Juno News - Chrystia Freeland admits ＂wrath＂ of middle class Canadians ＂burns hot＂

00:00:00.000 Transcription by CastingWords

00:00:30.000 Thank you.

00:01:00.000 welcome to Canada's most irreverent talk show

00:01:15.480 this is the Andrew Lawton Show

00:01:18.540 brought to you by True North

00:01:19.980 hello and welcome to you all

00:01:26.720 happy Monday

00:01:27.400 this is Canada's most irreverent talk show

00:01:29.540 the andrew lawton show on true north on this monday june 10th 2024 we are i guess almost well

00:01:37.520 no we are beyond how no sorry i'm getting my days mixed up in like just a couple of weeks we'll be

00:01:42.860 halfway through the the year so if 2024 is not your bag we're like just about at the top of the

00:01:47.960 crest there and it'll all be downhill from there so take from that what you will but it is good to

00:01:53.300 have you on the show we'll be talking about the liberal government finally making up on its promise

00:01:58.300 of increasing the capital gains tax hike.

00:02:01.720 I know this is a promise a lot of people in the country

00:02:03.660 were hoping they would not follow through on.

00:02:06.760 But as we spoke about last week with Conservative MP Adam Chambers,

00:02:11.080 it seems to be that the government was very keen on getting a windfall

00:02:14.900 from everyone just like horrified and terrified

00:02:17.460 and selling off their assets and having to pay the lower tax rate on that.

00:02:21.960 But we'll talk about that in a little bit

00:02:23.260 because Canadian doctors are quite frustrated

00:02:26.100 that the liberals are forging ahead and not giving them a carve out on this. Also, we'll check in

00:02:31.100 with our friend Chris Sims later on in the program here. And I think in doing so, that will be rather

00:02:37.840 fascinating because she has a lot of opinions on this attempt at gagging the oil and gas sector, 0.73

00:02:44.100 which the federal government is doing. They're doing the old 50 shades of gray to the oil and

00:02:48.680 gas industry. So if you don't get that reference, don't Google it, please. But let me begin. This

00:02:53.460 story is coming from a video clip a video clip that i actually tweeted out everyone's uh honing

00:02:59.780 in on like two syllables in particular from justin trudeau but to give some context here he was

00:03:05.420 speaking to the federation of canadian municipalities and there was a moment where

00:03:09.680 someone i believe it was a municipal mayor of some kind asked him a question about government

00:03:14.680 spending he asked this question to justin trudeau about how much the feds are spending about the

00:03:19.700 debt the deficit and how if at all justin trudeau could ever hope to balance the budget now the

00:03:25.340 whole clip is over three minutes i think and whenever we play that much justin trudeau i get

00:03:30.700 a bunch of angry emails from people that don't want to look that much so we'll skip out on the

00:03:34.700 question we'll skip out on most of the answer i want to go specifically to a little section at

00:03:40.500 the end when he makes a claim that is in and of itself something we've heard from before but

00:03:45.360 I want you to pay attention not to what he said, but to the reaction to it, understanding that this

00:03:53.140 is a room full of Canadian mayors. This is a room full of elected officials, people that want to

00:03:58.920 suck up to the federal government normally to get federal funding to get Justin Trudeau to visit.

00:04:03.520 These are mayors of cities and towns that are not having any of what Justin Trudeau is selling. 0.96

00:04:09.340 Take a look.

00:04:10.340 Our economy, macroeconomically, is doing better than just about anyone else out there.

00:04:17.040 And companies around the world are seeing that because since 2015, we've seen a 60%

00:04:23.240 increase in direct investment in Canada across the country, from Volkswagen to others.

00:04:29.680 But we've also, just last year, we were the third largest country in the world in absolute

00:04:35.660 terms after the US and Brazil for foreign direct investment. We made the conscious and deliberate

00:04:43.020 decision to say if the Canadian economy is as strong as it is right now, which it is,

00:04:47.980 we need to put that in service of helping Canadians with the cost of living right now

00:04:53.980 without increasing inflation. And that's why the Bank of Canada was able to just drop it,

00:04:59.260 drop the rate on Wednesday because inflation is coming down and now interest rates are going to

00:05:03.820 to come down as well. So that was a choice we made. And in parenthesis, every single

00:05:08.760 one of those programs, dental, pharma, childcare, are things that the Conservative Party chose

00:05:15.920 to vote against because they're worried that inflation was too high. Well, we're dropping

00:05:22.520 inflation and we're being there for Canadians, not with cuts and austerity, and we're going

00:05:26.760 to keep doing that. And on the carbon price, it actually puts more money in the pockets

00:05:30.600 It's eight out of 10 Canadian families.

00:05:32.600 That's a parliamentary budge officer who says that.

00:05:35.260 It's absolutely true.

00:05:37.900 Oh, interesting.

00:05:42.320 So he says, oh yeah, the carbon tax, everyone makes more money.

00:05:45.880 Not everyone, eight out of 10 Canadians make more money than the carbon tax cost them.

00:05:51.360 And then everyone in that room just starts booing the guy.

00:05:53.720 They clearly aren't buying it.

00:05:55.340 And did you see as he said that, him, I don't know if it's possible to put a screen grab

00:05:59.420 up of it, but you can watch the clip later. He sinks back into his seat and just smirks, this

00:06:05.280 big giant smirk. And then as people are booing him, he says it's totally true. And then he just

00:06:11.160 laughs. Those two syllables, as if to tell you, you know what, I don't even care what you think

00:06:16.920 because this is what I'm doing. And if it costs Canadians extra tough luck, it was just this evil

00:06:22.820 maniacal cackle of sorts that Justin Trudeau was giving again to fellow heads of government,

00:06:28.060 To mayors across this country of towns, cities, municipal, regional municipalities, this is what he's doing.

