Juno News - Carney’s tiny $11 tax cut

00:00:00.120 So I just finished picking up my daughter here in Lethbridge and it's like plus nine.

00:00:04.300 I went out in a t-shirt and I almost got blown away though.

00:00:07.680 Isaac, you're a little chillier than that.

00:00:10.360 Yeah, well, I just looked at the weather.

00:00:11.760 It says it's minus 18, feels like minus 28.

00:00:14.260 And we're getting between three and five centimeters of snow per hour all day.

00:00:18.620 So yeah, because initially they were calling for like, I don't even know.

00:00:22.000 It's going to be 10, 20, 30, 40, who knows, 50 centimeters of snow.

00:00:27.180 So that's why I thought, Chris, because you were running a few minutes behind.

00:00:29.800 I was like, maybe she's in Edmonton and the roads are terrible.

00:00:31.660 But no, you're living in some sort of sunny spring paradise while I'm in the depths of Antarctica.

00:00:39.200 Also known as Edmonton.

00:00:43.840 Folks, he just described Edmonton so well.

00:00:47.040 You know, I was running a bit behind because the wind is crazy.

00:00:49.600 Like there's stuff like blowing all over the place here in Lethbridge, actually.

00:00:53.200 Waleed, you are in a slightly warmer, nicer place right now. 0.54

00:00:57.020 Are we allowed to disclose your location or are you on a top secret mission?

00:01:00.680 Well, for now, you can still say I'm in Brazil as I was during the Comp 30 processions here in the country.

00:01:06.200 It's much warmer.

00:01:07.140 It's around 20 degrees day to day, some days up to 30.

00:01:11.680 Of course, much warmer weather.

00:01:12.940 As you know, in this part of the world, we're in the summer season.

00:01:15.500 But while I'm in Sao Paulo specifically, it's a summer rainy season with the humid days two to three in a row.

00:01:22.060 There's always a follow up of two or three days of rain.

00:01:25.360 So to admit, it isn't as warm and tropical as everyone can imagine.

00:01:28.400 However, again, for my preferences personally, it comes quite close to room temperature on most days.

00:01:34.800 Okay.

00:01:35.100 Do you actually see parrots like flying around?

00:01:38.080 Like are there the birds there?

00:01:39.560 Not in the city.

00:01:40.660 I mean, Sao Paulo is the seventh largest city by population, very densely open populated area in space.

00:01:45.460 But I'm sure if I stepped outside the city, I would definitely see much more biodiversity for sure.

00:01:50.880 Okay.

00:01:51.160 I'm not going to bird nerd out on everybody here.

00:01:52.940 Let's get this thing started.

00:01:56.980 Isaac, I wanted to start with you here.

00:01:59.260 We've got the end envelope.

00:02:00.680 Feel free to jump in.

00:02:01.500 We have some good and bad when it comes to tax cuts with what the government give it that also take it away.

00:02:07.660 So we're going to be saving around 200 bucks with Carney's income tax cut out of our right pocket.

00:02:14.480 But unfortunately, as we pointed out there with Franco Garisano, the payroll taxes are eating that, taking that out of our left pocket.

00:02:23.540 So it's going to be a wash.

00:02:25.040 We don't have some tax relief.

00:02:26.460 What did you guys think about this?

00:02:28.300 Yeah, Chris, you said good and bad.

00:02:31.380 Which is interesting because I remember a story one of my colleagues, Quinn, I think published two weeks ago or so, showing that the liberal tax cut, which of course was one of, I would argue, Carney's biggest campaign promises outside of Trump and U.S.

00:02:44.480 and tariff negotiations, will save the poorest Canadians just $11 per year.

00:02:49.640 So, I mean, what are we talking about here?

00:02:51.540 $11 per year is nothing.

00:02:53.120 Like, sorry, you're going to the grocery store.

00:02:54.840 Your bills cost you $500, $600 every trip.

00:02:57.360 We're talking about $11.

00:02:58.540 Like, that's going to make some sort of monumental change.

00:03:02.100 Like, realistically, for some, I would say, a substantial change, that would need to be $1,100.

00:03:07.320 Like, $11?

00:03:08.240 What are we talking about?

00:03:08.980 What can you even buy with $11?

00:03:10.360 A bag of chips? 0.97

00:03:11.560 Like, this is ridiculous.

00:03:12.520 You know, it's funny, Chris, thinking back to when I was a kid, you could buy so much with $11, and now $11, you can literally buy one small thing. 0.80

00:03:21.480 Like, it's nothing.

00:03:22.380 I mean, everything has become drastically, drastically more expensive.

00:03:26.920 The cost of living is increasing at unprecedented rates.

00:03:30.840 And, I mean, $11 a year for this tax cut is, it might as well be zero because it is essentially meaningless.

00:03:37.660 Yeah, Quinn did a great job on that.

00:03:39.840 I couldn't buy two jugs of milk for that because my milk is, like, I think it's $6.27 for one of those gallon jugs.

00:03:46.320 For folks who are watching in Ontario, those are plastic containers that contain four litres of fluid milk instead of putting them in bags like psychopaths, like you do in Ontario.

00:03:59.820 Sorry, I'm a little triggered.

00:04:01.540 Waleed, you sometimes live in Ontario, so you know what I'm talking about with the bagged milk.

00:04:06.260 What did you think about this whopping tax cut that then turns around and we're losing out on our payroll taxes?

00:04:14.000 We're getting a big payroll tax increase.

00:04:16.760 Well, as you said, I mean, I've lived in Ottawa for most of the year, and back in Ottawa, I'm thinking to myself, my local superstore only has so much for $11 or less.

00:04:27.360 I mean, thinking about my favourite bag of chips, like Isaac mentioned, the Sun chips, those cheddar-flavoured chips, I believe they come at the average cost of around $6 a bag.

00:04:38.300 So I'm getting a bag and a bit if I added a dollar on top, and then, of course, there's tax on top of that as well.

00:04:44.460 So, I mean, I'm getting the sense of this is even too small to be symbolic because a $200 increase, you could say, or a decrease in taxes, sorry.

