Western Standard - AB Transportation infrastructure investments included in Budget 2024

00:00:00.000 honor and privilege to welcome the mla for brooks medicine hat and premier of alberta

00:00:07.440 the honorable danielle smith as well as minister for transportation and economic corridors

00:00:13.520 devin duration to our beautiful community here today your presence here is a testament

00:00:18.800 to the importance our government places on rural alberta and the critical economic corridors that

00:00:24.240 tie our province together our region plays a crucial role in feeding families across alberta

00:00:31.600 and across the world our agricultural heartland transportation ties and hard-working people

00:00:38.640 are what drive our province's prosperity minister duration your portfolio overseeing transportation

00:00:45.280 and economic corridors is pivotal to ensuring that our world-class products can make it to market

00:00:51.520 efficiently whether at home or abroad we deeply appreciate the government of alberta's commitment

00:00:57.040 to investing in the infrastructure that allows us to get our goods to market in a timely manner

00:01:02.720 from the cities to the rural areas from the north to the south investments in transportation

00:01:07.920 and economic corridors will create jobs fuel growth and connect communities like never before

00:01:14.960 and most importantly they are a vote a vote of confidence in alberta's future so thank you again

00:01:20.560 to our distinguished guests for choosing the city of medicine hat to make you this important

00:01:25.120 announcement we're eager to hear the good news you have to share with Albertans thank you and

00:01:30.320 I now turn the podium over to Premier Daniel Smith well thank you thank you Justin for that

00:01:40.320 very kind introduction thank you all for being here today you'll hear from my minister very

00:01:44.640 shortly but also I see Mayor Lindsay Clark is here as well I don't know if you've brought any

00:01:48.560 of your council members with you but welcome to council if you're here as well hey there's council

00:01:52.720 nice to see you uh so thanks to everyone for joining us here today and i do want to thank

00:01:57.280 volker steven for hosting us as well and to thank you of course to david dreeshan our minister of

00:02:02.160 transportation and economic corridors for making the trek down to this beautiful city to highlight

00:02:07.040 the investments that we are making in transportation water management and municipal infrastructure

00:02:13.040 and i'm always pleased to talk about budget 2024 including important investments such as

00:02:18.080 transportation water management and municipal infrastructure that i will be talking about today

00:02:22.640 as the economic engine of canada it's encouraging that our economy is expected to remain strong

00:02:28.160 in 2024 as part of that and part of that strength comes from drawing newcomers from

00:02:33.920 across canada and from around the world in the 12 months prior to october alberta's population

00:02:40.080 rose by about 195 000 people it's the highest annual rate since the early 1980s so transportation

00:02:48.080 networks and economic corridors must expand to keep pace with alberta's economy and population

00:02:54.480 and we're ensuring that they can through budget 2024 our responsible plan for a growing province

00:03:00.160 the transportation and economic corridors capital plan invests more than 8.1 billion dollars over

00:03:06.400 three years to design build and maintain the roadways and bridges that we count on every day

00:03:12.160 and we're putting that money to good use by improving traffic flows and supporting investment

00:03:16.720 in economic corridors across the province the result will be faster safer travel for families

00:03:22.160 and extra capacity for business so that they can be as ambitious as they want it's critical that

00:03:27.840 alberta businesses and industry can get their products to market across the province across

00:03:33.040 the country the continent and the world and it all starts with road infrastructure as i'm sure

00:03:38.560 you can imagine i spend a lot of time on alberta's roads so i get a first-hand look at many of these

00:03:43.680 roads and intersections through all the phases of construction and i'm pretty sure uh i can and all

00:03:49.760 of us can make a few suggestions for minister dreeshan on areas that we can have improvement

00:03:54.800 but he spends a lot of time on the road too and he's pretty on top of it and on that note i am

00:03:58.800 happy to share some good news for businesses and residents here in medicine hat and the

00:04:02.560 surrounding region budget 2024 includes funding over the next three years to twin 46 kilometers

00:04:09.440 of highway 3 between Tabor and Burnett major construction is expected to start next this year

00:04:15.280 we're also investing in the engineering work to prepare for twinning the remaining 169 kilometers

