The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - Alberta’s $13 billion SURPLUS pays off for Albertans

00:00:00.000 Hello everyone and welcome back to the Alberta Roundup. I'm your host Rachel Emanuel and a

00:00:16.240 happy belated Alberta Day to you all. You might remember Premier Jason Kenney announced that

00:00:20.960 Alberta would celebrate Alberta Day on September 1 during the Calgary Stampede. It's not a stat

00:00:25.860 holiday but some years it will fall on Labor Day so you will get the day off. We celebrated the first

00:00:30.640 Alberta Day on Thursday on Alberta's 117th birthday. Here's what Premier Jason Kenney had to say about it.

00:00:37.220 Alberta Day is an opportunity for us to stop for a moment and not to take that for granted. It is too

00:00:44.960 easy for us to focus on our flaws and to take for granted our achievements. Today let's focus

00:00:54.900 on how it is that we have built a society that is in so many ways the envy of the world.

00:01:03.680 Today we'll be discussing Premier Jason Kenney who announced that Alberta will bring personal

00:01:07.580 income taxes in line with inflation. Deputy Prime Minister Christy Freeland was cussed out while

00:01:12.420 visiting Alberta. UCP leadership candidate Danielle Smith says a member of her campaign is being

00:01:17.360 harassed following reports that he used to be a Liberal. Alberta's left-hevenant governor has waded

00:01:22.100 into the UCP leadership race and people are not happy. We'll have our usual UCP leadership race

00:01:27.080 update and UCP leadership candidate Todd Lowen absolutely roast Justin Trudeau. Let's move into

00:01:32.820 today's topics. Premier Jason Kenney announced on Tuesday that Alberta will bring personal income

00:01:37.840 taxes in line with inflation for the 2022 tax year because the government's finances are back in

00:01:43.380 order. The government de-indexed income taxes in 2019 meaning tax levels were no longer tied to

00:01:49.060 inflation. In a video posted to social media Kenny said his government is forecasting a surplus of

00:01:53.600 13.2 billion because of oil royalties and because government spending is under control. Here's what

00:01:59.360 the Premier had to say about it. I want to share with you some great news about Alberta's improving

00:02:03.580 provincial finances. When our government came to office over three years ago we inherited a deficit

00:02:09.620 of nearly nine billion dollars and Alberta had been racking up more and more debt for over a decade

00:02:15.540 and that's why we gave Alberta's commitment that we would get our spending under control

00:02:20.640 and grow the economy to bring our provincial finances back in order so we could begin reducing

00:02:27.460 that debt instead of constantly increasing it as a mortgage on the future. Well we've done just that

00:02:33.420 we kept our word and in fact in the last fiscal year we reported a substantial surplus for the first

00:02:39.260 time in 14 years and I'm pleased to report today that based on our first quarter projections for

00:02:45.700 the current fiscal year we won't have a surplus of 515 million dollars that we originally projected

00:02:53.580 in the February budget but instead a surplus of 13.2 billion dollars. Of course a lot of that is thanks

00:03:01.100 to growth in commodity prices and royalty revenues but fundamentally we never would have had a balanced budget

00:03:07.740 on the books this year had it not been for getting our spending under control and the broader growth

00:03:12.700 in Alberta's economy. Let's move into the controversy of the week. I'm sure you guys have seen videos of

00:03:18.060 this circulating online by now. Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Christy Freeland was cussed out by

00:03:24.380 a protest while she was in Alberta. She was in Alberta for about a week and the incident happened in

00:03:29.320 Grand Prairie. During the stop some Albertans made it very clear that they were not happy to see the

00:03:34.220 Deputy Prime Minister and that they don't think she belongs in Alberta. Take a listen to the exchange. 0.62

00:03:39.180 Oh right there she is. Allie. Right there. Great. That's Christy. Christy. Yes. What the f**k are you doing in Alberta?

