Juno News - Western Canada's immigration woes

00:00:00.000 Alberta NBC had strong words for the federal government this week after it once again favoured

00:00:05.340 a seat-heavy eastern province to the tone of three quarters of a billion dollars. The federal

00:00:10.740 government announced this week that it would be giving Quebec 750 million dollars to deal with

00:00:15.500 immigration pressures. Pressures which western provinces say they're feeling too but won't

00:00:20.800 receive a dollar for. Those pressures are also being felt by you and I or anyone who's paid

00:00:26.040 attention to the cost of living for the last four years. Not to mention the wait times for a doctor

00:00:30.780 or hospitals. Now I could give some platitudes about the different responsibilities for different levels

00:00:35.460 of government which is how Ottawa responded to this latest criticism but instead why don't we just

00:00:40.460 address the elephant in the room? We don't have the infrastructure to support the number of people

00:00:45.360 being let into Canada and it's happening at the expense of Canadians. Hard-working ones who've

00:00:50.960 lived and paid taxes here for years. But it's young people. People who can't afford the house 1.00

00:00:56.600 they grew up in or anything remotely like it who are paying the highest cost. I'm Rachel Emanuel

00:01:02.040 and this is the Alberta Roundup.

00:01:05.700 Okay everyone, taking a look at our first story here, western premiers are frustrated after Ottawa

00:01:19.960 handed Quebec 750 million dollars to deal with the pressures of immigration coming up empty-handed

00:01:26.320 for western Canada. BC Premier David Eby and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith took aim at the federal government

00:01:32.180 at the western premiers conference in the Yukon this week. Their comments came just hours after Ottawa

00:01:37.700 inked a deal with Quebec to help pay for a surge in temporary immigrants to the province. We'll go now to

00:01:42.980 Premier Eby speaking about the western premiers frustrations with Ottawa at the press conference on Monday.

00:01:48.360 So to see a single province agreement with Quebec is an underlining of a sense of frustration that I

00:01:56.140 heard around the table and I won't put this on anyone else but I'll say for British Columbia

00:02:00.380 how frustrated we are to see the money being showered down on Quebec and Ontario and us

00:02:08.100 grappling around for what's left over. It's not acceptable. It is not okay. And part of the pressure

00:02:15.620 that these young people are seeing is a lot of federal resource time and energy money tax credits

00:02:22.660 effort going to those two provinces at the expense in my opinion of the west.

00:02:27.860 Eby also said that 10,000 newcomers arrive in BC every 37 days. He said that his province and

00:02:33.920 especially young people looking to purchase homes are feeling the pressure. Meanwhile he said the

00:02:39.500 province is housing refugees and homeless shelters. Premier Smith also chimed in saying that 20%

00:02:44.580 of newcomers to Canada are choosing Alberta and that her province also has not seen support from the

00:02:49.080 federal government. Take a listen. That being said we also are host to 70,000 of the newcomers from

00:02:56.720 Ukraine, the Ukrainian evacuees and we have not seen the same kind of support for those new arrivals in

00:03:04.180 the same way that Premier Eby has talked about. Federal Immigration Minister Mark Miller was quick to

00:03:09.500 counter the Premier's comments saying that Premier Eby is confused about the facts and that if western

00:03:15.200 provinces want more federal dollars they should take in more asylum seekers. Take a listen.

00:03:20.040 I think first and foremost the disproportionate flow of asylum seekers has in fact occurred in

00:03:27.200 Quebec and Ontario. If you look by population BC has had fewer. It doesn't mean that they are not

00:03:35.640 entitled to assistance from the federal government when they see their numbers go up. I think perhaps

00:03:40.300 there was some confusion on the Premier's behalf as to what this money was for. The suggestion was it

00:03:45.960 was for a temporary residence. That is absolutely not the case. It's to compensate Quebec for two fiscal

00:03:50.300 years of costs they've incurred with respect to the disproportionate flow of asylum seekers. So

00:03:55.280 you know we need provinces like British Columbia to step up when it comes to actually apportioning

00:04:01.480 asylum seekers. It doesn't come without financial support from the federal government. So there you

00:04:05.400 hear Mark Miller saying that the Premiers are confused about the facts and that the money is

00:04:08.520 actually for asylum seekers not temporary residents. But Miller's comments are ironic at best and

00:04:14.900 disingenuous at worst because here's Quebec Premier Francois Legault himself speaking about the deal

00:04:20.320 when it was announced. Legault said quote what is urgent is to substantially and quickly reduce the

00:04:25.880 number of temporary immigrants in Quebec. At least the federal government is telling us they recognize 1.00

00:04:30.420 there's a problem. They even recognize that they have to act quickly in the short term in a

00:04:34.900 significant way but they refuse to give numbers. So there you hear at the Quebec Premier who is

