Juno News - December 31, 2022


The Top Stories in Alberta of 2022


Episode Stats

Length

8 minutes

Words per Minute

178.60794

Word Count

1,514

Sentence Count

9

Misogynist Sentences

3


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 hey everyone welcome back to the alberta roundup i'm your host rachel emanuel thank you for joining
00:00:15.480 me for so many episodes this year for our final episode of the year we're going to hold true to
00:00:20.440 our name and do a roundup of the best political stories in alberta of 2022 starting at the bottom
00:00:26.620 with number 10 alberta is back in the black you all right remember that the province's mid-year
00:00:32.220 november fiscal update revealed that alberta is forecasting a 12.3 billion dollar surplus for
00:00:38.260 2022 to 2023 high oil and gas prices contributed to a total revenue of 76.9 billion now to be fair
00:00:45.520 the 2021 to 22 fiscal year forecast a surplus of 511 million dollars and it ended the year with a
00:00:52.840 3.9 billion dollar surplus but we didn't know that until february so it's been a positive year
00:00:58.220 for alberta's books number nine on the list alberta ends all remaining covet 19 restrictions after over
00:01:04.420 two years of restrictions like lockdowns quarantines mask mandates and vaccine coercion dina hinsha
00:01:10.040 announced that people who tested positive for covet 19 would not be mandated to quarantine anymore
00:01:15.200 as of august 19. the province also said that albertans with covet symptoms will not be asked
00:01:20.100 to get tested but to stay home until they feel better at the time premier jason kenney said it's
00:01:25.060 time to think differently about covet 19 quote we have to get used to the fact that cases no longer
00:01:30.580 equal high levels of hospitalizations or fatalities our focus is on vaccines instead of restrictions
00:01:36.480 as the most scientific response then again for those of you who are still keen to remember those
00:01:41.240 covet christmases lots of my followers i'm sure you need look no further than our federal government
00:01:45.960 for some covid paranoia number seven on the list i know you guys want to forget about this story but
00:01:51.400 i'm not going to let you just yet in late july albertans were shocked to learn that the province's
00:01:56.120 then chief medical health officer dr dina hinshaw received an almost 228 000 covid bonus
00:02:03.560 that's in addition to her almost 365 000 dollar salary that's well over half a million dollars marking the
00:02:11.480 largest cash benefit payout of any provincial civil servant at the time the story broke ministry of
00:02:16.600 health spokesperson mark fedelbush said the bonus is a response to the extraordinary additional work
00:02:22.200 from hinshot during the pandemic the bonus covers her overtime hours though the department did not
00:02:27.000 reveal how much overtime she worked at the time then leadership candidate danielle smith said albertans were
00:02:32.600 rightly outraged and stunned by news of the covet bonus she said quote as premier not only will we not
00:02:38.680 lock down again or impose vaccine mandates we will have a full review into the handling of the pandemic
00:02:44.760 including the role our chief medical officer of health played in it and as you guys know by now
00:02:48.920 smith made good on that promise and hinshaw was fired as alberta's chief medical health officer in
00:02:53.080 mid-november number six on the list the alberta sovereignty act becomes law we have talked so much
00:02:58.520 about this piece of legislation this year smith's sovereignty act legislation or the alberta sovereignty
00:03:04.200 within a united canada act passed in mid-december just 10 days after being tabled this was a huge
00:03:09.720 deal for the new premier who proclaimed throughout the united conservative party leadership race
00:03:14.120 that sovereignty act legislation would be her first bill as premier the government says bill one would
00:03:19.080 allow the province to stand up to federal government overreach and interference in areas
00:03:23.160 of provincial jurisdiction including private property natural resources agriculture firearms regulation
00:03:29.960 of the economy and delivery of health education and other social programs number five on the list
00:03:35.880 i'm just gonna say it this is my favorite news story of the year in december the alberta government
00:03:40.680 recommended prosecutors don't pursue charges against firearms owners whose guns were deemed illegal
00:03:46.360 under the trudeau government's 2020 order and council a release from the government reads while
00:03:51.000 respecting operational independence on individual cases the new protocol issued by the attorney general
00:03:56.680 provides prosecutors with guidance on how to evaluate the public interest when determining whether or
00:04:01.960 not to pursue charges justice minister tyler shandro says albertans should not automatically be considered
00:04:07.800 criminals because they own a firearm that was legally purchased and possessed all right guys number four
