Western Standard - Standing up for Alberta’s constitutional rights

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00:03:30.000 thanks everyone for joining us i'm pleased to be here with minister of justice mickey amory

00:03:47.600 and minister of environment and protected areas rebecca schultz to respond to recent developments

00:03:52.720 in ottawa's continued attempts to ban plastics as you may remember in april 2021 ottawa unilaterally

00:03:59.600 declared that plastic manufactured items are toxic under the Canadian Environmental Protection

00:04:05.720 Act. Not only did they ignore reality, but once again, they ignored the law in doing so. Thankfully,

00:04:12.100 last month, the federal court of Canada found the government's actions to be unreasonable and

00:04:17.140 unconstitutional. The court recognized that allowing this overreach would enable Ottawa

00:04:22.060 to regulate nearly every aspect of the economy, upsetting the balance of federalism in Canada.

00:04:27.580 It's another useful reminder that the provinces are not subordinate to the central government.

00:04:33.580 The provinces are partners in confederation and we ought to be treated as such.

00:04:37.880 This message has really been driven home by the courts this year, here and in the Supreme Court's decision on the Impact Assessment Act.

00:04:45.400 Unfortunately, it's clear from Ottawa's appeal of the federal court's decision that the lesson isn't sinking in.

00:04:51.200 And more reminders are necessary.

00:04:53.380 So Alberta will keep standing up for what's right. 0.87

00:04:55.560 And in this case, what's right is the fact that plastics aren't actually toxic.

00:05:00.740 If they were, they wouldn't be in nearly every product in the economy.

00:05:04.580 And Alberta can't regulate, or Ottawa can't regulate whatever it wants by arbitrarily classifying something as a toxic substance.

00:05:11.660 But we shouldn't be surprised by this, which should come as no surprise to Ottawa that we intend to continue pushing back on their unreasonable and unconstitutional orders.

00:05:20.560 We were interveners in the original case, and we will stay involved throughout the appeals process.

00:05:25.560 The stakes are too high to do anything less. If Ottawa's approach ultimately wins, it will be a disaster for Alberta's and Canada's economy.

00:05:34.120 It would destroy our petrochemicals industry, driving away tens of billions of dollars in investment and eliminating tens of thousands of jobs.

00:05:41.740 And it will harm the progress that's occurring in plastics, reuse and recycling.

00:05:46.040 Ottawa should listen to these objections. They come from the courts and the Constitution and the provinces and the people Ottawa claims to serve.

00:05:53.840 Ottawa would be better served by working with provinces and industry

00:05:57.220 than they are by pushing forward with unconstitutional laws and regulations.

00:06:01.080 We continue to hope for change, but the same old pattern continues to play out.

00:06:05.700 Many federal policy changes on energy and the environment

00:06:08.080 are proving to be the power grabs that we always knew they were.

00:06:11.740 They're rushed efforts to please a few activists,

00:06:13.720 and they're focused more on rhetoric than results.

00:06:16.460 They're also undemocratic, unaffordable, and unacceptable.

00:06:19.120 All of this applies just as much to the plans for net-zero power grids, the carbon tax, and emissions as it does to plastics.

00:06:27.320 My promise is that Alberta will fight every step of the way on every issue that affects Albertans.

00:06:33.420 We will continue to put forward facts and precedents before the courts.

00:06:39.700 We will keep on doing this to sustain the prosperity that supports Canadian families and the public services.

00:06:44.820 And we will keep innovating, developing, and coming up with improved solutions to manage plastic waste, reduce emissions, and protect the environment.

00:06:52.420 Albertans have high expectations, and we will meet them.

00:06:54.920 We will deliver the growth and sustainability that Canadians want and need.

00:06:59.080 Minister Amory and Minister Schultz have more details about our response to the plastics ban and federal intrusions into Alberta's jurisdiction, and I will turn things over to them.

00:07:07.020 Thank you.

00:07:14.820 good afternoon as the premier mentioned alberta will be intervening in the federal government's

00:07:19.860 appeal of the decision holding their designation as plastics as toxics is unreasonable and

00:07:25.460 unconstitutional when the federal government listed plastic manufactured items as toxic

00:07:31.060 a number of industry groups challenged this designation in court to protect our constitutional

00:07:36.820 jurisdiction the alberta government intervened in the case and the federal court's decision

00:07:42.020 confirmed that the federal overreach was unconstitutional alberta's position is that the

00:07:47.620 federal government far exceeded its constitutional jurisdiction by designating plastics as toxic

00:07:54.420 the category of plastic manufactured items is so broad that to allow the federal government to

00:07:59.860 regulate them would be to allow the federal government to regulate essentially every

00:08:05.060 single aspect of the modern economy imagine the disturbing impact that this federal policy had on

