In this week's show, we discuss the end of the government's moratorium on new wind turbines in Western Canada, as well as the new environmental assessment process introduced by Premier Smith's government. We also discuss the impact of the new legislation, and what it could mean for the future of the industry.
00:02:59.880The changes are significant, but they're also fairly well balanced, in my opinion.
00:03:05.060I think there's a lot in it that a lot of people have been asking for.
00:03:09.760so landowners have been asking about reclamation and not to sterilize class one and two agricultural
00:03:17.680soils the industry has been looking for some certainty to move ahead on on these kinds of
00:03:23.280projects even tourism is is factored in so now we have a new regulatory process that's in the
00:03:30.800lexicon of regulation now which is called a visual impact assessment meaning that these
00:03:38.000wind turbines specifically will not be allowed to obstruct what the premier called unesco views
00:03:46.240within a range of about 35 kilometers or build these things in people's backyards or
00:03:51.840even on nose hill for that matter okay well i mean what do you think guys though i mean from what
00:03:58.720you've read on that do you think that the right dave that you know the right balance has been
00:04:02.400struck i mean was there a problem to begin with that's a question a lot of people are asking
00:04:06.000You know, to me, it seems like a lot of common sense. It's going to be an agriculture first policy, according to Smith. And, you know, we need as much agricultural land as we can get coming in the future. I think what Sean talks about, we don't want our views spoiled, so they're not going to be able to put up a wind farm in front of head smashed in Buffalo Jump.
00:04:27.880I note this, there was, when she announced the moratorium, there were 13 projects in the waiting list.
00:04:51.680So, you know, the first time that I drove down to Pincher Creek and I saw that long line of windmills stretching right across the horizon, I confess I was interested, I was intrigued.
00:05:01.940I thought, is this the way of the future?
00:05:04.480Maybe there is the odd landscape where you can tolerate that because it's interesting.
00:06:30.840Yeah, well, so, and Sean, you know, you follow these issues, of course, much more directly than I do. Economic feasibility. I mean, there's been quite a rush for these. There's a lot of people wanting to set up new projects, whether it's solar or wind. Is that driven mostly, though, by subsidies? Or is there really some money to be made here? I mean, that's what I get down to with the nuts and bolts. And now has it become less viable due to the regulations?
00:06:53.740Well, I think that that's a question that still needs to be determined, and it's going
00:07:02.460to depend on a lot of these federal environment policies with respect to clean energy regulations
00:07:10.060and the types of credits that they're probably eventually going to have to put on offer.
00:07:15.900There was some concern that a lot of these projects were being built merely for the credits and
00:07:23.100not for the actual power that they provide.
00:07:26.000And I think that this policy addresses some of those issues
00:07:48.580So I think that they've really done their homework on this.
00:07:53.100and that they've really tried to come up with something that would balance the needs of both the developers and the landowners.
00:08:00.540In terms of the reclamation, Minister Newdorf did make a comment about the basic principle of the reclamation funds,
00:08:12.240whether it's going to be paid into a bond to the government or whether it's going to be directly negotiated with landowners,
00:08:17.560is going to be based on oil and gas but he also noted that there's several significant differences
00:08:22.840between oil and gas projects and some of these renewable projects both in terms of the scope
00:08:28.280the products that they provide and the impacts that they cause you know one of them being the
00:08:34.120visual impacts which is you know it's purely subjective but I think they've built in a lot of
00:08:39.560flexibility around these things where they're going to take a lot of these factors into account
00:08:44.600on a case by case i you know i would note and and i did ask um because the change is only applied
00:08:52.520to these new projects that are coming after march 1st you know what happens with the land
00:08:56.760reclamation and the liabilities on these projects that are already installed and basically the
00:09:02.760answer that i got there is that that is going to be basically based on a case-by-case basis so it's
00:09:09.000more this flexibility that's been built into the whole thing
00:09:12.840Well, I mean, hopefully we see some stability out of this.
00:09:16.940I mean, it was kind of a, you know, it gave me qualms a little bit as a free market, you know, libertarian sort.
00:09:25.700I don't like to see, you know, if it's not being subsidized, you know, a moratorium gives me chills.
00:09:30.920But it also scares away investors quite often when these kinds of things happen, too.
00:09:35.520Do you think that maybe, though, Nigel, the balance has been hit that the investors can feel comfortable?
00:09:40.340Oh, they're saying they will. But the investors who we really need, who are still not feeling comfortable, are the ones who are ready to go and put in an actual gas fire generating plant that you can switch on the moment that you need it. That's the people we've got to get back. And they're the ones that have been scared off by the federal plan.
