Alberta Update: Bloc-Liberal Alliance, Immigration and More

[Music] hello and welcome to the Alberta update a look at what's happening in your Province we are back after a Hiatus for the summer months thank you for being with us today coming up on the program we'll talk to education Minister Demetrius nicolus about changes in your kids classroom this year including the ban on cell phones we will chat with the minister of Transportation about the green line in Calgary and the minister of Forestry and Parks will review what has been a very tough season on the forest firefront all that and more coming up first we're going to say uh good day to the premier who is usual is very busy Premier you've had quite a summer nice to see you again how are things hi Bruce fantastic I just love it when we get into Summers because it's festivals it's rodeos and it's a very big Province and so we have to take a lot of time traveling around and it's uh it's always so great to connect with people where they are find out what's on their mind I had a terrific time yeah some of the highlights uh Premier because you you put on a lot of miles this summer well I I suppose there was a a sad highlight of the summer which was of course the devastation that happened in Jasper and we continued to have another terrible Forest firefighting season and so I had a chance to to visit there a couple of times to be able to do what we can as a province to help Parks Canada and Jasper municipality on the road to recovery so we'll have probably lots more to say about that over the course of the of the next year or year and a half as they rebuild but also went up to lcre it's so amazing to be in the peace country in Grand Prairie uh of course I'm uh I I was down at various festivals in Lethbridge Calgary Stampede Kay went over as well to Lloyd bster yesterday in Fort McMurray today um and everything in between I think I've done about 14 town halls and uh and have six six or more to go so we I've had a really terrific terrific summer talking to people uh you bet listen and uh your first point we'll have Minister Todd Lan on in a few minutes we're going to talk more about Jasper and the rebuild that's underway and everything that people need to know about that in the forest fire season uh I want to switch to talk about some of the federal politics because there's a there's a big impact on Alberta with what's going on so the NDP uh dropped their Coalition deal with the Liberals but the block said hey we'll we'll we'll gladly pick this up uh that is troubling news for Alberta for several reasons what are your thoughts oh my gosh if if I thought that the NDP liberal Coalition was bad and it has been bad for our Province because they have been so hostile to our energy sector at the federal level they've been supporting them all the way through on a carbon tax which has created an affordability crisis imagine how terrible it will be under the block which absolutely hates our energy industry and makes no bones about wanting to keep it in the ground and shut it down as well as make no bones about their strategy their strategy is to extort as much money from the rest of Canada and Verda in particular so as a a method of of trying to Plate them from separating and so I can only imagine how much it will cost us if the federal government if the Liberals decide to join in a coalition with them just to hang on for a few more months and so I've been pretty clear if if that's the direction they're going for heaven's sakes put us all out of our Min misery call an election and either get a new mandate or let someone else get a mandate so that we can actually start governing this this country properly well we've already seen the strategy the block Quebec W uh I don't have to tell you immigration is a is a huge challenge for Canada it certainly is in Alberta and the block strategy seems to be uh the problem we're having with immigration we'd like to ship that to other provinces and uh the Prime Minister may do that and I know there's going to be huge backlash there already is from some provinces and there will be from us as well I assume well look we've done our part we we have not only advertised the rest of the country in low employment areas saying come to Alberta and help us to uh to create jobs and to and to fill those vacancies we had 200,000 people who came to our province in in 2023 but on top of that we have have been uh more than generous in providing a home and security to the Ukrainian evacuees we have had over 70,000 Ukrainian evacuees come to Alberta again because we have opportunity we've been able to support them but they're not included in the because they have a different status but but that is is more than double what our what our population is and so as a result has put a lot of pressure on us to be able to manage we're seeing it already we we have a certain amount of homes that we're able to build we can build a hes to accommodate about a 100,000 people per year and we had a little bit of give in the in in the housing market but we're we're looking at now people living in shelter spaces people living in campgrounds that that is not good for the newcomer who are coming here there just isn't the the housing stock to be able to support we're also seeing higher unemployment rates in Calgary and Edmonton it's part of the reason the federal government has scaled back the temporary foreign worker program is they won't allow for temporary foreign workers in markets where they're above 6% so we we do a