Juno News - First Nations Chief sounds alarm on B.C.'s debt crisis

00:00:00.000 Welcome to The Fighter. I'm your host, Chris Sims. We're coming to you today from a special

00:00:10.040 location. We are at the Canada Strong and Free Conference. This is a semi-annual gathering of

00:00:17.120 folks who I would describe as everything from small C conservatives to big C conservatives to

00:00:22.720 libertarian types. Basically, people who want smaller, more accountable government,

00:00:27.360 and they have different ways of going about that.

00:00:29.940 So Taxpayers Federation, we often go to these events

00:00:33.060 and we like listening to people's big ideas,

00:00:36.060 particularly on things like how we actually save money,

00:00:40.560 when we're going to get out of a debt spiral,

00:00:43.220 how we are going to stop this crushing interest cost

00:00:46.960 on our debt and actually use our natural resources.

00:00:52.040 So stop blocking pipelines, stop shutting down mining, 1.00

00:00:55.420 bring investment back into Canada

00:00:57.220 so that we can actually save money. And also how we get rid of things like really high taxes,

00:01:04.140 carbon taxes, how we actually get accountable government in different parts of Canada.

00:01:09.820 Now, quick setup here to explain our upcoming guests. Many years ago, I was interviewed by

00:01:16.900 a very young man who I think had just finished graduating high school and he was starting law

00:01:21.400 school. His name is Aaron Peet. He's a First Nations guy and he lives down the Fraser Valley

00:01:26.580 from me in hope. Fast forward to now, he is now Chief Aaron Peet. Yeah. And he was just up on

00:01:34.860 stage here at Canada Strong and Free. And he had some very interesting things to say about things

00:01:41.360 like accountable government, private property, using natural resources to pull people up out

00:01:50.100 of poverty and not constantly worrying that we're just going to need more and more government

00:01:55.720 spending. Because as he put it, we're out of money. And here in British Columbia, they're out

00:02:01.840 of money. They're in massive debt. So this young gentleman gets it. And interestingly, he still has

00:02:08.920 his own podcast, and he's interviewing premiers as he does it. I found his take on things like

00:02:15.660 natural resources and accountable government refreshing. I hope you enjoy the conversation

00:02:21.540 to. I am here with a gentleman that first interviewed me many years ago. He is now

00:02:28.680 Chief Aaron Peet. Chief Aaron Peet of the Chihuahua First Nation, which full disclosure

00:02:35.160 is right near where I grew up. So basically right between Pope British Columbia and Yale

00:02:42.740 British Columbia. So big fan. You and I first talked, it feels like an eon ago. You had me on

00:02:49.800 your first podcast show that you had going there. And I had to bring you on to the fighter here on

00:02:55.840 Juneau and with the Taxpayers Federation, because we're here at Canada's Strong and Free event.

00:03:01.360 That's in Vancouver right now. And you had an outstanding performance on stage. You guys were

00:03:08.060 going over everything from pipelines, natural resources, accountable government, and what it

00:03:13.320 is to have a private property. It was outstanding. I just had to ask you, what was your impression?

00:03:19.120 I think you were the youngest guy up on the stage.

00:03:22.060 You know, what do you think about the reception?

00:03:24.360 It was really strong.

00:03:25.980 I was looking forward to it.

00:03:27.640 Just even speaking to all of the panel members prior was really interesting to see where we disagreed.

00:03:34.080 And I think there's a lot of overwhelming agreement amongst us.

00:03:37.020 So I tried to seek out those opportunities to disagree because I imagine Canada's strong and free.

00:03:41.680 You probably don't end up with a lot of First Nations chiefs attending those.

00:03:45.420 And I thought the audience deserved to to hear some disagreement and be able to challenge

00:03:49.800 some of my preconceptions.

00:03:51.260 And I am looking for more opportunities to have people disagree with my viewpoints, because

00:03:55.940 I think it's important if I'm covering something or if I'm giving my perspective that I I hear

00:03:59.940 the counter arguments.

00:04:00.940 And so I thought that went well.

