Calgary United Democratic Party Youth Debate (UCPAGMG) Youth Debate is a debate between two teams of 10 youth representing different political parties on a controversial policy. This is the first Youth Debate hosted by the Calgary United Democratic Government (CDG) and the Calgary Seniors Coalition (CSU).
00:00:00.000By instituting this policy, it'll have the effect of removing all formal, informal, and incidental forms of SOGI-123 from our children's classrooms almost immediately.
00:00:11.780I gotta say, we already have a consent form. There is an ability for you to opt out of sexual education.
00:00:19.500And a young boy who thinks he's Superman is harmless, but if he puts on a cape and goes onto the roof to see if he can fly, it's not the parent's or the teacher's job to infirm his abilities and give him a push.
00:00:30.500You can ignore reality, but you can't ignore the consequences of reality.
00:00:33.500We support the spirit of this policy. We support the intent of this policy. But that's not what this debate is about.
00:00:39.500It's about the actual policy, its implementation, and its approach, and how it's going to affect parents' rights in Alberta.
00:00:49.500Okay, hello everybody. Welcome to the UCPAGM first ever, as I understand it, youth debate, and we really hope we can make this an annual thing.
00:01:03.500We have ten wonderful youths here with us. Yes, give them a round of applause.
00:01:10.500What I think is super exciting is that these two teams have picked two of the policies straight out of the policy book, so they're gonna have an opportunity to debate these in a little bit more fashion than what we're seeing out on the main stage.
00:01:29.500Just so I explain to the audience here, and the judges as well, what we're doing with the teams is that each team has chosen a policy that they want to argue for,
00:01:39.500which means that the other team has to argue against it, whether or not they believe in it.
00:01:46.500So it's a great way to develop their critical thinking skills, advocacy, public speaking, and I think we can all say we're really excited to see what they've got.
00:01:55.500So without any further ado, I'm gonna get the teams to introduce themselves, and I put them on the spot this morning to get a team name.
00:02:03.500So we're gonna start with the team name. Maybe we'll start on this side here. And your name, your age, and what riding you come from, please.
00:02:12.500So we decided that our team name was gonna be the SEC for the South Calgary kids or the future Supreme Court. We'll leave that up to you to decide.
00:02:27.500My name's Lauren Glasser. I'm 25, and I am from the Calgary Pagan region.
00:02:36.500Hello. My name is Cyril Pavlica, and I'm 16. I'm from the Calgary Shaw region.
00:02:43.500Hi. My name's Macy Holmes. I'm 20, and I'm from the Calgary Fish Creek region.
00:02:50.500My name is Kyle Baldwin. I'm 25, from Calgary Fish Creek.
00:02:55.500No bias, also from Fish Creek. Madison Holmes, 21.
00:03:00.500And good morning, everyone. It's a pleasure to be here with you today. Our team name is the Conservative Crusaders.
00:03:09.500And to start with introductions, my name is Sebastian Vorman, and I'm proud to be from the Calgary Buffalo riding.
00:03:20.500My name is Fletcher, and while I was in, while I'm in right now, my riding is Calgary Glenmore.
00:03:26.500However, shout out to Calgary West folks who are in this room, because I just moved from there.
00:03:32.500Hi there. I'm Avery Nadek. I'm 16 years old, and I'm from the Highwood constituency.
00:03:37.500Hello. My name is Katerina Hill. I'm 21, and I'm from Calgary Edgemont.
00:03:49.500Hello, guys. My name is Afrasia, and I'm from right here in Red Deer County.
00:03:54.500And with that, let's introduce the esteemed panel of judges. First, we have MLA Eric Bouchard.
00:04:04.500Next to him, we have MLA Jackie Lovely.
00:04:38.500Our judges have four top categories to evaluate on. These are clarity and persuasion, evidence and examples, personality and delivery, and originality and creativity.
00:04:51.500So we've really left it up to the youth to do as they feel.
00:04:56.500And let's just get to the prizes as well so that they understand.
00:05:00.500And you know what wonderful prizes they have in store.
00:05:03.500Every participant is getting an awesome gift bag. Here we go.
