Juno News - Conservative MP weighs in on Carney, Question Period, and SOARING refugee health costs

00:00:00.000 welcome to the fighter with chris sims i am chris sims i'm the alberta director for the

00:00:10.740 canadian taxpayers federation thank you so much for making us a part to start your news week

00:00:15.740 if you haven't done so yet please like this video and remember to share it with your friends and

00:00:21.640 also subscribe to the channel subscribe to juno news we are independent news media so it's

00:00:27.620 definitely something to keep in mind okay we have a packed show for you today we actually have a

00:00:32.720 really cool guest it's dr matt strauss remember yeah well he is now an elected member of parliament

00:00:40.320 from ontario and he's been doing a lot of digging on committee he's speaking up on things like holding

00:00:47.560 carny to account over these silly comments over pipelines and resources and taking a hard look

00:00:53.220 at how much money exactly we are spending on health care and what we're getting for it in

00:00:59.140 return so stay tuned for that great conversation but first i had to show you this clip i have to

00:01:06.280 tee it up a little bit okay because prime minister mark carney is doing his now signature talking out

00:01:13.700 loud but mumbling under his breath at the same time with some snotty little comment and unfortunately

00:01:19.440 he did that again so he was overseas over the weekend he was at a g20 meeting in johannesburg

00:01:27.060 south africa and to her credit a reporter from the cbc asked him about the trade relationship with u.s

00:01:35.940 president donald trump asked when was the last time you actually talked to him is he returning your

00:01:41.420 phone calls are you guys talking on text he ignored her question when he initially asked it

00:01:46.780 to her credit she followed up with it and he actually reacted with a who cares listen to this

00:01:55.180 who cares i mean it's a detail it's a detail i spoke to him i'll speak to him again when it matters

00:02:01.900 i look forward to speaking to the president soon but i i don't have a burning issue to speak with the

00:02:08.440 president about right now um when america wants to come back and have the discussions on the trade

00:02:14.440 side we will have those discussions he doesn't have a burning issue to talk to trump about really

00:02:21.000 this is what is so frustrating here i think a lot of us kind of got used to what former prime minister

00:02:28.160 trudeau's approach to everything was and that was largely he didn't know anything and he just did stuff

00:02:34.300 while wasting a bunch of money and unfortunately we're seeing the same sort of weird surfer dude

00:02:42.020 flippant attitude thing but i don't know about you um seeing it come from carney is jarring

00:02:49.140 i don't expect this sort of answer from a world leader much less canada's prime minister when he's

00:02:57.360 asked a very direct question it was a very polite question it was very matter of fact it wasn't snippy

00:03:02.900 or gotcha or weird and yet his answer is to her who cares well i can think of a few million people who

00:03:11.660 care um you ran your entire election campaign um being the guy who can elbows up his way through

00:03:18.560 this and land a deal with with trump so this is where it gets frustrating because ultimately it's

00:03:24.700 normal working people the taxpayers of canada who are on the hook for this stuff okay if carney is

00:03:32.780 digging his heels in on things like the industrial carbon tax and trump is imposing tariffs on canada

00:03:39.620 that makes it a very bad business environment here those two things combined make it very bad

00:03:46.480 for investors to park their money here for manufacturers of things like steel and aluminum

00:03:52.560 to keep rolling here and they just want to take their business and go to the south where they don't have

00:04:00.180 an industrial carbon tax and they can avoid these weird tariffs now if carney actually did his job

00:04:08.540 as prime minister and inked a deal with trump people wouldn't have this you know rolling out of bed

00:04:15.580 every morning to check twitter to see what new tariffs fear anymore they'd be able to have some sort of

00:04:21.180 confidence but if that snarky little comment of who cares he's ringing a bell that's because he said

00:04:29.740 something really similar to another female reporter a little while ago remember when he called pipelines

00:04:37.340 boring watch this one of my questions was is this pipeline going to come so so boring it's not actually

00:04:45.400 it is it is no but it is it is because it's look it's don't worry we're on it we're on it like we're

