The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - Liberal legislation spells bad news for Alberta businesses

00:00:00.000 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government might be down 20 points in the polls,

00:00:03.400 but they had another small victory this week. It wasn't a victory for the Canadian people,

00:00:08.380 or for truth or freedom of expression, but that's pretty much par for the course at this point.

00:00:14.020 Oil and gas companies have begun scrubbing their websites over fear of facing fines of

00:00:19.040 millions if they don't comply with Trudeau's latest censorship crackdown. Now these companies

00:00:25.000 have budgets of billions of dollars and access to the best lawyers in the country.

00:00:30.000 If that's what tyranny can do to them, just imagine what it can do to you.

00:00:34.580 I'm Rachel Emanuel, and this is the Alberta Roundup.

00:00:45.720 Okay everyone, taking a look at our first story here. The Pathway Alliance group of oil sands company

00:00:53.320 has removed all content from its website and social media feeds, citing uncertainty over a new

00:00:59.680 anti-greenwashing rule poised to become federal law, which says it applies a standard so vague as to

00:01:05.760 lack meaning. The bill triggered a rallying cry on Thursday from the energy industry and led many

00:01:11.300 companies to follow suit in deleting content from their websites, citing confusion around the new

00:01:15.960 legislation. The Pathways Alliance is a consortium of Canada's six largest oil sands companies,

00:01:21.500 which together have publicly committed to reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions from oil sands

00:01:26.260 production by 2050. The consortium has previously spent millions of dollars on a countrywide public

00:01:31.760 relation blitz aimed at demonstrating the oil sands is committed to helping fight climate change.

00:01:37.140 But as of Thursday, all that remains on the group's website is a notice saying Pathway has removed all

00:01:42.140 its content due to concern around an anti-greenwashing provision in federal bill C-59. Pathways published a

00:01:48.860 Thursday afternoon statement signed by its six members and Pathways president, Kendall Dilling,

00:01:53.740 saying the decision to pull its online content was, quote, a direct consequence of this legislation

00:01:59.260 and are not related to our commitments or belief in the accuracy of our environmental communications.

00:02:05.600 The statement continues, the result of this legislation, which has been quickly put in place with

00:02:10.240 little or no consultation, is to silence Canadian businesses taking climate action. The group says it's

00:02:16.080 continuing to advocate to the federal government for clarity on the amendments. The Omnibus Bill C-59

00:02:21.620 passed third reading in the Senate on Wednesday and will soon become law. It contains a truth in

00:02:27.100 advertising amendment that would require corporations to provide evidence to support

00:02:31.320 their environmental claims. The provision is not fossil fuel specific, but applies to all businesses and

00:02:36.620 economic sectors. The bill's wording says businesses must not make claims to the public about what they

00:02:42.100 are doing to protect the environment or mitigates the effect of climate change unless those claims are

00:02:46.720 based on, quote, adequate and proper substantiation in accordance with internationally recognized

00:02:52.140 methodology. Pathway and other groups on Thursday said such methodology has not been defined. In its

00:02:57.420 statement, Pathway called it so vague as to lack meaning and said it, quote, opens the door for

00:03:02.100 frivolous litigation, particularly by private entities who will now be empowered to directly enforce this

00:03:07.780 new provision of the Competition Act. The passage of the provision is a win for Canadian environmental

00:03:12.320 groups who have been mounting a full-fledged campaign against greenwashing. That's a term the left has

00:03:17.920 given to companies they say are marketing their products as more sustainable than they really are. In the

00:03:22.740 last year, Canadian green groups have lodged at least four formal complaints with the Federal

00:03:26.920 Competition Bureau alleging greenwashing or false environmental claims by fossil fuel companies or banks.

