Western Standard - September 30, 2024


Proposed amendments to the Alberta Bill of Rights


Episode Stats

Length

9 minutes

Words per Minute

190.4623

Word Count

1,740

Sentence Count

123


Summary

In this episode, I sit down with Alberta s Minister of Education, Dimitrius Nikolaitis, to talk about his vision for the future of education in Alberta. We discuss the importance of an independent school system, the need for more school spaces, and the need to protect property rights.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 What led to the creation of these amendments?
00:00:02.760 Well, boy, I almost feel like I could go back down memory lane to when I first started in advocacy.
00:00:09.200 In 1997, I was an advocate for the Canadian Property Rights Research Institute.
00:00:14.040 And one of the things I've always been frustrated by is that we didn't have adequate protection for property rights in our various bills of rights.
00:00:21.580 There wasn't a provision for just compensation in the event that government takes private property for public use.
00:00:27.900 That's one thing I've always wanted to remedy.
00:00:29.940 I've also watched our firearms owners continue to be victimized year after year after year.
00:00:34.840 The federal government should be legislating around the criminal use of firearms,
00:00:39.700 not trying to make our law-abiding firearms owners into criminals by just a change of the law.
00:00:45.520 And so we wanted to assert that firearms ownership and usage is a value in Alberta.
00:00:51.440 And then, of course, we wanted to make sure that we were addressing some of the grave issues that came about
00:00:56.680 as a result of the COVID pandemic, where people felt like their bodily autonomy and the right to make their own medical choices were not being respected.
00:01:05.140 And as well, wanted to protect free expression rights.
00:01:08.820 There are many, many people who felt shouted down and cancelled in the public square.
00:01:12.880 And we want to make sure that people know that their Alberta government is not going to do that to them,
00:01:17.540 that we're going to protect their rights.
00:01:19.220 Well, we've seen a lot of that in federal circles, for sure, some of the bills that are going through.
00:01:24.260 Look, you may have just addressed this, but I'd like to follow up anyway.
00:01:26.840 How will this, in your hope, in your vision, help shape the future of Alberta differently?
00:01:32.360 Well, a couple of things I'd say is I want to see and test whether or not the federal government has gone too far
00:01:40.400 in its application of the criminal law.
00:01:42.780 We know that they did when they overreached with things like Bill C-69, that No More Pipelines bill.
00:01:49.780 When they overreached by declaring plastics toxic, part of it is that they used this criminal law power that they have.
00:01:55.660 And the courts have said, wait a minute, that's not an appropriate use of it.
00:01:58.720 Well, property and civil rights are the purview of the provinces to regulate.
00:02:03.460 And so I'm prepared to test that out to see if the federal government decides to take property
00:02:09.380 or regulate away its use to see whether or not we can offer some protections to Albertans.
00:02:14.960 What we do know is that regardless of whatever pending future battles there might be with the federal government,
00:02:20.940 what people can be rest assured is that Alberta has taken a very clear stand here.
00:02:24.740 We believe that the provincial government should be a bastion of freedom for those who want to come here
00:02:32.420 and that we want to make sure that we're conducting ourselves in a way that respects these rights.
00:02:37.180 And I think that that's a very good signal for us to send.
00:02:39.920 I'm going to park the federal government for a second, but I promise you I'm coming back to it
00:02:43.300 because there's reason to this week.
00:02:45.060 First, though, the unprecedented school announcement that Education Minister Dimitrius Nikolaitis
00:02:49.740 and yourself made in the province, this is something, when you add up the numbers,
00:02:55.420 I know that you were a driving force behind that.
00:02:58.480 Has it just gotten to the point where something large like this needed to be done?
00:03:02.860 Oh, my goodness.
00:03:03.920 I mean, we had a number of years where enrollment was pretty well flat.
00:03:08.140 And so we were able to manage the new school enrollment with the existing open space.
00:03:14.300 There were actually, we had a problem of certain schools in established neighborhoods having low utilization rates.
00:03:20.720 Well, in the last year or so, we've had 50,000 newcomers come to Alberta this year, 200,000 who came in 2023.
00:03:28.580 And as a result, our classrooms are bursting at the seams, almost uniformly across the entire province,
00:03:34.060 but especially in our large and mid-sized cities.
00:03:37.360 And so we knew that in order to be able to catch up and keep up with that,
00:03:41.100 we have to accelerate some of the existing projects that are on the table with construction dollars.
00:03:46.140 And we also have to work with the municipalities to get more of those sites available
00:03:50.940 so that as soon as they're ready, we're able to put shovels in the ground.
00:03:54.260 So that's what we've challenged our school boards and our municipalities to do is work with us.
00:03:57.860 We want to get 30 schools built this year, 30 next year, 30 the year after that,
00:04:01.740 and then within seven years have 200,000 new school spaces,
00:04:05.600 including support for alternative deliveries of education too, like our charter schools.
00:04:11.300 And we'll see what kind of proposals come in with our independent schools as well.
