The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - Can Alberta handle Trudeau’s mass immigration policies？

00:00:00.000 Alberta Premier Danielle Smith delivered her Fall 2024 address this week.

00:00:04.660 She announced more emergency school funding, but warned that this new investment may still

00:00:09.760 not be enough to counteract Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's mass immigration policies.

00:00:14.620 These education investments are becoming an almost monthly occurrence for Smith, it seems,

00:00:19.020 as the school's capacities struggle to keep up with population growth.

00:00:23.540 I'm Isaac Lamoureux, your host of the Alberta Roundup.

00:00:30.000 This will be my second week hosting the show, and while I'm pretty happy with how the first

00:00:40.220 episode went, hopefully I can improve even more on this one.

00:00:42.680 After all, last week I literally made an error in the first sentence of the episode calling

00:00:49.100 Yves-Francois Blanchet Quebec's Premier, when he is in fact Bloch-Québecois' leader, as

00:00:55.540 many of you let me know in the comments.

00:00:56.840 And I immediately thought to myself, well, let me check my notes, and I did.

00:01:01.580 And in no case during my notes did I call Yves-Francois Blanchet Quebec's Premier.

00:01:07.360 At each instance, I called him the Bloch-Québecois leader.

00:01:10.480 So I'm really not sure how that error came to be, but I guess it's your first episode.

00:01:16.800 Things are just destined to go wrong, even if you prepare as well as you can.

00:01:20.440 Let me just double check my first line here.

00:01:22.520 Alberta Premier Daniel Smith, yeah, she did in fact deliver her Fall 2024 address this

00:01:28.520 week.

00:01:28.900 So this episode is already going better than the last one.

00:01:32.340 But let's jump back into that story now.

00:01:34.420 The Premier delivered her more than eight-minute monologue to the province on Tuesday night.

00:01:38.700 She said that more than 200,000 people immigrated to Alberta last year, which she added is like

00:01:44.340 adding two red-deer-sized cities in a single year.

00:01:47.780 She did say, however, that Alberta has historically always welcomed newcomers with shared beliefs

00:01:53.260 like freedom and hard work, along with those that contribute to society and abide by the

00:01:58.860 law.

00:01:59.380 She added, quote,

00:02:00.600 Equally as important, though, Canada's previous immigration policies under leaders like Prime

00:02:05.960 Minister Stephen Harper, as an example, focused on ensuring that immigration levels matched

00:02:11.000 our nation's economic needs and was commensurate with our ability to build enough houses and

00:02:15.800 infrastructure to keep up with that growth.

00:02:18.380 However, the Trudeau government's unrestrained open border policies, permitting well over

00:02:22.620 a million newcomers each year into Canada, is causing significant challenge and has broken

00:02:27.480 this delicate balance.

00:02:29.200 True North's Candace Malcolm previously reported that after accounting for permanent residents,

00:02:34.260 temporary foreign workers, international students, and illegal immigrants, about 2.2 million

00:02:39.600 people immigrate to Canada every year.

00:02:41.800 The unprecedented immigration has led to housing and job shortages, as well as problems with 0.99

00:02:47.440 social services like health and education, according to Smith.

00:02:51.180 She added that the additional strain affects all Albertans, old, new, and everything in between.

00:02:58.000 Smith vowed to join other provinces in the fight against immigration.

00:03:02.520 She said the following.

00:03:03.440 So I am joining with other premiers across our country in calling on the current federal

00:03:07.500 government to immediately reintroduce sensible and restrained immigration policies, similar

00:03:12.620 to levels we saw under Stephen Harper, so that all provinces have some time and resources

00:03:17.760 to sustainably catch up with growth and to ensure those coming here closely align with our

00:03:23.220 country's economic needs and our core values.

00:03:26.140 And if the current federal government won't make these changes, our government will certainly

00:03:29.840 support a new one that will.

00:03:30.980 The newly added education investment comes as the premier said the province is adding about

00:03:36.380 33,000 students per year, or equivalent to 35 schools.

00:03:41.380 Alberta already invested a record $9.3 billion in its education system for the year 2024-25.

00:03:48.700 The province added an additional $215 million in July to address the population boom.

