Learn English with the Premier of Alberta, Rachel Notley. She was joined by Finance Minister Joe Critchley, Treasury Board President, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Services, Mike Gellis, and Speaker of the House of Commons, Jason Kenney.
00:01:00.000I've been working nothing all day, and I've been taking care of business, every day, taking care of business, every week, I've been taking care of business, it's all right, taking care of business, and working overtime, we're out.
00:01:18.000All right, all right, whoo, Rob Smith, he chose all the music, so we're gonna be rocking
00:04:03.120Right now we're starting to work on the budget,
00:04:06.880all of the great things that this team of ministers has been working on we're
00:04:11.620trying to lay that over you know what Alberta looks like right now major1.00
00:04:15.700population surge and and seeing what that means in all of these important
00:04:21.320ministries including health care education social services and still
00:04:25.480trying to make sure the world knows that we're maybe one of the last places left
00:04:29.560that are open for business and we continue to see people vote with their
00:04:33.160feet and choose to make Alberta home. Right on. And remember, there's a finance minister who's
00:04:39.220balanced the three, the budget for the third time. Now we're going to grow that heritage fund to $250
00:04:43.740billion. And he does oversee every single dollar that gets spent at Treasury Board. So he is that
00:04:50.140minister knows sometimes. Let's go on to our next minister, my deputy premier, Mike Gellis, who is
00:04:54.620also the minister of public safety and emergency services. What are you most proud of? You know
00:04:58.620what? It's about keeping Alberta safe, premier and everybody in the audience. As you have said,
00:05:03.080As I have said, we're going to do whatever it takes to keep Albertan safe.
00:05:06.000That's why we put 50 new police officers in Calgary, 50 in Edmonton.
00:05:08.960This is why I announced even today another new SCAN team.
00:05:11.760That's the Safe Communities and Neighbourhoods team right here in the Red Deer area.
00:05:14.820That's why we have the Fugitive Apprehension team.
00:05:17.100That's why we have surveillance teams.
00:05:19.280This is why we're augmenting and supporting all police services around this province.
00:05:23.720We know the disaster that is Bill C-75, which has made us less safe, not just here in Alberta, but right throughout Canada.
00:05:30.400And we're going to do whatever it takes to keep Albertan safe.
00:05:33.080Thanks so much for that, Mike. Mike also leads our emergency effort whenever we have emergencies, and he's had to do double duty on that the last two fire seasons. So thanks so much for your incredible work, Mike. We've got Minister Rebecca Schultz, who is, of course, our Minister of Environment, Protected Areas, and Managing Stephen Guibault. Tell us what you're up to, Minister Schultz.
00:05:54.020Well, I would say that is one of the big things, is being able to support our fearless Premier Danielle Smith in defending Alberta against the constant constitutional overreach by this federal government, whether it be on the plastics ban, on the no more pipelines laws, on the oil and gas emissions cap, which I think is coming on Monday, on their methane regulations, on their plans for our power grid, which would leave Albertans and Canadians in the dark with more expensive bills.
00:06:24.020So that is one of the things that I am very honored to be in this role and advocate for
00:06:28.660all Albertans and Canadians on, but then also fixing things in our own house. Water approval
00:06:33.540is one great example. If the news release didn't go out last week, I'm scooping myself. But we've
00:06:38.340sped up approval times by 57%, 25% in the last year. It's pretty amazing what we can do when
00:06:44.820it comes to just, as Minister Horner said, being open for business and working at the speed of all
00:06:50.100of you thanks so much for that minister she didn't tell you that she stays up at night wondering how
00:06:55.700we're going to preserve caribou and keep that from keeping gil gibo from shutting our province down1.00
00:07:00.180she's doing an incredible job finding ways to build more water reservoirs as well which is going to be0.98
00:07:04.740really important work so thank you for that minister we got minister brian gene our minister
00:07:09.140of energy and minerals minister minister go ahead what are you most proud of it's no secret that i
00:07:15.300I believe in the power of people and building communities and building families and building
00:14:11.920Our health care system is not working.
00:14:14.220We need to put the patient back at the center of the care, not the bureaucracy,
00:14:18.820and that's what we're doing through our refocusing.
00:14:21.880And we're going to continue to do it until we get it done.