00:03:33.080 The Pathways Alliance was the target of one of those complaints. Environmental groups have said the

00:03:37.740 consortium's ads and public claims about net zero are misleading. As the Pathways Alliance

00:03:42.300 has not yet made a final investment decision on its proposed $16.5 billion carbon capture and

00:03:48.660 storage network. Pathways is not the only organization that's responded to Bill C-59 by

00:03:53.320 pulling its online content. The Clean Resource Innovation Network, a group that connects Canada's

00:03:58.660 oil and gas industry, innovators, technology vendors, academia, research institutes, financiers,

00:04:04.660 and government, wrote in a social media post that the amendments have introduced uncertainties

00:04:08.660 and it quote, cannot currently publicly share environmental performance metrics for the

00:04:13.080 projects we support. As of Thursday, the Clean Resource Innovation Network's website was under

00:04:17.380 maintenance. Meanwhile, the Petroleum Technology Alliance of Canada has also taken down its website,

00:04:22.940 though it's unclear whether that's in response to Bill C-59. As I mentioned last week, the government

00:04:27.740 of Alberta is gearing up to fight this legislation. They are looking at the options of a constitutional

00:04:32.480 challenge and also utilizing the Alberta sovereignty within United Canada Act. That was Alberta Premier,

00:04:37.960 Daniel Smith's hallmark piece of legislation that was the first bill she passed when she became

00:04:42.060 premier, and it seeks to bar federal legislation deemed harmful to Alberta and its interests. In a

00:04:47.180 statement from Alberta Premier Daniel Smith, Environment Minister Rebecca Schultz, and Energy and Minerals

00:04:52.040 Minister Brian Jean, they said the bill appears to be part of an agenda to create chaos and uncertainty

00:04:57.540 for energy investors with a purpose of phasing out the energy industry altogether. The statement continues,

00:05:03.380 quote, ironically, this kind of absurd authoritarian censorship will only work to stifle many billions

00:05:09.360 in investment in emissions reducing technologies. The very technologies the world needs to reduce

00:05:14.920 emissions while avoiding energy poverty for billions around the world. As I mentioned in the introduction,

00:05:20.300 these are companies that do have quite extensive budgets to fight what the federal government is

00:05:25.340 doing here to take the federal government to court. My question of the week for you all is, do you think it is the

00:05:29.620 right decision from these companies to scrub their websites or do you think they should leave the

00:05:33.400 content up and be willing to go to court with the federal government to fight the regulations that

00:05:37.300 we're seeing? Let me know in the comment below. Delete the websites or fight the federal government

00:05:41.520 even though it could cost them hundreds of thousands in legal fees would be my estimate.

00:05:46.600 Okay everyone, moving on to our next story here, this one takes a closer look at what's going in

00:05:50.580 Alberta schools. The Alberta government announced this week that they would be banning cell phones

00:05:55.100 in kindergarten through grade 12 classrooms though they are going to be giving school boards

00:05:59.860 significant autonomy over how these policies are adopted. This ban will come into effect at the

00:06:05.140 start of the next school year beginning on September 1st and it will apply to all public schools,

00:06:10.160 separate francophone, public charter, independent school authorities and early childhood service

00:06:14.640 operations. The decision comes after the Alberta government pulled over 68,000 respondents who are primarily

00:06:20.740 teachers and parents. Minister of Education Dimitris Nicolaitis said it was the most responded to

00:06:25.900 survey in the province's history. Take a listen to what else he had to say. The survey results were clear

00:06:31.720 that the use of cell phones is of significant concern and that additional measures should be taken

00:06:39.580 to limit cell phone use in our classrooms. The minister also said that 90% of respondents were concerned

00:06:45.620 with school cell phone use, 85% believe cell phones hurt student achievement, 81% believe cell phones

00:06:52.360 increase instances of bullying, and 60% of parents believe that cell phones negatively impact their

00:06:57.820 child's mental health. Paige McPherson, Associate Director of Education Policy at the Fraser Institute,

00:07:03.200 told the Andrew Lawton Show that research on cell phone use in classrooms is very clear. Take a listen to

00:07:08.440 what that research shows. And what it found is that there's actually a measurable impact on math scores

00:07:15.740 in particular when it comes to digital distraction in classrooms. So that's from people either being

00:07:21.600 distracted by their own devices or people being distracted by the devices of people in the classroom

00:07:27.460 around them. And that's really informative for when it comes to crafting smartphone ban policies in

00:07:34.000 classrooms. As British Columbia's economic rating continues to slide off the deep end, Alberta has

00:07:39.800 taken a step in the other direction. Alberta's long-term credit rating has been upgraded from

00:07:44.940 AA- to AA. The inverse occurred in British Columbia where the province credit rating was downgraded

00:07:50.920 from AA to AA- in April. That marks the third time their provincial credit rating has been downgraded.

