Juno News - Even Liberals MPs are tired of the carbon tax

00:00:00.000 The latest parliamentary budget officer report reveals something you already knew,

00:00:04.180 that you're spending hundreds of dollars more on the federal carbon tax than you're getting back

00:00:08.380 in rebates. Comes as no surprise to Canadians who are feeling the pinch at grocery stores,

00:00:13.960 at the pumps, and when they're heating their homes. And now, even Liberal MPs are threatening

00:00:18.840 a caucus revolt because of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's failing leadership, including his

00:00:23.960 inability to scrap failing policies like the carbon tax. We're now all wondering whether

00:00:29.740 the carbon tax could not only cause the Liberals to lose the election, but also cause Justin Trudeau

00:00:35.380 to lose his leadership. Joining me today to discuss is Franco Terrazzano, the Federal Director of the

00:00:41.340 Canadian Taxpayers Federation. I am Rachel Parker, and you're watching The Rachel Parker Show.

00:00:59.740 And now I'm joined by Franco Terrazzano, the Federal Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation,

00:01:07.880 to break down the latest PBO report on the carbon tax. Are you actually getting out ahead because of

00:01:15.160 it? The federal government certainly wants you to think so. Franco, thank you so much for being here

00:01:18.700 today. Hey, my pleasure. Thanks for having me on. So obviously, we're really grateful for the Canadian

00:01:25.100 Taxpayers Federation for all the work that you guys do to break down these numbers for Canadians and

00:01:29.740 actually get to the heart of what's going on. We know there's been a lot of disinformation from the

00:01:34.340 Trudeau Liberals about the carbon tax, and they seem desperate to convince Canadians that it's

00:01:39.260 benefiting us. Why don't you start by breaking down these latest numbers from the PBO? What does it actually

00:01:43.720 say about how Canadians are being impacted by the carbon tax? Well, it's costing us big time, and it's costing

00:01:50.600 us more, hundreds of dollars more, than what we're getting back in rebates, right? So the PBO, the

00:01:56.560 Parliamentary Budget Officer, which is the government's own independent non-partisan budget watchdog,

00:02:01.720 is proving, once again, with like its third report, it's proving what Canadians outside of the political

00:02:07.900 bubble in Ottawa already know, that the carbon tax is making our lives more expensive. So here are the

00:02:14.860 numbers, folks. According to the PBO, the carbon tax will cost the average family up to $399 more this

00:02:24.640 year than what they're getting back in rebates. But of course, Trudeau plans to make your life more

00:02:30.100 expensive by cranking up the carbon tax every single year. So by 2030, the carbon tax will cost the average

00:02:37.520 family up to $903 more than what they're getting back in rebates. But you know what, folks? Even those

00:02:44.280 huge costs downplay the total costs over those times, right? So between now and the end of 2030,

00:02:51.160 the carbon tax will cost the average family up to $4,300 more than what they're getting back in

00:02:58.720 rebates. So PBO confirming what most Canadians already know is that the carbon tax makes our life

00:03:04.240 more expensive and is a huge drag on the Canadian economy. With this Liberal government, a trend that

00:03:10.920 we've seen more so than with any other government that I've personally covered is really just hardheadedness.

00:03:18.300 They seem so unwilling to change directions, even when it's been proven time and time again, that the policies

00:03:23.600 they're putting forward aren't working for Canadians. We've even seen BC Premier David Eby, obviously in the midst of an

00:03:28.740 election, change his tune on carbon tax, carbon pricing, you know, like they usually like to use more euphemisms to

00:03:35.220 refer to it because it's so unpopular. Why do you think that the Trudeau government hasn't changed

00:03:40.380 directions on the carbon tax? Is it just something that they believe they're so tied to ideologically

00:03:44.800 that they're unwilling to change their tune on it? You know, that's a really good question. And the

00:03:50.740 honest answer is, I don't know. Like, I really don't know, right? Because you can see that they're

00:03:56.040 sticking to the carbon tax as of yet to their own detriment, right? Everyone can read the same polls that

00:04:02.300 show the support for the Liberals are plummeting. Well, let's ask ourselves why support for the

00:04:07.340 Liberals in Ottawa are plummeting. It's because they are making life too expensive. And like the key

00:04:13.440 example is the carbon tax. And you know, the reason the carbon tax is so damaging, so hurtful for so many

00:04:19.960 Canadians is because it impacts almost every aspect of Canadian life. Well, Canada is a very big country.