pretty good job of creating uh new jobs we're creating more private sector jobs than any other Province 90% of the private sector jobs are created here but but it's still the the number of people coming here is too fast to be able to even have the private sector able to absorb that not to mention what we're seeing in schools our schools are are just busting at the seams because as uh new as newcomers come here both Canadians and those uh from from around the world they they have large families and so we've got school space issues that we're facing we've got Health Care pressures that we're facing so uh I would say that Alberta has already done its part in making sure that we're settling uh newcomers and to to ask us now in this environment to I think they want us to to try to settle 28,000 more people I just don't think that that's feasible and I also don't think that the federal government can expect us to do that without substantial resources to be able to manage it it's it's just they they brought too many people in quite frankly the normal level of of immigration is about 1% of the population so they should be bringing in 400 to 500,000 people a year that would be something that we could absorb they brought in 1.84 million people in 23 and now they are asking all of the provinces to to try to cover for for the the extra pressure it it's it's not fair it's not right immigration is supposed to be a concurrent responsibility under Section 95 and they have just gone too far and so I I can tell you um I'm seeing all the other Pro Premier saying exactly the same thing yeah look it just seems bizarre doesn't it that a that a separatist party a party that's goal is to separate from Canada is uh is holding the balance of power in the federal government we could talk about it all day it's just it's just so bizarre I want to talk about some of the more positives in Alberta that we can focus on though you've been in Lloydminster you've been at Fort McMurray uh this week some good news coming out of that region um what's the mood like up there well my goodness Lloydminster what an incredible place at the heavy oil show they've been operating now for 40 years they hold their their conference every two years and uh it's a different type of heavy oil production of course because most of it is sagd so you've got a lot of small operators and a lot of family businesses I was meeting third generation business owners there um so much that they're doing as well on innovation in being able to create a safer environment so that there's less danger to people working on rigs create um uh less wastage by having new Innovations to make sure that there isn't any uh any spillage and also some of the methane capture technology that they're doing it's it's part of the reason why we have been able to make such great strides on reducing methane emissions and it all comes from from that really Entre roral sector of our our energy sector and technology is going to continue to be the way that we are able to to increase production while reducing emissions and uh I'm just uh just arrived in Fort McMurray last night got the other type of heavy oil show going on here dominated of course by the the Big Oil sand operations the mining operations and so I'll probably hear a little bit of a different feedback but the the mood is good people are finally feeling like they've getting their groove back finally busy again because you have to remember things were pretty bad from 2014 to about 202 too and so we've had a couple of really good years and it's it's nice to see that that people are feeling optimistic you're off to New York soon what's the agenda well you know ATB invited me to come down with them and to talk to investors and I I think the the message has been the same whenever I go to the United States I say look I mean our energy industry is one that you should be investing in you have to remember there has been a very aggressive disinvestment dein estment campaign led by some of the extremist in Comm back mind you that that want to uh to prevent our energy sector from being able to thrive from being able to get dollars so that they can continue to to produce the resources that we know the world needs and I want to uh to just affirm for American investors that we are the responsible producer of energy not only are we the biggest export partner to the United States we have the ability to back stop them on North American Energy security and they can feel some confidence that when they're investing in in Canada and our heavy oil production that means they don't have to invest in places like Iran or Venezuela which has uh competitive prod products we are the best friend of America and we continue to have groups like Pathways that are are are working very hard to adopt new types of Technology carbon capture utilization and storage exploring small modular reactors looking to direct a capture as a way of of getting to neutral by 2050 so I think it's an incredible news story and I can't stop bragging about our industry so I'm going to make make sure to do a little bit of bragging down there you shout it from the rooftops uh listen appreciate your time know how busy you are safe travels and we'll see you again you're bet thanks Bruce all right there's Premier Danielle Smith joining us on the Alberta update today well students are back in the classroom for the 2024 2025 school year and things are a little bit different this year the minister of education is Demitrius nikitis maybe the uh maybe the