The Trans Mountain Pipeline project was just re-approved by Trudeau. Will the second time be the charm, or will this summer of discontent being threatened on Canada by the anti-pipeline movement scare the feds away from finally starting construction on this very expensive boondoggle?
00:00:00.320You're listening to a Rebel Media Podcast.
00:00:03.700Tonight, the Trans Mountain Pipeline project was just re-approved by Trudeau.
00:00:09.200Will the second time be the charm or will this summer of discontent being threatened on Canada by the anti-pipeline movement
00:00:17.280scare the feds away from finally starting construction on this very expensive boondoggle?
00:00:24.000It's June 20th, 2019. I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed, and you're watching The Ezra Levant Show.
00:00:32.880Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
00:00:36.720There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.
00:00:40.800The only thing I have to say to the government about why I'm publishing it is because it's my bloody right to do so.
00:00:46.640Today, I am announcing that our government has newly approved the Trans Mountain Expansion Project going forward.
00:01:00.960The company plans to have shovels in the ground this construction season.
00:01:07.220We've also been listening carefully to Canadians and hearing about their desire for a cleaner future.
00:01:14.040That's why we've decided that every dollar the federal government earns from this project will be invested in Canada's clean energy transition.
00:01:25.020As Calgary Sun columnist Rick Bell puts it,
00:01:29.000Pardon me if I don't get up and kiss Trudeau's butt.
00:01:32.140But this re-announcement of the pipeline first approved back in 2016 is just shameless electioneering from a government polling well behind the Conservatives in just about every poll I have seen lately.
00:01:46.480I won't kiss Trudeau's butt over this fake pipeline promise, and it ain't going to save his butt either.
00:01:53.260Albertans are mad as hell, and they see right through the empty promise to build the pipeline, a promise they're making one more time.
00:02:02.240And Trudeau's former allies in the far-left environmental movement are also mad as hell.
00:02:07.320They're turning on him for selling them out to hang on to power at any and all costs.
00:02:12.320Nanos has the Liberals four points behind the Conservatives.
00:02:15.540CBC's poll tracker has the Liberals at over six points behind the Conservatives,
00:02:22.720and I bet that broke some hearts down at the Mother Corp to have to put that story out.
00:02:28.240And as a consequence, the Greens are surging as Trudeau fails to offer the levels of environmentalism his base voters have come to expect from him.
00:02:40.140Even American Democrats are mad at Justin Trudeau.
00:02:43.960Here is Washington's far-left Governor Jay Inslee engaging in a little foreign collusion of his own to landlock Canada's oil and gas.
00:02:54.520When I announced my global climate mobilization plan, I said that confronting the climate crisis must become central to our foreign policy.
00:03:07.200The Trans Mountain Pipeline should not be built.
00:03:10.420Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and Russia, thank you for your continued service and advocacy, Jay.
00:03:16.580By the way, don't people crap on Seattle streets as just a matter of routine these days?
00:03:22.300So yeah, spare me the clean and green routine and get a handle on your own problems, Jay.
00:03:26.840And that last point that I was making before would be fantastic about the aunties turning away from their golden boy if the aunties didn't want complete and total destruction of the Canadian economy
00:03:40.160So that it can be rebuilt in such a way for us all to work on the government-owned wind farms of the future as maybe nipple greasers or as the sorry souls who have to wash the bird guts off the massive turbine blades.
00:03:54.500And that's why I think Trudeau won't build this pipeline.
00:04:17.280You'll remember her as Rachel Notley's hand-picked co-chair of the Oil Sands Advisory Group.
00:04:25.160She's a founder of Forest Ethics, remember that name, and an international program director of the anti-pipeline group StandEarth.
00:04:34.180She actively organized against Trans Mountain while she was on the Oil Sands Advisory Group, getting paid by Albertans to decide the fate and future of the Oil Sands, all on Rachel Notley's watch.
00:04:47.280And Berman cut her teeth in anti-industry activism 26 years ago in Clackawatt Sound, B.C., engaged in what is known as now the War in the Woods.
00:04:58.120Anti-logging protests there led to mass arrests.
00:05:01.440Violent anti-logging activists drove spikes into trees to sabotage innocent loggers.
00:05:07.100If a chainsaw hit one of those spikes, it would damage the chainsaw at the very least.