00:04:02.100 A lot of people came up to me afterwards for to say nice things, which was really, I think,

00:04:07.780 surprising.

00:04:08.780 I thought I was going a bit into the lion's den with with the audience, because I imagine

00:04:12.420 they were all pretty strong, pretty frustrated, and I didn't know how they'd respond to me,

00:04:16.980 but it was all very kind and a warm reception. You made a big impression, I got to say.

00:04:23.420 So I don't want to put words in your mouth, but from what I could sense from you is you were

00:04:28.460 talking quite a bit about responsible resource use, not blocking such resource use, accountable

00:04:35.000 government, private property. You were hitting a lot of buttons there in that crowd. Is that fair

00:04:41.460 to say? Like, why did you focus on those topics? I think those are the topics of our time. I think

00:04:47.440 we're in a deficit that it's not clear that we're going to be able to get out of. I have an interview

00:04:51.880 dropping with the premier on Monday, where he says that the deficit is untenable, and that there

00:04:56.760 isn't a clear path back yet to a balanced budget. And so British Columbians are rightly concerned,

00:05:04.060 there isn't a track back or a path towards growing our economy out of this problem. That's the best

00:05:10.420 path austerity isn't isn't likely the solution over the long term it's growing our economy out

00:05:16.340 of this situation and so i think everybody's going to agree on this at the end of the day it's just

00:05:21.300 at what pace um people are going to realize that first nations i think broadly speaking are

00:05:26.340 realizing that the government has no more money to give why don't they have more money to give

00:05:30.900 they've spent it all and they've spent future generations money and so now the question is how

00:05:35.620 we get out of this and so if first nations want investments in social housing in resources and

00:05:41.700 programming they need a government that has money in the bank account that's run out it's not clear

00:05:47.460 how much longer we can sustain this and so i think we're going to see more and more first nations

00:05:53.140 switch their tune and realize the need for natural resource development and growth and that's likely

00:05:58.740 the best path out of this and again if communities aren't saying that it's unlikely that their first

00:06:04.180 nation members aren't feeling that way right they're the ones who are first impacted many of

00:06:08.340 them are on social development many of them are on fixed incomes they rely on a lot of social

00:06:13.300 programs and resources and when governments are limited on funding that seems to be the thing

00:06:18.420 that gets cut over time or just doesn't reach as far as it needs to food banks are being used at

00:06:22.820 record rates so those are some of the gaps we're about to see and everybody's going to get on this

00:06:27.700 page over time it's just a matter of how long you express concern way back in the day i think when

00:06:34.100 of our first interviews we had together you were asking me on your show about things like the debt

00:06:38.580 clock right our big truck that shows the big debt on the side of it and they can either do federal

00:06:44.660 or provincial since that time the provincial debt has just gone out of control in british

00:06:51.460 columbia my colleague or my ctfbc colleague carson binda has been doing a lot of work on this thank

00:06:57.460 you for raising the issue of deficits and interest payments and things like that

00:07:02.980 is this getting through to like your generation to your community like are more people saying

00:07:08.500 hey wait a minute this isn't doable anymore uh it is starting to come through like um i think

00:07:15.620 broadly speaking it's coming through i would say and like people don't like when i comment on this

00:07:19.780 but it's really the boomer generation that has managed to be so successful economically and the

00:07:25.860 question is going to be are they willing to leave anything for the future generations they're they're

00:07:31.140 they're such a unique generation because they really are the last generation to benefit from

00:07:36.700 a lot of Canada's promises. And now we have multiple generations that are not benefiting

00:07:41.160 from those promises. They've got university educations. They did all the things you said

00:07:45.120 you were supposed to do. And they can't afford a house and they can't afford a summer home and

00:07:49.560 they can't afford to travel. And they are just trying to get by. And so I think that's like the

00:07:55.180 larger question is, is the boomer generation willing to look at changing their habits,

00:08:01.120 willing to change their expectations on how much value their house has in order for future

00:08:05.380 generations to have a shot at the Canadian dream that they were able to live out? And so I see

00:08:11.700 that piece. I think over time, members are going to start to see that right now. We're still

00:08:16.000 running off of budgets that were pre-approved from 24, 25 and 25, 26 is just starting to kick in now.

