The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - Danielle Smith agrees — immigration is too high

00:00:00.000 Following months of criticism, Alberta Premier Daniel Smith is finally starting to change her

00:00:04.760 tune on immigration. The incident serves as an important reminder as to why it's important to

00:00:10.400 hold our leaders to account. Holding a conservative politician to account does not mean you hope for

00:00:16.000 a liberal or NDP government. Instead, it means you hope they actually enact the common sense

00:00:21.340 conservative policies that will create a popular government and will ensure re-election in the

00:00:26.160 future. I'm Rachel Parker and you're watching the Alberta Roundup.

00:00:30.000 All right, everyone. And for this very important story today, I caught up with my colleague,

00:00:42.440 Isaac Lamoureux. As some of you know, he does most of the Alberta coverage. I was able to do a little

00:00:46.720 interview with him to talk about this brewing story about Alberta and immigration. And he's going to

00:00:51.480 give us the breakdown as to what happened with the Premier this week. We'll go to him now.

00:00:55.440 Hey, everyone. So joining me today to discuss is my colleague, Isaac Lamoureux. As you guys know,

00:01:00.740 Isaac has taken over much of the Alberta coverage. In my absence, I'm obviously still doing this show

00:01:05.840 and doing a little bit, but as many of you know, I've had a baby. And so Isaac has been

00:01:09.380 filling in and he primarily does the Alberta coverage right now. Isaac, I wanted to have you

00:01:14.140 on today to discuss what is really a brewing controversy in Alberta right now. Danielle Smith's

00:01:20.100 base and conservatives sort of writ large are very unhappy with her proposals regarding immigration.

00:01:26.520 She, you know, a few months ago said she wanted to double Alberta's population by 2050. She's come

00:01:32.740 under a lot of fire for that. Our colleague, Corey Morgan over at the Western Standard had the

00:01:38.080 opportunity to ask her if this was still her plans, given the controversy surrounding it. Let's just play

00:01:43.900 this clip now. So the audience has a chance to see exactly what we're talking about. Seems like

00:01:47.600 Daniel Smith is backtracking. Take a listen to her answer for yourself.

00:01:51.460 My thinking about it was that we were already growing at 200,000 a year based on those numbers.

00:01:58.200 So if you just do the math by 25 years, it would be 5 million population. And I have often thought

00:02:04.660 that we would have more political clout if we had a higher population than Quebec. But what I'm seeing,

00:02:10.360 and I'm doing a lot of roundtables and town halls across the province, people are worried,

00:02:15.120 people are very nervous about our ability to be able to keep up with that pace of growth. And I

00:02:21.120 think we're beginning to see it. So I'm listening to people, I'm having to recalibrate a little bit

00:02:26.160 on what our aspirations should be. I think what we really need is a sensible immigration policy,

00:02:33.280 similar to what we had under Stephen Harper, where we had a point system for bringing people in,

00:02:38.220 we made sure that newcomers match the economic needs of our economy, we made sure that we had a level

00:02:43.820 of newcomers coming to our country that matched our ability to keep up with housing. And I think

00:02:49.300 what we're seeing is that, especially in Alberta, we're beginning to feel some of the pressure of

00:02:54.760 that growth. And I think that that's what people are responding to.

00:02:57.440 So Isaac, this is a pretty sizable change from the Premier, who's always been pretty pro-immigration.

00:03:02.820 What do you think is marking this change in policy?

00:03:05.600 Well, several things, I think. And interestingly, that short clip you showed from their roughly 15

00:03:12.960 minute interview kind of covered most of the things they discussed, which was a nice surprise. But

00:03:17.740 firstly, I should say Smith basically said, look, if we just continue on our numbers,

00:03:24.240 as she said in the clip, we will reach 5 million. So this isn't a stretch that I'm doing. But one thing

00:03:30.120 she talked about, of course, was education and that they just don't have enough schools for the

00:03:35.640 amount of students that are coming into the education stream. And that obviously schools

00:03:41.400 take multiple years to build. So this isn't something you can do overnight, per se. But she

00:03:48.360 talked about all the social services can't handle the level of immigration that we're currently

00:03:53.840 experiencing, that being healthcare education. I mean, the list goes on. If people use it and

00:03:58.800 it's free, put those quotations there, because obviously the taxpayers are paying for it,

00:04:04.820 then those things will get overrun if our immigration is out of control.

