Premier Smith announces provincial policies for transgender Alberta youths

Government of Alberta

Published

6 months ago

14 minute read

New policies regarding transgender Albertans:

Top and bottom gender reassignment surgeries will not be permitted for children age 15 and under.
Puberty blockers and hormone therapies for the purpose of gender reassignment or affirmation will not be permitted, with the exception of those who’ve already commenced treatment.
Minors age 16 and 17 will be permitted to commence hormone therapies for gender reassignment and affirmation purposes so long as they are deemed mature enough to make these decisions and have parental, physician, and psychologist approval.
For transgender adults our government is currently working to attract one or more medical professionals to practice in Alberta who specialize in transgender surgery.
Alberta will also have a private registry of medical professionals who specialize in this field to better support the lifelong health Care needs of transgender Albertans, including access to needed hormones and surgery after care.
Classroom instruction on subject matter involving gender identity, sexual orientation, or human sexuality we will require parental notification, and an open requirement for each instance a teacher intends to give formal instruction on these subjects.
All third party resource materials or presentations related to gender identity sexual orientation or human sexuality in our K through 12 school system will need to be pre-approved by the Ministry of Education to ensure the materials are age appropriate for a minor age 15 and under.
The government will require parental notification and consent for a school to alter the name or pronouns of a child.
For 16 and 17 year old’s who choose to alter their name or pronouns, parents do not need to give consent but they must be notified.
In rare situations where one or both of the parents reject or become abusive to a child who identifies as transgender we have child protection laws that will be strictly enforced.
The government is designing a pilot project to provide counseling services to support parents and youth identifying as transgender, to work through the unique challenges these families face.
Women and girls will have the choice to compete in a women’s only division in athletic competitions.
Transgender athletes will be able to participate in the sport of their choice through the expansion of co-ed or other gender neutral divisions.

From the YouTube page of Premier Danielle Smith

Gender identity can be a hard thing to talk about, especially when you are involved. But this conversation is extremely important and parental involvement is critical. Kids need to know we love and support them.

My message to all Albertans:

Premier Smith:

My fellow Albertans. Today I wish to address a very sensitive issue involving our children in gender identity. This is not always an easy conversation to have. I strongly believe that we as a society must support and reach out with kindness and inclusion to those who identify as transgender and work to eliminate the discrimination they often experience in their lives.

As premier of this province I want every Alberton that identifies as transgender to know I care deeply about you and I accept you as you are. As long as I lead this province I will ensure you are supported and your rights are protected. In the case of children aged 17 and under who identify as transgender I also want you to know that you are loved and supported as you work through your often changing emotions feelings and beliefs.

As we all know children and teenagers are in a constant state of biological social emotional and sexual development and change they’re constantly learning about themselves, trying new things, dealing with

biological changes, and trying to understand a wide range of new thoughts and feelings. It’s a very complicated time.

In my view one of the greatest responsibilities we as parents, teachers, and Community leaders have is to preserve for our children the right to grow and develop into mature adults so that they are better prepared to make the most impactful decisions affecting their lives. Decisions like choosing a career, a partner, raising children, their interaction with legal drugs like alcohol and cannabis, their sexual activities and preferences, and many other adult choices. It is my view that list of adult choices includes deciding whether or not to alter one’s biological sex making permanent and irreversible.

Decisions regarding one’s biological sex while still a youth can severely limit that child’s choices in the future. Prematurely encouraging or enabling children to alter their very biology or natural growth, no matter how well-intentioned and sincere poses a risk to that child’s future that I as Premier am not comfortable with permitting in our Province. Similarly the risks and unfair advantages that young women and girls are experiencing when competing with biologically stronger transgender females in sporting competitions have also grown too high.

After much discussion the government caucus and I have therefore decided to implement the following policies and guidelines as it relates to transgender minors and athletes including additional supports to assist transgender adults to secure the health care they need and the counseling support for youth identifying as transgender to ensure they can successfully work their way through their complex feelings and emotions as they grow to adulthood.

First on the issue of gender reassignment treatments for minors for minors age 17 and under. Top and bottom gender reassignment surgeries will not be permitted for children age 15 and under. Puberty blockers and hormone therapies for the purpose of gender reassignment or affirmation will also not be permitted, with the exception of those who’ve already commenced their treatment at this time. Minors age 16 and 17 will be permitted to commence hormone therapies for gender reassignment and affirmation purposes so long as they are deemed mature enough to make these decisions and have parental, physician, and psychologist approval.

For transgender adults our government is currently working to attract one or more medical professionals to practice in Alberta who specialize in transgender surgery to ensure those individuals transitioning have access to an expert in Alberta to assist them with their extremely unique and complex medical needs, rather than going to Quebec which is now the practice. We will also be building a private registry of medical professionals who specialize in this field to better support the lifelong health Care needs of transgender Albertans, including access to needed hormones and surgery after care.