00:08:22.720 and so as we see this continue over the next couple of years I do think my members are going

00:08:27.460 to ask like hey why aren't we doing more why aren't we supporting us more and I'm going to say

00:08:31.140 the provincial government and the federal government have said very clearly they don't

00:08:34.100 have money and so there's nothing for me to pass along forward there's no grant to apply for that's

00:08:39.760 all about to start drying up and then I think it's going to become more real so I think that's

00:08:45.020 we're in this waiting game of it's starting to hit I think it's hit a lot of communities already

00:08:49.660 but it hasn't hit all of them yet. You were mentioning that you have Premier David Eby on

00:08:54.820 your show. You've already got the interview done. Yes. And you said he raised the issue or you

00:09:00.000 probably asked him. What did he say about the debt or the deficit? What was the word he used?

00:09:04.400 He said that he's aware that it's a real concern and it's a real challenge and that there isn't a

00:09:08.820 path back yet. That's almost a scoop, man. That's good. You know, because the first step in

00:09:15.740 fixing a problem is, of course, acknowledging that you have one. So that's really important.

00:09:21.500 All right. So going forward, then, do you see the path back to a balanced budget and getting out of

00:09:27.760 this debt and deficit spiral? Do you see natural resources playing a huge part in that? Like they

00:09:33.700 have to cut spending, they have to cut wasteful spending, but at the same time, they need revenue

00:09:37.620 coming in. Do you see natural resources as that path forward? I think most communities do. And I

00:09:44.200 that's perhaps the tragedy of like first nations messaging that like many individual communities

00:09:49.800 that are sorting this out in what i think is is overwhelmingly a good way like the tall tan nation

00:09:55.480 they're the ones pushing mining probably the hardest in bc alongside the bc mining council

00:09:59.960 right they just signed a deal with the provincial government to start leading mining work within

00:10:04.360 the region so they don't have to wait around for the province i think over over a 15 year span

00:10:09.000 we're going to look back on that as like first nations unlocked the door to that industry uh we

00:10:14.600 don't see that now there's a lot of fear that now that they control it they may slow it down i don't

00:10:19.080 think that's what you're going to see i think the more i think the the broadly speaking the

00:10:24.200 framework i don't know if you know about the enbridge sunrise expansion project but we have

00:10:28.200 like my community signed on to that um other first nation communities are signed on to that we're

00:10:32.760 supporting an economic development venture i've met with enbridge i've met with tmx we are trying

00:10:37.400 to move in the direction of encouraging more work that's done in a sustainable way that respects

00:10:42.440 the community's impact um i i think that's that's what i mentioned on stage broadly speaking we did

00:10:48.120 have a problem for a lot of canada's history where the communities directly impacted by something

00:10:53.560 like a pipeline did not see investments in restoration in projects to maintain the land

00:11:00.040 for the members impacted whether they're just british colombians or canadians or first nations

00:11:04.920 where they were seeing the tangible benefit of those projects, where that wasn't always clear

00:11:09.800 for them. And I think industry is more aware of that. I do think that DRIPA helped raise awareness

00:11:15.480 of that process. And so I do see some like broad stroke changes that I do think are more beneficial

00:11:20.920 to those most directly impacted when they see like, oh, this pipe is actually like spilling a

00:11:26.200 little bit into this creek or something that those communities are having a response to be supported

00:11:31.160 and address those for our national folks uh enbridge this is natural gas correct that you're

00:11:36.360 dealing with talking about there and is this one in particular is that the one up highway seven or

00:11:40.760 whereabouts is it in relation to to your name oh i know you'll know you'll know low heat when it

00:11:45.880 goes over the the river there's that that lead yeah that's uh the red and white pipe that goes

00:11:50.760 across the river yeah i always thought it was magical when i was a kid so so they're expanding

00:11:54.840 that then yes they're doing the sunrise expansion project so they're doing a looping system uh