00:04:09.980 The Premier was also asked, you know, people are concerned about whether immigrants coming

00:04:14.840 to Canada and to Alberta specifically are assimilating properly. Obviously, there's heightened

00:04:19.060 stress over that right now. A lot of people are looking at the situation in the UK very warily

00:04:22.880 and wondering if something like that could happen in Canada. And the Premier was asked about this as

00:04:27.800 well. What was her response to that? Yeah, obviously, she drew on what's happening on the UK

00:04:32.580 as a concern, though she didn't see the very many similarities happening in Alberta. The key example

00:04:41.100 she gave was that 70,000 Ukrainians immigrated here fleeing the war. And she said only 1,700 of them

00:04:48.780 are on any form of social assistance. So I mean, she didn't talk about the general numbers. So I don't

00:04:54.800 know how that compares to other immigrants. But I mean, 1,700 out of 70,000 doesn't seem too bad to 1.00

00:05:00.320 me with obviously most of the Ukrainian immigrants contributing to society.

00:05:06.180 For sure. I think that's a really good point as well. I think people want to see immigrants who are

00:05:10.320 settling in Alberta and in Canada working. I think they want to see, you know, them having jobs when

00:05:15.080 they come here and not living off of social welfare. One of the probably most important

00:05:20.760 questions that Corey asked the Premier was if there's going to be more policies coming for

00:05:26.080 immigration and if she'll be advocating for more policies, federal policies on immigration.

00:05:31.480 What did the Premier have to say about that?

00:05:34.360 Yeah, this was really interesting to me in that she was, I guess, unsurprisingly, very critical of the

00:05:39.420 federal government. She said that, look, they've let the immigration system on all streams really

00:05:44.780 get out of control. But something that took me by surprise, I suppose, was that she said that

00:05:51.400 Canada should strive towards finding a 1% of the population target. So that would be only 400,000

00:05:58.660 people, which is less than even the permanent residents we let in of 500,000 a year, let alone all the other

00:06:03.480 immigration streams, that being temporary foreign workers, international students, the list goes on,

00:06:07.160 illegal immigrants, which she said, and Pierre has been saying the same number, which is 1.2 million,

00:06:13.540 although obviously Candace Malcolm, when she previously reported, said 2.3 million in 2023.

00:06:18.940 So I don't know whose number is more accurate. But yeah, regardless, 400,000 is obviously a lot less

00:06:25.200 than both of those numbers.

00:06:27.700 Yeah, and I think 400,000 is more in line that we've been seeing in Canada, and I think would be

00:06:31.900 more sustainable, especially if you consider that would be spread out over the whole country,

00:06:35.240 not just the amount that Alberta itself is absorbing. Isaac, thank you so much for joining

00:06:40.120 us today.

00:06:41.200 Thanks for having me, Rachel. It was a pleasure.

00:06:42.700 Okay, everyone, taking a look at our next story here, the Alberta RCMP believe the remaining

00:06:47.740 suspect involved in last week's shooting that killed a Rocky View County employee and a young

00:06:52.840 father is still in Alberta. Police told us this on Thursday. Mounties are also ramping up communication.

00:06:58.960 I believe this was in response to public outcry over their poor response to the shooting in the

00:07:05.680 initial aftermath and in the certainly initial hours and days when the public had so little

00:07:10.640 information about what was going on and whether they needed to shelter inside. RCMP staff Sergeant

00:07:16.180 Mark Wheelgauss said Thursday that police still believe that 28-year-old Elijah Blake Strawberry

00:07:20.840 remains inside Alberta borders. While the fatal shooting near Chestermere was not targeted,

00:07:25.720 Wheelgauss said Albertans should, quote, take some solace that there is no indication that he

00:07:30.340 actively targeting the public. However, he is armed and dangerous and should not be approached.

00:07:35.400 I personally am not terribly reassured by that. If I was in the Calgary-Chestermere area,

00:07:40.540 I would be on high alert. Still, the RCMP are trying to reassure the public with Wheelgauss also

00:07:46.640 saying, quote, there's no information to say that Mr. Strawberry is selecting at random any members of

00:07:51.920 the public to commit violence upon. That's not to discount that he's still a dangerous person.

