The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - February 25, 2023


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

Topics
edmonton's 15-minute cities
Hosted by
Isaac Lamoureux
Mentioned
Danielle Smith Ryan Jesperson Nicholas Milliken Jason Kenney Andrew Knack
Poilievre denounces “Just Transition” Should Notley still be on TikTok？

Episode Stats


Length

13 minutes

Words per minute

192.22

Word count

2,545

Sentence count

5

Harmful content

Hate speech

1

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this week's roundup, we take a look at the Alberta Recovery Conference where the premier and the Mental Health and Addiction Minister made some very important announcements, we look at a sole-source contract, and a new members on the government's recovery expert advisory panel. Finally, we're going to be looking at Edmonton's 15 minute cities, and of course we'll end with our weekly comment roundup.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
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