00:14:24.240we're gonna make sure that we have our surgery times are done in clinically
00:14:30.120appropriate times so we're gonna see more surgeries done we're actually
00:14:33.480seeing an increase we are on track to see more surgeries done than have ever
00:14:38.120been done before 310,000 this year alone so that is just the start of the
00:14:43.920pyramid we have got so much work to do and I've got an incredible team helping
00:14:47.820me so that's what I'm most proud of fantastic thank you so much for that
00:14:52.140minister and she's also spearheading a bill this week to make sure that we0.52
00:14:57.360protect the right of our kids to be able to have kids of their own one day so
00:15:00.520thank you for the work that you're doing on that as well and we've got Dan
00:15:05.140Williams who's a companion on health care he's our minister of mental health
00:15:09.300and addiction minister tell us what you're up to well thank you premier and
00:15:12.360I'm not saying this just because there's 23 politicians on stage but it does it
00:15:16.320smell a little bit like horseshit in here to you guys so I am very very proud
00:15:21.960to be working on this file i can tell you under premier's leadership and the work we've done
00:15:26.760alberta has rejected the lie that's been presented to canadians and albertans in particular when it
00:15:32.360comes to addiction we've been told by woke academics and the media that fundamentally we
00:15:37.400need to make a choice we need to make a choice between caring for those in addiction with
00:15:41.800compassion or on the other hand having safe communities and that is not true that is a lie
00:15:46.920and that's why the Alberta recovery model is building out over 10,000 new spaces in the last
00:15:51.640six years. We have 11 recovery communities that have zero cost to those in addiction because
00:15:55.720whether it's your family member, friend or a stranger, it is not at all compassionate to
00:16:00.360leave somebody intermittently cold in a cold red deer or peace country winter who is suffering
00:16:05.320from addiction and mental health challenges and say that's a lifestyle choice. We're going to
00:16:09.000return order to our streets and care to those in addiction and that's happening right now with the
00:16:13.640work we're doing in mental health and addiction right on and so stay tuned we're also going to
00:16:18.920be bringing in compassionate intervention this uh coming year not this uh session but the following
00:16:24.920one which is mandatory treatment for those who are danger to themselves or others because of
00:16:29.720their addiction or substance use and this is going to be the most compassionate approach in canada
00:16:33.960because we care for our loved ones and our communities and that's no bs right
00:16:38.040we also have casa mental health classrooms and dan is also building out a mental health network not
00:16:46.180only for adults but also for our young people so thank you for the work you're doing there we got
00:16:50.020pete guthrie who is our minister of infrastructure pete tell us what you're up to yeah thanks premier
00:16:55.600uh so i guess just to let you know i do everything that is uh vertical uh when it comes to
00:17:01.440Infrastructure, Dreschen, he does horizontal, not that he's horizontal, maybe later, but he does roadways, highways, bridges, dams, that sort of thing.
00:17:19.060So we're building out hospitals, the recovery centers, but also the $8.6 billion school build-out that Nicolaides is kindly taking all the credit for, I actually have to deliver on.
00:17:47.120minister also discovered when he got into the portfolio that we didn't have a single
00:17:51.760central real estate repository of all of the things that we own so he's been busily working
00:17:56.080that together so that we can put those properties to better use so thank you so much for your work
00:18:00.320on that minister all right uh minister tanya for so is so uh in demand she's actually got
00:18:06.480four critics on the other side who much dog her portfolio she is our arts and culture critic and
00:18:11.440she's been doing our minister and she's been doing a ton of work minister for thank you premier and
00:18:16.640Hello, everyone. So, so much going on. A few things to touch on is I get the honour in this portfolio of celebrating and promoting Alberta's rich cultural heritage, not cancelling it as those on the woke left would like.
00:19:28.940As someone that went through the adoption process for my youngest son,
00:19:31.840And I get the absolute joy of helping kids find forever homes with the adoption process here.
00:19:37.460I also work with many vulnerable families when it comes to domestic violence and women's shelters and sexual assault centers.
00:19:43.880I also get to support family resource networks.
00:19:46.220And I know that there's children and families all over the entire province in each and every one of your communities that is accessing those programs.
00:19:53.260Because we know if we can support families, it's going to lead to stronger communities and it's going to keep more people out of the justice system.
00:19:59.700And Minister, thanks Minister. Minister Churton is also working with First Nations to transfer over some of the authority for First Nations for children in care. So that's a lot of hard work and I know he's making some great progress. We've got Minister Devendrishan, who at the moment is upright and we're glad to see it. Tell us about transportation.
00:20:16.880Well, Premier, I was going to say that you have a very united caucus,
00:20:20.300but there's some shade thrown down on that side of this.
00:20:23.440Dan, first, I just washed that mustache, maybe.
