Juno News - Canadians are paying more — and getting less

00:00:00.000 welcome to the fighter with chris sims thank you so much for making us a part of your thanksgiving

00:00:12.400 long weekend if you're working thank you so much for the work that you do if you've been able to

00:00:17.920 take some time off to spend it with loved ones over the long weekend again thank you for what

00:00:22.400 you do and a special thank you to folks who are volunteering out at food banks and places where

00:00:27.920 you are needed to help folks who really need the help because at the end of the day we have to fight

00:00:33.520 for each other to be able to afford life okay and one of the big reasons why a lot of people do

00:00:40.000 struggle is because the government takes around half of our paychecks if you do kind of a little

00:00:46.800 bit of mental math and you imagine say that you work for salary and you get a paycheck every two

00:00:52.080 weeks it arrives in your bank account imagine it being almost double that's what various levels

00:00:58.800 of government okay municipal provincial federal that's about what various levels of government

00:01:04.240 take from you it's about half your paycheck so if you imagine that your paycheck is almost doubled

00:01:10.640 instead of what it is right now what could you do with that money yourself could you afford more

00:01:15.600 nutritious food could you maybe afford to get a tutor for your kid could you pay off some of your bills

00:01:21.280 these are all really important questions and government unfortunately gets in its own way and

00:01:27.200 it gets in your way and it winds up costing you a lot of money through taxes and on lost out prosperity

00:01:34.800 and that's what i wanted to talk with you about this to devote today because right now we're in this

00:01:40.400 kind of holding pattern we're kind of in a chess match right now when it comes to natural resources

00:01:46.160 things like pipelines getting approved in canada the federal government under new prime minister

00:01:51.520 mark carney has said verbally that it wants to change things that it wants to approve things that

00:01:58.080 it wants to build stuff but we haven't seen it happen yet so the question is when is this actually going

00:02:06.480 to happen because keep in mind folks when we're actually getting pipelines built and we're getting our

00:02:11.120 product out to market things like oil and gas we get tax revenue out of it we get royalties out of it

00:02:18.960 so there's more money flowing into government to be able to perhaps cut your income taxes reduce sales

00:02:25.760 taxes okay provide more services all the folks that keep on talking about wanting more hospitals and schools

00:02:32.080 guess what those are built using tax dollars and one of the ways that governments do get tax revenue

00:02:38.160 is from getting things like pipelines approved so where are we going with this what's going to happen

00:02:45.200 with this new office that prime minister mark carney has set up apparently he's sitting there waiting

00:02:51.360 for an applicant somebody's got to come along and say hey i want to build a pipeline i want to build

00:02:57.280 something that will actually generate wealth and not cost taxpayers money that will put money into the pot

00:03:03.600 but after a 10 years of no no no and tons of red stoplights private companies are leery to start

00:03:13.840 building big things here in canada again so interestingly alberta premier daniel smith has said

00:03:21.120 okay alberta will be the applicant we're going to put our papers into this magical office of approvals

00:03:27.040 here at the federal government level and say all right your move so she's going to make it so that

00:03:33.200 the province itself is the applicant to build a pipeline similar to what northern gateway was

00:03:39.280 supposed to be so that's running from alberta out to the british columbia coast two huge things one

00:03:45.920 she has stated emphatically taxpayers will not pay for this pipeline which is good we do not want

00:03:51.600 taxpayers paying for a pipeline we want government getting out of the way so that companies can build

00:03:56.480 pipelines with their own money so that's one and the second element is she is now basically putting 0.68

00:04:04.240 the ball back in mark carney's court because now it's up to him to say yes or no to alberta what's

00:04:13.360 going to happen when it comes to things like the future of pipelines in this country what's happening

00:04:18.960 right now within the halls of power and the federal government because we just saw on black locks reporter

00:04:24.720 that they've even done an internal study there's an internal report within the federal government

00:04:30.400 saying hey this mandate trying to force people to stop buying gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles

00:04:37.680 and to mandate people to only buy battery-powered cars it's not economically feasible who knew we know

00:04:46.080 somebody who knows let's find out look folks it is time to modernize canada's rules on nicotine

