The (Right) News Rundown
- John Horgan is already making massive election promises: eliminate toll bridge fees, freeze BC Hydro rates, eliminate MSP premiums, $10 a day childcare, $2.2B for public transit, and four lane the TCH from Kamloops to the Alberta border.
- What is unclear in his proposals is how exactly he would manage to raise the money to pay for all these grandiose promises, assuming of course that he keeps all them.
- Horgan has vowed to raise income taxes on the province’s top wage earners: those making more than $150,000 a year. But an income tax on the rich would only generate $250 million a year in additional government revenue. That’s nowhere near enough to pay for everything Horgan has promised so far — the child-care plan alone would cost $1.5 billion — so where is the rest of the money supposed to come from?
- It's hard to see how Horgan can manage to spend so much and still manage to balance the budget without massively raising taxes across the board. No matter what Horgan promises, and no matter how he crunches his budget numbers, he will still be accused of having a secret plan to jack up taxes on everybody.
- In contrast, Premier Clark and the Liberals have rolled out a modest platform with only small spending increases. “Our plan is costed and paid for — it doesn’t mean higher taxes,” Clark said.
- Last week, a Calgary mother said her son was “food shamed” by being removed from class at a Calgary Board of Education school to eat his snack of banana bread after his teacher allegedly said it wasn’t sufficiently healthy compared to fresh fruits and vegetables.
- David Eggen, the Education Minister released a statement on Monday: “While it is important to ensure our students learn about healthy meal and snack choices, Alberta Education aims to ensure all students are safe, welcome and cared for while at school.”
- He continued on, “Certainly, I would encourage the school board to reach out to the parent and all parents are always welcome to reach out to Alberta Education for assistance as well.”
- But the boy’s mother said it’s too late for that, adding the incident is only the latest in a series of food squabbles that have seen a granola bar, apple sauce and pudding also running afoul of a teacher.
- Some parents told Postmedia they’d experienced the same food censure, with one woman saying her son was reprimanded after bringing a fruit roll-up snack to school.
- “This is pretty standard action at our school,” said the woman who didn’t want to give her name. “Not only do you get things taken away, you get a tongue-lashing… it’s a shame when they take it out on the kid.”
- At the end of the day parents should have complete choice over what their children are sent to school with. This overreach of the school board is very telling that it is happening now. We moved from schools using physical punishment on students in the 1960s to a gradual hands off approach. As we move into the new century teachers and the education system are slowly becoming co-parents of today’s children. This is something that new education curriculums seem to have pivoted towards. Alberta is due for a curriculum rework in the next couple years and as funders of public education you must be aware of what is happening in our schools.
- Most aboriginal communities in northern British Columbia impacted by the Northern Gateway pipeline supported the $7.9 billion project and are angry Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rejected it, say representatives of three of the bands. Elmer Ghostkeeper of the Buffalo Lake Metis Settlement, Chief Elmer Derrick of the Gitxsan Nation, and Dale Swampy of the Samson Cree Nation said they are disappointed in the “political decision,” which they say was made without their input.
- Ghostkeeper, who was representing the bands in favour of the pipeline at a meeting of energy industry leaders in Calgary, said that more than 30 of the 42 First Nations bands along the "impact zone" of the pipeline were in favour of the Northern Gateway pipeline, and were looking forward to working with the government and companies on construction and sharing the long term economic benefits that would greatly impact the rural areas subject to poverty.
- Said Ghostkeeper: "Their expectations were really raised with the promise of $2 billion set aside in business and employment opportunities. Equity was offered to aboriginal communities, and with the change in government that was all taken away. We are very disappointed."
- Elmer Derrick, whose Gitxsan band resides in the Northwestern BC region of Skeena, said his band was supportive from the outset, but the Prime Minister didn’t want to hear from supportive communities. “The fact that the Prime Minister chose not to consult with people in northwestern B.C. disappointed us very much,” he said.