00:08:11.220 every single industry that relies on manufactured plastics simply put this overreach upsets the

00:08:17.860 very balance of federalism in canada and that is why we are pleased that the federal court

00:08:22.740 recognized this but we are disappointed that the federal government chose to appeal

00:08:28.020 the decision by the federal government to appeal this decision highlights the very issue that we've

00:08:32.980 been raising for decades that this federal government's overreach is both inappropriate

00:08:37.620 and disrespectful to our system of federalism because alberta previously intervened in this

00:08:42.980 matter alberta has the right to participate in the appeal and make submissions to the federal court

00:08:48.020 of appeal regarding the constitutional issues at play and we intend to do exactly that we will

00:08:54.180 continue to defend our economy and our constitutional jurisdiction against this latest attempt by the

00:08:58.900 federal government to continue to overstep its jurisdiction yet again even though the court

00:09:04.820 decided that it was unreasonable and unconstitutional the designation of plastic manufactured items as

00:09:10.260 toxic remains in effect this is because the federal government re-added plastic manufactured items to

00:09:16.100 schedule one of the canadian environmental protection act through a legislative change

00:09:20.980 after the court challenge began the federal court concluded that this legislative change

00:09:26.020 namely bill s5 was not included in the original court challenge and therefore did not form part

00:09:31.940 of its decision alberta will consider its options including further legal action to remove plastic

00:09:38.180 manufactured items from the current schedule one as it now stands the federal court's decision that

00:09:43.940 it was unreasonable and unconstitutional to designate plastics as toxic is the latest rebuke

00:09:49.780 of the federal government's unconstitutional out of touch and ineffective environmental approach

00:09:55.540 and it follows the supreme court of canada's recent decision that the impact assessment act

00:10:00.500 was largely constitutional as well unconstitutional as well it seems that the federal government has

00:10:05.940 not yet learned its lesson alberta is prepared once again to make the case for a constitutional

00:10:11.940 jurisdiction before the courts and we will use every single legal avenue available to us to

00:10:17.940 defend our economy and our livelihoods from federal government overreach i would now like

00:10:22.980 to invite rebecca schultz minister of environment and protected areas to the podium thank you

00:10:30.500 Thank you so much and good afternoon, everyone.

00:10:36.300 As the Premier and Minister Amory have said, we will be opposing Ottawa's appeal of the

00:10:40.120 federal court's decision.

00:10:42.020 Let me remind everyone, the federal court's decision was clear.

00:10:45.800 The federal government's plastics, regulation and legislation is unconstitutional and completely

00:10:51.500 unreasonable.

00:10:52.860 We will continue to stand up for our province, our constitutional rights and, of course,

00:10:58.100 our economy.

00:10:59.500 Frankly, I'd hoped that we wouldn't have to be here today.

00:11:03.300 The federal court's initial decision was correct, and it was common sense.

00:11:08.260 Drinking straws and grocery bags are not the same as mercury or asbestos.

00:11:13.100 The federal government cannot assume regulatory authority over any substance it chooses simply by designating that substance as toxic.

00:11:21.480 This order was unconstitutional on the day it was written, and we will absolutely win this fight.

00:11:26.560 But let me be clear. This isn't about plastics. Ottawa knows their plastics bans are about virtue signaling and not actually about fixing the problems. They know that this federal designation negatively impacts Alberta's economy, and they know that plastics are important in the economy. That's why they joined us in supporting Dow's new Path to Zero facility in Fort Saskatchewan. Yet, they refuse to listen to the courts and to Canadians. So we will help take them to court. And like I said, we will win.

00:11:56.160 We will do it while continuing to actually reduce plastic waste in our province.

00:12:01.760 Right now, Alberta is implementing a transformative new system that will help reuse plastics and keep them out of landfills.

00:12:08.420 Our extended producer responsibility system will reduce waste, increase demand for recycled content,

00:12:14.640 and transform plastics into value-added products that are reused instead of being dumped into landfills.

00:12:21.040 We've also asked the federal government to support innovations like the compostable 100%

00:12:27.520 non-plastic bags developed by Calgary Co-op and LEAF Environmental Products,

00:12:32.800 but they've refused. They've insisted that only Ottawa knows best and that only Ottawa is right.