00:04:52.780 I think there is going to be an increase of taxes somewhere else, frankly.

00:04:55.340 But in terms of this tax cut, I really think it would be better off without it.

00:05:00.100 In terms of the grand scheme of government revenue, I think the government's looking to – the interesting situation about the budget for me since day one with Mark Carney has been,

00:05:09.300 how would you manage to do anything but worse in the deficit and debt situation?

00:05:14.300 If you are keeping on, you know, these burdensome costs, you know, measures when it comes to government services,

00:05:22.840 looking to make unprecedented investments and possibly, of course, needed and necessary investments in the military,

00:05:29.700 while not seeing any proportional, you know, negation of spending elsewhere,

00:05:34.660 it's just impossible to see things headed in any direction but red.

00:05:38.780 So, I guess the tax cut isn't really helping even his constituents, you know, voter base or –

00:05:46.800 because, you know, tax cuts always have a bit of a public appeal to them.

00:05:50.880 Sure.

00:05:51.060 I think this one's too small to get that political reward, but it still negates government revenue,

00:05:57.140 and I think that might just worsen the deficit situation going forward.

00:06:00.680 Perfect.

00:06:01.220 And what I mean by taxes in the new year, just real quick there, Isaac.

00:06:04.500 Folks, when you're looking at your paycheck, you'll notice in 2026,

00:06:07.540 you might even notice that it's a bit lower.

00:06:09.740 Payroll taxes are things like the Canada Pension Plan, the EI premiums, all that stuff,

00:06:14.820 that are automatically taken off by force from your paycheck.

00:06:18.220 You can't opt out of them, and it is the federal government that is imposing that.

00:06:21.820 And even they call them payroll taxes on their website.

00:06:24.940 Quick note, employers also have payroll taxes.

00:06:29.660 So, you may not see it as an employee, but since your employer is paying that higher payroll tax amount,

00:06:35.740 that means that's less money they can give you in a raise.

00:06:38.700 That's perhaps less money they have kicking around to, say, hire a brand new person as an intern, right?

00:06:43.920 That's less money they have to spend on their employees because they're paying those payroll taxes. 1.00

00:06:49.160 Sorry, go ahead, Isaac.

00:06:49.900 Yeah, no, I just wanted to cover a few things there because Waleed briefly mentioned, I guess, the cost of the tax cut

00:06:56.680 because, of course, the senior economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, David MacDonald,

00:07:03.620 he testified in the Senate on this tax cut, highlighting that it will cost $5.8 billion, interestingly,

00:07:10.280 because this, of course, as you mentioned, Waleed, a tax cut, obviously, you're cutting from the government revenues,

00:07:17.340 so they lose money.

00:07:18.920 But this tax cut, of course, reduces the first just under $60,000 of income from 15% to 14%.

00:07:26.640 But what MacDonald highlighted, which I wanted to say, Chris, which is so interesting,

00:07:30.880 is the $6 billion price tag for this tax cut, he said,

00:07:34.140 could have been used to increase the Canada disability benefit to $7,000 a year

00:07:39.200 and lift over 200,000 people with disabilities out of poverty.

00:07:43.660 So that is really a big number when we're thinking about, alternatively,

00:07:46.800 we're saving the poorest Canadians $11 a month.

00:07:49.840 So it really comes down, again, Waleed, as you mentioned, 0.96

00:07:52.900 how can Carney be worse than Trudeau when it comes to budgeting?

00:07:55.660 But you just have to be left shaking your head with some of the decisions that are being made.

00:08:00.260 Speaking of shaking your head, a lot of folks were shaking their head

00:08:03.580 when they saw a floor crossing happen.

00:08:06.480 So right now, as of tape time, we see Member of Parliament Michael Ma,

00:08:12.100 okay, he crossed the floor, and he is now a member of Prime Minister Mark Carney's Liberal government.

00:08:19.720 Now, I know this has rattled a lot of people, especially in the Markham area,

00:08:23.920 because we're relatively so fresh off of a federal election.

00:08:27.160 We're within the calendar year of a federal election.

00:08:30.360 And I know that that seems to annoy people the most.

00:08:32.880 At the Taxpayers' Federation, we have long been advocates for recall legislation.

00:08:39.720 So here in our beautiful province of Alberta, Isaac,

00:08:42.660 we have recall legislation at the provincial, municipal, and school board level.

00:08:47.920 Now, it doesn't always work exactly as planned, but I'll give you an example.

00:08:51.620 They tried to recall Calgary Mayor Jody Gondek, and it didn't work then, but she lost big time as an incumbent when she ran for mayor again.

00:09:02.900 And that's the first time an incumbent mayor running for the job again in Calgary has lost in, I think, like 30 years.

00:09:09.280 So these recall actions, okay, do have power.

00:09:14.120 So at the Taxpayers' Federation, our answer to this is, hey, we should have recall legislation at the federal level.

00:09:20.280 So if enough people in the Markham area are ticked off enough, they could then force a by-election.

00:09:27.780 I think that's the answer.

00:09:28.920 I think there's no ideology there.

00:09:31.340 If you just have recall legislation, I think that would solve some of these problems.

00:09:35.800 What do you guys think?

00:09:37.080 Yeah, Chris, I want to say a few things.

00:09:38.820 Firstly, with the Gondek thing, that was interesting because, of course,

00:09:42.200 that situation where Gondek was being recalled forced,

00:09:45.700 it convinced Smith to change the recall legislation,

00:09:48.880 and we've seen that sense change because, more or less,

00:09:51.260 it was 100% impossible to fulfill the requirements for recall legislation

00:09:55.740 because it was based on the total elector's number instead of the total voter's number.

00:10:00.780 So, of course, and we see these municipal elections, like 30% vote participation,

00:10:04.500 you're never going to reach that number.

00:10:06.280 So I don't know if Johnston, who now is a Calgary City Councillor, by the way,

00:10:10.580 I don't know if his recall petition would have passed with the new rules,

00:10:12.820 but I'm assuming it would.

00:10:14.040 As for the Michael Ma situation, I mean, I think it's even simpler than recall legislation, Chris.