00:06:34.900 He just doesn't care anymore.

00:06:37.040 He just doesn't care.

00:06:38.800 So originally it was all the premiers that were alienated by this.

00:06:41.980 Conservative premiers, even the liberal premier in Newfoundland, to some extent the new Democrat premier in Manitoba.

00:06:48.500 But now municipal mayors are saying to Justin Trudeau, boo this man.

00:06:52.880 They just don't want what he is selling.

00:06:55.120 and I find that interesting because I've often remarked on Justin Trudeau losing his shine and

00:07:01.440 I don't mean like wiping off the black face I mean losing the the aura that he once had about

00:07:05.980 him where people would just look at him as though he could do no wrong right now they are looking at

00:07:11.080 him in the opposite way as though he can do no right because increasingly that is the tendency

00:07:15.800 of this government and he's alienated his partners at the provincial and municipal level so much so

00:07:21.720 that they are booing him at a conference when he tries to once again issue a defense of his carbon

00:07:28.240 tax. Now, what I find noteworthy here beyond that is that this isn't going anywhere. In, I think

00:07:36.360 it's two weeks from today, there's going to be a by-election in St. Paul's. Now, St. Paul's, I

00:07:41.920 forget who I was talking about this. I can't remember if it was I was interviewed on their

00:07:45.460 show or they were on my show, but within the last week in some interview, I had a conversation with

00:07:50.460 someone about the St. Paul's by-election. And I don't normally cover the St. Paul's by-election

00:07:54.540 because St. Paul's is about as liberal as it gets. If you were to just have a situation in which you

00:07:59.900 say, we don't even really need to have an election there, let's just put the liberal in and call it a

00:08:04.620 day, you could probably make a case that St. Paul's was the place to do that. Not that I would

00:08:09.620 support that, I believe in democracy, but St. Paul's has just been at this ironclad liberal

00:08:14.900 stronghold for years. But right now, it's not. Right now, there is a chance that the Conservatives

00:08:20.840 could actually win St. Paul's. Now, there are a lot of people who believe they won't, and a lot

00:08:25.180 of people who think that, yeah, even if the Conservatives are doing relatively well, Toronto

00:08:29.660 St. Paul's will still stay in Liberal hands. It's Leslie Church as the Liberal candidate, and I

00:08:34.300 believe Don Stewart, or Don, Don, Don Stewart. Yeah, Don Stewart's the Conservative. But it'll be

00:08:40.080 close. And even if the Conservatives are within 5% of the Liberals and the Liberals win,

00:08:44.400 And that is a strong and stunning rebuke of Justin Trudeau, that if you're a liberal in

00:08:49.780 this country, would make you, should make you look at him and be like, you clearly have

00:08:54.580 taken us as far as you can.

00:08:56.280 The only way you can take us now is further into the ground, which as a party that believes

00:09:00.580 maybe we want to do something in the future, like be elected again down the road, we are

00:09:04.680 not too keen on.

00:09:06.780 But when Trudeau is just sitting back on stage and cackling at his critics, this is not a

00:09:12.840 guy that's going to effectively communicate his message to Canadians, because clearly he holds

00:09:17.820 Canadians who disagree with him, even people, again, who are mayors in such contempt. He holds

00:09:23.980 them in such contempt. And it's the way that we now see this tone shift from Chrystia Freeland as

00:09:29.940 well, which is quite an interesting one. Now, Chrystia Freeland, she's the deputy prime minister, 0.99

00:09:34.860 also the finance minister. She is the point person on selling this carbon tax. Sorry,

00:09:40.380 there's a Freudian slip she sells that too but the point person on selling the capital gains 0.99

00:09:45.480 tax hike the government is raising the capital gains tax by about 50 percent they announced

00:09:51.340 this in the budget then they pulled it out of the budget and said they were going to put it out

00:09:55.460 separately they still have not come up with a plan to do this so just today they're introducing a

00:10:01.580 ways and means motion which is basically a stopgap measure pending a formal legislative cementing of

00:10:07.500 this in the fall. So it's a bit procedural, it's going ahead as of I think June 24th, CRA is going

00:10:14.140 to continue to or start taxing based on the increase, which is why companies and high net

00:10:20.820 worth, high investment individuals are just dumping a whole bunch of assets now so they can save in

00:10:25.740 some cases, hundreds of thousands, millions of dollars by paying the lower rate. Now, all of

00:10:31.800 this notwithstanding, hear the way that Chrystia Freeland defends this policy. Hear the way in this 0.99

00:10:38.380 clip from a press conference she gave in which she sells this to Canadians. But I would also like

00:10:46.300 to ask Canada's 1%, in fact, Canada's 0.13% to consider this. What kind of a Canada do you want

00:10:59.580 to live in? Do you want to live in a country where kids go to school hungry? Do you want to

00:11:07.460 live in a country where a teenage girl gets pregnant just because she doesn't have the money 1.00

00:11:13.920 to buy birth control? Do you want to live in a country where the only young Canadians who can 1.00

00:11:20.840 buy their own homes are those with parents who can help with a down payment? Do you want to live in

00:11:28.640 country where we make the investments we need in health care, in housing, in old age pensions,

00:11:36.720 but we lack the political will to pay for them and choose instead to pass a ballooning debt

00:11:44.880 onto our children. Do you want to live in a country where those at the very top live lives

00:11:53.280 of luxury but must do so in gated communities behind ever higher fences using private health

00:12:02.160 care and airplanes because the public sphere is so degraded and the wrath of the vast majority

00:12:10.640 of their less privileged compatriots burns so hot every canadian across our great country 0.91

00:12:20.960 needs to ask themselves these same questions because the stakes could not be higher.

