Kenney fights to get Alberta in order, but Calgary's Mayor Nenshi is displeased
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Summary
William MacBeth from Save Calgary joins me to talk about why Calgary's mayor Nahid Nenshi is fighting with conservatives and sucking up to Justin Trudeau, and why he should be worried about being called Trudeau s Mayor .
Transcript
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Hello Rebels, I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed and you're listening to a free audio-only recording of my
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Wednesday night show, The Gunn Show. However, we're on the internet. You can listen to me
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whenever you feel like. Tonight my guest is William Macbeth from Save Calgary. Now, if you
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Calgary's Mayor Nahid Nenshi is fighting with conservatives and sucking up to Trudeau.
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I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed and you're watching The Gunn Show.
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Calgary's ever-progressive Mayor Nahid Nenshi is fuming at the UCP government for the fiscal
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restraint, especially towards municipalities that the conservatives have implemented in their new
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budget. Calgary's big spending mayor doesn't like the idea that he too has to get his own fiscal
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house in order at the same time that everybody else is. Simultaneously, Nenshi and disgraced
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former progressive conservative Premier Alison Redford have volunteered to help Prime Minister
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Justin Trudeau manage the growing sentiment of Western alienation that is spreading like wildfire
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all across the prairies. Yeah, you know what? That'll help. So sucking up to Trudeau while at the
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same time fighting with Jason Kenney because Jason Kenney is doing exactly what he was elected to do,
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get Alberta back to work. And yet Nenshi gets all uptight about being called Trudeau's mayor.
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Now joining me tonight to discuss Calgary municipal politics and how that has bled over into provincial
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and now federal politics, as well as the continued evacuation of oil field companies from Alberta in
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the wake of Justin Trudeau's re-election is my friend William Macbeth from Save Calgary in an
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So joining me now from Calgary is good friend of the show, good friend to me,
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William Macbeth from Save Calgary. Hey William, thanks for joining me. There is so much going on
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with Nenshi and his intertwining with liberal federal politics in the wake of the election
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that I just had to have you on because you are my Nenshi expert. And we'll get to him in a second
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in his intertwining with Justin Trudeau. But I wanted to talk about this incredible thing that's
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happening at Calgary City Hall. There are councillors, I had to clean my glasses to make
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sure I was reading this properly, but there are actually elected officials in municipal government
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who are calling for wage reductions at Calgary City Hall. Please give us all the news.
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It's almost hard to believe, Sheila, that we have found some municipal politicians who actually
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understand that the way to make government less expensive is to cut costs. And the biggest single
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source of cost for City Hall right now is salaries, wages, benefits, and pensions. So you're absolutely
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right. A trio of fiscally conservative councillors has finally taken up Save Calgary's fall for wage
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cuts. They're looking at an across-the-board cut, including for sitting city councillors,
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5% of 5% in order to try and bring those costs under control. Now, some people may think that's
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not very much. Other people, those on the left, will try and tell you that it's the end of civilization
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as we know it. What I can say is that since 2010, the cost for wages has gone up by nearly 40%. So it's
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become 40% more expensive to run the city of Calgary just on the wage bill alone. So this is a welcome
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move. And it's the only way I think we're actually going to see Calgary come close to holding the line
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on taxes in this next budget cycle. Yeah. And it's predictably the three that you would think of.
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It's Jeremy Farkas, of course, rookie, but a real game changer, I guess, down at City Hall.
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Sean Chu, we know he's a fiscal conservative and a great guy. And Councillor, correct me if I'm saying
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his name wrong, Joe Magliocca? Magliocca. Okay, perfect. It was a good guess. But, you know,
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it's funny that this is so controversial, given the economic situation in Calgary right now. The day
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after the election, we saw massive layoffs at Husky. We've seen Encana pull out of Canada,
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a couple other smaller oil and gas service companies along the way, massive retail vacancy
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in downtown Calgary. And yet, there's this desire, especially from the left, to see government
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workers completely insulated from the reality the people who are paying their salary are living with
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every single day. You know, I think some people outside Calgary and across the country,
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have a lot of misconceptions about what is happening in the city right now. I think a lot
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of people think that Calgary has turned the corner and that things are getting better. But it's
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actually just the opposite. It's the worst it's ever been. And it continues to get worse in each
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and every day. You've talked about Husky, you know, an energy icon here in Alberta, laying off hundreds
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and hundreds of people. The moment the Trudeau government was reelected, we see Encana started by
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visionary businessman, Gwen Morgan, who has been such a positive contributor from philanthropy and
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from building up his company, deciding that they just can't keep going based out of Canada. There
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isn't enough investment. There isn't enough opportunity to pursue growing the business. And so they've decided to
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decamp to the United States. It's really been a tough time. And yet, City Hall, first of all, only really
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noticed there was a problem, literally, in the last few months. Up until then, they've been had their heads in the
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stand. And they somehow seem to think that the economic turmoil buffeting Calgary shouldn't apply
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to the people who are paid the highest salaries, on average, of workers in this city, and who have the
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highest benefits, and who are funded by struggling Calgary taxpayers. So, you know, we're thrilled that
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finally someone has taken on board our call to cut salaries. Nobody wants to see their salary cut. It's not a
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happy circumstance for anybody, but it is what you have to do to make ends meet when times get tough.
