THIS IS HUGE! APP CEO - Mitch Sylvestre says we'll soon be getting signatures!
Episode Stats
Summary
The Alberta Prosperity Project CEO Mitch Sylvester joins the show to discuss Bill 14, which could pave the way for a referendum on Alberta's independence from the rest of the province, and what that means for the Pro-Second Half of the Court Case.
Transcript
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Hi, it's John and welcome to the channel. Friday, December the 5th, 7.02am with the
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Big Blue Mug of Coffee. Great to have you along today and great timing here. Just finished
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putting a video up on this topic. I got a text message from Mitch Sylvester, as you
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see him on the screen there, CEO of the Alberta Prosperity Project. I think you put, away
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we go, Mitch. Wow, this is quite the situation we've got here. Bill 14, did you know this
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was coming down the line and how this could change everything when it comes to a referendum
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for the Alberta Prosperity Project and the people of Alberta?
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Well, as far as we're concerned, it's going to be a referendum. I got the news yesterday
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afternoon at 4.45. A reporter phoned me and asked me if I knew anything about Bill 14.
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I had no idea. And then all of a sudden, we're finding out that they're going to circumvent
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the court process. They're going to give us the ability to run our question and actually
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have a vote on it. Am I right? Jeff's in court today regarding this. Jeff's in court. Jeff
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Rath is in court today. So let me just explain this to people who don't know. Bill 14, introduced
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Thursday by Justice Minister Mickey Amory, transfers powers from the Chief Electoral Officer to the
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Minister when deciding whether citizen petition initiatives should proceed. So what could happen
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here from what I understand is that if this bill passes, then this court case would be completely
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wiped out. Your initiative, I think the process would end for the Alberta Prosperity Project.
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You'd have another 30 days to reapply for this. And it would be up to the Justice Minister to decide
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whether this goes forward, just like that. Just like that. It says 30 days to do that. But since
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we're already in the queue, we're working on the fact that we're already in the queue, so we should
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have a chance to run our question without a new application. Yes. So Jeff said in the article from
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the CBC, he said that he believes the province is interfering in the current court case. And quote,
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I think they're afraid we're going to win and we're going to get a court saying that what we're doing
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is perfectly fine and constitutional. Now you, the Alberta Prosperity Project had a statement saying,
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Bill 14, an unintended gift to pro-independence Albertans that will remove red tape. Are those two
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comments, the one from Jeff and the one from you, do they conflict at all? Because he seems to think that
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maybe the province is scared that this is going to go forward. You seem to think that it's going to go
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forward, the referendum. Well, I really believe it's going to go forward. I don't, I don't think
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from, from the communication I've had with them, you know what, we're going forward. I just think
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that this is really something that is going to actually happen at this point. And I think that the
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AGM might have had a bit to do with that. And you know, the fact that we had such a strong showing at
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the AGM and maybe government understands that, you know, it'd be better to deal with this than not to deal
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with this. And you know what, from our perspective, I think, I think that we're very pleased because I
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mean, the ultimate goal is to have the vote, to collect the signatures and have the vote. So,
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you know, I mean, as far as we're concerned, we've achieved a major goal. And now away we go,
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Albertans are going to have a chance to have their say about what's going on. And you know what,
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we're really excited about it. And my question to government last night is, okay, where's the hook?
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Yeah. Well, maybe that's what Jeff's thinking with his comment, perhaps.
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Yeah. Like, like what, what's the problem? Where's the potholes? And apparently their reply
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to me is quote, there's no potholes. Well, yeah, Mickey Amor yesterday didn't show his cards at
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all on what side he's on. He's trying to play it neutral here. You said that the AGM last week may
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have had a play in this. I mean, I watched it from here. I saw Jeff get up. He stole the show last week.
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Well, yeah, no, and absolutely. And that was something that we had discussed before,
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before the event, because what that, and that was a direct consequence of what they did to us when,
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well, what they did to themselves by not wanting to have the discussion on the floor of the AGM. So
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we thought that, you know, collectively and Jeff, Jeff started it, no question collectively that we
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thought we would ask the people if, you know, if they supported Alberta independence
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on the floor of the AGM when caucus was on the stage. And, you know, I think we sent a message
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to everybody, including them that, you know, this is real. They, I really believe that they think this
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is premature and that, you know, it may be to everybody's benefit to have this vote now. And
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if we don't have the support, get it out of the road for five years. But however, you know, I believe
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we, we do have the support and I really believe that we can win this.