00:11:59.480 through seabird okay wow okay you touched on and i could i can feel it in the room like i'm from bc

00:12:06.360 originally but i'm working out in alberta now but i can feel it like this issue of a question mark

00:12:12.040 over private property it's really hanging in the air and you touched on that uh in a very you know

00:12:18.600 clear way on the stage did you want to address that now is this making its rounds in your

00:12:24.200 community are you being asked in the media about this sort of stuff because a lot of folks are

00:12:28.680 asking the question, do I still own my property? What happens if I can't use the capital that's

00:12:34.240 in my property? There's a lot of uncertainty. I agree there's uncertainty. It has not been

00:12:39.580 helped by the government's response. Broadly speaking, nobody's had their title removed

00:12:45.040 or anything of the sort. The Cowichan decision, they were very clear they weren't coming after

00:12:50.600 people's private property, that they were trying to have their Aboriginal title recognized by

00:12:56.840 government. And so they weren't pushing it. And the recent Musqueam agreement, Chief Wayne Sparrow

00:13:01.660 was very clear, he's not coming after people's private property rights. Now, the question around

00:13:06.000 the Cowichan decision and Richmond is, is that uncertainty going to bear out in the market where

00:13:12.040 people are less willing to purchase properties in the area? And that's, that is a valid and live

00:13:17.040 issue, just like how, if there was a natural disaster in the area, that would impact people's

00:13:21.600 confidence that that land is worth what people are trying to sell it for. And so that is a real

00:13:26.420 issue. And it seems like the province tried to respond with some sort of loan backing guarantee

00:13:30.900 process that really didn't quell concerns. It more legitimized people's fears. And so I do I do think

00:13:37.560 there's a lot of ways to start to address this and reassure British Columbians. I think it's

00:13:42.180 extremely what I told the the premier is it's extremely dangerous to vilify people who are

00:13:48.680 afraid, who are concerned. We know there's a cost of living crisis. And so when you start talking

00:13:53.640 for almost all of definitely all of my life a lot of Canada's history has been buy a house and

00:13:58.900 that's your retirement plan when you start putting that into question when you start flirting with

00:14:03.820 the idea that that might not be a good retirement plan anymore that runs a lot of fear into the

00:14:09.100 market and people are rightly going to react and we cannot call those people racist we cannot

00:14:14.340 demonize those people we have to meet people where they're at on those types of issues and I

00:14:18.860 have been concerned that the instinctual reaction by certain First Nation organizations, not First

00:14:25.700 Nation communities, First Nation organizations, has been to accuse those people of being racist,

00:14:30.480 white supremacist, driven people. And that's just not productive when there is a legitimate fear

00:14:35.540 and the government has not responded to completely quell those concerns. So that's my thoughts on

00:14:41.560 that. All right. Going forward, only got a couple minutes left, and I really appreciate your time.

00:14:46.180 You just spent many hours in traffic going down, back down the Fraser Valley from the conference that's happening here in Vancouver.

00:14:52.020 I think they're doing construction in like 18 different sites.

00:14:55.200 So going forward, you were talking about being elected by the folks in your community and how that was different than other forms of government.

00:15:05.100 I wasn't quite clear on what you meant there, but I heard like the language of accountability in there and being transparent with your people.

00:15:12.160 And that really ticked a box for the Taxpayers Federation.

00:15:14.880 how is it that you became chief if you don't mind me asking and then also where do you see

00:15:20.660 accountability going for First Nations governance because we get phone calls from folks every now

00:15:26.040 and then that are having to go all the way to court to try to get you know fiscal documents

00:15:30.640 out of their band council and their their leadership in their First Nations areas

00:15:34.180 how are things in your neck of the woods for that? So great question broadly speaking one of the

00:15:40.480 challenges we have is that election codes were introduced to First Nation communities with not

00:15:45.720 a lot of the deep understanding of how a democracy operates. And I think the West and the provincial

00:15:51.300 and federal government fall into the same mistake of thinking that the election is the democracy.