busiest guy in cabinet these days with all that's going on and he joins us today Minister thanks for for popping in of course my pleasure how are you Bruce hey I'm doing great um listen a lot of changes a lot of changes this year but let's start with the overall uh message the the message to kids an exciting time of the year from you the the minister of Education of course yeah happy to you know first and foremost just want to wish uh all the students and and their parents and families out there a very uh my very best for the start of the upcoming school year I know it's always um a time of some hesitation anxiety but also excitement uh we're seeing that of course in my own household students you know my kids wondering who their friends are they're going to be in their class or not who their teachers are going to be so just want to wish everybody the very best as the school year gets under way you've made some changes we're going to talk about all of them here and give parents some information some of them concerning uh literacy and numeracy uh what will be different for kids what will what will parents expect this year yeah so uh students and parents will see uh an enhanced program of screening in both literacy and numeracy uh so you know these aren't tests they don't they don't count towards a grade U there I know some folks are trying to Brand them as you know standardized assessments these are these are screeners that have been developed by academics um and that uh help to successfully pinpoint whether a student is at below or above their peers in their Reading Writing and and and math abilities and I know as a parent that's critical and essential information that we want to know about our kids especially in those formative years so we've introduced the screeners and they will be mandatory uh starting kindergarten up until grade three and then we're also looking at additional screeners to come online in future years in grades four and five the kindergarten screeners will start in January and then for grades 1 to three uh that'll start in September um again in January and then again in June for students who have ident been identified but of course screening is just one thing once we've screened a student and identified that a student may need some additional support there are readymade intervention plans who have been developed by academics World leading experts that have been supplied to our school boards so that they can use those intervention plans to help get that student up to grade level if they need some additional help all right listen one that a lot of people are talking about of course and uh in my house for sure and I I bet many others uh the ban on cell phones in classrooms and uh many parents say this was long overdue but no doubt there's an adjustment period as well because kids have been uh been using them for so long uh talk about that the motivation behind it how it's being implemented yeah I think there's two key motivations uh for the new rules around cell phones number one to reduce distractions uh when students are in class of course their primary attention should be focused on the instruction that they're receiving and secondly to uh work to reduce some of the mental health impacts associated with excessive social media use and minimize um uh potential impacts from cyber cyber bullying of course that stuff can still occur outside of the class room and outside of the school but um we want to try to limit those we've heard a very positive response from parents when uh we did a survey to ask parents their opinion about this topic back in the spring 68,000 folks parents and teachers responded to the survey and they were all uh quite unanimous in their view which is that these are distractions and they should be limited I've talked to several School boards over the past couple of weeks as the new school year gets underway they're all saying uh the ones that I've talked to have all been saying that the implementation is rolling out very well there's a lot of um appreciation from teachers and families about the clarity of the Rules and Things seem to be moving uh smoothly uh to kick off the school year you were recently joined by the uh the Calgary Board of Education the uh the uh Catholic School Division as well highlighting some career opportunities um several new Collegiate spots available tell us more about that yeah over the past couple of years we've been providing some new investment into Collegiate schools so Collegiate schools are essentially pathway opportunities for students who are interested in a particular career career or occupation they know what direction they want to go Collegiate schools help to align their uh high school and Junior High programming with postsecondary programming so there's Partnerships with a postsecondary institution um we have about seven of these uh Collegiate schools coming online this fall uh we're excited about these new Pathways open up again for those students who have some clear line of sight about where they want to go and what they want to do uh this can help give them practical skills that they need to be successful in that future career and also help to expedite their post-secondary Journey uh so we're hoping to see more come online as well in future years the new K to6 social studies curriculum is being piled this uh piloted uh and highlighted I guess I just invented a new word um in any event what do students uh what do parents need to know about the new social studies curriculum well a