When it comes to classroom instruction on subject matter involving gender identity sexual orientation or human sexuality we will be requiring parental notification and an open requirement for each instance a teacher intends to give formal instruction on these subjects. Furthermore all third party resource materials or presentations related to gender identity sexual orientation or human sexuality in our K through 12 school system will need to be pre-approved by the Ministry of Education to ensure the materials are age appropriate for a minor age 15 and under.

The government will require parental notification and consent for a school to alter the name or pronouns of a child. For 16 and 17 year olds who choose to alter their name or pronouns, parents do not need to give consent but they must be notified. We know that nearly all parents, even those who may disagree with the decision of their children, will love and care for their children no matter what choices

they make. However in the handful of rare situations where one or both of the parents reject or become abusive to a child who identifies as transgender we have child protection laws that will be strictly enforced.

The government is also designing a pilot project to provide appropriate counseling services to support parents and youth identifying as transgender, to work through the unique challenges these families face. We encourage all teachers, parents, classmates, and youth volunteers to be on the watch for any instances of bullying of youth or children for any reason, so adults can assist with putting a stop to it, the moment it is detected.

Our government also needs to deal with the emerging issue of the unfair disadvantages that young women and girls are experiencing when competing with biologically stronger transgender female athletes in sporting competitions. I strongly believe that those who were born male but have transitioned to, or identify as female are owed the opportunity to meaningfully participate in sport. However there are obvious biological realities that give transgender female athletes a massive competitive advantage over women and girls. It is not beneficial for those women including those who are transgender for this divisive and sometimes dangerous situation to continue.

That is why the Alberta Government will work with sporting organizations active in our province to ensure that women and girls have the choice to compete in a women’s only division in athletic competitions and are not forced to compete against biologically stronger transgender female athletes. We will also work with those same sporting organizations to ensure transgender athletes are able to meaningfully participate in the sport of their choice through the expansion of co-ed or other gender neutral divisions for athletic competitions.

I understand how controversial and divisive discussions on topics of sexuality and gender can be. Especially when those conversations involve children. I would therefore ask that as we work through implementing these policies that we as adults in this province do all we can to depoliticize the discussion and focus on the well-being of the children involved, whether they are young people identifying as transgender or who find themselves attracted to those of the same sex, or are simply trying to understand the complex and often changing emotions and feelings of being teenagers.

They all need our unconditional love and support and it’s to those children and teens that I want to say just how much we love you and support you in becoming the person you want to be. You never have to feel alone or isolated. If you do, reach out to your parents, family members, teachers, a coach, or other trusted adults and ask for support. We as the adults in your life will be there for you to make sure you know just how amazing and precious you are. Thank you for listening.

Related Topics:#AlbertaTransgenderPolicies #PremierDanielleSmith feature

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Alberta awash in corporate welfare

Published on July 26, 2024

Todayville

From the Fraser Institute

By Matthew Lau

To understand Ottawa’s negative impact on Alberta’s economy and living standards, juxtapose two recent pieces of data.

First, in July the Trudeau government made three separate “economic development” spending announcements in Alberta, totalling more than $80 million and affecting 37 different projects related to the “green economy,” clean technology and agriculture. And second, as noted in a new essay by Fraser Institute senior fellow Kenneth Green, inflation-adjusted business investment (excluding residential structures) in Canada’s extraction sector (mining, quarrying, oil and gas) fell 51.2 per cent from 2014 to 2022.

The productivity gains that raise living standards and improve economic conditions rely on business investment. But business investment in Canada has declined over the past decade and total economic growth per person (inflation-adjusted) from Q3-2015 through to Q1-2024 has been less than 1 per cent versus robust growth of nearly 16 per cent in the United States over the same period.

For Canada’s extraction sector, as Green documents, federal policies—new fuel regulations, extended review processes on major infrastructure projects, an effective ban on oil shipments on British Columbia’s northern coast, a hard greenhouse gas emissions cap targeting oil and gas, and other regulatory initiatives—are largely to blame for the massive decline in investment.

Meanwhile, as Ottawa impedes private investment, its latest bundle of economic development announcements underscores its strategy to have government take the lead in allocating economic resources, whether for infrastructure and public institutions or for corporate welfare to private companies.

Consider these federally-subsidized projects.

A gas cloud imaging company received $4.1 million from taxpayers to expand marketing, operations and product development. The Battery Metals Association of Canada received $850,000 to “support growth of the battery metals sector in Western Canada by enhancing collaboration and education stakeholders.” A food manufacturer in Lethbridge received $5.2 million to increase production of plant-based protein products. Ermineskin Cree Nation received nearly $400,000 for a feasibility study for a new solar farm. The Town of Coronation received almost $900,000 to renovate and retrofit two buildings into a business incubator. The Petroleum Technology Alliance Canada received $400,000 for marketing and other support to help boost clean technology product exports. And so on.