00:23:20.500According to the US, the percentage of individuals self-identifying as transgender has tripled since 2011.
00:23:29.500Whereas before this period, there was no scientific literature on females having gender dysphoria at all,
00:23:36.500which constitute the majority of today, according to the UK, which my previous Macy alluded to,
00:23:41.500the fact that that is a social contagion.
00:23:43.500It was chiefly boys, and boys ages 2 to 4, not the tumultuous teenage years as 11 to 21 as we see today.
00:23:51.500Still, even those boys, 70% of them grew out of their reported dysmorphia, and that was only 0.1% of the population.
00:23:59.500So to expose all students to SOGI materials as a general awareness campaign is to subject them to, or rather create, a problem that exists for less than 1% of Canadians across Canada.
00:24:10.500Of which 80% of them would likely have recovered from their dysphoria in the first place if we didn't glitter SOGI materials all over their education.
00:24:20.500Again, if you want SOGI materials under the belt of your child, SOGI isn't curriculum specific, so you can dig into myriads of online resources and teach your child.
00:24:29.500This policy leaves opt-in option for you. This policy provides not just choice, but choice with informed consent.
00:24:36.500Without the proper information, you can't truly come to a decision.
00:24:40.500And with opt-in, you have to know what you're opting into, whereas opt-out could only incentivize garnering further information when the damage has been done.
00:24:48.500So this policy is necessary. Danielle's parental rights current policy only regards treatments and surgeries.
00:24:54.500This one targets the educational portion that are currently policies don't touch on.
00:25:01.500So there needs to be regulation regarding these, not just physical implications, of which Danielle luckily did,
00:25:07.500but also the mental and emotional implications, which my teammate will go all over. Thank you.
00:25:13.500Okay, my name is Katerina. So while an opt-in policy may be suitable for ideologically motivated sexual education,
00:25:30.500making all sexual education opt-in goes too far, creating both logistical and social concerns.
00:25:38.500Yesterday, the Premier tweeted that parents will have to be notified when content regarding this nature is taught.
00:25:44.500So I would pose the question, why does it have to be opt-in rather than opt-out?
00:25:50.500As we've already mentioned, in Alberta schools, an opt-out policy currently exists,
00:25:56.500allowing parents to choose to take their kids out of school-taught sexual education.
00:26:01.500While we do not deny the importance of ensuring that sexual education serves the purpose of remaining biologically accurate
00:26:08.500and steering away from ideologically motivated concepts,
00:26:13.500we also must acknowledge that sexual education serves an important purpose in ensuring that all kids are taught correct and accurate information.
00:26:22.500The current opt-out system in schools gives concerned parents the ability to ensure that they can choose what sexual education their children receive.
00:26:32.500While also ensuring that children who have parents that are unconcerned with what they learn still receive accurate sexual education
00:26:40.500and are not left in a position where they turn to inaccurate sources.
00:26:45.500The reality is that not everyone has parents that are concerned with their well-being or what is best for them.
00:26:52.500In these scenarios, an opt-in policy creates unnecessary complications and may leave some kids, those who are most vulnerable,
00:27:00.500without any accurate form of sexual education.
00:28:20.500I know we're all experiencing some pretty unacceptable views up here right now regarding post-transitioners.
00:28:26.500It's funny that you mention going too far, but I think we ought to know the mental health outcomes of the people that go down the path of these gender identity policies.
00:28:37.500An argument that a lot of us have probably heard is that the reason for the suicide rate of the transgenders we see today is from mistreatment in society.
00:28:45.500But interestingly, concentration camp survivors from the Holocaust who went through some of the worst mistreatment of people in society only experienced suicide rates of approximately 5%.
00:28:56.500The suicide rate for transitioners in the US, however, around 40 to 50%, and that's before and after surgical transition.
00:29:04.500And I think we can all agree that they aren't treated worse than the Holocaust victims.
00:31:06.500To conclude here on my team, I'd like to start off by saying the best way for people to not get pregnant is to not have sex.
00:31:16.500And the second best way is to teach them how to have safe sex.
00:31:20.500Why would we be against educating our next generation?