00:04:40.020 getting the 750 million dollars himself says it is for temporary immigration. So it looks like the

00:04:45.360 Western Premiers are not confused after all. Premier Smith had more to say later on in a tweet on X

00:04:50.200 writing quote if they want us to be able to make sure that newcomers are being matched the jobs that are

00:04:54.900 available in our economies then they've got to give us more latitude to do that. We certainly want to keep

00:05:00.060 the doors open in Alberta. We want to make sure that we are properly supporting the people coming to

00:05:04.580 our province. I just want to take a moment to address this because I did open my show by criticizing

00:05:09.080 immigration. Our numbers are far too high. They are not sustainable. We are all paying the price for 1.00

00:05:13.900 that as I mentioned in my monologue. That said here we see you know the provinces of BC and Alberta saying

00:05:18.420 they would like more federal dollars to help with the pressures that they are seeing because of all the

00:05:23.980 newcomers coming to their provinces. I think it would actually be far more effective if they just said to

00:05:29.120 Ottawa it's time to turn off the taps on immigration. There's too many people coming here. We don't have 1.00

00:05:33.300 the infrastructure for them but we're not seeing that. I don't believe that is the Premier's

00:05:37.440 ideological response or belief on this issue. I know that Danielle Smith has been talking about

00:05:41.860 wanting all these people to come here. Obviously we still have the Elberg is Calling campaign.

00:05:45.800 She even said that they would like to see a million people moving to Red Deer. I don't think people

00:05:49.620 of Red Deer want a million people to live there. I think people in Red Deer kind of like living there

00:05:53.100 because it's you know a smaller city. It's not as busy as places like Edmonton and Calgary. I have to say

00:05:58.340 that Premier Smith's response to immigration whether that's newcomers to Canada or the Alberta

00:06:02.580 is Calling campaign which attracts people from other provinces. Probably one of my biggest

00:06:07.220 criticisms of her. I think it's time to turn off the taps of all sorts of immigration and provincial 1.00

00:06:12.020 and newcomers to Canada. We do not have the infrastructure to support these people and 1.00

00:06:17.260 everyone's quality of life is actually declining because we're seeing so many new people coming here 1.00

00:06:23.040 that we aren't ready for. I think let's just turn off the taps of immigration for the next three to five 1.00

00:06:27.840 years get caught up so then we can re-evaluate what we want Canada to look like and if we still want to

00:06:32.680 continue bringing over millions of newcomers. But right now I think Premier Smith's response

00:06:36.940 to immigration isn't strong enough. Premier Eby, he's a left-wing Premier. I don't expect him to take

00:06:41.200 a strong stance on immigration but I think the Conservative Premier of Alberta could and should be

00:06:45.420 doing a better job on this issue. Taking a look at our next story here, the cost of the carbon tax

00:06:50.160 has been $20 billion to the Canadian economy according to modeling data released by the Government of Canada

00:06:56.020 this week. According to the Globe and Mail, the country's GDP is expected to be about $25 billion

00:07:01.280 lower in 2030 due to carbon pricing than it would otherwise be. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation

00:07:07.300 Federal Director Franco Terrazzano said in a statement, quote, once again we see the government's

00:07:11.980 own data showing what hard-working Canadians already know. The carbon tax costs Canadians big time. The

00:07:17.860 carbon tax makes the necessities of life more expensive and it will cost our economy billions of

00:07:22.540 dollars. Alberta Premier Daniel Smith also had strong words for the federal government saying, quote,

00:07:26.840 it's time to stop punishing Canadians and scrap the carbon tax. Moving into our next story here,

00:07:31.640 I just wanted to take a quick look at this one. Alberta's Minister of Seniors, Community and Social

00:07:36.080 Services, Jason Nixon, says that Alberta is setting new records and continues to lead the country

00:07:41.580 in fastest permit approval times and fewest roadblocks to building homes. Nixon said that permits for single

00:07:47.740 detached homes are up 36%. In a statement to X, he wrote, quote, we will keep building momentum and go

00:07:54.020 from permits issued to shovels in the ground to new homes ready for Albertans. Okay, I talk about the

00:07:59.720 cost of living crisis all the time. I talk about the cost of renting and purchasing a home a lot as

00:08:06.120 well, but I need to play the devil's advocate on this issue. We are rushing to get all these homes

00:08:11.080 built to deal with all the people moving to Alberta from other provinces and outside of Canada,

00:08:15.760 but how many people have actually stopped to take the time to consider how well these homes are

00:08:20.880 actually being built? I was living in a new built. It wasn't even a year old and there was water damage

00:08:27.000 coming in through my ceiling. Now, I was renting because I was renting. Of course, the issue never

00:08:31.080 got fixed because my landlords just couldn't be bothered to get around to it. Not a huge issue.

