The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - The Alberta Roundup is back!

00:00:00.000 hey everyone we are back i know you guys missed me it's been a long time so we have a lot of

00:00:16.260 news to cover today but before we get started i just wanted to share that yes i had a successful

00:00:21.300 delivery in early september and my husband and i are so thankful to welcome our little baby boy

00:00:26.660 so i know you guys would be curious about that maybe i'll share some more news in later weeks but

00:00:31.160 for now we are going to move to some alberta coverage now rather ironically my first episode

00:00:36.600 back in about four months yes i'm not in my studio i'm not in alberta i'm actually in toronto i had to

00:00:42.440 fly in for some very important work and so today i will be joined by my colleague andrew lawton

00:00:47.780 i'm in toronto we were uh very busy at the arcade yesterday playing some games i'm a little

00:00:54.100 embarrassed to admit that andrew actually crushed me in dance dance revolution i did that came out

00:00:58.560 of nowhere but i did crush you in some other games like i think connect four yeah which is more of a

00:01:04.060 strategy game so i don't know what that says about you that i'm a better dancer but i have no strategic

00:01:08.060 mind that is not something anyone watching would have expected no i think maybe the opposite is

00:01:12.380 what they would have expected actually but it was good welcome back yes thank you very much it was a

00:01:16.480 proud moment for me winning that game because i think you went into it with strategy and i was just

00:01:20.280 hoping not to lose i also think that you like have confused people by saying you flew to ontario to

00:01:25.140 go to an arcade with me well that's pretty much what happened fair enough yeah we're here for the

00:01:28.960 christmas retreat so it's been a good time seeing all our colleagues again so there's been a lot going

00:01:33.920 on in alberta since i last took off andrew's been covering some of that so we're going to dig into it

00:01:38.960 and you guys will be happy to know there's actually been some really positive news stories we

00:01:42.460 actually have a lot of good strong news stories for you today i think you guys are going to be excited

00:01:46.120 with what we have starting off alberta premier danielle smith announced that she is finally

00:01:51.240 dismantling alberta health services of course we know that she was so critical of the covet 19

00:01:56.200 pandemics so they're going to be broken down into four different bodies ahs is going to be broken

00:01:59.780 down into acute care primary care continuing care and mental health and addiction now smith said the

00:02:06.200 current system that's been in place for about 14 years since former premier ed stellamek put that in

00:02:10.800 place when under his progressive conservative government forgot the patient and the experts

00:02:15.880 andrew i'm wondering do you think this could result in the kind of changes that would ensure

00:02:20.180 that a body like ahs couldn't just impose these radical restrictions like the one seen during the

00:02:26.120 covet 19 pandemic yes and no i mean i think that like anything else you still have to look at who's

00:02:31.480 in charge of these things and you know where the restrictions would be coming from i i think that

00:02:35.600 what it might do and certainly what danielle smith has said she hopes it's going to do is make the

00:02:40.540 body more efficient so it's not really a stopgap against restrictions i think that's going to come

00:02:45.100 from some of the reforms that she's put in place on where authority comes from in public health

00:02:52.100 settings but as far as ahs i think that you have a very bloated and bureaucratic institution and you

00:02:58.840 know quite frankly i think she's blown it up in in a significant way here i think there's obviously a

00:03:03.720 risk that each of these pillars could go that same road and become its own bureaucracy but i think a lot

00:03:07.920 of that will come down to the management of it and i know that health care has been a huge priority

00:03:12.940 for her not just in government but even when she was really advocating in media and civil society so

00:03:18.180 i'm hoping this is going to be something that if it works could serve as a bit of a roadmap to other

00:03:22.900 provinces yeah and i think that's something that was said the government said when they announced this

00:03:27.520 they were asked you know are there any other provinces that are doing this right now and they

00:03:30.400 said no we're leading the way we're being new and innovative so absolutely that could be the case

00:03:34.500 now we know the opposition ndp has been very critical of this move they said that this is just

00:03:39.100 going to lead to more privatization of health care of course the age old tale now do you think that's

00:03:44.400 the case and if there was more privatization would that even be a bad thing considering the bloating in

00:03:48.580 the systems and also just the extreme wait times that we're seeing you know we're having a lot of

00:03:52.580 people just going to the emergency room because they can't get the family doctor wait times up to 11

00:03:56.780 hours at point this is just really unacceptable for canadians and for the cost that they pay for the

00:04:01.520 system that's not getting the results for them i mean when people say the p word private a lot of the times

00:04:07.260 they don't really know what they're talking about because we have in the health care system in

00:04:12.120 alberta and elsewhere a lot of private delivery but you're still not paying for it it's still not a

00:04:17.240 fee-based service it's just that the government has found a private vendor that's able to provide

00:04:22.280 this service and i think in a lot of cases that works quite well we know that a lot of these

00:04:25.700 organizations are able to specialize they do very well and but you get these activists and a lot of them

00:04:31.420 in the ndp and the unions that are just terrified of anything private and they use that as this big

00:04:36.820 you know ominous dark cloud over any policy discussion now i mean look danielle smith one

00:04:42.400 of her initial ideas during the leadership for the ucp was that she wanted to expand universal

