Juno News - November 28, 2025
Carney’s caucus ERUPTS over pipeline deal
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
190.60161
Summary
As we reported off the signing of yesterday s energy accord in Calgary, there's been a wildly mixed reaction today to the pipeline announcement yesterday between Alberta and the federal government on a pipeline from Alberta's oilsands fields to the Atlantic coast.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
wildly mixed reaction today to the signing of yesterday's energy accord in calgary for some
00:00:11.420
the pipeline announcement was pure theater designed to boost the political fortunes of both
00:00:16.940
prime minister kearney and premier danielle smith some energy energy analysts say will attract
00:00:23.980
little interest from investors this headline from the financial post tremendously risky
00:00:29.380
alberta's pipeline packed with ottawa no guarantee a company will build it analysts say now adding to
00:00:37.840
the uncertainty is that prime minister kearney refused to say whether the federal government
00:00:41.980
would push the project forward over the objections of british columbia let's listen are you willing to
00:00:47.880
approve a pipeline even if british columbia or affected first nations don't agree would you
00:00:54.180
compensate them instead well just to be clear this agreement today between alberta and the
00:01:01.180
government of canada it's the first step it's an example of cooperative federalism it's a we're
00:01:07.180
agreeing in partnership and in a spirit of trust but what has to happen several things have to happen
00:01:14.220
before a pipeline is built and one of those is a private sector proponent secondly it goes directly
00:01:21.140
to your question uh which is that there needs to be full partnership including equity ownership uh substantial
00:01:28.140
economic benefits with first nations uh first nations in alberta first nations in british columbia
00:01:34.140
um as well as agreement and substantial uh economic benefits for the people of british columbia
00:01:39.140
so we look at this as the start of a process uh we've created some of the necessary conditions for this to happen
00:01:46.140
uh but there's a lot more work to do um and uh and very much in the spirit of partnership
00:01:52.140
i didn't hear an answer to that question did you meantime premier danielle smith will have to explain
00:01:58.140
to her supporters why alberta should impose a huge increase in the industrial carbon tax based on
00:02:04.140
the promise of a pipeline years down the road they're asking alberta to raise carbon taxes now for a promise
00:02:12.140
for a promise of an oil pipeline years or even more than a decade in the future does that really build
00:02:18.140
trust well you have to start somewhere we understand that uh there was always going to be a negotiation
00:02:24.140
around that we froze the carbon tax at 95 pending consultation with the industry and greater work with
00:02:30.140
the prime minister but remember alberta was the first to have a an industrial carbon price they did in
00:02:35.140
20 we implemented that in 2007 it's generated revenues that allowed us to invest billions of dollars in new
00:02:41.140
technologies including carbon capture so there is a commitment on the part of the industry to have a
00:02:47.140
carbon price and we did do some consultation on that we're just glad that we have the means to manage it
00:02:53.140
our way now for climate hardliners the announcement is a betrayal of the 10-year liberal commitment to
00:02:59.140
climate change cabinet minister stephen gilbo has quit in opposition to the accord and others like green party
00:03:06.140
leader elizabeth may calls it a shocking betrayal this is simply unimaginable this is a betrayal of so many
00:03:14.140
different values so many different agreements so many different orders of rights and existing canadian law
00:03:20.140
it completely sets the stage for the complete abandonment of canada's climate policy it is um simply shocking
00:03:30.140
simply shocking the ndp meantime stands to gain voter support from left-leaning liberals who feel betrayed by what
00:03:38.140
carney has done here's new democrat peter julian trying to rally opposition to the pipeline
00:03:44.140
say no to mark carney's vampire pipeline project it sucks away our pristine environment on the north coast of british columbia
00:03:52.140
columbia it sucks away indigenous rights it sucks away potentially tens of thousands of jobs and fisheries
00:03:58.140
and tourism that depend on our pristine environment we need to stand as british columbians against this
00:04:04.140
pipeline project say no to tankers on the north coast of bc and say no to mark carney's vampire pipeline project
00:04:12.140
now as far as public opinion goes canadians appear ready to support such a pipeline from alberta through
00:04:18.140
northern bc to the coast an angus reed poll finds 60 percent like the idea in british columbia 53 say it's
00:04:28.140
finally time to build it our guest today is peter coleman president of the national citizens coalition
00:04:34.140
and the fix canada campaign welcome peter thanks for having me on mark hope you're well i am thank you i hope
00:04:40.140
you're well too let's talk a little bit about that announcement yesterday as we reported off the top
00:04:46.140
the top of the show wildly mixed reaction you know if you're on the side that is pro pipeline you're
00:04:54.380
very skeptical about when this is going to happen or even if it's going to happen if you're on the other
00:04:59.180
side well you're quitting cabinet and you're rallying the troops against uh mark carney what did you make
00:05:06.460