00:15:55.820 And I don't think those two things are the same at all. I think democracy is reflected in a lot

00:16:00.440 of different pieces. So when I ran, we have in our community, a lot of big name families that

00:16:06.360 that often get elected and are able to ask their family members for support.

00:16:10.600 And I ran on a platform rather than asking my family for support.

00:16:14.640 I didn't reach out to any of my family.

00:16:16.200 I ran on ideas of bringing economic development, addressing housing,

00:16:20.480 addressing the quality of life on reserve, on bringing in more funding

00:16:24.240 from the provincial and federal government and developing our economic development

00:16:27.760 so we can be self-sufficient.

00:16:29.920 And so I ran on that platform.

00:16:31.400 I hosted all candidates meetings.

00:16:33.360 nobody only one other person came out and then the community did come out but people were not

00:16:38.240 familiar with that process so that exists across uh canada today many first nations run off of

00:16:44.080 family names they may have an election but they run off family names rather than on the substance

00:16:48.880 of the ideas and communities can really get stuck on those pieces and i see that as well

00:16:53.200 with the provincial and federal government is they view this as like oh well we had an election so

00:16:58.000 uh everything we do now is based on what community and society wants us to do and i don't think that's

00:17:02.960 true at all like you can have key issues that they voted for you on but they hate the other 10 ideas

00:17:08.080 that you have or or what have you so referendums i view is really important constant town halls and

00:17:13.760 community engagements are really important and like just to remind people and i know that uh this

00:17:18.080 is um like juno news may not like prime minister trudeau do people not remember that he used to

00:17:23.920 sit in a circle where people would give him feedback on what he was doing and he'd answer

00:17:27.680 questions now we can debate on whether or not that was substantive or productive but the idea that

00:17:32.240 you as a leader go out in front of your citizens and answer questions and and take the hard balls

00:17:37.120 and try and address the fears and anxieties we're not seeing that provincially we're not seeing that

00:17:41.680 federally i've referenced what alberta did with the alberta next panel i've pitched that multiple

00:17:47.280 times as a pathway forward because i know a lot of people in british columbia don't love

00:17:52.400 what albert is pitching in terms of the referendum coming up this fall but the process they went

00:17:57.040 through you can't deny that that's a democratic process to derive your mandate from your citizens

00:18:03.360 and i believe that that's an incredibly important thing i get to hear on a daily basis we host

00:18:08.080 almost monthly open houses where my community members tell me what i'm doing right and wrong

00:18:12.000 and we show all of our projects and go what do you like what do you want the paint color to be

00:18:15.760 do you like this do you hate this give me a survey answer this so that i know what's going on and

00:18:20.000 what's working and what's not working and i think we need to see more of that within first nation

00:18:24.480 communities i think we need to see more journalists interviewing first nation leaders and asking them

00:18:29.040 tough questions but i also will say we need to see that from our provincial municipal and federal

00:18:33.680 governments because that's how democracy operates in practice that was going to be my last question

00:18:39.440 so i just want to expand on it a little bit you did mention the alberta next panel and again for

00:18:43.520 our federal viewers what alberta premier danielle smith and frankly a panel of experts she had

00:18:48.400 economists and other people with her weren't just people in government she basically did like a 0.59

00:18:52.960 rodeo tour over the summer and a little bit in the in the spring where she sat down and it was

00:18:58.080 all comers and they would stand up at a microphone and sometimes it got a little heated all of it was

00:19:02.720 recorded there's minutes and all that stuff and it was yes that costs money but so do elections

00:19:09.360 so do by elections so do referenda or recall legislation to us at the taxpayers federation

00:19:15.440 it's an element of grassroots exact direct democracy exactly like you're describing

00:19:20.480 And I'm just going to say, I've worked and covered politics in around eight provinces or so in Canada.

00:19:27.160 I must say that politicians are much more responsive to people in Alberta.

00:19:32.640 They're like twitchier. They answer your questions quicker.

00:19:35.420 I've just noticed this.

00:19:37.020 And I can't help but think, Erin, that doing things like those tours, having recall legislation and having referendums matter.