00:04:47.800 health care she wanted to add a health spending account so people had more opportunities to using

00:04:52.920 public dollars get health care services that even now aren't covered so the idea that she's trying

00:04:59.020 to make it where we're going to have this free-for-all health care system where people will have to pay

00:05:04.140 and they're going to go broke that's sort of the fear-mongering from the ndp but it's just not

00:05:08.260 aligned with any policy that's been proposed or enacted by this government another big story that

00:05:14.380 we saw in recent months was the supreme court ruled that bill c69 was largely unconstitutional you

00:05:20.040 know conservatives around the country really celebrated at this we know that former premier

00:05:24.060 jason kenney called this the no more pipelines bill danielle smith was even a little bit stronger she

00:05:28.620 said this is the no more major project ever again in alberta i remember seeing her during the ucp

00:05:34.360 leadership race and she was talking to a crowd just outside of edmonton and she said you know we have

00:05:38.400 to get permission from the federal government to build highway over a certain amount of kilometers so

00:05:42.500 this bill was really restrictive everyone was very celebrated when we got this ruling from the supreme

00:05:46.460 court and then environment minister stephen gilbeau came out and said well you know the supreme court

00:05:51.620 ruling that was really an opinion have we ever heard something like this from the federal government

00:05:55.920 where they took a ruling from the supreme court and said this is just an opinion well only when they

00:06:00.020 lose because when they win it's well this is authoritative and like we knew the supreme court

00:06:04.240 called it yeah when they lose it's like they've just basically had some think tank report come in

00:06:09.500 it's well yeah we'll take a look at it and we'll you know read and maybe section one has something good

00:06:13.940 and you know maybe section five has something good but they've really decided they're going to plow ahead

00:06:19.980 with this and remember it was similar on the plastics ban when the federal court just uh what was it last

00:06:24.680 week or two weeks ago came out and said that the government's plastics ban was unconstitutional

00:06:29.180 uh the federal government still was very defiant on this and so well no we're going to appeal and

00:06:33.360 we're going to make it work and canadians want this so uh it's really i think a bullheaded and

00:06:38.540 pig-headed way of intruding into jurisdiction that doesn't belong to the federal government and

00:06:42.840 i think politically it helps alberta a great deal because they can look at stephen gilbeau and say

00:06:47.380 see this is what we're up against

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00:07:04.100 so that's one of the positives from gilbeau's response i guess you know the provinces can point

00:07:11.620 out the contradiction of the federal government and really just their unreasonableness but at the

00:07:15.680 same time what recourse through provinces then have if the federal government isn't even willing

00:07:20.140 to take the supreme court seriously well i look i think that you're going to see more of these

00:07:25.600 standoffs i mean saskatchewan has started advancing on this like we're just not going to you know

00:07:31.280 collect the taxes and you know that's something that you know you get the andrew coins of the world

00:07:34.980 that get very pearl clutchy about and is it legal or not i don't know but it's certainly not

00:07:40.000 constructive to have that relationship between provinces and the federal government and

00:07:44.000 i think that that's going to be ultimately what we see more of here which is provinces doing things

00:07:49.400 that are kind of walking right up to the line or maybe even going over the line because they want

00:07:54.280 to respond in kind and look if a province is looking at the federal government and say well if you're not

00:07:59.220 going to respect your constitutional obligations why should we and that's not what canada is supposed

00:08:04.140 to be about but i do think it's the inevitable byproduct of that tension between the levels of government

00:08:09.520 and i don't blame provinces for doing that because if the federal government wants to just

00:08:13.540 treat the constitution as a list of suggestions why shouldn't they another big story you mentioned

00:08:19.100 it was the plastic span i was so excited when i saw that this was being overturned i'm so sick and

00:08:24.380 tired of these gross paper straws that get all soggy i just don't even use them anymore and also the

00:08:29.720 reusable bags i can never remember to bring mine to the grocery store my pantry is full like our house

00:08:34.320 is going to be filled with these reusable bags that we never actually use so so this was a very good

00:08:38.300 thing do you think we're going to see plastic bags and plastic store straws back in stores and restaurants

00:08:42.280 soon plastic straws maybe because i they're very popular and they're actually disability i mean

00:08:48.000 people with disabilities had an exemption from the plastic straw ban which kind of made it ridiculous

00:08:52.840 just because it was inconsistent plastic bags i don't think are coming back i think a lot of the

00:08:57.860 big grocery chains of which they're only like what four or five in canada have already taken

00:09:02.620 this dependency they're making money off of these reusable bags that we all forget they get to claim

00:09:07.820 oh well we're being environmental on our own without the regulations so the government kind of

00:09:11.920 gets the best of both worlds here because they've made the change even without having the law on the

00:09:16.700 book still so another story i don't know if you caught this this might be a surprise when this didn't get a

00:09:21.660 lot of media attention but rajansani she is the advanced education minister she came out and said that

00:09:27.580 the ucp membership needs re-education now she said this after the annual general meeting in which the

00:09:34.480 membership passed some policies that basically said we want diversity equity and inclusion out