00:12:31.800 You're on the board of the World Economic Forum. You literally party every year with the global

00:12:39.460 elites and you're like, oh, these people with their private jets and all these people that

00:12:44.440 get private health care. And she owns multiple properties in the United Kingdom. She has a

00:12:50.300 rental unit in Ukraine. I think it's her husband has a place in New York. And she's like, oh, well,

00:12:55.220 at least I'm not in a gated community. I may own five homes in the three countries, but at least,

00:13:00.940 at least I don't. Well, maybe I am. Maybe I am a global elite. Okay. So that's Chrystia Freeland.

00:13:08.780 Sean just pointed out as well that she also, we should remind you to go with the cheap shot here, 0.87

00:13:14.860 where they weren't $700 sneakers.

00:13:17.360 I think they were like $740 sneakers plus tax.

00:13:20.700 So yeah, she wears $700 shoes 1.00

00:13:23.100 and she's like railing against the elites there

00:13:25.140 and pointing out how the society has turned against them.

00:13:29.060 The wrath, the wrath of ordinary people, 0.95

00:13:31.760 the wrath of the less privileged

00:13:33.160 is burning so hot right now.

00:13:35.260 At first, when I read the transcript,

00:13:36.580 I thought she was making a global warming point.

00:13:38.940 No, she was talking about the anger of the plebs, 1.00

00:13:41.440 the anger of the ordinary folks like you and I.

00:13:43.940 and what I find to be so interesting here is that we are seeing time and time again from

00:13:49.640 Chrystia Freeland this idea of just her being everything she's railing against her being the 0.70

00:13:56.480 global elite her being the one that is going to apparently solve the problems caused by the

00:14:02.520 global elites as well so I don't quite get how this is going to work out for us I think as a

00:14:08.000 Canadian I'm just generally of the mind that we're whatever is going to happen we're going to get

00:14:12.060 uh just absolutely screwed over by it and that's why the capital gains increase is an interesting

00:14:16.720 one because they're trying to frame this as only going after the wealthy it only targets the super

00:14:22.000 rich it only targets the elites it only goes after people that have the old private jets and

00:14:27.540 whatever uh justin trudeau interestingly enough you may have heard he did an interview i think

00:14:32.060 it was with the new york times last week and he used pierre polyev's line he used pierre polyev's

00:14:38.860 line in which he talked about the have-nots versus the have-yots. So Trudeau is now realizing,

00:14:44.520 oh, you know, this Polyev guy, he's in the polls when he starts talking about the elites. He's in 0.95

00:14:48.260 the polls when he starts talking about these issues. Maybe, just maybe, I should just start

00:14:52.420 cribbing his language. So Chrystia Freeland is doing something very similar there, where she's

00:14:57.040 like, you know, these people, these global elites are the cause of your problem. She's actually

00:15:02.420 becoming a populist now. She's becoming a populist. Maybe she'll be resigning her membership 1.00

00:15:07.880 from the World Economic Forum before long

00:15:11.060 because, well, I can't abide by these people

00:15:13.380 with their private jets.

00:15:14.700 Well, the wrath of the working man, 0.99

00:15:16.800 the wrath of the working man is burning so bright.

00:15:20.880 But there's a serious, I mean, all of it's serious,

00:15:23.040 but there's an especially serious point

00:15:24.920 to be had about the capital gains increase

00:15:28.500 because this is an example where the government

00:15:30.740 is trying to look at one little thing and saying,

00:15:33.460 we can make your problems go away

00:15:36.180 by taking aim at this group.

00:15:38.180 They're saying the super wealthy, the super wealthy.

00:15:40.900 That's what they're talking about there.

00:15:42.340 The way she describes it is that we just get that tiny little teeny itsy bitsy group

00:15:46.400 with their private jets and their gated communities and their private healthcare.

00:15:50.360 If we get them to pay more, then there will be, let's go through the list she provides.

00:15:56.340 There will be fewer hungry kids.

00:15:58.840 There will be fewer teenage girls getting pregnant.

00:16:01.600 and there will be fewer young Canadians unable to buy homes.

00:16:07.280 So if you see a teenage girl on the street

00:16:10.020 and she has gotten pregnant,

00:16:11.720 that actually could have been solved

00:16:13.760 if Galen Weston had to pay a higher capital gains tax,

00:16:18.240 believe it or not.

00:16:19.540 If you got like the Thompson family,

00:16:21.520 yeah, if they paid a little bit more,

00:16:23.440 then little Susie's not pregnant

00:16:25.040 and little Timmy is going to school with a full belly

00:16:28.720 and that young couple next door to you

00:16:31.920 that lives in their parents' basement,

00:16:33.120 they're going to buy a home,

00:16:34.180 all if Galen Weston just pays a little bit more.

00:16:37.860 So the capital gains tax increase

00:16:39.580 is not, as the government presents it,

00:16:41.780 going to be a panacea.