00:19:45.900 because we have recall legislation at the provincial city hall and school board level

00:19:52.160 you guys have it at just the provincial level but imagine if you had it trickle down and the ability

00:19:57.980 to hold a politician to account with a by-election between elections or have more referendums on

00:20:03.840 things is that ideally where you'd like to see this go have a bit more grassroots democracy it

00:20:08.340 gets people talking more i find i've been pitching that to all of the leaders i've been interviewing

00:20:13.680 lately is that that seems like a real way to bring the temperature down in the room like

00:20:18.400 there are a lot of british columbians and canadians that are rightly frustrated and feeling

00:20:22.640 i think most importantly unheard and what i see within my community is sometimes people as you say

00:20:27.840 come at me very aggressively but when i listen when i wait when i let them get everything out one

00:20:33.760 that's um important i wear a suit almost all the time in community because i am accountable to them

00:20:39.840 i am i derive any authority i have from them and so they need to see me as a leader but they also

00:20:45.920 need to hold me accountable for the decisions i make in the perspectives that i develop and

00:20:50.240 the moves that i make and i i think i agree that that's one element i also think we just need to

00:20:56.400 get back to expecting our leaders to be humble and to be gracious like i think if anything else

00:21:03.200 what drippa and this response on reconciliation shows is that the government did in fact think

00:21:08.080 they were smarter than british columbians that they knew more than their constituents and that

00:21:13.440 they didn't need to go and explain it all to them because of how much work that would be

00:21:17.520 that is not work that's optional that is a requirement of a governing body to be accountable

00:21:23.120 to their electorate to walk alongside them to invest whatever money is needed in a thoughtful

00:21:28.640 communications plan and i'll break some more news the premier david eby does say that he's going to

00:21:33.200 share the process of decision making and start to be more public about where they're going and

00:21:38.480 how they're coming to these decisions which i think is an important step and so i think those

00:21:43.280 are the pieces that are missing i just see uh federally and provincially governments that think

00:21:48.080 that they are smarter than their citizens and i'll be the first to say i have a law degree

00:21:51.680 and i regularly say that that doesn't make me smarter than anyone else it just tells me how

00:21:55.440 much i don't know and i think it's a real danger of elitist politicians to think that they know

00:22:00.080 better than their citizens who have reached out to me like i have listeners who reach out to me

00:22:04.640 who've read the cowichin case beginning to end like we cannot underestimate our population

00:22:11.440 i get a lot of that from email as well both here uh at the juno uh email on youtube there's so many

00:22:17.760 folks and that's really the beauty of the internet and having podcast discussions like this i think

00:22:22.880 is i find people are more informed actually because we're in their ears they're walking

00:22:27.520 the dog they're doing the dishes you know what i mean they they really seem to latch on to these

00:22:31.600 issues and then they start listening to influencers and voices that they trust and then they start

00:22:36.400 building a relationship with them so i gotta ask you uh just last question you mentioned that you

00:22:41.600 have your law degree um the way that you described yourself in that pinned tweet on twitter just

00:22:46.880 really touched me because again i grew up right where near where the fraser meets the cocahalla too

00:22:52.640 and so where do you see yourself going you you described eating you know craft dinner growing up

00:22:57.280 as a kid and I got a law degree and you've got this podcast and you're interviewing premiers.

00:23:01.440 Where do you see this train going? I hope that it continues to grow. I continue to try and get

00:23:07.120 Mr. Polyev and Mr. Mark Carney on the podcast and continue to try and bring a nuanced perspective. I

00:23:12.800 know lots of most people disagree with where I'm at, but I hope they appreciate that I am trying

00:23:18.640 to one, find a path forward, but also to never underestimate the importance of hearing from

00:23:23.680 people that i i may disagree with uh so i have some debates that i'm i'll be releasing shortly

00:23:28.880 between me and people who don't believe reconciliation is an aim we should even be

00:23:33.200 working towards because i don't think any ideas should be forbidden or taboo or something we don't

00:23:38.480 grapple with and i do think for a lot of people we've lost like why is reconciliation important

00:23:43.200 so in the short term i have another two years as being chief i'll likely run for one more term and

00:23:48.320 And then I would like to walk.