00:07:57.060 Alberta Finance Minister Nate Horner said in a press release, quote,

00:07:59.800 This upgrade confirms that Alberta is on the right path, as only one of two Canadian provinces to

00:08:05.020 balance their budget this year. Our economy is growing rapidly across a variety of sectors.

00:08:10.560 And with new added pipeline capacity, we will only see that continue. Alberta's most recent budget

00:08:15.880 showed the province with a $367 million surplus. Conversely, British Columbia posted a record-setting

00:08:22.220 $7.9 billion deficit. Alberta's other provincial neighbor, Saskatchewan, also had a deficit

00:08:27.920 of $273 million. Here's Deborah Yedlin, the CEO of Calgary Chamber of Commerce, talking about what the

00:08:34.840 upgrade means for the province of Alberta on CBC Radio this week. Take a listen.

00:08:38.980 It's really good news. And it also shows that we are moving ahead in terms of strengthening the

00:08:45.640 economy, diversifying the economy, and that the rating agencies have confidence in our fiscal

00:08:51.000 structure and how we're managing our finances. So it's a really good news story for the province.

00:08:56.220 Okay, everyone, moving into the controversy of the week, more than 2,200 Calgarians think their

00:09:01.880 neighbors aren't doing an adequate job of conserving water as the city is in stage four water

00:09:06.640 restrictions and has called a city bylaw officer to complain. This week, the city said that they would

00:09:11.960 be moving from education to fines with those fines beginning at $3,000. I'm not going to spend a lot of

00:09:18.120 time on the story because I spent an entire show talking about it this week. You can go back and find

00:09:23.020 that episode. It was posted on Wednesday. If you want a sneak peek at what that looks like, take a

00:09:27.120 listen. And this week, city officials announced that they were moving past the education portion

00:09:31.640 and telling officers to begin ticketing with fines beginning at $3,000. This is Canada in 2024. If

00:09:39.020 you're found guilty of not being sufficiently stronger together or whatever the latest saying is,

00:09:43.120 then you'll have to pay through the nose. Or in the case of pastors in COVID-19, you'll be put in jail.

00:09:48.740 But the politicians and government officials that screw up time and time again, their worst case

00:09:54.040 scenario is not being re-elected and instead receiving a cushy six-figure consulting job

00:09:59.160 with a hefty expense account. It really is one rule for thee and another rule for me.

00:10:05.440 And the sooner we all realize that, the sooner we can start doing something about it.

00:10:09.180 Finally, moving what we're watching in the weeks to come, the Alberta NDP is selecting their new

00:10:13.960 leader today on Saturday evening. You guys are going to want to keep an eye out for that. I will have a

00:10:18.340 story posted to the True North website, so you can go find that over the weekend. It is the Alberta

00:10:22.920 NDP leadership race. I doubt many of you will be rushing to learn the results of that leadership

00:10:27.620 race, but we will have it on our website on Saturday for all of you. More than 85,000 party members are

00:10:34.400 expected to cast a ballot for the new leader, and there's four contenders in the running. Of course,

00:10:38.500 that's Calgary Mayor and Head Nenshi. He is largely expected to win the contest. His other main

00:10:43.420 competitor would be former cabinet minister and Alberta NDP MLA Kathleen Gainley. There's also

00:10:49.720 Jody Calhous Stonehouse. She's a relative newcomer to politics and Sarah Hoffman, the former Alberta

00:10:54.480 NDP health minister. So I'll have that story for you guys on our website on Saturday evening. And of

00:10:58.860 course, there will be lots of coverage of the leader in future weeks. Okay, everyone, finally time to move

00:11:04.880 into our weekly comment roundup. So many good comments to dive into today. Starting off, user Ben

00:11:10.080 Volman says, quote, yet the stampede goes on. I think I'm being played. How can we have a million