00:04:28.460 Guess what? The carbon tax makes it more expensive for you to get around, for you to fuel,

00:04:32.300 up your car, to get to work, or to take the kids to hockey practice. Well, Canada is a very cold place.

00:04:38.180 And guess what? The carbon tax makes it more expensive for you to stay warm, right? The carbon tax on

00:04:43.420 natural gas alone this year will cost the average family like 360 bucks. And that's just the carbon tax on

00:04:51.040 natural gas. Well, guess what? We all need to eat. And the carbon tax stings you there too, right? The carbon tax

00:04:57.360 makes it more expensive for farmers to grow food. The carbon tax makes it more expensive for truckers

00:05:02.000 to deliver the food. And of course, the carbon tax makes it more expensive for you to buy food.

00:05:06.980 And let's not forget our economy, which is so reliant on Canada's abundant natural resources.

00:05:13.520 Well, the carbon tax will cost our Canadian economy like $12 billion this year alone.

00:05:19.520 You know, I just want to sort of even take a stab at that. It was funny. I was reading the news today

00:05:25.060 and Stephen Guibo, our federal environmental minister, his press secretary even admitted in

00:05:29.860 media, she said, you know, the carbon tax gets a lot of negative attention. I suspect one of the

00:05:34.200 reasons the liberals aren't willing to change their tune on this is because they've been pushing it

00:05:37.840 so hard for so long that it would basically just admit the level of government incompetence and

00:05:43.560 that they are not able to govern Canadians properly. I don't know if it's something that they could

00:05:47.460 really change their tune on because I suspect it would lead to the fall of the government because

00:05:51.420 it's been something they've been pushing so hard for so long. And it's really, if you think about

00:05:55.760 the liberal government, this has been one of their pinnacle policies from day one. This is something

00:05:59.580 that they've been pushing so hard since Trudeau was elected. So I don't know if they can change their

00:06:03.600 tune on it. I know Canadians are hoping that we'll be heading to the polls that early soon.

00:06:07.860 Speaking of Guibo, we have him once again trying to justify this tax. Let's roll this clip of him

00:06:13.360 in the House of Commons. I want to get your reaction to it, Franco. 0.69

00:06:15.820 Considering only the fiscal impact of the federal fuel charge, PBO estimates that average household

00:06:22.120 in each of the backstop provinces in 2030-2031 will see a net gain, receiving more from the

00:06:29.360 Canada carbon rebate than the total amount they pay in federal fuel charge. That's what

00:06:35.640 the PBO report says. So now's the time to clear the air on Pierre Polyev's big lie to Canadian.

00:06:41.780 He's been misleading Canadian. The PBO is very clear. More Canadians get money back from the

00:06:48.980 Canada carbon rebate than what they pay. What is also clear is that our plan is working.

00:06:55.260 We've never seen in our history before emissions go down at a time of full economic growth in this

00:07:03.300 country. That has never happened before.

00:07:05.980 Okay. I'm going to let you respond to the actual content of what he said there, but just off the

00:07:12.620 top, just kind of reading his body language, nothing says, I know the facts, like literally

00:07:18.080 reading off of a piece of paper. Like this is, you're the federal environment minister. You

00:07:21.880 literally have one job. You can't even memorize basic facts to read them to the media. You understand

00:07:26.340 this so little that you actually have to read the report. Like I could do that. Like anyone could do

00:07:31.480 that. Rachel, Rachel, he kind of let the cat out of the bag when he said, quote, only the fiscal

00:07:38.600 impacts, right? Ignore the big costs in the room. Ignore the elephant in the room. You know what?