00:10:20.300 Force a by-election when people cross the floor.

00:10:22.480 He 100% would not have.

00:10:23.740 I looked at the polling when he crossed the floor.

00:10:25.480 The Conservatives would have won.

00:10:26.680 That story we just showed on screen.

00:10:28.400 The Conservatives are projected to win the riding.

00:10:30.340 You think this guy's going to cross the floor and lose his seat and lose his job?

00:10:33.580 I would say very unlikely.

00:10:35.400 So if a by-election were forced, and it's as close as it is in this riding,

00:10:39.520 there's no way he would have crossed the floor.

00:10:40.860 And he said he talked to constituents, and we're seeing that that may not be the case

00:10:46.500 because, of course, this Saturday, and True North will be there at his constituency office.

00:10:51.660 There is a protest plan, so very interested to see what that turns out.

00:10:55.240 But what Michael Ma is saying about what he's hearing from constituents and reality may not be very in line.

00:11:01.700 Yeah, he talked to the voters while he was on the doorstep campaigning for the seat

00:11:06.820 when he was wearing the blue shirt.

00:11:09.080 I'll point that out.

00:11:10.100 So did you just say, like, True North, will they have a camera there at this protest?

00:11:14.280 Yeah, no, I think we're headed out on Saturday.

00:11:16.320 I think that'll be Clayton who's going, not me.

00:11:18.700 But I'll definitely be looking forward to watching that myself.

00:11:21.860 Good.

00:11:22.240 See, folks, it's really important for you to sign up for Juno News

00:11:25.120 because that's where you're going to see the firsthand reporting on the ground in situations like this.

00:11:31.360 Because that you're talking, you know, power to the people and speaking truth to power grassroots.

00:11:36.500 You're going to have a protest right there at the local riding.

00:11:39.080 You've got to have cameras there and you need independent media.

00:11:42.660 I'll get into the whole terrarium of the, you know, kept folks in the press gallery in a second.

00:11:47.800 Walida, I wanted to get your thoughts on this.

00:11:49.960 What was your response to this?

00:11:51.300 Do you think that the answer is to just have recall legislation across the board?

00:11:56.300 Well, I'm kind of close to Isaac's point and I kind of see your logic as well, Chris,

00:12:01.180 is because, I mean, the voters ultimately are the ones who choose the candidate

00:12:04.700 and they are, along with the candidate themselves, they normally also put on party lines.

00:12:09.960 There's, of course, a mix here as well because, you know, according to our problem with the system,

00:12:13.640 it is perfectly fine for NPAs to cross the floor.

00:12:16.840 But I look at my own situation a little bit differently than Chris Daltremont's.

00:12:20.660 Although I see both as a little bit puzzling to myself, in the case of Chris Daltremont,

00:12:25.200 I mean, he's had a successful career as a conservative politician for a while.

00:12:28.560 I mean, he's got, I think, three or four provincial elections in Nova Scotia as a PC

00:12:31.920 and three elections under the conservatives at the federal level, at least,

00:12:35.660 including most recently under Pierre Paliab and his leadership.

00:12:38.380 So that's interesting.

00:12:39.720 But, of course, there is a reality with the Conservative Party where you do have,

00:12:43.940 you know, your liberal lights included or what you call your red Tories.

00:12:47.740 I think that's most likely the case for Chris Daltremont and perhaps other MPs from out east

00:12:54.220 in Atlantic Canada and even in Quebec where there have been, you know, MPs sometimes

00:12:58.900 that have, you know, endorsed Jean Charest during the 2022 race, have said something or

00:13:03.780 two to the media that isn't so much aligned with Pierre's vision.

00:13:06.980 But again, the fact of the matter is it's a very wide-hand party and you have this demographic

00:13:11.100 in it.

00:13:11.580 I think Chris Daltremont was part of that demographic.

00:13:13.900 In Michael Maul's case, I think it's a little bit different.

00:13:16.260 I find his letter to be a little bit misleading.

00:13:18.220 The letter that he published, which was given off to the Liberal Party and sent off into

00:13:22.800 a news blast, was the, you know, the fact that his constituents himself reached out to

00:13:28.720 them and kind of, you know, gave him the idea that crossing the floor made a lot of sense.

00:13:33.840 And I'm confused because, you know, pulling even to this day suggests that he would win

00:13:37.480 as a Conservative or a Conservative candidate of choice would probably win an election today.

00:13:42.140 So it's kind of, it's very disrespectful to the voters that have not only supported

00:13:46.760 them, but even the ones that remain, you know, inclined in their political vision.

00:13:52.180 This writing has an interesting history.

00:13:54.140 So those that maybe don't remember back in April, but there was a candidate who was running

00:14:00.420 for the seat.

00:14:01.860 I think his name was Paul Chiang.

00:14:03.820 And he was running and he made a comment to Chinese state media or state-linked media,

00:14:08.940 of course, where he suggested that another candidate in a different writing, I think

00:14:12.520 it was Don Valley East, Joe Tay, who by the way, will be at this protest on Saturday, should

00:14:17.760 be taken into a Chinese consulate to get a bounty collected from his head.

00:14:23.660 Oh, that was that writing?

00:14:25.300 It was that writing.

00:14:26.180 Michael Ma defeated that.

00:14:28.380 I mean, he technically did not defeat Paul Chiang.

00:14:30.960 He defeated Peter Yuen, who stepped in and placed Paul Chiang after he withdrew his candidacy.

00:14:35.720 Peter Yuen was well known for his love of the Chinese regime, essentially, vis-a-vis his

00:14:43.820 singing a few songs of glorifying the Chinese revolution, the Chinese Communist Party, while,

00:14:50.260 by the way, in Toronto police uniform at cultural events for Chinese New Year.

00:14:55.020 It's a very interesting story where you just, you can't de-link from a certain demographic

00:14:59.320 and specifically from a political regime that is exploiting actors within that demographic.

00:15:04.140 Of course, there are dissidents and there are regime puppets within that same crowd.

