00:00:00.000People have noticed that Alberta, you're getting along really well with the prime minister, and that's kind of been what's portrayed.
00:00:06.260And then there's been people in Alberta who are saying, where's the where's the premier that will stand up and fight for Alberta?
00:00:14.360Right. And it's kind of that missing that combative nature of it.
00:00:17.820And so but my question is, to what degree when you're dealing as the Alberta premier fighting for Alberta, but also trying to work on relations with Ottawa, how do you balance that?
00:00:28.880And what's that balance kind of like of being cooperative and realizing, hey, we have things we're fighting for, but also we're a team here?
00:00:36.700Well, we're winning. I mean, we have undone so much of the bad 10 years of terrible policy of Justin Trudeau that was backed by the federal NDP.
00:00:47.140I mean, I think we were able to have a more constructive relationship with the new federal government because they didn't form a coalition government with those who are sworn to keep our fossil fuels on the ground.
00:01:03.720Hi, everyone, and thank you for joining me today for another interview.
00:01:08.220My name is Will Vassar. I am the Alberta legislative reporter for the Western Standard.
00:01:14.480and today I have the opportunity to share with you the full interview that I did with Premier
00:01:20.840Daniel Smith lately who was kind enough to sit down and chat with me for a little bit. All these
00:01:27.440stories have already been published. I'm sure you've seen them on our website and I put out
00:01:32.900some clips on social media but we're going to share this full interview with you right now so
00:01:39.060I hope you're able to enjoy it. Premier thank you for thank you for joining me today. I appreciate
00:01:43.480it. Yeah, my pleasure. So I want to start off by talking a little bit about on Wednesday,
00:01:50.560Prime Minister Carney, I asked him about immigration and the upcoming referendum. And
00:01:56.000it was funny, as he was answering, I looked over and I could see you smiling and nodding with what
00:02:01.420he was saying. He gave at least what appeared like some very positive answers of his openness
00:02:07.320to working with Alberta on it. What's your kind of read on kind of what he had to say about the
00:02:12.700federal government's position on whether or not they're willing to work with Albert on?0.75
00:02:15.600Well, I can tell you that they have acknowledged that immigration got completely out of control
00:02:20.640in the Trudeau years. He was bringing in 2 million people per year when our normal number of people
00:02:26.600was around 450 to 500,000. So three times or more what the capacity of the country was. And it was
00:02:35.600on all fronts. It was on family reunification, asylum seekers, international students, temporary
00:02:40.640foreign workers pretty well every category except for the one we really need which is economic
00:02:46.000migrants to fill the needs of our economy and so i'm glad to see that they've gotten all those
00:02:50.720other programs under control and i hope that they give more deference to the province in selecting
00:02:56.000economic migrants because we know where the um jobs are in our economy that need to be filled we
00:03:01.920know what the the skilled uh uh workforce is and the skills that are needed for those jobs and and0.98
00:03:08.640And every single premier is making the same case, that we have to de-emphasize some of
00:03:15.380those other areas and make sure that the province has a lot more control over the economic migrants.
00:03:19.960And I hope that we're able to work with them on that.
00:03:24.980When you were talking on Wednesday a little bit about, you threw out the need for Alberta
00:03:29.940to get some more control over some immigration things and potentially trying to up the number
00:03:37.500of migrants coming in or what it came across as to focus more on economic migrants. But you had
00:03:43.740said that potentially getting it up to 45,000 is the number that you had thrown out.
