Juno News - Smith calls Guilbeault ＂awful＂ and ＂dangerous＂

00:00:00.000 Hey everyone, welcome back to the Alberta Roundup. I'm your host Rachel Emanuel. I hope that you guys

00:00:05.160 are getting into that festive Christmas spirit. It is one of my favorite times of the year. I've

00:00:10.400 got my festive green sweater on. I've been listening to a lot of Christmas music and I

00:00:14.640 won't even tell you how long my Christmas tree has been up for. If you guys have a favorite

00:00:19.300 holiday song, please let me know what it is in the comment section below. I'm getting a little

00:00:24.220 tired of my playlist and I need to freshen it up with some new music. Now let's take a look at what

00:00:29.360 we're going to be talking about on today's show. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has called Federal

00:00:33.600 Environment Minister Stephen Guibo dangerous to federation. She also piled on with him with her

00:00:39.540 Environment Minister Rebecca Schultz when they called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to

00:00:44.220 immediately replace Guibo. We're also going to be taking a look at the Alberta government's move

00:00:48.940 to raise the damage threshold beyond which motorists involved in a collision must report to a police.

00:00:54.340 And finally, faculty at the University of Alberta removed Christmas trees on campus after a student

00:01:00.720 asked if she could display a menorah. All that and more happening now on the Alberta Roundup.

00:01:15.720 Okay guys, taking a look at our first topic here, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said,

00:01:20.520 the door is shut to cooperative federation with Federal Environment Minister Stephen Guibo,

00:01:26.320 whom she also called awful. Smith made the comments in response to a question on the

00:01:32.380 Your Province, Your Premier radio show. She went on to say that Guibo is dangerous to the federation

00:01:37.840 because he acts outside the law. Take a listen to the exchange for yourself.

00:01:42.080 With the unconstitutional laws and announcements without conversation or consultation, what can or is

00:01:47.680 Alberta doing to try to have a cooperative relationship with the federal government or is

00:01:53.640 that door shut? Well, I can tell you, for me, it's shut with Stephen Guibo, the Environment Minister.

00:01:58.640 He's awful. He violates the law. He doesn't follow the Supreme Court judgments and he acts in, as I've called

00:02:06.200 it, an imperious way. So I have very little interest in continuing any discussion with him. I can tell you,

00:02:12.520 I have a very good relationship with other ministers. I've given credit to Christia Freeland, who did a

00:02:18.540 great job of matching us and giving a generous carbon tax credit for carbon capture utilization

00:02:24.180 and storage. So I've got a good relationship with some ministers, but I'm not going to pretend to you

00:02:28.600 that Stephen Guibo is at all somebody we can work with. I think he's very dangerous, quite frankly. He's

00:02:34.440 dangerous to the federation and he's dangerous because he doesn't honour the constitution and he acts

00:02:41.120 outside the law. And so we're going to make sure that we push back to the greatest extent possible

00:02:45.820 on anything he puts forward. Now, if you think the premier wasn't already harsh enough on Guibo,

00:02:51.440 if that's even possible, she later piled on him even further with her Environment Minister,

00:02:56.580 Rebecca Schultz. The pair called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to immediately replace Guibo,

00:03:02.340 and they even called his actions at COP28 a national embarrassment. Smith and Schultz released

00:03:08.120 a joint statement after COP28 in response to the federal government's actions on climate policy.

00:03:14.880 They wrote, quote,

00:03:15.640 We were gravely disappointed to see Federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change,

00:03:20.320 Stephen Guibo, and other radical activists continue to push an approach that would consign the world

00:03:26.000 to energy poverty and economic stagnation by focusing only on ending all fossil fuel use.

00:03:32.280 It was a national embarrassment to witness Minister Guibo at an international conference actively

00:03:38.440 sabotaging the interests of Albertans and other Canadians by releasing a series of incoherent and

00:03:44.820 illegal policy pronouncements that he and his government have absolutely no legal authority

00:03:50.600 to impose upon the provinces of Canada. Now, the final wording ultimately did not recommend a full-on

00:03:56.860 phase-out, but nonetheless, Smith and Schultz said they will not forget Guibo's full-on crusade

00:04:03.040 against their energy sector. Moving into our next story here, the Alberta government has raised the

00:04:07.820 threshold upon which motorists must report a collision to the police from $2,000 to $5,000.

00:04:14.540 Transportation Minister Devin Drishan said the move will free up police resources and better reflect

00:04:19.920 the rising cost of auto repairs. He said, quote,

00:04:22.800 We look at just the cost of vehicle repairs and a minor fender bender of just bumping into someone's

00:04:28.560 bumper or taking out a light. It's very easy to surpass that threshold. We didn't want to make

00:04:33.700 just pretty much every fender bender have to be reported to the police, and that's why we increased

00:04:38.700 this limit. That increase will take effect on January 1st, and Drishan said he doesn't expect that

00:04:43.320 the changing threshold will impact insurance rates, adding, quote,

00:04:46.840 We're looking at lots of options to be able to roll out here hopefully in the new year

00:04:50.700 to help address high insurance rates. This next news story should offer some relief to those of

00:04:55.700 us living in Calgary. The provincial government is giving Calgary funding for 50 new permanent

00:05:00.960 cop positions, according to Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis, a former city cop himself. In a video

00:05:07.480 posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, Ellis related some of the shocking crimes ongoing in Alberta

00:05:12.660 cities and blamed the federal government's bail system.