00:04:50.980 on it but there is this whole world okay hands up who's working on the pipeline in this room

00:04:56.560 so for context that was a few days ago probably two weeks ago or so and it was in toronto

00:05:02.780 and to the host's credit she said it matters for the prosperity of people in this room

00:05:07.860 right because of course pipelines means very good paying jobs pipelines means getting our resources out

00:05:14.400 to market pipelines means a better more strong economy like she had a very good point there

00:05:20.140 and so that is a strange pattern that i was not expecting to see in carney so so far we've seen

00:05:27.700 him call pipelines boring and to a very obvious question asking about trump we've heard him say

00:05:35.900 well who cares well a lot of people care we're going to get to our guest in a moment but first let's

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00:06:15.020 canadians should have the freedom to know you can learn more by visiting unsmoke.ca okay what does

00:06:22.520 this all mean how is this playing out in the house of commons will people be able to get their message

00:06:28.440 of lower taxes less waste and more accountable government through to a prime minister who calls

00:06:35.020 important trade issues like this boring let's find out joining me now is dr matt strauss if that name

00:06:44.200 rings a bell well of course he spoke out a lot during the lockdowns and that's actually when he

00:06:50.200 and i connected over twitter he is now a very big deal he is a member of parliament with the conservative

00:06:55.860 party and the official opposition his writing is officially kitchener south has speller uh doctor

00:07:02.360 thank you so much for joining us today we really appreciate your time it's my pleasure thanks for

00:07:06.720 having me nice to see you again are you in ottawa right now sure am yeah it's uh it's a relatively new

00:07:11.900 office so i apologize in advance for the total absence of decor it's okay i think you're a little

00:07:17.580 busy all right i just wanted to get your reaction uh to prime minister mark carney in johannesburg i

00:07:24.100 don't want to put words in your mouth but when carney did win and he became prime minister i was at

00:07:29.660 least telling myself okay well at least more of a serious person will be in charge now i won't have a

00:07:34.780 prime minister pointing out his socks on the world stage but now i'm getting this flippant answer

00:07:39.900 of hey when's the last time you talked to our biggest trading partners leader president trump

00:07:45.360 and his answer is who cares what did you think about uh carney's performance there i think it's

00:07:51.760 overall sour grapes i think he went into this campaign or the the previous election campaign

00:07:57.060 with the proposition that he's a economic financial multi-millionaire genius and he's going to sort this

00:08:02.820 problem out on behalf of canadians and it turns out he can't he has no idea how to sort it out

00:08:08.840 i don't think he even really understands the problem um and so having realized that he is not

00:08:17.300 going to be winning a trade deal like the elbows have been up the elbows have been down no trade

00:08:21.920 deal has been forthcoming either way so to now say who cares i didn't even want the trade deal i don't

00:08:27.220 even want to have a good relationship with the uh united states president i um it seems to me to be

00:08:32.780 the classic fable of sour grapes of saying the grapes must be sour i didn't want them anyways

00:08:36.420 exactly um and trying to save his face when i will point this out that he said this while on a global

00:08:42.740 stage and i'm noticing this kind of dogged thing he's got of like trying to extend our relationship

00:08:50.100 with europe trying to extend our relationship with other countries which you know arguably could be said

00:08:55.980 to be a good thing i guess but it's it seems to be coming at the expense of our relationship with

00:09:02.480 our biggest trading partner and the numbers are just there we have a board here that shows

00:09:07.580 that the two-way trade relationship between canada the united states daily more than three billion

00:09:14.340 dollars yearly it's more than a trillion with a t for folks who don't know a trillion is a one with

00:09:22.760 12 zeros after it if you started counting right now it would take you 30 000 years to count to one

00:09:28.620 trillion so yeah that's why it's a super important thing i gotta ask you you are in the house of

00:09:34.240 commons and you do see him in person during question period is he giving kind of flippant

00:09:40.220 answers like this does it seem like there are adults in the room across the aisle when you're