00:04:21.360 of highway 3 between medicine hat and the bc boundary when it's done this will be a big boost

00:04:26.560 for everyone especially local agribusinesses here in southeastern alberta budget 2024

00:04:32.400 also includes funding for engineering work for grade widening along 55 kilometers of highway 41

00:04:39.200 between highway between highway one and 20 kilometers south of elk water but it's not

00:04:47.760 just new and improved roads we're also investing to extend the lifespan of existing infrastructure

00:04:53.200 through maintenance and renewal province-wide. This is about getting full value from past

00:04:57.760 investments while creating and preserving jobs in trades and construction. But transportation

00:05:02.880 and economic corridors doesn't only focus on the roads that we use every day. That's why we are

00:05:07.760 also here to announce investments for water management infrastructure that provide irrigation

00:05:13.920 and flood mitigation so that communities will be better protected in the event of extreme events.

00:05:19.600 and with the province facing the critical risk of severe drought this year these investments

00:05:25.840 are all the more important as are the capital grants for municipal water and wastewater

00:05:30.560 infrastructure so that Albertans can rely on access to clean drinking water and effective

00:05:35.120 wastewater services municipal governments understand local conditions better than anyone

00:05:40.720 and they'll get the resources to act on their residents priorities so the situation is clear

00:05:45.680 Albertans need safe and efficient roads, highways and bridges. They need new and upgraded water

00:05:51.200 infrastructure. They need more so that they can do more and we will provide it. We'll invest in

00:05:55.920 public services and the transportation infrastructure and networks that families

00:06:00.960 and communities rely on and we'll do it in a fiscally responsible way without leaving

00:06:05.280 increased debt to the next generation, without depleting the province's savings and without

00:06:09.120 subjecting Albertans to the same old cycle of painful ups and downs in spending. Consistency

00:06:15.040 is as much of a virtue as prudence and we're also using both to build a stronger and financially

00:06:22.000 sustainable province from from transportation to health care to education this year's budget

00:06:26.960 is another step in the right direction and with that i will hand it over to minister

00:06:31.120 devin dreeshan who has more to share about specific projects and initiatives minister

00:06:36.640 well thank you very much premier it's it's great to be here in medicine hatch and great to see

00:06:46.920 reeve dan hamilton here as well and obviously to focus on this year's provincial budget and how

00:06:52.960 transportation economic corridors is helping to build alberta and just at a very high level

00:06:58.660 picture of transportation economic corridors portion in this year's 73 billion dollar provincial

00:07:04.180 budget. We do have a three-year capital plan of over $8 billion, which works out to about $2.7

00:07:10.400 billion per year. And that's for planning, design, engineering, land acquisition, and the cost of

00:07:17.320 actually building the roads and bridges and infrastructure here in the province. And I would

00:07:22.100 like to start just to talk a little bit about Highway 3, because the last time I was here in

00:07:25.940 Medicine Hat, I was talking about Highway 3, and how it will be broken up into eight sections. And

00:07:31.160 I know there are some in this room that maybe thought politicians would just talk about the

00:07:35.320 twinning of Highway 3 and it would never actually get accomplished, but I'm happy to say that there

00:07:39.580 has been, the tender has been accepted, and we'll actually see construction happening this year,

00:07:44.880 which would be fantastic, and then hopefully be completed by next year between Tabor and Burdette,

00:07:49.420 that 46-kilometer stretch, that first part of that very important highway twinning with a total

00:07:56.100 cost of $260 million, but $170 million of the total twinning is actually in this year's

00:08:02.220 three-year capital plan. And obviously, you know, with Highway 3 being such an important

00:08:07.800 economic corridor, as Premier mentioned, connecting Saskatchewan goods to BC and vice versa,

00:08:14.060 it was actually one of the nine applications that the province of Alberta put into the

00:08:18.600 federal national trade corridor program. And unfortunately, Alberta, we've been zero for nine

00:08:24.700 in the applications in that program.