00:23:50.340 I expect that I will have completed my objectives within the next five years.

00:23:55.260 And so I would like to wrap that up.

00:23:56.960 I hope that I create a model that is replicatable for other First Nation communities that can be passed on for how to get your community out of poverty, how to create economic development and start to share that across Canada and continue to try and build up communities.

00:24:12.200 Because the thing I hate is just the idea that people live in the poverty that we experience.

00:24:16.140 It shaped us in a good way. But I worry about like I know members who have had kidney disease because of the mold and mildew in their house.

00:24:23.560 Like I know the real tangible impacts of poverty. And I want no one in Canada should have to live that way.

00:24:29.720 We are a G7 nation. We should be past that. We should have clean drinking water.

00:24:33.440 All of these issues are solvable. They're not. We're getting stuck in so many issues that we're forgetting that problems can be fixed and addressed.

00:24:41.180 and we can close the chapter on a lot of these.

00:24:43.600 And I just want to make sure I'm contributing to solving these issues.

00:24:47.200 You know, if you're talking about things like natural resource development,

00:24:50.960 accountable government, seriously,

00:24:52.660 building wealth from things like oil and gas,

00:24:55.400 other natural resources, debt, deficits,

00:24:58.280 you should be able to get Mr. Kaliyev on your show, I would say.

00:25:02.200 Let's see.

00:25:02.720 I hope so.

00:25:03.140 I hope so.

00:25:04.300 Chief Aaron Peet of the Chihuahua First Nation,

00:25:07.360 right outside of Hope, British Columbia,

00:25:09.480 and recent speaker at Canada Strong and Free,

00:25:13.220 also host of the podcast.

00:25:14.640 Where can people find your podcast and your work

00:25:16.840 if they want to listen in?

00:25:18.740 Nuanced is available on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify.

00:25:22.900 We'll have the premier on.

00:25:24.260 We have Ian Black.

00:25:25.280 We have Peter Milobar.

00:25:26.940 And we're waiting for those other Conservative Party

00:25:29.420 leader candidates to respond.

00:25:32.760 Good luck with that.

00:25:33.800 Thank you so much for your time today.

00:25:35.740 Thank you.

00:25:36.880 Wow.

00:25:37.160 So what did you think of Chief Aaron Peet?

00:25:39.700 Like I said off the top, he interviewed me on his show many, many years ago.

00:25:44.820 And he was asking about our debt clock, which is our huge truck that we have a big jumbo screen on.

00:25:50.400 And we show provincial and national debts on it.

00:25:53.200 And he was intrigued by the level of spending and how important it was to make those numbers start going down because we're just indebting future generations.

00:26:03.040 He was also really interested in hearing about natural resource development, where government gets out of the way and lets businesses pay for things instead of taxpayers pay for things.

00:26:13.360 And then he basically said all those similar things up on stage now in Vancouver.

00:26:17.580 I found him quite well spoken.

00:26:19.800 What did you guys think?

00:26:21.760 What do you guys think about the issue of private property?

00:26:24.940 Do we need to enshrine private property in our charter of rights?

00:26:30.020 Do we need it enshrined as a right here in Canada?

00:26:33.040 because Chief Aaron Peet is correct. A lot of people are really scared about whether or not

00:26:40.960 they own their property anymore. We've got a lot of fog around here, around this issue. So he's

00:26:46.260 seeking more clarity. What do you think about it? Leave your comments underneath the video. And hey,

00:26:50.920 if you haven't done so yet, be sure to head on over to Juno News and subscribe because

00:26:56.380 we do interesting interviews with newsmakers like that young man. Also, if you haven't done so yet,

00:27:02.700 this is key. This is key in order to make change. Like this video, subscribe to the YouTube channel

00:27:08.900 with the Taxpayers Federation, and share the show with people who need to know.

Juno News - May 07, 2026

First Nations Chief sounds alarm on B.C.'s debt crisis

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