00:09:44.920 talking about things like hey what about these tariffs hey what about our trade deal that we need

00:09:50.540 to renew with the united states what sort of vibe are you getting if i can use that term

00:09:55.020 okay the overall vibe of question period is it's a farce i'm sorry to say it's the worst one hour

00:10:00.420 of my day interestingly it's the only mandatory part of a member of parliament's day like they will

00:10:04.020 uh they will they will declare you absent and dock your pay if you don't go to question period but

00:10:08.460 no answers are given in question period and it didn't used to be this way i'm i'm 40 now and i was

00:10:14.460 a big political nerd when i was 12 13 i used to watch question period every day and and preston

00:10:19.580 manning would ask substantial questions of jean kratian like you know if you send peacekeepers

00:10:23.880 to bosnia and one of them gets hurt in this way like what will your response be and jean kratian

00:10:27.800 would answer the question like it so something bad has happened to question period over the last

00:10:32.840 30 years um and it's certainly no better since mark carney became prime minister no answers are

00:10:39.940 given it's always flippant it's always uh baffle garb obfuscation uh it's very it's frankly very

00:10:46.060 difficult to sit through well i think you're among friends to admit that you were a political

00:10:49.980 nerd when you were 12 watching question period so you're good um it's the reason why i went to

00:10:54.740 ottawa is because of preston manning because he said the west wants in and he wants to take things

00:10:58.440 seriously there were some shenanigans in question period back then but i agree with you um i do think

00:11:04.140 that it was much more substantive um i thought i think that there were more adults in the room

00:11:09.260 and to your point uh during prime minister john kratian's reign they were taking things like the

00:11:16.640 deficit seriously you know they they seemed to care a lot about money and the fact that we didn't want

00:11:24.400 rampant inflation and we didn't want to be piling on the debt and that was largely to mr manning's

00:11:29.380 credit because he was asking about it every single day but prime minister uh then finance minister

00:11:34.600 martin did balance the budget he did slay the deficit um and i just i'm not seeing any level

00:11:41.600 of that seriousness up and down the bench are you seeing any glimmers of hope up and down that bench

00:11:47.460 when you're looking at it where you guys are talking about to your credit you guys point out that trudeau

00:11:52.080 doubled the debt you point out yeah the first thing i want yeah the first thing i want to say is we

00:11:55.480 should be so lucky is to have paul martin it's 1994 budget like that that the conservatives would

00:12:02.400 have had a relatively easy time voting for paul martin's 1994 budget if they brought something

00:12:07.060 like that what they what they did instead was a total bait and switch they said they were going

00:12:11.400 to spend less and invest more they're spending more even with their ridiculous overbroad definition

00:12:15.800 of investment by their own definition the operating expenses are going up by like 700 percent

00:12:20.440 or sorry the operating deficit is going up by 700 percent percent um so they are not spending less

00:12:27.660 even while they're trumpeting that they're spending less they told us in question period which again is

00:12:32.300 far 700 times that they're going to be spending less and they aren't and the the bottom line

00:12:36.920 literally literally the bottom line is an 80 billion dollar deficit uh which is two thousand dollars for

00:12:41.900 every man woman and child in canada so that's two thousand dollars for my three-year-old daughter 0.71

00:12:45.240 that's two thousand dollars for my one-year-old son but where we're we're gonna end up in debtor's

00:12:50.200 prison uh at the rate that they're going and um it is it is the exact opposite of what they ran on

00:12:55.680 you mentioned your children um and i don't want to get into it too personally but you have shared

00:13:01.620 some of your experiences online with your struggles with canada's healthcare system to put things

00:13:07.620 very mildly um and i did see you in committee going after rightly so the immigration minister

00:13:16.020 basically in a nutshell over how many uh rejected asylum claimants so folks who basically just got

00:13:22.500 here you know they're up in the air paperwork wise but that they were getting access to rapid

00:13:28.660 health care that in some cases they were getting better health care outcomes or at least service

