Juno News - December 02, 2023


Smith invokes Sovereignty Act to “protect Albertans” from Trudeau gov


Episode Stats

Length

8 minutes

Words per Minute

158.7157

Word Count

1,394

Sentence Count

79

Misogynist Sentences

1


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hey everyone, welcome back to the Alberta Roundup. I'm your host Rachel Emanuel.
00:00:03.840 We are back to our regular programming. If you haven't had a chance to see my episode
00:00:08.200 from last week yet, head over to YouTube and give that a watch. You won't want to miss
00:00:12.920 True North host Andrew Lund's insights onto the province of Alberta and some of the major news
00:00:18.540 stories that I missed while I was away. That being said, we have a great show for you guys today. A
00:00:23.880 lot of big things happening in the province. Here's a look at what we'll be discussing today.
00:00:28.560 Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has invoked the Sovereignty Act for the first time.
00:00:32.820 There's also been some positive changes regarding PhotoWriter and a huge investment into the
00:00:38.440 province which will create thousands of jobs. Finally, you won't want to miss the Alberta
00:00:43.880 politics funny moment of the week. All that and more happening now on the Alberta Roundup.
00:00:57.940 Okay guys, up first, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said she's invoking the Sovereignty Act
00:01:03.220 for the first time to challenge Ottawa's regulations which would require a net zero electricity grid by
00:01:10.060 2035. No doubt you remember that Danielle Smith first pitched the Sovereignty Act during the United
00:01:15.640 Conservative Party leadership race. It was very controversial at the time. Of course, she won that
00:01:21.060 race and it was her first piece of legislation as Premier. The bill was pitched as a mean to bar
00:01:26.680 federal legislation deemed harmful to Alberta and its interests. In this case, Smith said she invoked
00:01:32.480 the act to show that she was serious about challenging Ottawa's energy regulations which
00:01:36.980 would wreak havoc on Alberta's natural gas-based grid. Here's what she had to say about invoking
00:01:42.620 the Sovereignty Act to reporters on Monday. We developed this legislation to shield the province
00:01:48.200 from federal intrusions and we're using it now because the consequences of this particular
00:01:53.680 overreach would be so severe. Alberta will bear the largest share of the expenses required to meet these
00:02:00.060 absurd targets and consumers and businesses will see their bills soar. If the federal government has its
00:02:06.160 way, many people will be left without electricity that they can pay for on a power grid that will
00:02:12.680 fall short or even fail in a typical Alberta winter or summer. I'm sure this won't come as a surprise to
00:02:18.800 you all, but Environment Minister Stephen Gobeau doesn't appear to be taking the Premier seriously.
00:02:24.060 Here was his response to the news that she would be invoking the Sovereignty Act for the first time to
00:02:29.120 challenge his government. We will continue moving ahead with this. There is no legal basis for what
00:02:34.840 Alberta is doing and we feel that we're on very solid ground and the fact that we already have
00:02:41.140 some provinces who are on board with us as well as a number of private companies and investors who say
00:02:45.940 that this is the way to the future. Under the Alberta Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act,
00:02:50.720 the Premier put forward a motion which would require the Alberta government to take several actions.
00:02:56.960 Most notable among the actions, it would compel Alberta regulators and officials not to comply with
00:03:02.860 regulations so long as they are not breaking federal law. Those regulations are still in draft, but they
00:03:09.280 are expected to be enacted soon. The motion also calls on Alberta to look into creating a crowd electricity
00:03:15.900 corporation. Now the purpose of this crowd corporation would not be to compete with Alberta's private
00:03:22.760 electricity power system, but rather to look into generating electricity in the case of a shortage.
00:03:28.680 Moving into the controversy of the week, the Alberta government has banned photo radar on ring roads
00:03:34.580 around Edmonton and Calgary. It says it will instead allow the cities to move those photo radar cameras to
00:03:40.660 places like construction zones, schools, and playgrounds. There are currently eight photo radar cameras on
00:03:46.860 Calgary's ring road and a whopping 22 cameras in Edmonton. When making the announcement last week,
00:03:52.780 Alberta Transportation Minister Devin Drieschen said,