couple of things uh we are at the piloting stage with some which is a critical and important stage in the development uh we had over eight months of consultation around content and subject matter we've been able to to nail most of that down and now many teachers are practicing it and testing it out in the classroom over the next uh over this current school year our teachers that are piloting the social studies curriculum will be providing feedback to my Ministry on a monthly basis about tweaks changes opportunities and then it will become mandatory in in all schools in September of 25 uh one of the important things though about the piloting of the social studies curriculum has been the broad support that we've received over 400 schools and 1700 teachers across the province are participating in this pilot uh so uh they're eager to test it out get it in front of students and again give us some additional feedback so we can make modifications before we implement it next September all right one more question for you Minister and AG go I know you attended the uh the grand opening of the uh Foundation just want to get this right foundations for the future Charter Academy North High School in Calgary uh speak to that I guess and your government's commitment to school choice in public education and education in general sure you know just quickly of course um supporting choice is is critical and essential um you know no no two students are the same and we know very clearly that families uh are the best directors of their kids education and need to be in the best position to be able to make choices for their children about their educational future you can't do that without having a variety of different options you know there are a lot of different programs available whether it's a charter school for for gifted students or a private school for uh students with learning disabilities or other options with public or separate uh School Division so having these different options um helps to make sure that a student's unique learning needs is addressed the opening of the new school has has been um an incredibly long project if memory serves me correct funding was first announced back in 2012 to modernize that School located in Montgomery um after some assessment got underway they realized you know what we need a complete replacement school here um I think uh the previous government the NDP committed some funding to completely replace the building before that funding could get out the door the roof collapsed uh on on those folks and students so it's been a long time coming that that building has been in the pipeline going back to 2012 for some modernization and update over several successive governments and I was pleased to be able to officially open the new building finally well we covered a lot of ground here today um scratching the surface at all the things that you're up to in your ministry uh Minister we'll have you back on for certain throughout the school year and give give parents an update on what's Happening thanks for taking time to join us today always thanks so much Bruce all right there is our minister of Education Demetrius nikitis Alberta's government is creating over 750 new seats for postsecondary students across the province in programs dedicated to Mental Health Professions as minister of advanced education Rajan son explains this major expansion will prepare a new generation of mental health professionals uh to meet the needs of families and communities across the province expanding the number of train trained mental health professionals in Alberta will have a direct and positive impact on the accessibility and quality of mental health care across our Province more trained professional means that more albertans will be able to receive the support they need when they need it and most importantly in their communities imagine a young person struggling with anxiety or depression and some of you don't have to imagine it you know people who are in this situation this person will now have access to a skilled counselor right in their own Community picture of family dealing with the complexities of addiction being supported by trained professionals who understand their unique challenges these are not just hypothetical scenarios but real possibilities that this investment makes more achievable the Greenline LRT in Calgary was intended to nearly double the size of the existing line network with the addition of a 46 kilometer long Transit line stretching from north of Country Hills to Sean which is south of Calgary's South house Hospital campus stage one of this project according to the city's own news release was originally supposed to see construction start on the first 20 kilometers from 16th Avenue to Crescent Heights to 126th Avenue Southeast in the Shephard Industrial Area it was to include 14 stations eight bridges a 4 kmet tunnel and a maintenance and storage facility at a total cost of $4.6 five billion well the cost and exact scope of this project then quietly inflated by nearly a billion dollars to 5.5 billion recently the City of Calgary released a new estimate ballooning the cost of the first phase by another billion while cutting the project in half eliminating the portion north of the ri River altogether tons of questions here minister of uh transportation and economic corridors Devon d joining us now to talk about the province's decision to pull uh their support of the funding for phase one of this project good day Minister hey Bruce thanks for having