00:08:27.720 And then just a few weeks ago, Minister Guibo, the federal minister,

00:08:31.780 said there will be no more funding for roads by the federal government,

00:08:35.980 which actually obviously would have had huge concerns for provinces

00:08:39.540 as well as First Nations with the constitutional obligation

00:08:42.440 of the federal government building roads within First Nations.

00:08:47.720 The Liberals, since those comments by Minister Guibo,

00:08:50.460 actually tried to walk back those comments.

00:08:53.200 but then the clarifying words were well they'll just be no more funding for big projects but

00:08:59.360 unfortunately that is the national trade corridor fund which is ending this year and there's lots

00:09:05.660 of question marks of what's going to happen in the upcoming april 16th federal budget but

00:09:10.100 obviously actions speak louder than clarified words so we are going to be watching that budget

00:09:15.540 very closely to see if that actually will be renewed and just recently in montreal i at the

00:09:22.120 transportation ministers of all the different provinces and territories and federal government,

00:09:26.520 I actually advocated that the National Trade Corridor Fund should be renewed and also matched

00:09:32.200 with the same commitment of funding that the National Transit Fund program has federally,

00:09:37.400 which is $3 billion a year. The National Trade Corridor Fund had $400 million a year,

00:09:42.120 but that was an ask that I had and actually was echoed by other provinces. But again,

00:09:45.880 we'll see what happens in the upcoming April 16 federal budget. But back to our budget and the

00:09:51.480 over eight billion in three years in capital projects of that we've also added 151 million

00:09:57.800 over three years for 56 new engineering projects to proceed with detailed and design and many of

00:10:03.800 those projects are located along economic corridors like highway 3 as well as highway 686 between

00:10:10.760 peerless lake and fort mcmurray and a little closer to home here highway 1 and range road 264 overpass

00:10:18.120 which will support the new de Havilland Canada Aviation Manufacturing Facility in Wheatland

00:10:22.920 County. So our capital investment includes over 30 million over three years in new funding to

00:10:27.880 support the replacement of aging bridges across the province and especially here in southern Alberta.

00:10:32.200 There are many many small span bridges that are nearing their end of life and many could be

00:10:37.640 converted to culverts and we are going to be working with municipalities to make sure that

00:10:42.040 this new 30 million dollars get spent wisely in in bridges that are nearing their end of life

00:10:48.760 and we're also protecting our valuable water resources with 312 million over three years

00:10:53.880 for water management and flood mitigation including the spring bank off stream reservoir

00:10:59.160 project and we're also continuing to provide over half a billion dollars in grant funding

00:11:04.120 to municipalities through our water and wastewater programs to help ensure reliable access to clean

00:11:09.320 drinking water now regarding capital maintenance and renewal funding over the next three years

00:11:14.520 it'll include 300 million in new funding which will help extend the life of our existing road

00:11:19.560 and bridge network which is 64 000 lane kilometers here in the province as well as 5 000 bridges so

00:11:26.280 we're also providing an extra 30 million over three years to the strategic transportation

00:11:30.840 infrastructure program or lovingly called stip by uh by municipalities we know funding through

00:11:36.360 this program is critical to support municipalities and stip funding allows rural municipalities to

00:11:41.240 maintain and improve local roads bridges and other key infrastructure and this program was nearing

00:11:47.400 its end but budget 24 actually renewed its commitment and that so municipalities know that

00:11:52.840 it will continue on and we're also continuing our commitment to support light rail transit

00:11:57.000 projects in edmonton and calgary our previous provincial commitment of three billion dollars

00:12:01.160 of which 1.53 billion is for the calgary green line lrt as well as 1.47 billion for edmonton

00:12:09.480 with an additional 43 million in new provincial funding for calgary's blue line lrt extension

00:12:15.720 that will connect downtown calgary to the airport so in addition to supporting calgary's lrt projects

00:12:21.720 our government is providing 237 million over three years to calgary for infrastructure around the

00:12:27.880 Calgary Rivers District and Events Center to help revitalize Calgary's downtown with another $30

00:12:32.920 million earmarked for a public community arena. And then going up Highway 2 into Edmonton,

00:12:38.280 we are providing $226 million in capital grant funding over three years in support of four