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Yeah, I mean, you sort of touched on Encana, and I did too. But Encana, you know, they didn't say
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that Trudeau was responsible, and that economic conditions in places like Calgary are responsible.
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But you've got to read between the lines here. Within Encana specifically, they said they're unable to
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attract investment in Canada. And that speaks to the investment climate. And who's created that
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investment climate that has gone a complete 180 from when Stephen Harper was around? And that is
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Justin Trudeau. And you see an overlay in municipal politics. When you have municipal politicians
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hiking property taxes out of control, of course, it makes it impossible for businesses to stay in
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business in Calgary. And you see businesses, smaller businesses, we hear about Encana and we hear about
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Husky, but we don't hear about the mom and pop shops closing all the time because of Trudeau or Trudeau
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No, you're right. I mean, Encana founder Gwen Morgan did make it very clear that he considers the actions
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over the last four years of the Trudeau government to be one of the primary and contributing causes
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to Encana's decision. And I think for him, he sees something that he poured his heart and soul into
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building that reflected the passion, the creativity and the energy of Calgary simply saying we can't
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make a go of it anymore here in Canada. And I think you're right that those are the things that do get
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attention. When a big company announces they're going to make a change, it becomes national coverage.
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The prime minister, who I believe is on vacation right now, did, you know, his office put out a
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statement. But what you don't hear is when the mom and pop restaurant that opened its doors and
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employed eight people is being forced out of business. You don't hear when the local store
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that was started by newcomers to Calgary or even newcomers to Canada, who this represented the avenue of
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opportunity for them is being forced to close their doors because they can't pay their property taxes
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and people can no longer afford to buy their products. So these are all things that reflect
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the really the growing sense of desperation that that Calgarians are feeling. And I think
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the one of the reasons we're finally seeing some city councillors move forward with the options that
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we've been pushing for is because people are now desperate enough to actually pursue policies that
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were once considered unthinkable. You know, when times were good in Calgary, the idea that we would
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have to reduce salaries for public sector workers would have been greeted with outright hostility on
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the part of city council. And I'm sure it will still be greeted that way by a lot of our leftist city
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council. But the fact that these things are becoming accepted, the fact that the United Conservative
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Party was elected with the strongest mandate of voter votes in Alberta's history, and the fact that,
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you know, Calgary got rid of and Alberta got rid of every Liberal MP in Saskatchewan did too,
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these are all signs that we're reaching the end of our rope about what we can do. And we're prepared
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to take more drastic measures because we've become more desperate.
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Yeah. Speaking of drastic and desperate measures, Mayor Nahid Nenshi and Alison Redford, of all people,
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have both volunteered to help Prime Minister Justin Trudeau do Western outreach. If it weren't so
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laughable, I mean, it would be offensive. But I mean, these are, Nenshi is failing Calgary and Redford.
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I mean, she was run out of town and she was instrumental in ending a four decade dynasty of
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the progressive conservatives. They're failures by, I think, most measures. But those are the
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two that have stepped up to volunteer to quell the Western alienation sentiment and bring good
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tidings to Ottawa. I mean, this is just crazy. Yeah. I mean, I'm not sure, Sheila, if Justin Trudeau
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watches your show regularly, but if he does, I'd like to offer him this piece of advice. If you want
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to try and shut down independent settlement and Western alienation, please do not think that
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appointing Alison Redford or Nahid Nenshi to cabinet is what is going to satisfy angry Albertans. In fact,
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I would suggest it will do exactly the opposite. I mean, it was such an odd scene on election night to
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watch BC Liberal Premier Christy Clark say that Trudeau could not and should not be reelected.