00:05:11.600And at worst, injure or maim or kill the logger if it caused the chainsaw to buck back out of the tree.
00:05:18.740And if the spike didn't stop the tree from being cut down, then the spike would remain in the tree to damage equipment at the sawmill and maybe even harm someone there.
00:05:29.240Forest Ethics was born directly of those protests.
00:05:32.940You see, their ethics did not include not endangering dads and brothers as they went to do an honest day's work.
00:05:41.220Of course, Berman's days of physically terrorizing hardworking men just trying to earn a paycheck are over.
00:05:49.080She doesn't have to do the dirty work and get her hands dirty anymore.
00:05:52.760She has cannon fodder, useful idiots who are part of her climate change doomsday cult to get themselves arrested for sabotage, violence, trespassing, vandalism, and, oh yeah, assaulting police officers.
00:06:10.080She can signal to Canada's competitors that Canada will remain closed for business because our feminist prime minister is scared of crossing her and ending up on her bad side.
00:06:21.620Here is Berman on the Qatar state broadcaster Al Jazeera telling the Saudis, the Iranians, the Venezuelans, and the rest of OPEC that their market share is safe and sound in her capable hands.
00:07:18.420Well, Berman is threatening us, in a manner of speaking.
00:07:21.680Berman is sending a message, a strong message, to those of us who want pipelines full of freedom oil exported to the rest of the world to displace OPEC's tyranny oil.
00:07:32.200The message is that Berman will make sure her cannon fodder idiots and true-believing sacrificial lambs are willing to do anything to stop the pipeline.
00:07:44.220Just look at this tweet here from Notley's favourite anti-oil proxy, Sipporah Berman.
00:07:49.900Canada, it's time to warrior up and stop TMX from coast to coast to coast.
00:08:20.620I mean, besides the fact that it's a pretty strange phrase for a white woman to say is a battle cry if you're the kind of person who cares about things like cultural appropriation, and I bet Berman is one of those people.
00:08:37.700Well, it's synonymous with industrial sabotage, communist-inspired anarchy, and violence.
00:08:44.320From a website that acts as an online how-to guide for those wanting to follow Berman's advice and, quote-unquote, warrior up.
00:08:53.600This project is inspired by the infrastructural sabotage carried out by indigenous warriors in the territory dominated by the Canadian state during land and water defense in the last decade.
00:09:06.280We want to be a resource for anarchists and other rebels carrying out actions against the economy of death.
00:09:13.680How can we make these actions more effective, safe, creative, and reproducible?
00:09:20.000The website gives advice about how to make and plant Molotov cocktails and how to engage in the sabotage of infrastructure and heavy equipment.
00:09:30.260The author of the website says, and I quote,
00:09:34.080I feel strongly that, instead of bombs, a concentrated effort should be made to use well-designed, portable incendiary devices,
00:09:43.300since a potent raging fire will always do more damage than a low-strength explosion.
00:09:50.040Now, no, I'm not saying that this is exactly what Berman means when she says her cult followers need to warrior up.
00:09:59.200But quite a few of them just might take it that way.
00:10:03.020And it's not as though Berman herself is averse to using sabotage as a form of civil disobedience,
00:10:08.900as we know from her time fighting the war in the woods.
00:10:12.940But what I am saying is that the media will absolutely give Berman a pass for this.
00:10:18.500They won't even acknowledge what could easily be interpreted as a call to very serious violence from her.
00:10:26.220Instead, the media will write another long-winded, sympathetic story of her self-reported death threats
00:10:32.780that she blames on Jason Kenney, of all people, and pro-oil sands activist Robbie Picard
00:10:38.280without ever asking her to produce evidence of these so-called threats.
00:10:43.200You know, as long as she's not a frustrated, out-of-work conservative, jokingly saying,
00:10:49.620lock her up, I guess everything she says is fine.
00:10:52.880Stay with us. More Up Next after the break.
00:10:55.780So, approving pipelines isn't the only thing happening in oil country,
00:11:14.140deep in the heart of oil country, oil country HQ, Calgary.
00:11:18.860Well, they've had some problems of their own lately.
00:11:21.800They've got a tax revolt on their hands, and they aren't being very transparent with the taxpayers
00:11:27.640about the amount of money they spent on their thankfully failed Olympic bid.