me on your show really appreciate it appreciate it look everybody's looking for some clarity on this um why don't we start with this the green line obviously a significant topic to Calgary and so important give us an O an overview if you could minister of uh of the timelines how we arrived where we are today sure you look back at at 2015 when the green line was originally proposed and then mayor nchi was the mayor of Calgary and he convinced the provincial and federal governments to each pitch in $1.53 billion each as well as the City of Calgary coming up with that amount of money themselves and that was for a 46 kilometer stretch of of LRT track and I think a lot of calgarians were were excited about that but the problem was back then nothing was properly engineered or planned out and you just saw 2 years after that original proposal fast forward to the NDP being in government in Alberta n steel being the mayor of Calgary and they actually had to cut that 46 kilometer proposal in half so they cut 23 kilm out of the green line proposal for the exact same amount of money and it still couldn't work and we've seen review after review from that um that having of the green line and now f forward to this year where this current Council uh had a a new proposal for only 10 kilm of track with uh with only seven stations so it was really a a shrinking of of size of scope and I think a lot of calgarians are frustrated because they see all the other LRT in Calgary that stretch out to the suburbs but this you know stub of a green line that was originally proposed uh just didn't make any sense so the green lines had a really troubled past and uh the provincial government were were trying to make make sense of it and have an alignment that actually works for calgarians well I can confirm what you said about calgarians frustration look Minister you know I I uh the proud executive director of McDougall Center in Calgary and so in the premier's office we get a lot of feedback a lot of calgarians talking about this and how it is uh shrinking in scope uh it seems like your hand has kind of been forced here well yeah and and you look at again the original proposal being 4.6 billion now ballooning up to $6.2 billion but again for an Ever shrink line that's something that doesn't make sense to us and when we've spoke with with the mayor or the current mayor and with councel there's there's been an obsession for them to go underground and downtown and those are very expensive stations something that we think an above ground alignment allows you for for the same amount of money to be able to stretch farther into the southeast part of Calgary where where calgarians live and are good to actually see an increase in ridership so that's that's our focus and our alignment that we're going to be uh starting really soon and uh we'll see by December this new alignment that we'll share with the City of Calgary and all calgarians so that they can see a longer green line with more Riders and um and hopefully for for the same for the same amount of money isn't not the bottom line here to try and get as many people uh using Transit as possible and uh but boy when you're shrinking uh shrinking it in half and uh and uh fewer people are able to access it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense so uh listen uh for for everybody watching what's next uh what will we see play out and will we get a look at sort of new proposals here in the near future yeah so we as a province we love building LRT projects because obviously that relieves traffic on for for commuter traffic for truck and car traffic so we love to see Transit projects work uh we've been working with the City of Calgary on the blue line that'll eventually Connect into the Calgary Airport we've worked with the city of Edmonton on their LRT projects but when it comes to the green line our our new engineering firm that we've contracted out will have a new alignment that that will ideally stretch down to to Shephard and even to Sean to the South Calgary Health Campus uh which again is good to see a big increase in the amount of riders for for this uh transit system so we're we're looking forward to it uh we're still working with the City of Calgary and uh and I hope calgarians this new alignment is something that they'll be proud to see all right well uh so many people looking forward to uh to the Future and uh and a better project listen I know you got your hands full with this one thank you appreciate your time today thanks Bruce all right there is the Minister of uh transportation and economic corridors Devon d with some clarity on the green line and uh and what's next here in Calgary as we look to uh to make that project all it can be in a fiscally responsible way for calgarians well the demand for safe and reliable energy of course is on the rise and uh and affordable energy and Alberta is uh is ready to lead the way when it comes to those demands while speaking to a room full of leaders in the Canadian en sector uh the premier saying she and her government are committed to protecting the industry from the harmful overreach of the federal liberal government uh which includes fighting their censorship Bill and their proposed production caps uh the premier making it clear that Alberta's government will continue to stand up for Alberta's energy sector do what we must to protect the country's most important industry now I wish it wasn't this way Alberta is eager to work with Ottawa as partners for Canadian prosperity we