The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - Alberta takes aim at Trudeau’s handgun ban

In this week's edition of The Alberta Roundup: Alberta's Chief Firearms Officer has some strong words for the federal government's ban on the importation of handguns for the civilian market, Gas prices in Alberta have dropped after Premier Jason Kenney asked the Competition Bureau to investigate whether there was price fixing going on in the province. We'll be taking a look at the premier's former chief of staff, who left the provincial government to take a job with a non-profit that receives provincial funding, but then only weeks later signed a contract with the province for $119 per hour. We ll also look into the ongoing fight between Athabasca University and the Alberta government, which has taken a new turn, and of course, we'll have our update on the UCP leadership race.

00:00:00.000 Hey everyone, welcome back to the Alberta Roundup. I'm your host, Rachel Emanuel. I'm happy to report

00:00:17.120 that I'm back home in Edmonton after a couple weeks on the road. I was actually surprised with

00:00:21.580 how much I missed Edmonton, so certainly happy to be back and reporting from home once again.

00:00:26.300 Let's take a look at today's topics. Alberta's Chief Firearms Officer has some strong words for

00:00:32.120 the federal government, who last week announced a ban on the importation of handguns for the

00:00:36.640 civilian market. Gas prices in Alberta have dropped after Premier Jason Kenney asked Canada's

00:00:41.880 Competition Bureau to investigate whether there was price fixing going on. We'll be taking a look

00:00:46.760 at the Premier's former Chief of Staff, who left the provincial government to take a job with a

00:00:51.920 non-profit that receives provincial funding, but then only weeks later signed a contract

00:00:56.260 with the provincial government for $119 per hour. We'll be taking a look at the ongoing fight

00:01:02.220 between Athabasca University and the Alberta provincial government, which has taken a new

00:01:06.860 turn. And of course, we'll have our update on the UCP leadership race, and we'll be taking a look at

00:01:12.280 a controversial essay that has taken leftist Twitter by storm. Let's move into today's topics.

00:01:17.320 Alberta Chief Firearms Officer Terry Bryant has said the Trudeau government's ban on importing

00:01:22.460 legal handguns will have no impact on crime. The federal government announced last week that

00:01:28.300 handguns for the civilian market will be barred from importation as of August 19. This was a

00:01:33.760 directive issued without the oversight of Parliament, meaning MPs were not given the opportunity to vote

00:01:38.360 on this. It was simply passed by the federal government. But Bryant said the directive continues a

00:01:43.680 pattern of Ottawa, which is, quote, attempting to eliminate firearms ownership of all kinds,

00:01:49.660 one slice at a time, end quote. The chief firearms officer invited any minister responsible for the

00:01:56.020 directive to spend a weekend with Bryant at shooting events to see the people Ottawa is impacting.

00:02:01.500 Bryant says it's probably not the people Ottawa expects it is. Let's talk about gas prices. Gas prices

00:02:07.120 in Alberta have plummeted. Okay, that might be being a bit generous, but they have gone down quite a bit

00:02:11.920 since Jason Kenney asked Canada's Competition Bureau to investigate whether there was price fixing in

00:02:17.020 the province. Here in Edmonton, prices at some gas stations are about 50 cents per liter lower than

00:02:22.780 they were last month at this time. So that's some huge savings being passed onto consumers. You guys

00:02:28.660 might remember we talked about this a couple weeks ago. The premier asked for the investigation

00:02:33.560 after it was revealed that prices in Alberta and cities like Calgary and Edmonton were actually higher

00:02:39.500 than they were in Ontario's greater Toronto area. Now that's significant because prices in Alberta

00:02:44.880 are typically cheaper than they are in Ontario due to A, regulations, but B, our proximity to

00:02:50.800 refineries. As well, the Alberta government earlier this year removed the provincial sales tax from the

00:02:56.420 cost of gas. And Kenny said we were just not seeing those costs being passed onto consumers, hence why he

00:03:01.800 requested the investigation. And now we've seen gas prices certainly plummet. I'd also note that the drop in gas

00:03:08.240 prices is coinciding with the drop in world oil prices. So two things to consider there. Okay guys, this is

00:03:13.640 the story that we're going to be watching over the next couple of weeks. I'm curious to see what happens

00:03:17.680 here and what direction this takes. There's been an ongoing fight between Athabasca University and the

00:03:22.760 Alberta provincial government. Athabasca is an online university and the provincial government has said

00:03:27.700 they wanted 65% of the institution's staff to be based in the small town by the 2024-2025 academic

00:03:35.400 year and they threatened to pull 41 million in annual funding if the university did not agree

00:03:41.060 to meet the residency target. Now for those of you who aren't aware, the reason of the residency target

00:03:46.220 is to sort of bolster the town's, you know, economy. I don't know if you guys are familiar with

00:03:51.020 Athabasca. It's about two hours north of Edmonton. I visited recently. It's very cute. There's not a whole

00:03:57.600 lot to do there for someone who prefers maybe a bit more of a city life. So the university has been

00:04:03.140 really low to implement this target and there's been a lot of back and forth between Athabasca and

00:04:08.480 the province on this. Now the province is saying that they're willing to be flexible on the 65%

00:04:13.680 target and they might not necessarily pull the funding. So we're going to have to keep our eyes

00:04:18.500 on this to see what happens if they're able to reach an agreement that might see some of the

00:04:22.540 executives return to the area or not. Okay guys, now it's time for our UCP leadership race update.