00:31:26.500The existing opt-out system already empowers parents without limiting all the student access.
00:31:33.500The proposed policy may be reasonable for grade school children, grades one to six,
00:31:40.500but there is no reference to age to which this motion shall apply, meaning it would apply to all children in public schools,
00:31:48.500presumably even 18 years old who are in grade 12.
00:31:52.500The second part of this policy gives the education ministry the power to reject content.
00:31:58.500So if it's content from a right-wing perspective and NDP government rejects it,
00:32:05.500the opt-in doesn't matter because it won't get to that point.
00:32:13.500As my friend highlighted here, stopping kids from learning about sex in school simply means that they will learn about it
00:32:20.500on unreliable sources, potentially harming their sense of self and setting unrealistic expectations.
00:32:28.500Studies have shown that comprehensive sex education programs can lead to positive health outcomes for young people.
00:32:35.500Opt-out systems can lead to delays in young people accessing information.
00:32:40.500At the very least, these kind of programs at junior and senior high should be made available as has been historically the case for decades.
00:32:52.500And opt-out basis with the assumption that teens need to have a health education that includes these more difficult areas.
00:33:03.500So that was the full policy for the first one.
00:33:17.500So we're just going to go straight into the second one, which is policy resolution number 15.
00:33:22.500And that was submitted by Calgary Buffalo and Red Deer South.
00:33:26.500And this resolution, the United Conservative Party believes that the government of Alberta should negotiate with the federal government, right?
00:33:36.500To create an accord with Alberta that grants our province greater control over immigration,
00:33:41.500including total numbers of temporary and permanent residents and active participation in the selection and rejection of those being granted temporary or permanent settlement rights in Alberta
00:34:08.500I'm first going to start off with a story in order to captivate the audience.
00:34:12.500My great grandparents fled Ukraine during the Holodomor.
00:34:17.500Before they left, they burnt everything to the ground to make sure that none of the Soviet government could do anything with it.
00:34:24.500They fled for Canada and for a while lived in an abandoned railway station.
00:34:29.500My grandfather's crib was nothing but an old drawer to use to store tools.
00:34:37.500Over the time, my great grandparents learned the language, started a business and worked to prosperity.
00:34:43.500I know many in this room have similar stories of their parents, great grandparents or themselves fleeing very unfortunate circumstances and fleeing for their life to come to Canada.
00:34:55.500Despite what the opposition might say about Resolution 15, it is a policy that supports immigrants within our province.
00:35:03.500By giving the province control how many immigrants it can take in, it helps prevent immigrants living in severe poverty.
00:35:11.500According to the government of Canada, 66% of individuals who live in poverty are immigrants.
00:35:20.500Policy 15 will once again help individuals and help the province regulate and maintain a status quo of immigration levels in order for our province to have the ability to regulate and make sure the system does not overflow with immigrants.
00:35:40.500Who end up into poverty or homelessness.
00:35:45.500From 2023 to 2024 Canada had a population increase of over 1 million people.
00:35:52.500Currently, we are facing a housing crisis, inflation, and a large number of that is to do with the Liberal government constantly adding more immigrants into Canada.
00:36:05.500Immigrants themselves are not bad people.
00:36:08.500They are individuals who fled the country and who are looking for a better way of life.
00:36:13.500However, from what we are seeing through Europe, through the United States, and through Canada, we are seeing an increase of immigration levels that are actually causing the suicide and death of many economies within the West, as well as culture.
00:36:30.500So, radically increasing the immigration will further cause issues with infrastructure as well as, I forgot the word, as well as increasing the level of social services.
00:36:49.500I'm still Lauren, in case you needed a reminder.
00:37:02.500So, just one thing, being a refugee and immigration into the country is not necessarily the same thing.
00:37:11.500Refugees don't always stay. Sometimes they do have to go back to their country.
00:37:15.500But, nevertheless, I'm going to stick to the rationale behind this policy, which is that this policy is based off the Quebec Immigration Accord.
00:37:25.500There are many ways that you can control your immigration and we're going to address that today, but I am going to specifically focus on what this is based off of, which is the Quebec Immigration Accord.