00:12:43.320 critical local infrastructure capital projects, the 50th Street grade separation of the CPKC

00:12:49.000 tracks, the Yellowhead Trail improvements, the Twilliger Drive expansion, as well as the Ray

00:12:54.360 Gibbon Drive project near St. Albert. So in other parts of Alberta, we are supporting,

00:12:59.880 in my world, in Red Deer Regional Airport in Innisfil-Sylvan Lake, the expansion project for

00:13:05.080 that airport of $29 million over the next two years. And this investment will help the airport

00:13:09.800 attract new passengers and cargo services to the region, as well as $130 million in Highway 11

00:13:15.480 twinning between Sylvan Lake and Rocky Mountain House, as well as $8 million to support the

00:13:19.800 upgrading of the Ocheese Road which leads into the Ocheese First Nation from Clearwater County.

00:13:25.560 And then all the way up north in northern Alberta we are providing six million funding to improve

00:13:29.800 access to Fox Lake to rebuild the critical infrastructure that was damaged in last year's

00:13:34.920 wildfire as well as 28 million for highway 40 twinning south of Grand Prairie and 97 million

00:13:40.840 for highway 881 between Lacklebish and highway 63 just south of Fort McMurray. So there's there's a

00:13:47.880 lot in budget 24 and i could go on and on and on but i won't but i will leave you with this

00:13:52.600 that together all of these strategic investments will strengthen our economy and will help support

00:13:58.040 the high quality of life for all albertans and the province of alberta is proud to lead and work with

00:14:03.640 municipalities to build alberta and with that thank you very much and i'd like to invite

00:14:08.680 Raelle Duran, the Vice Chair of AMTA, to say a few words. Thank you.

00:14:21.240 Thank you, Minister Drieshin. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for being here today.

00:14:28.360 On behalf of the Alberta Motor Transport Association, I would like to thank Premier

00:14:32.920 Smith, Minister Grieschen for the Coming to Medicine Hat to highlight the significant

00:14:40.640 investments in the province's roads and bridge infrastructure.

00:14:45.980 For those who don't know the AMTA, the AMTA is a not for profit advocacy and safety training

00:14:53.200 association that serves as the voice standard and a resource for the commercial transportation

00:14:59.700 industry in Alberta.

00:15:02.460 We serve over 18,000 members across the province.

00:15:07.240 You just need to pay attention during your travels around town or when you're on the

00:15:11.600 highway to realize how ever-present our industry is.

00:15:16.700 We are everywhere all the time delivering the goods Alberta families need from the food

00:15:22.700 to fuel to the wide range of consumer goods we rely on for day-to-day life.

00:15:30.660 At its heart, our industry is about connecting our province's goods to markets and Albertans

00:15:36.120 to opportunities.

00:15:38.880 We may be the drivers, but we're the builders.

00:15:42.900 Through our work, we're building communities, we're building the economy.

00:15:47.440 Every day, on just about every road and highway in the province, we're building a stronger,

00:15:52.720 more prosperous Alberta.

00:15:55.280 52 percent of alberta's gdp moves on the back of a truck so every dollar invested in our roads and

00:16:02.720 bridges pays off many times over amta is grateful to the government of alberta for the historic

00:16:12.320 and really there's no other word for it 8.1 billion dollar investment where it's whether

00:16:18.240 it's twinning highway number three twinning highway number 11 or safety and road improvements

00:16:24.880 on highway 8881 budget 2024 will make not only our jobs safer and more efficient but also the

00:16:33.520 travel of albertans and visitors alike i'd like to thank premier smith and minister dreeshan

00:16:40.160 making today's announcement a reality this government is a proven supporter and partner

00:16:47.760 of the commercial transportation industry thanks to its foresight and commitment

00:16:52.880 amta's members can continue working behind the wheel around the clock to keep alberta's supply

00:16:59.360 chains rolling with these critical investments the road ahead is to the stronger more prosperous

00:17:05.760 Alberta is looking clear. Thank you very much and I'd like to invite Scott Emerson to the podium.

