Juno News - February 25, 2023


Will Edmonton become Canada's first 15-minute city？


Episode Stats

Length

13 minutes

Words per Minute

191.15285

Word Count

2,538

Sentence Count

5


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 hey everyone welcome back to the alberta roundup and happy saturday i'm your host rachel emanuel
00:00:15.200 for those of you who have been with me from the beginning you're probably going to recognize my
00:00:18.960 og background you guys are going to have to bear with me for a couple weeks as i'm in the process
00:00:24.000 of moving and things are a little up in the air right now currently i'm living in central alberta
00:00:28.160 will i'll be for a few more weeks before i move down to calgary but before i move on i have to
00:00:32.960 give a shout out to all my central alberta fans i've met so many of you over the past couple of
00:00:37.200 weeks in fact something very interesting happened to me this week on thursday i was preparing for
00:00:41.280 the show when i heard a knock on the door it was michelle bear the ndp candidate for red deer south
00:00:46.560 now unfortunately the ndp refused to take media requests from true north they say they don't
00:00:51.760 want any dealings with our credible news organization so michelle my wish for you is
00:00:55.920 that you will take my media requests and those of my colleagues at true north i can assure you that
00:01:00.720 the thousands of voters across red deer south will become more familiar with you and your
00:01:05.920 party's policies if you take my media requests as they faithfully watch the alberta roundup and read
00:01:10.480 my work okay guys now that i'm finished with that very important public service announcement it's time
00:01:15.440 to move on to today's topics today we're going to be taking a look at the alberta recovery conference
00:01:20.400 where the premier and alberta's mental health and addiction minister made some very important
00:01:24.720 announcements we're also going to be taking a look at a sole source contract alberta premier
00:01:29.200 danielle smith's government awarded to someone who worked on her leadership campaign finally we're
00:01:34.480 going to be taking a look at edmonton's 15 minute cities i know you guys will have thoughts
00:01:39.040 and of course we'll end with our weekly comment roundup all that and more happening now on the
00:01:42.880 alberta roundup speaking at the alberta recovery conference on tuesday alberta premier
00:01:47.200 danielle smith said alberta is indisputably canada's leader in a recovery orientated system
00:01:52.160 of care now that's after four years of their efforts to stem the homelessness and addiction
00:01:56.560 crisis that began under former alberta premier jason kenney smith said the devastating effects of
00:02:01.440 addiction and homelessness are evident in alberta and across north america and it's a result of
00:02:06.480 years of neglecting those systems of care the premier said that since being elected in 2019
00:02:12.000 the usb government has sought to ensure that everyone has the right to pursue recovery
00:02:16.720 she said quote there are some of us that tell us that we have unreasonable expectations
00:02:21.760 predicting that recovery is not an achievable or even a realistic goal but what they fail to
00:02:27.680 understand is this when we see recovery as possible we are providing hope and optimism
00:02:33.520 to people who are often living without any hope we're saying that you can recover and there is a
00:02:39.200 better life for you that you deserve and that we will be there for you the premier also revealed some
00:02:44.400 major budget 2023 numbers at the conference take a listen it's clear that now is the time to continue
00:02:50.240 moving forward and to continue investing in our system of care for albertans and to accomplish this
00:02:55.680 i'm pleased to announce here at the alberta recovery conference that next week our government will table
00:03:00.320 a budget which will include record-breaking investments to a comprehensive mental health and
00:03:06.080 addiction care system in 2019 when we came to office the mental health and addiction specific budget was
00:03:12.720 only about 87 million dollars a year next year alone if passed budget 2023 will provide 275 million
00:03:20.880 in funding for the ministry of mental health and addiction speaking at the conference the following
00:03:27.040 day alberta mental health and addiction minister nicholas milken revealed the new members on the
00:03:31.760 government's recovery expert advisory panel those experts will advise the government on its recovery
00:03:36.960 orientated system of care the minister said the province needs to surround itself with the best possible
00:03:41.680 advice here's what that sounded like the alberta model that we're building is anchored in research
00:03:48.480 and the best practices from around the world and we will continue to listen to experts in recovery
00:03:55.040 as we build the recovery oriented systems of care across alberta that is why i am very pleased to announce
00:04:02.000 today that we have brought together a group of world-class experts to serve as the recovery expert
00:04:09.600 advisory panel to the ministry of mental health and addiction the panel is made up of 16 experts