00:20:43.660who's connection no i don't care um uh but premier your question what do we care what do
00:20:50.940what am i really proud of building this province um working with so many municipalities building
00:20:56.700roads and bridges we have 64 000 lane kilometers we have 5 000 bridges and the billions of dollars
00:21:03.420of royalties that come into this province come from rural alberta and if we don't have market
00:21:07.660access roads and bridges to get that product to market, God help us all. So, that's the most
00:21:13.980proud thing I've done in this ministry. He's also correcting the NENGIE nightmare,1.00
00:21:17.900and that is actually going to get that green line in Calgary built as well. So,
00:21:21.340thank you so much for the work you're doing there, Minister Dreeshan. He may have a T-shirt for sale
00:21:25.980if you corner him as well. You'll see him wearing that over the course of the weekend. We got Nate
00:21:30.460Glubish, who is our Minister of Technology and Innovation. Minister, tell us what you're up to.
00:21:35.020Sure. Well, first, let me just say I love this team. I mean, we're working hard. We've been in the trenches, many of us together for five years, but we also know how to have fun. So thanks to everybody on our team. It's been a pleasure working with you. So a couple of things that I'm really excited about. I get to lead our government's efforts to apply more technology and to be more innovative in how we deliver services because we want to be able to deliver better, faster, smarter services to every single Albertan. And we know that if we do that well, we're going to save the taxpayer a ton of money. So that's part one. But part two is I'm also getting
00:22:05.000the privilege to lead our efforts to make Alberta the most attractive place for innovators and
00:22:09.320inventors to invest their energy and their resources to build new technologies and to grow
00:22:13.160our tech sector and one of the areas that is most exciting is as we are as we all know that
00:22:18.280artificial intelligence has completely taken off it is touching every aspect of the tech sector and
00:22:23.480every aspect of every industry and there's going to need to be a ton of infrastructure built to
00:22:27.800support that technology and these are these are called data centers and so I've been out selling
00:22:32.120Alberta as the best place in the world to build this infrastructure. And the reason it should
00:22:36.360matter to all of us, even if we don't care about technology, is that this is a way for us to
00:22:40.920export our natural gas without it ever leaving the province. Justin Trudeau and Steven Gibault
00:22:46.120might be able to get in the way of us building pipelines, but they can't stop us from converting
00:22:49.720our gas to electricity, turning it into artificial intelligence, computational capacity, and exporting
00:22:54.840that through fiber to the rest of the world. This is going to be a game changer and will help to
00:22:58.040compliment what Minister Jean is doing to double our oil and gas production. Thank you.
00:23:04.280You can tell how excited he is about that. He has also pioneered methods for us to do our
00:23:08.840affordability payments directly to Albertans, our emergency payments directly to Albertans.
00:23:13.480He's working on land titles to make sure that we're able to get transfers done in a single day
00:23:17.880and he has got I'm sure the very best cyber security team in the entire country because
00:23:22.200we're constantly under attack by state actors and he's been able with his department to ward it off.
00:23:27.240he's doing great work thanks for that group we also have todd lowen who is our minister
00:23:31.400of forestry and parks and firefighting minister lowen tell us what you've been up to
00:23:36.760oh thank you very much premier and i just want to say it's great to see so many people out here
00:23:41.240today um for somebody that has a fear of public speaking this is uh you just made it more
00:23:45.800intimidating just by all you being here today but but i do appreciate it it's great to see
00:23:51.000uh when it comes to my department uh obviously wildfire is one of the biggest things that we're
00:23:55.720we're concerned about working on right now we've made substantial changes since last year to make
00:24:00.520sure that we serve Albertans better and do a better job at protecting communities we have
00:24:06.280programs we're working on right now with individual communities to make sure that we add additional
00:24:10.120protection and we'll see some of that work happening this winter when it comes to parks
00:24:14.760parks are for people we want to make sure that we have good access for the people of Alberta
00:24:18.440to access their parks and really truly enjoy them to the fullest amount and I guess part of one of
00:24:25.480of the things that's I guess near and dear to my heart is the hunting and
00:24:27.940fishing branch which is part of my department too and for all those people
00:24:31.960that do hunt and fish you know I think we can appreciate the having a healthy
00:24:37.420wildlife populations but I also believe I think that that's something that all
00:24:41.140Albertans can appreciate is having the healthy wildlife populations to be able
00:24:44.380to see and enjoy the wildlife beautiful wildlife in our province and the
00:24:47.140beautiful views that we have so that's I guess that's some of the things right
00:24:51.280off the top. Todd has done an amazing job pioneering a new way to fight fires in
00:24:55.180our province he's uh he fights hundreds of fires a year and he has done an amazing job these past
00:25:00.520two seasons thank you for that we also now have minister joseph scout the tallest mla in caucus