00:03:54.740 Despite $2.1 billion of that investment being set towards the construction of new schools,

00:04:00.240 aiming to add about 33,000 spaces, it wasn't enough.

00:04:04.260 Smith announced a new school accelerator program on Tuesday, accompanied by an additional $8.6

00:04:10.380 billion increase to the province's K-12 capital budget.

00:04:15.200 The program is set to build 50,000 student spaces over the next three years and 150,000 spaces

00:04:21.740 in the subsequent four, which Smith said is the fastest and largest build the province can

00:04:26.820 feasibly manage with its available resources.

00:04:29.960 Additionally, a portion of the fund will be dedicated towards building 12,500 charter school

00:04:36.060 spaces and investment in non-profit private schools to emphasize school choice.

00:04:41.180 The extra funding might be possible to Alberta's recently revised surplus, which grew to $2.9 billion

00:04:47.100 from $367 million, an almost eight-fold increase.

00:04:51.600 Smith also mentioned that her promised income tax cut will be delivered in the next budget,

00:04:56.380 which she said will help address things like the federal carbon tax and other federal policies

00:05:00.920 driving inflation.

00:05:02.620 Sort of sticking with the provincial government, we'll now move to the back and forth between

00:05:06.680 the provincial government and Calgary regarding the Green Line LRT funding and leadership.

00:05:12.500 Alberta's Minister of Transportation, Devin Drieschen, delivered a five-minute monologue,

00:05:17.280 which he posted to X on Monday night.

00:05:19.280 He explained that the Green Line was introduced in 2015 by former Calgary mayor and current

00:05:25.160 Alberta NDP leader Nahid Nenshi.

00:05:28.820 The project initially promised to be a 46-kilometer line with 29 stations costing $4.65 billion.

00:05:36.580 Drieschen said the following about the city's planning.

00:05:39.440 The only issue, the city council back then failed to do any of the proper costing, engineering

00:05:45.000 or planning before coming up with that $4.65 billion price tag.

00:05:49.940 At best, it was drawn up on a napkin.

00:05:52.620 By 2017, due to improper planning, designing and engineering, Drieschen said that the project

00:05:58.820 was slashed in half to 23 kilometers and 15 stations.

00:06:03.740 The project was then cut further to 18 kilometers but was still deemed impossible.

00:06:08.760 The LRT project was cut even further to 10 kilometers and 7 stations.

00:06:13.740 Based on the initial projections, the LRT's distance was reduced by over 78% and the number

00:06:20.060 of stations by more than 75%.

00:06:22.620 So surely, as you'd imagine with all of these cuts, the price must have gone down as well.

00:06:27.140 Well, if you thought that, you would be incorrect because it in fact somehow did the opposite.

00:06:31.560 Yes, all of these cuts were accompanied by an additional cost.

00:06:35.760 The project somehow increased to cost $6.2 billion.

00:06:40.480 Drieschen said that based on the current costs of the project, taxpayers would be paying $630

00:06:46.400 million per kilometer.

00:06:48.660 Montreal's REM track cost about $86 million per kilometer, seven times less.

00:06:54.720 Drieschen said that based on the current costs of the project, the Green Line LRT in Calgary

00:06:58.960 would be among the most expensive and least effective LRTs in all of North America.

00:07:04.160 He said that with Calgary's ongoing water crisis, the city really doesn't have money

00:07:08.580 to waste.

00:07:09.820 Drieschen said that the provincial government must ensure that taxpayers' money are spent

00:07:14.420 responsibly.

00:07:16.180 We are not going to throw away billions of taxpayer dollars on a vanity project that fails

00:07:20.680 in every way to address the actual transit needs of Calgarians, he said.

00:07:24.880 Aside from this Calgary rail, the province promised a commuter rail to connect

00:07:28.940 the province at the end of April 2024.

00:07:31.420 The rail plan plans to be completed by summer 2025.

00:07:35.100 A 15-year delivery plan will be presented and the project aims to be completed by 2040.

00:07:40.720 Now moving to a different portion of Alberta politics.