00:15:09.840 And again, Joe Tay himself is a well-known dissident, of course, and having that kind of comment

00:15:14.320 come out from a liberal candidate in a different writing was shameful and probably provided

00:15:18.880 conservatives a little bit of a boost coming from the, you know, CCP critical voter base

00:15:24.080 in that writing as well. But again, I'm looking at Michael Ma, you know, this is a first-time

00:15:29.840 politician at the federal level. This guy ran under Pierre, got his first seat. This was eight and a

00:15:35.820 half months ago, not even. And I don't think he was well-vetted enough, though, in terms of his

00:15:41.020 ideological meanings. I mean, frankly, he's a former Lenovo executive in Canada. I mean, he has

00:15:48.120 probably a great career, decent intellect. But again, you know, when you're running for a political

00:15:52.940 party, I think you definitely have to show what it is that makes you want to be part of

00:15:57.540 that fold. I'm not doubting that Michael Ma doesn't have conservative views on one or two

00:16:01.860 issues, but I'm really curious if you're willing to enter and exit a party within a span of eight

00:16:07.880 months after making the most consequential decision, which is joining in a party, joining

00:16:12.500 and putting your name on the ballot, getting yourself elected as an MP. And, you know, if in

00:16:16.820 the case of Carney lasting a majority, I mean, this guy can get a full term of four or five

00:16:22.000 years out of the situation where I don't think he would actually be elected as a liberal in

00:16:26.600 the first place, nor reelected as a liberal in the case of your reforms coming through.

00:16:31.600 I wonder if, and I should know the answer to this question, but I'm a little rusty on

00:16:36.460 doing FOI federally for local writing offices. I don't know if you can FOIP a local member of

00:16:44.220 parliament's email to see indeed where the tsunami of emails were coming from, from his constituents.

00:16:53.020 I'd have to check. It's been a while since I've tried to FOIP a local writing office, but I'd be

00:16:57.500 curious to know what our viewers think in the comments. I wanted to kind of touch on this a

00:17:02.220 little bit because I've, this is usually a bee in my bonnet. I'm noticing that the terrarium of the

00:17:09.740 parliamentary press gallery gaggle are all talking about, oh, Pierre Polyev needs to change. And,

00:17:15.340 you know, he needs to change his personality. He needs to change his policies. I don't think

00:17:18.620 they got, they like the guy's socks. Okay. It's ridiculous. I will point out that the Canadian 1.00

00:17:23.660 taxpayers federation through a major polling firm today showed the majority of Canadians believe that

00:17:31.500 Carney's hidden industrial carbon tax is going to be passed on to us, onto everyday working people.

00:17:38.540 And that is something Pierre Polyev to his credit has dug his heels in on. He said no carbon taxes,

00:17:45.020 zero carbon taxes. And so in my opinion, he's right to do that because he's fighting one of the biggest

00:17:51.980 drains on affordability in Canada. And that is things like hidden carbon taxes. And frankly, I think

00:17:59.340 that's why you're seeing polls right now that are keeping steady for the blue team because they keep

00:18:05.340 talking about things like hidden carbon taxes and affordability. Outside that little Ottawa terrarium,

00:18:13.660 like you guys were just mentioning, life is still bloody too expensive. And people aren't seeing the

00:18:19.260 changes that they want to see. Some changes we are seeing here, I want to shift gears here, no pun

00:18:23.820 intended. To battery powered vehicles. Let's go down to EVs. We are seeing some movement here. Last

00:18:31.260 time we saw so you can see here the headline, you can check it out also at True North and Juneau,

00:18:35.740 Conservatives blasts EV subsidies as sales are collapsing nationwide. So what they're talking

00:18:41.660 about there is of course billions of dollars being handed out in corporate welfare, like a big stew,

00:18:47.100 from the federal pot and frankly in Ontario. Big old Premier Doug Ford of Ontario is ladling out the

00:18:53.820 corporate welfare as well. Now we're seeing slumping demand. The marketplace is slumping for demand,

00:19:00.780 natural demand for electric powered vehicles. As of right now, we're delaying our ban on the sale

00:19:09.020 of gas and diesel powered vehicles by one year. Carney's kicked a can on this for one year.

00:19:14.620 I don't know if that means the death knell to this dumb plan, or if he's just ragging the puck so 0.96

00:19:20.540 he can do something else that's bad. What do you guys think? Go ahead, Waleed. 0.97

00:19:26.300 Okay, Waleed can go, yeah. You went first last time. Go, Waleed. 1.00

00:19:29.740 Yeah, yeah. Thanks for the refereeing, Chris. I appreciate the fact on your part.

00:19:35.740 No, but jokingly, this entire story, by the way, was triggered

00:19:39.660 triggered by a federal announcement on, I think it was on that same week, Friday last week,

00:19:47.420 of a $2.5 million investment to establish an electric vehicle innovation on, to establish

00:19:54.060 electric vehicle innovation in Ontario. Essentially, a program led by the University of Toronto,

00:19:58.940 in partnership with a few other universities in the province, funded by the Federal Economic Development

00:20:03.900 Agency, yet another bureaucracy for God knows what else. And it essentially aims to support research

00:20:10.860 and what they call workforce development in the EV and battery sector. So essentially,

00:20:15.740 they're looking to create a bureaucracy, which will advertise itself as able to create jobs and to

00:20:23.980 create development in the workforce towards the EV sector, which they still believe, whether it's

00:20:30.700 ideological or based on misguided economic assessments, that they believe that is the

00:20:35.260 ultimate future that they have to rush with our tax dollars in all avenues. So while that's happening,

00:20:42.220 again, this multimillion dollar project from both the federal government onto the province of Ontario

00:20:48.460 is yet another example of this regurgitating trend of dumping in money to an industry that is not

00:20:55.100 pumping back the same kind of economic yield, whether in terms of jobs, whether in terms of the

00:21:00.380 actual authentic consumer interest in electric vehicles, the best to be in the Canadian market,

00:21:05.580 which as we have covered multiple times, is in decline, I believe, the numbers I'm looking at was

00:21:11.500 the sales figures that accounted for 8.9% of new vehicles were correct in October of this year,

00:21:18.940 which was a year over year decline of nearly 42% from October 2024. So again, looking at the trends of