00:12:39.120 That is not how Confederation works and it is no way to fix the environmental challenges facing

00:12:44.960 our country so once again we will push back against this unconstitutional federal overreach

00:12:50.720 we will ensure that alberta remains a place of innovation and we will stand up for albertans

00:12:55.760 while delivering real results that benefit all of our people thank you thank you we'll now go into

00:13:03.520 the media q a portion of the announcement uh we'll start off with questions here in person if you

00:13:08.320 want to come up to the mic state your name and outlet and we'll go with one question and one

00:13:11.440 follow up kevin green from ctv news um so you the government was an intervener in the first case

00:13:18.400 where the federal court ruled against the federal government it's a natural process in law for

00:13:23.280 someone who doesn't like a verdict if as long as it's not all the way to the supreme court to appeal

00:13:28.880 the judgment what i've heard from you guys today is nothing but complaining not what you're going

00:13:34.560 to do so you're going to be an intervener you were the last time what are you going to do

00:13:37.920 rather than complain which is what you've done for the last 10 minutes

00:13:44.160 well there is another option having lost the supreme court decision on the impact assessment

00:13:49.360 statement or impact assessment act they could have said oh gee you know now we've had a second

00:13:53.120 decision that shows that we're wrong and they could have chosen to rewrite their plastics

00:13:59.120 regulation so that it is compliant with the law instead they do what they always do is they force

00:14:04.160 us to fight for years in the court to be able to go through all the processes and ultimately get the

00:14:09.520 decision which i think we will that is unconstitutional at which point they'll have to

00:14:12.800 change it but the the uncertainty that they create in the meantime is having a major impact on

00:14:17.680 business this is why dow petro dow chemical and other companies launched the action in the first

00:14:22.720 place there's a lot of cross-border trade that happens in plastics products getting developed

00:14:27.840 here sent down pelletized and then sent back here in molded form and is creating a lot of additional

00:14:32.800 handling a difficulty because they're treating it as if it's some kind of radioactive material.

00:14:39.840 That's the problem is that there's a fundamental fallacy of them trying to assert that this is toxic

00:14:45.760 when it's in our phones, our plastic bottles, the pen I'm using, the binder I had here today.

00:14:52.720 It's absurd for them to be treating this like it is a toxic material. The courts called them out on

00:14:57.520 it and they continue to persist a separate question for the premier here yesterday at the

00:15:02.960 ring road press conference when we were there you said the decision to terminate dr hinshaw's contract

00:15:07.440 was dr cowls today the ethics commissioner found and i'll quote no evidence that dr cowell directed

00:15:13.840 the termination of dr hinshaw's employment so if it wasn't dr cowell if it wasn't you as you say

00:15:19.200 if it wasn't dr man's or dr tail feathers who actually did terminate dr hinshaw's employment

00:15:24.480 well you can read the letter and you'll see that the ethics commissioner said it was alberta health

00:15:28.640 services and she um considered the uh the evidence and has closed the case thanks kevin

00:15:37.600 and we'll go next here hi there just to follow up on my colleague

00:15:43.600 on dr inshaw would it be acceptable for dr inshaw to have any position in any agency crown

00:15:51.520 public in alberta ever again in your mind look um i we're doing a major transformation of our

00:15:58.160 alberta health care system and we need the right people in place that have the the confidence of

00:16:02.880 the public that they can make the changes that are needed to get the system improving

00:16:06.640 and that's part of the reason why we're doing transformational change and we're asking

00:16:10.480 many people in management positions who aren't up to the job to uh to depart and we'll be asking

00:16:15.760 many more who aren't up to the job of improving the system to depart we are the uh we we are the

00:16:21.520 funders of the system alberta health services gets its mandate from us they get its money from us

00:16:27.200 we have an obligation to taxpayers to ensure that it's performing appropriately and if it's not

00:16:31.200 we'll make changes so i would say that uh we'll have lots of discussions about how we go about

00:16:36.240 doing that we have a board in place ultimately the board will make the the decision on personnel

00:16:41.760 and we're going to be highly involved in making sure that we get the right people in the right

00:16:45.760 place so just to be clear is she a person on grata in alberta um look i've i've made my my position

00:16:52.800 very clear um i'm when uh when i chose a new chief medical officer of health i knew we needed new

00:16:59.680 leadership there so i've got confidence in our new chief medical officer of health and we're going to

00:17:04.800 continue making changes in personnel so that we can make the changes in healthcare that we need

00:17:09.520 to just like the technical clarification for minister amory about the the process of the

00:17:13.520 intervening process will we be using uh the same firms the same lawyers that you've used successfully

00:17:19.520 in the past uh are you thinking about in-house uh and do you have a sort of specific dollar

00:17:25.040 amount on the cost of the intervening right now we are just commencing and beginning we don't have

00:17:30.880 an appeal date set at this point in time we've had tremendous success using both in-house and

00:17:35.280 and external counsel will continue to do that.

00:17:38.380 Right now, we're preparing, as we mentioned,

00:17:41.580 we have made our intentions clear.

00:17:43.680 We'll continue to move through the process

00:17:46.560 by employing those that have worked well for us in the past.

00:17:49.100 We continue to have great success with many firms,

00:17:51.900 including the in-house counsel,

00:17:54.760 and it will be a collaboration between the two.

00:17:59.140 Jonathan Bradley, Western Standard.