of that announcement this is what makes it fun for people in your business in my line of work too mark i mean
00:05:11.660
to me it was uh it was like groundhog day steven gibault resigned so it should be a national holiday we
00:05:16.300
should all be celebrating the fact that the eco-terrorist is no longer a control of the levers on the
00:05:20.620
environment other issues and i you know being serious i think it's there's going to be these mixed views
00:05:25.260
for sure but um what i do think is we're past the 10 years of darkness with trudeau as far as having an
00:05:31.740
adult conversation mark in this i think there's going to be people that disagree with where we're at with how
00:05:36.940
much the carbon industrial carbon tax is growing up in the timelines but being trying to be fair a
00:05:43.260
little bit a project like this is going to take several years to get off the ground you've got
00:05:47.580
consultation everybody's going to get to have to get paid their piece including bc and the indigenous
00:05:53.260
tribes as well and i think for once at least carney who i'm not a massive fan of so for me to say this
00:06:00.380
he recognizes there's some challenges but he's willing to stick his neck out and rest some political
00:06:04.620
capital to get things done and how much political capital is he going to lose maybe a lot in british
00:06:12.060
colombia although if you believe this angus reed poll majority of canadians actually support the idea
00:06:17.820
of a pipeline including the majority of british colombians so uh you know how much credence do you
00:06:25.100
put in this fear by some of those liberal mps that you know this could end up costing them their seats
00:06:30.700
i think carney secretly quietly mark wants some of them to go i think you realize they're an
00:06:35.980
impediment to business they're impediment to growth um they won't they don't want anything done as far
00:06:41.740
as you know selling our resources to the world and if we're going to try and build ourselves out of
00:06:46.780
these massive debts and deficits we have mark we need revenue and you need big projects you need to
00:06:52.380
reduce our alliance on the americans uh as far as shipping our own other products but these things all
00:06:58.220
take time so i think carney's probably happy some of these guys leaving i mean he seems to run a
00:07:02.620
dictatorship anyway mark i don't know why you would care well he might need every seat he can get as
00:07:08.780
well i mean he's only got a minority right now he's a couple of seats shy of it and if there's going
00:07:13.900
to be an election it could end up being closer than he'd like even though we know that he is desperate
00:07:19.900
to get a majority there's more and more talk now that this could set the stage for an election in
00:07:25.420
2026 we'll just have to see what do you think politically speaking not only from carney's
00:07:31.100
vantage point from but from danielle smith of course who's going to sell this to her supporters and they
00:07:37.420
may be as skeptical as many others out there and say you know what's the idea here we're asked to raise
00:07:43.180
the industrial carbon tax six-fold with some kind of promise that somewhere down the road we're going
00:07:50.060
to get a pipeline all right how hard will this be for danielle smith to sell the supporters i think
00:07:56.700
it's going to be a tough sell for her but i i actually think she's my favorite politician at the
00:08:01.340
federal provincial level in canada she at least has the guts to try things and i think she realizes mark
00:08:06.700
there's going to be a compromise on this process all the way through and i think the good thing for
00:08:10.780
canadians is this is going to be out in the public now there's no more hiding of where people's views
00:08:15.340
really are in this those that like as you said those that hate as you said the carbon tax is too
00:08:19.820
high it's taking too long at least this conversation i think now gets held on the public domain for
00:08:25.020
people to see it and people can have their different viewpoints and i think we should respect that but
00:08:29.660
i think it's a hard sell for everybody this kind of project but if we're going to really grow up as
00:08:35.100
a country mark we've got to start start having these conversations the balance between the environment
00:08:39.660
the balance between the economy the balance between creating jobs we can't stick our head in the
00:08:44.460
sand and say we have no prospects we have no jobs we have no investment we can continue on those lines
00:08:50.220
that doesn't work either so my business side says it's going to be a tough conversation it's going to
00:08:55.500
be difficult on all sides the best business deals mark in the real world as you well know i don't think
00:09:01.260
anybody comes out of them terribly happy they get some things they lose some things and there's risk
00:09:06.060
for everybody involved in this process and i think it's going to be fascinating to see how it plays out
00:09:11.260
yeah exactly and daniel smith says well you can't get everything you need or you can't you know you
00:09:17.180
get what you want necessarily but you get what you need you know that's one of those deals like the
00:09:20.940
rolling stone song so we'll have to see how it plays out amongst your supporters i mean many of them
00:09:26.780
will be skeptical there's no doubt about that uh after so much resentment and mistrust that's built up
00:09:33.660
over the past decade of watching the liberals basically you know put a stick in the spoke of the
00:09:39.180
resource sector every chance they get and so yeah you get people from all sides you're getting people
