Does Alberta’s local election reform law go too far？
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Summary
The Alberta government is in its second week of defending Bill 20, legislation which would ban tabulators and allow political parties in municipal votes, but the good in the bill is being overshadowed by a bit which would allow the Alberta government to fire city councillors and overturn local bylaws when it s in the public interest. Meanwhile, pro-Palestinian protesters continue to camp out at Canadian universities all across the country.
Transcript
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The Alberta government is in its second week of defending controversial Bill 20,
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legislation which would ban tabulators and allow political parties in municipal votes.
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But the good in the bill is being overshadowed by this bit, which would allow the Alberta cabinet
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to fire city councillors and overturn local bylaws when it's in the public interest.
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Now listen, you don't have to look far in Alberta to find an example of a city council which is
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running their municipality into the ground. If you live in Red Deer, you either have to look
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an hour and a half to the south or to the north to find an example of a city council that's wreaking
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havoc on hard-working tax-paying citizens. But more government is not the solution here. If you
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don't like your city councillors or city council, then the onus is on you to organize to remove them.
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If you're still unconvinced, imagine the damage a future NDP government could do with this type
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of legislation. Those rare voices of common sense on your city council would become less and less
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common. But even if the Conservatives are the only government to use this legislation and they use
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it to remove politicians I don't like, I still won't support it. Because whether the politicians
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want to act like it or not, we still live in a democracy. And in a democracy, the will of the
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people, not the government, will be imposed. I'm Rachel Emanuel, and this is the Alberta Roundup.
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Okay everyone, taking a look at our first story here. The Alberta government is once again
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defending controversial legislation, that's Bill 20, saying it could stop non-citizens from voting in
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Calgary. The Alberta government's Bill 20, the Municipal Amendment Statues Act, would give cabinet
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the power to fire councillors or overturn local bylaws when it's in the public interest. The
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proposed legislation comes as Calgary City Council last week passed a motion to allow non-citizens
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to vote in municipal elections. Speaking specifically about Calgary's decision to allow non-citizens to
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vote, Premier Smith said, quote, that is simply not appropriate nor within their authority. Bill 21 will
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provide the province with a tool to deal with these rare but serious examples of municipal overreach.
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However, Municipal Affairs Minister Rick McIver has already said that he will not change the rules
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to allow non-citizens to vote in municipal elections, begging the question, why is Bill 20 needed?
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Certainly there are some good aspects of the bill, as I mentioned earlier in the show,
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but the parts that would allow the province to dismiss city councillors or overturn bylaws might be
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a step too far. Taking a look at our next story here, by now you've likely seen some images
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of pro-Palestinian protesters holding encampments at Canadian universities all across the country.
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The latest of these happened at the University of Calgary, but protesters weren't there very long
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with Calgary police coming and disbanding the protest on Thursday night. In some scenes that
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appeared very Freedom Convoy-esque, police came and marched through the encampment and forced
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protesters to move. Some of the best coverage of that night was from Rebel News. Here's some images
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taken by friend of the show, Sid. I'm going to play a bit of a longer clip for you guys so you can get a
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And if you guys thought that was the craziest clip I was going to play for you on today's
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You're never going to believe what Alberta bureaucrats are spending your money on now.
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This week, I had Chris Sims, the Alberta director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation
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on my show, and she told me a little bit about the Teddy Waste Awards.
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Those are awards that are given to the person who wastes the most amount of money.
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In Alberta, the award was handed to the Alberta Foundation of the Arts for giving $30,000
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to a so-called artist to produce some rather interesting work.
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I could explain what your money is funding, but I think it's better if I let the images
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Here, quickly, in Alberta, actually, the provincial category, it was the Alberta Foundation for
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They won it for the provincial category here in Alberta because they gave something like
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$30,000 to an Alberta artist who drew a painting that Franco Terrazzano described as ants on a
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And another performance she did was in South Korea, which was, I think, about eight minutes
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And it was her on one of those lawn chairs, you know, the ones that fold up like a lounge.
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And she was rolling around on it for like eight minutes.
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Moving on to our next story here, the Alberta government has launched phase three of its
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Alberta is Calling campaign, hoping to attract skilled workers from other parts of the country.
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But at a time when Alberta is seeing record-breaking population growth, some worry that the province
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Phase three of the Alberta is Calling campaign launched on May 1st and is running ads in
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This phase of the plan offers skilled tradespeople a one-time $5,000 refundable tax credit to entice
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skilled trades workers to come to Alberta and help build housing and infrastructure.
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Here's what Matt Jones, the Alberta Minister of Jobs, Economy, and Trade, had to say about
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the phase in an interview with Global News this week.
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It's laser-focused on attracting skilled trades that we need to build Alberta's houses,
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schools, hospitals, and job-creating infrastructure.
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According to Statistics Canada, Alberta's population surged by more than 200,000 residents
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That's the largest annual increase in the province's history, and it's the equivalent
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to 550 people moving to Alberta every single day.