want to keep developing our resources and sharing the returns to build a stronger nation that will always be our intent so my message is simple the facts are on our side optimism and prosperity are on our side we are taking the high road and I invite anyone with an interest in Canada's future to join us thank you I'm looking forward to the [Applause] conversation it was a very tough season tough summer when it came to uh to forest fires here in Alberta residents and Jasper of course will be uh rebuilding for quite some time after fire ravaged that community and uh lightning sparked several fires in the national park in mid to late July on July 22nd the Alberta emergencies management agency uh issued an evacuation order for the national park and estimated 25,000 people including the roughly 5,000 residents of Jasper had to flee into the night the fires burning more than 30 3,000 hectares and destroying a third of that historic town site of course it means so uh so much to so many of us uh with the help of hundreds of for forest fires in Alberta uh and Canada and around the world well the fires are now classified as as being held uh minister of Forestry and Parks todan joining us now with more on this and uh and the latest on the Wildfire situation welcome Minister yes thank you very much good to be here uh Minister let's start with um with some sad news I know you'd want to touch on that of course uh Morgan kitchen he's a 25-year-old Wildfire um firefighter from Calgary tragically killed fighting those fires in Jasper uh our thoughts and prayers certainly with him and his family it was a tough time for everybody uh your message to to his family and I guess all of our First Responders who work so hard for us this summer well we know it is a tough job but we know it and we know it's dangerous at times and uh and this was uh surely it was it was cast Ric to to lose a young firefighter like like Morgan our heart goes out to his family and to to his friends and his crew members I know that's been tough for them to deal with and uh again it uh definitely a tragedy and and uh again we we we do everything we can to make sure that we we keep our firefighters as safe as possible we like you mentioned we have firefighters that come from around the world and and uh it's you know we want to make sure that everyone is as safe as possible and but unfortunately accidents happen and things do happen and uh it just uh you know it was definitely a sad day for for ourselves and wild of wildfire but a sad day for all albertans yeah well said listen um just a just a tough one all around uh certainly a devastating summer wasn't it in uh in Jasper uh how are things going there how's the recovery what's what's the province up to how can we update Alberts well you know the fire you know went from out of control to being held and now is considered under control so it has progressed uh quite well as far as uh being in a safer situation um you know that that fire there will be some work to be done for for quite a while on that fire uh Parks Canada is the one that uh you know manages that fire and manages the response to it and uh we we give them all the all the support that they they asked for right from the beginning to to see if we could do whatever we could do to help to uh to to keep that fire from the town of Jasper and to mitigate uh the damaging effects of it um so as as it sits right now we're we're probably in a pretty good position as far as the fire is concerned but again still more work to do I think a lot of people uh were surprised at what you just mentioned at who who has jurisdiction there when it came out what it happened um because you know sadly when something like this happens there's a lot of finger pointing immediately when really all everybody wants to do is is the best to make sure it doesn't happen again so what do we learn from this um how do we as a province make sure that we can we can better protect our spaces our people our places uh in these government parks and places where the federal government does have jurisdiction yeah so so like you say that you know Parks Canada has control over the fires at the start in their area they have their own teams their own equipment their own uh contracts with outside firefighters to help uh we have a direct relationship with them of course when it especially when it comes to fires in Alberta uh we can go through organizations that help uh deliver supplies equipment and Manpower across uh Canada but uh but we go directly through them and uh and make sure that we get them whatever they needed to to make sure that we kept that fire in the best situation we could and that and that happened right from day one when that fire started that day we did have uh personnel and Equipment helping on that fire but again it was under their their control and their jurisdiction and uh so we we were there just to to provide help wherever we could Minister I remember speaking to you about the forest fire season before it got underway and you were telling us that there were a lot of lessons learned from 2023 which was another terrible year and there were new technologies being implemented uh in 2024 so can you speak to that sort of uh how things differed how prepared you were um how did that play out yeah so we we were definitely uh substantial changes from last year when it come to Wildfire fighting uh probably the most dramatic changes from one year to the next that that Alberta wildare has ever seen um one of the things we did right off the bat is uh working with uh with with the budget and everything we increase the budget by over 50% and that's the the budget going into the Wildfire season uh when we're actually fighting fires that money comes out of contingency and uh we did increase a contingency amount of money too so we made sure that we had all the resources possible ready for this fire we hired extra uh firefighters uh 100 government firefighters and plus 40 contract uh firefighters and uh and again we we increased the number of planes that we had uh working we uh made sure that we had the night vision helicopters going those night vision helicopters were extremely helpful in uh in battling Wildfire because fires are more subdued at night and the work that they do at night is far more effective than what's done in a daytime uh it's probably never too early to look ahead uh learning what you did in 2024 and 2023 uh what what changes might we see on the horizon for next year I think one of the main things we're focused on right now is is uh mitigation making sure that we protect our communities uh we started the community Fire Guard program last fall we kicked that off and so we we have communities that are that are working with plans right now to make sure that uh that they have fire guards around their communities and make sure that they can protect their communities uh We've we've been proactive with that we've been reaching out to these communities that we feel are at risk and making sure that they have what it takes to to protect their communities it's a lot of work to be done um when these uh fires come in like for instance like the fire that came into Jasper it came in with such Fury that uh that when you when you have a fire guard you need to make sure that that Fire Guard is is wide enough and you need to be able to make sure you have thinning of trees even before that because uh uh even a half mile Fire Guard on a fire like that that fire would have jumped that easily and uh we've seen fires jump the Peace River Valley which is a which is a mile and so when when it comes to protecting communities there's a lot of work to be done it's it's not going to be done overnight but we need to be uh diligent at working at this and make sure that uh we're doing our best to protect those communities well we are grateful for the work you and your team are doing Minister and uh as you said grateful to all those that put their lives on the line to uh to help us with these situations every season uh thanks for joining us today appreciate it no problem thank you appreciate it too all right there's minister of uh forestry and Parks Todd Len on the Alberta update well Alberta is uh is working to create the most comprehensive recycling program in the entire country starting in April of next year families and businesses will be able to recycle more electronic items uh from cell phones and appliances to power tools even lawnmowers as minister of environment protected areas tells us uh Rebecca Schultz Alberta is also developing Canada's first provincial recycling program for solar panels EV batteries and wind turbines Alberta continues to lead the way with one of the most effective and efficient approaches to waste management and recycling in all of Canada being a province of problem solvers and innovators four years ago Alberta embarked on a pilot program to recycle more electronics and it has been a huge success since the pilot began albertans have recycled nearly 15,000 tons of electronics that's the weight equivalent of 4,000 cars kept out of landfills starting on April 1st 2025 this eilot will become a permanent part of Alberta's provincewide recycling system creating the biggest and best system in Canada but of course also meeting the needs of both today and tomorrow families and businesses will be able to recycle over 500 extra electronic items from cell phones to power tools to lawnmowers and of course so much more this expansion will keep 5,500 tons of waste out of landfills every single year electronics recycling is complex work and that's also why the Alberta recycling Management Authority has provided $250,000 to help Quantum Rec cycling install a Cutting Edge AI powered x-ray system this technology scans materials in real time instantly identifying hazardous waste within the eway system it saves valuable time and resources while ensuring the safe and responsible recycling of all hazardous materials it is safe to say that albertans are passionate about reducing waste and of course protecting and stewarding our environment there is Minister of environment and protected areas Rebecca Schultz well that does it for this episode of the Alberta update a look at what is happening in your Province I'm your host Bruce McAllister thank you for being with us today a reminder you can find us on YouTube either the uh the premier's you channel YouTube channel or uh or the government of Alberta and we also put the program up on uh on socials um Twitter Facebook Etc to try and uh to try and make it as accessible to you as possible and uh we appreciate apprciate you you appreciate you joining us as we try to keep track of what the government's up to and give you a firsthand look at what's going on and a reminder we do this program every second week uh when the uh when the legislature is not sitting and we will do it weekly when the legislature reconvenes so thank you for your time today thank you for being with us and we'll see you again next time right here on the Alberta update good day [Music]