00:25:06.060i know you must have thought it was jason nixon but he's edged him out by an inch and he's doing
00:25:09.840some amazing things in tourism and sport go ahead minister scout just don't tell nixon i'm taller
00:25:14.920than he is it's a bit of a thing just kidding uh asking me to pick one of my favorite things that
00:25:21.320doing is like ask me to pick one of my favorite kids uh but i have three so i'll go with three
00:25:26.040kids which actually for a mormon guy who represents a lot of mormons in dutch i know those three kids
00:25:30.440are rookie numbers but but it works for us um the first thing i'm very proud of is the work we're
00:25:37.160doing to help get to help get jasper back on his feet with the leadership of premier smith and my
00:25:42.200team here we've all been involved in that and it's been so great as we watch the community rebuild
00:25:46.680and it's going to come back better and stronger than ever thank you thank you for that thank you
00:25:53.880thank our premier please second thing is coming up next week we'll be releasing a piece of
00:25:58.920legislation that will help us explore more of the best that alberta has to offer in our crown land
00:26:03.480with our four season resorts development because tourism is jobs is to economic diversification
00:26:09.160and i'm very proud of that and the third thing is something very close to my heart as a father
00:26:13.720of a daughter who's 10 but i think a very bright athletic future ahead of her yesterday we
00:26:18.360introduced legislation again with the leadership of our premier that will make sports safe for
00:26:22.840women and girls and make sure they're not forced to compete it's very important that we make sure
00:26:36.840that sports is safe for women and girls and that they're not forced to compete against larger
00:26:40.600stronger more physically capable transgender athletes but also that everybody has a place
00:26:44.760to play and recreate and you'll see that as we move through the legislative process but i'm very
00:26:49.320proud of the leadership of our premier and my colleagues up here who have been supportive
00:26:52.680on that process and thank you thank you thank you for that minister
00:26:58.360we've also he also has a program called every kid can play as well which allows for young people to
00:27:04.280get support so that they can be in sports he feels really passionately about it you've just thrown
00:27:08.280everything into that portfolio thanks for that minister we got minister dale nally who is our
00:27:13.000minister of service alberta red tape reduction and aglc go ahead minister tell us what you're up to
00:27:20.520thank you thank you premier after 25 years we are finally updating our foip legislation and one of
00:27:28.120the best parts about that is we're going to be bringing forward enhanced um proactive disclosures
00:27:34.520and that's going to promote more openness more transparency and government because i think we
00:27:38.760can all agree that open transparent governments will always be better governments and this will
00:27:43.640be one small step in making us the most freedom loving open and transparent jurisdiction in north
00:27:49.560america as well a major registries update and uh we will get those land titles transferred in one
00:27:58.600day he's done already amazing job reducing the waiting list of transfers from 110 days down to
00:28:03.560about five to ten days so thank you for that minister we got minister you seen who is our
00:28:07.800minister for immigration and multiculturalism minister well thank you very much premier it's
00:28:13.320such a pleasure for me to be here along with my team of colleagues led by premier daniel smith
00:28:23.400alberta is land of opportunity land of hope land of prosperity and people come here from around
00:28:30.600the world and we welcome them and we make sure that there is no issues in credential recognitions
00:28:36.360or any other barriers that they may face here and we want to make sure that everybody's accepted
00:28:41.720respected in harmony understanding tolerance acceptance as we move forward and no one is left
00:28:47.640behind thank you very much awesome thank you minister minister you seen has a an annual event
00:28:54.360where he gives awards to outstanding immigrants and it's uh remarkable some of the contributions
00:28:59.400so thank you for your putting your heart into that we've got minister wilson who is our minister of
00:29:04.280indigenous relations minister wilson thank you premier one of the things i've really been working
00:29:09.000with is to make our indigenous and metis brothers and sisters partners in prosperity i call it
00:29:13.960so i call it a hand up not a handout program and we developed what we call the alberta
00:29:18.600indigenous opportunities corporation this is a backstopping program and one of the big things1.00
00:29:24.120we've done we're going to be opening it very soon hopefully get the premier out there cutting the
00:29:27.320ribbon we developed a power plant out in edison the cascade power plant it's going to provide
00:29:31.960eight percent of alberta's power we've got six first nations as full partners in it and you know
00:29:37.320what it uses good clean alberta natural gas and it works even when the sun doesn't shine the wind
00:29:42.600doesn't blow oh he also has an incredible program the alberta indigenous business fund which funds
00:29:52.360up to $750,000 for each project, and he has some amazing success stories, so thank you for your
00:29:57.640incredible work on economic reconciliation, Minister Rick Wilson. We've got Minister RJ
00:30:02.600Sigurdsson, our Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation. Tell us what you're up to, Minister.