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My question of the week for you all is, do you want more people moving to Alberta, or do
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you think it's time to end the Alberta is Calling campaign?
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Obviously, the province is seeking to attract skilled workers this time, but I think it's
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safe to assume that lots of others will come along with them.
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Let me know what you think in the comments below.
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Moving into the controversy of the week, the United Conservative Party government is seeking
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to move the date of the election so that it won't collide with natural disasters.
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But in doing so, the opposition Alberta NDP says Daniel Smith's government is seeking
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to conveniently grant itself six extra months of power.
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The UCB government this week tabled legislation to move the scheduled date of the provincial
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vote from the fourth week of May every four years to the third week of October.
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That would mean the next election would be October 18th, 2027, a time when there is less
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Smith told reporters that last year's election was a prime example of the dilemma, as her government
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had to campaign while also fighting fires and organizing evacuations.
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The premier said she had to be careful not to use the crisis to boost her profile while
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also needing to get word out to Albertans on what's happening with the fires.
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She said, quote, running an election parallel to this crisis made a difficult situation more
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The premier also said that she and government ministers faced fines from Elections Alberta
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for using government resources during the campaign.
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She said, quote, I also found myself answering questions about the election at wildfire briefings,
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as well as questions about wildfires at campaign events.
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Albertans need their government's undivided attention during an emergency.
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Opposition leader Rachel Notley, who we know will be resigning soon once the Alberta NDP
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select a new leader, said the UCB government is simply trying to give themselves more time
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Um, or it could have been October of 2026, but giving themselves an extra six months seems
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And finally, moving into what we're watching in the weeks to come, following the city's
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largest ever public hearing, Calgarians will learn next week whether city council heard
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their concerns and abandon a proposal for citywide rezoning.
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Counselors will be able to question city administrators at a meeting on Monday.
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Following that, counselors will be able to vote on the proposed motion and any amendments
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That's the warning for all of you who are living in Calgary.
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This weekend is your last chance to email your counselor and have your concerns about the
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Calgary mayor Jody Gondek said she thinks debate could last two to three days.
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Gondek closed the hearing on Monday night after hearing from 736 speakers and 238 panels.
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City council also received over 6,000 written statements, now part of the public record.
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Counselor Dan McLean told us what we can expect on this show a few weeks ago.
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So what we're going to be having is, uh, a few more, several more days of debate, and
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then we will debate amongst ourselves or several, several more days of public hearings.
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And then that's when the councils will debate and put amendments forward.
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The first thing I would like to do is put it back on the floor to bring it to a plebiscite,
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to refer it back to administration and say, this is 70, 80% of the population does not
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Let's put it on the ballot and let's come back and at least we're working on something
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that people is more tenable, that more people will support.
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It failed last time by one vote, um, to take it to a plebiscite.
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So the, the odds are they might not pass this time, but again, Rachel, there's been so
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And so there's a few councillors that are really listening, uh, and have done polls
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So we need people to possibly, uh, vote with the public when it comes time.
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And again, not to, to go on too long, but there will be some amendments that some councillors
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will put forward to maybe try to water this down instead of maybe four, eight, 12 units.
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Um, but in my opinion, uh, it's going to be, it's, yeah, I can't tell if you, what, how
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people are going to vote, but it's going to come down to one or two councillors to see,
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And finally, moving into our weekly comment roundup, I pulled these comments from my midweek
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episode, which covered Alberta's plans for a high speed rail, mostly because I was very
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User Anolf Adventure said, I am really old and they have been talking about a high speed
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Studies mean that some people are getting our money and producing nothing.
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The government is going to be spending $9 million on a study to see ridership demands
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That is $9 million before anything is even being built.
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I think if there is actually demand for high speed railway, let's just leave that up to
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We don't need to be spending our taxpayer dollars on this, especially at a time when we're really
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in a financial crisis as a province and as a people, I constantly am getting messages
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from people talking about how they're a couple hundred dollars, if not a hundred dollars
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So I don't really think this is the time for a high speed rail line.
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User Izzard P said, I'll bet Banff and Jasper are really excited to have the homeless drag
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addicts from Calgary and Edmonton chasing tourists away all summer.
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Actually, when I first moved to Calgary, something I heard a lot from people was that Tuscany used
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to be a really nice place to live and then they built the LRT out to Tuscany and then
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they started to have issues with homelessness out there.
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So it is interesting that wherever there is these LRT lines dropping up, it just gives the
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homeless more ability to travel throughout the city and creates more problems
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And it's true when you're driving around Calgary now, I feel like you see homeless people kind
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of all over the place, walking along the highways and places that you wouldn't have expected
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That being said, my favorite comment of the week goes to Tragically Clef, who said,
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we going to get Homer Simpson to drive this monorail.
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Definitely the best ever episode of the Simpsons.
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If you're a fan, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
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Okay, everyone, that's all we have time for today.
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Please like this video and subscribe to Tune North so you don't miss any of our content.
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I will be back on Wednesday with my regular programming.