00:16:43.060 And more importantly,

00:16:44.200 and I think this is the crucial point here,

00:16:46.200 it isn't just the super wealthy that's being affected.

00:16:49.700 It isn't just the super rich.

00:16:51.540 They want to say that this is just a billionaire tax,

00:16:55.000 but the reality is there are a lot of Canadians

00:16:57.500 they're going to be affected by this capital gains tax increase that do not fall at all into

00:17:02.740 that category of the super rich that don't fall into the category of the super wealthy that

00:17:07.460 certainly aren't living in gated communities or flying on private jets or getting private

00:17:12.120 healthcare necessarily and a lot of these people are ordinary small business owners because remember

00:17:17.160 it's people that own and operate small businesses who are not given any carve out or any exemption

00:17:23.560 whatsoever from this. So yeah, the super wealthy are going to be hit by it, but also small business

00:17:29.900 owners. And in particular, we've seen from the medical community in Canada, doctors who

00:17:33.960 look at their professional corporations as being a vehicle to save for retirement

00:17:38.500 are being especially penalized for this. I want to welcome into the show, Dr. Kathleen Ross,

00:17:43.660 who is the president of the Canadian Medical Association. Dr. Ross, good to speak with you.

00:17:48.360 Thanks for coming on today. Oh, thank you very much for having me.

00:17:51.440 So let's just begin with the mechanics of this. Why are physicians affected by this in a way that many other groups in Canada are not?

00:17:59.900 So it's important for Canadians and policymakers to understand that medical corporations are not like other conventional corporations.

00:18:07.980 And that is how many family physicians and other community-based physicians operate.

00:18:13.240 We don't incorporate to build a big practice so that we can sell it.

00:18:19.520 But we do use our corporations to keep money for retirement and other major life events like maternity care, parental leave or sick leave. 0.53

00:18:29.400 And, you know, honestly, with the with the current nationwide shortage of physicians, particularly those delivering the kind of primary care community access that we need, this this is a challenge.

00:18:41.420 You're never going to be able to sell your shares or make money off of a corporation.

00:18:47.520 Yeah, I think that's an important point.

00:18:49.360 And I would also add here that, you know, yes, doctors are paid well for the work that they do.

00:18:54.140 And I don't want to say the doctors are dealing with, you know, the economic hardships in a way that other people are.

00:18:59.140 But I think it's easy to overstate how wealthy the average family physician is or especially, you know, rural physicians.

00:19:05.580 And people often forget how much overhead they have as well to run their practices, you know, both in terms of they're dealing with the effects of inflation as well.

00:19:14.220 And, you know, medical products that they have to put in their offices are expensive.

00:19:17.500 So these people do not fit into this category of the super wealthy.

00:19:21.220 But the government's messaging on this tax increase has been that it's basically just billionaires who are affected.

00:19:27.380 Yeah. And I think that's just one piece of the misinformation that's come out with the announcements over the last several weeks.

00:19:32.860 You know, there are roughly 75,000 doctors practicing in Canada and half of those operate

00:19:39.820 as professional medical corporations. So the estimated 40,000 people impacted can't just

00:19:44.860 be the doctors that she's talking about. So I think we do have to take a step back and

00:19:49.820 really understand this. As you mentioned, self-employed physicians are responsible

00:19:54.780 for those critical infrastructure pieces. So to provide the community office that patients are

00:20:00.380 seen in we cover those overhead costs you like rent and staff and salaries and all the medical

00:20:05.660 supplies and office equipment and and at the moment that amounts to anywhere between 40 and 45

00:20:11.180 of our gross clinical revenue and the funding and provision of that critical infrastructure

00:20:16.700 is really not easily replaced i'm assuming that when this was announced you were trying to engage

00:20:23.900 your partners in the federal government on this and i mean obviously from what we've heard there

00:20:28.540 has not been a carve out for doctors but did it seem like they were receptive to this concern

00:20:33.100 at least at any stage in the process so we've been presenting the information that that federal

00:20:38.460 government asked about and they and they asked some questions after the fact uh you know and

00:20:42.940 we've presented our information i think in a fair and balanced way particularly as this is being

00:20:48.060 marketed as a tax fairness you know is this actually fair to professionally incorporated

00:20:54.060 physicians and the answer to that is no because unfortunately this will mean maximum capital gains

00:21:00.860 inclusion rate on the very first dollar that that earns capital gains inside of a professional

00:21:08.540 corporation there's no carve out at all that 250 000 that applies to individuals or the 1.25

00:21:15.740 million that applies to other small businesses or corporations does not in any way apply to

00:21:21.580 to professionally medical, medical professional corporations. So the other, the other piece that's

00:21:26.460 really important because it was mentioned in today's announcement is that we do not have

00:21:30.980 the ability to simply increase our fees to make up for tax increases or inflation as it relates

00:21:37.500 to overhead and other professionals may well be able to pass those costs along. And the thought

00:21:43.320 that we could just simply go and adjust our provincial agreements to make up for this change

00:21:49.420 at a federal level is is really misinformed so we do need to have these conversations we want to

00:21:55.420 continue to have these conversations and and really explain to the finance ministry how it

00:22:01.260 is that the health care system operates and and what role professional medical corporations have

00:22:07.660 in delivery of critical health care services to canadians and i should also point out i mean this

00:22:12.540 isn't doctors exploiting a loophole over the years governments have actively encouraged them to

00:22:17.420 to structure their businesses in this way

00:22:19.420 in lieu of fee increases, have they not?