00:17:20.800 Thanks Rahel. My name is Scott Emerson. I'm the Vice President for Volker Stebbin Highways and

00:17:26.320 we're very honored to host this event. Thank you Premier Smith and Minister Dries and Emily Wright

00:17:32.800 for joining us along with many members of the municipalities medicine hat cypress county is

00:17:39.200 here so thank you very much all for coming today's announcement is great news for communities for

00:17:47.440 businesses across our province volker 7 highways and our colleagues across the highway maintenance

00:17:53.600 industry really do appreciate this significant investment that the government of alberta is

00:17:59.200 making through budget 2024 to maintain and extend the life of alberta's highways roads bridges and

00:18:08.800 all of the infrastructure that you see as you make your daily drive poker 7 is responsible for

00:18:15.360 maintaining over 18 000 lane kilometers which put in other ways about 30 some odd percent of alberta's

00:18:23.120 roads and bridges across the province so we we know firsthand the challenges and the complexities

00:18:29.520 of trying to prioritize and fund the maintenance of that complex of a of a network pardon me

00:18:38.480 we're a very very proud organization that takes a lot of pride in what we do

00:18:45.520 so whether it's southern Alberta whether it's our central Alberta operations we do some

00:18:49.840 maintenance in Edmonton. We are very very good partners with the province, they are a very good

00:18:56.560 partner with us and we take a lot of pride in that. The 330 employees across Volker 7 all have

00:19:03.280 that same sense of pride and the men and women that get in these vehicles behind me at all hours

00:19:12.000 in the worst of conditions that none of the rest of us would ever consider going out in,

00:19:15.680 THEY FEEL A GREAT SENSE OF PRIDE IN TERMS OF MAKING SURE EVERYBODY GETS HOME SAFELY.

00:19:21.680 AND I JUST WANTED TO TAKE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO THANK THEM BECAUSE WITHOUT THEM ALBERTA DOES NOT KEEP MOVING.

00:19:29.680 AND WHILE THE SAFETY OF THE TRAVELING PUBLIC AND OF OUR HIGHWAY MAINTENANCE CREWS IS OUR TOP PRIORITY,

00:19:36.680 MAXIMIZING THE LIFESPAN OF HIGHWAY INFRASTRUCTURE IS EQUALLY IMPORTANT TO US AND OUR INDUSTRY PARTNERS.

00:19:43.680 And for that, I am very pleased as they would be to see the government's continuing investment in projects that support safe and efficient travel across the province.

00:19:55.260 So thank you again, Premier, Ministers, for your ongoing support and investing in Alberta's transportation network.

00:20:07.260 Okay, we now have some time for questions from the media.

00:20:10.440 so we're going to start with reporters here in the room and then move to the phone lines please

00:20:14.280 state your name and outlet and just a reminder that we're going to be doing one question one

00:20:18.120 follow-up so first question please uh hi there uh hello welcome um calling galant from medicine

00:20:25.080 news i'm just tracking back a little bit to highway three i'm sure people will be very

00:20:30.200 interested to hear about the potential schedule for future phases and also uh might be a bit

00:20:35.320 technical but the the terminus here at medicine hat the junction of one and three has been

00:20:41.480 discussion of a of a functional corridor study for about 10 years um what would that look like

00:20:46.760 are we talking about a ring road in the future no uh great thank you thank you for your question

00:20:54.520 uh with highway three it will be into eight sections and the table to brudette will be the

00:20:59.560 first just because it's it's engineered it's ready to go the tender has already been out

00:21:04.200 the other seven sections are all in various stage of design and planning so as we're still developing

00:21:10.840 a lot of kind of the tougher the the bookends of highway three of exactly how it would work around

00:21:17.400 medicine hat and then obviously by the by the bc border so we're still in the planning

00:21:21.800 developing stages for for the bookends of highway three but the the middle sections the middle

00:21:27.240 five sections six sections um are going to probably be completed before before the ends

00:21:33.240 okay um and uh highway 41 we're seeing some widening which is probably needed about 40 50

00:21:39.880 years ago but um the issue of the port of wild horse where is that at i know you the premier

