run a school board, run several schools without accruing

00:13:35.960 several million dollar deficits. These school boards are creations of the province in much the same way as

00:13:41.800 municipalities are and they cannot, say, issue bonds and other ways of raising money. So if they

00:13:48.600 are grunting significant debts, it's incumbent on the Ministry of Education to help make up that shortfall

00:13:54.520 and it would fall on Ontario taxpayers to help make up that shortfall through their tax dollars. So it is

00:14:02.200 very important that these school boards are able to maintain balanced books. But clearly the councillors,

00:14:08.040 especially on, say, the Toronto District School Board, are far more focused on expanding their social

00:14:14.040 justice programming, expanding critical race theory in schools, expanding gender theory in these schools,

00:14:20.760 teaching students things such as the gender unicorn and other sort of programming that helps indoctrinate

00:14:28.680 children in a certain view of the world that when they go back to their parents at home, they would

00:14:33.880 have significant disagreements with or perhaps their parents aren't even informed of the type of

00:14:40.120 programming that is in these schools. And that would help cut down on some of the costs that these school boards have

00:14:45.800 been accruing. If you cut back on the DEI offices that these school boards are paying for and all the different

00:14:52.760 staffers in these DEI offices, if you cut back on paying for, say, certain DEI speakers to come to these schools, like

00:15:01.880 racial activists or drag queens, were paid certain sums of money to come to these schools. Or instead of paying

00:15:10.120 the Kojo Institute to run DEI to run anti-racist programming for its staff, you could cut those

00:15:19.000 programming and instead give the staff more time to apply to their students so that we can improve

00:15:25.320 educational outcomes. Because in Ontario, at the very least, educational outcomes have been flatlining and

00:15:30.600 even declining. So there are much bigger areas of focus other than focusing on racial and gender

00:15:38.760 politics than say focusing on educational outcomes. This is a very important initiative. And if the

00:15:46.680 Ontario Ministry of Education is able to successfully reform these school boards, not just on the financial

00:15:51.960 level, but based on the curricular level, I think that this would be a model in order to impose certain

00:15:59.480 reforms on other school boards that are also running significant budget deficits and are flooding

00:16:07.000 students with certain ideological precepts of the world.

00:16:13.160 That's it for today, folks. Thanks for tuning in. You can stay on top of new episodes every weekday by

00:16:17.560 subscribing to The Daily Brief on iTunes and Spotify. Also, while you're at it,

00:16:21.640 make sure to hit us with a five-star rating and please leave a review.

Juno News - June 30, 2025

Smith asks Carney to repeal anti-Alberta laws

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