00:22:21.840 Absolutely, and I think it's really important

00:22:24.480 to reiterate, and I know I've said it before,

00:22:28.140 but physicians train for a long time, more than a decade.

00:22:31.600 We don't start our careers

00:22:32.760 till we're well into our 30s most often.

00:22:35.900 Our rates are actually fixed for what we can earn

00:22:38.600 to pay off our debt, and most graduate

00:22:41.720 with an average debt of $300,000.

00:22:44.180 That's a substantial setback,

00:22:46.220 and our careers are shortened

00:22:48.120 because of how long it takes to get where we're going.

00:22:50.580 So these are critical pieces to consider.

00:22:54.700 We have to save for our retirement.

00:22:57.400 I mean, Canada does have a great deal

00:22:59.840 of social programs to support retirees,

00:23:02.580 but we are highly trained professionals

00:23:04.740 and saving for our own retirement makes sense,

00:23:07.940 where it may not make sense

00:23:09.400 to other pockets of workers in Canada.

00:23:12.180 But I think we do need to consider all of these things

00:23:15.840 as we look at shifting how we pay doctors

00:23:19.140 and how we save for our retirement.

00:23:21.660 So we know that there isn't gonna be a carve out.

00:23:23.940 We know the announcement is forging ahead.

00:23:25.820 And we know that as you indicated there,

00:23:27.460 doctors cannot just raise their fees to deal with this.

00:23:30.780 So realistically, what is going to come from this?

00:23:33.360 What's going to be the effect

00:23:34.500 now that the genie is out of the bottle, if you will?

00:23:37.740 So I think there is still space.

00:23:39.420 There are ways that we could recognize

00:23:41.240 professional corporations and allow them to have

00:23:44.180 $250,000 personal exemption that's afforded to individuals because our medical corporations are

00:23:50.500 in fact us as individuals. The other piece would be to to look at including medical corporations

00:23:57.380 in the 1.25 million lifetime exemption and again these are possibilities and I think although the

00:24:05.140 the bill has been proposed there's still space for us to have this conversation and we want to

00:24:09.940 make sure that we're sharing the right information so that the government can make appropriate

00:24:13.940 decisions and not risk destabilizing the critical parts of our healthcare system that we need. We

00:24:21.160 need physicians setting up in community practice, carrying that infrastructure and providing services

00:24:26.660 to Canadians. And, you know, we're already a little bit beleaguered and worn down and

00:24:32.040 carrying the burden of a healthcare system that in many ways is crumbling around us.

00:24:37.240 We don't need another reason to discourage physicians from setting up the practices and

00:24:43.100 delivering the services that Canadians need. So do I take from that that you remain at least

00:24:48.320 in some way optimistic that there is still a way to deal with this? The door is still open. I think

00:24:54.440 there's still time to have a conversation about the uniqueness of medical professional corporations

00:24:59.640 and we want to have those those discussions. All right well Dr. Kathleen Ross from the Canadian

00:25:06.520 Medical Association thank you so much for your time. Much appreciated. Take care. All right thank

00:25:11.580 you i know it's interesting and you maybe wonder okay why am i highlighting one particular group

00:25:15.980 because it's a group that really challenges that line we just shared that cliff week shared from

00:25:21.180 christia freeland talking about this as being the domain of those with private jets and those with

00:25:25.820 gated communities and all that not to say there aren't you know some doctors that live in gated

00:25:29.340 communities but the point here is that this is not just about the billionaires and this is not also

00:25:35.180 even if it were, I don't believe for a second that Galen Weston paying more in capital gains tax

00:25:42.100 is going to prevent all of those issues that the federal government just spoke about. And by the

00:25:46.280 way, the federal government has shown no willingness or no ability to balance the budget in general.

00:25:51.800 They have a spending problem, not a revenue problem. So all that's going to happen when

00:25:56.140 they get this windfall is spend more money. That's what they're going to do when they get this big,

00:26:01.160 giant windfall from everyone selling off their assets right now. They're just going to say,

00:26:04.740 oh great, look, we're not going to pay off the credit card. We're not going to invest in anything.

00:26:09.340 We're just going to spend more money to buy more votes in an election year. This is what they do 0.67

00:26:14.160 every time. And they try to then say that the issue is one of revenue and we can just go after

00:26:18.760 the rich, get more money from the super rich. And we'll forget that the government is also going 0.88

00:26:23.420 after you and I for money. The carbon tax, which incidentally, it's funny how Justin Trudeau likes

00:26:28.760 to point to the carbon tax and say that this is an example of us getting 88 out of 10 Canadians

00:26:36.060 getting more back than we're spending. And oh, even the parliamentary budget officer has said

00:26:39.680 as much, yada, yada, yada. Well, the parliamentary budget officer also said last week that he's been

00:26:45.040 gagged from sharing the government's analysis on the carbon tax, that the government does not want

00:26:49.960 him to talk about the analysis. So they aren't actually letting him say what he really knows

00:26:56.160 and believes and has found about the carbon tax and you may wonder if it is all as rosy as the

00:27:02.240 feds are making it out to be why would they not want canadians to have it why would canadians

00:27:07.540 don't want to have the analysis probably the same reason that they don't want canadians

00:27:10.880 to have the legal analysis they got in the lead up to using the emergencies act uh we'll move on

00:27:16.440 from the the capital gains uh tax in just a moment but i wanted to welcome in chris sims who

00:27:20.680 is the alberta director with the canadian taxpayers federation which has come out today

00:27:24.920 and called on the conservatives and members of parliament in general to vote against this

00:27:31.280 increase when it goes before the parliamentarians. Chris, good to talk to you. Thanks so much.