00:11:32.760Joining me to talk about all that and more is my friend William Macbeth from Save Calgary.
00:11:37.940William, thanks so much for joining me today.
00:11:40.940Oh, thanks for having me, Sheila. It's always great to be here.
00:11:43.080The first thing I want to talk about, you watch Calgary City Hall, I watch Calgary City Hall.
00:11:50.040The controversial idea brought forward by Nenshi's biggest pain in the butt, Jeremy Farkas,
00:11:58.260he wants to have a council tracker posted on the front page of this city website
00:12:06.140to show everybody how the people they send to office vote on certain issues.
00:12:12.400And apparently this is a controversial idea. Go figure.
00:12:16.840Yeah. You know, you would think that something so fundamental is how your local representative voted
00:12:23.060on a key issue would be information that is easily accessible on the city of Calgary's website.
00:12:28.580But actually, the city of Calgary is one of the worst when it comes to making information easily accessible to voters.
00:12:36.380Now, I think for people who have focused on Calgary municipal politics,
00:12:40.080they'll remember that the Manning Foundation used to do a council tracker where it analyzed votes
00:12:47.220and, you know, counted the number of times the councillor voted to increase the size of government
00:12:52.080or counted the number of times the councillor voted to hike property taxes.
00:12:55.540But acquiring that information required a team of researchers to go through PDF minutes of council and committee meetings
00:13:04.520and then input that data manually into spreadsheets for tracking.
00:13:09.500It was a hugely costly and time and resource intensive activity
00:13:14.440because the city of Calgary just doesn't want you to know how people vote.
00:13:19.100In fact, the only way you really would know how council votes is by watching city council.
00:13:23.400And for most people, watching city council makes them feel pretty queasy after the first few minutes.
00:13:28.860So it's not something that a lot of everyday people do.
00:13:32.700And so when Jeremy suggested that we have an easier way to see how our elected representatives vote,
00:17:42.060And, you know, speaking of blank checks to just go around spending money, you know, there really is a tax revolt going on in Calgary right now
00:17:51.380with businesses actively posting their tax bills online and showing just the massive increases in their tax bills.
00:17:59.620And Chestermere, a neighboring community, is lowering their taxes to try to attract some communities from or some businesses to their community from Calgary.
00:18:09.280And I just don't think City Hall really gets it yet.
00:18:13.840Like they have had a little bit of, well, you know, we could have handled this a different way, blah, blah, blah.
00:18:18.800But they're not saying it's time to cut taxes.
00:18:26.380And in the meantime, businesses are rallying against City Hall in a way that I have never seen before.
00:18:34.020I think we can honestly say this is an unprecedented situation here in Calgary, what we're seeing with small businesses.
00:18:41.320You know, when we talked a while ago, there had been a rally happening on the steps of Calgary City Hall where small businesses were demanding action from a city council.
00:18:51.180That had failed to show leadership on this issue.
00:18:53.980What was interesting is when that rally wrapped up, many of those small business owners went inside to sit in the gallery, in the public gallery, and they wanted to speak to council.
00:19:04.800They wanted to share their information, to tell the stories of how their businesses are struggling, of how they're having to lay off staff or reduce hours or even contemplate closing down altogether because they can't afford their tax bills.
00:19:17.920Well, first of all, council took a vote, and it only passed by one to let any business owners speak at that council meeting.
00:19:27.120So a near majority of council didn't think it was important enough to hear from small business owners at the council meeting discussing property tax crisis for small business owners.
00:19:37.940So that, to me, sums up Calgary's attitude right there.
00:19:41.500Well, we recognize there's a crisis, but let's not hear from any of the people who are actually facing this crisis in their day-to-day lives.
00:19:48.060And then city council said, well, then what would you cut?
00:19:51.920What would you reduce as a service for the city in order to do it?
00:19:55.900And the small business owners rightfully said, excuse me, you were elected city council, you ran, you put your name on the ballot, you get paid a very generous salary, one of the highest in Canada for city councils, and you get a great pension on top of it.
00:20:10.220We're not going to do your job for you and look for savings in the city of Calgary.
00:20:17.040You made this problem, and it's your job to solve it.