00:04:16.560 from diverse fields who will provide ongoing advice on research and innovation policy and standards
00:04:23.680 development as well as evaluation and outcomes reporting these folks are some of the most accomplished
00:04:30.800 and well-respected leaders researchers and practitioners from the fields of academia addiction
00:04:37.360 medicine indigenous health justice systems and trauma-informed care they are trailblazers and change makers
00:04:45.920 and they will be helping shape the alberta model as we continue building the systems that change people's
00:04:53.920 lives for the long term the panel will be chaired by dr keith humphries professor of psychiatry and behavioral
00:05:02.000 sciences at stanford university some of you may remember his presentation uh from yesterday morning
00:05:07.760 which i listened to very intently and so thank you for uh agreeing to do this and also thank you for
00:05:12.480 presenting being part of this uh wonderful recovery conference dr humph humphries is an internationally
00:05:18.880 renowned expert on addiction and public policy with more than 350 peer-reviewed articles to his name
00:05:26.800 and he recently served as the chair of the stanford lancet commission review of the north american
00:05:33.040 opioid epidemic he also served as the drug policy advisor to u.s presidents both bush and obama okay
00:05:40.480 guys moving into the controversy of the week this story is from cbc news the alberta government awarded
00:05:45.600 a 72 500 contract to a marketing agency owned partly by danielle smith's former campaign manager the
00:05:52.560 contract ran from november 1 2022 to january 31 of this year to nordic media that's owned by
00:05:59.280 matthew all time who was danielle smith's campaign manager during the united conservative party
00:06:03.440 leadership race the contract was provided for digital media planning and strategic development
00:06:08.160 according to cbc news sole source contract which provides services purchased by alberta government
00:06:13.680 departments without going out for bids are permitted under specific circumstances in the case of the nordic
00:06:19.680 media sole source contract the government of alberta said this where an unforeseeable situation
00:06:24.240 of urgency exists and the services or the goods or services in respect of construction could not be
00:06:29.760 entamed by means of open procurement procedures i would be curious to see a little bit more numbers
00:06:34.800 72 000 over three months is a lot of money it is being paid to a company i'm curious what the amount
00:06:40.560 of hours of work were put in as well as how many people were paid under this contract let me know what
00:06:46.160 you guys think in the comments below do you think that this is a questionable contract or do you
00:06:50.560 think it makes sense that the premier would have given this contract to a company with affiliations
00:06:54.720 with her leadership campaign moving into what we're watching we're finally going to talk about
00:06:58.800 edmonton's 15 minute cities edmonton recently announced that it's pursuing a neighborhood development
00:07:03.280 plan aimed at creating a community of communities or small towns in our big city in which residents
00:07:10.160 can access everything they need within a short distance from home according to the national
00:07:14.000 post the plan was inspired by the concept of 15-minute cities which is aimed at having
00:07:18.720 neighborhoods with all amenities within a quarter hour bike or walk that includes groceries schools
00:07:25.520 daycare leisure fitness entertainment and other amenities like shops and restaurants but critics
00:07:30.800 claim that such proposal would bar people from traveling to certain parts of the city and that
00:07:35.120 you'd be forced to spend 90 of your life within your own district while being monitored for carbon
00:07:40.560 emissions of course the city of edmonton's proposal so far includes nothing of the sort so a couple of
00:07:46.480 weeks ago i believe this happened two weeks ago there was a press conference and a city planner sought
00:07:50.880 to answer some of the questions people had about 15-minute cities i don't know if it would mean i asked you
00:07:57.040 i asked you specific i don't know he's lying again i asked you i just told you the answer you
00:08:01.440 know i will be in some places are they not removing parking spaces are they not removing places where cars
00:08:06.640 can drive are they're not making other places where cars only electric cars can drive so ultimately
00:08:11.920 you're saying that there's going to be less space and less infrastructure to support cars so in the
00:08:18.000 places where bikes and less likely no overall no no overall and overall will the average person have
00:08:26.080 less places to drive their car less places to park their car and more incentives not to have a car
00:08:32.320 will there be less places for me to park a car in edmonton under the 15-minute city let's try it very
00:08:36.480 simple okay so let's not simplify them yes or no so if you will there be less parking for my car
00:08:42.240 in my new district under a 15-minute city yes or no yes there will be less places where roadway
00:08:49.440 changes are done in other words accommodate more things in other words the 15-minute city is literally
00:08:54.400 intentioned to try to drive us away from private car ownership and onto other means of travel like