00:13:33.860 than born canadians and people who've been paying tax pay tax dollars here now for for decades depending

00:13:39.980 on their status um what is the situation with the asylum seeker health program

00:13:45.460 right so the first thing to say is i my mom's a refugee like i have nothing against refugees i love

00:13:52.920 refugees my mom's a refugee my aunt my grandma my grandpa like we they all came here fleeing

00:13:57.720 communism uh in the late 60s uh what i brought up about that program is there's a few things so that

00:14:04.440 program used to be 10 million dollars it's now up to 800 million dollars it's going to be a billion

00:14:08.480 dollars next year uh so it's it's exploded it's exploded because asylum claimants have exploded uh from 0.98

00:14:16.040 about 10 000 to 300 000 a year and i i don't want to take away health care from people who are from a

00:14:24.760 fleeing a war-torn country with the shirt on their back but the simple fact is a lot of these applicants

00:14:31.000 are not that um they are bogus applicants who are gaming the uh immigration system by by by claiming to be

00:14:39.240 a refugee of some sort and so after the irb the the official body that uh reviews their applications

00:14:47.160 determines that they are not a valid asylum claimant i.e that they are their claim is bogus

00:14:53.480 they still get the supplementary health benefits which means dental and pharma care and occupational

00:14:58.760 therapy and speech therapy and assistive devices and and everything that you need supplementary like

00:15:04.920 workers insurance to get as a tax-paying canadian citizen so leaving aside the the the issue of

00:15:12.360 of true refugees the false ones are once they're determined to be false and and you might say well 1.00

00:15:18.600 then they leave the country do they well no it takes it takes months or years to eventually deport

00:15:23.240 them so during that time where they're slated for deportation they're still getting more health

00:15:28.440 insurance than anyone who doesn't have supplemental coverage from their employer sorry to ask a stupid

00:15:34.280 question uh but i've worked on the hill on both sides of the fence why is that happening is this

00:15:40.440 a problem within the bureaucracy of the department where they're just not following up and closing a

00:15:45.640 case like why is that happening look i've worked in the health care system as a physician uh for my

00:15:50.920 whole career and i'll tell you my impression of why it's happening is when it's not when it's not your

00:15:56.680 money or my money when it's no one's money it's the taxpayers money but there's no taxpayer in the room

00:16:01.560 yeah people just spend the money they don't care like if when if you're not the one feeling the

00:16:05.400 pinch of the money going out the door um you're more apt to spend it on total nonsense which is what

00:16:11.560 this is and i don't even know if they i don't even know if they know that they were doing it because

00:16:17.400 why that clip went viral is i asked the health minister are you paying supplementary health insurance

00:16:22.280 for um false refugee applicants once their um application has been determined to be false and she said no

00:16:29.080 and then i said well your website says that you are and held it up for her so i don't even i don't

00:16:33.640 even know you know all over our government i don't even know if the government knows how much money is

00:16:39.000 is there they're pissing away on stuff no no i would i would argue that's a safe bet that they don't

00:16:45.480 um like i said i've worked on both sides of the fence and quite often the disconnect between what was

00:16:51.240 happening within the department the bureaucracy the permanent government and the political staff no

00:16:56.840 matter what party it was and the minister staff was vast like you could you'd need a span bridge

00:17:03.560 to get across it and even then they're barely speaking the same language and then if you add

00:17:07.640 the complicating factor that it's federally funded but but provincially delivered and then you get down

00:17:14.040 to the individual hospital level oh my goodness that is a telephone game from hell and i can see why

00:17:19.640 taxpayers money is being wasted on it but it would also seem like a pretty simple fix like you do need to

00:17:25.720 show your health card when you go in to get health treatment and then if you're with dental and all

00:17:31.400 that stuff you have to show secondary id or paperwork or something you think that there'd be a way of

00:17:36.920 flagging again not for the legitimate refugees of course but for those who have been you know rejected

00:17:43.720 they should be on their way out or they should be you know realigning exactly how they came to canada