00:08:36.300 It didn't greatly impact my quality of life. I was not there for very long, but you do have to kind

00:08:43.260 of scratch around and wonder where Russia can get all these houses built. Construction companies

00:08:47.040 working to get homes built have such an incentive to get as many homes built in a small period of

00:08:51.580 time because they are making so much money right now. It's just something that's been on my mind.

00:08:55.500 I don't think all the homes that are being built are good quality. I doubt that all of them will

00:08:59.120 stand the test of time. I don't think this is Minister Nixon's fault. I think the Alberta

00:09:01.980 government is doing what they can with the cards that they've been dealt. But again, I think it just

00:09:06.300 speaks to the need to really slow down the numbers that we're seeing with immigration,

00:09:09.940 the volume of people coming here. All right, everyone, moving into the controversy of the

00:09:13.220 week. An Alberta NDP and notly Eric cabinet minister has announced her intention to resign

00:09:18.880 next month, appointing figures at what she calls bonkers conservatives. Lethbridge West

00:09:24.260 MLA Shannon Phillips told the Globe and Mail she will step down on Canada Day. Phillips said she's

00:09:28.940 been worn down by her opponents and claimed that the quote crazy unquote right will make it

00:09:34.060 increasingly difficult to find people willing to serve in office. She said, quote, Jesus Christ

00:09:39.540 himself couldn't have kept me. She continued, quote, these conditions are not improving.

00:09:44.560 The right is only getting more crazy and more bonkers and disinformation is just getting worse.

00:09:49.920 And that is going to have an effect on people's desire to do this work.

00:09:53.880 Phillips was elected in 2015 and served as the Minister of Environment and Parks in 2019.

00:09:58.940 In that role, she was responsible for accelerating Alberta's phase out of coal fired power plants.

00:10:04.560 While she was a minister, two members of the Lethbridge Police Service,

00:10:07.480 who opposed her politics, surveilled her. Those officers were found guilty of violating the

00:10:12.340 police act. But Phillips was informed in May that the Provincial Prosecution Service declined to

00:10:17.080 pursue criminal charges. Her resignation opens a seat for former Calgary Mayor Nahed Nenshi,

00:10:22.080 should he win the NDP's leadership contest as expected on June 22nd.

00:10:26.180 Finally, moving into what we're watching in the weeks to come. Let's take a look at the water

00:10:30.940 crisis still unfolding in Calgary. I feel so sorry for those of you who are living there right now.

00:10:35.360 Just to actually put in the comments below, I'm curious what it has been like to you. Have you felt

00:10:38.980 very restricted by the water limitations or has it not impacted your day-to-day life too much?

00:10:44.920 Before we dive into that story, there's something that's come out of us that I think a lot of people

00:10:48.760 sort of expected. Calgary is now considering permanent watering restrictions for the city's

00:10:53.920 residents. Never let a good crisis go to waste. Let's dive into the details here. Calgary City Council

00:10:59.220 is set to discuss amendments to the wastewater, stormwater, and water utility bylaws next week.

00:11:04.560 The proposed amendments include a watering schedule, allowing Calgarians to use sprinklers for just

00:11:10.280 three hours a day, two days a week, between 8pm and 8am. Currently, Calgary's water restrictions

00:11:17.940 start at voluntary water conservation before escalating to stage 1-4 restriction levels.

00:11:23.940 Stages are determined by risk of drought conditions. Stages 1-2 are normally implemented when it is very dry,

00:11:30.000 and stages 3-4 are implemented when it is extremely dry. Signs for violations during stage 1 begin at

00:11:36.720 $400, rising to $600 at stage 2, $1,500 in stage 3, and finally up to $3,000 for stage 4 violations.

00:11:45.720 That's watering when it is extremely dry. If the changes are implemented, the voluntary water

00:11:51.220 conservation phase will be replaced with the outdoor watering schedule, which will be permanently in

00:11:56.720 effect. Just taking a look at what's proposed here, you'll be allowed to use sprinklers three days

00:12:01.640 a week between 8pm and 10am. So overnight. So you can't put a sprinkler on for your kids to run around

00:12:08.920 and play in, which is like what childhood is. Again, you guys, I went on a long rant to put this on my

00:12:14.360 show, midweek show, which exclusively covered the water crisis, which basically the sum of it was I

00:12:19.500 don't want to live in Calgary anymore. Go back and listen to the full thing if you want me to break

00:12:22.860 down what's going on in the water crisis, but also to explain how things are probably worse than they

00:12:27.080 initially look, because what the mayor has revealed during her updated briefings is that the

00:12:32.700 infrastructure in the city of Calgary, the infrastructure that gets us water from one place

