00:00:00.000the house of commons transportation committee is set to investigate the liberal government's
00:00:09.180funding for four new bc ferries vessels which are being built by a chinese state-owned shipyard
00:00:15.840a european company is criticizing canada over a defense contract for allegedly favoring a u.s
00:00:21.620supplier finance minister francois philippe champaign tasked liberal cabinet ministers
00:00:26.680with finding quote ambitious savings before the carny government's 2025 budget in september
00:00:34.240hello canada it's wednesday july 9th and this is the true north daily brief i'm cosmon gerja and i'm
00:00:40.900alex ultim we've got you covered with all the news you need to know let's discuss the top stories of
00:00:46.720the day and the true north exclusives you won't hear anywhere else the house of commons transportation
00:00:55.220committee has voted to launch an investigation into the liberal government's financing of four bc
00:01:00.820ferries vessels built by a chinese state-owned shipyard the inquiry follows a conservative
00:01:07.580motion approved monday that will compel testimony from deputy prime minister and finance minister
00:01:14.000christia freeland infrastructure minister gregor robertson the ceo of the canada infrastructure
00:01:20.540bank and the head of bc ferries the investigation centers on a one billion dollar low interest
00:01:27.460financing package provided by the canada infrastructure bank funded by taxpayers to enable
00:01:34.360bc ferries to acquire the new vessel from china merchants industry weihai shipyard a shipbuilder
00:01:41.420operated by the chinese communist party government the conservatives have criticized the transaction
00:01:47.860citing its impact on canada's domestic shipbuilding and steel sectors which are already facing pressure
00:01:54.320due to an ongoing trade war with the u.s even though prime minister mark carney in the last federal
00:02:00.200election pledged to implement by canadian standards for federal infrastructure funding
00:02:06.060conservatives claim that this transaction resembles a previous case in 2017 when bc ferries received
00:02:12.72028 million dollars in federal funding for new vessels that were ultimately constructed by a dutch
00:02:19.360company in romania the federal government also provides bc ferries with over 37 million dollars in
00:02:26.780annual baseline funding the shipyard selected for the latest order china merchants industry is described
00:02:34.140by the company itself as a central government administered state enterprise the canada infrastructure bank
00:02:41.800has not yet commented on the financing agreement the transportation committee's investigation will seek to clarify the federal government's role
00:02:50.940in the contract and examine whether canadian procurement policies were followed testimony dates have not yet been announced
00:02:59.140alex you're from bc and if you've been paying attention to the news here this story has been all over the place
00:03:07.980but i don't think it has reached the national stage to the same magnitude so could you enlighten some of our listeners
00:03:18.020who might not be from british columbia or just aren't paying attention to this how has the government here in bc
00:03:25.360where the ndp are in power how have they justified contracting a chinese communist party owned shipyard
00:03:34.440to complete this project so a fun bc fact for you bc ferries is actually the largest ferry operator
00:03:44.460organization in the world with 45 different vessels ranging from small taxi ships to the large ferries that
00:03:51.620transport thousands of people daily from vancouver to vancouver island in fact they transport about 61 000
00:03:58.500passengers per day which should give listeners some concept of the large scale of bc ferries
00:04:06.140it's not exactly clear how the bc government is justifying outsourcing the construction of these
00:04:14.120ferries to china aside from the fact that we aren't capable of producing them in british columbia
00:04:19.140that being said as you had noted the bc ferries has previously outsourced production of their ferries to
00:04:25.440companies in poland and the netherlands and elsewhere in the world so i think that this might
00:04:31.840be a communications issue for the bc government if they can explain clearly to their constituents
00:04:38.080how this is a cost-saving measure um it may be more palatable but i don't think they've done a very
00:04:43.120good job personally of justifying having a company that is owned by the chinese communist party
00:04:49.120manufacture and develop ferries for british colombians
00:04:56.560the federal government is facing criticism over a planned defense contract that one european
00:05:01.280competitor says effectively guarantees the deal will go to a u.s supplier despite prime minister
00:05:06.480mark carney's pledge to reduce canada's defense dependence on the united states
00:05:10.880a single u.s based firm is expected to be the sole eligible supplier for a department of national defense
00:05:16.880contract for night vision binoculars estimated to exceed 100 million dollars industry observers
00:05:23.280point out that the technical requirements specifically the signal to noise ratio would
00:05:27.760restrict the bidding to this one company the contract is anticipated to be awarded this week
00:05:32.960french company fotonis which supplies night vision products to several nato allies has alleged that the
00:05:38.720criteria are unique to canada and not in line with international standards in a statement the company said
00:05:44.480repeated attempts to engage the government to revise the specifications have so far been unsuccessful
00:05:49.360carney has made public commitments to diversify canada's defense partnerships including the signing
00:05:54.000of a new security agreement with the european union in june the news follows a series of moves that appear
00:05:59.200to contradict those ambitions in may carney confirmed canada is in talks to join the united states
00:06:04.480proposed 175 billion dollar golden dome missile defense system u.s president donald trump later announced
00:06:11.520canada would have to pay 71 billion to join the system at us 10 billion dollar increase from his
00:06:17.680previous estimate cosmic in practice is further partnering with europe on defense a good idea in
00:06:23.040your opinion no alex i don't think it's a good idea i don't think that canada should be partnering
00:06:29.600let alone give up our defense security to unelected eu bureaucrats now the eu the way it's run the european
00:06:39.280parliament uh has elected people and representatives of each country but in the terms of the executive