00:30:07.960Well, thank you, Premier. I think there's so much to be proud of in agriculture right now,
00:30:12.360but one of the things I'm most proud of is the fact that Alberta has the best farmers
00:30:17.560and ranchers in the world and with that i can list a lot of things this government has moved
00:30:23.720on the feeder association loan guarantee uh we have expanded the next generation uh loans with
00:30:31.080an afsc to get the next generation into farming uh 67.5 million to graduate twice the amount of vets
00:30:38.520at ucvm we brought diagnostic service unit back to this province of alberta we've maintained the
00:30:43.880the lowest tax jurisdiction implemented an agri-processing investments tax credit that
00:30:48.980has seen a record three billion dollars of investment here in the province this year
00:30:53.120but the thing i'm most proud of is the fact that within my mandate the premier gave me full carte
00:30:59.580blanche to push back against any jurisdiction that impedes our farmers and ranchers and i can tell
00:31:04.380everybody here today that we will not allow ottawa to pass tariffs on evs steel and aluminum
00:31:12.920that they knew was going to result in a backlash on canola punishing our farmers and ranchers here,
00:31:18.700and even more so, I refuse to let a Liberal MP pass a law, C-293,
00:31:25.500based on pandemic response that would give the federal government the authority
00:31:31.960to regulate our livestock industry here in Alberta.
00:31:35.340This is a government that will not stand for that.
00:31:42.920You're going to see a lot more out of RJ because we know that the extreme environmentalists are
00:31:49.420coming for agriculture next and we're not going to let them tax burping and farting cows like0.99
00:31:53.940they do in Denmark. I assure you we're going to fight back against that too. Thank you so much
00:31:57.760for your work on that RJ. And finally we got our Minister of Affordability and Utilities Nathan
00:32:03.300Newdorf. He has got a pretty busy portfolio but I can tell you we've already seen some major impact
00:32:08.720in bringing electricity prices down since he took over the file. Tell us what you're up to Minister.
00:32:12.920Thank you, Premier. I'll start with what I'm proud of the most is raising five kids in Alberta who will never, ever vote Liberal or NDP.
00:32:24.600Got to contribute. So I appreciate that. We're working on a lot of things in our file.
00:32:29.260We're restructuring the electricity market to make sure that we can accommodate all the new technology that's coming about in our province.
00:32:35.400We are continuing to work on regulations to make sure that agriculture comes first and protect our farmland from resource development and renewables.
00:32:44.760We're making sure that they fit in their place and their place doesn't destroy agricultural land into the future.
00:32:54.320We're working on, like I said, transmission regulations to make sure we can bring costs down for every single Alberta, no matter where you live.
00:33:01.240working on distribution policy so those who live in rural and northern alberta don't have to pay
00:33:06.040five times as much for distribution than everybody else we continue to work on policies for data
00:33:11.320centers i feel a little bit like minister guthrie towards minister nicolaitis i feel that way with
00:33:15.400gluba she gets out there and looks good on camera and i got to do all the work to make sure this
00:33:19.800these things fit in our system uh he's doing a great job which means i got to do a more work
00:33:25.080as quickly as possible but i appreciate him representing our province we're working on
00:33:30.600hydrogen policy and something that albertans have been waiting for a very long time
00:33:34.920very excited for the mandate that you increased for me premier is working on nuclear policy
00:33:40.680very excited about the future of that for the province of alberta once again a member passed
00:33:44.920policy giving us direction to explore our nuclear so thank you for the work you're doing that
00:33:48.920minister rick mckiver had to put on a retirement party for a very dear friend of his that he had
00:33:53.640promised months ago so i will be taking the municipal questions tonight and why don't we
00:33:58.280turn it out now over to you uh hopefully we'll be able to i see those very long lineups over there
00:34:03.080so keep your questions short we'll try to keep our answers short let's see how many we can get
00:34:06.840through let's start over here premier and caucus ministers you probably all know me that uh i'm
00:34:16.520the person to complain about something but i tell you what you guys are doing something
00:34:21.160this government is the voice of reason it's being led by the breast best premier this country has0.97
00:34:28.520ever seen i have never i have never seen government move at this pace and i want to acknowledge the
00:34:36.680work we are doing is making a difference and we see it and we feel it as albertans now this
00:34:44.000government is filing is firing on all cylinders and the rest of canada is watching the course of
00:34:50.040democracy is watching us very carefully here in canada now we've seen other jurisdictions experience
00:34:58.600unfortunately our good friends blaine higgs lost his position out east there was a near miss
00:35:05.000in saskatchewan last week and eb had a narrow narrow win in bc he's tied to this perfect
