The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - Smith calls Guilbeault “awful” and “dangerous”

00:00:00.000 Hey everyone, welcome back to the Alberta Roundup. I'm your host, Rachel Emanuel.

00:00:04.380 I hope that you guys are getting into that festive Christmas spirit.

00:00:07.660 It is one of my favorite times of the year. I've got my festive green sweater on.

00:00:12.360 I've been listening to a lot of Christmas music and I won't even tell you how long

00:00:15.960 my Christmas tree has been up for. If you guys have a favorite holiday song,

00:00:20.180 please let me know what it is in the comment section below. I'm getting a little tired of

00:00:24.740 my playlist and I need to freshen it up with some new music. Now let's take a look at what

00:00:29.380 we're going to be talking about on today's show. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has called

00:00:33.200 Federal Environment Minister Stephen Guibault dangerous to federation. She also piled on 0.64

00:00:38.620 with him with her Environment Minister Rebecca Schultz when they called on Prime Minister

00:00:43.120 Justin Trudeau to immediately replace Guibault. We're also going to be taking a look at the

00:00:47.860 Alberta government's move to raise the damage threshold beyond which motorists involved in

00:00:52.600 a collision must report to a police. And finally, faculty at the University of Alberta removed

00:00:57.900 Christmas trees on campus after a student asked if she could display a menorah. All that and more

00:01:04.540 happening now on the Alberta Roundup. Okay guys, taking a look at our first topic here, Alberta Premier

00:01:19.140 Danielle Smith said the door is shut to cooperative federation with Federal Environment Minister Stephen

00:01:25.560 Guibault, whom she also called awful. Smith made the comments in response to a question on the

00:01:32.420 Your Province, Your Premier radio show. She went on to say that Guibault is dangerous to the federation

00:01:37.860 because he acts outside the law. Take a listen to the exchange for yourself.

00:01:42.200 With the unconstitutional laws and announcements without conversation or consultation, what can or is

00:01:47.720 Alberta doing to try to have a cooperative relationship with the federal government or is that door shut?

00:01:54.700 Well, I can tell you, for me, it's shut with Stephen Guibault, the Environment Minister. He's awful.

00:01:59.700 He violates the law. He doesn't follow the Supreme Court judgments. And he acts in, as I've called it,

00:02:06.360 an imperious way. So I have very little interest in continuing any discussion with him. I can tell you,

00:02:12.600 I have a very good relationship with other ministers. I've given credit to Christia Freeland, who did a great

00:02:18.740 job of matching us and giving a generous carbon tax credit for carbon capture utilization and storage.

00:02:24.880 So I've got a good relationship with some ministers, but I'm not going to pretend to you that Stephen

00:02:30.080 Guibault is at all somebody we can work with. I think he's very dangerous, quite frankly. He's dangerous

00:02:34.740 to the federation. And he's dangerous because he doesn't honour the constitution and he acts outside the

00:02:41.640 law. And so we're going to make sure that we push back to the greatest extent possible on anything he

00:02:46.740 puts forward. Now, if you think the premier wasn't already harsh enough on Guibault, if that's even

00:02:52.080 possible, she later piled on him even further with her Environment Minister, Rebecca Schultz.

00:02:57.420 The pair called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to immediately replace Guibault. And they even called

00:03:03.480 his actions at COP28 a national embarrassment. Smith and Schultz released a joint statement after COP28

00:03:10.240 in response to the federal government's actions on climate policy. They wrote, quote,

00:03:15.660 We were gravely disappointed to see federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change,

00:03:20.340 Stephen Guibault, and other radical activists continue to push an approach that would consign

00:03:25.580 the world to energy poverty and economic stagnation by focusing only on ending all fossil fuel use.

00:03:32.920 It was a national embarrassment to witness Minister Guibault at an international conference actively

00:03:38.480 sabotaging the interests of Albertans and other Canadians by releasing a series of incoherent and

00:03:44.860 illegal policy pronouncements that he and his government have absolutely no legal authority

00:03:50.640 to impose upon the provinces of Canada. Now, the final wording ultimately did not recommend a full-on

00:03:56.880 phase-out, but nonetheless, Smith and Schultz said they will not forget Guibault's full-on crusade

00:04:03.060 against their energy sector. Moving into our next story here, the Alberta government has raised the

00:04:07.840 threshold upon which motorists must report a collision to the police from $2,000 to $5,000.

00:04:14.040 Transportation Minister Devin Drishan said the move will free up police resources and better reflect

00:04:19.960 the rising cost of auto repairs. He said, quote,

00:04:22.820 We look at just the cost of vehicle repairs and a minor fender bender of just bumping into someone's

00:04:28.580 bumper or taking out a light, it's very easy to surpass that threshold. We didn't want to make

00:04:33.720 just pretty much every fender bender have to be reported to the police, and that's why we increased

00:04:38.740 this limit. That increase will take effect on January 1st, and Drishan said he doesn't expect that the

00:04:43.460 changing threshold will impact insurance rates, adding, quote, We're looking at lots of options

00:04:48.520 to be able to roll out here hopefully in the new year to help address high insurance rates.

00:04:53.520 This next news story should offer some relief to those of us living in Calgary. The provincial

00:04:57.720 government is giving Calgary funding for 50 new permanent cop positions, according to Public Safety

00:05:03.360 Minister Mike Ellis, a former city cop himself. In a video posted to X, formerly known as Twitter,

00:05:09.860 Ellis related some of the shocking crimes ongoing in Alberta cities and blamed the federal government's

00:05:14.740 bail system.

