Juno News - December 12, 2022


Smith's Sovereignty Act passes


Episode Stats

Length

3 minutes

Words per Minute

154.23564

Word Count

528

Sentence Count

35


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's Sovereignty Act passed through the Alberta legislature in the
00:00:03.980 early hours of the morning on Thursday. It was just 10 days after it was tabled.
00:00:08.740 It feels like we've been talking about the Sovereignty Act for months. Well, because we
00:00:12.200 have. Danielle Smith first pitched a Sovereignty Act during the United Conservative Party leadership
00:00:16.820 race as a means to bar federal legislation deemed harmful to Alberta and its interest.
00:00:22.180 She said, in fact, a Sovereignty Act would be her first bill as Premier if elected.
00:00:26.160 So this is a big deal for her, having made good on that promise.
00:00:30.460 The United Conservative Party majority government passed motions at the final three stages of the
00:00:34.820 bill to limit debate and quicken the bill's passage. In its final form, Bill 1, or the Alberta Sovereignty
00:00:40.440 within the United Canada Act, was stripped of a provision which would have granted Smith's
00:00:44.900 cabinet the power to rewrite laws outside the legislative process. Following criticism,
00:00:50.160 the government put forward amendments to remove those powers, but the Premier wouldn't say whether
00:00:54.860 the original wording was intentional. The House then moved into third reading and the bill was
00:00:59.580 approved around 1 a.m. Mountain Time on Thursday morning. The final vote was 27-4 and 7-against,
00:01:05.960 with opposition NDP MLAs voting against the legislation. The NDP also voted against the
00:01:11.740 amendment and the bill at all three readings. It's also worth noting the NDP didn't offer
00:01:16.180 any amendments to Bill 1, but before its passage, NDP leader Rachel Notley hosted a press conference
00:01:21.400 on Wednesday with former Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge to convince Premier Smith that her flagship
00:01:27.040 bill would chase away investment in the province. Here's what Dodge had to say.
00:01:31.820 Unfortunately, it seems to me that even proposing the Sovereignty Act creates a climate of uncertainty,
00:01:39.500 which makes it less attractive for investors to participate in the building of such a platform
00:01:47.840 for growth. Whatever its final form, the Act is a signal to the world that we don't quite know what
00:01:56.180 we're doing, that we can't quite get the fundamental stuff right.
00:02:00.480 That press conference didn't go over very well with the Premier. Take a listen to her exchange
00:02:04.620 with Notley in the legislature this week. Mr. Speaker, today I stood with the former Governor
00:02:08.780 of the Bank of Canada, Mr. David Dodge. Mr. Dodge very articulately impressed upon Albertans how the
00:02:14.960 Premier's Sovereignty Act, amended or not, will harm our economy.
00:02:19.400 So let me get this straight. We have a Liberal appointee to the Bank of Canada, who is not even
00:02:25.600 from Alberta, who didn't read the bill, who didn't read the amendments, and quite frankly, the Bank of
00:02:33.280 Canada increased interest rates 0.5 percent again today, which actually has a dampening effect
00:02:38.480 on investment, coming to Alberta to tell us how to run our affairs. You know, I'm wondering who this
00:02:45.840 opposition leader is going to have at her next press conference. Maybe she should just invite Justin Trudeau.
00:02:55.600 Thanks for joining us.
00:02:57.360 Thank you.
00:02:59.380 A student number for Bouselain.
00:03:01.600 A student number for Bouselain
00:03:02.700 NCAA
00:03:04.020 Maitre
00:03:04.740 Jodh
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