00:07:43.640 Some of you may remember MLA Jennifer Johnson when she was previously excluded from sitting

00:07:49.520 with the UCP caucus after an uproar from the transgender community who said that she likened

00:07:54.780 transgender children in schools to quote, adding a teaspoon of feces to a batch of cookies. 1.00

00:08:00.480 So despite winning the 2023 election in Lacombe Pinocca by a country mile, as a UCP candidate, 0.65

00:08:07.340 Johnson has been sitting as an independent.

00:08:09.900 Following the remarks, Premier Danielle Smith reaffirmed her commitment to not letting Johnson

00:08:15.140 sit in her seat with the party she represented when she rightfully earned the seat.

00:08:20.000 However, Smith has recently hinted at potentially letting Johnson back into the party.

00:08:25.860 But that's not why we're here today.

00:08:28.320 Johnson recently attended a meeting with the Lacombe Pride Society, the Pinocca Pride Society,

00:08:33.460 the Central Alberta Pride Society, and others when she was confronted by a transgender woman

00:08:38.660 who essentially tried to hold her hostage.

00:08:41.060 The interaction caught global attention with famed author J.K. Rowling sharing the clip

00:08:47.220 to X with the caption, quote, honestly, you don't even need to turn up the sound and you

00:08:52.700 don't take one look and you can guess what's going to happen.

00:08:56.400 Will you state on the record right now that trans women are women?

00:09:02.260 I've never been asked that before.

00:09:04.540 Will you say that on the record right now?

00:09:07.240 No, I want to have some time to think on that.

00:09:09.120 Okay, well, that's me.

00:09:11.540 Have a great day.

00:09:13.080 And I will be speaking out against this meeting because you are clearly not ready to have this.

00:09:17.580 So I'm not going to be added to the list of meetings that you are going to have with people

00:09:21.100 where you say, well, I met this person and this person.

00:09:24.160 Because no, no, no, no.

00:09:26.500 You can't say I've had these consultations and use that as justification for you to work

00:09:30.600 your way back into caucus, which is why we know you're really here.

00:09:33.580 So I'll give you one last chance.

00:09:35.680 Are trans women women? 1.00

00:09:37.040 Will you say that on the record right now?

00:09:38.400 Victoria, we can disagree on things.

00:09:41.180 Not on that.

00:09:42.020 Not on my identity.

00:09:43.280 No, no, no, no.

00:09:44.120 Not on that.

00:09:44.340 And I can still care about you even if we disagree.

00:09:46.880 Wonderful.

00:09:47.480 But I will be speaking out against this meeting 100% if you can't say that right now.

00:09:52.440 Because I'm not going to have you add my name to the list of meetings that you've had

00:09:55.520 to show that you're, quote, doing the work.

00:09:57.680 Because you're not doing the work.

00:09:59.240 The work is the inner work.

00:10:00.820 You're learning the outer work.

00:10:02.180 You're learning what you're allowed to say in public and what you're not.

00:10:04.600 So you don't get in the situation again because you got caught saying what you really thought.

00:10:08.820 And you did think that.

00:10:10.540 But you haven't shown that you've changed.

00:10:12.980 Because if you can't respect us, then how can I work with you?

00:10:17.720 If you don't believe that I am a woman sitting right here, right now, how on earth are you

00:10:24.680 saying that you're working with me?

00:10:25.600 What work have you done, then, if you can't start with, yes, Victoria, you are a woman?

00:10:32.880 Can we disagree and still respect each other?

00:10:35.260 No.

00:10:36.100 Goodbye.

00:10:37.420 The clip garnered so much attention that even Elon Musk replied with a laughing face emoji.

00:10:42.960 But wait, it gets worse.

00:10:45.280 Members from the Lacombe Pride Society, Pinocca Pride Society, by the way, they spelled Pinocca

00:10:50.160 wrong in their release.

00:10:51.300 Holmes Red Deer, Central Alberta Pride Society, and Buchholz from Queer Citizens United and

00:10:56.780 Momentum Canada issued a joint release slandering Johnson.

00:11:01.260 The release said that, quote, Johnson stated that we would have to, and they quoted this,

00:11:05.920 disagree and respect each other, which firstly is a misquote because she did not say that.

00:11:11.180 The statement continues saying, this statement denies the livid experiences and reality of

00:11:16.480 transgender, two-spirit, and non-binary Albertans.