00:07:57.360 It is not a spree, so to speak, that he may be targeting other people for extreme violence at

00:08:02.400 random. Strawberry's alleged accomplice, 35-year-old Arthur Wayne Penner, was arrested on Sunday by RCMP's

00:08:08.960 Major Crimes Unit. Penner has been charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder and was

00:08:13.780 remanded in custody with his next court appearance scheduled for Thursday in Airdrie. For those of you who are

00:08:18.600 feeling rather alarmed about the situation and want to know more, the Mounties are ramping up their

00:08:22.720 communications effort, as I said. So every day beginning at 3 p.m. Mountain Time, they will be

00:08:26.960 giving a briefing on the situation. Moving into our controversy of the week, the Elections Alberta

00:08:32.000 has found the Alberta NDP broke election finance rules during its leadership campaign earlier this

00:08:37.260 year. That ruling was found following a complaint from the United Conservative Party, who alleged that

00:08:42.040 the NDP was breaching Section 25 of the Election Finances and Contribution Disclosure Act, which

00:08:48.660 states an annual membership fee is not to be considered a contribution. In the complaint, the UCP

00:08:53.920 said that the NDP membership forms illegally equated party membership fees with contributions. It also

00:08:59.780 claimed that part of the NDP constitution that stated any donation to the party over $10

00:09:03.660 is deemed a valid membership renewal broke election rules. This week, Election Commissioner

00:09:09.240 Paula Hale wrote to the UCP saying Elections Alberta had concluded its investigation and found

00:09:14.580 that the Alberta NDP had indeed violated the rules governing membership fees. Hale wrote, quote,

00:09:20.160 based on the facts and circumstances in this case, I am of the view that the NDP was not in

00:09:25.540 compliance. Specifically, in circumstances where memberships were being renewed as a result of an

00:09:30.660 individual making a contribution in a subsequent year. Hale's letter added that the Alberta NDP have

00:09:35.280 entered into a compliance agreement with Elections Alberta regarding its membership process to ensure

00:09:40.940 continued compliance with the legislation. In a statement to the Edmonton Journal, NDP Provincial

00:09:45.820 Secretary Garrett Spilisi said the party appreciated the clarity on how the law is to be interpreted,

00:09:51.760 adding, quote, we fully cooperated with the commissioner's investigation and we accept the

00:09:56.120 compliance agreement completely. The commissioner has impressed upon the party that unambiguous language

00:10:00.760 to distinguish contributions from membership payment is imperative and we accept that directive without

00:10:07.020 reservation. Okay everyone, and finally moving into our weekly comment roundup, last week I extensively

00:10:11.960 covered how the RCMP was being criticized for its slow response after an Alberta father was killed

00:10:19.160 and a Rocky View County employee was killed and a Fortis employee was injured and you know there was a lot

00:10:24.740 of concern that the RCMP had not released a photo of the suspect, had not released a description of the

00:10:28.840 suspect and many of you agreed that the RCMP's slow response time was not appropriate. Here's what

00:10:33.520 some of you had to say. User Greg Novick said, quote, how could there be no descriptions when the Fortis

00:10:39.040 guy survived and was out of the hospital that night? The RCMP are pathetic, very good point. The RCMP merely 0.95

00:10:45.560 had to ask that man what he saw and even if the description was kind of vague because usually in

00:10:50.980 traumatic incidents you know people have a hard time remembering exactly what happened, any description at

00:10:55.300 that point would have been better than nothing. User at Blue Moon 12 said, I live in Wheatland County,

00:11:01.180 they never gave us full information. Disgraceful, I have zero confidence in the RCMP. I do have the

00:11:07.020 utmost sympathy for people who are living in the area where this shooting occurred because as a young

00:11:12.940 mother myself I would simply be terrified to go out with my children knowing that a man had been killed

00:11:18.200 near where I live and that they still had not found the alleged killer. That would be a very

00:11:24.520 sobering experience I think. Being a young mother there's already so many concerns that you have

00:11:29.840 and then to feel like you can't even go out in public safely that would just be very chilling for

00:11:33.620 me. So certainly for those of you who are living in the area I can understand that this would be

00:11:37.280 rather distressing time. I am glad that the RCMP is moving up to do those updates every day at 3pm

00:11:43.160 and I hope that that will be useful and beneficial to you all and that you will get the information

00:11:47.120 that you need and of course the main thing is just that this killer is found as quickly as

00:11:51.620 possible. Okay everyone that's all we have time for today. Thank you so much for tuning in. I hope

00:11:55.740 you have a great weekend. As always if you're able you can show us some support for our work over at

00:11:59.860 donate.tnc.news. Don't forget to catch my midweek episode of Rachel and the Republic if you're

00:12:06.000 interested in what is going on in the U.S. election. I'll see you guys next week. Have a good one. God bless.

00:12:21.620 Thank you.

The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - August 20, 2024

Danielle Smith agrees — immigration is too high

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