00:27:36.740 This is an issue where, and I've been saying this for the last 20 minutes or so,

00:27:40.620 the government is trying to make this out to be this assault on the wealthy. They're trying to

00:27:44.360 do the populism thing, but there are a lot of people whose investments are not at all putting

00:27:49.340 them into that billionaire category that are going to stand to lose here. And more importantly,

00:27:53.380 it's the tax like even if you don't care about the people who are affected I take the view that

00:27:58.200 when government is looking for more revenue sources there's a fundamental problem there

00:28:03.120 yeah for sure I listened through to the top of your show and I didn't think it was possible

00:28:08.040 but I think Minister Freeland's worse at communicating than Prime Minister Trudeau

00:28:12.740 in many cases that was insufferable she was going really going through that list I realize now most

00:28:19.400 of the time um because i worked in the industry so long sometimes i just can't stand listening to

00:28:24.000 it i'll watch stuff on subtitles i'll mute it and i'll watch it on subtitles in order to get the

00:28:28.080 gist of it to do my work but for her saying that we shouldn't be passing along debt to our children

00:28:35.460 and the next generation she's the finance minister like she is right like we're not

00:28:42.760 and has been for uh i forget when morno left but for a few years and then morno was there before

00:28:48.200 but like she's been in power for nine years and she's looking at like this massive inequality the

00:28:54.460 peasant storming the gated communities and it's like look at what's happening in this country yeah

00:28:58.780 sure I would agree but you've been the one there you're on the other side of the fence there

00:29:04.640 darling this is it like when Dustin Trudeau took a knee in the Black Lives Matter protest like

00:29:08.800 they're protesting you he's like he's looking around I hope that I hope they don't know that

00:29:13.100 i'm actually out here and this is you know i leave i try to give people pro tips quite often

00:29:17.580 a free pro tip to the to the minister stop talking like that stop saying you know don't

00:29:24.560 do that i don't care which party you're in stop doing that because you're going to irritate people

00:29:29.400 because you're condescending towards them so don't do that but more importantly with it with

00:29:33.920 the issue of the capital gains tax so anecdotally and personally so i was in the hospital with a

00:29:40.040 friend of mine a few weeks back or a few months back rather a young friend of mine who was having

00:29:45.420 cardiac issues and so we talked to two cardiologists totally unrelated they didn't know where I worked

00:29:51.940 like taxes are the last thing that usually come up they two of them mentioned this capital gains

00:29:58.380 tax thing so I'm really glad that you were able to speak with the Canadian Medical Association

00:30:02.700 spokesperson there to highlight this because I think unless you have like a doctor who's a sibling

00:30:07.580 or in the family or something you may not know how they're structured so they're not in line for

00:30:13.660 a pension okay in the same way say a nurse would be in line for a pension or a police officer

00:30:19.820 doctors have to you know feather their own nest and finance their own future and so again like 0.56

00:30:24.940 you pointed out they're not about to line up at food banks but we have to be cognizant of how

00:30:29.820 they financially structure themselves and according to this one doctor i was talking to apparently

00:30:35.020 the government had basically said a generation ago, Andrew, okay, guys, this is how you can do

00:30:40.700 it. Use capital gains, structure yourself as a corporation, and this is how you can do it. In

00:30:46.060 the same way that we don't pay capital gains tax on the sale of a primary residence. So your own

00:30:52.000 home that you're living in and that you own, when you sell it, you don't pay income tax on the money

00:30:56.760 you make from that. Now, again, the federal government is sniffing around that really hard

00:31:00.880 on a home equity tax but for more than a generation now it's been understood that you don't touch that

00:31:06.240 well apparently that's how a lot of doctors are feeling right now too and so they got to really

00:31:11.760 pay attention to this because i'm not sure we can afford to lose any doctors who are probably

00:31:16.240 thinking of heading to the states because of this yeah that's the thing and when uh dr ross had

00:31:22.080 pointed out i think a fair valid point here that a lot of people don't realize or don't necessarily

00:31:26.960 take into consideration that they can't just raise their prices not that i support when companies are

00:31:31.920 doing that as a customer it's just i realize that's their option you can you know either

00:31:36.160 lower your overhead or raise your revenues that's what you do whereas doctors can't just do that so

00:31:40.720 they either have to really start cutting back and the last thing you want is the doctor that

00:31:44.960 you know can't afford to pay the rent or the doctor that oh maybe we reuse these things because

00:31:50.800 you know it's like you don't want to push them into a place where in their practices they're

00:31:54.160 they're cutting corners because that's the only option they have to lower costs.

00:31:58.480 Yeah, exactly. And so, and again, for people, I loved how you pointed out that the narrative is

00:32:04.220 that if you just tax the daddy warbucks, if you find the monopoly man, that one guy, and you tax

00:32:09.960 the bejesus out of him, that all of our social problems will go away. Like it's such a ridiculous 0.97

00:32:14.640 way of trying to explain this to people. I wanted to put a bit of a number on that. So it's between 0.53

00:32:19.780 four and five days. So Franco Teresano and our team in Ottawa crunch these numbers and apparently

00:32:25.460 the amount that the government is planning on making from this capital gains tax increase

00:32:31.060 is going to be gone in like five days. So at the rate of the Trudeau government spending,

00:32:37.860 this big long thing that they're making is a standalone vote in the House of Commons,

00:32:41.780 this is a hill to die on, it's going to solve all of our social problems, a chicken in every pot.