- Dale Swampy said some of the bands are discussing legal action against the federal government for rejecting the project without proper consultation. “They understand that it was a political decision, and not a decision acting in the best interests of Canadians,” Swampy said. “They weren’t asked about the financial effect, the lost employment. They are trying to get themselves out of poverty, the welfare system that they are stuck to, and every time they try to do something like that, it’s destroyed.”
- Trudeau killed Northern Gateway last November. The Enbridge Inc. project had received regulatory approval, as well as approval from the previous Conservative government, after a decade of planning and more than half a billion in spending.
- Michael Binnion, a director of the energy association and the president and CEO of Questerre Energy Corp., said the pipeline’s rejection had devastating consequences for northern Aboriginals. “This (was) a multi-generational opportunity to eliminate poverty in over two dozen of our first nations and metis communities. It’s also a direct loss. These communities have put two years or more of their lives. They invested legal fees and money in reaching these agreements to share in the benefits of the pipelines going through their traditional use areas.”
The Firing Line
- Nearly half of the asylum seekers crossing the Manitoba border illegally in the last few weeks are being detained because of serious criminal records, suggesting the profile of would-be refugee claimants is changing, according to the union representing border patrol officers.
- One of them assaulted a female Canadian Border Services Agency officer as he was being sent to lock-up at the Emerson, Man., port-of-entry last weekend, said Jean-Pierre Fortin, National President of the Customs and Immigration Union. [37 year old Ahmed Aden Ali from Minneapolis crossed on April 8 at 1am. He was apprehended by RCMP after crossing and taken to the nearest CBSA officer in Emerson, MB. Following this he assaulted a female officer and caused damage to the fire sprinkler in his cell.]
- A person may be “criminally inadmissible.” This can include crimes such as theft, assault, manslaughter, dangerous driving, driving while under the influence, and possession of or trafficking in drugs or controlled substances.”
- The local MP (Conservative, Ted Falk) commented that he was “very happy to hear that the officer is back at work and it wasn’t a serious incident”, however, he feels that Justin Trudeau’s tweet saying “Welcome to Canada, no matter who you are and where you come from, there’s a place for you in Canada” was reckless and is a contributing factor to the influx of illegal border crossers on our southern border.
- This past week public safety minister Ralph Goodale was questioned by the opposition. Goodale said that the data for March should be available “in the next number of days”. This doesn’t at all begin to address the issue that our border has become weak and by giving a non-response the Liberal government is signalling that this is not an issue. When nations cease to have meaningful borders they cease being a nation.
- The union that represents the CBSA wants more staff to process these claims and also wants expanded jurisdiction to enable the CBSA to patrol the area in between Canada’s 117 border crossings.
- According to a new poll released this week by Angus Reid research, 50% of Canadians say there is either a huge (20%) security risk or significant (30%) risk that criminals or other dangerous individuals will be crossing the border. 43% say that there is a minor risk while 7% say there is no risk. Overall 37% say we should be “concerned about the threat posed by these arrivals” and 24% say we should be “focused on the opportunity to help them”. 38% are unsure.
- Aside: The Rebel undertook a fact finding trip to New York to see the other side of the illegal border crossings. They found out that there is in essence a well organized human trafficking ring that gets the asylum seekers from a major population centre to the border. According to sources on the American side, the RCMP knows about this but there have been no cross border talks between agencies to correct the problem. This is a developing story and The Rebel will be reporting more this coming week.
Word of the Week
border |ˈbôrdər|
noun
1 a line separating two political or geographical areas, especially countries: the German border with Denmark | [as modifier] : border patrols.
• a district near a line separating two political or geographical areas: a refugee camp on the border.
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Show Data
Episode Title: Taking Away Our Banana Bread
Teaser: The BC NDP is promising to spend without first raising revenue. A Calgary public school confiscates banana bread? Disappointment regarding the Northern Gateway pipeline. And the refugee situation on our southern border has changed and not for the better!
Recorded Date: April 15, 2017
Release Date: April 15, 2017
Duration: 37:45
Edit Notes: Next weeks schedule.