00:20:21.560You know, hold on a second here, William.
00:20:23.300Are they taking suggestions about how to cut spending down at city hall?
00:20:28.700Because I think you and I have some ideas, especially when we both did a little bit of research to shine a light on some of the more ridiculous salaries down at city hall, like their walking coordinator and their, you know, livable cities or whatever it was, livable streets.
00:20:46.440I think the livable streets coordinator, what on earth is that?
00:20:51.360But yeah, I mean, city hall is littered with all kinds of crazy positions that really could be shown the door or that are just ridiculously overpaid.
00:21:01.940These people could go the way of the buffalo through attrition.
00:21:06.280You just have to not rehire them and not post for them.
00:21:09.500But, I mean, even that is too difficult and too controversial for the city of Calgary to do.
00:21:17.220And it feels as though they are very scared of the public sector unions, I suppose, as most governments are.
00:21:25.620No, and I think when push comes to shove, you're absolutely right that that is where their biggest fear lies.
00:21:32.920So, we're not out of this tax crisis yet.
00:21:36.100I think it's really important that people know that even though council did vote to cut taxes by 10%, what they actually voted was to cut the tax hike by 10%.
00:21:46.620So, taxes are still going up hugely for businesses across the city.
00:21:51.320What council did at their meeting did nothing to fix the larger problem.
00:21:56.460I also want to say they're trumpeting their spending cuts.
00:21:59.020And they said, we've cut $60 million at the city of Calgary.
00:22:02.880And we've cut 500 positions, which is a figure I love.
00:22:07.540Because, actually, if you dig into it, what they're cutting is proposed spending increases and proposed hires.
00:22:15.320So, they're not actually cutting spending.
00:22:17.780They're cutting how much they were going to increase spending, but they're still increasing it.
00:22:22.680And to put into context, you know, and Drew Farrell, who, you know, we have a great relationship, Drew Farrell and us, one of our city councillors here.
00:22:29.400She said, well, these cuts are too deep and too drastic.
00:22:33.000The city of Calgary is a $4 billion annual operation.
00:22:37.540$60 million represents 1.5% across a $4 billion operation.
00:22:44.840We raise spending, on average, above 5% a year and have since 2010 when, you know, the city of Calgary stopped publishing numbers before that.
00:22:54.980So, in my mind, if you've grown spending by 40% over an eight-year period, you can't then turn around and say a 1.5% reduction is too drastic for, you know, for the city to grapple with.
00:23:12.480I did a little wandering through councillor donor reports.
00:23:16.240So, of course, even though we're not great at putting out information, it took me about 15 minutes to dig through the city of Calgary website to finally find it, you can find the reports from the 2017 election on how much city councillors raised and spent on their campaigns.
00:23:31.420And it is clear that public sector unions, you know, the big city unions and their allies and affiliated groups are the single biggest donors to some of our more progressive, i.e. tax and spend happy city councillors.
00:23:46.940And so, of course, they're terrified of having to cut spending and pensions and benefits and perks because they know that it means attacking the people who put them into office and who funded their way to the comfy, well-paid jobs that they're all sitting in now.
00:24:02.520And when we say city of Calgary jobs are well-paid, let's be completely clear.
00:24:07.480Economist Jack Mintz, a respected economist who's done a lot of work on public finance and public finance reform, analyzed spending data for the city of Calgary.
00:24:17.400An average position, the average for a city of Calgary position is now $115,000 a year in salary and benefits.
00:24:38.320You know, I can't think of another industry where that's the average wage.
00:24:42.920And I think it's one of the reasons why everyday Calgarians, and particularly small business owners who are facing a crisis right now, are so fed up with city council's lack of leadership and the fact that they say, well, you tell us where to cut.
00:24:54.580Or, well, we can't cut more than just the little bit off the top because it's too drastic.
00:25:16.520Why does the city, A, own golf courses in the first place?
00:25:22.820B, why are they losing money on golf courses?
00:25:25.700Well, I think I probably know the answer why they're losing money on golf courses, and it probably has something to do with salaries.
00:25:32.300There's probably no reason why the beer cart girl needs to be a part of the public sector union making, you know, public sector union wages.
00:25:40.380Thankfully, the city's closing the one golf course, but only after they spent years losing money.