00:37:34.500So, for the next three minutes, I'm going to provide a brief summary of the political climate in Canada in 1991 when the Canada-Quebec Immigration Accord was signed,
00:37:44.500and then I'm going to provide two reasons why this policy is untenable.
00:37:48.500It's important to understand the historical context of the risks to Canadian unity that led to the signing of this accord.
00:37:55.500In 1969, French was officially recognized as an official language in Canada, and from that point on, protecting the French language and culture became essential.
00:38:06.500Now, heading into the 1990s, Quebec was gearing up for their referendum, and Brian Mulroney was preparing for what would become the failed Charlottetown Accords,
00:38:17.500where he would attempt to have all ten provinces sign a constitutional amendment which included a clause that recognized Quebec as a distinct culture in Canada that needed to be protected.
00:38:29.500Keeping this context in mind, I move into problem one, the chief basis for the Quebec-Canada Accord, which was, as I just mentioned,
00:38:37.500that Quebec was a distinct Francophone culture that needed to be protected, and thus, selective immigration to protect their culture was crucial.
00:38:46.500For Alberta to achieve a similar goal, we'd have to prove that we have a unique and distinct culture, similar to being a Francophone, and that Canada needs to protect that.
00:38:57.500And although this policy recognizes the need to establish this, it fails to provide any concrete definition for what the distinct culture of an Albertan currently is.
00:39:09.500Quebec's distinct culture creates a high burden, and it's yet to be replicated in any other province or territory, making it unlikely that Alberta will be able to meet this standard either.
00:39:20.500This transitions to my second point. The reason this standard is so high is because the federal government does not want to relinquish control of immigration under Section 95 to the provinces.
00:39:31.500If the federal government were to lower this standard and enter into a similar accord with the province of Alberta, it would open the floodgates for all other provinces and territories to negotiate their own similar accords with the government,
00:39:44.500leaving the federal government with no control over their own immigration into the country, which they are going to be unwilling to do, making this policy unrealistic.
00:40:06.500And good morning again, folks. It's a pleasure to be speaking with you in favor of this policy.
00:40:10.500And before I dive into my points, I'd just like to reply to something my esteemed colleague on the opposite side brought up.
00:40:16.500And I moved from Ontario two years ago to Alberta.
00:40:20.500For me to hear that Alberta does not have a distinct culture or a distinct identity, that is simply not true.
00:40:26.500This province is built on hard work, on conservative values and conservative principles, and we stand very distinctly within Canada, believe me.
00:40:35.500Now, I believe this debate comes down to, again, a very simple question.
00:40:39.500Is Alberta equal to other provinces in this confederation? Opposition to this proposed policy, in my mind, implies otherwise.
00:40:48.500Now, let's talk a bit about that Quebec-Canada Accord from 1991.
00:40:52.500It was signed, yes, by a conservative prime minister in Brian Mulroney, but a liberal Quebec premier in Robert Barassa.
00:40:59.500Now, it's not a stretch to say that in the next few years, we may very well have a conservative government federally, a very friendly conservative government federally.
00:41:08.500I fail to see why, if a conservative government in 1991 can come to an agreement with a liberally run province, why the same thing could not be done with a conservatively run province.
00:41:19.500It's been nearly 35 years since Quebec signed that agreement.
00:41:23.500They've been able to choose the immigrants that come to their province, making sure they can integrate culturally, socially, and economically.
00:41:30.500Meanwhile, the rest of Canada has languished under this one-size-fits-all policy that burdens our social services, burdens our labour market, and is completely unfair compared to Quebec.
00:41:43.500Now, ladies and gentlemen, what I'd like you to ask yourselves as you hear the points made by the other side, is why should those points apply to Alberta, but not to Quebec, or to any other province?
00:41:56.500If we truly want to stand tall as a party, as a government, and as a sovereign people within a true confederation, not a top-down unitary state, then I fail to see why Alberta, as with any other province, should have the right to negotiate with the federal government.
00:42:14.500This policy does not say we're going to unilaterally pull out, we're going to unilaterally choose our immigrants, or reject what the federal government's priorities might be.