00:35:12.200chinese stuff too oddly enough but uh what i want to ask and honestly dan williams i do get
00:35:19.400a stench of ndp a little bit in here but i think it's coming from outside um so what i'm asking
00:35:26.040premier and i'd also hear from one of the ministers is as a province what are we doing
00:35:32.920to make sure we never see that happen here we endured one ndp government here that's enough
00:35:38.920and if we haven't learned our lesson from that you guys better look outside this province and
00:35:43.480see what we're enduring we cannot afford an ndp government and i want to thank you for the hard
00:35:48.360work how are we going to ensure we never see that thank you very much for all the hard work you do
00:35:53.320well john williams thank you so much for that one of the things that i think you touched on and
00:35:57.160maybe one of my ministers will want to talk about what we can do to to be able to ward off the ndp1.00
00:36:01.560but you mentioned something really important about the issue of chinese interference in elections
00:36:08.360which we know is happening and what we're working on is the ability for us to have more integrity
00:36:13.800in our elections, more trust in our elections. It's part of the reason why we've ended tabulators
00:36:19.300for municipal elections, member pass policy. And we're working on doing the same when our
00:36:26.680elections legislation comes forward next year for provincial governments. But maybe I could
00:36:32.020talk to Minister Nally about what he's doing to improve ID so that we can make sure that we have
00:36:40.680robust ID when people go to vote in elections. Thank you. Thank you, Premier. One of the things
00:36:46.760that we're looking at is how we can put citizenship on the driver's license so that
00:36:51.660when people come to vote, we're going to make sure that they're a Canadian citizen and that
00:36:54.800they're allowed to vote. Minister Nixon wants to weigh in. Well, and on the question of how we
00:37:02.680make sure the NDP don't happen again, I can tell you I'm one of the few, there's a handful of us
00:37:06.200We're here in 2015 and saw what took place in our province, and it breaks your heart, and it can never, ever happen again.
00:37:13.720And the number one way we can make sure that doesn't happen is we stick with our name, we stay united,
00:37:18.680we focus on what we have in common, and we make sure we keep defeating the NDP.
00:37:23.180And most importantly, tomorrow, we go in the box and we vote for the greatest premier in the province,
00:37:28.700and we make sure we stay united and we move forward.
00:54:05.540So I'm going to be taking my time to look at their options here.
00:54:09.440We're going to continue working on Red Deer and we're going to evaluate what we need to do to go forward.
00:54:14.240And let me just say I put an offer out to all of our friends from those Calgary area ridings that are impacted.
00:54:20.200I told Dan Williams that I'd be happy to do a town hall so that we could hear directly from you
00:54:24.580about the impact that the Sheldon Schumer Centre is having.
00:54:27.700And that would give us the best feedback that we have about whether that site should be closed.
00:54:31.680So just know that that's going to be something that we're working on.
00:54:34.240And if you want to go through your riding president to be able to assist us in putting an event together,
00:54:39.160we're more than happy to get that feedback from you.
00:54:40.940And you can tell us in the various hospitality suites this evening as well.
00:54:45.200Anything that you hear on stage that you want to talk more about us,
00:54:48.020part of the reason we're introducing all the ministers to you tonight so that you know who to
00:54:51.700who to wrangle in a corner when you when you see them in the hospitality suites but i i think you
00:54:55.700can tell from our government we believe recovery comes first we just don't give up on people and
00:55:00.340we want to get people back to being healthy and i think the recovery model is going to do that
00:55:04.420we've got one over here hi there uh my name is hannah thank you very much for taking my question
00:55:12.340i serve as the vp outreach uh for calgary varsity um while this isn't the topic of my question i
00:55:19.940want to thank you for your work on charter schools um i think they're so important to the facet of
00:55:26.500society in alberta um so thank you so much for that uh my question is applicable to the ministries
00:55:33.780of transportation municipal affairs and finance so feel free to answer whoever um it has to do
00:55:40.900with municipal government's overreach in the realm of small business,
00:55:45.880particularly in the realm of transportation.
00:55:48.980So as mentioned in a previous session,
00:56:10.900well let me let me go to Devin first and then I think Brian wants to weigh in Devin go ahead
00:56:32.860and I think the finance minister might want to fix insurance rates next but no when it comes to
00:56:38.200To transportation, we have moved the needle a lot when it comes to class one licensing.
00:56:43.440The melt requirements that really were very burdensome to try to get new drivers on the roads.
00:56:49.760We've made some changes to make sure that safety is obviously paramount and foremost.
00:56:55.900And so we have made some changes, but happy to continue to engage with the transportation industry to make sure that we can make additional changes when it comes to licensing, just to get more people engaged.