00:09:00.160 electric scooters and walking so we don't have the same mobility that we once had i don't know about you
00:09:05.760 but when i was 16 years old the most important thing in my life was getting my license because
00:09:09.520 a car meant freedom not just to me to everybody else around and now you guys want us to go along
00:09:14.960 with a plan where we know the intention is to make that dream that the average 16 year old had not a
00:09:20.400 reality anymore we want you want us to live in a world where the average 16 year old gets used to
00:09:24.960 living in the same square blocks for 90 of their life you want to make us live in a world where the
00:09:29.920 average 16 year old needs to watch what they eat at the grocery store we're sort of seeing misfire
00:09:34.720 and communication where each individual has their own idea of what the plan is and they're not
00:09:39.040 communicating with each other about what the other person thinks the plan is a couple days after that
00:09:43.200 happened edmonton city councilor andrew knack went on ryan jesperson's podcast it's called real talk with
00:09:49.040 ryan jesperson and he responded to some of the criticism that was leveled at that press conference
00:09:53.120 i'm going to play his remarks for you now you know i i was surprised when it first started coming up
00:09:58.080 you know pretty much at the beginning of this month it's only i've really only been starting to hear
00:10:01.680 about in the last four weeks and it's odd because urban planning uh land use bylaws are typically
00:10:08.160 not the things that get uh people excited about municipal politics i i love it uh but i also
00:10:14.080 realize i'm typically an outlier in this scenario and so to see the the notion of of what essentially
00:10:21.440 is you know what we would call walkable communities or thinking about what cities used to look like in the
00:10:26.240 1940s and 50s and 60s where you had a neighborhood convenience store grocery store and pharmacy
00:10:33.760 to see that morph into what what we're now talking about this notion about uh government going to be
00:10:41.120 locking people down it's it's hard because i think in principle everyone loves the idea of having
00:10:47.200 things closer to their home to at least have the choice to access it and yet now it's become something
00:10:52.480 really nefarious in some people's minds now i've spent a lot of time living in downtown cities i
00:10:57.920 would have to say one of the things i love most about it is not having to have a vehicle i love
00:11:02.320 being able to just walk across the street to get a bite to eat and walk down the street a couple blocks
00:11:06.240 to get groceries but of course we have to consider the criticism as well there is many people who no
00:11:11.040 longer believe that anything the government does is in their best interest and a lot of people have lost
00:11:15.760 faith in their government following the covet 19 pandemic so this is my question of the day for you guys
00:11:20.640 what do you think about 15 minute cities do you see the appeal do you think it's misguided or do you
00:11:26.080 think it's a bad plan from the city that's secretly intended to keep people locked within a short radius
00:11:31.920 from their home let me know what you guys think and i'll read your comments next week okay guys moving
00:11:37.040 into my daily comment roundup now user claude quinton said the decision to enact the emergency act was wrong
00:11:42.880 and the ruling that it was legal has put canada in an unusual position big businesses will be
00:11:48.320 concerned that if they publish a policy that the government disagrees with the government could
00:11:52.720 freeze their assets and their bank accounts just as happened in cuba and finally one last comment
00:11:57.680 here user hillquest dual support says i watched the live release of your dog and appreciated that you
00:12:02.480 chose to interview varying views nicely done after one year and now that most of the truths have come out
00:12:08.560 i still don't believe it was necessary to invoke the emergencies act although three weeks of the freedom
00:12:13.440 convoy the protesters made their point and something needed to be done to end it the protest would never
00:12:19.200 have gone to that point if justin trudeau would have talked to them and it would have ended with
00:12:23.440 an entirely different outcome i really agree with some of the comments here i don't think the prime
00:12:27.360 minister did himself any favors by his inflammatory remarks calling protesters and supporters of the
00:12:33.520 convoy you know a fringe minority with radical views it only took the prime minister one year to
00:12:38.880 admit that those remarks were a mistake following the commission's report which did in many ways
00:12:43.280 kind of eviscerate the prime minister's actions during the freedom convoy okay guys it's all i have
00:12:47.840 for you today a friendly reminder that you can still watch my documentary the freedom of occupation
00:12:52.080 online at freedomoccupation.ca and if you want to support our work you can absolutely do that on that
00:12:57.280 website and of course you can also go to donate.tnc.news thanks so much for tuning in i hope that you
00:13:02.640 guys have a great rest of your weekend and god bless