00:42:23.500It's simply giving our government a license to begin these negotiations.
00:42:27.500What those negotiations end up coming to is an open question.
00:42:31.500But on this policy, should Alberta have the right to negotiate over its own immigration?
00:42:38.500It's our way to assert ourselves in confederation, and come to an agreement that benefits our own province.
00:42:44.500And finally, again, I would just reiterate, this is not an anti-immigrant policy.
00:42:48.500In fact, this morning, when I was taking my Uber to the convention all year, when I told my driver, who was an immigrant from India only five years ago, that this was a political convention,
00:42:58.500he looked behind to me and said, man, we need less immigrants in this country.
00:43:03.500Immigration benefits everybody when done properly.
00:43:24.500Now let's convince the federal government of that.
00:43:27.500And my teammate here will go over the history about why Alberta specifically will get discriminated against, regardless of which conservative or NDP liberal federal government is in.
00:43:39.500In the meantime, to go over the federal government, it's already at odds with us, let alone our immigration needs.
00:43:46.500There's no guarantee the federal government comes to an accord with us in our favor.
00:43:50.500Our current federal government is already bringing in two million people, as Danielle talked about yesterday, and their version of a cut is 105,000 people out of two million.
00:44:00.500So the whimsical notion that this policy is based around is that our federal government, as Sebastian said, has the desire to negotiate.
00:44:08.500You may say that the next federal government may offer a more sanguine outcome.
00:44:14.500This policy is banking on factors that are unpredictable.
00:44:18.500For all we know, the election a year from now gets postponed, maybe from the Emergency Act.
00:44:24.500We do have two ongoing and escalating wars.
00:44:27.500The US is about to hold its election, and the outlooks of how either candidate handles either conflict is not exactly looking like glittery outcomes.
00:44:38.500Now, if that isn't enough uncertainty for you, I can go over the actual process about, again, what this policy is based around, the Quebec-Canada Accord,
00:44:47.500because we wanted to come into the same agreement.
00:44:49.500Before that accord come into fruition, it's also known as the Gagnon-Tremblay-McDougall Accord,
00:44:55.500they had to establish their own immigration department.
00:44:58.500And as far as my research shows, we don't have one yet.
00:45:02.500Following that, Quebec needed to supply representatives to the Canadian embassies for broad counselling under the Langer-Quartier Agreement, 1971.
00:45:10.500After that, Quebec needed a legitimate part in the selection process by doing interviews and recommendations to visa officers.
00:45:18.500So they needed another agreement, Andres Bienvenue Agreement, 1975.
00:45:23.500Now with the minor administrative opportunities to make recommendations and selective suggestions, Quebec wanted to officially format their own selection criteria for broad temporary incomers.
00:45:32.500So they pushed for the Cullen-Cortier Agreement in 1978.
00:45:36.500That's three agreements if you're not counting with me.
00:45:38.500So finally, in 1991, the Canada-Quebec Accord was struck and they had selected powers over temporary and permanent immigration.
00:45:47.500Now anyone aware of the odds of each new federal government coming into power over the next couple decades sharing the same sentiment to support Alberta and our immigration needs?
00:45:58.500My next teammate will go over the odds about Alberta's achieving that.
00:46:10.500Before I start off, I would like to comment on one of my fellow speakers on the other side.
00:46:16.500Just because it will be hard to negotiate doesn't mean we shouldn't try.
00:46:21.500And Alberta has a distinct, conservative, hard-working culture.
00:46:26.500Alberta's resources are finite, and we need to manage growth responsibly to ensure that our infrastructure can handle the increased population.
00:46:35.500Alberta could tailor its immigration policies to track skilled workers who meet specific labour market needs, boosting the provincial economy.
00:46:45.500Statistics Canada data shows that immigrants make a significant contribution to Alberta's economy, particularly in high-skilled occupations.
00:46:53.500And as Sebastian mentioned, Quebec has asserted its right to define and protect its cultural heritage and has a role in determining the total numbers of immigrants allowed into the province.
00:47:05.500Alberta is equally entitled to define and protect our own unique heritage.