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In fact, that he was such an embarrassment count on the national stage that, quote unquote,
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we should take away his passport is what she said. A BC Liberal Premier saying it had to be Andrew
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Sheer and the Conservatives, Alison Redford saying it should be Justin Trudeau. So, you know, in the
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topsy-turvy world of politics, I guess anyone can believe anything at any time. But
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I could honestly think of no two worse people to put into cabinet if you want to try and show Alberta
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that its concerns are being heard and will be addressed by the Trudeau Liberal government.
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Yeah, it's actually quite frightening to think that Alison Redford could have any sort of influence. But
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you know what? She probably would appreciate the free plane rides again.
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Let's move on and let's talk a little bit about the UCP budget, because it has some cuts in it. I don't
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think substantial enough. I want someone to go through the government with a machete,
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willy nilly chopping things. I'd be happy with that. But that's not what Jason Kenney is doing. He's
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doing a more thoughtful approach to government than I would ever have. And it's making a lot of people
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mad. Nenshi is one of them. He's come out, according to CBC in their headline, swinging against the UCP
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budget. He said it breaks promises and introduces regressive taxation. I can't even believe those
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words came out of his mouth. Yeah, no. So I think obviously what the mayor is really unhappy with
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is the fact that Calgary has been awash with money. We have spent money on every pet project.
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And just to name an example, I live in a community in Calgary called the East Village, which has
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received tremendous investments of tax dollars. Well, good news. The city of Calgary just spent yet
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another million dollars to build another tiny section of bicycle lanes through the East Village,
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despite the fact that there were already perfectly good bicycle lanes that existed in this community.
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So, you know, examples like that tell me that no, the city has not really cut itself to the core
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when it comes to finding and rooting out wasteful expense. What Jason Kenney and the United
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Conservative government have said is we have been living on credit, our credit cards for far too long.
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And it wasn't just Rachel Notley and the New Democrats. It started well before her under the
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dying days of the PC government. One of the reasons why Wild Rose became a factor was we no longer had
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a conservative government who believed in fiscal responsibility. But we've been borrowing money
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at every opportunity in order to just keep the lights on in some cases. And it's caught up with us.
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We're paying more in interest than we spend in most government departments. Interest on our debt is
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now the fourth largest government department. We spend more on it than we do helping children and
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seniors and people with disabilities and people in care. So we have a real problem. And Jason Kenney,
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I think, said we need to get our house in order. And he made, I think, a really good point in his televised
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address. It's not just a fiscal issue. It's a moral one. If you saddle our children and grandchildren
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with $100 billion or $200 billion worth of debt, you will permanently, permanently decrease the quality
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of services they're going to get in areas like education and health care because we won't be able
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to afford to pay for them. So he started to turn the tide. I think it was quite a measured, and as you
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said, thoughtful approach, some cuts, some staffing reductions, mostly through attrition, some scaling
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back of capital investment. But if you listen to people like the head of Alberta's biggest public
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sector unions and the Mayor Nancy, you'd think it was Attila the Hun rampaging his way across Europe,
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splashing and burning in his dough. And I'll give you the great example of the Green Line. They're upset
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because the provincial government has said they may not fund Green Line to the level that was once
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indicated by previous governments. Well, there isn't a green line yet to fund. They still haven't
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finished planning it. They haven't figured out where it will go and what it will cost. And if you're
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an Alberta minister responsible for municipal affairs, how could you write a blank check to the
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city who has spent four years or longer planning a project that still has no firm budget, no firm
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route and no firm completion date? It's ridiculous. So if the city of Calgary is looking for people to blame
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because of its current economic lows, they really should start by looking in the mirror.
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Yeah, I mean, and I guess that brings me to the next topic that I had up on my computer screen that
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I wanted to talk to you about. And it's Doug Schweitzer. Now, I'm not the biggest fan of the
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justice minister. He has said some unkind things about me and rebel news in the past. He, you know,
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he sent out a fundraising letter basically saying that we were sympathetic to neo-Nazis. You know what?
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And I realize his appointment is outreach to the red Tories that formed that coalition that sent
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Jason Kenney into power. But he did come out swinging against Nahid Nenshi. Nenshi was critical
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of him because it appears as though the Kenney government has cut some funding for policing.
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But Nahid Nenshi cut funding to policing. And, you know, if he's cutting funding to policing,
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well, maybe he needs to prioritize, I don't know, maybe see a reduction in some of the salaries around
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City Hall. I mean, when you're when you're taking money from the policing budget and that's a crisis
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that you need to have an open battle with the provincial government over, maybe consider that five
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percent wage rollback and, I don't know, maybe cut some of the budget for the public art.