00:18:00.480 My question is for Premier Smith.

00:18:02.140 so you spoke about how you've begun consultations and preparing for the appeal what do you intend

00:18:10.580 on your legal strategy being in this case we we have uh have had dow chemical and the other

00:18:17.020 petrochemical companies take the lead on this it's different than when we took the lead on

00:18:20.500 the impact assessment act and so it had a slightly different process so we continue to watch this go

00:18:26.720 through its various stages and hopefully we'll be able to get the kind of outcome that we expect.

00:18:32.300 It's just disappointing that the federal government wouldn't accept defeat and come to the table and work

00:18:37.920 with us on developing a strategy so that we can all achieve what we want. What we all want to achieve

00:18:42.680 is making sure that plastics are not diverted into the river systems and are not diverted into

00:18:49.020 the environment. We want to make sure that we're recycling plastics and putting them to useful

00:18:52.660 purpose and as the minister mentioned with uh our new policies around extended producer liability

00:18:57.300 coming in in the new year we're going to have a number of different ways that we can use those

00:19:01.460 streams of of uh of plastic that are have been discarded and i think will demonstrate that

00:19:07.700 we're going to be the best steward of that program you spoke about the canadian government not

00:19:13.060 learning its lesson by appealing the case um do you believe this case will end up in the supreme

00:19:18.500 court of canada why or why not i i would anticipate if they don't back down then you know you'll have

00:19:23.540 to talk to micry mickey amory about the the different steps that it goes through um i mean

00:19:28.100 i suspect that if it if they don't back down uh then it will go to the the highest court i mean

00:19:33.140 so there's as i said there's different options that you can take when when we lost the case on

00:19:37.220 our public health act we didn't appeal it we said oh we better change our legislation because the

00:19:41.220 court said that we we uh we weren't in compliance with it that's an always an option that's available

00:19:46.340 to a government when they lose a case they can accept the judgment that they're operating outside

00:19:51.300 their constitutional boundaries and fix the law and the sooner they do it the better because that

00:19:55.540 then creates the certainty and it also restores the constitutional balance we haven't seen

00:20:00.580 that spirit of cooperative federalism unfortunately with this regime and so we continue to fight in

00:20:05.460 the courts thank you thanks uh joe horwood cbc news um we're just wondering with the amount of

00:20:12.980 people that are moving to alberta uh what's happened to the alberta is calling signing bonus

00:20:18.660 and the graduation retention tax credit when might those be introduced uh i think that my minister

00:20:24.980 said she needs a little bit more time on the graduation retention tax credit so i don't believe 0.94

00:20:29.300 that it may need another year before we implement that but my my minister matt jones is responsible

00:20:35.540 for the alberta's calling tax credit and he's in the final stages of working with that will look

00:20:39.940 like believe it will be announced in the upcoming budget you'll be able to see the details there

00:20:43.860 okay any any idea for how many people have applied for those credits or might be getting those we

00:20:48.100 haven't just put the architecture in place for it just yet and so um that'll be the first step

00:20:52.740 which you'll see in the budget and then now we'll we'll be able to track that and get some detail

00:20:56.980 for you as uh as it rolls out thanks thank you and we'll go to the phone lines operator could

00:21:03.060 Could you put through our first caller, please?

00:21:06.360 Hi, thanks for taking my question.

00:21:10.660 Premier, I just want to follow up on your answer there to CDC or RADPAN.

00:21:15.340 We talked about trying to find people who have confidence of the public

00:21:21.680 as you go through this major restructuring.

00:21:23.900 Are you saying that Dr Hinshaw did not have the confidence of Albertans?

00:21:28.900 I'm saying that there's going to be lots of

00:21:31.240 personnel changes that happen at Alberta

00:21:33.100 health services and nobody should be surprised

00:21:34.940 by that as we make sure we've got the right

00:21:36.780 people in the right place to make the right

00:21:38.480 decisions so that we can get the outcomes

00:21:40.280 that we want.

00:21:42.780 Again, to follow up, you didn't answer

00:21:44.820 his question the first time.

00:21:46.660 Is Dr Hinshaw at all,

00:21:49.680 is there a spot for her anywhere in the Alberta

00:21:52.260 health care system?

00:21:53.500 I understand you are making changes.

00:21:55.960 Does she fit in that anywhere or has she 0.85

00:21:58.360 disqualified herself. I believe she has a job you should go and see. I think she was hired by the 0.62

00:22:03.140 federal government. Thank you, Carrie. And operator, did we have any more callers on the line?

00:22:11.000 There are no other questions in the queue at this time. Thank you. Seeing no more questions,

00:22:15.160 that'll conclude today's announcement. Thank you, everybody, for joining.

00:22:28.360 Thank you.

Western Standard - December 20, 2023

Standing up for Alberta’s constitutional rights

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