00:21:26.300 consumer interest, looking at the trends of whether Norfolk in Quebec and a number of other plants

00:21:31.900 across the country that have closed down both to do with tariffs, but also to do with EV specific

00:21:37.340 shortages of demand and activity, even with our Canadian taxpayer dollars, those subsidies are still

00:21:44.060 yielding dead companies, dead projects, and very little return, if any at all. So it's just one more

00:21:50.780 story, but it seems like you could at least say with this story, what this tells me is that Doug Ford

00:21:55.260 is still completely invested in this regime of EV subsidies. Huge waste of money. I like how you said

00:22:05.420 it's yielding dead projects. That is just so true. Isaac, what's your take on this? I'm trying to stay

00:22:11.580 hopeful. It is the holiday season and the Christmas season after all. I'm hoping that the delay of a year

00:22:17.420 means that Carney is going to stick a pin in it, but I can't help it. He did write this book where

00:22:22.060 he's talking about, you know, how much he loves electric vehicles, right? Like, I don't know what

00:22:27.260 to think. What do you, what's your take on this? Yeah, Chris, there's so much, so much to talk about

00:22:32.060 here. And we've been reporting on this for years now that if the federal government does not subsidize

00:22:37.100 EVs, no one buys them. They don't sell. People don't want them. They don't work in the winter. I mean,

00:22:41.820 the list I could go on and on. It's minus 30 here today in December. You think I want to be driving an EV,

00:22:47.020 which we've seen the data on that too. Like the range plummets in the winter. It's terrible.

00:22:51.020 Alberta's grid is on already on the verge of failure. And now you want everyone to plug in EVs?

00:22:55.500 What do you think is going to happen? I mean, it's ridiculous. And even more importantly than 0.95

00:23:00.780 that, just at the baseline level, why is the federal government subsidizing private industry?

00:23:05.580 It makes no sense. If, if people wanted to buy it, the government doesn't need to be subsidizing it.

00:23:11.020 And then consumers should be asking, why does the federal government want this subsidized?

00:23:16.300 pretty, pretty poignant question there. Like, why do they want it subsidized? What, what do they have

00:23:21.180 to gain from everyone driving EVs aside from the fact that none of our electrical grids would work?

00:23:27.260 I mean, that's pretty terrible. But yeah, no, Chris, I mean, as for the actual ban, the year ban, I mean,

00:23:35.020 look, Smith has celebrated it because of course they had a nationwide nationwide campaign against the

00:23:40.620 EV ban against the production cap, the emissions cap. And, and she did get both of those to her

00:23:45.980 credit in the MOU as critical of that people have been just because of the pipeline. There are things

00:23:51.180 in there that are very beneficial, but look, what was it by, by 2035, the liberals initially had planned

00:23:57.900 to stop ICE vehicles, gas vehicles altogether. I mean, this is ridiculous. And then at the same

00:24:05.260 time at which we've discussed prior as well, we're tariffing Chinese EVs. So it's like, we, we don't

00:24:12.460 want cheap EVs obviously because we're tariffing them, but we are still going to ban gas cars. So

00:24:19.740 we don't want affordable EVs. I mean, they're ridiculously priced as well. Like I see people

00:24:24.460 driving new Teslas and it's like, that's a hundred thousand dollar car, if not more, like who can afford

00:24:28.540 this stuff? We're talking about the liberals celebrating their tax cut, which gives people

00:24:35.500 11 bucks a year. And we're talking about a hundred thousand dollar cars. I mean, come on, man, this is

00:24:39.340 crazy, but yeah, no, it is a terrible story. I mean, it is really that simple to me though. The,

00:24:43.580 the federal government should in no way, shape or form be subsidizing, um, private industry. I don't

00:24:47.500 know why they're involved in any private industry. Uh, the, the government getting involved in anything

00:24:52.700 just makes it worse. Of course, uh, the free market and private industry always, always, always does it

00:24:57.900 better. So I, I just want the federal government with their hands and nothing at all. Uh, they, they,

00:25:03.500 they seem to want their hands in everything. Amen. Willie, do you want to do jump in there?

00:25:07.980 Yes. I wanted to mention that two of the top five highest selling, and these two, by the way,

00:25:13.820 are our neck and shoulders over the rest of the pack, but two of the top five most sold EVs,

00:25:21.100 most popular EVs in Canada's marketplace are each over 70, well into the seventies, $80,000. It's

00:25:28.780 Tesla model Y and model three, both Teslas, both coming from Elon Musk. Of course, not all Canadians 1.00

00:25:34.700 may be happy that given political inclinations in the past. I love free speech. I'm really happy

00:25:39.180 Elon Musk did that. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you have that story as well. While at the same time,

00:25:43.580 again, you have this tariff regime against Chinese EVs. Here in Brazil, we have the, uh,

00:25:49.580 most popular Chinese EV maker available. I actually, when I order Ubers very often, I'm

00:25:54.540 often picked up in a BYD. I think it stands for build your dreams. Now I'm not by any means endorsing

00:26:00.060 this company or endorsing their product, but I am saying, I mean, the retail price in China is

00:26:04.540 around 12 to 16,000 us dollars for this kind of a simple car. I can't tell you exactly the model

00:26:10.620 make, but the make is BYD. And it's a very popular car among Uber drivers in this country. Uh, you know,

00:26:16.860 it gets the job done for the most part. Uh, but when you're doing that kind of exchange and you're kind

00:26:22.220 of borrowing from, uh, you know, a major player for playing in your market, I guess the priority really

00:26:27.740 isn't absolute EVs at that point as well. Now it's nice to see Carney moving back a little bit,

00:26:32.780 but, uh, I spoke to one of perhaps his friends, if not his future, best friend and a great friend

00:26:38.780 of Canada, as he said himself, uh, California governor Gavin Newsom. I, I caught up with him

00:26:43.100 towards the end of COP30. I don't know if I, um, published much on it in the past, but I actually

00:26:48.860 asked him on the record about his EV menu because California has, you know, has the same exact 2035

00:26:54.380 rule, no new vehicle sales, anything besides, uh, zero EV, uh, or zero emissions vehicles.