00:10:03.600Yeah, well, we're never going to get away with that from our needs for on-demand power.
00:10:07.480I mean, that's just, there's no getting around it.
00:10:11.320If the sun doesn't shine, the wind doesn't blow, we are out of luck.
00:10:15.320But we don't want the southern part of the province to be one giant solar farm, do we?
00:10:40.920It was the most horrific thing I think I've ever seen.
00:10:45.220And I was there in the, you know, Palm Desert in Joshua Tree in December and January.
00:10:54.260you can only imagine what it would be like when it's 45 degrees but um yeah um and you know just
00:11:02.580even in terms of uh when we're talking about eyesores when you when you come through that
00:11:06.600pass through pump springs there's still the wreckage of like there's been wind turbines
00:11:13.280in that region for decades and the old turbines are still there and they've never been reclaimed
00:11:18.860and a lot of them have broken blades and they don't turn and in the meantime they've been
00:11:23.400building up all the way around it in Coachella Valley on both sides of the mountain and it's
00:11:31.560just it's run amok and after I came back from that trip I was sincerely hoping that something
00:11:39.640like that would never happen here in Alberta and I think that we tried to strike the right balance
00:11:45.480I mean we have industry in this province obviously we have coal mines there was talk of whether or
00:11:51.240not these visual restrictions would apply to you know coal mines that cement plant
00:11:58.840on the way out to Banff or you know even natural gas and oil refineries and
00:12:05.320the premier has left the door open to it that yes indeed that this visual impact assessment might
00:12:11.800become just a standard part of the way that they do environmental impact assessments on
00:12:16.600any other kind of major projects so i i was quite uh relieved and uh impressed that they would even
00:12:23.800take the time to think about something like that um another point i would like to add that's um
00:12:29.880these there's a few things in this policy that haven't been addressed so one of them is a
00:12:35.080transmission policy that the premier said was a mess that was left over from the former ndp
00:12:40.520government when they retired the coal fire plants early they didn't come up with a transmission
00:12:47.080policy to regulate the transmission lines so that's coming um and there's also talk of bringing
00:12:53.880in policies for rooftop solar in in the urban center so this policy is directed more agriculture
00:13:02.040but now they're they're basically going back to the drawing board and they're going to draw one
00:13:06.520up for urban sectors to incentivize solar panels on rooftops in downtown and also to address some
00:13:14.040of these consumer issues. In California they've got a lot of issues with these long-term contracts
00:13:19.400on these rooftop solar providers that are putting solar panels on the rooftops of the movie stars
00:13:25.080homes so that they can charge their electric Lamborghinis and there's a bit of dissatisfaction
00:13:31.720air so they're they're coming up with a policy on that too and uh minister newdorf made one
00:13:37.000very interesting comment um because i asked him about putting a wind farm on the top of western
00:13:42.840tomal which would be one of the you know the biggest solar farms in canada by having the
00:13:50.600solar in urban areas what you are in effect doing is reducing that demand so when you get these cold
00:13:59.080temperature spikes like we had in january and you know the system is going on to overload
00:14:04.600basically in the urban areas they're kind of taking care of the power you know where it's
00:14:09.480needed most so that you don't have to transmit it over uh hundreds of miles from uh pencher creek or
00:14:16.600epcor in uh in uh you know uh the lake district or whatever they have up there around edmonton so
00:14:24.520i i was quite impressed and i think it's very well thought out policy i think it's a fair policy
00:14:29.960and i also think that it's workable and i think there's enough flexibility in it to
00:14:36.280adapt for contingencies unforeseen contingencies as they arise the the big question is obviously
00:14:42.600going to be the federal government uh you know jubel was going around and saying that premier
00:14:47.640smith you know is basically trying to sabotage renewables and electricity but uh i didn't get
00:14:52.440the sense that that was what the aim of this was at all. I think it is a very balanced approach,
00:14:59.080a very reasonable conscience, and I applaud. All right. Well, I appreciate your interpretation
00:15:05.960of it and the applause that, you know, hey, it's hard to find, you know, policy that's inspiring
00:15:12.200enough to give applause. Premier Smith will probably appreciate it because, I mean, the way
00:15:16.120these politics go with the federal government, I mean, she could invent the perpetual motion machine1.00
00:15:20.200and gilbo would crap on her because it killed off the killer whales of saskatchewan or something so
00:15:24.680well and something that's so uh you know it was very emotional like on both sides because the