00:03:50.060 You f**king traitors. Get the f**k out of this province. You don't belong here. You're a f**king traitor. 1.00

00:04:01.900 Yeah go ahead and hide. All right now you got a traitor in the f**king elevator. Christy Freeland I'm going. 1.00

00:04:07.100 Most people including most of the UCP leadership candidates quickly condemned the words and said

00:04:11.860 this exchange was not appropriate and wouldn't result in a better deal for Alberta. However not

00:04:17.080 everyone agrees that the Freeland deserves their sympathy. Some people were quick to note that the

00:04:22.040 Deputy Prime Minister was responsible for freezing Canadians bank accounts during the Freedom Convoy

00:04:26.380 and an old video of Freeland resurfaced which appears to show her laughing while discussing freezing

00:04:31.520 bank accounts of some Freedom Convoy organizers. What do you think? Does the Deputy Prime Minister

00:04:36.420 deserve our sympathy? Or is evil in the face of tyranny warranted? Okay guys what we're watching in the

00:04:43.000 weeks ahead. Alberta's left-hevenant governor has waded into the UCP leadership race and now people are

00:04:48.640 calling for her resignation. Left-hevenant governor Salma Lakhani on Thursday told reporters her office

00:04:54.720 would independently evaluate UCP leadership frontrunner Danielle Smith's Alberta Sovereignty Act

00:04:59.600 to determine whether it's constitutional before signing it into law. This is what she said quote

00:05:04.560 and we will get the appropriate advice that we need as to whether we can sign it whether it's against

00:05:09.660 our constitution end quote. We've talked about the Alberta Sovereignty Act a lot of times it is sort

00:05:15.060 of dominating conversation in the UCP leadership race right now. Danielle Smith says that it would bar

00:05:20.380 federal legislation deemed harmful to Alberta and its interest. Now the Queen's representative in Canada

00:05:26.060 is considered a ceremonial role by many but Lakhani said she's prepared for any backlash from people

00:05:31.420 who believe she should play solely a ceremonial role. Now people are very angry they're calling for her

00:05:36.800 resignation. We'll see what happens in the weeks ahead if those words have any teeth to them or if it's

00:05:41.600 just talk. Let's move into our UCP leadership race update. Former UCP leadership contender

00:05:46.820 John Horseman has endorsed Travis Taves. You guys might remember Horseman he was only in the leadership

00:05:52.460 race for about two weeks. He dropped out just before the first cutoff on July 20th. He dropped

00:05:57.100 out less than an hour before that cutoff hit saying the race was just too crowded. I spoke with him on

00:06:02.320 Thursday and he said the leadership race is about forging the leader Alberta needs and he thinks

00:06:07.280 Travis Taves has grown the most since putting his name forward for the premiership. Take a listen to what

00:06:12.420 the two gentlemen had to say about the endorsement. I'm here tonight with John Horseman. John thank you for

00:06:18.600 your endorsement. That's such a significant endorsement from an individual such as yourself

00:06:23.240 with such street credibility in the business community here in Alberta and such a strong

00:06:27.600 legacy of leadership at the ATB. Thank you. Yeah thank you Travis and I'm happy to be supporting

00:06:33.800 Travis as the as I believe he's a candidate that's the best path forward for for Alberta and I look at

00:06:39.420 where we are in the world and I look at the future for Alberta and I cannot be more optimistic.

00:06:43.480 We are entrusted with energy security, food security, innovation and frankly because these

00:06:50.740 are export industries it's life or death depending on how Alberta performs. UCP leadership candidate

00:06:57.980 Danielle Smith says a member of her campaign is being harassed following reports that he used to

00:07:02.220 be a liberal. Okay guys here's what happened. On Sunday the National Telegraph reported that Mike

00:07:07.040 Butler, Smith's deputy campaign manager for northern Alberta, used to run for the federal and

00:07:12.200 provincial liberals and NDP. He is in the lobbying industry so he has lots of photos of himself

00:07:17.660 online with politicians of all stripes including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, former NDP leader

00:07:23.860 Jack Layton, as well as Ontario Liberal leader Kathleen Wendt. These are a lot of people that

00:07:28.880 conservatives normally wouldn't associate with. After this report broke, Butler wrote a column for the

00:07:34.580 Western Standard and Rebel News basically saying that he was converted to conservatism during the

00:07:39.600 COVID-19 pandemic, specifically after he declined the COVID-19 vaccine and saw how the unvaccinated