00:07:45.080 Guy Bowe, minister, not so fast because you're not considering the full cost of the carbon tax,

00:07:51.480 right? Rachel, what he said is like me saying, yeah, I'm sticking to my diet. If you don't count the

00:07:57.440 big Mac and fries and beer that I had Saturday night, right? Well, you can't just look at one

00:08:02.680 part of the cost. You got to look at all of the costs. And what, as I mentioned, right, the carbon

00:08:07.920 tax, it doesn't just cost you when you go to the gas pumps. It doesn't just cost you when you heat

00:08:13.340 your home, right? It costs you in almost every aspect of life where the carbon tax costs are passed

00:08:19.460 throughout the entire economy. Just as an example, right? When a farmer is growing food, well, the carbon

00:08:26.040 tax will cost farmers like a billion dollars by 2030. Then you got to have a trucker to deliver 0.91

00:08:31.160 the food. Well, the carbon tax costs truckers about $2 billion this year alone. So you can see how the

00:08:37.660 carbon tax has this trickle effect throughout the entire Canadian economy, right? So Guy Bowe isn't

00:08:44.300 even covering the full costs, right? But the parliamentary budget officer looked at all of the costs. And when

00:08:50.580 you look at all of the costs, the carbon tax will cost average families hundreds of dollars

00:08:56.220 more than they get back in rebates. Oh, by the way, the PBO's numbers only look at the consumer

00:09:02.180 carbon tax, right? You're also paying an industrial carbon tax and another carbon tax that Trudeau buried

00:09:09.520 in fuel regulation. So at the end of the day, the carbon tax is costing Canadians big time. And you know

00:09:15.640 what? I think the liberals even know that. Franco, just my last question for you here. I talked to

00:09:22.100 Chris Sims, the Alberta director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation all the time. And she tells me

00:09:26.600 a lot of, you know, really heart-wrenching stories about how many, how much you guys are hearing from

00:09:31.000 Canadians about how they're really struggling. With regards to this latest report, I mean, I know

00:09:35.120 there's also just a level of fatigue with the liberal government. It seems like it's bad news all the

00:09:39.100 time with them. But you guys often get more of a personal element when you're hearing from people who

00:09:44.280 are, you know, really struggling to make ends meet, losing their homes, can't pay for gas, can't pay

00:09:48.680 for groceries. Have you heard from Canadians about this latest report? Well, the big thing that we're

00:09:54.380 getting from Canadians from this latest report, we hear from Canadians all the time struggling

00:09:59.660 to make ends meet. But from this latest report, it's kind of, well, no duh. Of course, the carbon tax

00:10:06.840 is making life more expensive. Of course, the carbon tax costs people more than what they get back in

00:10:12.740 rebates, right? Like, think about it. The government also charges its sales tax on top

00:10:18.500 of the carbon tax, costing Canadians hundreds of millions of dollars. And that tax on tax money

00:10:23.720 isn't rebated back, right? The government is also spending like $200 million hiring the bureaucrats

00:10:29.740 to administer the carbon tax. So there's no way that a government can impose a carbon tax,

00:10:35.480 skim hundreds of millions of dollars off the top, then charge its sales tax on top of the carbon tax,

00:10:40.880 and somehow make everyone better off. And Rachel, you know, I mentioned that even the

00:10:45.520 liberals know the carbon tax makes life more expensive. Case in point, last year, the liberal

00:10:50.900 government, Trudeau, surrounded by his Atlantic Canadian caucus, announced that he would take

00:10:55.840 the carbon tax off of furnace oil for a couple of years to provide relief. Well, if the carbon tax

00:11:02.400 isn't making life more expensive, why would Trudeau take the carbon tax off of furnace oil? That was an

00:11:08.080 admission that the carbon tax makes life more expensive. And it was also an admission that

00:11:14.160 the carbon tax is about politics, not the planet. Franco, thank you so much.

00:11:20.340 Hey, thanks for having me on. Okay, everyone. That was Franco Terrizano,

00:11:24.940 the federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. I really enjoy having the Taxpayers

00:11:30.240 Federation people come on because they really know their stuff. Actually, as Franco was speaking,

00:11:35.040 I was getting a little bit nervous as I was sharing with some of you guys last week, we recently moved.

