The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - RCMP criticized for slow response to Alberta murder

00:00:00.000 There's killers on the loose in Alberta. The RCMP are continuing its manhunt after a young

00:00:06.460 father was killed on Tuesday. At the time, residents were told to shelter in place at their

00:00:12.200 homes. But the RCMP are now being lambasted for their response. They did not warn residents that

00:00:19.840 the killers were driving around in a stolen city truck. And now, five days later, they still have

00:00:25.740 not released description of the suspects. Let's dive into the details. I'm Rachel Parker and you're

00:00:31.640 watching the Alberta Roundup. Alberta RCMP have released a photo that is believed to be of

00:00:45.280 potential witnesses in Tuesday's fatal shooting that has led to a province-wide manhunt for two

00:00:52.160 suspects. On Tuesday, just before noon, two people were shot and wounded, one fatally, in an incident

00:00:58.060 that resulted in a manhunt for the two suspects who fled in a stolen vehicle. A Rockyview County

00:01:03.420 employee was murdered on the side of the road. He was a young father named Colin Hoff. A Fortis

00:01:08.840 employee was also shot in the arm at the scene of the crime. Description of the suspects still are not

00:01:15.440 available. On Thursday, RCMP said investigators are looking for help identifying the occupants of a car

00:01:20.680 that may have witnessed Tuesday's fatal interaction. It's a dark gray Volkswagen golf sport wagon,

00:01:27.080 potentially from between 2013 and 2015. You can see it pictured here. While Calgarians were told to

00:01:32.900 shelter in place, another controversy was erupting, that of the RCMP's slow response time. Western

00:01:38.780 Standard columnist Corey Morgan documented the RCMP's brutal response throughout the week. In a Wednesday

00:01:44.760 column, he wrote, yesterday while driving, my phone and radio station blew up simultaneously as an

00:01:50.620 emergency alert had been issued. The voice warned that two extremely dangerous armed individuals were

00:01:56.520 at large east of Calgary and that people in the area should lock their doors and windows while

00:02:01.520 sheltering in place. That was it. No description of the gender, age, size, clothing, or race of the

00:02:07.960 individuals. Just a warning to say how much danger people are in and that they should cower at home.

00:02:14.240 The situation didn't change for hours. People were expected to hide out and await word of new

00:02:20.280 developments. It sounded as if nothing was happening, but indeed it was. Details were emerging on a local

00:02:26.640 meta page of a county of Rockyview work truck being chased through people's property. They even posted

00:02:32.140 pictures of the truck and it was known, at least to the people on that group, that the violent offenders

00:02:37.440 were in that truck. Early in the evening, the RCMP reported that the scene of the crime was secure,

00:02:43.000 but that the dangerous criminals were still at large. They were confident the criminals had fled the area

00:02:48.380 and that people could again emerge from their homes. Nothing more. Corey went on, at the time of this

00:02:55.200 writing, the RCMP still hasn't let us know anything. We don't know anything of the description of the

00:03:00.840 killers, which way they went, what their motive may have been, or if there are leads. Why the hell

00:03:07.300 are they remaining silent? At the time of recording this episode on Friday afternoon, the RCMP still

00:03:12.480 had not released descriptions of the suspects. Moving into our next story here, a surge in

00:03:17.760 immigration has forced the province of Alberta to dip into its coffers to spend hundreds of millions

00:03:22.740 more on educating in the coming year. The Alberta government has approved an influx of $250 million

00:03:28.380 to be distributed through the province's school boards for the 2024 to 2025 school year. The announcement

00:03:34.700 follows Alberta's unprecedented population growth, resulting in a surge of new students. Education

00:03:40.320 Minister Dimitris Nicolaitis said the provincial government seldom announces funding outside of

00:03:45.040 the budget cycle, but the rising cost pressures caused by the population growth had to be addressed

00:03:50.320 immediately. He said, quote, I am confident that this new funding will help ensure that Alberta

00:03:55.780 students continue to receive a world-class education. Alberta Premier Daniel Smith previously told

00:04:01.480 True North that Alberta's unprecedented population growth of 200,000 people last year resulted in

00:04:07.360 over 22,000 new unfunded students. The $250 million in funding will be split up, with $125 million

00:04:15.320 allocated toward operational funding, and another $90 million meant for modular classrooms.