00:03:55.060 Alberta's are concerned that these photo radar cameras are not being used because of safety,
00:04:00.740 but rather to generate revenue for the cities. Here's what that sounded like.
00:04:05.200 Now, some Albertans believe that municipalities operate photo radar solely to generate revenue
00:04:11.640 and is not for the improvement of traffic safety. So there's a lot of concern over fishing holes that
00:04:19.020 we've heard from Albertans. Now, since then, we've now had years worth of data to review.
00:04:24.820 And we have come to the conclusion that some photo radar sites are indeed designed to generate
00:04:29.760 revenue, not to improve safety. So let me be perfectly clear, this will end here in the
00:04:34.940 province of Alberta. The Alberta government will now work with law enforcement to remove all fishing
00:04:39.980 hole locations, referring to cameras where there is no safety concern. Now, the reason I put this story
00:04:46.220 as the controversy of the week, because while it is trending in the right direction, it does not quite go far
00:04:52.140 enough. Comment below if you agree that it is time for Alberta to ban photo radar entirely, perhaps more
00:04:59.280 importantly, email your city councillors and let them know that you hate these policies. And while we're at it,
00:05:05.460 let's do away with those stupid drive safe vehicles. I cannot stand this program. I couldn't believe it that
00:05:11.720 shortly after moving to Alberta, I received a ticket in the mail for $120 for going 10 kilometers over the speed limit.
00:05:19.140 An officer would never ticket you that much, they probably wouldn't even pull you over for going 10
00:05:25.080 kilometers an hour over the speed limit. At least in Ontario, it's generally considered that the speed
00:05:30.600 limit is just 10 kilometers an hour over whatever is posted. So it's one thing if you get pulled over
00:05:36.300 fair and square, then it's up to you to reason your way out of that ticket. But I really don't agree with
00:05:41.640 these policies. I don't like that the government is watching all our actions, constantly finding new ways to
00:05:48.360 monitor us, and then penalizing us if we don't comply with their regulations. Comment below if you agree.
00:05:55.680 Moving into what we're watching in the weeks to come, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Federal Finance Minister
00:06:00.680 Christopher Freeland this week announced a $8.9 billion investment by Dow into the province's Fort Saskatchewan area.
00:06:09.700 That will become home to Dow's Path Zero facility, the world's first net zero scope one and two greenhouse gas emissions,
00:06:16.640 integrated ethylene cracker and derivative site. Now for those of you who thought that was a little bit of word salad,
00:06:22.580 here's the great takeaway. It will create 6,000 construction jobs and 400 to 500 permanent jobs once the site is operational.
00:06:30.140 In an announcement on Wednesday, government officials were joined by Dow CEO Jim Thetterling.
00:06:36.360 He said products made at this facility will have greenhouse gas footprints less than half of products made at other
00:06:42.500 plastic alternatives. He added, quote, we intend to take that to zero. Christia Freeland said the
00:06:48.440 investment is evidence that her government's plans are working. Here's what that sounded like.
00:06:53.880 We said that those tax credits would create great careers for Canadians, for people like the great Canadians
00:07:00.440 who are here with me, that they would build stronger communities and help reduce our emissions at the same time.
00:07:09.460 Today is proof that it's working.
00:07:14.220 Moving into the Alberta politics funny moment of the week, you guys are going to love this.
00:07:19.180 Transportation Minister Devon Drieschen was being interviewed by 630 chat host Stacey Bratzel
00:07:24.400 about his photo rater when she asked him about the Alberta Sovereignty Act, reminding him that his former boss
00:07:30.860 and former Premier Jason Kenney once called the Sovereignty Act illegal, cockamamie,
00:07:36.280 and said it would turn Alberta into a banana republic.
00:07:40.200 Here's Drieschen's response.
00:07:41.340 But your old boss called it cockamamie and illegal and would turn us into a banana republic,
00:07:47.000 so I guess that's politics, right?
00:07:52.120 And I wonder what he's doing now, yeah.
00:07:54.500 Oh.
00:07:55.420 Oof, that's gotta hurt.
00:07:56.800 Okay, guys, that's everything we have for you today.
00:07:58.560 Thank you so much for tuning in to the Alberta Roundup.
00:08:01.060 As always, if you're able, please consider supporting our work over at donate.tnc.news.
00:08:06.480 I will see you all next week.
00:08:08.320 God bless.
00:08:17.000 God bless.