00:00:12.100Feel the aero bubbles melt. It's mind-bubbling.
00:00:24.600Hey everyone, welcome back to the Alberta Roundup.
00:00:27.080I'm your host, Rachel Emanuel. I'm filming live from Calgary today, where I was here earlier this week to cover the UCP leadership announcement.
00:00:34.620We have a lot of great topics for you today.
00:00:36.780What we're going to be looking at, Alberta has a new premier.
00:00:40.120Meanwhile, everybody wants to live in this province.
00:00:42.800Edmonton City Councilors have passed their plastics ban.
00:00:45.680They're also discussing $170 million worth of bike lanes.
00:00:49.820And Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino has said he needs the province's help to implement his gun buyback scheme.
00:00:57.080All that and more happening now on the Alberta Roundup.
00:01:00.240Okay guys, let's start with the biggest story in the province, maybe in the country right now.
00:01:04.040Alberta has a new premier. It is Danielle Smith.
00:01:07.100She won the Alberta premiership on the sixth ballot with 53.8% of voters' support.
00:01:13.220Now it was a very suspenseful night for those of us that were on the ground.
00:01:18.260So it started with an announcement from the party a couple hours before the leadership event was supposed to begin.
00:01:23.820That it was going to be delayed by about two hours.
00:01:27.100Now there was lots of speculations, maybe even some conspiracy theories, if you will, about what had gone wrong.
00:01:32.600But it turned out the counting process was going well.
00:01:35.220The party just needed a little more time to verify and count the ballots.
00:01:38.060So they announced that they were adding more volunteers in hopes of getting that process done quickly and that the results would be announced at 7.30.
00:01:45.380The results didn't come in until about 8.25pm.
00:01:48.280And once they did come in, they were given ballot results every 7 to 10 minutes.
00:01:52.340You guys might be surprised to learn that leadership candidate Lila Ahir was the first to drop off the ballot.
00:01:56.960I know, who thought that the candidate that sold UCP leadership memberships at a liberal event with Trudeau would be the first to fall off the ballot for a Conservative Party leadership nomination?
00:02:07.840Ahir fell off the ballot with 1.7% of the vote.
00:02:10.940Following her, Raj and Sani fell off with 2.6% of voter support.
00:02:15.960Interestingly, shortly before the results were announced, Sani gave a little press conference.
00:02:20.520And she said that she had no regrets about her campaign and that she would support the leader no matter who they were.
00:02:25.680Now you guys might remember Sani sort of positioned herself as the antidote to Daniel Smith throughout the leadership campaign.
00:02:31.960She said she thought many of Smith's policies were dangerous like the Alberta Sovereignty Act and that she wanted to position herself as a candidate who was an alternative to Smith.
00:02:39.820But now she's made it clear that she will support Smith in her leadership.
00:02:43.420After Smith fell off, independent MLA Todd Lowen fell off the ballot with 7.8% of voter support.
00:02:48.920The question here is whether or not he'll be allowed back into caucus.
00:02:51.840He texted me on Friday and said he was in the UCP caucus meeting.
00:02:55.680So I think that's a pretty good indication that we'll see him back in the caucus pretty soon.
00:03:00.160Rebecca Schultz was the next to fall off with 8.4% of voter support, followed by Brian Jean with 14.8% of the vote.
00:03:07.900And then, of course, it came down to former Finance Minister Travis Taves.
00:03:12.240He was trailing Smith in the polls throughout the entire campaign.
00:03:14.780He came second with 46.23% of the vote.
00:03:18.340So it was certainly a very tight race that went all the way to the sixth ballot before Smith finally pulled off the victory with 53.8%, as I mentioned.
00:03:26.260And the crowd was certainly very excited when she had that victory.
00:03:29.580We're going to play a little bit of her victory speech for you now.
00:04:31.900Premier-designate Danielle Smith has said she's not interested in supporting another Olympic bid.
00:04:36.300For those of you who aren't aware, in November 2018, 56.4% of Calgarians voted to stop the exploration of a 2026 Olympic bid.
00:04:44.600Earlier this week on The Cori Morgan Show, Smith said the people have smoking.
00:04:48.200She said an Olympic bid would be massively expensive and there's no appetite for the province to take it on.