00:09:45.500
say this is a betrayal you know you've heard that argument as well from the likes of elizabeth may
00:09:51.820
saying this is a betrayal to the movement you know we've retained years we've been solid uh you know in
00:09:57.020
terms of fighting climate change and now here's mark herney coming along and throwing it all throwing the
00:10:03.660
baby out with the bath water um you're right it's going to be some interesting discussions ahead
00:10:09.340
uh what does this say about the future of this particular liberal government do you think you
00:10:14.060
know it's i think it's going to have to try and build a consensus the last person i want viewpoint is
00:10:18.780
quite frankly mark is elizabeth mace uh she already she has one seat she should have a lot more seats than
00:10:24.860
she does she's to me is absolutely irrelevant this conversation because she's done nothing to grow her
00:10:30.780
party for years i know she's the darling of them some of the media um thank god it wouldn't be the
00:10:35.980
darling of juno news but i just find it i don't care what her viewpoints are like i understand a
00:10:41.340
different point of view the reality is we're 1.5 of the world's greenhouse gases and the other sands
00:10:47.820
aren't a big percentage of that we have a responsibility for environmental stewardship and we all agree on
00:10:52.940
that but there's got to be a balance between business and the environment and right now it's always
00:10:57.340
been just the environment and forget the business but financially we can't afford to stay that way so
00:11:02.860
i think carney's got a tough sell in some regards but i think paulia has got to play his cards wisely
00:11:07.980
too because it's okay to say nothing's happened nothing's changed but if you actually step back
00:11:14.220
and look at and don't have biased eyes at least carney recognized that there's provincial jurisdictions
00:11:19.580
for alberta and certain things and they have got rid of some clean energy standards and things that will
00:11:24.300
allow for some ai development going on in that province but i think it's tough for all sides in
00:11:29.420
this conversation but at least they're starting to have i think an adult conversation really it's
00:11:34.300
but true to what's been the kitty table for 10 years yeah premier smith though has come out and said
00:11:39.740
this will unleash all sorts of investment in alberta but then you have this headline in the financial
00:11:45.980
post tremendously risky alberta's pipeline packed with ottawa no guarantee the company will build it
00:11:51.580
and i think it kind of boils down to that six-fold increase in the industrial carbon tax i think
00:11:58.220
a lot of companies are going to look at that and on top of that of course there's no guarantee
00:12:03.020
that british columbia will you know green light the project through that province i mean we've seen
00:12:08.220
the ndp government there adamantly say no way jose and then you have this kind of
00:12:14.540
non-committal non-answer from mark carney when he was asked whether the federal government would push
00:12:19.580
through this project which legally they're entitled to do against the will of british columbia so
00:12:24.860
there's a lot of gifts around a lot of clouds around this whole thing i mean will the investment
00:12:31.260
community bite as danielle smith suggests they will i don't think mark they'll bite right now i agree with
00:12:38.060
you totally on that your thought process there but i think they will bite down the road if they see that
00:12:42.780
this thing's moving the right way because there has to be a business case that makes sense and the carbon tax
00:12:48.140
increase um the six-fold increase you talk about if it gets to that that might be really problematic
00:12:53.260
but i think you have to have those negotiations and i think carney is smart enough to realize
00:12:59.180
there's a number that makes sense i don't like some of his environmental stance and everything's got
00:13:03.100
to be decarbonize this decarbonize that for every decision the guy will make but i think the investment
00:13:09.500
community probably feels a little better today than yesterday but are they are they green lighting
00:13:14.460
today and having a happy dance you're right mark they're not you know nobody's really happy about
00:13:20.220
this i don't think anybody's doing a real happy dance except maybe danielle smith and you know because
00:13:27.660
it's like everybody's losing you know what i mean like nobody's spiking the football you know on the
00:13:32.780
side of the you know the climate hardliners and nobody really is spiking the football on the side of
00:13:39.340
the investment community and those who believe fervently that we're desperately in need of a
00:13:44.060
of a pipeline in a way nobody won from this except maybe politically speaking because of course you've
00:13:50.780
got danielle smith who needed a deal who needed a win who needed a piece of paper that she can take
00:13:56.300
to her supporters in order to say you know i'm working towards this it's a start you know leave this with
00:14:02.780
me and then you've got carney trying to portray himself as maybe a moderate as you say the adult
00:14:08.940
in the room you know staring down the the climate hardliners in his own caucus so politically speaking
00:14:18.540
you've got those two dynamics happening here but in terms of whether we actually get a pipeline
00:14:24.460
you know done or not in our lifetime do you think that's going to happen are you any more optimistic
00:14:30.860
that we're going to get this pipeline based on what we saw yesterday i think i think i'm i'm slightly
00:14:36.540