00:11:15.340 visitors if we're in such an emergency? Gondek says, drink beer instead of water. This world just

00:11:21.380 keeps on getting weirder. So that, of course, was in response to the news that we're in a crisis, but

00:11:26.340 City of Calgary is going to go ahead with a stampede. This is one of the more controversial things I might

00:11:32.460 say on this show. So don't hate on me. I'm just going to be honest. I'm doing this in the spirit of

00:11:37.700 free speech and free discussion. I don't really care for the Calgary stampede. I think it's kind

00:11:42.340 of just a big drink fest and I don't really drink alcohol at all. Maybe the occasional drink with

00:11:46.600 some friends here and there. So it's not my cup of tea. And of course, it's just so busy. It's so

00:11:51.200 hot. I'd rather be like in the mountains or at the lake on a hot July day. Like I said, I know

00:11:57.200 that's controversial. If there's someone here who really loves the stampede, maybe I'm missing out.

00:12:00.760 I've never actually been to the fairgrounds to get food and things like that. I mostly go to like

00:12:05.300 networking events. So I don't know. Maybe I just haven't experienced the full stampede. Maybe I

00:12:10.580 need to pay a lot of money to go on some, you know, circus rides, that type of thing. But it's not my

00:12:14.960 cup of tea. That said, I know it brings a lot of money to the city. So obviously they desire to keep

00:12:19.440 that open. They would have a lot of really angry businesses if they had to close that down. It

00:12:23.640 brings in a lot of tourism dollars. But I think you raise a really good point here. This is actually

00:12:27.680 an emergency. I feel like the stampede would probably be canceled. Now I'm by no means calling for

00:12:32.580 the stampede to be canceled. I just think it's a little bit ironic that Calgarians can't go

00:12:36.540 swimming this summer and we're having all these visitors here for a big drink fest while, you

00:12:40.860 know, Calgarians are being asked to just accept a lower quality of living. And then on the other

00:12:46.200 side of the coin, the Calgary stampede was obviously canceled during COVID. And I think we can all agree

00:12:50.720 that that wasn't really a real crisis. So this is what happens when the government did what they did

00:12:55.920 during the last couple of years with the COVID restrictions. Everything was closed down. Everything was

00:12:59.740 considered a crisis. And that's left all of us really scratching our heads and wondering when

00:13:03.620 we can trust the government and how much. And I think most of us are erring on the side of caution

00:13:07.480 and questioning everything, which is probably the best approach. So just some of my thoughts on that

00:13:11.620 issue. Taking a look at our next comment here from user at Mateen Harris. EB speaking like his not on

00:13:17.040 team Trudeau. How stupid does he think BC people are? Yeah, so that of course was in response to 1.00

00:13:21.960 BC Premier David EB last week taking a really strong stance against the Trudeau government and kind of

00:13:28.040 complaining that they weren't getting the same immigration dollars that Quebec was getting.

00:13:31.960 Definitely something different from what we've seen from him. His polling numbers are also dropping

00:13:35.920 and I think that's why we're seeing him getting, you know, frustrated with the Trudeau government. And

00:13:40.960 especially in what he was saying last week, he was saying young people are having a really hard time

00:13:46.080 affording homes because of all the newcomers coming here. And so BC deserves the same amount of

00:13:49.960 dollars. So he's obviously making a pitch to the young people there. We often see that with

00:13:55.600 lefty politicians, they make a pitch to the younger people hope they can get out those votes because

00:14:00.420 all times those kids don't really come out to vote for anyone. They're not interested in politics. So

00:14:03.860 I think that's probably why we see him, you know, attacking the Trudeau government. He's seeing his

00:14:08.360 polling numbers and he's like, I got to do something about this. Finally, I got this really thoughtful

00:14:12.100 message on X from a viewer named Drew. He said, Rachel, I love your show. It is quickly becoming my

00:14:18.060 favorite True North podcast. You've mentioned a couple times how you would like to see an end to the

00:14:22.540 Alberta is calling program. I disagree. I think this is the sort of program the province needs.