00:12:37.420 to another, from treatment facilities to reservoirs and finally into your home, is basically falling

00:12:41.740 apart. I'm actually going to play a small clip for you guys now to see some of the sum of what I was

00:12:45.680 saying was about. Take a listen. So just to sum up, there's been a break in a major water feed

00:12:50.120 that officials still don't know when is going to be fixed. While that was happening in the city of

00:12:54.580 Bowness, there was also another break in a water main in the city of Bowness, a smaller one unrelated

00:12:59.980 to the first incident, as if that's supposed to reassure us somehow that things are running very

00:13:04.860 smoothly over at the city of Calgary. Then an access point to the major water feed also needed to be

00:13:10.820 fixed so that officials could get down and fix this issue in the first place. And while all of this is

00:13:15.840 going on, the mayor of Calgary is not able to come out and say that this incident was a one-off.

00:13:21.380 Instead, she tries to reassure us by saying that regular maintenance was being done on this. If

00:13:26.640 regular maintenance was being done on this, how did this incident happen in the first place?

00:13:29.880 You think this is something officials would have been able to catch before it turned into the massive

00:13:34.060 citywide crisis that is happening right now? Just ridiculous. Here's a little update on the water

00:13:38.560 crisis itself. Here's Mayor Gondek speaking about the crisis at one of her updates on Thursday.

00:13:42.640 This is not a decision that was made lightly, but as we shared yesterday at 5 p.m., the investigation

00:13:48.520 of the broken feeder main pipe revealed that there are five more areas that are in need of repairs.

00:13:54.020 Our city operations team has shared these necessary repairs mean that we are looking at another three

00:14:00.500 to five weeks before water is flowing as it normally would in our city. That's three to five more

00:14:06.760 weeks of your best water conservation efforts. Okay, everyone, just because I did my Wednesday show

00:14:12.240 on the water crisis and there were some really great comments in the comment roundup. I'm going to dive

00:14:16.300 into what you are all thinking about the situation in Calgary right now. User at TCZ says, quote,

00:14:24.260 maybe rather than declaring a climate emergency on her first day, she, meaning Gondek, should have 0.94

00:14:29.400 declared an infrastructure emergency and use taxes accordingly rather than on her pet will projects.

00:14:35.820 Seeming right now like that would have been a very good idea. As I explained in my show last week,

00:14:39.420 and I just plan for you guys now, the infrastructure in Calgary is in a precarious state. Clearly,

00:14:44.880 clearly there needs to be investment into that so that Calgarians can expect basic services like water.

00:14:51.480 User Pat's garage shed 200 repairs a year is insane. That's almost one a day or so every time.

00:14:58.400 This is what happens when you spend money on woke garbage instead of infrastructure.

00:15:03.280 Honestly, when I initially recorded that episode, I didn't even really think about how many repairs

00:15:06.980 a year. That way she sort of explained it as 200 a year. You know, that's pretty normal. That does 0.99

00:15:11.000 seem like an insane amount. This person's right. There's 365 days a year. It's not quite a repair

00:15:14.980 a day. That's maybe a little bit hyperbolic, but it's an insane amount of repairs. And because this

00:15:19.440 person's username is Pat's garage, I just think they know what they're talking about. And finally,

00:15:23.980 moving to this comment from the at Bombay company says, quote, saw this on Twitter, can't fix a pipe,

00:15:29.600 but can change the climate. When Tucker Carlson was here for his events in January,

00:15:34.220 the one in Calgary, and then one up in Edmonton. The one thing he said that really stuck with me

00:15:37.980 was how we need to laugh at our idiot leaders. We need to laugh at Justin Trudeau and his policies.

00:15:43.720 And I think what this says is exactly that. It's pointing out the hypocrisy in what they're saying.

00:15:48.780 They're telling us we can be responsible for fixing the climate change, but our government

00:15:51.940 results millions of dollars. We can't even, we can't even fix a pipe. So you know how it goes.

00:15:57.020 One rule for thee, another rule for me, the wealthy and the billionaires, they're going to fly around

00:16:02.140 on their private jets, but you can drink from your soggy paper straw. Okay, everyone, that's all we

00:16:07.320 have time for today. Thanks so much for tuning in. Please subscribe to True North so you don't miss

00:16:11.440 any of my content or that of my colleagues. And give this video a like. If you're able to,

00:16:16.440 please head over to donate.tnc.news to show us some support for our work. And also happy Father's

00:16:22.680 Day to all the dads out there. We appreciate you. Society needs good dads. Don't let anyone tell you

00:16:28.500 otherwise. I hope that you enjoy celebrating with your family and feel very loved on Sunday.

00:16:33.180 Have a great rest of your week. God bless.

Juno News - June 15, 2024

Western Canada's immigration woes

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