The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - Will Edmonton become Canada's first 15-minute city？

00:00:00.000 hey everyone welcome back to the alberta roundup and happy saturday i'm your host rachel emanuel

00:00:14.320 for those of you who have been with me from the beginning you're probably going to recognize my

00:00:18.960 og background you guys are going to have to bear with me for a couple weeks as i'm in the process

00:00:24.000 of moving and things are a little up in the air right now currently i'm living in central alberta

00:00:28.160 will i'll be for a few more weeks before i move down to calgary but before i move on i have to give

00:00:33.120 a shout out to all my central alberta fans i've met so many of you over the past couple of weeks

00:00:37.760 in fact something very interesting happened to me this week on thursday i was preparing for the show

00:00:42.080 when i heard a knock on the door it was michelle bear the ndp candidate for red deer south now

00:00:46.800 unfortunately the ndp refused to take media requests from true north they say they don't want any

00:00:52.160 dealings with our credible news organization so michelle my wish for you is that you will take

00:00:56.560 my media requests and those of my colleagues at true north i can assure you that the thousands of

00:01:01.360 voters across red deer south will become more familiar with you and your party's policies if

00:01:06.800 you take my media requests as they faithfully watch the alberta roundup and read my work

00:01:11.600 okay guys now that i'm finished with that very important public service announcement

00:01:15.040 it's time to move on to today's topics today we're going to be taking a look at the alberta recovery

00:01:19.520 conference where the premier and alberta's mental health and addiction minister made some very

00:01:24.320 important announcements we're also going to be taking a look at a sole source contract alberta

00:01:28.800 premier danielle smith's government awarded to someone who worked on her leadership campaign

00:01:33.760 finally we're going to be taking a look at edmonton's 15 minute cities i know you guys will

00:01:38.160 have thoughts and of course we'll end with our weekly comment roundup all that and more happening

00:01:42.400 now on the alberta roundup speaking at the alberta recovery conference on tuesday alberta premier

00:01:47.200 danielle smith said alberta is indisputably canada's leader in a recovery orientated system of care

00:01:52.720 now that's after four years of their efforts to stem the homelessness and addiction crisis

00:01:57.280 that began under former alberta premier jason kenney smith said the devastating effects of

00:02:01.440 addiction and homelessness are evident in alberta and across north america and it's a result of

00:02:06.480 years of neglecting those systems of care the premier said that since being elected in 2019

00:02:12.000 the usb government has sought to ensure that everyone has the right to pursue recovery she said

00:02:17.120 quote there are some of us that tell us that we have unreasonable expectations predicting that

00:02:22.320 recovery is not an achievable or even a realistic goal but what they fail to understand is this

00:02:29.200 when we see recovery as possible we are providing hope and optimism to people who are often living

00:02:34.880 without any hope we're saying that you can recover and there is a better life for you that

00:02:40.320 you deserve and that we will be there for you the premier also revealed some major budget 2023

00:02:46.000 numbers at the conference take a listen it's clear that now is the time to continue moving forward

00:02:50.960 and to continue investing in our system of care for albertans and to accomplish this i'm pleased to

00:02:56.160 announce here at the alberta recovery conference that next week our government will table a budget

00:03:01.200 which will include record-breaking investments to a comprehensive mental health and addiction care

00:03:06.800 system in 2019 when we came to office the mental health and addiction specific budget was only

00:03:12.880 about 87 million dollars a year next year alone if passed budget 2023 will provide 275 million dollars

00:03:20.880 in funding for the ministry of mental health and addiction speaking at the conference the following

00:03:27.040 day alberta mental health and addiction minister nicholas milken revealed the new members on the

00:03:31.760 government's recovery expert advisory panel those experts will advise the government on its recovery

00:03:36.960 orientated system of care the minister said the province needs to surround itself with the best possible

00:03:41.680 advice here's what that sounded like the alberta model that we're building is anchored in research

00:03:48.480 and the best practices from around the world and we will continue to listen to experts in recovery

00:03:55.040 as we build the recovery oriented systems of care across alberta that is why i am very pleased to

00:04:01.600 announce today that we have brought together a group of world-class experts to serve as the recovery

00:04:09.040 expert advisory panel to the ministry of mental health and addiction the panel is made up of 16 experts

00:04:16.560 from diverse fields who will provide ongoing advice on research and innovation policy and standards

00:04:23.680 development as well as evaluation and outcomes reporting these folks are some of the most accomplished