00:14:27.460 I am originally from and currently living in BC. However, I have recently bought a home in Airdrie,

00:14:32.360 Alberta. I am an experienced power engineer and will be working in the energy sector. My wife is in

00:14:37.200 healthcare and works as a care aid. We are the type of people that the province should want to attract.

00:14:42.620 The Alberta is calling program will provide us with a welcomed $5,000 tax break, but we will

00:14:47.200 contribute more than 10 times that in our first tax year alone. We will be strong contributors to the

00:14:51.960 economy and will add a lot of value to the province. These sort of value calling initiatives

00:14:57.700 should be encouraged. It is the addition of unskilled migrants, immigrants, or refugees that 1.00

00:15:03.440 drain on resources that should be limited or avoided. Keep up the great work. So he's making

00:15:07.320 the argument that what the Alberta is calling campaign is doing is it's offering some boutique

00:15:11.720 tax credits. We saw Stephen Harper's conservative government do this type of thing a lot to the

00:15:16.440 type of people that it wants to attract. So obviously in this case, skilled workers. Yes, we do need

00:15:19.680 healthcare workers. He mentioned that he was a experienced power engineer. So obviously these

00:15:25.540 are people who are going to be contributing to the economy. I don't know if everyone who was hearing

00:15:28.640 about the Alberta is calling campaign realizes that that's the message. I am an Ontario visiting

00:15:33.600 family and I've heard about this program from so many people being like, oh yeah, I heard your

00:15:37.060 province is trying to attract people here. Not all of these people have the skilled labor that

00:15:43.400 we're looking for. Not all of these people would be eligible for these tax credits. They just

00:15:47.800 generally hear, oh, Alberta is calling. It's cheaper, lower cost of living. If we move there,

00:15:52.100 we can have a great life there. And I think especially for conservatives living outside of

00:15:56.620 Alberta in places like Ontario, they sort of see Alberta as, you know, this beacon of conservatism

00:16:03.200 and they think, oh, that's sort of like a backup option for me, especially now with this Alberta

00:16:07.080 is calling campaign. And I think it just gives a lot of people the idea that they should move

00:16:10.680 there even if they are not eligible for these tax credits. So that is one of my arguments against

00:16:15.620 Alberta is calling campaign is that it just makes everyone else elsewhere in Canada think that we

00:16:20.500 want them to move there. And most of these people are moving to Calgary or in one of the nearby

00:16:25.240 neighborhoods. As you mentioned, you bought the house in Airdrie, not far from Calgary. The cost

00:16:28.720 of living in Calgary is so high right now. I actually think it's comparable to the cost of living

00:16:32.020 in Niagara I'm initially from. Maybe still a little bit lower, but definitely not by much.

00:16:36.260 We're actually seeing housing prices in Niagara, you know, they're starting to come down,

00:16:40.840 supplies going up, and we still don't have it in Calgary. And that's largely due to

00:16:44.200 interprovincial immigration. So that's one of my arguments against the Alberta's calling campaign.

00:16:48.600 My other is I just don't really like boutique tax credits. No offense to you. I mean, that's

00:16:52.700 awesome. You guys saved that $5,000. I would just like to see lower taxes for everybody.

00:16:56.700 Taxes in Canada are way too high. And when we look at Alberta, our income tax rate is actually

00:17:03.240 higher than it is in places like Ontario. I could not believe how much money I paid in taxes

00:17:07.200 the first year that I lived in Alberta. And it actually sort of decentivized me from wanting

00:17:11.480 to run my own business because of how much income tax I paid. So you seem awesome. I'm glad you and

00:17:15.480 your wife are making the decision to move to Alberta. Still don't like the program. Okay,

00:17:19.540 everyone, that's all we have time for today. Don't forget to subscribe to True North so you don't

00:17:22.700 miss any of our content and to like this video. I will be back on Wednesday with more content for

00:17:28.740 you guys. You can also head over to donate.tnc.news if you want to show some support for my work.

00:17:34.660 Hope that you guys have a great weekend. I'll see you guys next week. God bless.

00:17:41.480 God bless.

The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - June 22, 2024

Liberal legislation spells bad news for Alberta businesses

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