Juno News - The Alberta Roundup is back!

00:00:00.000 hey everyone we are back i know you guys missed me it's been a long time so we have a lot of

00:00:16.240 news to cover today but before we get started i just wanted to share that yes i had a successful

00:00:21.280 delivery in early september and my husband and i are so thankful to welcome our little baby boy

00:00:26.960 so i know you guys would be curious about that maybe i'll share some more news in later weeks but

00:00:31.040 for now we are going to move to some alberta coverage now rather ironically my first episode

00:00:36.560 back in about four months yes i'm not in my studio i'm not in alberta i'm actually in toronto i had to

00:00:42.320 fly in for some very important work and so today i will be joined by my colleague andrew lawton i'm

00:00:48.640 in toronto we were uh very busy at the arcade yesterday playing some games i'm a little

00:00:54.000 embarrassed to admit that andrew actually crushed me in dance dance revolution i did that came out

00:00:58.400 of nowhere but i did crush you in some other games like i think connect four yeah which is more of a

00:01:03.920 strategy game so i don't know what that says about you that i'm a better dancer but i have no strategic

00:01:08.080 mind that is not something anyone watching would have expected no i think maybe the opposite is what

00:01:12.320 they would have expected actually but it was good welcome back yes thank you very much it was a proud

00:01:16.560 moment for me winning that game because i think you went into it with strategy and i was just hoping not

00:01:20.560 to lose yeah i also think that you like have confused people by saying you flew to ontario to

00:01:24.960 go to an arcade with me well that's pretty much what happened fair enough yeah we're here for the

00:01:29.040 christmas retreat so it's been a good time seeing all our colleagues again so there's been a lot going

00:01:33.840 on in alberta since i last took off andrew's been covering some of that so we're going to dig into it

00:01:38.960 and you guys will be happy to know there's actually been some really positive news stories we

00:01:42.320 actually have a lot of good strong news stories for you today i think you guys are going to be excited

00:01:46.000 with what we have starting off alberta premier danielle smith announced that she is finally

00:01:51.120 dismantling alberta health services of course we know that she was so critical of the covet 19

00:01:56.160 pandemics so they're going to be broken down into four different bodies ahs is going to be broken down

00:01:59.920 into acute care primary care continuing care and mental health and addiction now smith said the current

00:02:06.400 system that's been in place for about 14 years since former premier eds delamac put that in place when

00:02:11.360 under his progressive conservative government forgot the patient and the experts andrew i'm

00:02:16.960 wondering do you think this could result in the kind of changes that would ensure that a body like

00:02:21.840 ahs couldn't just impose these radical restrictions like the ones seen during the covet 19 pandemic

00:02:27.680 yes and no i mean i think that like anything else you still have to look at who's in charge of these

00:02:32.160 things and you know where the restrictions would be coming from i i think that what it might do and

00:02:37.440 certainly what danielle smith has said she hopes it's going to do is make the body more efficient

00:02:41.520 so it's not really a stopgap against restrictions i think that's going to come from some of the

00:02:46.000 reforms that she's put in place on where authority comes from in in public health settings but as far

00:02:53.360 as ahs i think that you have a very bloated and bureaucratic institution and you know quite frankly i

00:02:59.520 think she's blown it up in in a significant way here i think there's obviously a risk that each of

00:03:04.160 these pillars could go that same road and become its own bureaucracy but i think a lot of that will

00:03:08.080 come down to the management of it and i know that health care has been a huge priority for her

00:03:13.280 not just in government but even when she was really advocating in media and civil society so

00:03:18.080 i'm hoping this is going to be something that if it works could serve as a bit of a road map to

00:03:22.560 other provinces yeah and i think that's something that was said the government said when they

00:03:26.880 announced this they were asked you know are there any other provinces that are doing this right

00:03:29.920 now and they said no we're leading the way we're being new and innovative so absolutely that could

00:03:33.840 be the case now we know the opposition ndp has been very critical of this move they said that

00:03:38.560 this is just going to lead to more privatization of health care of course the age old tale now do

00:03:43.840 you think that's the case and if there was more privatization would that even be a bad thing

00:03:47.360 considering the bloating in the systems and also just the extreme wait times that we're seeing you

00:03:51.600 know we're having a lot of people just going to the emergency room because they can't get the family

00:03:54.800 doctor wait times up to 11 hours at point this is just really unacceptable for canadians and for the

00:04:00.320 costs that they pay for the system that's not getting results for them i mean when people say

00:04:04.800 the p word private a lot of the times they don't really know what they're talking about because we

00:04:10.560 have in the healthcare system in alberta and elsewhere a lot of private delivery but you're

00:04:15.280 still not paying for it it's still not a fee-based service it's just that the government has found a

00:04:19.600 private vendor that's able to provide this service and i think in a lot of cases that works quite well

00:04:24.720 we know that a lot of these organizations are able to specialize they do very well and but you get

00:04:30.000 these activists and a lot of them in the ndp in the unions that are just terrified of anything private

00:04:35.280 and they use that as this big you know ominous dark cloud over any policy discussion now i mean look

00:04:41.440 danielle smith one of her initial ideas during the leadership for the ucp was that she wanted to expand