00:32:45.860 no it's gonna be toast in like five days so i have lunch meat for my kids upstairs in the fridge

00:32:52.100 that's gonna last longer andrew than that money it's like the liz trust lettuce thing uh we should

00:32:58.100 do like a live cam and see where we're going there uh i wanted to turn to another issue here i i

00:33:03.460 mentioned the parliamentary budget officer being gagged this is proving to be like a great pastime

00:33:08.820 of the government they're going full uh 50 shades of gray not just on the parliamentary budget

00:33:12.820 officer but uh they're also they're also going after the oil and gas sector here and it was

00:33:18.500 amusing because a few weeks back charlie angus introduces this private members bill uh basically

00:33:23.600 making it so that if anyone says oil is good you get you know hauled off to one of his you know

00:33:27.760 communist gulags or whatnot and uh now like that was like a punchline everyone's like oh charlie

00:33:32.980 angus what a nutcase and now the liberals are basically doing it with the oil and gas sector

00:33:37.680 yeah so i i don't have all the details but i was reading up on it a bit this morning because your 0.57

00:33:42.120 colleague, Rachel Emanuel, very smartly flagged it on Twitter and said, guys, what's going on here?

00:33:48.040 So apparently, this is generally what's happening. If you are an oil and gas company and you publish

00:33:55.480 the fact that, say, you are capturing CO2, like at the other end of your production pipe, you're

00:34:00.680 capturing it somehow. And this is having this kind of an impact on the environment. Apparently,

00:34:05.740 the Trudeau government is looking to do some sort of embedded fact check sort of thing.

00:34:11.640 So some panel somewhere will be able to decide whether or not to sue you as an environmental

00:34:17.960 organization, meaning the energy company, and say that you have to prove all of that based on this

00:34:23.960 international panel of experts. Just imagine what their standards are. And so this is a little bit

00:34:29.240 concerning, and it's something that the minister here in Alberta, Rebecca Schultz, was flagging,

00:34:33.480 saying we can't go down this road because this is censorship. This is a strange gag law. You're

00:34:39.080 attacking our energy industry again. And so it's definitely something to keep an eye on. Apparently

00:34:44.280 it's before the Senate right now. So we're going to be kicking some tires on this thing this week,

00:34:48.440 but some to say it looks like the Trudeau government is attacking Alberta's energy sector

00:34:54.120 again, but this time in a weird sort of censorship fact check, you can't prove that sort of way.

00:35:01.160 And again, that's another way for an oil and gas company to be hindered, right? To have a pack

00:35:06.840 of international groups on their back all the time trying to reduce their ability to produce product

00:35:12.120 very similar in the way that they were trying to ban pipelines the way they were trying to

00:35:16.200 ban tankers it just seems like they're trying to put through just transition and put people 0.99

00:35:20.440 out of jobs so it just seems like a never-ending attack largely against alberta's main sector the

00:35:25.880 energy sector but this time it's kind of strange it's a almost a censorship version of it so

00:35:30.600 definitely something we have to look into yeah and it's buried in the budget and anytime they

00:35:35.160 take something of this nature and slip it in the budget we should always be mindful because they're

00:35:38.680 trying to hope that it's not big enough that it would rise to the point of bringing up outrage

00:35:43.880 but they wouldn't want to just want to keep it under the radar which is why no one really paid

00:35:47.400 attention when the budget was first announced yes exactly uh if that can a couple of things for

00:35:52.360 people uh one figure out how to read a budget i know it can get cumbersome i think the last

00:35:58.440 federal budget was i think it was 600 pages or something crazy like just inexcusably long

00:36:04.360 It's padded with way too much social stuff and not the actual these are the numbers, these are the

00:36:08.840 facts, let your feelings to be determined after the fact. There's a lot of feelings packed in there

00:36:14.200 but I would just definitely recommend that people get used to looking towards the back and the annex

00:36:18.760 and looking at historical data tables on where spending has gone, where taxes have gone and then

00:36:24.600 really try to scour it and try to find any new taxes that are buried in there. Provincial budgets

00:36:30.040 are usually a better place to start because they're usually much more straightforward and a lot

00:36:34.040 shorter. There isn't a lot of filler shoved in there. And so I would start there. That's how we

00:36:39.020 found the Netflix tax in British Columbia. That's how we found out, for example, they were removing

00:36:43.860 the PST exemption on soda pop there. It's those details that will eventually nickel and dime you

00:36:49.320 to death. And they represent new taxes. But again, this seems like something that isn't even a tax

00:36:54.460 issue. And so to have them put it in the budget, it's just really head scratching. So we're

00:36:59.340 definitely going to be taking a look at that. Yeah, you mentioned the Netflix tax, by the way,

00:37:03.080 You and I have been around long enough into politics to remember when Stephen Harper was just relentlessly mocked by the media for saying the liberals were going to tax your Netflix show.

00:37:12.660 And now, admittedly, Stephen Harper, we should play the clip.

00:37:14.980 It was really, I watched it not that long ago.

00:37:17.000 It was one of those, like, Stephen Harper trying to be relatable clips where it's like he's listing TV shows he likes and it's not believable that he's ever seen any of the shows.

00:37:25.540 He's like, I particularly like Breaking Bad.