00:04:29.120 At the beginning of the week, Angela Pitt resigned as Raj and Sonny's campaign chair.

00:04:34.260 I think this is pretty devastating for the Sonny campaign because the campaign has really struggled

00:04:38.420 to gain momentum and traction. Sonny has been pulling pretty low and she's been positioning

00:04:44.840 herself as the antidote to Danielle Smith, who is the front runner. Now on Sunday, Pitt resigned,

00:04:50.280 citing a need to realign with her values and with her constituents values. Meanwhile, UCP leadership

00:04:56.380 candidate Todd Lowen wants an investigation into all the COVID bonuses that were paid out. So as we

00:05:01.580 know, Dina Henshaw, as we talked about last week, was paid about $228,000 in a COVID bonus. 0.99

00:05:07.560 On top of her salary, she took over well over half a million in 2021. But she wasn't the only one who

00:05:13.120 got a COVID bonus. In fact, 107 Alberta management employees collected 2.4 million bonuses in 2021.

00:05:20.640 2.4 million. I don't know about you guys, I certainly did not receive a bonus during the COVID-19

00:05:25.840 pandemic. I actually probably made a lot less considering inflation. The cost of everything

00:05:30.200 was so much higher while my wages stayed exactly the same. So Todd Lowen wants an investigation

00:05:35.320 into how these bonuses were paid out and the NDP agree with him, also writing a letter to the

00:05:40.620 Auditor General this week requesting an investigation. I thought Todd Lowen's response

00:05:45.220 to this was so funny. He wrote on Facebook, quote, the awkward moment when even the NDP follows

00:05:51.220 my lead. It won't earn Rachel Notley a spot in my cabinet, but thanks for coming on board

00:05:55.820 anyway. UCP frontrunner Danielle Smith is starting to rack up the endorsements. Alberta Labor and

00:06:02.100 Immigration Minister Casey Maddow endorsed Smith and his riding of Edmonton Southwest at a Smith

00:06:07.620 campaign event on Thursday night. That makes Maddow the second cabinet member and seventh UCP

00:06:12.780 MLA to endorse Danielle Smith. And that includes two UCP MLAs who first endorsed Travis Taves,

00:06:19.700 but then pulled those endorsements to back Smith. And that of course is service Alberta Minister

00:06:24.700 Nate Glubish and MLA Pat Wren. Okay guys, let's end today on a bit of a lighter note. You guys might

00:06:30.560 have heard about this essay that's taking the Alberta Press Gallery and leftist Twitter by storm.

00:06:35.140 People are absolutely outraged over this essay. So here's what happened. There was a Her Vision 0.66

00:06:40.420 Inspires Contest, which the Alberta government agreed to post the essays on their website.

00:06:45.640 And two female UCP MLAs also helped judging in the contest. There were three winners. And the third

00:06:52.340 place winner was basically an essay that urged women to have children, which is, as you know,

00:06:58.100 very controversial in the year 2022. The essay said, Albertan women are taught that children are a

00:07:04.380 burden while importing foreigners to replace Albertan culture and Albertan people, essentially. 0.66

00:07:10.480 The essay also wrote that men and women aren't exactly equal because women have the unique ability 1.00

00:07:15.960 to bear children. And obviously there's a bit of a biological difference. And the essay writer wrote

00:07:20.520 that modern culture really chooses to ignore this difference or to rewrite it. And the essay said,

00:07:26.800 men and women have an important role in preserving their speeches and culture. And women often regret

00:07:31.860 having children later in life. I'm sure you guys won't find it surprising that people were outraged

00:07:36.820 over this essay. They couldn't believe that it was third place. It was later revealed that there

00:07:41.860 were two other essays that did not place in the contest and people couldn't understand how this

00:07:46.260 essay placed above those others that did not place. And of course the UCP MLAs that were involved in

00:07:51.540 the judging have been forced to apologize. So I'm wondering, what do you guys think? Is this essay as

00:07:57.140 controversial as everyone says it is? Was it wrong to have chosen this person to win third place?

00:08:02.380 Or does she maybe have a point or, you know, maybe she just has some different thoughts,

00:08:06.240 but she should still be allowed to express those. Let me know what you guys think. You know where you

00:08:10.500 can reach me on Twitter or Facebook. That's all I have for you today. Thanks so much for tuning in

00:08:14.740 and we'll catch up next week.

The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - August 13, 2022

Alberta takes aim at Trudeau’s handgun ban

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