00:15:29.800landowners were you know really upset with these things going up but it's also very wonky you know
00:15:35.960kind of paul you know policy like you know who understands like base load generation and terawatt
00:15:40.840hours and you know supplying the grid during uh peak periods and stuff and and i really have to
00:15:45.400to hand it to the premier for doing her homework because uh she very rarely gets caught flat-footed0.98
00:15:50.920on on these types of issues and uh um she's done her homework it's absolutely clear to me you know
00:15:58.600sean she's been doing homework on that file for a very long time before she was ever in politics
00:16:04.600before she was at the calvary herald before she was even on the school board she was doing property
00:16:09.880rights in alberta she said as much she said yeah she's got 25 years into this she knows her stuff
00:16:17.800yep all right well we'll let you go back to uh translating that uh eye glazing energy policy for
00:16:24.520the for the rest of the readers and viewers i appreciate that sean and uh we will uh talk to
00:16:29.800you again soon i'd also like to note too that the premier was wearing pink at her press conference
00:16:35.240in edmonton today so uh she got the memo and i and i think um it it's basically anybody who's
00:16:42.680ever been bullied probably got that memo so i would suspect that uh she's sensitive to those
00:16:48.520issues as well well you know what they say sean pink makes the girls wink and sean's wearing pink
00:16:56.120too he must have been bullied in his youth yeah well i think a lot of us were but uh i didn't
00:17:01.000think to wear it today myself but uh great well i appreciate it sean and uh we'll try not to you
00:17:07.080know flick your ears or anything on the way to the launch of it later and see you after the show
00:17:14.280thanks a lot guys so yeah it's uh whenever prime minister trudeau's antics or actions or things
00:17:20.600from his government make the news south of the border it's rarely a good thing and in the the
00:17:25.480the latest Ukraine military initiative. This is no exception to it. Greg Gutfeld, a commentator
00:17:32.760and comedian down in Fox News, turned his cannons towards our prime minister, and it was quite
00:17:38.620something to listen to, and it's quite an issue. So I'll let you guys watch that, and then we can
00:17:42.720talk about this latest brilliance from the Trudeau regime. So how do you know when you've reached
00:17:48.340peak idiocy when we now need diversity guidelines for clearing landmines. It seems Canada has just
00:17:56.140donated four million bucks toward an effort to clear landmines in Ukraine, but in a gender
00:18:01.840inclusive manner. Because if there's one thing we can agree on concerning the war in Ukraine,
00:18:07.120there simply isn't enough gender inclusive mine action, right? But let's be clear up front,
00:18:13.760anyone in charge of clearing landmines is way braver than I am. I can barely clear my driveway.
00:18:20.000And if it's something you accept as your job, I don't care if you're white, black, gay, trans,
00:18:23.860or identify as a cabbage patch kid. But it's, oh, look at that. But
00:18:28.080how did anybody like those dolls? Hideous. Anyway, but it's not about the dolls. It's about how DEI
00:18:37.700insanity has infected everything. It used to corrupt only the places where useless people
00:18:42.960were like academia or media but now it's airlines medical school and war even landmines i'm sorry
00:18:51.120i'm thinking with landmines maybe inclusivity shouldn't be anywhere on the list of priorities
00:18:57.040the list should be pretty simple competence patience steady hands and balls the size of the
00:19:03.200las vegas sphere so there we have it woke at its finest you know woke has hit the war
00:19:10.960Or kind of as Mr. Gutfield, those cabbage patch gels are horrible too.
00:19:15.880I have to agree with him on that front as well.
00:19:17.760For those not old enough to remember that gut awful craze, I'm glad it's behind us.
00:19:21.640But really, you know, all you're worried about is clearing mines.
00:19:25.780I mean, this is about as basic of a complicated task as you get.
00:19:29.160I don't care about the gender or anything else.
00:19:30.980We want somebody to safely remove an explosive device without killing somebody and leave it to Canada.
00:19:37.380Imagine attaching such a requirement to a donation for landmines, right? I mean, there's, I don't think there's, there can't be much more dangerous work in any military. And to be worried about this sort of stuff is just ludicrous. The comedy writers for these shows, late night shows in the United States, this is just gold for them. You know, every time Trudeau opens their mouth, they're paying attention.
00:20:06.140Oh, there's probably a direct feed from Canadian press or something.
00:20:10.940You know, the one thing you can be sure is that the Ukrainians aren't going to argue about it.
00:20:18.760They will accept the money, and then they will carry on doing what they've always been doing.
00:20:23.500And unless there's some special animus that they have for trans people,
00:20:28.440they won't make this part of the qualification for being on the bomb squad.