00:21:45.640 discussed this with uh montana sometime montana's improving the road on the other side you're

00:21:51.000 improving the road on this side the federal governments are in charge of the border what

00:21:55.160 can we do here well i i saw lavar paine last night the former mp for the area and he was

00:22:00.920 such an advocate for having a 24-hour border crossing one of the we signed a joint letter

00:22:06.920 myself and governor giannaforte to our respective federal counterparts asking for

00:22:13.240 an opportunity for us to co-locate because if you can expand the hours and we can have the american

00:22:17.400 and the canadians at the same spot then you might be able to ensure that you've got the safety

00:22:22.200 aspects and the backup and so that's the proposal that we have on the table and since we'll begin

00:22:28.440 the process of upgrading that thoroughfare i think it makes a stronger case for us to um to to make

00:22:35.320 sure that we've got more opportunity for that border to be open so i have a meeting with my

00:22:40.520 one of my federal counterparts um francois philippe champaign on saturday there's a thousand

00:22:45.000 things we need to talk about and i'll ask for his advice on the best way to move this one forward

00:22:49.720 as well. Okay. Next question, please. Jesse Gill with Chat News at Medicine Hat here. I guess the

00:22:59.340 question with 41, that's just the stretch from the number one to the border by Elkwater there.

00:23:06.420 Is that the only area that's being widened? The other stuff, I believe it is. And then when is

00:23:11.360 the time frame outlook for that? So we have a stretch from between Highway 1, so it's 55

00:23:19.520 kilometers of Highway 41 between Highway 1 and 20 kilometers south of Elkwater, but let me hand it

00:23:24.640 over to. Yeah, and then that's just in the designing phase right now, so once that's complete,

00:23:30.580 obviously the engineering and construction dollars would have to follow, so that's just the

00:23:34.520 sequencing of events. Okay, so I think if I have this right, we've got sort of three phases, so

00:23:40.040 there's the design and planning and then when it moves on to the next stage is engineering and then

00:23:44.600 when it moves on to the final phase it's construction. So we're in the design planning

00:23:48.560 stage and the following stage would be engineering. Have I got that right Minister? Okay. So do you

00:23:53.500 have a ballpark approximate at this point or not really? Hopefully the department's here. Hopefully

00:23:59.800 we can speed it up and have construction start within two years but sometimes it's kind of a

00:24:03.960 year, a year, a year and then you're into construction to year three but with someone

00:24:08.120 who's standing over my shoulder we could probably speed that up to two years next

00:24:13.400 question please he's got two people standing over his shoulder because I can

00:24:15.920 tell you I'm LA right is also been raising this as well yeah you got it

00:24:19.580 okay we'll build it just for you we'll now move to the phone line so operator

00:24:25.700 can you please put through the first color

00:24:28.360 hi there this is up for the premier thanks for taking my question a bit of

00:24:36.320 transportation related uh we know that uh we've seen this week gas prices going up around 10 cents

00:24:40.480 a liter especially uh with the oil sitting below 80 a barrel the quarter of course coming to an end

00:24:47.040 here at the end of the month uh have you already made the decision to reinstate the provincial fuel

00:24:51.520 tax on april the first the same day the federal carbon tax is also increasing here around three

00:24:56.320 cents a liter uh i'm trying to remember exactly the staging of uh of when we implement that i'll

00:25:02.480 have to get perhaps finance minister nate horner to follow up with you but we do i was just talking

00:25:07.840 with him about it yesterday i think we look at the 20 days preceding the decision and so if it

00:25:13.920 has trended over 80 cents in that 20 preceding days then we would uh we wouldn't put the additional

00:25:20.720 tax on but being that it's been under 80 dollars then the then we would but remember it's going to

00:25:25.840 be a permanent program so that in the event that oil prices go up again about 90 dollars we take

00:25:31.360 the tax off completely so that's the the um the way the program was designed is that when it's in

00:25:37.360 that 80 to 90 zone we want to be able to give a bit of a tax break my minister's been very concerned

00:25:42.400 about the softness of prices you probably watched them too i think they've gone down as low as 68

00:25:47.360 and they've gone as high as almost 81. so with that volatility we just want to make sure that