00:19:05.840
Yeah, I, you know, one, the major measure that they're concerned about police is the
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province will now take a greater share of basically speed tickets. For someone caught speeding,
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the province takes a share and they're going to up the share of the money that they're going to get
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from that. But you're absolutely right that, look, they just spent a million dollars building a bike
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lane around my building. That's not a necessary or urgent project. That is something that could have
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waited. They want to tear up and redo Stephen Avenue. They've hired an international design firm to to
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create some specs on it. Stephen Avenue works just fine. And we certainly don't have the money to spend
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ripping it up and rebuilding it based on what a European company decides is best for a cold flat prairie
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problems. So I think you're absolutely right that there are places to cut. Salaries are one of them.
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Pensions is another. The mayor gets an extra pension on top of the one he already gets for being a city
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councillor. Many senior civil servants of the city of Calgary have multiple pensions. They get vehicle
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allowances and expense accounts, above average wages. It's a sweet perk. And like so many others in
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Calgary, it's time for people who earn these high salaries to make a small sacrifice in order to
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help our city keep going. And I would also say respectfully for the green line, maybe it's time
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to think if building a five or six billion dollar rapid transit line, a third of the way it was
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originally supposed to be built, is the best use for our funds right now. Councillor Gondek, who I would
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consider to be pretty centrist in most of her positions on city council, if not maybe center
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left, has said, why don't we examine bus rapid transit? Why? Because it's a fraction of the cost
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and it can start right away, unlike Green Line, which has an expected completion date of at least
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10 years once they finally finish deciding where it's going to go. So there's lots of places to save
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money down at City Hall. The mayor just doesn't like the idea of not being able to fund all of the
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special interests and pet projects that are also dear to his heart. Yeah, he doesn't want to make
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the tough choices or to think outside the box. The whole Green Line debacle feels like that episode
00:21:24.480
of the Simpsons where the guy comes and tries to sell them the monorail. I think that's how it's
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going to end up. Now, I want to talk about the thing that literally everybody is talking about on both
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sides of the debate. And that's Western separatism. Now, I'm not sure if I'm a Western separatist.
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I'm open to the idea. And more importantly, I'm open to the discussion. I don't think that
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Alberta's future should be decided for us by people outside of the province. And I don't think
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we should be told to shut up by people from outside of the province. And yet, that is exactly
00:22:04.320
what is happening. And I think that's only going to make it worse. Some of these people who are telling
00:22:09.520
us to shut up, I think they're plants from the Wexit movement, because they're so effective in
00:22:16.320
angering Albertans to say, you know what, to hell with all of you.
00:22:21.200
No, I think you're absolutely right. You couldn't be a bigger advocate for a separation than some of
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the people who claim to be so dead set against it from out east. Look, I think for a lot of Albertans,
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we're proud Albertans, we're proud Canadians. But we also believe that Confederation is a group of
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provinces who benefit from being in a collective organization, a collective country, because it's
00:22:52.240
better for all of us when we work together. It's starting to break down, though. And I think for
00:22:57.200
a lot of people who live in Alberta, they view the Federation as no longer being a benefit to Alberta.
00:23:02.640
We pay into it through federal taxes, mass amounts of money that then get transferred to other provinces
00:23:08.720
who are frankly, anti our most important industry and anti our economic success. And when we see that,
00:23:15.760
when we see the premier of Quebec come out strongly against pipelines, when we see the leader of the
00:23:21.840
Bloc Québécois, you know, talk about the oil barons, they want to institute a new equalization
00:23:27.920
program to transfer tax dollars from high carbon locations to low carbon locations.
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The message it sends to Alberta is simply that we are not considered a real part of Canada,
00:23:42.400
that Canada thinks of us as the poor cousin. And frankly, I think what gets lost a lot in this
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debate is how much everyday Albertans are struggling, how much everyday families are struggling.
00:23:54.080
People, you know, the number of people visiting food banks is off the charts. The number of people
00:23:59.120
suffering from substance abuse is off the charts. The number of people who are contemplating or have
00:24:04.880
attempted suicide because of the desperate circumstances they find them in is off the charts. There is a very
00:24:10.640
real human consequence to these, you know, somewhat academic debates now about whether climate change
00:24:17.840
needs to be addressed in 10 years or 20 years and the degree to which carbon emissions have that impact.
00:24:23.200
Well, here in Calgary and Southern Alberta, it's about people being able to keep their house.