00:04:12.920 on the list you guys were very eager to hear all the updates on this all year long do you remember
00:04:17.480 when a sitting mla faced criminal charges court documents show that mounties were initially considering
00:04:23.240 criminal charges against an alberta legislature member who admitted to hacking a government health
00:04:27.720 website former ndp mla thomas dang was charged in june under the province's health information act
00:04:33.000 for illegally attempting to access private information contained in the alberta health vaccine portal as
00:04:38.200 i've previously reported dang has been sitting as an independent mla since the rcmp began investigating his
00:04:44.200 activities and for hacking the province's coven 19 vaccine records dan was ordered to pay a seven
00:04:49.640 thousand two hundred dollar fine earlier this month dang has said he does not plan to seek re-election
00:04:54.360 in the spring 2023 vote okay guys number three on the list the alberta government ordered the rcmp to
00:05:00.360 ignore federal confiscation orders earlier this year on september 23 the alberta government announced
00:05:05.960 it will take action to prevent ottawa from conscripting alberta rcmp officers to collect firearms you guys
00:05:12.280 know the details of this by now in may 2020 prime minister justin trudeau announced he was banning
00:05:18.200 more than 1500 models of firearms including ar-15s chandra said federal public safety minister
00:05:23.960 marco medicino then asked the provinces to help confiscate 30 000 newly restricted firearms beginning
00:05:30.360 in the fall but chandra said those firearms were purchased legally and the province will not aid the
00:05:35.880 federal government in confiscating them he said quote alberta taxpayers pay over 750 million dollars
00:05:42.120 per year for the rcmp and we will not tolerate taking officers off the streets in order to confiscate
00:05:47.880 the property of law-abiding firearms owners okay guys number two on the list this was a shock to me
00:05:53.560 jason kenny announced he was resigning as premier on may 18th the united conservative party had an event
00:05:59.320 in south calgary to hear the results of kenny's leadership review you guys might remember kenny did
00:06:03.880 survive that review but just barely with 51.4 of the vote i was there and the crowd erupted with cheers
00:06:10.360 when it was announced that kenny had passed but those cheers immediately turned to gas when kenny said he
00:06:15.320 would step down once a new leader is chosen until that point kenny had said he would stay on as
00:06:20.520 leader if he reached over 50 percent of voter support but no political leader in canada has
00:06:25.320 stayed on with so little support from within their own party in late november kenny stepped down as a
00:06:30.840 member of the legislative assembly for calgary law heed he said quote thank you to my constituents for
00:06:35.880 the honor of representing them in parliament and the legislature over the past 25 years of course
00:06:40.920 guys with kenny resigning that made room for someone new despite the sitting premier's criticism of her
00:06:46.120 during the leadership race danielle smith pulled off a victory and won the leadership contest on the
00:06:51.160 sixth and final ballot with 53.8 of the vote okay guys and number one on the list is of course the
00:06:57.640 coots border blockade on january 29 the freedom convoy rolled into ottawa and a group of truckers blockaded
00:07:04.360 the sweetgrass coots border crossing that's one of the busiest ports of entry west of the great lakes
00:07:09.400 the united states department of agriculture's food safety and inspection service is located
00:07:13.560 at this crossing making it a principal point of entry for alberta's large meat industry protesters
00:07:18.840 demanded an end to all coven 19 restrictions on february 12 due to ongoing protests the canada
00:07:24.920 border services agency suspended all travel at the coots border crossing just two days later the rcmp
00:07:30.920 stepped in and arrested 13 people seizing long guns handguns body armor a large amount of ammunition
00:07:37.400 and high capacity magazines four men were subsequently charged with conspiracy to murder rcmp officers
00:07:43.880 fort mcleod town counselor and organizer marco van huyen boss later testified at the emergencies act
00:07:49.400 inquiry saying it was time to go because there was nothing left to stay for after those guns were found
00:07:54.680 he said quote to me it became very clear that every objective we were looking to achieve was no longer
00:08:00.520 possible and that our message had been lost the border crossing was reopened on february 15th
00:08:05.720 okay guys so that's alberta politics 2022 wrapped thank you so much for supporting me and watching
00:08:10.680 my show and reading our work over at true north if you'd like to support independent media you can
00:08:14.600 visit donate.tnc.news thank you so much and see you guys next year