00:05:15.420 These stories are heartbreaking when we consider the suffering of the victims and their families,

00:05:22.480 and they are equally frustrating when we hear about the alleged perpetrators. Random shootings,

00:05:30.280 random murders from alleged offenders who are apparently out on bail or release. Everyone knows that our bail

00:05:39.240 system is broken when repeat offenders can repeat crimes so easily. This bail system was brought in

00:05:47.260 by the Trudeau government, and it has been devastating for every province, not just Alberta.

00:05:54.860 Those crimes included a carjacking at gunpoint, which was allegedly done by an individual out on bail,

00:06:00.620 as well as the killing of a father of seven, also allegedly committed by an individual out at bail.

00:06:06.280 And he also spoke about the many stabbings at Calgary C train stations. Ellis said these are

00:06:11.280 just some of the violent attacks ongoing in Calgary that are making people feel unsafe.

00:06:15.920 While announcing the new funding, Ellis said random, unprovoked attacks on city streets used to be rare

00:06:22.000 occurrences, but now they're happening almost daily. He added, quote, this will not be tolerated.

00:06:27.480 Moving into the controversy of the week, a law student at the University of Alberta asked to display a

00:06:32.840 menorah on campus, and her request resulted in Christmas trees on campus being removed.

00:06:38.400 Rachel Cook, a Jewish student on campus, asked to display an electric menorah after noticing many of the

00:06:44.100 other Christmas decorations on campus, including, of course, Christmas trees, as well as garland and polar bears.

00:06:50.460 Her request was initially met with excitement, but later the vice dean emailed her to express concerns.

00:06:55.880 He said that existing decorations on campus were meant to be non-denominational. He instead offered

00:07:02.180 her a bookable room where she could light and display the menorah, and shortly after, Christmas

00:07:06.580 trees were taken down on campus, while other decorations like polar bears and the garland were kept up.

00:07:12.200 Cook said she never took issue with the Christmas trees and was shocked to learn of such an overreaction.

00:07:17.920 She said, quote,

00:07:18.540 I got an email from the vice dean telling me, no trees either. We're going to take all those down

00:07:24.060 because of your concerns. That's when I responded, but I don't have concerns. I actually find them

00:07:28.960 quite pretty. I just wanted to display a menorah. Cook said she believes faculty decided to take down

00:07:34.520 the trees because they didn't want her putting up a menorah over their incorrect belief that it would

00:07:39.680 be a display in support of Israel. Michael Brown, a spokesperson at the University of Alberta,

00:07:44.240 said some decorations were removed in order to maintain the intent of seasonal decorations,

00:07:50.420 which is to be secularly festive. Moving into what we're watching in the weeks to come,

00:07:55.500 Alberta has seen a sharp increase in opioid related deaths. This is a very difficult news story,

00:08:01.140 especially headed into the holidays, but that is an increase of over 25% of opioid related deaths

00:08:07.640 when compared to the same period last year. In September alone, Edmonton reported 62 drug poisoning

00:08:13.920 deaths, 60 of which involved opioids. And as of September, Edmonton experienced an increase in

00:08:20.080 opioid related fatalities compared to the previous year with 492 opioid poisonings reported in the

00:08:26.580 first nine months. That is far surpassing the 428 deaths recorded during the same period in 2022.

00:08:34.080 Provincially, the situation is equally as grim. A total of 1,411 Albertans succumbed to opioid

00:08:40.940 poisoning so far, which is a steep rise from the 1,124 who died from opioid related deaths last year.

00:08:48.520 A spokesperson for mental health and addictions minister, Dan Williams, said these numbers are why

00:08:53.260 Alberta is so focused on a recovery orientated system of care. The spokesperson said, quote,

00:08:59.480 every life lost from the deadly disease of addiction is a tragedy and it reinforces our focus

00:09:04.660 on making recovery possible for every Albertan. For those of you who want to dig into this issue a

00:09:09.740 little further, I would encourage you to watch Canada is Dying and Vancouver is Dying. Those are

00:09:15.080 two excellent documentaries made by friend of the show, Aaron Gunn, and they really shed a light on

00:09:20.740 how federal government policies are creating this national drug crisis. Finally, moving into our

00:09:26.380 weekly comment roundup, our first comment here is from Jim Campbell. He says, no one in Alberta voted

00:09:30.860 for Guibo and no one should concede anything to a creep like that. Hey, he said it, not me. He added,

00:09:37.740 the days of Albertans paying for liberal votes in Quebec while Ottawa tries to crush their incomes

00:09:43.320 are done. Our next comment here is from Maria Zacharias. She writes, this is a hard job for Premier

00:09:48.680 Danielle in this time. I pray she will be able to stay strong and not waver under the dictatorship of

00:09:54.280 the Liberals and Trudeau. Alberta is the only province doing well and we will stand behind

00:09:59.540 Danielle to keep our province strong. Marie, I really appreciated that call just to remind people

00:10:03.520 to pray for the Premier. Pray that she has the strength to withstand the pressure that she is

00:10:08.320 facing. We should actually pray for all our political leaders, even, and I know I'm going to get a little

00:10:12.460 hate for this, Justin Trudeau. We should pray that he finally recognizes that he is unfit for office

00:10:18.080 and that he resigns. And our comment of the week goes to user Izzard P. He writes, good news. Canada

00:10:23.800 has so many trees that we are already carbon negative. Great job, everyone. Planet saved.

00:10:29.660 Well, there's no arguing with that. And with that, that's all I have for you guys today. Thank you so

00:10:34.100 much for tuning in. Please don't forget to let me know what your favorite Christmas song is

00:10:37.980 in the comment section. I will see you guys next week. Have a great weekend and God bless.

00:10:48.080 Bye.

The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - December 16, 2023

Smith calls Guilbeault “awful” and “dangerous”

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