00:57:05.160I've actually been working closely with Minister Sawney, trying to get trucking as a registered trade,
00:57:11.740something as a Red Seal certificate, something that if you can have a chef or a hairdresser,
00:57:15.500why not have a trucker as that type of profession going forward?0.57
00:57:19.280And we're leading that across the country.
00:57:20.580Thanks for that, Devin. We've got Gene, and then I think Horner wants to weigh in. Gene.
00:57:24.020I would just say that it's clear that we hear this from a lot of people, a lot of folks across the province.
00:57:30.620It's not just where you are, it's right across the province that the municipal governments are.
00:57:34.060in some cases, causing a lot of red tape and a lot of barriers to small businesses.
00:57:39.460I, myself, am a business owner, as many of us are here,
00:57:42.060and I've seen that creep towards us quite a bit over the last decade or two,
00:57:47.580and I would say that we have had that discussion, various MLAs and cabinet ministers,
00:57:53.300about what we can do and how we can work with our municipalities to make things better
00:57:56.900and to streamline them, and frankly, I'm surprised Dale Nally's not in here talking about cutting red tape
00:58:01.680because he cuts everything he possibly can.
01:03:04.240Could I add to that too? Because I absolutely agree with you. I think it is much bigger.
01:03:08.780I look at some of the language. It's problematic. It could delve into public health. We saw what happened through the pandemic. It could be even worse the next go around if there was a next go around. So I really am concerned about it as well. It's the reason that I stood up with Minister Secretson and our Premier to fight this. This is overreached by the federal government.
01:03:29.460I would tell you, I would just say that health is an area of exclusive provincial jurisdiction
01:03:35.380and agriculture under Section 95 is concurrent jurisdiction.
01:04:04.020I'm also one of the many concerned conference premier
01:04:07.240What are you doing to deal with the many complaints that are happening across this province for?
01:04:11.860Municipalities are weaponizing the code of conduct against certain members of their council
01:04:16.220These municipalities are wasting thousands of taxpayer dollars by continually trying to punish some of us for asking questions
01:04:23.360Or refusing to disclose what they spend on investigation after investigation
01:04:28.220I have spoken to the municipal affairs department many times and I'm continually told that what is happening isn't right, but they can't help.
01:04:36.880If not municipal affairs, who are we supposed to go and ask for help?
01:08:09.540On policy, due a budget, the true cost of living per single adult in Saskatchewan, calculated in Saskatchewan and Alberta, is $75,000 per adult and $36,000 per child, including daycare.
01:08:27.540So we don't tax a business before it's profitable.
01:08:31.540Why are we taxing our citizens before they're profitable?0.56
01:08:35.540It makes zero sense to be taxing our citizens before they can achieve the true cost of living
01:08:41.780so they can afford true health care so they don't end up in the medical care system.
01:08:49.100I'll put that over to the Finance Minister.
01:10:17.040carbon tax multiple times your farmers pay carbon tax and that is what's really driving
01:10:22.200inflation that is probably the largest most important fight our government is taking to
01:10:27.400ottawa because it is destroying the the prosperity of alberta and every canadian that is proud to be0.99
01:10:33.160called canadian thanks for that minister we got another one over here um it's a previous gentleman
01:10:44.520uh sorry but i told my youngest son he's not allowed to have kids
01:10:47.800sorry uh he's got enough nieces and nephews anyways what i'm here to talk about or ask about
01:10:54.940is the immigration okay um there's i live in a small 500 person community and we don't have
01:11:03.440extra housing for anybody trying to find a place to live in there is ridiculous to rent and my son
01:11:11.140is trying to come out but there's no jobs like we have one grocery store we have one uh pharmacy
01:11:20.020there's not a whole lot of jobs but what i do see coming in is filipinos immigrants coming in and
01:11:27.940one of them is my neighbor absolutely wonderful people i love them to death um there was a
01:11:34.020franchise business in drayton valley that was bought out by some immigrants uh ladies who had1.00
01:11:40.260lived who had worked there at that business for 15 years were let go and immigrants were hired
01:11:47.220now i was told now i don't have any proof of this i didn't look at it but that there's uh
01:11:53.380they're given 70 percent of their wages if they were to hire an immigrant so that leaves our0.97
01:12:02.180like my daughter she doesn't have any skills she can do service work okay she can't find a job so1.00
01:12:08.740on teenagers. They can't find a job. I wash dishes. I'm wakers. There are mothers out there1.00
01:12:17.780who need to get a job. They can't find a job. So is there anything you can do about that?