00:05:15.460 These stories are heartbreaking when we consider the suffering of the victims and their families,

00:05:22.400 and they are equally frustrating when we hear about the alleged perpetrators. Random shootings,

00:05:30.260 random murders from alleged offenders who are apparently out on bail or release. Everyone knows

00:05:38.500 that our bail system is broken when repeat offenders can repeat crimes so easily. This bail system was

00:05:46.480 brought in by the Trudeau government, and it has been devastating for every province, not just Alberta.

00:05:54.840 Those crimes included a carjacking at gunpoint, which was allegedly done by an individual out on bail,

00:06:00.560 as well as the killing of a father of seven, also allegedly committed by an individual out at bail.

00:06:06.240 And he also spoke about the many stabbings at Calgary C train stations. Ellis said these are just some of the

00:06:12.020 violent attacks ongoing in Calgary that are making people feel unsafe. While announcing the new funding,

00:06:17.840 Ellis said random, unprovoked attacks on city streets used to be rare occurrences, but now they're happening

00:06:24.020 almost daily. He added, quote, this will not be tolerated. Moving into the controversy of the week,

00:06:29.400 a law student at the University of Alberta asked to display a menorah on campus,

00:06:33.900 and her request resulted in Christmas trees on campus being removed. Rachel Cook, a Jewish student 0.96

00:06:39.820 on campus, asked to display an electric menorah after noticing many of the other Christmas decorations

00:06:45.100 on campus, including, of course, Christmas trees, as well as garland and polar bears. Her request was

00:06:51.240 initially met with excitement, but later the vice dean emails her to express concerns. He said that

00:06:57.000 existing decorations on campus were meant to be non-denominational. He instead offered her a bookable

00:07:02.820 room where she could light and display the menorah, and shortly after, Christmas trees were taken down

00:07:07.780 on campus, while other decorations like polar bears and the garland were kept up. Cook said she never

00:07:13.060 took issue with the Christmas trees and was shocked to learn of such an overreaction. She said, quote,

00:07:18.740 I got an email from the vice dean telling me, no trees either. We're going to take all those down

00:07:24.020 because of your concerns. That's when I responded, but I don't have concerns. I actually find them quite

00:07:29.300 pretty. I just wanted to display a menorah. Cook said she believes faculty decided to take down the

00:07:34.660 trees because they didn't want her putting up a menorah over their incorrect belief that it would

00:07:39.640 be a display in support of Israel. Michael Brown, a spokesperson at the University of Alberta, said

00:07:44.700 some decorations were removed in order to maintain the intent of seasonal decorations, which is to be

00:07:51.240 secularly festive. Moving into what we're watching in the weeks to come, Alberta has seen a sharp increase

00:07:57.560 in opioid-related deaths. This is a very difficult news story, especially headed into the holidays,

00:08:02.580 but that is an increase of over 25% of opioid-related deaths when compared to the same period last year.

00:08:10.240 In September alone, Edmonton reported 62 drug poisoning deaths, 60 of which involved opioids.

00:08:17.100 And as of September, Edmonton experienced an increase in opioid-related fatalities

00:08:21.420 compared to the previous year, with 492 opioid poisonings reported in the first nine months.

00:08:27.560 That is far surpassing the 428 deaths recorded during the same period in 2022. Provincially,

00:08:34.680 the situation is equally as grim. A total of 1,411 Albertans succumbed to opioid poisoning so far,

00:08:42.480 which is a steep rise from the 1,124 who died from opioid-related deaths last year. A spokesperson for

00:08:49.360 Mental Health and Addictions Minister Dan Williams said these numbers are why Alberta is so focused

00:08:54.680 on a recovery-orientated system of care. The spokesperson said,

00:08:58.800 quote, every life lost from the deadly disease of addiction is a tragedy, and it reinforces our focus

00:09:04.640 on making recovery possible for every Albertan. For those of you who want to dig into this issue a

00:09:09.700 little further, I would encourage you to watch Canada is Dying and Vancouver is Dying. Those are two

00:09:15.260 excellent documentaries made by friend of the show, Aaron Gunn, and they really shed a light on how federal

00:09:21.540 government policies are creating this national drug crisis. Finally, moving into our weekly comment

00:09:26.900 roundup, our first comment here is from Jim Campbell. He says, no one in Alberta voted for

00:09:31.040 Gibo, and no one should concede anything to a creep like that. Hey, he said it, not me. He added,

00:09:37.880 the days of Albertans paying for liberal votes in Quebec while Ottawa tries to crush their incomes are

00:09:43.540 done. Our next comment here is from Maria Zacharias. She writes, this is a hard job for Premier Danielle in this

00:09:49.380 time. I pray she will be able to stay strong and not waver under the dictatorship of the Liberals and

00:09:55.060 Trudeau. Alberta is the only province doing well, and we will stand behind Danielle to keep our province

00:10:00.800 strong. Marie, I really appreciated that call just to remind people to pray for the Premier. Pray that

00:10:05.680 she has the strength to withstand the pressure that she is facing. We should actually pray for all our

00:10:10.500 political leaders, even, and I know I'm going to get a little hate for this, Justin Trudeau. We should pray

00:10:15.440 that he finally recognizes that he is unfit for office and that he resigns. And our comment of the

00:10:20.280 week goes to user Izzard P. He writes, good news. Canada has so many trees that we are already carbon

00:10:26.460 negative. Great job, everyone. Planet saved. Well, there's no arguing with that. And with that, that's

00:10:32.480 all I have for you guys today. Thank you so much for tuning in. Please don't forget to let me know what

00:10:36.680 your favorite Christmas song is in the comment section. I will see you guys next week. Have a great weekend

00:10:42.220 and God bless.

Juno News - December 16, 2023

Smith calls Guilbeault ＂awful＂ and ＂dangerous＂

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