00:27:01.500 Right. Uh, and I asked him if he would be willing to push that back and given the pressures he's

00:27:05.900 seeing, uh, both economically in California, as well as other places as well. And, uh, you know,

00:27:10.860 he, he, he didn't seem open to that notion at all. I think he seemed very, uh, much of the spirit

00:27:16.460 of doubling down on that. And I definitely think in the case of Mark Carney, unless we get, you know,

00:27:21.660 a few years closer to 2035, I don't think he will be, you know, maybe bluntly throwing a decade

00:27:28.380 further or, you know, tarnishing the policy as a whole. I do believe there is this ideological

00:27:34.860 elite mindset, which by the way, Gavin Newsom is a perfect poster boy for this, you know, high income, 0.91

00:27:40.700 California, uh, you know, high carbon hypocrite elite, where you have a person who I generally 0.91

00:27:47.100 believe. And I talked to him, you know, personally, even off the record, he seems to me like someone 0.97

00:27:51.660 that celebrates the fact that him and a lot of his buddies and Californians are at least seen as rich

00:27:58.140 or high income and they can afford it. Now, of course, not every one person from California is rich.

00:28:02.220 A lot of them are leaving California as they haven't been able to afford life there on basis.

00:28:07.100 The most expensive city in the whole country is San Francisco, but not to talk about the U S too much,

00:28:11.660 but I definitely think the, the marketplace of buyers that are looking to buy these kinds of

00:28:17.420 vehicles, like a Tesla model three model Y or people that are already in a pretty sound economic

00:28:22.220 situation where they can look at their car that is retailing above $70,000. And that doesn't include

00:28:27.980 expenses to do with the day-to-day repairs or to do with any additional resources, winter tires,

00:28:33.180 by the way, Isaac and I were catching up on the whole winter situation of driving before the show

00:28:37.420 was starting because Edmonton is seeing yet another soul storm, I'm assuming. But, you know,

00:28:41.740 with all this going on, I really feel like that $1,000 partial EV, or I think it was $2,500 and the

00:28:50.620 5,000 full EV rebates as much as big as they are and as high cost as they are as a program. I don't

00:28:56.620 think it's making the yes or no difference as often as people think, because at the end of the day,

00:29:01.580 these are people that have a pretty decent income and a decent economic background that are looking to

00:29:06.540 even buy it in this market in the first place. One thing I just wanted to add, sorry, yeah, no,

00:29:12.540 just in defense, and I have no love for Newsom, but in his defense, the EVs in California are much more

00:29:18.620 feasible than in Canada. As I said, the data on this are very clear. They are terrible in the winter.

00:29:24.860 If you have an EV and you live in Edmonton, for example, you need a second car. Like, you just aren't

00:29:29.740 driving that thing in the winter. You need a summer and a winter car. So yeah, I'd say you're pretty rich.

00:29:33.500 If you've got a summer and a winter car, you know, you're doing all right.

00:29:36.940 Yeah, you're not hurting.

00:29:39.100 So I just wanted to say that, because Canadians can see these data, like it's public information.

00:29:43.580 They know that these cars are terrible in the winter. People aren't thinking, oh, it's minus 40.

00:29:47.180 Let's fire up the Tesla. So I just wanted to say that, because obviously California EVs,

00:29:54.220 I don't know their electrical grid situation. But again, I assume it's not as trained as ours,

00:29:57.900 because one of the biggest problems in winter is people plugging in heaters. Because of the high

00:30:02.700 amperage and voltage on those, it uses a ton of power. But having electric vehicles at every

00:30:08.620 house will obviously amplify that strain greatly. Yeah, we get alerts coming through our phones

00:30:13.900 in winter in the morning saying, everybody don't use your hair dryer. You know, beware of plugging in

00:30:19.180 your toaster. But we're all supposed to have an electric powered battery, a battery powered vehicle

00:30:25.340 plugged in outside in minus 30. That's super weird. You know, between the fact that we do not have the

00:30:33.260 energy for this that I just pointed out, and we do not have the money to build the infrastructure to

00:30:39.820 create the energy for this, for example, if we changed all of our personal vehicles that we own right

00:30:45.820 now, I'm not talking trucking, I'm just talking personal vehicles, we would need 13 new can do

00:30:52.860 reactors, those big ones that you see in Pickering in Ontario, okay, I'm not talking the little modular

00:30:59.420 ones. No, the big ones, okay, the can do's 13 of them. Those things cost like $15 billion each, they take

00:31:08.460 like 10 years to build like, I know, right? So that's crazy pants, we do not have the money, or the

00:31:17.260 infrastructure to do this. And it's almost as if the government doesn't care. And they just want fewer

00:31:27.100 people, I don't know, to own personal vehicles, for whatever reason, you know, going out on a limb

00:31:34.460 there doesn't make any sense to me. I'm hoping that if enough people keep on screaming and yelling at

00:31:39.580 the government, that they will just shy away from this and drop this mandate altogether. I will quickly

00:31:44.300 point out last thing on the ban on gasoline and diesel powered vehicles. Oh, I will also point out,

00:31:49.340 we have a t shirt. Look at my t shirt. Look how awesome that is. It's like you knew what we were

00:31:55.100 talking about today. Right? This is great. And I love the muscle car. I will also point out that yes,

00:32:04.300 the total ban was supposed to kick in in 2035. But the incremental ban was supposed to start in like

00:32:11.180 two weeks. So that means that all vehicle dealerships were going to have to sell more

00:32:15.900 than 20% of their new stock was gonna have to be battery powered vehicles. It doesn't include hybrids,

00:32:22.300 folks. If your vehicles using gas, it does not count. Okay, for this ridiculous mandate. So they really

00:32:29.260 dodged one here, but they got to get rid of it all together. All right. One more thing. Sorry,

00:32:33.020 Chris, I just wanted to add quick because I just came to me while you were talking. And I think it's

00:32:36.380 a very, very important thing to note. I don't know entirely how involved Stephen Guibo was at the

00:32:43.420 jump getting this going. But of course, we know he resigned. So the biggest proponent of the gas ban

00:32:49.260 may have just left the Liberal Caucus. And I do want to say that that certainly works in Carney's favor

00:32:55.020 as to whether he will press the brakes on this going forward. So I see what you did there.