00:37:29.320 uh like it was like i particularly like insert popular show here but but he was right i mean

00:37:35.300 the core point was well breaking bad is a good show he was right about that but he was right

00:37:39.120 that the liberals were going to tax netflix now it took them a decade but he wasn't lying

00:37:43.040 no he still did it it's the same as when he was saying they're gonna have little itty bitty

00:37:47.960 deficits meanwhile there's a 40 billion dollar deficit and the finance minister is scolding

00:37:54.600 reporters about passing down debt to the last generation and her government has doubled the debt.

00:38:01.160 It's kind of crazy pills. You start wondering if you're in the same sort of timeline of reality

00:38:05.480 as everybody else. But yeah, I remember when he said that. It was during the 2015 election campaign.

00:38:11.160 And yeah, it was similar. So the funniest thing, I can't repeat the funniest thing I saw him say

00:38:16.280 once on the CBC because it's, you know, that way. But the other funniest thing I saw him say once

00:38:21.160 is when they remember when they asked him if he had ever if he smoked marijuana yeah and he said

00:38:26.440 yeah wasn't his answer well i have asthma i've never smoked anything or something no it was

00:38:30.820 better he's like do i look like i smoke marijuana oh he just did this deadpan to the camera i think

00:38:38.240 he had like a sweater vest on and stuff while he was doing it but no i remember when that was like

00:38:43.040 the question that could sink your political career like that that shows that now now it's like we

00:38:47.760 of a leader who's like i smoked it while i was in office and he still gets elected not today why

00:38:53.500 yeah of course it's quite bizarre and so this is where i just i want to bring it back to

00:38:58.080 affordability and taxes for a second and i just really wanted to stress to people

00:39:01.580 um i heard this i heard the capital gains tax brought up on my local fm rock station like a

00:39:10.520 couple djs in the morning talking about it and so i wanted to urge people this has trickled down to

00:39:16.080 the normal people like the people who don't follow politics shows like this people who don't follow

00:39:20.640 the play-by-play in the house of commons average working people now are talking about this and so

00:39:25.760 a little bit of homework if i can take this and tell it to your sister and your brother-in-law

00:39:31.760 and all of the normies in your family who don't live and breathe politics and tell them how it's

00:39:36.960 going to affect them and namely how quickly trudeau is going to burn through this money

00:39:41.440 because of his spending habits i think there's a chance that we can get the majority of politicians

00:39:47.840 to eventually be opposed to something like this if we get enough people at the door angry about this

00:39:53.440 okay we've got something for you chris sean has earned his keep today sean take it away

00:39:58.240 something you might not know about me is that i love movies and tv shows one of my all-time

00:40:04.160 favorites is breaking bad it's even available on some online streaming services if you've never

00:40:09.520 seen it. But I'm running for Prime Minister, so why am I talking to you about TV shows?

00:40:15.000 Because some politicians want to tax digital streaming services like Netflix and YouTube.

00:40:20.960 Some have even called on us to introduce a Netflix tax. Now Justin Trudeau and Thomas

00:40:25.820 Mulcair have left the door wide open to doing just that. I'm 100% against a Netflix tax.

00:40:32.980 Always have been, always will be. So the choice is clear. Only our Conservative Party can be

00:40:37.820 trusted to focus on the needs of canadian consumers and to keep your taxes low only our

00:40:43.820 party can be trusted not to bring forward a new netflix tax i like movies and tv shows

00:40:54.700 i'm making fun of him i i loved how honest he and authentic he was about that he never tried to be

00:41:00.060 cool and when he did like let loose he was always very fun like when he was singing and stuff like

00:41:05.260 that but yeah uh in any case yeah he was right stephen harper called it right there and i must

00:41:10.620 stress the liberal party at the time the tweet's still up said we will never never bring in a

00:41:16.940 netflix tax have a good day like sunny way remember how that used to be their communication that was

00:41:22.060 so much nicer and now they're doing one better not just the tax but also and we're going to

00:41:25.820 manipulate what you see on the home page of it and you will like it no so good good job pulling

00:41:32.460 that up. That was a blast from the past for sure. All right. Well, thanks Sean there. Chris Sims

00:41:36.840 from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. We will see you next week. Thanks for coming on as always.

00:41:41.220 You bet. All right. Now I should, I was not going to bring this up because I went through like

00:41:45.760 painstaking efforts to hide it from you, but it's amusing now. And I may have to like crowdfund a

00:41:51.660 new computer. So like 10 minutes into the show, I spilled half of my coffee on my laptop. And so I

00:41:58.820 was like furiously like trying to avoid you seeing me wipe it up with a shirt which i've probably now

00:42:04.140 ruined because it was the only thing i had available so anytime there was a guest on the

00:42:08.100 screen uh assume that i was like doing this and sean was like very graciously not throwing the

00:42:14.020 camera back to me but uh i don't know my computer is not it's not in in flames so uh we'll see it

00:42:19.140 might just smell like uh smell like americano uh anyway all right thank you so much to everyone

00:42:24.520 for tuning in. We'll be back tomorrow with more of Canada's most irreverent talk show. This is

00:42:29.480 the Andrew Lawton Show here on True North. Thank you, God bless, and good day to you all.

00:42:34.380 Thanks for listening to the Andrew Lawton Show.

00:42:36.880 Support the program by donating to True North at www.tnc.news.

00:42:54.520 We'll be right back.

00:43:24.520 We'll be right back.

Juno News - June 10, 2024

Chrystia Freeland admits ＂wrath＂ of middle class Canadians ＂burns hot＂

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript