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Alberta

New Brunswick joins prairie provinces to protest Trudeau government’s plan to use RCMP to seize legal guns

Published

2 years ago

3 minute read

News release from Albeta Justice and Solicitor General

Provinces oppose federal use of police resources

Provinces joined together at the 2022 Meeting of Federal, Provincial and Territorial Ministers Responsible for Justice and Public Safety to discuss the federal government’s plan to use police resources to confiscate legally acquired firearms.

Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and New Brunswick called on the federal government to halt plans to use scarce RCMP and municipal police resources to confiscate more than 100,000 legally acquired firearms from Canadians. The Prairie provinces had already written to their RCMP divisions indicating that provincial funding should not be used for this purpose.

The four provinces also called on the federal government to ensure that no funding for the Guns and Gang Violence Action Fund or other public safety initiatives be diverted to the federal firearms confiscation program. Instead, funding should be used to fight the criminal misuse of firearms by tackling border integrity, smuggling and trafficking.

The four provinces also called on the federal government to direct all communications related to the federal firearms confiscation program through appropriate channels – provincial and territorial ministers responsible for Justice and Public Safety.

“Two years ago, the federal government said that using police resources would be ‘expensive and inefficient.’ Now the federal government has resorted to using police resources to seize firearms from Canadians. Make no mistake, the federal firearms confiscation program will cost us billions and will not improve public safety. Alberta’s government is not legally obligated to provide resources and will not do so.”

Tyler Shandro, Minister of Justice and Solicitor General for Alberta

“While we fully support crime initiatives that focus on the issues related to the criminal use of illegal firearms, preventing and combating gang violence and addressing the issue of illegal or smuggled guns in our province, we don’t support those that impact law-abiding hunters, sport shooters, ranchers, farmers and Indigenous people who use firearms for lawful and good reasons.”

Christine Tell, Minister of Corrections, Policing and Public Safety for Saskatchewan, and
Bronwyn Eyre, Minister of Justice and Attorney General for Saskatchewan

“Manitoba has consistently stated that many aspects of the federal approach to gun crimes unnecessarily target lawful gun owners while having little impact on criminals, who are unlikely to follow gun regulations in any event. In Manitoba’s view, any buy-back program cannot further erode our scarce provincial police resources already suffering from large vacancy rates, and away from focusing on investigation of violent crimes.”

Kelvin Goertzen, Minister of Justice and Attorney General for Manitoba

“New Brunswick’s bottom line is this: RCMP resources are spread thin as it is. We have made it clear to the Government of Canada that we cannot condone any use of those limited resources, at all, in their planned buyback program.”

Kris Austin, Minister of Public Safety for New Brunswick
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Alberta

Official statement from Premier Danielle Smith and Energy Minister Brian Jean on the start-up of the Trans Mountain Pipeline

Published on May 1, 2024

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Alberta is celebrating an important achievement for the energy industry – the start-up of the twinned Trans Mountain pipeline. It’s great news Albertans and Canadians as this will welcome a new era of prosperity and economic growth. The completion of TMX is monumental for Alberta, since this will significantly increase our province’s output. It will triple the capacity of the original pipeline to now carry 890,000 barrels per day of crude oil from Alberta’s oil sands to British Columbia’s Pacific Coast.
We are excited that Canada’s biggest and newest oil pipeline in more than a decade, can now bring oil from Edmonton to tide water in B.C. This will allow us to get our energy resources to Pacific markets, including Washington State and California, and Asian markets like Japan, South Korea, China, and India. Alberta now has new energy customers and tankers with Alberta oil will be unloading in China and India in the next few months.
For Alberta this is a game-changer, the world needs more reliably and sustainably sourced Alberta energy, not less. World demand for oil and gas resources will continue in the decades ahead and the new pipeline expansion will give us the opportunity to meet global energy demands and increase North American and global energy security and help remove the issues of energy poverty in other parts of the world.
Analysts are predicting the price differential on Canadian crude oil will narrow resulting in many millions of extra government revenues, which will help fund important programs like health, education, and social services – the things Albertans rely on. TMX will also result in billions of dollars of economic prosperity for Albertans, Indigenous communities and Canadians and create well-paying jobs throughout Canada.
Our province wants to congratulate the Trans Mountain Corporation for its tenacity to have completed this long awaited and much needed energy infrastructure, and to thank the more than 30,000 dedicated, skilled workers whose efforts made this extraordinary project a reality. The province also wants to thank the Federal Government for seeing this project through. This is a great example of an area where the provincial and federal government can cooperate and work together for the benefit of Albertans and all Canadians.
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Alberta

Protecting the right to vote for Canadian citizens: Minister McIver

Published on May 1, 2024

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Minister of Municipal Affairs Ric McIver issued the following statement in response to Calgary City Council’s vote to extend the right to vote to permanent residents:

“Yesterday, Calgary city council passed a motion advocating for permanent residents to be extended the right to vote in civic elections. Alberta’s government has been clear since the beginning: only Canadian citizens are able to vote in civic elections. That will not be changing.

“The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms affirms the right of every Canadian citizen to vote and to run as a candidate. This right extends to voters in municipal, provincial and federal elections.

“Protecting our democracy is of the utmost importance. Our provincial election legislation, like the Local Authorities Elections Act, has also been clear since its inception that voting is a right of Canadian citizens.

“Alberta’s government is also ensuring that voting is accessible for more Albertans. The Municipal Affairs Statutes Amendment Act proposes to enable special ballot access for any voter who requests it, without having to provide any specific reason such as physical disability, absence from the municipality or working for the municipal election. The ministries of Seniors, Community and Social Services and Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction are also making it easier for individuals to obtain the identification Albertans need for a variety of services, including the ability to cast a ballot.

“Our government will continue to protect the integrity of our elections and make sure voting is accessible for all Albertans who are Canadian citizens.”

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