00:25:48.280I think $165,000 they lost last year on running a golf course.
00:26:06.580The city is losing money on a golf course.
00:26:09.040And what I think is a little bit ironic, of course, is Councillor Farkas, the hero of the everyday Calgarian, the everyday taxpayers and business owners,
00:26:18.300he said, well, let's cut our own council budget by a small amount in order to show that we're sharing in that pain.
00:26:24.860And he was derided by his fellow councillors who said, oh, it's a meaningless amount.
00:26:29.840It's only going to work out to $70,000 or $80,000 saved.
00:26:33.820Well, yeah, and now they're heralding the closure of this golf course saying, oh, we're going to save $150,000 a year.
00:26:40.300It's like, well, okay, first of all, you've been losing that money for, you know, goodness knows how long.
00:26:45.560Why is $150,000 saved so much more impressive than the $70,000 that Councillor Farkas had, you know, got saved for taxpayers that you make fun of them for?
00:26:56.860So, you know, the relationship on council is, I think, now dysfunctional.
00:27:01.660There is simply no respect on the part of many councillors for those who have tried to stand up for fiscal responsibility and for sensible policy.
00:27:10.820And they're behaving like children in the sandbox now.
00:27:17.420They're doing to Jeremy Farkas the you-can't-sit-with-us routine and forcing him outside of their little clique of city councillors when they make decisions and discussions.
00:27:29.360But I think many, I hope Calgarians, and I hope actually voters in every municipality who have councils like this, take a good hard look at who they're electing every single election and sending to City Hall and saying, you know what, if we're not happy with the outcome we're getting, the thing we have to change are the people we're sending to City Hall in the first place.
00:27:51.200So that's what we have come to believe, that, frankly, reforming this council is just not possible.
00:27:56.960We're looking forward now to how we get a better council in 2021.
00:28:02.080Well, and this council really is out of touch with the concerns of the regular Calgarians.
00:28:06.780I mean, off-camera, you and I were talking about this latest discovery of public art that's somewhere near the Great Plains Arena.
00:28:16.620And, you know, I came across it on Twitter, and it looks like a sinkhole, like a failed, like architecturally unsound landscaping project fenced off with security fencing.
00:28:57.180No, they're going to look at that and say, obviously, they didn't do an engineering study before they started digging that hole because the top of it's caving in.
00:29:05.900And, great, we're spending $150,000 on yet another monstrous piece of public art.
00:29:11.720Or, we've just spent all of the money we've saved from closing our money-losing golf course.
00:29:16.900Isn't that city council summed up in a tee?
00:29:20.800Obviously, it's not getting serious about our fiscal crisis.
00:29:24.300It's give with one hand, take away with the other, and let's ignore the fundamental issues facing our city.
00:29:31.400And I think it's why so many Calgarians are finally saying enough is enough, and we're seeing rallies in the streets and on the steps of city hall demanding change from city council.
00:29:41.020Well, I do think that Calgarians are starting to pay attention, but I think you guys at Save Calgary play a big role in that.
00:29:59.360Well, we certainly don't have the kind of resources that apparently the city of Calgary has to throw around at every project under the sun.
00:30:06.660You can check us out online, savecalgary.com.
00:30:09.340We also have presence on Facebook and on Twitter.
00:30:12.580And the ways to really help out are, first of all, sign up to our mailing list and get our weekly newsletters.
00:30:19.960Share them with your family and friends and encourage them to become better informed on municipal issues.
00:30:24.600Obviously, making a financial contribution helps.
00:30:27.860We don't get money, surprisingly, from the big city unions.
00:30:30.940Apparently, our call for salary reductions and pension reform doesn't go over so well with those who are getting the pensions and the salaries.
00:30:39.340So we rely on what little money Calgarians still have left after they pay their tax bills as contributions in order to fund our operations.
00:30:46.620So certainly, if you make a contribution to us, we use it in turn to hold city council's feet to the fire.
00:30:52.900And I think that from the perspective of fiscal responsibility, there aren't enough voices doing that.
00:30:58.040And if we lose Save Calgary, then I don't know who else is going to step up and try and fight for fiscal reform down at City Hall.
00:31:05.920Boy, you guys are a group that Mayor Nenshi would love to see just disappear off the political landscape.