00:04:14.720 We want to make sure that we're supporting all types of choice for parents
00:04:17.880 as they're making the decisions of what's best for their kids.
00:04:21.540 Well, it is bold, but boy, parents sure seem to be receiving the news well.
00:04:25.120 You should know, by the way, your education minister, Demetrius Nikolaitis, is standing by.
00:04:29.080 We're going to talk to him and flesh this out in a few more minutes and talk a little bit more about it.
00:04:33.400 Hey, cost of living is such an issue for Albertans.
00:04:36.420 You're introducing the rate of last resort to apply to utility bills.
00:04:42.040 What is it and how does it work?
00:04:44.200 The rate of last resort, people called it the regulated rate option before,
00:04:48.440 but we're actually calling it what it really is.
00:04:50.620 When you think, wow, rate of last resort, that must be the worst rate.
00:04:54.920 That's kind of what we want people to think, because we want them to shop around.
00:04:58.100 We want them to look for a better rate.
00:04:59.480 We want them to be mindful about what they're choosing.
00:05:02.280 Because what has happened is that there's been a false sense of security that has happened over the last 30 years or so
00:05:08.840 with the regulated rate option where people think they're protected.
00:05:12.580 And as a result, when we saw that rate spike to an unprecedented level of $0.32 a kilowatt hour last summer,
00:05:19.420 people got hurt.
00:05:20.140 It was really hard for a lot of people who were on fixed income and low income,
00:05:24.180 and we don't ever want to see that happen again.
00:05:26.260 So we are naming it properly so people are given the signal that they should shop around
00:05:31.640 because there probably is a better rate to be had,
00:05:33.940 but also providing some stability and protection for those who just want a default rate,
00:05:39.700 who don't want to spend the time on it.
00:05:41.040 They'll probably end up paying a couple cents premium,
00:05:43.460 but they'll at least have stability from month to month and year to year
00:05:46.900 so that they don't end up with those huge spikes in their power bills again.
00:05:50.420 It's hard for residents.
00:05:51.540 It's hard for small businesses.
00:05:53.360 It's even hard for some of the large electricity users where they were timing
00:05:58.100 when to be in operation based on what their power rates were.
00:06:02.720 And we shouldn't have that.
00:06:04.240 Electricity prices should be one of the Albert advantages that we're able to offer
00:06:08.140 by being able to have stability and affordability.
00:06:11.700 All right.
00:06:12.300 I promised you one question on the federal government.
00:06:14.140 Here it is.
00:06:14.640 The federal government taking yet another shot at the energy industry yesterday.
00:06:19.360 Federal Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson,
00:06:21.920 I believe he said that we were winding down in the oil and gas industry
00:06:25.820 and production will be winding down over the years ahead.
00:06:29.920 That's a pretty alarming statement to make, not just for Albertans,
00:06:34.320 but I think for Canadians in general and probably people around the world who rely on energy.
00:06:39.180 What are your thoughts on what he had to say?
00:06:41.740 Well, let me be restrained because you can imagine what I thought when I saw that.
00:06:46.600 But what I will say is he's wrong.
00:06:48.900 Number one, it's not his decision to make because resources fall firmly within the hands of the provinces.
00:06:56.360 Alberta owns 85% of the resource, and I have already said that our aspiration is to double our oil and gas production,
00:07:03.460 and we will reduce emissions the smart way.
00:07:05.600 We'll do it by exporting lower-emitting fuels like LNG and ammonia and hydrogen.
00:07:10.340 We will do it by using carbon capture utilization and storage to capture and sequester the CO2 emissions,
00:07:16.680 as we've been doing for decades with enhanced oil recovery using CO2 and other types of innovations.
00:07:23.880 So through technology, we'll be able to address both.
00:07:27.360 We'll be able to continue producing this resource that the world needs,
00:07:31.280 that we are the best provider of as a reliable democratic partner, but we'll also reduce emissions.
00:07:37.380 So quite frankly, he's wrong, and it's not in his purview anyway.
00:07:41.380 And it just underscores why we've been fighting with the federal governments,
00:07:45.880 because in their honest moments, they tell us what they really want to do.
00:07:51.040 They tell us they want to shut the industry down.
00:07:53.060 They tell us they want to keep it in the ground.
00:07:55.340 And that's why we've got to make sure that we're fighting on behalf of all Albertans and all Canadians.
00:07:59.540 It is the largest amount of contributor to our GDP.
00:08:03.700 It is the largest export.
00:08:05.620 It generates a massive amount of revenue, not only for us, but also for Ottawa,
00:08:10.020 which they then use to help subsidize the programs that they deliver in the rest of Canada.
00:08:15.140 So we are not going to be apologetic about providing a product that the world needs.
00:08:19.620 We're going to do it responsibly, and I wish that he would get on board with that vision,
00:08:24.000 because he continues to antagonize our energy sector and continues to step outside the federal lane.
00:08:30.580 Well said.
00:08:31.300 I'm sure a lot of Albertans are thankful you were there to address it.
00:08:35.000 Premier, as always, thank you for your time.
00:08:37.360 My pleasure.
00:08:38.180 Talk to you again, Bruce.
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