00:04:51.680 alternatives to cigarettes like heated tobacco vaping products and oral smokeless products

00:04:55.680 don't burn tobacco or produce smoke they aren't risk-free but the growing body of scientific

00:04:59.920 evidence shows that they have the potential to be substantially less harmful than actually smoking

00:05:04.080 cigarettes despite this canadians are banned from accessing critical information and in some cases

00:05:08.320 even banned from these products nicotine pouches remain banned in convenience stores and current laws

00:05:12.720 ban communication about the risks of these products compared to cigarettes the evidence is here

00:05:17.120 tools exist canadians should have the freedom to know about them to be able to learn about them

00:05:21.200 please learn more by visiting unsmoke.ca joining me now is dan mctaig he is a good friend of the show

00:05:29.440 and he is with canadians for affordable energy dan i saw this headline in the outstanding black locks

00:05:35.920 reporter i encourage everybody to go get a membership there and if i were to summarize what it was is hey it

00:05:42.640 actually looks like the federal government had their own internal report showing shocker apparently forcing

00:05:49.600 everybody to only buy battery-powered cars and banning gasoline-powered vehicles isn't economical were

00:05:57.360 you surprised to read this headline dan i had a homer simpson moment i know right i mean seriously come on

00:06:06.720 uh you know these people live in this some kind of parallel world where uh things are just fine and you

00:06:12.400 know uh money grows off trees and uh it's a land of milk and honey but the reality is and you speak

00:06:18.960 to anyone even those who own it is that they find their complications is expensive unreliable a lot of

00:06:24.480 anxiety we're not ready for that and we won't be anytime soon certainly not and i may may say this in

00:06:30.160 my generation i have to ask you this every now and then so i'm from bc originally spent a lot of time

00:06:36.720 on parliament hill but i find sometimes politicians get inside their own heads so much that they start

00:06:43.200 imagining this little kind of it's almost like a sim city like computer program or a little utopia

00:06:49.360 that if only we all live together like on a little collective and we could all drive little battery

00:06:54.880 powered vehicles or golf carts and we could all grow our own vegetables and trade with each other it'd be

00:06:59.440 fine now if you want to go do that in some mountain village in the kootenays on your own time like

00:07:05.120 that's your thing but what gets me dan is that adults who work in the federal government still

00:07:11.920 think that they can do this on a macro scale but they can impose their little beliefs or daydreams

00:07:18.960 on millions of people like do you find that there's kind of a disconnect going on here

00:07:23.360 yeah it's almost uh anti-civil it's anti uh certainly uh anti-civilization i mean it's like living

00:07:29.040 in the state of nature eating acorns wearing animal skins but no fires because you're worried about your

00:07:33.440 carbon footprint it's hobbesian in the worst sense of the word but i don't want to get into the

00:07:37.440 technical or into the uh literal part of it but it does show a significant detachment from around us

00:07:43.680 it comes down to fundamental ignorance couched in this idea that you're somehow being intelligent by

00:07:48.320 doing this but you always have the comfort of having that government paycheck so you really don't

00:07:52.480 care uh that changes by the way november 4th uh when we get a deficit reading that is going to shock

00:07:59.040 an alarm and i'm pretty damn sure uh bond rating agencies unlike what they've done over the past

00:08:03.520 little while thinking that the cpp is fungible that it can be used as collateral are going to wake a lot

00:08:09.440 of people up because they're not going to put up with the nonsense one or another i mean at the end

00:08:12.720 of the day i think uh we've seen 10 years of drift now reality is starting to hit and it's hitting very

00:08:18.400 hard everywhere no one is escaping this whether it's a devaluation of their assets or their inability to

00:08:24.080 make ends meet or keep a job much less uh worry about how to put food on the table at the end of

00:08:29.040 the week i had to ask you because you did mention the deficit and i wasn't going to go there but um

00:08:34.400 things i'm in ottawa right now things are feeling nervous right now like you can sense it because

00:08:40.480 we're coming down to the wire for the deadline for the budget to be released and i'm hearing all sorts of

00:08:46.320 wackadoodle stuff like they're going to start trying to call corporate welfare capital investment