00:09:39.480 of universities now of course policies pass at the agm they're non-binding the government can decide

00:09:43.740 whether or not they want to proceed with those rajansani said you know the base needs to be educated

00:09:48.840 and she basically said uh we're going to take a look at these i'm going to do what's best for the

00:09:53.220 province at the end of the day actually her exact quote here i just thought it was funny says

00:09:56.280 i think it's always important to have conversations and have the opportunities to educate

00:10:00.940 on exactly what some of these initiatives are as they relate to dei so a whole bunch of words out

00:10:06.580 there that doesn't really mean anything but i thought this was offensive i think we've moved

00:10:10.620 past a time when we can have politicians preaching at us and telling us as conservatives what we need

00:10:15.300 to believe i think that conservative membership is really tired of being told that they're offensive

00:10:20.100 and they need to be re-educated and what makes this worse is that rajansani wasn't even she didn't

00:10:24.320 even win a nomination she was appointed in the riding she currently represents i don't know that she has a lot

00:10:28.920 of support i think she was given that appointment because she has favoritism with the premier and i

00:10:33.760 think she might have just burned that favoritism what's your take on this it's weird i mean i hadn't

00:10:37.500 heard the quote and like as you described it it's very ambiguous is she saying people need to be

00:10:43.580 educated about why these programs are good or educated about why they're bad or is she saying

00:10:47.620 something just because she knows people will read into it either way i i don't think anyone

00:10:52.560 lecturing the base is going to go over well i think that you as a politician are there to serve

00:10:58.600 anytime you get into that mindset of uh the people know wrong or the people are wrong and i know

00:11:04.040 better even if you think you do know better it's not the way you lead so i i think on this we're

00:11:10.420 seeing a turn across the province against this sort of program i mean those motions were passed

00:11:16.500 very decisively these were not just like on the edge and if she's turning around and saying to those

00:11:23.000 people you're wrong well you're in the wrong party then because clearly you and the base are at a

00:11:28.160 lockstep on a pretty key issue well not just that the idea that we're going to ignore the membership

00:11:32.820 and i'm going to do what's best for the province what's the point of being there to govern what's

00:11:36.660 the point of putting conservative politicians in if they're not going to govern as conservative

00:11:40.220 once they're actively elected i'm tired of that we've seen it time and time again well and what's

00:11:44.480 the point of having a member-driven policy process yeah exactly i think things are changing i think

00:11:48.600 she's going to realize this was a really unpopular move pretty soon okay the last thing i want to touch

00:11:52.500 on is the alberta pension plan the alberta government has finally announced they want to

00:11:56.500 pull out their assets they're claiming they have well over 300 billion of the assets so that's over

00:12:01.480 half of the total pension assets now the federal government doesn't agree they say that's not a

00:12:05.780 correct number they've been asked to provide their number but they won't so eventually this is going

00:12:11.440 to go to a referendum hopefully but before that can happen people need to know what the number is

00:12:15.200 that they're actually going to be deciding on so where do you see this going well i mean just

00:12:20.840 picturing pierre paulievre like at that leadership debate to jean chariot just the number just the

00:12:25.600 number just the number like you're right the number you need to have as the starting point because

00:12:30.000 that's going to color this and i think that for a lot of albertans this is going to be a decision

00:12:35.020 they make based on sovereignty and independence you know we just want as many things as we

00:12:39.600 possibly can to be in our wheelhouse and to get the federal government out

00:12:44.200 on the pension plan i think the decision should be made based on economics i don't actually think

00:12:49.140 it should be made on sovereignty i think that sovereignty empowers that decision but you should

00:12:54.080 look at what is economically in your best interest and with that the number is incredibly important

00:12:59.100 because if you know you have half the pension assets that are being distributed to the entire

00:13:04.720 country well you're better off on your own if that number isn't accurate let's say the share the

00:13:10.220 alberta share is 10 or 20 whatever the number is that changes the calculation for a lot of voters

00:13:16.940 dramatically so my presumption would be that you can't have an informed vote in a referendum based

00:13:22.960 just on the alberta number when that number is in dispute so i don't know if there's anything they

00:13:26.960 can do to compel the federal government to do an assessment but that needs to happen i wonder if it

00:13:32.320 will result in litigation eventually to compel the federal government to produce that number

00:13:36.240 decide on something and then to have the referendum if i if i can just imagine if you went to the bank

00:13:41.820 and the bank wouldn't tell you how much money you had in your account i mean it wouldn't go over

00:13:45.320 well yeah like that that and that's kind of what we're at now it's i this is alberta they have a

00:13:50.000 right to leave no one disputes they have a right to leave which means they have a right to know how

00:13:53.720 much is theirs in that well it seems like this policy proposal isn't super popular in the province

00:13:59.020 at the time based on recent polling but like i said i think it'll be quite some time before that

00:14:02.600 referendum is held so the provincial government has a lot of time to sway voters all right everyone

00:14:07.560 i hope you enjoy that little alberta rounder from the last couple months next week we'll be back to

00:14:11.700 our regular programming thank you so much for joining me today andrew thank you okay see you guys next week

The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - November 25, 2023

The Alberta Roundup is back!

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