more optimistic than i was yesterday i think it's at least um something out in the public demand for
00:14:40.940
people to look at but um you know i agree mark there's a whole bunch of hurdles to get through
00:14:45.260
and daniel smith needed a win it's just a big enough win i don't know but i mean the option to do nothing
00:14:50.860
like the stephen gee bows and the wilkesons and the trudels of the world at least that process and that
00:14:56.140
dark air is behind us and you know we'll have to see daniel smith said trust but verify and i think
00:15:02.060
that's the critical thing is like should people be skeptical of carney absolutely but at least he's
00:15:10.220
made some initial steps that he's willing to have a conversation and i don't know where it ends up mark
00:15:15.340
any better than most people do that are screaming and yelling on both sides of the fence but at least
00:15:20.300
it's a positive step forward but i wish carney would say to bc yes we want your buy-in but no
00:15:27.660
we don't need it the supreme court's already ruled that these are provincial jurisdictions and pipeline
00:15:33.260
cross-provinces so there's a way to negotiate in a way not to negotiate but just like
00:15:38.860
david eby it's like john horgan called him the mud hut part of the ndp party they want people
00:15:43.500
live in mud huts and have no prosperity no jobs no economic development there's got to be a common
00:15:48.620
sense and it sounds funny but if you have to give bc a share of the pie in the way through for the
00:15:53.980
pipeline going that happens in business transactions and maybe we got to do that but the project has to
00:16:00.060
make economic sense to your point earlier mark with the carbon tax and the increase in that going forward
00:16:05.420
i think the proofs in the pudding going forward yeah i mean it'll be interesting conversations with
00:16:12.380
the investment community because that's where the money has come from has to come from and they'll
00:16:17.500
get a sense right there and then whether or not there's going to be companies stepping up to the
00:16:22.780
plate i mean no pipeline company wants to write a blank check you know this is a lot of money on the
00:16:27.580
line and if they're not going to get buy-in from the from british columbia or indigenous communities
00:16:34.540
and the feds are not willing to push this through then i think the move the it'll immediately get
00:16:39.900
scared off the money gets scared off because people are just not going to move move forward with it
00:16:44.700
last word to you peter well you you want to create the economic environment environment to attract
00:16:49.100
these investors but they're not there yet so you've got to move this thing along to take away
00:16:52.780
some of these hurdles but at least you can start having the conversations mark and hopefully we can
00:16:56.860
get there sooner than later tell me about the fix canada campaign and how people can support it
00:17:03.180
you know i don't think anybody sitting in this country unless you're a liberal diehard thinks the
00:17:07.100
country's being run very well right now we're not respected in the international community we were
00:17:12.380
before we're not involved in any major uh trade deals uh the thought process that we can get rid
00:17:19.260
of our dependence on the u.s markets based on geography makes no sense to me um the trade deals
00:17:25.660
are going to follow last mark carney and in donald trump so the younger generation is disillusioned they
00:17:32.140
can't get ahead they can't buy a house they're seeing immigration it's out of control the liberals are
00:17:36.860
talking about slowing it down instead of reversing it um common sense is not at a great premium in
00:17:43.500
ottawa right now common sense solutions are not there on immigration they're not there on job
00:17:48.940
creation they're not there on economic development they're certainly not there in free speech
00:17:54.060
they seem to be living in echo chambers so we're trying to bring this fix canada program to people to
00:17:58.220
say we're not taking anybody's side in this process not the liberals not the conservatives we want
00:18:03.820
what's best for the average hard-working canadian and that's what our campaign's doing tackling
00:18:08.780
issues like immigration free speech the economy free trade and trying to bring some common sense
00:18:14.140
back in this process because to me it's very lacking right now and our supporters are very frustrated
00:18:20.220
that they want us to keep on fighting because someone's got to fight against this big government
00:18:23.900
notion that thinks they're doing everything right and well and right the average person says
00:18:28.620
i don't know who's speaking for me right now the federal government sure as heck isn't
00:18:32.700
i don't think anybody gives a passing grade to many premiers in this whole country either mark so
00:18:37.500
we're trying to show some leadership from a non-partisan way and um you know our videos
00:18:42.300
are seen by a million and a half people a month so we're getting some traction they're big big numbers
00:18:46.540
mark and um we were accused of being a right-wing sort of lackey group when stephen harper was our
00:18:52.380
prime minister we're not we're on the side of common sense fiscal responsibility and reasonable
00:18:57.660
dialogue and conversation that's what we're trying to do with fix canada
00:19:01.260
fantastic peter coleman thank you so much for coming on the show today appreciate it thank
00:19:05.260
you so much for tuning in to this edition of straight up appreciate you tuning in
00:19:09.340
and we're going to do it again real soon bye-bye for now