00:47:12.500It is important to strike a balance between protecting local interests and fostering a welcome, inclusive society.
00:47:18.500And greater control over immigration could help Alberta preserve its unique cultural identity and values.
00:47:25.500However, it is important to note that immigration can also enrich a society, bringing new perspectives and skills.
00:47:32.500Now, we saw how increased population growth from bribing people to move to Alberta worked out for us.
00:47:39.500Our government had to spend the largest amount of time on new schools to keep up with the population unless we get immigration under control.
00:47:50.500That is going to be a regular occurrence.
00:47:54.500We're not saying that Alberta should be its own country, but controlling our immigration economy and resources would be a good start.
00:48:03.500And that's why I will be voting to send a message to Smith.
00:48:10.500You know, while I'd love for Alberta to be responsible for its allocation of its own resources,
00:48:25.500the historical relationship of the federal government to its ugly cousin in Canada is unreciprocated at the best and the worst of times.
00:48:33.500Albeit, it's a pretty picture to imagine the federal government would grant us an accord as it did with Quebec, Canada Accord.
00:48:40.500There's just one important difference that I think we all need to recognize, and that's we're not Quebec.
00:48:45.500What incentivizes the federal government to give aid and growth and the prosperity of our province?
00:48:50.500And what would justify them giving up regulatory control over our immigration jurisdiction?
00:48:55.500Quebec has its own immigration accord, sure.
00:48:58.500They also have their own pension plan and tax system tailored to their needs.
00:49:01.500Alberta has tried to implement its own tax system similar to Quebec, as well as our own pension plan,
00:49:06.500but the hardcore fact of the matter is that Quebec doesn't supply the rest of the country.
00:49:10.500Alberta single-handedly contributed $600 billion more into Confederation than it's received in the last 50 years.
00:49:17.500Equalization payments include the entire revenue of the West, and yet Quebec's famous hydro-elective revenue is exempt,
00:49:23.500because if it were included, they wouldn't qualify for the transfers.
00:49:27.500This is the same reason they crippled Quebec's oil and gas development, so as to keep their royalties down,
00:49:32.500to keep it from getting deducted off of their equalization payments, when instead they could invest in their industry and services to thrive.
00:49:38.500In 2022, Quebec lost some population, so it should have lost some seats in the House of Commons, and Alberta should have gained.
00:49:45.500But Quebec posed a motion to never lose seats again, and it passed.
00:49:49.500Quebec has one-third of the Supreme Court judges, despite only having less than one-quarter of Canada's population,
00:49:55.500whereas Western Canada has one-third of the population, but only gets two-ninths of the Supreme Court bench.
00:50:01.500I reiterate, if anyone here thinks that Alberta, the provincial wallet of Canada, will get the sovereignty regarding immigration,
00:50:08.500then we've been robbed of sovereignty at every other level, then you haven't learned your history.
00:50:21.500Canada is extremely large, with a landmass of nearly 10 million square kilometres, a significant portion of North America.
00:50:28.500With such a vast country, the regional norms, customs, and specific needs are significantly varied.
00:50:34.500With such variety, it would be problematic to welcome immigrants without determining if they'll be able to succeed in a specific region.
00:50:43.500Given these peculiarities, it makes good sense for each province to determine their region-specific desired traits and needs for any immigrants that are admitted into their province.
00:50:52.500I am not saying that immigrants are expected to precisely fit the mould of a given region, but having someone whose values, principles, and abilities to contribute align,
00:51:01.500first with Canadian values, and then with those of a given region or province, like Alberta, versus someone whose values don't align,
00:51:09.500is much less likely to succeed or add value to our society.
00:51:13.500Immigration can be good, but we need to exercise diligence and prudence.
00:51:16.500As an example of failed immigration policy from the federal government, in August of this year, two men were arrested when it was discovered that they were planning a terrorist attack in Toronto.
00:51:26.500One of these two men had already gained Canadian citizenship.
00:51:29.500Additionally, both of these men swore allegiance to ISIS, with the aim of bringing harm to Canadians.
