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.