00:27:35.280I mean, I don't know how many you need to cover, but if they're just talking about this is good for diabetes and birth control,
00:27:43.040by the way, more below-the-belt politics, if that's all that this is intended to cover,
00:27:49.540I think we're probably streets ahead the way they are.
00:27:52.820Plus, there are millions of people in Canada who have employer plans.
00:27:59.480I don't know, it's not been said what the future holds for those plans.
00:28:04.580But if the idea is, in the interest of equality, equity, to bring those to an end and everybody goes on the massive national pharmacare plan, why is that a good idea financially?
00:28:20.660that's not a charge to the government at the moment no and make it one I don't want it to be
00:28:28.320managed by the government they're not overly good on monetary policy I don't know if you've noticed
00:28:32.840well he doesn't think about it does he no need the budgets balance themselves well in distribution
00:28:38.680and logistics and deals with the pharmaceutical companies I wouldn't want to be somebody
00:28:43.120who is literally reliant to stay alive on some drug or another and now has to rely on the
00:28:49.420government to source that and get them to them so they can have it free. Likewise, you know,
00:28:54.920you can die on a waiting list waiting for a surgeon. Now you could perhaps get very seriously
00:28:58.640hard waiting for pharmaceuticals that won't get to you because the government dove into another
00:29:02.660area they shouldn't have been in. You know, if these, Phoenix pay system, ask a federal civil
00:29:09.800servant how they feel about having the government manage their drug program as well. Yeah, they can't
00:29:15.440pay themselves. This is not a good idea. No, no. Along the list of ideas, good ideas, bad ideas,
00:29:24.960it's going into something, I guess, democratic. We'll see how that unfolds with the pharmaceuticals
00:29:30.560as it goes. Because part of the, to be fair, one of the things the health minister says,
00:29:34.640people are jumping on it, but the actual policy hasn't been released yet. Now the government's
00:29:38.240playing around, playing politics, leaking bits and pieces, but until we actually see what it is,
00:29:43.280it is difficult to see exactly what they have in mind which is irresponsible way to release it but
00:29:48.080it's typical so speaking of irresponsible government we've got uh the ever popular
00:29:54.400mayor jody gondek and the recall initiative is still moving on is it dave it is uh we actually
00:30:01.040had uh a guy who didn't know we were in our offices he was doing everybody in the building
00:30:07.760uh come by last week and looking for signatures a friend of mine his wife has broke as a broken foot
00:30:15.680so she put on the uh on the uh community billboard that she's collecting signatures and
00:30:21.520there's been a long line of people at her door knocking on her door and and wanting to sign
00:30:26.880another friend of mine said last friday you couldn't walk through a plus 15 without a0.99
00:30:31.840a uh a canvasser there so uh you know i still think like you corey it's an impossible number
00:30:39.520to uh to to to achieve but i think they're probably going to get a pretty good number
00:30:45.680a six-figure number wouldn't surprise me uh you know but again it all depends on
00:30:51.920how organized they can get and who organizes it and uh how uh you know how motivated they are
00:30:59.200yeah they're springing up everywhere i was just driving with judy the other day
00:31:03.860down through bowness went across the bridge you know i just swing around to the to the west there
00:31:09.780there they were about three cars with big signs stop here sign the petition you know it's uh
00:31:15.580you you mentioned the plus 15 they're going door to door as well uh you know if if they get maybe
00:31:24.580they don't get 500,000 signatures. If they get 100,000, how much did Gondek win by last time?
00:31:31.780I think it was just about that amount. Bless my soul. It's almost as if we had a news meeting
00:31:36.340this morning. We don't rehearse this time. It's not an insignificant feat to get 100,000 people
00:31:42.100to get up. I mean, we're talking a physical pen to paper witness signature. Plus all that they've
00:31:47.140got to prove who they are. Yeah, there's a whole lot of work to it to be valid. It has to be
00:31:51.620witnessed in a number of things, which, again, I mean, the legislation, I've gone on about this
00:31:56.000many times before, it's just not a good legislation. I guess we have to ask, do we want
00:32:01.980recall legislation or not? This kind of brought it to the fore. That's another benefit of this
00:32:06.300that perhaps wasn't the intent of the organizers, but it kind of exposed how unworkable the
00:32:11.680legislation is. Yeah, you know, this was Jason Kenney's promise to his followers. And obviously
00:32:18.260the numbers don't work for big cities. So maybe you just need to make the limit, you know, a
00:32:23.560percentage of voters or a percentage of something. You want a different level in Calgary than you
00:32:30.800would High River, you know, that sort of thing. But it's got to be a job. I mean, it is impossible
00:32:40.300really unless, but you know, I think you were talking about it earlier, Corey, what it's going
00:32:45.460to do is hopefully come up with an organization that will run for City Hall as almost like a
00:32:52.300slate of the union candidates who all got in this time. And it's resulted in the lowest
00:32:57.320ranked council and mayor in history. And that's reflected by the interest in the petition.