00:04:30.800 and well-respected leaders researchers and practitioners from the fields of academia addiction

00:04:37.280 medicine indigenous health justice systems and trauma-informed care they are trailblazers and change makers

00:04:45.840 and they will be helping shape the alberta model as we continue building the systems that change people's

00:04:53.920 lives for the long term the panel will be chaired by dr keith humphries uh professor of psychiatry and

00:05:01.360 behavioral sciences at stanford university some of you may remember his presentation uh from yesterday

00:05:06.960 morning uh which i listened to very intently and so thank you for uh agreeing to do this and also thank you

00:05:12.320 for presenting being part of this uh wonderful recovery conference dr humph humphries is an internationally

00:05:18.880 renowned expert on addiction and public policy with more than 350 peer-reviewed articles to his name

00:05:26.800 and he recently served as the chair of the stanford lancet commission review of the north american opioid

00:05:33.520 epidemic he also served as the drug policy advisor to u.s presidents both bush and obama okay guys moving

00:05:41.120 into the controversy of the week this story is from cbc news the alberta government awarded a 72 500 contract

00:05:48.160 to a marketing agency owned partly by danielle smith's former campaign manager the contract

00:05:53.040 ran from november 1 2022 to january 31 of this year to nordic media that's owned by matthew all time who

00:06:00.160 was danielle smith's campaign manager during the united conservative party leadership race the contract

00:06:05.120 was provided for digital media planning and strategic development according to cbc news sole source contract

00:06:10.720 which provides services purchased by alberta government departments without going out for bids are

00:06:16.320 permitted under specific circumstances in the case of the nordic media sole source contract the

00:06:21.200 government of alberta said this where an unforeseeable situation of urgency exists and the services or the

00:06:26.880 goods or services in respect of construction could not be entamed by means of open procurement procedures

00:06:32.720 i would be curious to see a little bit more numbers 72 000 over three months is a lot of money

00:06:37.840 it is being paid to a company i'm curious what the amount of hours of work were put in as well as how

00:06:42.800 many people were paid under this contract let me know what you guys think in the comments below

00:06:47.920 do you think that this is a questionable contract or do you think it makes sense that the premier

00:06:52.080 would have given this contract to a company with affiliations with her leadership campaign

00:06:56.400 moving into what we're watching we're finally going to talk about edmonton's 15 minute cities

00:07:00.400 edmonton recently announced that it's pursuing a neighborhood development plan aimed at creating a

00:07:04.880 community of communities or small towns in our big city in which residents can access everything

00:07:11.120 they need within a short distance from home according to the national post the plan was

00:07:15.200 inspired by the concept of 15 minute cities which is aimed at having neighborhoods with all amenities

00:07:20.480 within a quarter hour bike or walk that includes groceries schools daycare leisure fitness entertainment

00:07:28.000 and other amenities like shops and restaurants but critics claim that such proposal would bar people

00:07:32.560 from traveling to certain parts of the city and that you'd be forced to spend 90 of your life

00:07:38.000 within your own district while being monitored for carbon emissions of course the city of edmonton's

00:07:42.800 proposal so far includes nothing of the sort so a couple of weeks ago i believe this happened two

00:07:47.840 weeks ago there was a press conference and a city planner sought to answer some of the questions

00:07:52.880 people had about 15 minute cities i didn't ask you if it would mean i asked you i asked you specific

00:07:58.080 i don't know he's lying again i asked you i just told you the answer there will be in some places are

00:08:03.040 they not removing parking spaces are they not removing places where cars can drive are they're

00:08:07.680 not making other places where cars only electric cars can drive so ultimately you're saying that

00:08:12.560 there's going to be less space and less infrastructure to support cars so in the places where bikes and

00:08:19.280 less likely no overall no no overall overall will the average person have less places to drive their car

00:08:28.000 less places to park their car and more incentives not to have a car will there be less places for

00:08:33.440 me to park a car in edmonton under the 15-minute city let's try a very simple question okay so let's

00:08:38.000 not simplify them yes or no so if you will there be less parking for my car in my new district under

00:08:43.440 a 15-minute city yes or no you already said no yes there will be less places where roadway changes

00:08:49.840 are done in other words accommodate more things in other words the 15-minute city is literally

00:08:54.400 intention to try to drive us away from private car ownership and onto other means of travel

00:09:00.000 like electric scooters and walking so we don't have the same mobility that we once had i don't know