00:11:41.000 So you guys have to deal with my little bit of a plane setup right now. It's a bit of a work in

00:11:45.220 progress to get things fully unpacked at our new house. Certainly quite a bit of work, especially

00:11:50.820 when you're also working on the side and have a little one running around. But we're slightly more

00:11:54.860 rural than I've ever lived before. I think it's like 30 minutes to get to Costco now, 30 minutes to

00:12:01.000 get to a mall. For some of you who live in maybe rural Ontario or rural Alberta, you're thinking,

00:12:05.860 oh, that's nothing. I have to drive, you know, an hour and a half to get to Costco. Well, it's new

00:12:10.320 for me. I've only ever really lived in the city before. Even when I lived in Ontario, I wouldn't say

00:12:16.520 I lived in the city, but it was about 10 minutes to get to the nearest city. So certainly the most

00:12:21.040 rural I've ever lived, it's going to be a bit of an adjustment. I suspect we'll probably save

00:12:25.100 a lot of money because I won't be going out as often to do some browsing. But I am, you know,

00:12:31.620 not looking forward to getting my heating bill, to seeing our fuel costs tick up. I was just saying

00:12:38.340 to some of you guys a little while ago, you know, I really actually do like the Cybertruck maybe.

00:12:44.520 And honestly, the comments on this, I always read your comments and the comments on this are so split.

00:12:48.620 Half of you are like, it doesn't work in Alberta. You don't want to deal with it. And then the other half

00:12:52.000 of you are like, I drive a Tesla. I charge it at night. Like it's totally fine. So, you know,

00:12:56.840 I'll have to kind of wait. I'm not getting a new vehicle right away, but I'm going to kind of

00:13:00.300 wait, maybe do a little bit more research. Maybe I'll have someone on the show to talk about

00:13:04.360 specifically electric vehicles in somewhere cold, like rural Alberta and see what they say. Let me

00:13:09.660 know if you guys would be interested on something about that. But as Franco was talking, I was just

00:13:13.420 thinking, oh, this carbon tax is really going to be hurting me even more. So now that I just live a

00:13:19.180 little bit further north, a little farther away from things. So yeah, not looking forward to

00:13:23.740 getting those heating costs. All right. Now we didn't really touch on this in my interview with

00:13:28.200 Franco, but I wanted to talk a little bit about this liberal caucus revolt. We know that there's

00:13:33.040 been whisperings that a lot of liberal MPs are not happy with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Well,

00:13:38.520 the reason for that being is they're seeing their polling numbers. They're seeing their disastrous

00:13:42.240 polling numbers and they're looking at this and most of them are thinking, I'm going to be out of a job

00:13:47.660 within a few short months, probably under a year. And that's very true. That's just the nature of

00:13:52.400 politics. You lose your seat. You have to find a new job. It can be a bit of a difficult lifestyle

00:13:56.660 for some people. That being said, I don't really necessarily think being a career politician is

00:14:00.860 the best thing. A lot of times, you know, people go in, make the changes they want to see, go out and

00:14:05.400 do something out. That's probably the better way to do things. But that's typically not what we see in

00:14:10.640 our system. We see people go, they become an MP typically for, you know, decades. A lot of our

00:14:16.200 politicians in Ottawa, they've been there for absolutely for decades. And certainly they bring

00:14:21.260 a level of experience to the position. But I also think you become hardened and a little bit unaware

00:14:26.240 of what life is actually like for Canadians elsewhere in the world. You know, you kind of

00:14:31.200 get stuck in your bubble. So anyways, that was a little bit of a digression. Let's continue with

00:14:35.980 the Liberal caucus revolt. Althea Raj of the Toronto Star reported that a bunch of MPs met when Justin

00:14:42.600 Trudeau was traveling, and they were discussing their unhappiness with the way things are going.

00:14:47.700 Her report claimed that up to 30 to 40 MPs are going to be willing to sign a petition that would

00:14:53.260 ask Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to step down. Now that is a far cry from the 76 MPs that would be

00:14:58.600 half of the Liberal caucus that would put a much stronger push on Trudeau to resign.

00:15:04.480 I spoke a little bit about Justin Trudeau's hardheadedness. I think he knows that his caucus

00:15:09.360 is unhappy with him. I think he knows that there's growing resentment, partly because a lot of these

00:15:13.620 people are going to be losing their seats. And because the Liberal Party is going to be decimated

00:15:18.660 in the next election, let's be very clear about this. The Liberal Party will be decimated in the

00:15:21.860 next election, unless they can pull a quick one to sort of like we're seeing with the Democrats

00:15:27.140 in the states right now, where they switch out their leader and act like none of the bad things that

00:15:31.740 ever happened were tied to this, this new leader, they had no part in the Liberal Party's past