00:03:49.260No, that's not what I said. I said that Quebec has 45,000. And if we were to have a comparable
00:03:54.700number based on our population, it would be 20,000 economic migrants. Keep in mind,
00:03:59.100we've had 150,000 people per year for three years running. We went up to 600,000 over the course of
00:04:06.140five years, and they were of all different categories. So we actually want to reduce the
00:04:10.780overall number, but the focus needs to be on very high quality economic migrants to be able to match
00:04:17.860the needs of our economy, which would be at a greatly reduced level from what we've seen
00:04:21.560historically. So wanting to focus that on economic migrants, part of with it as well,
00:04:30.920there was your the question you were answering on it was Juneau News had asked you about the
00:04:37.640the students here in Alberta right now that are on a hunger strike over their student visas and
00:04:44.680what you had mentioned is that the way it works is that if you are your student visa expires
00:04:50.920you don't have permanent residency you need to leave and I'm curious on obviously in an overall
00:04:58.900sense, people that they're not readily going to leave always, right? They're not going to want0.71
00:05:04.100to just up and leave if they don't have to. So what is it that Alberta can do to really help
00:05:09.280make sure that people are following the rules of their visas in that sense?0.93
00:05:14.520Well, the first thing is making sure that the people who arrive in our country are arriving1.00
00:05:20.000because they have a job to go to. That's the absolute essence of what our immigration policy0.99
00:05:25.460needs to start with is because somebody who arrives here with a job and then that's a
00:05:31.460recognition they have the skills that's needed in that particular business and then they can decide
00:05:36.180if they want to have a pathway to permanent residency and ultimately citizenship that's what
00:05:39.940we want to support but uh the if if you've come here in any of those other streams and there
00:05:46.340isn't a job for you then yeah you have to go home that's uh that's the way our system works
00:05:51.460and we are certainly going to make sure that we provide proper levels of support and access
00:05:58.100to social programs to those who are permanent residents and canadian citizens people who have
00:06:02.420made a long-term commitment to our communities in our country and being a long-term taxpayer
00:06:07.940but temporary workers should not be getting the same level of access and that's what is going to
00:06:13.300be one of the questions in the fall is should there be a waiting period should there be extra
00:06:18.980fees should there be some other limitation on those who are simply guest workers and we'll see
00:06:26.040what the mandate is from the people. I happen to think so. I think that we should have the same0.98
00:06:29.780kind of immigration policies that we see in places like the United Kingdom and Australia0.99
00:06:34.080and I think we've gone a little bit far away from that but if we don't then overcompensate people0.99
00:06:41.080who don't have a Lincoln permit status to be here then I think that that's also an encouragement for0.89
00:06:46.160them to return home to their home country. So what I want to ask you something, going back
00:06:51.920to the referendum side of it, and equalization with it. On Wednesday, when you were talking,
00:07:02.020you mentioned your pitch to Albertans, or that you were pitching to premiers for reworking of
00:07:08.520the immigration, or not immigration, equalization formula with it. And there was some individuals
00:07:15.060who raised some alarm bells and said, hey, in 2023, we voted in a referendum that we want to
00:07:21.660get rid of equalization. And so I guess my question would be, where's that stance from
00:07:28.560Alberta that we want to get rid of it? Well, that is our stance that we ultimately think
00:07:33.480every single province should chart a pathway to standing on their own two feet, just like British
00:07:38.200Columbia has done and Alberta has done and Saskatchewan has done and Newfoundland and Labrador
00:07:41.840has done. And so finding ways to invest in the kinds of businesses and the sectors that will
00:07:49.800allow for provinces to earn own source revenue is absolutely where every province should go.
00:07:55.440So how do we get there? So if that's the objective, how do we get there? And what I was
00:08:00.260answering was the how. One of the ways you get there is you stop adding more money to equalization
00:08:05.360with the growth of the economy. That is such a no-brainer. As the economy grows, the equalization
00:08:10.900pool should shrink because you shouldn't need more money as everybody's getting wealthier.
00:08:15.360It's counterintuitive, doesn't make sense. And through that means alone, because it hasn't
00:08:20.420been reduced as the economy has grown, it's resulted in an over equalization of $7 billion
00:08:27.180over the last five years. So that'd be one thing. The second thing is we've got to start looking
00:08:31.180at equalization only on the basis of equivalent programs. That's how it's supposed to be
00:08:36.940word it equivalent programs at equivalent tax rates and what you see if you look at the per
00:08:41.660capita spending of the recipient provinces it's much much higher than those of the contributing
00:08:46.460provinces and that's just not fair uh if if we took an approach um as a second step that we
00:08:53.900would only equalize to a reasonable national average that would greatly reduce the equalization
00:08:59.340pot and then thirdly just uh doing the kind of things that we're doing talking about building
00:09:03.340the economy again and uh encouraging every province to ultimately over a five or ten year
00:09:08.140period become able to stand on their own two feet i think that's the the method that you would use
00:09:12.620but you got to start somewhere and i think the way we start is we've got to get rid of the the
00:09:17.100thing that is the most obvious thing to change which is stop growing the program with the growth
00:09:22.220in the economy and search and begin the pathway of starting to reduce it when you're when you're
00:09:27.900balancing things um as the premier of alberta you you've been working hard and saying you want to
00:09:34.140build a relationship with um prime minister carney and building those good um alberta to ottawa
00:09:39.980relations um and it out people have noticed that alberta you're getting along really well with
00:09:47.580uh the prime minister and that's kind of been what's portrayed and then um there's been people
00:09:53.500in alberta who are saying where's the where's the premier that'll stand up and fight for alberta
00:09:58.540right and it's kind of that missing that combative nature of it and so but my question is to what
00:10:04.220degree when you're dealing um as the alberta premier fighting for alberta but also trying
00:10:10.460to work on relations with ottawa how do you balance that and what's that balance kind of like
00:10:14.620of being cooperative and realizing hey we have things we're fighting for but also we're a team
00:10:20.300here well well we're winning i mean we we have undone so much of the the bad 10 years of terrible
00:10:27.020policy of justin trudeau that was backed by the the federal ndp i mean i i think we were able to
00:10:34.060have a more constructive relationship with uh the new federal government because they didn't form a
00:10:39.180coalition government with uh those who are sworn to keep our fossil fuels in the ground i think
00:10:44.060that was a very positive first step and it's why we've been able to end the emissions cap and net
00:10:48.780zero power regulations we no longer have net zero vehicle mandates we're no longer putting
00:10:54.380corporations in jail for so-called greenwashing and and on it goes there's a number of things
00:10:59.100that we were able to do just because the the federal government signaled that they were not
00:11:03.260going to be brought to the extreme by the extreme ndp so i think that's that's one part of it but
00:11:08.940there's other things that we have been able to have some success on which is uh the the issue
00:11:15.420around safe consumption. The health minister at the federal level said his people aren't interested
00:11:20.720in giving a safe supply of drugs. They're interested in recovery. That is an Alberta
00:11:24.660position. We also said and passed legislation saying that we are not going to kill people
00:11:30.080who are depressed or PTSD. We're just not going to allow them to seek medical assistance and
00:11:34.600dying. Well, guess what? The parliamentary report said the same thing. That's an Alberta position.