00:11:20.160 It demonstrates that Emily Johnson has not changed her views on the subject and should

00:11:24.520 not be welcomed back into caucus.

00:11:26.800 To do so would be a sign to all two SLGBTQ plus Albertans and their allies that homophobic 0.98

00:11:33.680 and transphobic views are tolerated within the United Conservative Party and caucus.

00:11:39.100 Wow, there were a lot of lies in that statement, but I really feel for Johnson, who essentially

00:11:44.460 just sat there during the whole interaction, getting attacked by Buchholz.

00:11:48.520 So Johnson released a statement of her own.

00:11:51.820 She said, quote,

00:11:52.720 This statement addresses the meeting between me, Jennifer Johnson, the independent MLA for

00:11:57.900 Lacombe-Pinocca, and the Lacombe Pride Society, Pinocca Pride Society, Central Alberta Pride

00:12:03.000 Society, and multiple others.

00:12:05.500 These societies requested a meeting with me, and I was happy to meet with them and hear

00:12:09.320 their concerns as my constituents.

00:12:11.700 I looked forward to a respectful and informative meeting with them.

00:12:15.320 This meeting was at the request and arranged by a constituent of the Lacombe-Pinocca riding,

00:12:19.880 and I was happy to accept their invitation to meet.

00:12:22.040 Danielle Smith, her office, and the UCP caucus and party were in no way involved in or aware

00:12:28.020 of this meeting.

00:12:29.220 And contrary to speculation, this meeting has nothing to do with my future as an independent

00:12:33.560 member of the legislature.

00:12:35.460 I support the work of Danielle Smith and her UCP government and look forward to working

00:12:39.940 with all members of the legislature in the fall session on the parental rights legislation

00:12:44.980 and other important bills.

00:12:46.220 Thank you to everyone who has reached out to me in the last couple of days.

00:12:49.860 I very much appreciate all of your kind words and encouragement.

00:12:53.460 Look, after this interaction, I should preface this by I didn't know too much about Johnson

00:12:58.640 previously, despite her previous controversies with the UCP government, but I am very interested

00:13:06.520 to see what happens with the future of Johnson's political career.

00:13:09.760 I certainly honor her for not bending the knee to a transgender person essentially trying 1.00

00:13:16.560 to impose authoritarian measures on her and saying that if you don't believe what I believe,

00:13:22.060 then you're not worthy of my time and I'm going to sit in a meeting for three minutes

00:13:26.060 essentially spending the entire time yelling at you.

00:13:28.900 Yelling at you for how bad of a person you are and not really listening to what you have

00:13:33.000 to say, not even giving you the time to respond.

00:13:35.260 I think in politics, we actually need more people like Johnson who are brave enough to stand

00:13:39.480 up to people like this who are trying to impose essentially authoritarian belief systems on

00:13:44.440 them.

00:13:44.820 All right.

00:13:45.060 I thought we'd switch to something a bit lighter for our last story of the day.

00:13:48.300 So just to lighten things up, we'll just cover Angus Reid's most recent poll, which

00:13:53.240 actually showed that Daniel Smith's approval ratings have recently improved since last quarter.

00:13:57.960 So the poll showed the approval ratings of all the premiers across Canada.

00:14:01.380 And yeah, Manitoba's Wob Canoe honestly led the race by a country mile with a 66% approval rating.

00:14:09.000 However, behind him in second place and tied with Newfoundland and Labrador's Andrew Fury,

00:14:14.320 who himself had fallen nine points, was Daniel Smith at 46% with a 1% rise from last quarter.

00:14:21.880 The premier with the lowest approval rating, interestingly, was New Brunswick's Blaine Higgs,

00:14:26.140 despite just recently doubling the province's surplus in their most recent fiscal projection.

00:14:33.220 In front of him in second last place was Ontario's Doug Ford.

00:14:36.640 The approval jump for Smith comes despite the survey highlighting that she accepted some

00:14:41.820 tickets to a Stanley Cup final game, but she defended that action saying that all the ethical

00:14:46.620 guidelines were followed.

00:14:48.020 The spike comes despite the previous story we discussed, which of course was the province

00:14:52.060 pulling funding from Calgary's Green Line LRT.