00:51:36.500They were also charged with attempted terrorist assaults in 2015, external to Canada, demonstrating that this was not a one-off event,
00:51:44.500and something that we should have seen coming before they were admitted into Canada and given the gift of citizenship.
00:51:50.500This is not becoming of Canada or Alberta.
00:51:53.500In Alberta, we value the safety of our people, and we have shown this by electing a leader who listens to us and does everything in her power to protect.
00:52:01.500The people of Alberta are open to immigrants who come for the right reasons, but do not want terrorists in our province.
00:52:07.500We are open to welcoming new people that make our province better by adding new perspectives to our policy-making and legislature that moves us closer to an ideal Alberta.
00:52:16.500This policy will aid in the preservation of Alberta's prosperous advantage.
00:52:20.500Under a provincial immigration policy, Alberta gets to decide what its future looks like, and places the decision-making power back in Alberta where those decisions are felt.
00:52:29.500Also, just because creating an Alberta immigration policy is difficult, doesn't mean we can't do it.
00:52:35.500It was difficult for people to discover Alberta, but that didn't mean that they shouldn't do it.
00:52:41.500Why not make an immigration department? Quebec has one. Why not?
00:52:45.500You heard it in the CFO address this morning yourself.
00:52:49.500The Conservative Party, and therefore the current government, is in a really fantastic financial position and has the ability to hire an immigration department at the moment.
00:52:59.500So why not take advantage of the cash that we have and use it to protect our province?
00:53:04.500Also, if we are okay with Alberta pension plan, why are we not okay with Alberta immigration?
00:53:10.500The people that we have in our province is much more important than the money we have in our pockets.
00:53:14.500People in the province determine how the province runs. The money in our pocket determines who runs the province.
00:53:20.500Well, not really, but you get the idea.
00:53:30.500My name is also Cyril since we're doing this.
00:53:34.500Now, in spite of this unrealistic policy, is there absolutely no way for us to regulate immigration?
00:53:39.500Actually, there is, and we're already doing it.
00:53:42.500We're, sorry, we're already a part of the PNP agreement, provincial nominee program, which allows us to expedite the entry of people we prioritize.
00:53:50.500Currently, AHS is re, sorry, re-evaluating the rural healthcare system because the rural Alberta is facing a mass medical practitioner shortage.
00:54:00.500Immigrants from places such as the UK or South Africa are more likely to fill those positions because they are the portion of the population willing to uproot themselves and plant their new roots in a small town compared to the young, ambitious demographic.
00:54:13.500The already existing Labor Mobility Act, which applies to immigration as well as migration, streamlines labor shortages, which is one of the biggest thorns in the foot of our Alberta government.
00:54:23.500Section 95 of the Constitution Act states immigration is shared jurisdiction by both provincial and federal government.
00:54:32.500So with the Labor Mobility Act and Section 95, our Alberta government launched Alberta is calling in 2022.
00:54:38.500The Alberta government put out ads for this program throughout the country to encourage migration.
00:54:45.500Through this initiative, Daniel Smith actively seeks more tradespeople to enter our province for the increase in Alberta production.
00:54:52.500It calls for pipe fitters, plumbers, mechanics, electricians, truck drivers, welders, etc.
00:54:58.500This initiative incentivizes those who have skills to invest in Alberta.
00:55:03.500Alberta also invests in the in its newcomers as spend 18.9 million for the Alberta settlement and integration program to help newcomers access settlement, language training and other supports.
00:55:14.500I personally received English language learning, aka ELL support during my grade five to seven education as I was a new immigrant.
00:55:21.500I also know other immigrants who had their education at the Bow Valley College paid for by the government of Alberta.
00:55:27.500Their English education paid for by the sorry at who had their.
00:56:13.500Sorry, the world faced a medical crisis within the last four years.
00:56:16.500It's not saying no to people, but fruitfully selecting those that will help solve the short term problem of immigration by implementing long term solutions of productivity per capita.
00:56:38.500So before I begin, I just want to say that we do agree that we should be fruitfully selecting who we are allowing into the province and allowing immigration to help meet our needs in terms of health care and other areas.