00:15:37.260 decisions. That's going to be very difficult for them to do. I don't even think it's really working

00:15:41.900 very effectively in the states right now. As you would know, if you watch Rachel and the Republic,

00:15:46.140 where I cover all things US election related. So I know I think Justin Trudeau understands that

00:15:51.120 there's a level of resentment growing within his caucus, I kind of doubt that he cares. He's looking

00:15:55.700 for a nice cushy UN job to fall on after he leaves his job as Prime Minister. I don't think he actually

00:16:00.860 cares what happens to his Liberal MPs. I doubt that he likes them very much anyways. And after that

00:16:07.080 report from Althea Raj came out, there was a follow up report from David Akin of Global News. And he

00:16:11.940 said that a lot of the complaints actually have to do with the carbon tax. A lot of the Liberal MPs

00:16:16.460 think that it would help if Justin Trudeau finally scrapped the carbon tax, they think that would help

00:16:20.520 their polling numbers, they think that would help them save their seats. And one of them even said

00:16:24.540 it's going to be scrapped anyways, once Pierre Polyev becomes Prime Minister, so might as well scrap it now.

00:16:29.680 As I said, I don't think that will happen. I think that for the Liberal government to scrap the carbon tax,

00:16:35.040 it would admit that their entire government and the premise of all their policies was

00:16:39.900 essentially built on a lie that they forced down our throat for so many years and forced

00:16:44.520 us to pay so much more for goods and services. I don't really know how they could even walk

00:16:48.460 something like that back at this point, because it would just reveal such an abject failure of

00:16:53.260 their government. It would reveal so much incompetence and acknowledgement of the pain and

00:16:57.220 the suffering that they've caused Canadians, which they've already done to an extent with things 0.98

00:17:02.140 like removing the tax on fuel heating for your homes in Atlantic Canada, as Franco was speaking

00:17:07.440 about earlier. So I mean, and even for the Liberal MPs, like it's hard to sort of be like, oh, you know,

00:17:13.600 I'm glad they're organizing now, like it's a little bit too little too late. They don't have much

00:17:19.200 courage. Like this is the problem with politicians in Canada is really like a lack of courage. I think

00:17:23.640 we saw this during the COVID-19 pandemic, where where were the leaders who were willing to speak

00:17:28.140 up against the policies that they we were seeing during COVID when we essentially saw tyranny being

00:17:32.800 rolled in, we saw like a soft launching of tyranny in Canada. And there was no political leaders who

00:17:38.900 were willing to stand against it. So we definitely have a huge issue with courage. A politician's

00:17:43.320 writ large and the Liberal caucus is no exception to this. All right, everyone, now let's roll into the

00:17:49.220 clip of the week. As you know, I don't watch these in advance. My producer Sean picks them for me.

00:17:54.080 Let's see what he has for us today. Today is a good day. Because if you live in one of these provinces,

00:18:01.420 check your bank account, you just got the Canada carbon rebate. It looks like this, like this, or like

00:18:08.180 this. It's a payment from us that goes out four times a year, we put a price on pollution, and the revenue

00:18:15.020 goes straight back into your pockets. So check your bank account or your mailbox in the coming days.

00:18:20.160 So this does not look to me like a man who is in a few weeks time about to say, you know what,

00:18:27.340 never mind, we're actually not going to do the whole carbon tax thing. Those rebates, they didn't

00:18:32.340 actually benefit you as much as we said they did. You were actually still paying more for goods and

00:18:36.140 services than you were getting back in rebates. That to me does not look like a politician who is

00:18:41.080 anywhere near the place of planning to roll back a policy. He's obviously going to continue with this

00:18:47.340 government narrative that Canadians are better off with the carbon tax. I can pretty much guarantee

00:18:53.420 you now as I said, I haven't seen this clip, I haven't seen the comments underneath it, I would

00:18:57.740 be willing to bet like $500 that a good number of the comments, maybe even half the comments underneath

00:19:04.580 that post were people being like, oh check our bank accounts, did you freeze it again? It's so funny

00:19:10.120 anytime Trudeau talks about bank accounts, everyone's immediately like, oh no, I'm like a little nervous

00:19:16.040 because he probably froze my bank account again. So maybe he should find a new way to approach these