00:33:01.980 Yeah, I'm so happy Guibo's gone. I could do like a little Muppet dance about it. This is such good

00:33:06.060 news. All right, let's quickly wrap up on groceries. Sorry to end on a downer. But it looks like

00:33:11.260 groceries are going to cost us even more in the new year. It's saying grocery prices are going to post

00:33:16.380 the biggest monthly jump since January of 2023. So this is right now, this is a combination of a lot of

00:33:22.940 things. In Canada, it's typically inflation. And then in some rare instances, there was something weird

00:33:29.020 happening more of where you're sitting there will lead when it came to coffee prices and stuff.

00:33:32.940 There was crazy stuff happening. That's why coffee is disgustingly expensive. Even if you go to Walmart

00:33:38.300 with one of the big Maxwell House tins or the folders tins, they're over 20 bucks. Now,

00:33:43.260 I used to be able to get them like for a good price for nine bucks, like year after year. So some things

00:33:48.860 have just gone crazy. Where are you guys when it comes to the grocery prices? It just looks like it's

00:33:53.500 going to keep getting worse. Yeah, I could start, I suppose. A few things, Chris, because I have the

00:34:00.700 data here. This is a monthly increase, coffee increase by almost 30%. And frozen beef, 18%. And

00:34:10.620 the coffee, whatever, I don't know the whole story there. But the beef, I mean, I've seen stories on

00:34:14.380 this. It's ridiculous. Like, for example, there was a video someone posted online, it's in Australia, 0.95

00:34:19.340 it's Canadian beef, they're paying less for it. It's like, what? How are we paying more for beef

00:34:24.700 that we made in this province where I am? Like, it just makes no sense to me. And even in the States,

00:34:29.500 like, it's the same story. They have Canadian beef in some of their stores, I'm sure that they're

00:34:33.580 literally paying less for than we are in literally miles, not even kilometers away from where the beef was

00:34:41.340 literally made. So it makes absolutely no sense why frozen beef rose 20%. I don't know why that is. But

00:34:47.100 it's funny, Chris, we talk about inflation. I was thinking about this a few days ago.

00:34:51.900 Just just as I do. These are the things that keep me up at night, Chris.

00:34:56.700 We just we just inflation has gotten to a point where it's like, oh, it's just inflation. Like,

00:35:02.700 people just say that, oh, it's just inflation as if it's a given. What do you mean? Like,

00:35:06.540 why are the prices going up? The inflation should be in the negatives. Like, I want to see the grocery

00:35:11.180 prices go down, we shouldn't be paying $500 for like a normal amount of groceries every time we go to

00:35:16.380 the store. I remember as a kid, like it would be like 150 bucks. And we're talking about inflation

00:35:21.420 in the small percentages. Like, no, it's clearly doubled, tripled, quadrupled, like in our lifetimes.

00:35:26.060 This is insanity. So I don't know how that's the problem where it gets me, Chris. I don't know what

00:35:32.700 we'd have to do to get a 200% decrease in grocery prices. Like, what can you what can actually be done?

00:35:39.260 Because it is ridiculous. And I don't I genuinely don't comprehend how a median income family, let's

00:35:45.740 say, affords to feed themselves. Like, really, that's where we're at in Canada. How do people

00:35:50.140 afford to feed themselves? It costs too much. It's why you see record demand at food banks. Yes,

00:35:55.260 I know that some people are abusing it that are brand new to Canada. But when you call the local

00:36:00.300 food banks and ask them, no, no, they say they're seeing record amounts of working Canadian families

00:36:05.740 with kids. Record amount. So yes, it's a major problem. Willita wanted to leave with you. 0.91

00:36:12.140 What is your take on groceries? What can we do to bring down the inflation? And then I'll wrap up the

00:36:17.580 show. Well, I was thinking about I was looking through my local software documented flyer and

00:36:21.820 seeing exactly what I can get with $11 if I was in that situation where $11 would be the only thing I'd

00:36:26.140 save. But I'm struggling to get a can of or a pack of eight cans of Red Bull. I mean, that's $13.99

00:36:32.700 on sale. Of course, that's a sale that takes it down by $1 because the regular price of shoppers is

00:36:38.860 $14.99. So even those flyer promos are really underwhelming, frankly. I mean, it's, it's, it's,

00:36:44.780 yeah, well, cents a dollar here and there. Again, and you know, the funny thing is, when I walk into

00:36:50.460 a shopper's drug mart or a superstore or anything under the BC optimum umbrella, I'm always seeing

00:36:55.260 people, you know, like pulling out their car, like people used to be impatient, you know, I think at the

00:36:59.580 checkout, just scan, pay and then take their stuff as they go. But now it's like pulling out the

00:37:05.180 optimum card, collecting the points, redeeming the points, taking out specific items, looking at the

00:37:10.780 flyers. I mean, the coupon geeks are now the norm because that's where people are being forced to.

00:37:16.300 So in terms of what we can do as consumers, I definitely encourage people to pick up whatever

00:37:21.260 offers they can find. But in terms of the economic equation that we have discussed, even on the show

00:37:26.060 recently, I mean, this whole industrial carbon tax has to be discussed with the same level of

00:37:31.660 scrutiny as a consumer carbon tax. Because the real difference here is not the fact that one has more

00:37:37.180 or less impact on the consumer, but more so one has a more transparent effect. And that's kind of the

00:37:41.900 problem between Ottawa and the rest of Canada's. In Ottawa, they know what they're doing, but in the

00:37:45.900 rest of Canada, we're only seeing things after the fact. So I definitely think, you know, for the

00:37:50.220 Conservative Party as an opposition party trying to move our economy in a better direction,

00:37:54.140 I would be very pleased to see them continue to hit on the carbon industrial carbon tax,

00:37:58.860 even within the whole MOEU situation in Alberta. I know pipelines are a big priority for Daniel Smith,

00:38:04.780 but I mean, you know, massive increases in industrial carbon taxes is not going to take