00:56:53.500I would also say that just because something is difficult to negotiate doesn't mean we should shy away from it.
00:56:59.500Albertans are hardworking and determined.
00:57:01.500And I can personally say that I am proud to be Albertan.
00:57:04.500We are in favor of this policy because it fairly gives Alberta autonomy over immigration within the province.
00:57:11.500It allows Alberta to make decisions with respect to immigration so it can meet its own unique economic needs.
00:57:18.500And so that Alberta can ensure that immigrants within the province are not at a disadvantage.
00:57:25.500Under Section 95 of the Constitution Act, jurisdiction over immigration is split between the federal and provincial governments.
00:57:32.500Given this and given the power Quebec has over immigration, Alberta can and should assert control over immigration, especially given the recent failures of the federal government.
00:57:45.500The cost of poor immigration policy far outweighs the cost of Alberta gaining autonomy over immigration within the province.
00:57:54.500Moreover, if Alberta has power over immigration, specifically how many immigrants are allowed in the province and who these immigrants are, the province will be better positioned to meet its own economic needs.
00:58:06.500Given the current situation and having the housing crisis and where immigrants are arriving in Alberta at record levels.
00:58:15.500With Alberta's population growing by 4.4% compared to 3.2% in Canada, ensuring immigrants that come here are actually better off, have the opportunity and the ability to fulfill jobs we need,
00:58:33.500and are not put in a position to strain Alberta's social welfare system, something which is detrimental both to the immigrants who have come here and to the people of Alberta.
00:58:46.500Now, we are not saying that we are anti-immigration by any means.
00:58:49.500Rather, we want to give the Alberta government autonomy over its own immigration policy, as to ensure that immigrants meet our economic needs, do not strain our social systems, and are actually better off than they were before coming to Canada.
00:59:12.500I think we have the chronological order of this all wrong.
00:59:15.500The argument that immigration is clogging up our economy and besmirching our real estate market is unavailing.
00:59:20.500To make that claim, you'd have to ignore every other facet of our economy.
00:59:24.500How about the fact that oil and gas is ridiculous right now, interest rates on our energy and utilities?
00:59:30.500Property taxes certainly aren't incentivizing investment into our province right now.
00:59:34.500Making an immigration policy to stop people from coming in isn't the solution.
00:59:38.500It's investing into the infrastructure and energy production to provide more than just houses, but a stable and able energy grid to supply those houses.
00:59:47.500We need a policy incentivizing the conservative pillar of fiscal responsibility, advocating internal Alberta investment like nuclear plants, not a policy putting a band-aid on an artery wound.
00:59:58.500The immigration issue won't be an issue with Alberta prosperity.
01:00:02.500People are supposed to be seen as a resource, not a burden.
01:00:05.500And if that is the case, it is because the government and the society of which it is beholden to have not produced enough per capita to supply the population.
01:00:13.500When productivity per capita increases, a direct result is increased goods and services along the wages and profits for said goods and services.
01:00:21.500This is why the BRICS nations are soaring.
01:00:24.500Between 2015 and 2020 alone, the inter-trading between those few BRIC nations has surpassed all of the trade between that of the rest of the West.
01:00:32.500Russia has invested into its oil reserves and moved to gold-backed currency.
01:00:37.500They have become the sixth largest DDP in the world and thus enabled them to streamline their immigration policy.
01:00:42.500They made it significantly smoother to move there for Canadian refugees like us wanting to free our feudal federal government,
01:00:50.500but only because they, one, knew what they were looking for, and two, they produced the currency and energy abundance to support us.
01:00:58.500Alberta is importing electronics, automobiles, machinery, refined petroleum products such as gasoline.
01:01:04.500Meanwhile, we're exporting raw materials.
01:01:10.500Like a friend coming to move in with you before they get themselves on their feet.
01:01:14.500If you wanted to stay in my home, eat my food, use my utility,
01:01:18.500it doesn't matter how much I care about you if I'm not in a position to accommodate.
01:01:23.500Most cases of these immigrants wouldn't have to rely on Trudeau's welfare to win him votes if people felt they had a chance to thrive here.