00:06:47.520powers of the european union with regards to the european commission that's an appointed position and
00:06:55.680the other thing about this defense pact which was signed last month is that there was no parliamentary
00:07:01.920oversight it was mark carney single-handedly and the liberals deciding that canada would enter into
00:07:10.400this agreement and beyond the signaling against the united states and the trump derangement syndrome that
00:07:19.680underlines this type of thinking i don't see the benefit canada has in one way it could be looked at as
00:07:28.560canadians canadians paying money to defend europeans because it is the europeans that face
00:07:37.360a greater threat in terms of their borders and etc than canada does we have an atlantic ocean separating
00:07:46.160us and europe is heavily invested in conflicts including the conflict in ukraine so to me it just seems like
00:07:54.560putting taxpayers on the hook for billions more in european defense spending with little transparency
00:08:01.920about where this money will go and how exactly it's going to benefit canada now with regard to this
00:08:10.160specific deal uh it honestly just comes across as complaining from these european suppliers canada has
00:08:19.120sourced a lot of its defense equipment from the united states including aircraft and actually the
00:08:25.040partnership has been mutually beneficial because the united states does source certain military
00:08:32.400industrial equipment from canada from companies like bombardier and obviously there are issues with
00:08:39.040that because they're heavily subsidized as well but with regard to this i think it's just an example
00:08:45.840of how carney likes to speak out of both sides of his mouth on one end he's giving concessions to donald trump
00:08:54.320with regards to the digital services tax and uh all of the concessions he's made in the trade agreement
00:09:02.160negotiations and on the other hand he likes to play in front of the world stage that he's somehow
00:09:08.480standing up to trump and getting closer to the european union when i fail to see the advantage of such a deal or an agreement
00:09:23.280finance minister francois philippe champaign has tasked liberal cabinet ministers with finding ambitious
00:09:29.280savings before the carney government releases its 2025 budget slated for september when the house of
00:09:36.800commons resumes according to two letters issued by champaign to ministers on monday program spending
00:09:43.600is to be reduced by 7.5 in the fiscal year that begins april 1st 2026 followed by a 10 reduction in
00:09:52.8002027 and a further 15 reduction in the 2028-2029 fiscal year champaign wrote quote you will be expected to
00:10:03.040bring forward ambitious savings proposals to spend less on the day-to-day running of government and
00:10:09.280invest more in building a strong united canadian economy the federal government will also conduct
00:10:15.840a comprehensive expenditure review and create a new pre-budget process for ministers to request new
00:10:22.480funding the letters were provided to the globe and mail by senior government officials whose identities
00:10:28.080were not revealed champaign's second letter detailed the newly updated process for ministers to send
00:10:34.560in their budget priorities ministers will now be required to clearly demonstrate how their budgets
00:10:40.480would support the goals of prime minister mark carney's common mandate letter issued to cabinet
00:10:46.160earlier this year additionally ministers will have to prove that efforts were made to find existing funding by
00:10:52.080reallocating existing resources champaign's letter said the expenditure review will ensure that new
00:10:58.400investments are quote anchored by a new fiscal plan that reduces spending on government operations
00:11:05.600so we have the liberal government talking about cutting spending or at least reallocating spending
00:11:12.880and it hasn't yet materialized canada continues to spend heavily and have a huge
00:11:20.400federal government workforce that has expanded and ballooned under prime minister justin trudeau
00:11:27.920but how come the media isn't fear-mongering about cuts to public services by the liberals whenever
00:11:35.120a conservative uh pledges to balance the budget or to reduce canada's federal debt there's always pearl
00:11:43.520clutching and cries that this is going to cut health care this is going to cut education
00:11:49.280spending etc how come it's not the case right now oh it's a really good question cosmon and it touches
00:11:55.200on the valid and often unexplored point in canadian political media discourse which is why are federal
00:12:03.120liberal spending cuts not covered in the same intensity as hypothetical conservative cuts and there
00:12:10.800are i think a few different reasons first the liberals have often branded themselves as defenders of
00:12:16.240canada's unique sort of welfare state and cuts implemented by a progressive government as the
00:12:22.160liberals like to conceive themselves as are therefore often framed as fiscal responsibility
00:12:27.600or efficiency rather than downsizing for ideological reasons which is often how the media approaches
00:12:35.280hypothetical conservative cuts as an example christia freeland's economic update in 2023
00:12:41.680included 15 billion dollars in spending restraint and the media coverage emphasized that it was a move
00:12:48.880of responsibility and to avoid inflation rather than calling it austerity which is often how they frame
00:12:56.080hypothetical conservative cuts another reason is i would say the dissolution of the ndp is an official
00:13:03.360party in the house of commons the ndp which would normally push back on liberal fiscal restraint has been
00:13:10.880previously in a confidence and supply agreement with the liberals since 2022 but more recently they've
00:13:15.920lost official party status and they no longer have the same leverage in the house of commons therefore
00:13:21.920that they used to so in summary i would say that the media is not being critical of the liberals for
00:13:30.000several different reasons another reason of course is that they're often ideologically in lockstep with the
00:13:36.400liberal party and they're very much dependent on government subsidies to stay afloat we saw that
00:13:41.680recently in a story that true north did on chorus entertainment the parent company for global news
00:13:48.320receiving another large government subsidy so as the saying goes i think in a lot of these times
00:13:53.840the media is reluctant to bite the hand that feeds them so to speak that's it for today folks thanks for
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