00:02:20.420The Premier also said her government will take unprecedented actions over the next few months to help Albertans weather the cost of living crisis.
00:02:27.520That includes help with electricity bills, targeted help for seniors, another fuel tax holiday, and genuine health care reform.
00:02:34.680Just one day after that victory, Premier Smith called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to axe the carbon tax and pause the federal fuel tax.
00:02:42.440In a letter to the Prime Minister on Wednesday, Smith said her government is taking action to help Albertans through the cost of living crisis.
00:02:49.920Well, she accused Justin Trudeau's imprudent policies of contributing to inflation.
00:02:54.180Then on Thursday, while speaking at the Rural Municipalities of Alberta Fall 22 Convention,
00:03:11.280the Premier announced the creation of a Ukrainian Task Force to better engage with the Ukrainian community.
00:03:15.880She said that Task Force has been charged with coming up for recommendations with the government by January 15.
00:03:21.440Take a listen to some more of her comments at that conference.
00:03:24.240Let's talk a minute, though, about our priorities.
00:03:26.800In Canada, we are fortunate to be free of this kind of violence and conflict.
00:03:32.320However, that doesn't mean that we are immune to global instability.
00:03:36.040The global economy is currently facing a severe crisis of inflation and supply chain disruptions that hits all of us directly and indirectly, including right in our wallets.
00:03:47.040And while it would be great to have a federal partner who stands with us in fighting the affordability crisis,
00:03:56.460When you combine skyrocketing inflation with federal policies that target the energy industry and damage the economy,
00:04:02.320the result is a crisis for regular working families, whether it's fuel or electricity, groceries, fertilizer for our farmers.
00:04:10.440The cost of everything we need to live and to raise our families has soared.
00:04:15.060We can't solve this inflation crisis on our own, but we can certainly balance the province's books,
00:04:22.400as well as help Albertans cope with the worst financial pressures.
00:04:26.920So in the coming weeks, and it won't be that long, this government is going to take decisive action to ensure that families don't have to choose
00:04:33.120between buying food and keeping warm in the winter.
00:04:36.660We're going to lower the cost of electricity to ease the financial burden for seniors and parents and vulnerable Albertans.
00:04:43.340Our government is going to ensure that they have more money in their wallets right away
00:04:47.480to meet the rising costs of life's necessities at this critical time.
00:04:51.340Our government is also going to lock in removing the provincial fuel tax
00:04:56.420and ensure that the gas stations lower the prices appropriately when we do that.
00:05:02.180Moving into the controversy of the week.
00:05:04.460On Tuesday, the Alberta Court of Appeal upheld a lower court's decision to deny an unvaccinated woman an organ transplant.
00:05:10.920Some say the bubbles in an aero truffle piece can take 34 seconds to melt in your mouth.
00:05:15.680Sometimes the very amount you're stuck at the same red light.
00:05:54.480The requirements are set by clinicians to maximize the odds that organ donor recipients are able to live.
00:06:00.180He also said that the requirements are not new, nor are they specific to COVID-19 or to Alberta,
00:06:05.440but are comparable to other transplant programs and based on common evidence and standard.
00:06:10.140But in response to comments from the Health Minister Office, the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms,
00:06:15.380which is representing Lewis, said the comments fail to consider that the COVID-19 vaccine is new
00:06:20.560and there is no long-term safety data available.
00:06:23.880Alison Pajovic, the lawyer overseeing the case, told me the government's response does not consider that the COVID-19 vaccines are new,
00:06:30.420while the other vaccines required have been around for decades.
00:06:32.940Forcing terminally ill transplant candidates to take a new vaccine as a condition of life-saving surgery
00:06:39.280that is still in the testing phase for safety and efficacy is medically unethical.
00:06:44.360Pajovic pointed to evidence put forward in court,
00:06:46.760where both Lewis and the respondents agreed that there was no long-term safety data for the COVID-19 vaccines
00:06:52.100because the vaccines have not been around for long enough.
00:06:54.800She also pointed to the fact that the COVID-19 vaccines are still in phase 3 clinical testing trial for safety and efficacy.
00:07:00.160Meanwhile, the appeal court acknowledged that it's a virtual certainty that Lewis will die without an organ transplant.
00:07:06.480The Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms is considering an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.
00:07:10.980The ruling follows comments from Alberta Premier Danielle Smith,
00:07:14.260who said the unvaccinated have faced the most discrimination in Canada she's witnessed in her lifetime.
00:07:19.260She's also promised to amend the Alberta Human Rights Act to make it illegal to discriminate based on vaccination status.
00:07:24.680Former Alberta NDP MLA Thomas Dang has pleaded guilty to a charge under the Health Information Act.
00:07:31.440Dang was charged in June for illegally attempting to access private information contained in the Alberta Health Vaccine Portal in September 2021.
00:07:39.260He entered a guilty plea in provincial court last week.
00:07:42.760The Crown is seeking a $10,000 fine, while Dang's defense is asking for under $4,000.
00:07:48.220You guys likely know the details of this story by now, but let's just do a quick refresher for those of you who are new to it.
00:07:53.000The MLA said he accessed the site to test vulnerabilities on the newly launched Alberta Health Vaccine Portal.
00:07:58.580He used former Premier Jason Kenney's birth date and vaccination dates, which are publicly available, to crack the site's privacy safeguards.
00:08:05.940Between September 19 and 23, 2021, Dang's computer program made 1.78 million queries using Kenney's personal information.
00:08:15.640Dang admitted to the RCMP the queries were randomly generated guesses, aimed at revealing the Premier's healthcare number.
00:08:21.700Dang ended up breaching the system and uncovering a woman's private medical information in the process.
00:08:27.320Okay guys, what we're watching in the weeks to come.
00:08:29.840Alberta Premier Daniel Smith has said she's interested to hear what COVID-19 vaccine skeptic, Dr. Paul Alexander, has to say to officials at Alberta Health Services.
00:08:39.580Dr. Alexander was a health advisor to former Republican President Donald Trump in the early stages of the pandemic.
00:08:44.560He's against lockdowns and COVID-19 vaccines, which he's called a gene injection bioweapon.
00:08:50.860And finally, you guys, moving into the Alberta politics funny moment of the week.
00:08:54.980The city of Edmonton has developed a carbon budget to measure the energy transition required to becoming a climate resilient city.
00:09:02.120I read this over 100 page document so that you don't have to.
00:09:06.300The 2023 to 2026 carbon budget says the city is warming at one of the fastest rates in the world and that GDP costs increase with each degree of additional warming.
00:09:16.680The city now wants carbon budgeting to guide decisions by providing additional carbon emissions information.
00:09:22.660The citizens advocacy group Common Sense Edmonton is calling this document a massive waste of time, resources, and taxpayers' money.
00:09:28.780Okay, guys, thanks so much for tuning in.
00:09:31.880But you can find me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram if you want to let me know what you liked about the show or what you think I missed.
00:09:37.160If you want to support our work over at True North, please visit donate.tnc.news.