00:19:20.500 types of topics without using the check your bank accounts language because I think Canadians, we

00:19:24.660 have a lot of shared trauma from the Trudeau government and the way that they've treated our

00:19:29.380 bank accounts in the past. All right everyone, I missed doing this last week, but I am going to

00:19:34.240 continue doing it moving forward because it's one of my favorite parts of the show is responding to

00:19:38.940 your comments. I always tell you guys that I do read them all the time. Sometimes if they're really

00:19:43.200 mean, I'll like take a breather and get back to them later, but you guys are usually very

00:19:46.640 good and if there's criticism, it's fairly constructive. Sometimes people just complain

00:19:51.860 about random things like my voice. Can't change that. If you don't like it, this might not be

00:19:55.400 the show for you, just being totally honest about the confines of what I'm able to change.

00:20:00.500 But let's take a look at your comments from last week's episode, which I covered the Jasper

00:20:05.180 wildfires and the admission that many firefighters were not allowed in by Parks Canada to help fight

00:20:12.820 the fire. Here today, gone to Maui said, are Parks Canada also in charge of fighting church fires?

00:20:19.460 Doesn't seem like anyone is in charge of fighting these church fires. They continually happen.

00:20:24.220 It's so sad. My colleague Cosman Georgia has been probably the foremost reporter covering this. He

00:20:30.580 has a map of all the church fires across Canada. Definitely go check that out on True North if you

00:20:35.500 can. At this point, I would say that if I was the caretaker of one of these old and beautiful

00:20:42.320 historic churches, you definitely want to be investing the money into a good security system

00:20:48.460 so that you know when someone's entering the property because this is not going to stop

00:20:54.160 happening. There's so much hatred towards Christianity in Canada today, especially when

00:21:00.260 we see things like Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Gerald Butts essentially being like, you

00:21:04.320 know, it's understandable that this would happen. It's too bad, but it's understandable.

00:21:07.720 So these types of things are not going to stop happening. And, you know, the government doesn't

00:21:12.820 take crime seriously anymore. They're not going to take this seriously. So, you know, for people

00:21:17.980 who have these types of churches, I think kind of just understand that your government really

00:21:21.660 doesn't care. See if you can go to your congregation, if you still have an active congregation and

00:21:25.820 fundraise some money for a proper security system because I guarantee that you will get use

00:21:30.700 out of it. User at Jackie Anderson said, the government has too many regulations that keep

00:21:37.520 people from being able to do what needs to be done. Federal government needs to back off

00:21:41.700 and so does the provincial government. Certain regulations are needed, of course, but they

00:21:46.200 have over-regulated. No wonder things never get done in a timely manner. And that's just

00:21:51.600 so true. I mean, the scariest words in the English language are I'm from the government and

00:21:55.280 I'm here to help. Typically, when government gets involved, there's so much more bureaucracy

00:21:59.600 and it just seems like there's a lot of people pushing paper without actually taking action.

00:22:04.100 I think that is, you know, at least part of what we saw go wrong in Jasper when contract

00:22:09.200 firefighters showed up to help fight the fires and were told by Parks Canada that they were

00:22:14.220 not allowed to be there and that they wouldn't have access to water from the Athabasca Lake,

00:22:18.440 for example. So, you know, in this case, the federal government, too many regulations, but

00:22:22.800 also sometimes it just seems straight up malicious, like the Trudeau government freezing our bank

00:22:27.420 accounts straight up malicious. Sometimes it just has to do with regulation. Other times

00:22:31.500 it has to do with the government that actively hates a certain part of the population who

00:22:35.980 have certain political leanings and just does not want them to benefit or to excel and also

00:22:41.580 sometimes just hating the people that grew up in Canada and call Canada home. All right,

00:22:46.000 everyone, that's all we have time for today on The Rachel Parker Show. I will be back tomorrow

00:22:49.440 with more content on Rachel and the Republic covering the American election. If you support our work,

00:22:55.120 you can do that over at donate.tnc.news. Don't forget to hit the like button and the subscribe

00:23:00.460 button so you won't miss any of our content from me or from my other colleagues at TrueNorth

00:23:04.940 who are doing amazing work as well. Hope you guys have a great rest of the week. God bless.

Juno News - October 15, 2024

Even Liberals MPs are tired of the carbon tax

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