00:25:52.480 we're uh we're if when we bring the tax back we'll be assessing it every three months in the to be

00:25:58.080 able to give retailers the opportunity to to respond to the changing market conditions but we'd

00:26:03.280 have to follow up with you specifically on the the window that he's looking at for when he would make

00:26:08.080 that decision did you have a follow-up question yeah thanks for that uh just a follow-up uh this

00:26:15.840 one in regards to uh measles i guess at this point premier is there any concern right now the

00:26:20.160 potential spread of measles here in the province and is there any plans at this point uh for any

00:26:25.280 probably funded measles vaccines and pharmacies right now uh as i understand it we've had one

00:26:30.480 case of measles in november and it was an imported case so it was someone who was infected and

00:26:35.600 somewhere else and then brought it into the province we're very pleased to see that we

00:26:38.880 haven't had some of the same uh issues that we've heard about in in other provinces that being said

00:26:44.400 the um there is a a slight uh slightly lower percentage of families that have chosen to get

00:26:52.480 the MMR vaccine as well as the the diphtheria vertusis tetanus shot I think it's down from

00:26:59.520 sort of a normal range of about 78 79 percent to about 72 percent so not a huge drop off but still

00:27:07.120 one that um that that is concerning and so we want to make sure that uh people understand that this

00:27:13.520 is available and that uh we hope that they look at the risk because the risk of consequences for

00:27:19.600 measles can be very very high so they're um i'm glad to see that the the rates are still high and

00:27:25.680 we haven't seen a problem but it is an active discussion with our health minister about how

00:27:29.360 we can make sure we get the word out so people know how to be able to get the vaccination for

00:27:33.200 their kids operator can you please put through the next caller rick bell post media uh good afternoon

00:27:42.560 premier um this is a question a bit down the highway here in calgary as you know there's a

00:27:49.920 petition drive to recall the mayor of calgary a few days ago a piece of peace was published by

00:27:57.760 supporters of the mayor and it took aim at a piece of provincial legislation which is of course

00:28:05.600 recall legislation and they said that it was disempowering the majority and undermining our

00:28:11.360 democracy, defying democratic principles and subverting the power of the people, and that in

00:28:17.780 effect democracy was under attack by having a recall. It's your provincial government's legislation.

00:28:25.180 I know you're still looking at it if you want to make changes to it. What do you say to people

00:28:29.300 who think that recall is actually undermining democracy and subverting the power of the people?

00:28:35.940 It's funny. I've heard the opposite complaint that we've set the bar too high.

00:28:40.620 and therefore those who do want to be able to recall a politician that they feel is going in

00:28:46.120 a different direction than they campaigned on it's actually too high a bar for them to be able to have

00:28:50.460 a meaningful recall campaign and so and I'll tell you one of the things that we've seen in the in

00:28:57.320 the act that may need to be addressed is that we have made the bar 40 percent of total population

00:29:04.500 So if you think about that, in a city like Calgary, that means that for a successful campaign to proceed, it would need 500,000 signatures. And I believe the mayor got 177,000 signatures in the general election.

00:29:20.060 So, look, I mean, if three times the number of people who voted for a person say that they want to reconsider it, then that seems to me to be a pretty strong expression of democracy.

00:29:30.460 But it does give you an indication of just how high the bar actually is.

00:29:34.940 And when I say we may have said it too high is that it seems a little unfair that you'd have to have a petition campaign that would include everyone under the age of 18, people who are not eligible to vote because they're not citizens.

00:29:48.740 It seems like a more reasonable approach would be to do 40% of the electorate.

00:29:53.900 That would make a bit more sense.

00:29:56.240 That being said, it's under active discussion, and we're not going to make any changes while there are any live recall campaigns going on.

00:30:06.040 But what do you say to these people who say the whole concept of recall is bad?

00:30:10.980 We shouldn't have recall at all because it's somehow undemocratic or it's, you know, they don't want recall at all.

00:30:21.000 They don't care what the signatures are.

00:30:22.640 They just want the whole thing obliterated.