00:08:53.440 um that's not great and we're hearing the parliamentary budget officers say things like

00:08:58.160 yeah you're being way too expansive in what you guys are calling capital or what you guys are calling

00:09:05.520 assets basically what it sounds like is they're playing funny tricks with the books and they're

00:09:10.800 trying to hide the fact that they're blowing a lot of money are are you really concerned about this

00:09:15.360 budget coming up are you feeling the same sense i am because the word comes back creative accounting this

00:09:20.080 is enron 2.0 and if they try that stunt no one's going to believe them and that you know whether

00:09:24.720 it's fitz or moody's or dbrs morningstar or standard and course if they go along with that well and it

00:09:30.880 says something about the companies maybe they should get the hell out of the business of rating but this

00:09:34.640 is going to hurt it's going to impact and uh mark carney's going to become a conservative much quicker

00:09:39.840 than we've seen already uh he's going to have to take these measures because we've been through this

00:09:44.640 this before remember i was a member of parliament from 1993 until 2011 and i was there when paul martin

00:09:50.560 was very concerned and the imf was prepared to take us over and we had no growth and things did not

00:09:56.000 look very promising ironically one of the things that got us out of this rut wasn't just uh fiscal

00:10:00.880 discipline we were able to sell a lot more to the united states and built a few pipelines in the meantime

00:10:05.440 which is why uh we're back you know 30 years later to the same problems we've created before

00:10:10.640 uh we've gone away from this idea that uh you know balancing budgets will balance themselves or

00:10:15.200 modern monetary theory and all sorts of wackadoodle ideas that were out there um but this is uh the

00:10:20.560 liberal part is going to change because frankly it's not just about the liberal part losing seats

00:10:25.280 it's about losing kidneys losing their shirts i can't help it i got to bring it back to this too

00:10:29.760 because i was there at the same time you were um and i remember booking you way back then for

00:10:34.720 mainstream media political shows the five o'clock daily shows right from the foyer the house of commons

00:10:39.600 and you're right uh prime minister jean chretchen and the finance minister paul martin and all you

00:10:45.680 guys over there on on the liberal benches it was a different government and i'm not just talking the

00:10:51.280 individual mps i'm talking about the analysis the fiscal responsibility there were some there were some

00:10:58.240 heavyweights that were working behind the scenes there too and you know it's not easy to balance a

00:11:04.000 budget right that must not have been easy we saw hospitals shutting down across the prairies right

00:11:08.480 they had to make some serious cuts because eventually the the lenders start saying no more

00:11:14.640 money and so they did make some serious changes and i guess i wanted to pick your brain on the stand

00:11:20.080 because you and i were talking all through the trudeau years about just how unserious these folks

00:11:24.800 were like saying flippantly stupid things like you said if the budget will balance itself and there's no

00:11:29.280 fiscal uh there's no financial case for natural gas like there's just nonsense non-grown-up things to say

00:11:36.560 you mentioned mark carney's going to have to become a conservative faster do you see an opportunity

00:11:43.920 for this current liberal government the people who are there now to start bringing on some more of

00:11:49.280 the adults in the room again do you see a chance of them shifting back to more fiscal responsibility

00:11:55.680 after i guess it all weighs on this budget right we're going to get these indicators aren't we

00:12:00.080 we are we're also going to have to hear from mark carney that he's walking away from net zero

00:12:03.360 the stupidity of it all of trying to strangulate the uh uh the the economy by shutting down and

00:12:08.960 by imposing hardship on manufacturing on business and then ultimately on consumers and uh the effect

00:12:15.840 is is real i mean a canadian dollar takes 140 pennies to buy a us dollar that's adding 24 cents to

00:12:21.440 lead to the price of gasoline imagine what's doing for food and every other commodity matter what is

00:12:25.760 made whether it is made here or not so i think mark carney's got to find new religion and he's got to

00:12:29.920 find it very quickly uh or he will be uh not just quick he'll be dead i'm trying to be hopeful um

00:12:38.560 he did kick the can one year by one year on this ev mandate thing do you think he's going to climb

00:12:44.720 down from it because we started off the conversation about the electric vehicle mandate we call it the