00:11:38.860So what I'm seeing is that when we can make an effort to change the public dialogue to get
00:11:44.680Canadians on our side, we take a victory lap on that. And we make sure that everybody knows that
00:11:50.140we advocated for things and we won. And then we make sure that we address the other things that
00:11:54.840are still outstanding. That's the approach that I'll take with the federal government. But to be
00:11:59.720frank, the NDP should never be allowed in a leadership role again at the federal level.
00:12:05.400That's what created the catastrophe of the past number of years is going in the wrong direction.
00:12:10.040And I would say doubly so at the provincial level. All of the things that we have managed to undo, all of the cancel culture, wokeism, DEI activism, all of that would be undone if the NDP ever got elected again.
00:12:23.280So I would say that we're seeing a different face on the federal liberals because they're not partnered with the extreme NDP.
00:12:30.360And so if you have a chance for a renewed relationship on the basis of something a lot more moderate, then I think you take it and we start moving things in the right direction.
00:12:40.600but i i guess from a from a standpoint of and it goes to it ties in with equalization with it as
00:12:49.320well but um alberta would love to get rid of equalization alberta would love to have no carbon
00:12:57.480tax at all right but also realizing that ottawa has their own ottawa and prime minister carney
00:13:03.240has his own things that he's fighting for and that he's got to accomplish so what what's that
00:13:08.120balance like in fighting that negotiating balance i guess well you don't get a hundred percent of
00:13:12.360the things that you want but you know what a lot of the of our problems get solved by building
00:13:16.760another million barrel per day pipeline to the coast which gives us another half a trillion
00:13:21.160dollars worth of value to our economy which allows for us to keep taxes low and it allows for us to
00:13:25.960pay for the things that albertans care about but that so those are the things that we we have to
00:13:30.280put things in in in context of scale and um and i think that's a pretty big win we we have now
00:13:37.240finally, we're going to be able to build natural gas power plants for a number of years. No one
00:13:41.760wanted to build them because they could potentially face jail time in 2035 if they
00:13:46.860weren't 100% carbon abated. That's now not the approach that we're going to take. And now we
00:13:51.840have a number of different companies who've stepped forward wanting to build power that'll
00:13:55.540keep our electricity bills low. So yeah, I suppose you can say that we keep on fighting until
00:14:00.480perfection is achieved, but I prefer to focus on the victories. And we have absolutely changed
00:14:06.400public conversation and we're going to continue finding those issues that we need to continue to
00:14:11.360advocate for but we're also going to celebrate uh when when we're winning and we are absolutely
00:14:16.160winning and canadians are on our side um there's uh here in alberta within uh the ucp it's a it's
00:14:25.040a very big party and there's diff there's different factions within the membership of it um
00:14:29.440online and within some of the hardcore grassroots members, there's been some frustration voiced over a lot of different things, but the independence movement and your position, taking a position in favor of Canada, in favor of the United Canada, and the fact that there is still some, albeit lowered, but the carbon tax is still in place.
00:14:59.440as part of the MOU and different things like that, that have grown some frustration with
00:15:05.780conservatives in Alberta. How do you, are you feeling that frustration? How do you try and
00:15:10.980win those people back? Well, I would say the carbon tax is an Alberta invention.1.00
00:15:15.960It was invented by a conservative government in 2007. And so the approach that we have taken
00:15:22.600of charging an amount on a marginal amount of production
00:15:27.720on a small number of companies, 100 companies,
00:15:52.600That is said that the federal government has the authority to set what those minimum prices are.
00:15:57.440And I think we got a huge concession in the fact that it's reduced now to a point where it will take off $250 billion worth of additional compliance costs.
00:16:08.200But make no mistake, I mean, it was an Alberta government that put that initial program in place in 2007.