When the Trudeau government announced all this corporate welfare and spending, it naturally claimed it create economic growth and good jobs. But corporate welfare doesn’t create growth and good jobs, it only directs resources (including labour) to subsidized sectors and businesses and away from sectors and businesses that must be more heavily taxed to support the subsidies. The effect of government initiatives that reduce private investment and replace it with government spending is a net economic loss.

As 20th-century business and economics journalist Henry Hazlitt put it, the case for government directing investment (instead of the private sector) relies on politicians and bureaucrats—who did not earn the money and to whom the money does not belong—investing that money wisely and with almost perfect foresight. Of course, that’s preposterous.

Alas, this replacement of private-sector investment with public spending is happening not only in Alberta but across Canada today due to the Trudeau government’s fiscal policies. Lower productivity and lower living standards, the data show, are the unhappy results.

Author:

Matthew Lau

Adjunct Scholar, Fraser Institute

Alberta

‘Fireworks’ As Defence Opens Case In Coutts Two Trial

Published on July 25, 2024

Todayville

From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy

By Ray McGinnis

Anthony Olienick and Chris Carbert are on trial for conspiracy to commit murder and firearms charges in relation to the Coutts Blockade into mid-February 2022. In opening her case before a Lethbridge, AB, jury on July 11, Olienick’s lawyer, Marilyn Burns stated “This is a political, criminal trial that is un Canadian.” She told the jury, “You will be shocked, and at the very least, disappointed with how Canada’s own RCMP conducted themselves during and after the Coutts protest,” as she summarized officers’ testimony during presentation of the Crown’s case. Burns also contended that “the conduct of Alberta’s provincial government and Canada’s federal government are entwined with the RCMP.” The arrests of the Coutts Four on the night of February 13 and noon hour of February 14, were key events in a decision by the Clerk of the Privy Council, Janice Charette, and the National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister, Jody Thomas, to advise Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to invoke the Emergencies Act. Chief Justice Paul Rouleau, in submitting his Public Order Emergency Commission Report to Parliament on February 17, 2023, also cited events at the Coutts Blockade as key to his conclusion that the government was justified in invoking the Emergencies Act.

Justice David Labrenz cautioned attorney Burns regarding her language, after Crown prosecutor Stephen Johnson objected to some of the language in the opening statement of Olienick’s counsel. Futher discussion about the appropriateness of attorney Burns’ statement to the jury is behind a publication ban, as discussions occurred without the jury present.

Justice Labrenz told the jury on July 12, “I would remind you that the presumption of innocence means that both the accused are cloaked with that presumption, unless the Crown proves beyond a reasonable doubt the essential elements of the charge(s).” He further clarified what should result if the jurors were uncertain about which narrative to believe: the account by the Crown, or the account from the accused lawyers. Labrenz stated that such ambivalence must lead to an acquittal; As such a degree of uncertainty regarding which case to trust in does not meet the “beyond a reasonable doubt” threshold for a conviction.”

On July 15, 2024, a Lethbridge jury heard evidence from a former employer of Olienicks’ named Brian Lambert. He stated that he had tasked Olienick run his sandstone quarry and mining business. He was a business partner with Olienick. In that capacity, Olienick made use of what Lambert referred to as “little firecrackers,” to quarry the sandstone and reduce it in size. Reducing the size of the stone renders it manageable to get refined and repurposed so it could be sold to buyers of stone for other uses (building construction, patio stones, etc.) Lambert explained that the “firecrackers” were “explosive devices” packaged within tubing and pipes that could also be used for plumbing. He detailed how “You make them out of ordinary plumbing pipe and use some kind of propellant like shotgun powder…” Lambert explained that the length of the pipe “…depended on how big a hole or how large a piece of stone you were going to crack. The one I saw was about six inches long … maybe an inch in diameter.”

One of Olienick’s charges is “unlawful possession of an explosive device for a dangerous purpose.” The principal evidence offered up by RCMP to the Crown is what the officers depicted as “pipe bombs” which they obtained at the residence of Anthony Olienick in Claresholm, Alberta, about a two-hour drive from Coutts. Officers entered his home after he was arrested the night of February 13, 2022. Lambert’s testimony offers a plausible common use for the “firecrackers” the RCMP referred to as “pipe bombs.” Lambert added, these “firecrackers” have a firecracker fuse, and in the world of “explosive” they are “no big deal.”

Fellow accused, Chris Carbert, is does not face the additional charge of unlawful possession of explosives for a dangerous purpose. This is the first full week of the case for the defence. The trial began on June 6 when the Crown began presenting its case.

Ray McGinnis is a Senior Fellow with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy who recently attended several days of testimony at the Coutts Two trial.