00:17:48.840 so of that group of people it should be relatively quick and simple to say no uh you don't get free

00:17:56.680 access to is it is it optical too or is it just dental do you know it is it's vision care also wow

00:18:02.920 amazing absolutely amazing sorry i'm i'm feeling frustrated too um i have a family member who now

00:18:09.480 suddenly can't walk uh she's been a taxpayer her entire life was a nurse her entire life and she had to 1.00

00:18:15.960 pay out of pocket to be able to get an mri within a year or two like there was either a choice of

00:18:23.160 you get to never not walk and not know why you can't walk and you get to wait in line for an mri for

00:18:29.160 however knows or you can pay out of pocket and be able to go get it done quickly and i i didn't ask you

00:18:35.320 this off the top and i'm sorry if i'm just surprising you with the question but did you see it all what

00:18:40.280 uh alberta premier daniel smith was doing out here with health care where she's allowing doctors to do 0.91

00:18:45.720 some parallel billing um just as a physician i don't need you to speak as an mp if you don't

00:18:51.080 want to but can you give us any insight on that and if it's totally new to you i i accept that

00:18:57.160 i i've read the news about it um i i haven't seen the i'm i'm very assiduous as a as now a member of

00:19:06.040 parliament to to read the legislation when it comes and i haven't seen that so i'd be shooting a little

00:19:10.360 bit from the hip i think what is notable is that by and large canadians understand that our healthcare

00:19:19.880 system is not working right now like this used to in the 90s this used to be uh controversial to say

00:19:26.760 it used to be perhaps politically fraught to say it's not politically fraught now um i think some

00:19:33.560 politicians are still stuck in that mindset where they're um actually when i in my maiden speech i

00:19:40.680 i told the story of how my wife almost died after not uh seeing a doctor uh or having blood work or

00:19:45.320 getting a bed in emergency room um a year ago for six hours we waited and the first person to stand up

00:19:53.560 and say won't that member acknowledge that everyone is getting wonderful health care was elizabeth may

00:19:58.040 who um who i was like didn't know didn't you just listen to the story no not everyone is getting

00:20:03.480 wonderful health care and and um i i think it's hard to say she's she's nearing the end of her career

00:20:07.880 and i think i think stuck in a 90s mindset where our healthcare system was was a um a light onto the

00:20:13.000 world it just simply isn't that right now so i think broadly there is receptiveness in the canadian

00:20:20.920 population to try new things um so i wish daniel smith and all the people of alberta

00:20:27.160 well i i hope i i honestly i do hope it goes really well i'm not i'm not sure about the the

00:20:33.320 exact um instruments that they're um twiddling with sure but i i i think i think something is

00:20:41.960 better than nothing when i was uh door knocking for this campaign i'm going to tell you that literally

00:20:46.040 dozens so more than 10 more than 20 people told me that they had flown themselves or their family

00:20:52.200 members to india to get proper medical treatment and if you told me in 2004 when i was a medical

00:20:57.640 student at the university of western ontario that droves of people would be flying to india to pay

00:21:03.000 out of pocket for proper medical care uh my job would hit the like i would have said you were taking

00:21:07.960 drugs that's yeah it's incredible it's wild um i've worked with second street uh one of my former

00:21:14.360 colleagues is over there right now and it's report after report after report where people yeah they're

00:21:19.000 they're flying to other countries if they have the means um in order to try to get like normal

00:21:24.280 health care and this isn't like star spangled you know crazy stuff it's just like timely access to in

00:21:30.280 some cases life-saving care and it's funny i'll bookend it with this you mentioned that you were

00:21:36.120 a political nerd off the top and obviously me too um one of the earliest first government reports i ever

00:21:42.520 read was the romano report and i remember we had a big royal commission and people flew in from all over

00:21:48.600 canada and it was all about how we preserve the health care system going forward and i think one

00:21:54.040 of the biggest rulings uh that came shortly after that was the language of access to a wait list is