00:16:15.220So I know that that's maybe not well known. And it's certainly different than the retail carbon tax that appeared on your home heating bill. That's gone. Or on your gasoline and diesel bill. That's gone. And it's gone a lot because of the efforts that we had, as well as the federal conservatives, in pushing the government to get rid of those things.
00:16:34.260But 100 companies have been exposed to this particular type of carbon pricing vehicle for almost two decades now.
00:16:42.240And so I think that people might want to just look it up and see how it's been structured in the past to know that's a little bit different than the retail carbon tax.
00:16:52.200When it comes to the issue of sovereign Alberta within a united Canada, I've said it so many times that I'm surprised people would be surprised that that would be my position.
00:17:03.300That was my very first bill in the legislature when I first got elected, the Alberta Sovereignty within a United Canada Act.
00:17:11.360And so I've never advocated to be an independent country, to take over defense spending.
00:17:18.180I've always advocated for the federal government to do its job and stay in our areas of jurisdiction.
00:17:23.500I'm a constitutionalist. I believe the Constitution matters and that the provincial government is best positioned to do those provincial things.
00:17:29.560That's been my fight. Others have a different fight and a different view.
00:17:32.640And for those who signed the remain petition, and there were 400,000 people who did, that's option one on the ballot.
00:17:40.460For those who want to leave, there's an option to vote to start the process for a binding referendum.
00:17:47.020And I want to hear from Albertans on that, on what they think.
00:17:49.820But I don't think anyone should be surprised what my position is.
00:17:54.980But is there something you can do to try and calm those frustrations within the party and within the grassroots members of the UCP?
00:18:04.340No, you know, the best thing to do is just to let the debate be had and let people have their voices heard and have their frustrations be expressed.
00:18:12.960And that's the process that we're in right now.
00:18:15.820And that's what I'm watching very, very closely.
00:18:19.160And I would say we'll find out what the result is on October the 19th.
00:18:24.320i know you have to run here but if i can just ask you one more thing uh quickly uh there's a lot
00:18:29.760going on right now um surrounding citizens initiatives and um the signature counting of
00:18:37.600the signatures uh i know core blund's group is very frustrated with how the verification process
00:18:44.240played out and their petition event eventually falling short after the verification and
00:18:49.280state for alberta's people are upset about it too there's past but they're still
00:18:53.200upset with the number that thrown out and everything like that as you look at it from
00:18:58.400the standpoint you're at now is it there are things that you're noticing of like hey maybe
00:19:02.080we need to tweak some things here um when the legislation comes around well i'll see what um
00:19:07.680advice we get and what testimony gets put forward in those various challenges um i i am not the
00:19:14.160elections officer the the elections office is an independent office we do give them the mandate to
00:19:21.920execute on our policy. But how they execute on it, we do have to rely on them to use the best
00:19:28.360methods. And my understanding is this type of verification of signatures is a common way of
00:19:34.860doing so in jurisdictions who have it. There's 29 jurisdictions in the United States that have
00:19:39.460citizen petitions. We actually have one of the lowest bars for how many signatures you need to
00:19:45.400get in order for it to be verified. In other jurisdictions, it's actually higher. So I would
00:19:51.360say that um you it's it's not realistic to expect elections alberta to verify every single signature
00:19:58.940so they have to use some statistical methods did they go too far did they make some errors
00:20:03.260i don't i don't have an opinion on that i'll i'll hear what some of the testimony is and then we'll
00:20:08.200see if there's anything that we can do to to provide greater clarity but we we do normally
00:20:12.380have to rely on those who are the in the independent offices um to to use the best
00:20:17.380practices when they do that kind of verification. Perfect. Well, thank you, Premier, for taking the
00:20:23.340time to meet with me today. I do appreciate it and taking your time. It was great to chat.
00:20:29.080All right. Thanks, Will. Thank you. Take care. I really want to thank Premier Smith for taking
00:20:33.360the time to sit down and do this interview with me. I know I was one of the final things kind
00:20:39.280of standing between her and getting to take her a couple of weeks off and spend time with her
00:20:44.080family go on vacation so I really appreciate her taking the time to spend
00:20:49.000the to sit down and chat with me it was very kind of her and again thank you for
00:20:54.640watching this video and please go check out the articles I have on the Western
00:20:59.060Standard website those are all available there they're already published if you
00:21:02.980go click on my page there you'll see all those amazing stories that I have written
00:21:07.720from the interview and the time that she was able to spend with me so I really do
00:21:13.420appreciate and i want to encourage you guys to go check those out but in order to do so you must
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00:22:08.120really build that audience because there's a lot of great stuff coming out
00:22:11.300with it and again I just want to close thank you to Premier Smith for taking
00:22:16.520the time to meet with me I really appreciate it and thank you everyone for