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Yeah. And so the other thing about that that came out of the AGM last week was the fact that
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you got a majority of the people on the committee or in the, who are running the UCP right now,
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I think five out of nine. And I think other people, the other four, there are a number of
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them there who are pro-independence as well, correct?
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Yeah. And you know what, the whole, the whole idea with the AGM is to get our people used to
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participating in a democracy. And I mean, the fact that we ended up here, you know, three or four
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days after the actual AGM and after, you know, people standing up for themselves and saying, well,
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you know what, maybe we want to have a look at this. Maybe, you know what, maybe we're going to
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change paths. And you know what, I think that dealing with Ottawa seems to be impossible.
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Well, it doesn't seem to be impossible. It is impossible. I mean, look at what's come down.
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This memorandum is an absolute disaster. It's an absolute disaster. So there's, you know,
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there's no way that we can accept that as Albertans. It's going to stick a fork in the heart of Alberta,
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Do you think Premier Smith thought that this memorandum of understanding would sort of soften
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the independence movement a little bit? And, or, and, and let me ask you this,
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do you think it's actually hardened the independent movement for the lack of a better term?
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I think, I honestly think they thought that was going to work.
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And I honestly think having conversation with, with people there, um, you know, after, after the
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event and after the reception, they got on Friday night, it was actually at our reception.
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Uh, they, uh, you know, the comment from them was, I guess a pipeline is not going to do it.
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And my reply was, I've been telling you that for a year.
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There's way more at stake here. The social issues, everything that's being involved with the
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censorship, with all the freedoms being taken away. Um, the fact that, you know, Alberta's
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running deficits every year when we should be running surpluses and, and, and with the memorandum,
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they've come out with a six fold increase in carbon tax.
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I was explained the other day how that works. Do you have any idea how that works?
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Well, I know they were getting rid of the emissions cap, but they're going to add an
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additional carbon tax, which again, you said is six times what it is before. I don't know. I mean,
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I think they're just taking one and replacing it with another. So we're no better off ahead here
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in Alberta for it because other countries don't have this. So explain it.
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But so what, what I'm understanding from this is that right now we pay $95 a ton, but by the time
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you shake it down to you take the credits out of it, we're paying about 32 or $34 a ton from,
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this is what I understand. So if we're paying 32 or $34 a ton, all that money goes to the provincial
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Yes. So $3.1 billion or so goes to our government and the government uses it in their budget.
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The new deal, and this is hinges and everything says the actual carbon tax is going to go to
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minimum $125 a ton. So with the, and including the credits. So it's going to be like a six fold
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increase. However, if the province refuses to do it, then they lose the revenue from the new part
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and the old part. So they actually get no revenue. So the government is actually blackmailing us.
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The federal government is actually blackmailing us, but what's going to happen with a six fold
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increase in carbon tax is the price of everything is going to go sky high.
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Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. As Stephen Harper said years ago, carbon tax isn't about doing
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something for the environment. It's about raising funds for the government.
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Yeah. And the other thing on top of this, Mitch, is we've got this carbon sequestration thing,
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which will be the biggest carbon sucking thing in the world. It's going to cost between 10 and
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$20 billion, which seems insane. So that's the other thing on top of that. Now, when you heard
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about this yesterday, the story that I was, I'm reading here on the screen from the CBC and the story
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I ran in my video earlier this morning, I didn't say when there'd be a vote on this because certainly
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bill 14 has to pass. Um, I would assume that it will with a majority being United
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Conservative Party and the legislature, any idea when this might move forward? Uh, well,
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they put the bill of rights through in two weeks. So, you know, I mean, I, I would suggest that
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they're going to pass this before Christmas. Really? Yeah. So if they pass this before Christmas,
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then we're, we're going to be, uh, flat out running, uh, collecting signatures here in January.
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So you're that, you're that sure of this, that this, that Mickey Amory will say, go ahead and start
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your petition signing process right after. Well, I have, I have information that leads me to believe
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that that's the case. Wow. And this just came out of the blue for you as well. Cause I didn't,
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I woke up this morning at two o'clock this morning and started reading the article on it.
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Wow. This is incredible. You know, but I did see some people posting online already. They're, um,
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they're labeling Danielle Smith and the UCP, definitely the party of independence right now.