00:09:05.360 about you but when i was 16 years old the most important thing in my life was getting my license

00:09:09.280 because a car meant freedom not just to me to everybody else around and now you guys want us to

00:09:14.480 go along with a plan where we know the intention is to make that dream that the average 16-year-old had

00:09:20.080 not a reality anymore we want you want us to live in a world where the average 16 year old gets used 0.52

00:09:24.800 to living in the same square blocks for 90 of their life you want to make us live in a world where the

00:09:29.920 average 16 year old needs to watch what they eat at the grocery store we're sort of seeing misfiring

00:09:34.800 communication where each individual has their own idea of what the plan is and they're not communicating

00:09:39.680 with each other about what the other person thinks the plan is a couple days after that happened

00:09:43.520 edmonton city councilor andrew knack went on ryan jesperson's podcast it's called real talk with ryan

00:09:49.280 jesperson and he responded to some of the criticism that was leveled at that press conference i'm going

00:09:53.360 to play his remarks for you now you know i i was surprised when it first started coming up you know

00:09:58.400 pretty much at the beginning of this month it's only i've really only been starting to hear about

00:10:01.920 in the last four weeks and it's odd because urban planning uh land use bylaws are typically not the

00:10:08.560 things that get uh people excited about municipal politics i i love it uh but i also realize i'm

00:10:14.640 typically an outlier in this scenario and so to see the the notion of of what essentially is you know

00:10:22.080 what we would call walkable communities or thinking about what cities used to look like in the 1940s and

00:10:27.280 50s and 60s where you had a neighborhood convenience store grocery store and pharmacy um to see that morph

00:10:35.440 into what what we're now talking about this notion about uh government going to be locking people down it's

00:10:42.640 it's hard because i think in principle everyone loves the idea of having things closer to their

00:10:48.080 home to at least have the choice to access it and yet now it's become something really

00:10:53.360 nefarious in some people's minds now i've spent a lot of time living in downtown cities i would have

00:10:58.160 to say one of the things i love most about it is not having to have a vehicle i love being able to

00:11:02.800 just walk across the street to get a bite to eat and walk down the street a couple blocks to get groceries

00:11:07.200 but of course we have to consider the criticism as well there is many people who no longer believe

00:11:11.600 that anything the government does is in their best interest and a lot of people have lost faith

00:11:16.160 in their government following the copa 19 pandemic so this is my question of the day for you guys

00:11:20.640 what do you think about 15 minute cities do you see the appeal do you think it's misguided or do you

00:11:26.080 think it's a bad plan from the city that's secretly intended to keep people locked within a short

00:11:31.520 radius from their home let me know what you guys think and i'll read your comments next week

00:11:36.240 okay guys moving into my daily comment round if now user claude quinton said the decision to enact

00:11:41.200 the emergency act was wrong and the ruling that it was legal has put canada in an unusual position

00:11:47.280 big businesses will be concerned that if they publish a policy that the government disagrees with

00:11:52.000 the government could freeze their assets and their bank accounts just as happened in cuba and finally

00:11:56.800 one last comment here user hillquest dual support says i watched the live release of your dog and

00:12:01.680 appreciated that you chose to interview varying views nicely done after one year and now that

00:12:07.120 most of the truths have come out i still don't believe it was necessary to invoke the emergencies act

00:12:12.000 although three weeks of the freedom convoy the protesters made their point and something needed

00:12:16.480 to be done to end it the protest would never have gone to that point if justin trudeau would have

00:12:21.360 talked to them and it would have ended with an entirely different outcome i really agree with some of the

00:12:26.080 comments here i don't think the prime minister did himself any favors by his inflammatory remarks

00:12:31.200 calling protesters and supporters of the convoy you know a fringe minority with radical views it only

00:12:37.200 took the prime minister one year to admit that those remarks were a mistake following the commission's

00:12:41.840 report which did in many ways kind of eviscerate the prime minister's actions during the freedom

00:12:46.320 convoy okay guys that's all i have for you today a friendly reminder that you can still watch my

00:12:50.240 documentary the freedom occupation online at freedom occupation.ca and if you want to support

00:12:55.680 our work you can absolutely do that on that website and of course you can also go to donate.tnc.news

00:13:01.280 thanks so much for tuning in i hope that you guys have a great rest of your weekend and god bless

The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - February 25, 2023

Will Edmonton become Canada's first 15-minute city？

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