00:21:59.800 not access to health care and so we got to do something uh to fix this and so i just really

00:22:05.880 wanted to thank you for highlighting the fact i are you saying it's closing in on a billion dollars with

00:22:10.760 a b with this with a rejected asylum seeker no that's that's for the program overall overall that's for

00:22:17.560 the 300 000 every year now i mean it didn't used to be but for the last couple years it's been about

00:22:21.880 300 000 and they're all getting supplementary health coverage and i mean that's an open discussion like

00:22:30.200 sincerely if if you come to canada from a war-torn country with a shirt on your back and tuberculosis

00:22:35.560 i think we should treat you of course yeah or if you i don't know if you don't have teeth and you

00:22:41.880 need dentures then yeah yes we should we should pay for that and um there are published numbers of

00:22:47.960 what percent of those claimants end up being bogus it's it's a little bit difficult to parse

00:22:54.200 because some proportion of the of those claimants are abandoned some are withdrawn or those claims

00:22:59.800 are abandoned some are withdrawn and then some are finally rejected i think the finally rejected number

00:23:05.400 is about 20 percent but presumably a lot of those claims that are abandoned or withdrawn are also

00:23:10.600 bogus okay well we're going to check into that because that sounds like another drain on the

00:23:15.960 canadian taxpayer dr matt strauss thank you so much for your time today we really appreciate it thank you

00:23:21.400 for having me nice to see you likewise once again that is dr matt strauss uh for folks who do not follow

00:23:28.360 him on twitter i strongly recommend that you follow him like i said off the top uh he really rose to i

00:23:35.400 would say public awareness and prominence outside of obviously his own work as a physician uh during the

00:23:41.800 lockdowns and he was calling out government overreach quite bluntly and clearly repeatedly uh and so to his

00:23:50.120 credit uh he was one of the courageous ones who is speaking up against government overreach at that time

00:23:56.200 and some of the personal stories he's sharing there uh both with his family uh that did flee communism

00:24:03.880 uh as refugees so he talks a lot about that he also talks a lot about his own personal experience not

00:24:10.680 just as a physician but his own family's experience as canadians with the healthcare system and what that

00:24:19.000 is like and he curates those stories online so definitely head on over to twitter and x and follow

00:24:25.320 dr matt strauss yeah he is currently a member of parliament for kitchener south hespeller folks

00:24:32.200 i'm so glad that you joined us today because this is where we get these serious policymaker conversations

00:24:38.840 from people who have real world on the ground experience and if you're a physician right in the

00:24:45.640 thick of it if you're a medical doctor right in the thick of it and now you're a member of parliament

00:24:51.320 that is really valuable experience let's all hope that experience like dr stouse's experience can

00:24:59.320 actually form better policy because at the end of the day as taxpayers as canadians we deserve better

00:25:07.080 from our government keep in mind how much we are spending okay on things like our healthcare system

00:25:15.160 look at how much we are spending on our healthcare system and what kind of service and work and help

00:25:22.360 we're getting in response is this really worth it is this the best way to go are politicians in ottawa

00:25:29.880 spending your money very thoughtfully are they being careful with every nickel take a look at that terrible

00:25:36.520 budget look at look at mark carney prime minister mark carney overspending overspending by about 80

00:25:45.080 billion dollars and that's just this year and then when reporters turn around and ask him very

00:25:52.200 serious questions about things like pipelines and our trade relationship with the united states

00:25:59.880 he says it's boring and who cares well frankly taxpayers care canadians care our viewers of this show care

00:26:09.800 so it's really important to get members of parliament who also care on the record and figure out how

00:26:15.960 we're going to fight this in order to get good change folks if you have not done so yet be sure to head

00:26:22.280 on over to juno news and subscribe to juno news because we are not funded by the government journalists

00:26:30.280 should never be paid by the government thank you for watching and be sure to share this video with people

00:26:37.000 who need to know

Juno News - November 25, 2025

Conservative MP weighs in on Carney, Question Period, and SOARING refugee health costs

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