00:04:21.220 Finally, some good news for Albertans who are hoping for some relief in their pockets. Alberta Premier

00:04:27.080 Danielle Smith said that an accelerated tax cut plan is in the work for the province. Take a listen. This

00:04:32.780 is from my friend Adam Seuss at Rebel News. There is a plan for tax cuts, but I think what you're asking

00:04:38.360 is if people will see an accelerated plan for tax cuts. And I can say yes. From what we are seeing,

00:04:43.420 one of the things that we were concerned about was making sure that any tax cut that we do is not going

00:04:49.920 to put us into a deficit position. With the uncertainty that we saw in oil and gas prices, some of the

00:04:55.180 uncertainty about how other sources of revenue would grow with the growth in the province and the

00:05:00.000 growth in revenue, we wanted to be absolutely certain that this $1.4 billion tax cut wouldn't

00:05:05.880 put us into deficit. We're getting more of that certainty, and as my finance minister gets more

00:05:11.180 confidence, we'll be able to develop an accelerated timeline. And Adam did a full interview with the

00:05:16.700 Premier. You can head over to his X account or to the Rebel News website to watch that full interview,

00:05:21.720 which I absolutely recommend you do, as Adam is an incredible Alberta reporter.

00:05:26.420 Moving into the controversy of the week.

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00:05:52.780 I'm going to try to get through this one without laughing because I know that some of you guys

00:05:56.620 are still living in Calgary and that this is just probably quite painful for you at the moment.

00:06:02.600 Turns out that there are 16 more sites that need to be repaired in Calgary's

00:06:07.960 major water feed main that burst earlier this summer. And we are going to be going back into stage

00:06:14.300 for water restrictions. Take a listen to Calgary Mayor Jodi Gondek.

00:06:17.980 There are 16 locations where there are stress points or weaknesses in the feeder main. And we

00:06:25.080 need to act in the short term to do those repairs. That's why we're giving people three weeks notice

00:06:31.060 to understand that on August the 26th, we will need to commence the repair work. And it will

00:06:37.160 probably take until about September 23rd. If we don't address this now, we could have another

00:06:42.900 unexpected failure like we did in June. We do not want to take that chance right now.

00:06:47.640 Obviously, this entire situation was incompetence from start to finish. They should have taken more

00:06:54.180 time to ensure that the feeder main was in working condition before they refilled it.

00:06:59.660 Now it needs to be drained and repaired again. We're basically just moving backwards at this point.

00:07:04.400 I do have the greatest amount of sympathy for the people of Calgary.

00:07:07.740 Let's just hope that next fall, you all take your anger to the voting booth and do something about it.

00:07:14.880 Finally, moving into what we're watching in the weeks to come, this is a happier story for those

00:07:19.580 of you living in Calgary and for the rest of Alberta, generally speaking. Alberta Premier

00:07:23.340 Danielle Smith says that the fall update to the province's Bill of Rights will protect

00:07:27.860 Albertans' personal medical choices, including the right to refuse a vaccine. Smith's pledge came

00:07:33.660 during a town hall in Bonneville with over 300 UCP members, where she discussed strengthening

00:07:38.800 residents' liberties and freedoms, lowering taxes, protecting the province from federal overreach,

00:07:45.040 and improving health care. She confirmed the plans in a statement to True North, saying,

00:07:49.620 In the fall, we will be introducing legislation to amend Alberta's Bill of Rights. Several amendments

00:07:55.580 are being considered to strengthen Albertans' individual and property rights, including an

00:07:59.980 amendment to guarantee Albertans the right to accept or refuse a medical treatment. Before

00:08:04.800 becoming Premier in 2022, Smith pledged to amend the Alberta Human Rights Act to prohibit employers

00:08:10.400 from terminating employees based on their vaccination status. But she ultimately scrapped these plans

00:08:15.720 after she was elected. At the time, she called Albertans losing their jobs for declining to take

00:08:20.940 the vaccine a, quote, human rights violation. However, the Public Health Act takes precedence

00:08:26.040 over all laws, except the Alberta Bill of Rights, meaning an amended Alberta Human Rights Act would

00:08:32.000 have done little to protect medical choices in the face of public health edicts. Finally, moving into our

00:08:37.620 weekly comment roundup, last week I hosted a panel discussion with Tariq Elnaga and Marty Belanger,

00:08:43.720 better known as Marty Up North, and they said that they are feeling a bit disillusioned with

00:08:49.220 Danielle Smith's premiership and that they hope she makes changes in the coming weeks so that they

00:08:54.140 can continue to support her as Premier. I'm going to take a look at a few of those comments from last

00:08:58.640 week's episode now. User Edgar Edgerton said,

00:09:02.400 The only other option for Alberta is the NDP. That would be devastating. The problem with Alberta is that

00:09:08.180 we are stuck with Eastern Canada's Liberal NDP co-conspirators. I wanted to respond to this comment

00:09:14.280 specifically because I saw many similar comments. I don't really agree with the idea that if you are

00:09:19.740 unhappy with a politician that you would otherwise support or who represents a party that you would

00:09:24.780 typically support, it means that you automatically want the opposition to win, in this case the

00:09:29.560 Alberta NDP. I think it simply means that you are holding that political leader to a higher standard

00:09:34.240 and you want them to actually push for the policies that they said they supported when you elected

00:09:39.600 them. So I think holding a politician to account and saying that you don't feel they've done an

00:09:43.820 adequate job as the panel was saying last week, I don't think it means that you are hoping for

00:09:49.080 you know an NDP win. Just as when we look at the federal conservatives and say oh you know we don't

00:09:54.600 like that they've done a good job on this. You know Pierre Poliev took a long time to come out

00:09:58.940 and say that he was going to lower immigration numbers and he was criticized that for a while and I don't

00:10:03.260 think that people criticizing him were saying oh you know it's better if we have four more years of

00:10:08.100 Justin Trudeau. I think that what they were actually saying was Pierre we need to lower immigration and

00:10:12.760 that criticism worked because Poliev eventually came out and said that he's going to drastically

00:10:16.800 reduce immigration numbers and I think that's what the criticism of Danielle Smith here is seeking

00:10:20.880 to do. It's saying listen Danielle we want an Alberta provincial police force, we want lower taxes

00:10:25.380 and I think maybe they've been effective in that. We just even today and we had a segment on the show

00:10:31.280 about tax cuts coming for Albertans. So I think it's misguided to say that to criticize a politician

00:10:37.060 is to desire that their opponents would be elected. User BB10 said quote no one was handed a bigger mess

00:10:45.980 than Javier Millel of Argentina yet he has made incredible progress in just seven months. He has

00:10:51.460 slashed the size of government, is running a balanced budget, and is effectively tackling runaway inflation.

00:10:56.780 Runaway inflation. Last month saw the first month in 40 years with zero food price inflation. Some

00:11:03.880 people were also arguing that Daniel Smith hasn't had enough time to make changes and this user is

00:11:08.600 arguing that some politicians are able to make strides within just seven months. He appears to be

00:11:13.180 arguing that that you know that point is not quite correct and it's true Javier Millel is doing

00:11:19.440 amazing things in Argentina. It's been quite amazing to watch. Sorry if I keep mispronouncing my words. I am

00:11:25.600 quite congested. I have a little bit of a lingering flu and I'm doing my best to get through today's

00:11:30.100 content so hopefully you guys can all understand what I'm saying. Okay and finally user at Blade797 said

00:11:35.980 quote I like this woman but I want her to dig her heels in regarding immigration and even harder 1.00

00:11:42.020 stance on trans ideology than her current one. So you know those were some of the comments that were

00:11:47.040 also raised in last week's episode which I highly recommend you go in and give it a watch give it a

00:11:52.780 listen and post your thoughts about it in the comment section below. Okay everyone that's all

00:11:57.740 we have time for today. Thank you so much for tuning in to the Alberta Roundup. I'll be back

00:12:01.460 next week with more content for you guys. Have a great weekend and God bless.

The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - August 10, 2024

RCMP criticized for slow response to Alberta murder

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