00:30:26.160 What do you say to people who, like the people who published this, who literally are against recall full stop?

00:30:35.840 No recall.

00:30:36.720 Look, we're not.

00:30:37.680 This is actually bad.

00:30:38.960 Well, I disagree.

00:30:39.920 I mean, we're not subjecting any other politician to rules that don't also apply to ourselves.

00:30:45.140 This is for school board trustees, it's for municipal members of council, and it's also for MLAs.

00:30:51.720 And so, again, as I said, I've heard the opposite complaint, that we've set the bar too high.

00:30:57.120 But I would put it to you that part of what a recall, part of the idea behind recall is that if politicians end up doing something completely opposite

00:31:08.100 that the electorate expected them to do,

00:31:10.200 where they do something that they never campaigned on,

00:31:13.680 and the electorate feels frustrated by that,

00:31:16.540 there has to be some mechanism

00:31:17.800 between a four-year election cycle

00:31:19.280 to get that issue reconsidered.

00:31:21.420 So we wanted to set a high bar,

00:31:23.600 because you don't want the public

00:31:25.280 to be recalling people for every little thing,

00:31:27.540 but I think it's an important part of democracy.

00:31:30.300 I would say it's the opposite.

00:31:31.500 I think giving the power to the people

00:31:33.660 is an important aspect of making sure

00:31:35.940 that politicians keep their word.

00:31:38.100 Okay, and we have time for one or two more questions, so Operator, can you please put

00:31:41.880 through the next caller?

00:31:42.880 Chris Barco, Calgary Herald.

00:31:45.880 Hi, this is a question for the Premier.

00:31:49.480 Premier, today the Fort Mackay First Nations and Suncor Energy announced they were signing

00:31:54.580 an MOU on a perspective with new oil sands lease development, an oil sands mine up in

00:31:59.900 the Fort Mackay region on the First Nations land.

00:32:03.440 Is this a project that your government would support?

00:32:06.240 have you had any discussion with them about it 100 i when i heard about that i was very excited

00:32:12.160 to hear about it and i would love to see more projects like that because i i have um conversations

00:32:18.320 oftentimes with our first nations partners and one of the one of the things they ask is how can we do

00:32:24.080 more to share revenue and so we've been enabling those kinds of projects on pipelines in particular

00:32:30.800 or uh natural gas generation stations through our alberta indigenous opportunities corporation

00:32:36.960 and so to see a proposal where uh where a band is going to be in on the ground floor of production

00:32:43.920 uh it just warms my heart i hope we can see more of that i think it's a fantastic proposal

00:32:51.120 just to follow up do you see any federal regulatory hurdles that would be problematic

00:32:57.920 for this project before provincial service well i would say that the united nations declaration

00:33:03.680 on the rights of indigenous peoples includes their right to say yes to resource development

00:33:08.720 and that is one of the messages that have come through loud and clear from the uh the uh indian

00:33:14.640 resource council as well as the national coalition of chiefs is i would hope that the federal

00:33:19.440 government wouldn't stand in the way of the aspiration of a first nation to develop their

00:33:23.520 own source revenue, because I think that they've signed on to a declaration that affirms that

00:33:29.360 First Nations do have the right to partner in these kinds of projects, and I hope we do see

00:33:32.720 more of that. We will, as you know, since I've set out an aspiration for us to, as we're working

00:33:40.320 towards achieving our goal of carbon neutrality by 2050 with new technology, I've also said we

00:33:46.720 should be aspirational to double our production, and so I would like to see more of these kinds

00:33:51.680 of developments using best available technology using carbon capture using zero emissions type

00:33:57.280 of energy to be able to develop them so that we can achieve that that target and aspiration so

00:34:02.240 i i wouldn't say that they would they would see any barriers from our point of view and since

00:34:07.520 we're also in alignment with the federal government on a a neutral status by 2050 i would hope that

00:34:13.680 we don't see any at the federal level either okay and that is all the time we have for questions

00:34:18.400 Thank you, everyone.

00:34:19.400 Thanks, everyone.

Western Standard - March 08, 2024

AB Transportation infrastructure investments included in Budget 2024

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