00:04:47.200 universal health care she wanted to add a health spending account so people had more opportunities to

00:04:52.400 using public dollars get health care services that even now aren't covered so the idea that

00:04:58.320 she's trying to make it where we're going to have this free-for-all health care system where people

00:05:03.040 will have to pay and they're going to go broke that's sort of the fear-mongering from the ndp

00:05:07.280 but it's just not aligned with any policy that's been proposed or enacted by this government

00:05:12.960 another big story that we saw in recent months was the supreme court ruled that bill c69 was largely

00:05:18.640 unconstitutional you know conservatives around the country really celebrated at this we know that

00:05:23.360 former premier jason kenney called this the no more pipelines bill danielle smith was even a little

00:05:27.760 bit stronger she said this is the no more major project ever again in alberta i remember seeing

00:05:33.040 her during the ucp leadership race and she was talking to a crowd just outside of edmonton and she

00:05:37.360 said you know we have to get permission from the federal government to build highway over a certain

00:05:41.520 amount of kilometers so this bill was really restrictive everyone was very celebrated when we got this

00:05:45.520 ruling from the supreme court and then environment minister stephen gilbeau came out and said well

00:05:50.320 you know the supreme court ruling that was really an opinion have we ever heard something

00:05:54.720 like this from the federal government where they took a ruling from the supreme court and said this

00:05:57.840 is just an opinion well only when they lose because when they win it's well this is authoritative

00:06:02.640 and like we knew the supreme court called it yeah when they lose it's like they've just basically

00:06:07.600 had some think tank report come in it's well yeah we'll take a look at it and we'll you know read and

00:06:12.000 maybe section one has something good and you know maybe section five has something good but they've

00:06:17.360 really decided they're going to plow ahead with this and remember it was similar on the plastics

00:06:22.000 ban when the federal court just uh what was it last week or two weeks ago came out and said that the

00:06:26.800 government's plastics ban was unconstitutional uh the federal government still was very defiant on

00:06:31.760 this and said well no we're going to appeal and we're going to make it work and canadians want this so

00:06:36.160 it's really i think a bullheaded and pig-headed way of intruding into jurisdiction that doesn't

00:06:41.040 belong to the federal government and i think politically it helps alberta a great deal

00:06:45.440 because they can look at stephen gilbo and say see this is what we're up against so that's one of

00:06:50.960 the positives from gilbo's response i guess you know the provinces can point out the contradiction

00:06:56.080 of the federal government and really just their unreasonableness but at the same time what recourse

00:07:00.240 through provinces then have if the federal government isn't even willing to take the supreme court seriously

00:07:04.880 well i look i think that you're going to see more of these standoffs i mean saskatchewan has

00:07:11.600 started advancing on this like we're just not going to you know collect the taxes and you know

00:07:15.680 that's something that you know you get the andrew coins of the world that get very pearl clutchy about

00:07:20.160 and is it legal or not i don't know but it's certainly not constructive to have that relationship

00:07:24.880 between provinces and the federal government and i think that that's going to be ultimately what we see

00:07:29.920 more of here which is provinces doing things that are kind of walking right up to the line or maybe

00:07:35.600 even going over the line because they want to respond in kind and look if a province is looking

00:07:40.400 at the federal government and say well if you're not going to respect your constitutional obligations

00:07:44.240 why should we and that's not what canada is supposed to be about but i do think it's the inevitable

00:07:49.600 byproduct of that tension between the levels of government and i don't blame provinces for doing that

00:07:54.480 because if the federal government wants to just treat the constitution as a list of suggestions

00:07:59.120 why shouldn't they another big story you mentioned it was the plastic span i was so excited when i

00:08:04.880 saw that this was being overturned i'm so sick and tired of these gross paper straws that get all soggy

00:08:10.640 i just don't even use them anymore and also the reusable bags i can never remember to bring mine to

00:08:15.200 the grocery store my pantry is full like our house is going to be filled with these reusable bags that

00:08:18.960 we never actually use so so this was a very good thing do you think we're going to see plastic bags

00:08:22.960 and plastic store straws back in stores and restaurants soon plastic straws maybe because i they're very

00:08:28.560 popular and they're actually disabled i mean people with disabilities had an exemption from the

00:08:33.600 plastic straw ban which kind of made it ridiculous uh just because it was inconsistent plastic bags

00:08:38.800 i don't think are coming back i think a lot of the big grocery chains of which they're only like

00:08:42.640 what four or five in canada have already taken this dependency they're making money off of these

00:08:47.920 reusable bags that we all forget they get to claim oh well we're being environmental on our own

00:08:52.960 without the regulations so the government kind of gets the best of both worlds here because they've made the

00:08:57.040 change even without having the law on the books still so another story i don't know if you caught

00:09:02.800 this this might be a surprise when this didn't get a lot of media attention but rajansani she is the

00:09:07.680 advanced education minister she came out and said that the ucp membership needs re-education now she said

00:09:14.880 this after the annual general meeting in which the membership passed some policies that basically said

00:09:20.000 we want diversity equity and inclusion out of universities now of course policies pass at the agm they're