00:12:48.800 gas and diesel vehicle ban i think you guys call it something similar i see your petitions all the time

00:12:53.040 on facebook it's outstanding you guys are fighting this thing um so for folks who don't realize right

00:12:59.680 as of right now they're going to start uh restricting the sale of normal gasoline and

00:13:05.200 diesel powered vehicles at the dealership level in just over one year's time right dan you've you've

00:13:11.680 worked in the industry directly you know this file has this given any breathing room to any of the

00:13:18.480 dealers like what are the dealers saying now none whatsoever there are people not lining up to their

00:13:24.320 uh their dealerships to look for vehicles we know of course the announcement this morning a

00:13:28.320 government internal study there's not enough uh availability of charging ports there's no money

00:13:33.040 for subsidies uh we've had several of these companies either walk away or go bankrupt altogether

00:13:37.840 and i'm not just talking north vault and lion there's a bevy of others that have simply simply

00:13:42.960 packed up and said it's time to go but you are imposing on people something which doesn't exist we

00:13:47.520 don't have those met that many electric vehicles in canada uh available for purchase in 2027 even if

00:13:54.320 we wanted to and now of course the real concern isn't just that consumers are going to be forced

00:13:59.200 to do something that they don't want to do in a country which by the way today is getting a little

00:14:02.880 colder at least certainly here in southern ontario um we're actually uh now at a point where who's

00:14:07.920 going to buy these things beyond the canadian border the americans have said no ev mandates the

00:14:12.800 bush the uh trump administration made it very clear long before tariffs came out no more ev mandates

00:14:18.640 therefore if americans are going to be forced to buy them who's who's going to build them if there's no

00:14:23.040 market for that so we are facing significant uh you know tidal wave opposition to what's going on

00:14:31.120 and where the government has been for the past several years is part of that larger net zero

00:14:35.280 framework carbon taxes one two and three that's of course the one that's suspended for now the second

00:14:40.160 one the clean fuel center which chris you and i've done a lot of work on in the past in bc where it's

00:14:44.320 20 cents a liter and the third one the industrial carbon tax the obp uh the uh put based pricing system

00:14:50.880 uh and then you have you know a number of other you know layers of regulation that is placed on

00:14:57.360 industry and on on investment and on consumers the totality of which is making us poorer making

00:15:03.600 this country less of a great place to live we've gone in the world index from third most livable

00:15:08.560 most enjoyable place to live to 33 that's a pretty significant drop in 10 years and it isn't by accident

00:15:13.360 this is self-inflicted and so because these are canadian policies made by canadian politicians it's time

00:15:19.120 for them to change or we're we're simply all going to go over the cliff at the same time i didn't

00:15:23.440 realize we're at 33. we are in living standards yeah we in 2024 uh canada fell to the 33rd level

00:15:30.800 uh in terms of uh you know quality of life uh metric and i mean there are people going to say

00:15:35.920 well there's all sorts of metrics that are out there but you won't hear about that because mainstream

00:15:39.360 media doesn't want to tell you that uh confident safe that they as long as they don't mention it

00:15:43.760 they'll continue to get access to you know dollars of federal funding which i'm sure has to be cut

00:15:48.640 all of it has to be cut there isn't anything that can be saved now and salvaged least of all the ev

00:15:54.000 mandates because it costs so much it can't be attained it can't be realized maybe just better

00:15:58.720 for us if you want evs then we'll get them from china but uh you watch out don't bring them anywhere 1.00

00:16:03.840 because they might explode on it oh that's always the factor too right uh before i let you go dan and

00:16:08.560 i really appreciate you giving us a time after this thanksgiving long weekend uh so we really appreciate

00:16:13.280 it i wanted to quickly shift gears here because i heard an old word that i hadn't heard in a little

00:16:18.160 a while when uh canadian prime minister mark carney went down and visited us president donald trump

00:16:23.280 recently and that was keystone so we know that trump is in favor of keystone and i've heard

00:16:30.080 carney being asked about this now again do you think there's a chance to just revive this thing so

00:16:36.160 for folks who don't know this was a pipeline that had been approved by the trump administration