00:38:09.340 Albertans pocketbooks to any better place than they are right now. So definitely want to see that

00:38:14.300 ongoing scrutiny on industrial carbon tax. In terms of the trade and tariff situation, I know this

00:38:19.660 has been a topic that has divided the right in Canada. It's very interesting how we had Scott

00:38:24.140 Moe, you know, shuffle back and forth, Daniel Smith as well. And of course, Ontario Premier

00:38:28.860 Doug Ford had a completely different position in Europe as well. It's the topic of the Canola

00:38:33.500 situation relative to EV terrorists from China. Now, I don't want to go back and talk about EVs,

00:38:37.580 Chris, but I do want to say, I, for the record, as much as we might be upset with Beijing's 0.79

00:38:42.700 way of doing things and human rights record for many reasons, especially their interference on

00:38:46.940 Canadian politics as well, you know, where our system's a victim to that interference,

00:38:51.180 unfortunately. I am very in favour and I would definitely celebrate some sort of a trade progress

00:38:57.660 with China, with Beijing in terms of getting them to buy our items at zero tariffs, you know,

00:39:03.820 in the canola sector and other exportable produce. And in return, I think it would be a fair deal bringing

00:39:09.500 in, you know, some Chinese technology within the EV sector. It would be interesting to see. Of course,

00:39:14.860 Doug Ford's Ontario has a great auto sector in manufacturing. It does not want to see

00:39:19.740 increased competition coming in from a cheap lever jurisdiction. But at the same time, I definitely

00:39:24.860 think free trade is a net benefit. And I would love if free trade was the norm between every nation on

00:39:30.940 earth. And I think Canada definitely should align itself with its economic interests before its

00:39:35.820 duplical vision. And that means perhaps opening up with countries that are not the most friendly in

00:39:41.980 terms of trade and exchange. I definitely think we just we can't afford to be democracy builders at

00:39:46.540 this time. Our pocketbooks are a little bit short. And I think, you know, in terms of China's, you

00:39:51.020 know, great economic influence on us and on the rest of the world, I think it's time to embrace more

00:39:57.020 free trade. If that means, again, pulling down one or two trade barriers on a specific sector or two,

00:40:02.700 especially if it doesn't include anything to do with national security, which I actually can be in this

00:40:05.980 conversation for for a separate episode, you know, the whole civil live and this is a project. So

00:40:12.220 the fun story for the viewers is how I got myself to turn off eventually came from the democracy fund

00:40:17.420 conference in July 2024, where I presented a project in front of then journalist Andrew Lawton

00:40:23.260 and Keane Bextie with Juno news. Now, I presented them a project about the civil liberties risk

00:40:29.180 with going full EV because every EV, like modern cars that are gas powered, but especially EVs

00:40:34.860 are entirely capable of being remotely controlled given their technological privacy. So think about,

00:40:40.460 you know, a government regime where you have, you know, full population running on purely EVs and

00:40:46.220 having to control human behavior from a central authority. I think technologically it would be

00:40:50.620 very possible. And I think China would definitely be one of the leaders of embracing that, but I don't

00:40:54.700 think Canada would be entirely immune from that deteriorating situation of freedoms should

00:41:00.860 technology continue to run rampant without some sort of backlash of civil liberties focused

00:41:05.500 legislation. So it's an interesting topic. I think EVs, there's an economic angle to going against

00:41:11.420 EV mandates, but I'd also think there might be a civil liberties angle that we're not discussing

00:41:15.260 enough. Wow. That is definitely the topic for a good deep dive discussion. Wow. Folks,

00:41:20.300 thank you so much for watching that. Thank you for the inputs on this guys. To sum up,

00:41:25.020 I would say the main things that they need to do to fight things like increasing costs,

00:41:30.220 they need to do a few things. They need to balance their budget and start paying down the debt. Okay.

00:41:35.740 So slash spending, like cut, cut, cut, take a chainsaw to the number of bureaucrats that we have in 0.94

00:41:42.220 Ottawa, cut all unnecessary spending, cut all the crap that they're calling foreign aid. And by that,

00:41:48.700 I mean gender rice in Vietnam, like absolute nonsense. Okay. Cut all of that so much so that 1.00

00:41:55.020 we have a surplus and start paying down the debt. Number one, that's important because then that

00:41:59.980 means the bank of Canada is not hinting the print, print key anymore to paper over their deficits year

00:42:06.300 after year. So that will help to slow down inflation. And then when it comes to sopping up those inflated

00:42:13.420 dollars, they need to get out of the way and have people making more things, tangible items, things

00:42:21.340 like vehicles, things like homes, actual assets that people sink money into that will soak up the flood

00:42:29.660 of inflated dollars that we have around here. So that's my, you know, little thumbnail economics

00:42:34.700 lesson for now that would help fight the inflation problem that we're dealing with right now. Lastly,

00:42:40.620 I'll put it this way. The next time you're watching mainstream media and they chirp about, oh, you

00:42:46.620 know, inflation is slowing down. It's only going up this much this year. Like, aren't we all grateful

00:42:52.140 and celebratory? No, no. Imagine that you lose track of your senses and you gain a ton of weight. You gain

00:43:02.700 25 pounds a year for three years. Holy smokes, you're 75 pounds overweight. You're in a serious

00:43:10.380 health crisis right now. If you just gain an extra five pounds in the fourth year, you're not better

00:43:18.620 off. You're still 80 pounds overweight. That is what inflation is doing right now. So I just want our

00:43:25.820 viewers to remember that next time they're watching mainstream news and they hear inflation is going

00:43:29.900 less up less fast. Like, that's not good news. We need deflation. We need them to soak up those

00:43:35.740 inflated dollars and then our prices will come down. Guys, I got to run. I have to go chat with Franco

00:43:41.340 about industrial carbon taxes. I just wanted to say thank you so much for all of your work all year.

00:43:46.700 Thank you for contributing to free press in Canada and I wish you all the best over the holidays.

00:43:52.300 Merry Christmas.

Juno News - December 21, 2025

Carney’s tiny $11 tax cut

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