00:33:03.600That is the problem, isn't it? Most conservatives just want to be left alone. It's the other people
00:33:10.000who want to interfere who always run for office and then start interfering but it's going to take
00:33:16.000something like this for people to say all right maybe it's time i stepped up and did my share
00:33:21.120exactly they get in because of such low voter turnouts in municipal elections you know in the
00:33:26.48030 percent area and some who are speaking up which is kind of surprising i've been seeing i've been
00:33:30.880watching their facebook page for this and they're putting they're posting all the time but places
00:33:34.800where you can go sign a lot of private businesses bars coffee shops even repair shops you know
00:33:39.840name it, a person who has a storefront, they're putting it up there. That's a gamble. Like when
00:33:45.580I owned my pub and coffee shop, I never did political activities within my pub and coffee
00:33:52.060shop. I would still get enough people annoyed by my writings outside of there that they'd go on to
00:33:56.640Google and bomb me with negative reviews and things as it was. But for businesses to stand
00:34:00.880up and get political is a risk. And they've got to be pretty motivated to be saying, you know,
00:34:05.120I'm going to host this petition in my storefront, in my bar.
00:34:10.500I haven't seen so much of that, not even with the Olympics referendum
00:34:16.160Even before this recall thing started, wherever you went,
00:34:20.480whether, you know, talking at the pub with your buddies,
00:34:22.920it was all about what wackos these people are on city council.1.00
00:34:26.900And, you know, why are they doing the plastic bag thing was another fiasco.
00:34:31.240The $80 billion climate emergency, another fiasco.
00:34:33.900I think the thing that got a lot of people sitting up and taking notice was when she wouldn't express any solidarity with the people of Israel when they, like in the day after that awful bloody attack.
00:34:48.300And don't forget the Canada Day fireworks, man.
00:34:50.940I mean, you know, this is a city council.
00:35:22.760No, he's bad in our books today because he didn't show up for Corey Shaw.
00:35:27.080He irked me and stood me up for my show.
00:35:29.120but yeah well he's he's not a pro politico and uh you know perhaps didn't set his scheduler
00:35:34.880correctly or what that but it's a challenge when i do a live show so i can reschedule but i still
00:35:39.280wish him the best and appreciate his initiative and effort and trying to get it going he's not
00:35:44.440getting a christmas card from me now and uh oh well last 10 months away you'll change your mind
00:35:49.500yeah it gave me 15 more minutes to rant about other stuff i've got enough hot air into me to
00:35:53.420fill the void if i guess no shows still irksome all the same i wish him the best and as you said
00:35:58.520It's showing some initiative, showing some pushback, and maybe we'll turn into a little bit of who's going to stand up in the next election and hold these people to account because, man, they're crazy.
00:36:09.100And, you know, hopefully what it'll do is get more people interested in running for council who are more common sense, you know, the business owner and, you know, who have experience in the real world.
00:36:22.360Seriously, Dave, I think that's the one really big, important takeaway.
00:36:26.060If you don't like it, you can do something about it.
00:37:00.420You know, these things tend to get lost in the mail sometimes.
00:37:03.380But this was a really good exclusive we had on Monday,
00:37:07.300and it's been our top story for a couple days now.
00:37:10.120Prime Minister and top ministers like Stephen Gilbo
00:37:13.360held a lavish garden party for mainstream media.
00:37:17.280There was craft beer, there was wine, there was ice cream of flavors I've never even heard of before, munchies, all sorts of good stuff.
00:37:28.380And they billed taxpayers $11,600 for this.
00:37:34.340So you had journalists from the CBC and Global and the Toronto Star, all of whom are the major benefits of these $600 million media buyout from the Liberals.
00:37:45.960So this is just another reminder. Hey, you know, don't forget, we're the guys signing your paycheck and come on down for a free beer and have a chat with off the record with the Prime Minister. And hey, you know what? Build taxpayers. So thanks to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and the ever watchful Franco Teresano, he got us those documents and we were able to blow the lid off it. But it would just be nice to get an invitation. Just be nice.