Randy Boissoneau has stepped down from his ministerial position to focus on clearing the allegations made against him, according to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Also on the show today, we ll be discussing the return to the spotlight of former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, how Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek asked her citizens to find any theoretical budget cuts she could make, which she deemed impossible, to not affect essential services. We ll also dive into how Alberta dominated Canada s job growth in October, accounting for more than 91% of national gains. Lastly, we'll cover the recent news of Edmonton Police Chief Dale McPhee stepping down.
00:05:08.540I am confident that the former prime minister and his board colleagues will provide the necessary oversight
00:05:13.880and direction to AIMCO's management to ensure AIMCO is strategically well-positioned for long-term success.
00:05:19.820AIMCO ranks among Canada's 10 largest pension funds managing over $160 billion in assets.
00:05:26.820It achieved a 7.3% annualized return over the past decade, including an $8.9 billion net investment return in 2023.
00:05:35.480The Alberta government fired the entire board in early November and appointed Horner Interim Director.
00:05:40.820The Alberta government cited that between 2019 and 2023, AIMCO's third-party management fees increased by 96%,
00:05:48.640the number of employees increased by 29%, and the salary, wage, and benefit costs increased by 71%.
00:05:55.780The increases came despite managing a smaller percentage of funds internally.
00:06:00.840Harper served as Canada's 22nd prime minister from 2006 to 2015.
00:06:05.600During his time in office, Harper reduced federal taxes to their lowest level in 50 years,
00:06:11.860created over 1.3 million jobs, and balanced the budget while investing in infrastructure and healthcare.
00:06:18.400He also created the Modern Conservative Party of Canada and was the longest-serving conservative prime minister since Sir John A. Macdonald.
00:06:26.460Harper serves as chairman and CEO of Harper & Associates Consulting and chairs Vision One, an investment fund he co-founded.
00:06:33.220He also serves as the director of Collier International Group, Alimentation Couchetard, and Recover Incorporated.
00:06:41.880Following his retirement in 2016, Harper returned to Alberta and has lived there ever since.
00:06:47.500Now hopping into beloved mayor Jyoti Gondek, who was faced with a wave of backlash following some comments she made regarding the city's budget,
00:06:56.620when she claimed that there was no room for cuts.
00:06:58.840Gondek celebrated her budget on Monday, saying she stuck to her promises by not increasing the budget by more than 3.6% while addressing key concerns,
00:07:08.360suggesting that there were no improvements to be made when it came to reducing city spending.
00:07:13.000The mayor challenged anyone to cut anything that didn't include the budget's three critical components,
00:07:18.000infrastructure, transit, and public safety, which she said compromises 75% of the budget.
00:07:24.520This challenge many residents took up on social media.
00:07:27.340So kudos to everyone who chimed in, as there were almost 500 comments on Gondek's post to X,
00:07:32.980generally offering the very ideas that she suggested did not exist.
00:07:37.040So I compiled a top 5 list of the most common or salient suggestions.
00:07:42.600Also, the day after Gondek issued her challenge, Second Street re-released a policy brief it had written in 2021,
00:08:05.060containing 10 examples on how municipalities could cut their spending.
00:08:09.660So yeah, let me know in the comments if you have any other ideas on how Gondek could cut wasteful spending and where that money could be better utilized.
00:08:17.220So hopping into our next story here, this, that Alberta accounted for 91% of Canada's net job growth in October.
00:08:24.400Now I know that sounds almost impossible given our limited population compared to big provinces like Ontario and Quebec,
00:08:31.880but it's key to understand that this is net job gains.
00:08:35.020So Canada saw employment grow from 20,582,400 in September to 20,596,900 in October.
00:08:45.460Alberta saw jobs grow from 2,529,800 in September to 2,543,000 in October, which was a gain of 13,200 jobs,
00:08:56.800or 91% of the total 14,500 jobs gained in Canada.
00:09:01.760So some provinces, like British Columbia, saw similar rises of 8,300 jobs.
00:09:07.020However, these were offset by the 10,900 jobs lost between September and October in Ontario.
00:09:13.360The job losses in Ontario came despite the population growing by 39,000.
00:09:18.780In fact, the entire country saw its working age population rise by 85,200 people between September and October.
00:09:25.540Therefore, while the country saw an increase of 14,500 jobs,
00:09:31.680it saw 70,700 more working age individuals enter the job market than the number of jobs created.
00:09:39.300So the working population grew at 587.5% of the job growth rate between September and October.
00:09:47.060Alberta has previously led the country in gains from interprovincial migration
00:09:50.880as Canadians are fleeing expensive cities for greater affordability.
00:09:55.260The trend of interprovincial migration driven by affordability has seen rent decrease
00:09:59.400in Canada's most expensive provinces while it has increased in the most affordable.
00:10:04.240While Alberta's population grew, it fared much better than the rest of the country.
00:10:08.360So between September and October, Alberta's population grew by 14,400.
00:10:12.780And of course, as I said, the employment grew by 13,200.
00:10:16.040Therefore, only 1,200 more working class people enter the job force than did jobs, or a rate of 109%.
00:10:23.300Average hourly wages grew 4.9% to $35.76 an hour year over year in October,
00:10:31.400rising further from the 4.6 annual increase seen in September.
00:10:35.800Despite the rise in wages, only 61.3% of Canadians reported being very satisfied with their job.
00:10:42.080This was a decrease of 0.9% since October of last year.
00:10:46.040The younger people were, the more likely they were to be dissatisfied.
00:10:50.960So hopping into our last story here, Edmonton Police Chief Dale McPhee announced on Wednesday
00:10:56.920that he would be stepping down on February 21st after just over six years on the job.
00:11:02.660The Edmonton Police Commission said that it will determine the hiring process of selecting a new chief within the coming months.