00:16:41.600 and it was supposed to go down from alberta through to the states it's the keystone excel pipeline

00:16:47.440 but the biden administration killed it and the trudeau administration didn't seem to care so

00:16:53.760 do you think there's a chance now with this whole let's build canada thing that that carney's talking

00:16:58.800 about is there a chance to put that deal back on the table well i certainly pricked my ears when i heard

00:17:03.760 the statement possibility uh last week this might be back on the table i had asked pete sessions who came

00:17:10.000 to uh catherine swift's uh jocelyn benford's uh coalition of concerned manufacturers and business

00:17:15.680 of canada uh had a session and uh we talked about this at great length and uh because the the the

00:17:21.440 pipeline is already in place right to the us border within inches of it it really takes the american the 0.98

00:17:26.560 trump administration to come around and say yeah we're going to try to do in two and a half years

00:17:30.240 we're trying to finish this off even though joe biden sold all the pipes out and whatever but the

00:17:34.640 rights of where there and u.s refiners are begging canada for its heavy oil why you can't make diesel

00:17:40.960 with light type shade shell oil and you can't get it from as well it's a basket case that in mexico

00:17:46.560 salt in their in their uh in their well so no one else has got heavy oil except canada and that's

00:17:51.600 the solution i think it truly is our trump card if we could put another way because it gives the americans

00:17:58.400 something that gives them energy reliability and it gives canada something it desperately needs

00:18:03.520 selling 1.2 million barrels a day will add probably three quarters of a percent to the gdp to our

00:18:09.280 economy thousands of jobs and prosperity for years to come something we haven't heard in a very long

00:18:14.480 time but all it takes is one one man saying the name mark carney coming out saying i give up this was

00:18:20.160 a bad idea i don't think you can get rid of the oil and gas sector i don't want to get rid of them i

00:18:24.960 want them to prosper because every other country in the world wants our oil and our natural gas and

00:18:29.920 our lng i find when you're in a problem and you're in a pickle it's important to to do the easy stuff

00:18:35.760 first now nobody's saying that building a pipeline is actually physically easy to do but in the realm

00:18:41.440 of politics if it's already built right within an inch of the u.s border and all it would take is you

00:18:47.280 know president trump u.s president trump to say yeah let's let's give her isn't that kind of high on

00:18:52.880 the list of easier things to do when it comes to international infrastructure i have a feeling

00:18:58.640 that's why danielle smith was smiling a couple weeks ago it may already be there but uh mark

00:19:02.800 carney's got a problem with having to uh swallow his own pride knowing he was wrong and uh recognizing

00:19:07.840 that uh the way of the past is certainly the way of the future and as i said earlier when i took on

00:19:12.880 the oil and gas sector uh certainly the downstream the biggest concern jacques fredsen and paul martin

00:19:17.920 happens i was going to go after the upstream and paul martin made it very clear to me you can't go

00:19:22.480 after them because they're going to save our bacon they're the ones creating revenue creating

00:19:26.320 opportunities by building pipelines and selling to a customer let's just get our energy to the

00:19:30.240 rest of the world every other country is demanding it every other country saying canada first i don't

00:19:35.600 see why we would say no and if a couple of people on the side want to you know sit around and protest

00:19:40.400 and think that's fine but the good of the many comes before the interests uh and the

00:19:44.640 obstruction of a few we've heard that the past 10 years you've harmed the canadian economy step aside

00:19:49.040 clide uh lastly two more quick questions here i wanted to get your take on because i haven't had

00:19:54.640 a chance to talk to you about it yet on premier daniel smith's move when she said okay you guys have

00:20:00.320 this special office that you all have set up about building canada and you know we're sitting here

00:20:04.640 waiting to do speedy approval and to rubber stamp things as long as they pass all the tests but shocker

00:20:10.720 dan there's no applicants there's no comers some private company doesn't want to leave their wallet

00:20:16.240 on our park bench in canada frankly i'm not surprised based on what's happened the past 10

00:20:21.440 years and real quick from a taxpayer's perspective and how much money canada has lost out on here uh