00:09:25.120 non-binding the government can decide whether or not they want to proceed with those rajansani said

00:09:29.680 you know the base needs to be educated and she basically said uh we're going to take a look at

00:09:34.960 these i'm going to do what's best for the province at the end of the day actually her exact quote here

00:09:38.000 i just thought it was funny says i think it's always important to have conversations and have the

00:09:42.560 opportunities to educate on exactly what some of these initiatives are as they relate to dei so a whole

00:09:48.800 bunch of words out there that doesn't really mean anything but i thought this was offensive i think we've

00:09:53.280 moved past a time when we can have politicians preaching at us and telling us as conservatives

00:09:57.840 what we need to believe i think that conservative membership is really tired of being told that

00:10:02.560 they're offensive and they need to be re-educated and what makes this worse is that rajansani wasn't

00:10:06.720 even she didn't even win a nomination she was appointed in the riding she currently represents i

00:10:10.720 don't know that she has a lot of support i think she was given that appointment because she has

00:10:15.200 favoritism with the premier and i think she might have just burned that favoritism what's your take on this

00:10:19.360 it's weird i mean i hadn't heard the quote and like as you described it it's very ambiguous is

00:10:25.440 she saying people need to be educated about why these programs are good or educated about why they're

00:10:29.760 bad or is she saying something just because she knows people will read into it either way i i don't

00:10:34.240 think anyone lecturing the base is going to go over well i think that you as a politician are there to

00:10:41.280 serve and anytime you get into that mindset of uh the people know wrong or the people are wrong and i know

00:10:47.040 better even if you think you do know better it's not the way you lead so i i think on this we're

00:10:53.360 seeing a turn across the province against this sort of program i mean those motions were passed

00:11:00.000 very decisively these were not just like on the edge and if she's turning around and saying to those

00:11:06.000 people you're wrong well you're in the wrong party then because clearly you and the base are at

00:11:10.960 a lockstep on a pretty key issue well not just that the idea that we're going to ignore the membership

00:11:15.840 and i'm going to do what's best for the province what's the point of being there to govern what's

00:11:19.600 the point of putting conservative politicians in if they're not going to govern as conservative

00:11:23.520 once they're actively elected i'm tired of that we've seen it time and time again well and what's

00:11:27.360 the point of having a member-driven policy process yeah exactly i think things are changing i think

00:11:31.520 she's going to realize this was a really unpopular move pretty soon okay the last thing i want to touch

00:11:35.440 on is the alberta pension plan the alberta government has finally announced they want to pull out their

00:11:40.080 assets they're claiming they have well over 300 billion of the assets so that's over half of the total

00:11:45.280 pension assets now the federal government doesn't agree they say that's not a correct number they've

00:11:49.840 been asked to provide their number but they won't so eventually this is going to go to a referendum

00:11:55.200 hopefully but before that can happen people need to know what the number is that they're actually

00:11:59.040 going to be deciding on so where do you see this going well i mean just picturing pierre paulievre

00:12:05.200 like at that leadership debate to jean chariot just the number just the number just the number like

00:12:09.840 you're right the number you need to have as the starting point because that's going to color this and

00:12:14.160 i think that for a lot of albertans this is going to be a decision they make based on sovereignty and

00:12:20.240 independence you know we just want as many things as we possibly can to be in our wheelhouse and to

00:12:26.080 get the federal government out on the pension plan i think the decision should be made based on

00:12:30.720 economics i don't actually think it should be made on sovereignty i think that sovereignty empowers

00:12:35.680 that decision but you should look at what is economically in your best interest and with that

00:12:40.480 the number is incredibly important because if you know you have half the pension assets

00:12:46.000 that are being distributed to the entire country well you're better off on your own if that number

00:12:51.600 isn't accurate let's say the share the alberta share is 10 or 20 whatever the number is that changes

00:12:58.160 the calculation for a lot of voters dramatically so my presumption would be that you can't have an

00:13:03.600 informed vote in a referendum based just on the alberta number when that number is in dispute so

00:13:08.720 i don't know if there's anything they can do to compel the federal government to do an assessment

00:13:12.800 but that needs to happen i wonder if it will result in litigation eventually to compel the federal

00:13:18.000 government to produce that number decide on something and then to have the referendum if i

00:13:22.560 if i can just imagine if you went to the bank and the bank wouldn't tell you how much money you had

00:13:26.480 in your account i mean it wouldn't go over well yeah like that that and that's kind of what we're at

00:13:30.720 now it's i this is alberta they have a right to leave no one disputes they have a right to leave

00:13:35.360 which means they have a right to know how much is theirs in that well it seems like this policy

00:13:40.160 proposal isn't super popular in the province at the time based on recent polling but like i said

00:13:44.000 i think it'll be quite some time before that referendum is held so the provincial government

00:13:47.760 has a lot of time to sway voters all right everyone i hope you enjoy that little alberta

00:13:52.000 rounder from the last couple months next week we'll be back to our regular programming thank you

00:13:56.000 so much for joining me today andrew thank you okay see you guys next week

00:14:05.360 you

Juno News - November 25, 2023

The Alberta Roundup is back!

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