00:07:45.680 were treated in Canada. Then after that column broke, another photo emerged of him carrying an NDP

00:07:52.260 banner during the most recent 2022 Canada Day Parade. So the questions are swirling. What are his

00:07:59.540 political allegiances? Where do his values lie? That being said, while all this has been ongoing,

00:08:04.540 Smith has said he is being harassed as photos of his business card have been circulating online in

00:08:10.040 people's videos including some of the articles that we have mentioned. Meanwhile, Danielle Smith gained

00:08:14.740 a lot of traction this week for two policy proposals that she put forward, including one which she said

00:08:19.700 she would amend the Alberta Human Rights Act to prohibit employers from firing employees based on their

00:08:24.880 vaccination status. Danielle Smith has also pledged to ban the province's post-secondary schools from

00:08:29.960 implementing vaccine mandates on its students. You guys might have seen some of the craziness going

00:08:34.420 on at Western University in London, Ontario. They've imposed a booster mandate, meaning that staff

00:08:39.880 and students need to have two COVID-19 vaccines and a booster to attend campus this fall. Students and

00:08:46.300 staff alike are unimpressed. About 400 people showed up to the university to protest last week and a

00:08:51.060 campaign called Enough is Enough is still working to see a reversal on that mandate. Let's move into the

00:08:56.800 funniest moment of the week. One thing we haven't covered yet was the UCP leadership debate in

00:09:01.200 Edmonton on Tuesday night. This was the last official debate. You might remember the other

00:09:05.400 one was in Medicine Hat. I didn't dedicate a lot of time to this because I felt like I didn't hear a

00:09:09.480 lot of new things from the candidates. At this point in the debate, you know, they're really solidifying

00:09:13.460 their positions. They're repeating things that they've said. They're getting good clips for Twitter.

00:09:16.860 But you know, not a lot of new policies are emerging or new ideas are emerging in these debates.

00:09:21.840 That being said, you might remember the last time we talked about this, I said Danielle Smith got so much

00:09:25.800 time during the first debate because her opponents would continually pick her to debate with when

00:09:31.000 they had the opportunity to pick an opponent to spar with. They didn't do that this time around.

00:09:35.120 I think they probably noticed that that tactic wasn't successful for them the first time going

00:09:39.480 because all it really did was give Smith so much time to speak about her ideas and she didn't lose

00:09:44.520 her cool in the face of some really personal attacks. So, you know, the debate was a bit dry but always

00:09:49.660 good to give, you know, voters more of an opportunity to learn about their candidates. However, I thought

00:09:55.080 Todd Lohan had a really strong performance. I know that Lohan has sometimes struggled with his public

00:09:59.800 speaking. I thought he did a really good job. He brought some really good points on inflation and

00:10:03.420 on the economy. He held Travis Taves, the former finance minister's feet to the fire on Alberta spending

00:10:08.860 when Taves was finance minister. But he also had a couple really funny moments. Take a listen to this

00:10:14.120 clip of him absolutely roasting Justin Trudeau.

00:10:17.280 When it comes to grazing leases, there's a lot of contention with grazing leases with public land,

00:10:21.580 private land, and that relationship with the public. And there's a lot of work that needs to

00:10:25.460 be done there. But I think when it comes, you know, I guess I kind of want to go back to the

00:10:29.860 fertilizer issue. And I actually think that if we, if we used Justin Trudeau's BS, we could probably

00:10:34.980 fertilize our crops with that. But unfortunately...

00:10:38.580 All right, all right. We're cutting into his time here.

00:10:45.580 Maybe the world couldn't handle the crops with all that fertilizer, but...

00:10:49.660 I got a good laugh out of that. I didn't really expect it because Lohan is so nice,

00:10:53.420 but I don't think anyone could say that it wasn't true what he said.

00:10:57.120 Okay, everyone. Thanks so much for tuning in. That's all I have for you today.

00:11:00.540 If you like Trudeau and support what we do, please visit donate.tnc.news

00:11:05.060 and support our work. Thanks so much. See you next week.

The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - September 03, 2022

Alberta’s $13 billion SURPLUS pays off for Albertans

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