00:20:26.960 since 2015 through all of the different uh strangled and cancelled and slowed down natural resources

00:20:33.040 projects canada has lost out on around 600 billion dollars with a b now that includes everything that

00:20:39.120 includes mines and everything else like that but that's a heck of a lot of chunk of change

00:20:43.600 put that into perspective that could cover the income tax bills the federal income tax bills for

00:20:49.040 the entire populations of alberta saskatchewan and manitoba for 10 years so it is a staggering amount

00:20:57.040 of money we lost out on so wanted to know what you thought i thought it was a chess move when daniel

00:21:02.240 smith came and said okay there's no private company that is willing to put the application in to the

00:21:07.280 federal government of speedy approval office we're gonna do it alberta is now the applicant now we

00:21:13.520 don't want taxpayers money building a pipeline but she's going to use taxpayers money and the 1.00

00:21:17.920 government to go through all the hoops to fill out all the paperwork to do all the consultations

00:21:22.880 i think she's calling his bluff what did you think of that move yeah i think it was a brilliant

00:21:27.760 move it was a smart tactic and it's actually a tactic that's going to save canada yes us folks

00:21:32.240 out here in eastern canada who think that we can uh you know get money in equalization money just

00:21:36.320 grows off trees if she does if she's not successful i it won't be alberta's disappointment uh continue

00:21:41.840 to line up with the food banks especially you know after we saw this stuff on the thanksgiving weekend

00:21:46.640 look we need to sell more of what the world wants and which we have plenty of having the third fourth

00:21:52.640 and fifth largest uh you know assets or or reserves uh it makes a lot of sense the united states is running

00:21:58.800 out of uh of energy it's not going to be you know able to continue it's fracking its wells forever

00:22:03.840 and the world uh you know through whether it be through british columbia or however you get it

00:22:07.920 there is going to want our brand versus others because there's no geopolitical risk but if we

00:22:13.360 don't do these things i mean the the road to economic perdition is pretty clear you are going

00:22:19.280 to fail as a nation economically and you are going to see social disintegration on a scale that we would

00:22:24.560 you know is going to curl our hair literally i've been through this and i've seen this happen before

00:22:29.360 um there is uh now a national purpose for getting oil and gas to markets and if provinces want to

00:22:36.080 stand in the way of doing that like british columbia you and i worked on this with john

00:22:39.520 horgan using every tool in the toolbox even though they have they don't have the constitutional

00:22:43.280 wherewithal well then maybe bc would like to give back the 50 billion dollars they cost the rest of

00:22:47.920 the country building the trans mountain pipeline expansion which would have been built by kinder

00:22:51.760 morgan for zero okay so i i get a little annoyed when people say well we have a deficit problem

00:22:57.440 but you allowed uh every tom dick and harry take pot shots of this use lawfare use all sorts of uh

00:23:05.120 weight means to drag this uh this project on if that's what the country's going to be it's not

00:23:09.520 open for business uh mr kearney will find his time in office nasty brutish and very short

00:23:15.440 dan i was going to ask you about david eby's comments but you just answered it anyway

00:23:19.760 dan mctig head of canadians for affordable energy i hope you have a wonderful thanksgiving long weekend

00:23:26.080 thank you so much for giving us your time today great to be here and thanks for having me once

00:23:30.320 again chris you bet once again that is dan mctaig he is the head of canadians for affordable energy

00:23:37.600 he was the guy then you can still ask him he was the guy that used to be able to predict the gas price

00:23:42.640 tomorrow remember that guy that was dan mctaig he also as he mentioned was a long time member of

00:23:48.160 parliament under liberal prime minister jean cretchen's government i strongly recommend you go sign up for his

00:23:55.360 newsletter and analysis because obviously pretty smart guy folks we hope that you're having a

00:24:01.040 peaceful and wonderful thanksgiving long weekend thank you so much for giving us part of your time

00:24:06.960 today as always be sure to like this video subscribe to this channel head on over to juno news sign up to

00:24:14.720 become a member a supporter of juno news because this is where independent journalism lives thank you so much for

00:24:22.720 thank you so much for watching

Juno News - October 13, 2025

Canadians are paying more — and getting less

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