00:04:53.460This next story won't come to a surprise for those of us that are living here, but it looks like everyone wants to live in Alberta.
00:05:00.080A new report from the Alberta Treasury Board suggests that Alberta is increasingly a desirable destination for Canadians struggling under a cost-of-living crisis.
00:05:08.300The report said that interprovincial immigration to Alberta has not been this high since 2014.
00:05:12.600That's the last time oil prices were over $100 per barrel.
00:05:17.080This story hits home for me because I was one of the people that moved to Alberta in the second quarter from Ontario.
00:05:22.140I know some of you told me at the time that I was another Ontario plant.
00:05:25.560But by and large, people have been very friendly since I've been here and I think that's the experience for most newcomers.
00:05:30.940Ontario, meanwhile, lost the largest number of people to interprovincial immigration and contributed the most number of new Alberta residents.
00:05:39.420Okay, guys, I told you I would keep my eye on this story for you and I have.
00:05:43.780Unfortunately, I have to tell you that Edmonton City Councilors have approved their plastics bylaw.
00:05:48.340It will take effect beginning July 1, 2023.
00:05:51.520Councilors approve the proposal in an 11 to 13 vote on Tuesday.
00:05:55.320For those of you who aren't familiar what the bylaw is going to look like,
00:05:58.140essentially plastic utensils and condiment packages will be restricted under the bylaw unless a customer requests them.
00:06:04.180And restaurants must serve dine and drinks in reusable cups.
00:06:06.980Okay, guys, moving into the controversy of the week.
00:06:10.380Edmonton City Councilors this week approved a proposal for building 100 kilometers of bike lanes that will cost the city $170 million,
00:06:18.200plus another $11 million to maintain annually.
00:06:21.720City administrators presented four options, with the lowest option costing $25 million and the most expensive option being the $170 million option.
00:06:30.260That option would have construction finished by 2026.
00:06:32.900Now, I must note that final approval still has to come in fall at during budget talks.
00:06:38.040And I'm not saying that this is a waste of money.
00:06:39.940Of course, as a journalist, I would never give my opinion.
00:06:41.880But people online were quick to know that you can sometimes only bike in Alberta for three to four months.
00:06:46.680In the winters, temperatures sometimes drop to, oh, I don't know, negative 49 degrees Celsius.
00:06:51.140So, if you're one of those people who's biking all year round, that'll be great for you.
00:06:55.280But I suspect there's only about four people who really fall into that category.
00:06:59.000What we're watching in the weeks to come.
00:07:00.460I'm sure you guys are aware that Danielle Smith is the only UCP leadership candidate who didn't have a seat in the Alberta legislature.
00:07:06.620She still doesn't have a seat, of course, but she'll be looking to run in a by-election.
00:07:10.120She said that some people have come up to her.
00:07:12.040Some UCP MLAs have come up to her and suggested that, you know, maybe she could run in their seat.
00:07:16.180They're willing to step down so she can run.
00:07:18.000On Friday morning, Michaela Fry posted on Twitter that she was stepping down and that she was encouraging Daniel Smith to run in her riding.
00:07:24.840So, I'll let you know as soon as we hear whether or not Smith is going to run in that by-election or in another one.
00:07:29.660Of course, something else to keep your eye out for if any of the UCP leadership candidates that were unsuccessful decide to give up their seat in the legislature ahead of the next general election this spring.
00:07:39.520All right, guys, and the funny Alberta politics moment of the week.
00:07:42.380Federal Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino has admitted that he needs the province's help to implement his gun grab scheme.
00:07:49.740You guys are familiar with the details of this story by now.
00:07:52.480Essentially, three provinces, including Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Minnetoba, have told the government they don't want to help its gun grab scheme.
00:07:58.560And they definitely don't want their provincial resources being redirected to act as confiscation agents when they're already in dire shortage of the provincial resources.
00:08:06.940Now, at a Tuesday's hearing of the Parliamentary Committee on Public Safety, a Conservative MP asked Mendicino whether he has a plan B for provinces that won't aid in the gun grab buyback.
00:08:16.980The minister acknowledged that he has no plan B and said he still focused on plan A.