01:12:25.860Look, I mean, one of the things that we've been trying to do is to take, thank you for your
01:12:30.980question. One of the things we've been trying to do is get a more normal level of immigration from
01:12:37.460all of the streams going back to the kind of program that we had under stephen harper um
01:12:42.100under stephen harper's days it was about 400 to 500 000 a year that would come in uh last year
01:12:48.100the federal government brought in almost two million people and we are generous absolutely
01:12:52.900we are willing to open our doors and uh to anyone who wants to share our quality of life and
01:12:58.020contribute to our economy but we are seeing in alberta and across the country that we we simply
01:13:04.180cannot absorb the volume of people that are coming it's increasing our housing prices our0.80
01:13:10.020rent prices we've got people living in campgrounds and going to shelters when they arrive because
01:13:14.500there isn't a place for them to go we're seeing our employment rates as you described it's over
01:13:19.780seven percent and it's among our young people it's more than 14 so we've told the the federal
01:13:24.820government that we want to have a program where we use our ability to have provincial nominees
01:13:31.060as a pathway to permanent immigration they keep on telling us no and yet they they continue to
01:13:35.940have an open border policy so minister yasin has been at the sort of the forefront of uh of trying
01:13:41.940to to argue with the federal government to have a to have some restraint they're starting on that
01:13:46.820on temporary foreign workers they're starting on it on international students but they have to get
01:13:51.460a handle on the number of asylum seekers coming through the airports it used to be about four or
01:13:56.500five thousand a year this year they're on track to have 61 000 people come through the airports
01:14:02.420as a result because they've removed visa requirements and they removed the requirements
01:14:07.540to have a return air flight when you go when you board a plane there's very simple things that they
01:14:12.580can do so we are advocating for that let me turn it over maybe to minister nixon to talk a bit about
01:14:18.420what we're doing uh to try to get uh more because we're actually doing a pretty good job in our
01:14:23.540housing sector in being able to to keep up with a lot of this growth and i think that's one of the
01:14:28.340success stories that we're seeing yeah we are seeing a lot of success when it comes particularly
01:14:33.940to our big cities and the what the premier and i call the donut cities around edmonton and calgary
01:14:38.900we've been able to double the capacity of construction residential construction but
01:14:42.900with the biggest challenge we're not seeing is rural alberta still and this remains a real
01:14:47.620serious conversation that we're having with the with the federal government the premier and i we
01:14:51.860We just had to deal with some funding with the feds around encampment money.
01:14:55.760And I've been in an argument with the federal housing minister for a little bit to make clear that they just want to put the money in Calgary and Edmonton.
01:15:02.280Our message has been loud and clear that they have to keep care of all of our communities.
01:15:07.000And the premier passed a piece of legislation, my favorite bill that I've ever seen passed from the Alberta legislature in her capacity as the minister of intergovernment affairs.
01:15:14.460It's Bill 18, which we modeled off Quebec, which stopped the federal government from being able to come into our province
01:15:22.700and cherry-pick different municipalities, give them money on things like housing, and forget about the rest of the province.
01:15:29.160We forced them to come back to us.0.66
01:15:32.620And so that legislation is passed through the House, through the Alberta legislature.
01:15:38.440The regulations, I think, take effect, Premier, January 1st.
01:15:41.460And that's going to give us a lot more opportunity to stop the games of the federal government sending money just to mayors who may or may not have certain cabinet ministers' phone numbers,
01:15:52.100and instead making sure that we're fairly distributing money, like housing money, all across the province, including in Drayton Valley.
01:15:57.580So we'll make sure that we continue that fight.
01:16:00.280All right. Thank you for that. We'll take another question over here, sir.
01:19:53.340and we added a sixth principle, and that was availability.
01:19:57.420Because if we don't have a delivery mechanism,
01:20:00.640then at some point a government's going to come to me and say,
01:20:04.960okay, now you're going to have to build it like Saskatchewan.
01:20:07.420And I know that Crown Corp, through the data we have,
01:20:11.100would cost us about $3 billion to build and capitalize.
01:20:15.340So I take your point, sir, but I would also say I've heard a lot about getting reelected and political suicide.
01:20:21.240The number one thing we can do is good governance, and sometimes it's tough.
01:20:26.700Look, I know we're now going to have a lot of conversations in our hospitality suites about insurance and everything else that you heard here today.
01:20:34.280Thank you so much for the robust conversation.
01:20:36.360Next year, we might have to do this Bear Pit session an hour longer, judging by the lineups.
01:20:41.340But look, we're going to be around here all weekend.
01:20:43.220I'm looking forward to seeing as many of you as I can in the hospitality suites
01:20:47.660I know there's a ton more programming to get to this evening, but thank you so much for your engagement
01:20:52.460We really really value the debate here. It guides the work that we do
01:20:56.580So I have a robust debate and make sure that you come and talk to us in the hospitality suites. Thanks everybody