00:14:55.420 However, it could be that Calgarians and other Albertans agree with Smith when she said that

00:15:00.640 that she saved them essentially from what was, quote, in danger of turning into a $6 billion

00:15:07.400 boondoggle to nowhere.

00:15:08.940 The rising polling numbers for Smith probably come as a relief with her upcoming leadership

00:15:14.180 review on November 2nd.

00:15:16.240 Leadership reviews are held at one of every three AGMs on a non-election year, where delegates

00:15:21.160 get to decide whether they trust the current party leader or want to swap to someone new.

00:15:26.040 The UCP's governance manual reads, quote, a yes vote of less than 50% of the total valid

00:15:32.760 votes cast shall automatically trigger a leadership election.

00:15:36.720 I hope you guys enjoyed the stories today.

00:15:38.940 Let me know in the comments if you plan on voting at the upcoming leadership review.

00:15:43.160 Now, jumping into the comment roundup after my first episode.

00:15:47.080 The first comment comes from TemplarRising6299, who said, quote,

00:15:52.180 If the bloc was doing well, Quebec wouldn't need welfare from Alberta.

00:15:56.460 You hit the nail right on the head there, Templar.

00:15:59.080 And I've written about equalization in the past.

00:16:01.720 Remember in August when Smith demanded an overhaul of the, quote,

00:16:05.080 broken equalization and federal transfer scheme as Alberta shouldered the biggest burden?

00:16:10.840 She's not the only premier that feels that way, but I can't see Quebec vowing for change,

00:16:15.420 considering while Alberta contributed $244.6 billion between 2007 and 2022,

00:16:23.820 Quebec received $327.7 billion.

00:16:28.120 Next comment here from atbikechicklovestogroove, who said that coalition governments and appointing

00:16:33.940 senators should not be allowed.

00:16:36.120 I agree with you about the senators.

00:16:38.160 And as we've seen with the Trudeau government, they've stacked the Senate with left-wing partisans.

00:16:43.500 Again, something Smith called him out for after he completely disregarded Alberta's Senate elections

00:16:49.680 and handpicked senators that would follow his marching orders.

00:16:53.420 I agree with you, too, about the undemocratic nature, but I'd take it even a step further.

00:16:59.660 For example, the Conservatives won the popular vote in each of the two last elections.

00:17:04.700 How is it then democratic that they lost the election by such a large margin,

00:17:08.640 despite having the most people vote for them?

00:17:10.920 People argue that with our seat system, it gives smaller places like the islands more power,

00:17:16.520 but I don't know that that's necessarily true.

00:17:18.980 For example, almost every election year, the election is called before the West is even counted

00:17:24.500 because of the amount of power that Quebec and Ontario themselves hold.

00:17:29.260 So with popular vote, this would remain to be the case,

00:17:32.860 because obviously Quebec and Ontario have the highest populace,

00:17:36.520 so I don't really know what the best way forward is.

00:17:38.580 On to the last comment from tigsbigs8949, who said,

00:17:43.900 You got that right.

00:17:52.440 The rest of the country would be in shambles without Alberta,

00:17:55.840 but I'm not sure how easy separating is.

00:17:57.900 I'd be interested to see how the cost of everything would change.

00:18:02.180 Imagine if we saw a separation of the sort in our lifetimes.

00:18:04.880 I mean, it's hard to even imagine.

00:18:06.460 So I'd just like to thank everyone real quick for bearing with me through my second episode hosting the Alberta Roundup,

00:18:12.220 and I hope you liked it as much or even more than the first episode.

00:18:17.400 And I also wanted you to know that I do read every comment that you leave,

00:18:22.080 and I appreciate them all, even the negative ones, though there weren't that many.

00:18:26.840 Yeah, even for those who critique, there's little I value more than constructive criticism,

00:18:31.540 because I find it's often easier for others to see ways that we can improve rather than us finding them ourselves.

00:18:39.180 So I hope that you keep the comments coming, even the negative ones,

00:18:42.720 but I will be honest, I do prefer the positive ones.

00:18:46.520 So thank you all, and have a good day.

00:18:48.360 Thank you all, and have a good day.

The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - September 21, 2024

Can Alberta handle Trudeau’s mass immigration policies？

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