00:24:28.480
It's about being able to afford to send your kid to, you know, to school, the university, to pay for hockey
00:24:35.280
lessons, whether or not you can afford to have a vehicle, whether or not you can afford to put food on
00:24:40.400
your table. And so for us, again, we talk about desperation and desperate people turn to
00:24:46.560
increasingly, you know, desperate measures in order to try and resolve their problems. And I think for
00:24:52.480
many Albertans, they're looking at this liberal government led by Justin Trudeau, who said his
00:24:56.720
new priority for the new government would be reducing carbon and focusing on green energy and green
00:25:02.880
technology. And we just don't see a federal government who's going to have our back.
00:25:07.360
And at that point, I think it is worth having the conversation about whether or not Alberta is
00:25:12.400
best served by remaining part of the Federation.
00:25:15.920
Yeah, you know, I think there's a psychological side effect of this new Wexit movement. And right now,
00:25:22.400
or at least in the wake of the election, it was like the entire province is not only economically
00:25:29.520
depressed, but psychologically depressed, there's not a lot of hope around. And I think the Wexit movement,
00:25:36.000
whatever that ends up looking like, if it's a better deal in Confederation, or if it's a complete exit
00:25:42.560
altogether, it's giving people hope for something different. And it's giving them a place where they
00:25:49.280
can fight back in that it's growing. And there's actually some credible people who are now coming in
00:25:56.320
and saying, OK, well, this is how this could legally happen if it is the will of the people. And I think it is
00:26:02.960
doing something for the psyche of Albertans. We're getting that sort of fight back nature back that
00:26:08.400
I think has been dampened recently. So for me, I'm glad to see that. I'm glad to see that Alberta can
00:26:19.840
do spirit sort of remaining in the Wexit movement, because we've been told for four years under
00:26:27.920
Notley, and then another four years under Trudeau that there's not much that we could do.
00:26:33.760
And I think the Liberal government might find out exactly what we're willing to do. And they're going to learn it the hard way.
00:26:40.480
William, I want to thank you so much for coming on the show. We're headed up towards, you know, our usual time to
00:26:46.480
call it a day. William, how do people find out about Save Calgary and support the good work that you do? Because you've got some really
00:26:58.560
Well, thank you very much. I always appreciate the opportunity to talk about ourselves. So, you know,
00:27:03.920
Save Calgary, we're less than two years out now until the next municipal auction based down here in Calgary.
00:27:09.760
And we think that more than ever, more than certainly in the last seven or eight years, 10 years, there's a real desire to see our city go in a new direction.
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So if you believe we can and must do better as a city government and as a city, I urge you to go to our website,
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savecalgary.com. I hope you visit us on Facebook and on Twitter. Save Calgary for both those. And certainly if you can,
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the two things we ask, sign up to our mailing list. It's how we keep people informed. It's how we break news, what we've discovered.
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There's a lot of secrets down there behind the closed doors at City Hall, and we try and throw them open
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whenever we can. So sign up to our mailing list. And if you can, make a small donation to us through our website online,
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because we rely on the support of everyday Calgarians, everyday voters who are just fed up with what's been happening down at City Hall.
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So we hope that you take the chance to check us out and to hear from us on a regular basis, because this is so important for the future of our city.
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Yeah. You know what? I love the work that you guys do holding municipal government to account.
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It seems as though conservatives have forgotten that municipal politics is really the farm team
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for liberal, provincial, and federal politics. And we have to start there first. William,
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thanks so much for coming on the show. We've got to do this more often instead of...
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Skype told me it's been two months since I had you on the show, and I was a little disappointed in myself.
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Wow. Well, I'm happy to be back now. Any time that works for you is good for me.
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Whatever happens with Alberta going forward, whatever Alberta decides to do, whether it looks like
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separation from Canada, whether it's a new deal within Confederation or complete autonomy as
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something else, it's important that those decisions are being made by Albertans for Albertans for once.
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And it's going to require new voices and new ideas because the existing politicians and
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current way of doing things have both completely failed at moving the needle on all of the things
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that are fueling this Western alienation. Pipelines, equalization, property rights, fiscal
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accountability, and even gun rights. Things are going to change in this country one way or another with
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regard to Alberta. And to steal a phrase from Justin Trudeau's old man, just watch us.
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Well, everybody, that's the show for tonight. Thank you so much for tuning in. I'll see everybody
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back here in the same time, in the same place next week. And remember,
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don't let the government tell you that you've had too much to think.