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And do you, do you think, do you, do you think that they are as well? There's a large percentage who
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are. Well, I think so. I mean, um, you know, all the people, a lot of people I talked to are all
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conservatives. Everybody in Alberta prosperity projects are conservative. And there's a lot of us that are
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members of the UCP and, you know, I mean, we've got a, we've got a base of a quarter of a million
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people. So we're a large part of, you know, the conservative movement in Alberta, no matter how
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you slice it, whether they belong to the independence parties or the UCP. And I think on something like
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this, I think the conservatives can, you know, can go together and vote together and get things done.
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And the thing about this, and I said a few times over the last couple of weeks,
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Danielle Smith has got to get this behind her. She has to, she's got to get behind her sooner before
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later, right? There's no question. And I think that's the goal here. I think that's the goal
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here. I think they're going to say, okay, well, you know what, you guys are making a lot of noise.
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You think you've got the support. Well, let's see if you've got the support. And if you have the
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support, then, um, you know what, then we're going to deal with that. Uh, you know, when that happens.
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I I've heard some people saying they'd like to see a vote on this spring, some saying summer,
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I think a little bit more time to organize would be better. Um, you're the CEO of the APP. When
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would you, when would you like to see it happen? If I, if I had to choose, you could choose a date.
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When would you like to see it happen? Fall of next year. Okay. Yeah. So, you know,
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probably 10 months away from right now, maybe September, October. Is that what you're thinking?
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Yeah. Yeah. I would think now let's, here we are, Mitch. Yeah. You're not telling me, I know,
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but no, but here we are. I'm, I'm, I've been talking to you and I've spoken to you three or
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four times. I've spoken to Jeff. I've spoken to Dennis. I've spoken to other people about this,
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about finally getting to a vote. I'm going to ask you right now, how do we get involved to start
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getting signatures? How can people sign up? How can people go out there and start getting people to
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sign on the dotted line? Here's where we are now, Mitch. This is pretty exciting.
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Yeah. That is exactly where we are. Go to albertaprosperity.com, go to our website,
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sign our pledge, our commitment pledge, so we can find you. And you know what? It's a,
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it's a commitment to vote. So when, when they tell us that we have 120 days to collect the signatures,
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then your commitment to vote will be there. We'll be able to find you and we'll get in touch with you
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and we'll actually basically bring it to your area. Let me ask you this. There's the forever Canadian
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thing is out there right now. This bill 14 also discusses whether you can have a similar question
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within five years. It will be up to the justice minister to make that determination. And I think
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determine whether the questions are the same. And right now you can't have a question that's the
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same or similar within five years. Of course, the forever Canadian question is, do you want to remain
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in Alberta where we're asking people, do you want to leave Canada? How does this, where do you think
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this stands right now? So in the clarity act, you can ask some questions if they're in different
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categories, right? Yeah. So our category is a constitutional question. There's is a policy
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question. Those questions are not at all related. As far as we're personally concerned, those are two
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different animals. Their question is completely different than us. Now it can be changed to comply with
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the clarity act. And that's the premier's prerogative. Like she could take that petition
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and change. She's got 400,000 signatures on a petition. Should she choose to, she could have the
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vote on that, on that, on the basis that there's 400,000 signatures there and change it to a constitutional
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question. And then it would be equivalent to ours. That's, that's her problem. I think there's, um,
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you know, they got over 400,000 signatures on their petition. You've got a quarter of a million people
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who have signed up to say they're going to sign the petition. Uh, is it 177,000 that we need in
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order to move forward? Is that correct? Is that the right number? We need 177,000 and about 1.8 million
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to win. What would, what would you like to see on the petition? I mean, obviously there would be,
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it would be encouraging to know that you've got a lot more than 177,000. Oh, absolutely. We're going
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to aim, we're going to aim to beat the classics. Okay. Okay. That's great to know. Well, thank you
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for getting in touch with me this morning. Um, I was, I was, I've, you know, I said on my video
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this morning, I sent it, I'm not very early as you know, uh, I sent a text message out to Jeff.
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I hope he didn't have his phone with notifications on at four o'clock this morning. Cause I'd like to
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talk to him after the court case. Then I thought I'm going to get in touch with Mitch a little later
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on this morning after seven, but you got in touch with me just after six. I appreciate it. And it's so exciting.
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So go to the Alberta prosperity project, albertaprosperityproject.com and you can get
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information on you can, how you can help out with the petition signing. We're moving closer to that
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one step closer day by day. It's so exciting, Mitch. Thanks so much for being with me today.
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I appreciate it. Thanks John. Take care. Mitch Sylvester, CEO of the Alberta prosperity project.
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