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

In this week's show, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has invoked the sovereignty act for the first time to challenge federal regulations which would require Alberta to have a net zero electricity grid by 2035. The province has also banned photo radar in order to protect the public from being targeted by anti-social drivers. Finally, you won't want to miss the Alberta politics funny moment of the week, as host Andrew Lund gives his insights into the province and some of the major news stories I missed while I was away.

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 0.98

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 1.00

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.

Juno News - December 02, 2023

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

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