Juno News - Guilbeault wants ANOTHER carbon tax

00:00:00.000 I just hate blocking the flag's crest.

00:00:04.440 What could it possibly be?

00:00:06.420 I can't tell anymore that Isaac's covering part of it.

00:00:09.440 That's right.

00:00:13.440 When I was growing up in elementary school,

00:00:15.500 people said that it looked like two faces coming together on edges of it.

00:00:19.800 If you look at the white part instead of the red part,

00:00:23.020 and I can't unsee it.

00:00:24.560 It was in the fourth grade.

00:00:26.620 I tried to look on me, but it's too big.

00:00:28.720 It's too up close.

00:00:29.440 I can't see.

00:00:30.380 Well, next time you look at it,

00:00:31.820 you will see that it looks like two people with their heads together

00:00:34.360 kind of arguing.

00:00:35.720 Now, Chris, you're probably old enough like I am to recall when,

00:00:41.880 at least in elementary school, we sang the national anthem,

00:00:45.700 I think every single day is how we started.

00:00:48.140 And once a week, we sang God Save the Queen,

00:00:52.100 now God Save the King.

00:00:53.640 Isaac, was that something that your school was doing

00:00:56.500 when you were growing up?

00:00:58.460 No.

00:00:58.980 So I went to French immersion school,

00:01:00.700 and we sang the national anthem every morning

00:01:03.420 in basically half English, half French,

00:01:06.060 but we never did any religious things

00:01:08.480 because it was a public school, not a Catholic school.

00:01:11.120 I mean, I would suggest that God Save the King isn't particularly religious.

00:01:15.780 It's the anthem of the monarch of Canada.

00:01:19.220 But, you know, yeah, I would be surprised if kids in school nowadays would even know

00:01:25.400 any of the words to that song.

00:01:27.480 So either of them, people often refer to it as the royal anthem as well.

00:01:31.480 For the first time, I sang God Save the King out loud at the most recent Remembrance Day ceremony here in Lethbridge.

00:01:39.440 Last time I wasn't able to, because it was too upsetting.

00:01:43.200 So, because you're raised singing God Save the Queen, and now the Queen is gone.

00:01:47.000 I'm old enough, totally dating myself.

00:01:50.260 We sang O Canada.

00:01:53.100 We sang God Save the Queen once a week,

00:01:55.200 and we said the Lord's Prayer.

00:01:57.680 Wow.

00:01:58.320 In public school, in elementary school,

00:02:00.780 right up until the fourth grade in British Columbia.

00:02:03.180 So, I guess I'm kind of dating myself.

00:02:05.680 All right.

00:02:05.880 Did we want to get this thing started, gentlemen?

00:02:15.240 Welcome to Off the Record here at True North.

00:02:17.520 My name is Chris Sims.

00:02:18.560 I'm the Alberta Director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

00:02:21.700 I'm joined here by our lovely regular guests, Isaac and William.

00:02:25.900 Gentlemen, we've got so much to talk about.

00:02:28.460 I just got the paper version of my Epoch Times or Epoch Times.

00:02:32.380 I never pronounced that properly.

00:02:33.900 And it's got the huge Trump win.

00:02:35.460 We're going to get to that.

00:02:36.560 It's on the front page.

00:02:37.760 But I really wanted to kick things off first with something that

00:02:40.700 we at the Taxpayers Federation noticed.

00:02:43.100 Pardon me for barging in on it.

00:02:44.960 But, so, you know, Environment Minister Stephen Guibo?

00:02:48.700 You know how he just loves carbon taxes?

00:02:51.640 Well, he's at the whatever UN climate summit where they fly there in their jets

00:02:56.860 and they burn all this stuff and they waste all your money.

00:02:59.020 He's at some summit and he's actually pushing for a global carbon tax.

00:03:06.140 So, two of his favorite things, world government and carbon taxes, come together.

00:03:11.780 And there he is at this UN climate summit pushing for a global carbon tax on shipping.

00:03:18.560 So, shipping typically is goods that are shipped by cargo that go across the ocean.

00:03:26.240 And he's proposing to do this and charge every country in the world that can afford it.

00:03:32.080 That's a sliding scale.

00:03:33.300 And that the money would, of course, go to poor countries for them to somehow reduce their

00:03:40.260 carbon footprint or whatever.

00:03:41.300 We know largely that this would just get wasted.

00:03:44.500 Now, I did need to point out that the folks, the pointy heads at the UN have been pushing

00:03:50.740 for a global carbon tax on things like shipping for years.

00:03:54.440 They keep on trying this stuff.

00:03:55.720 It's the same thing when they try to get people to eat crickets or not eat as much red meat

00:04:00.240 or whatever, but this time they have found an ardent dance partner because there has never

00:04:06.380 been a carbon tax that Minister Guibo has made eye contact with that he has not fallen madly

00:04:11.360 in love with.

00:04:12.560 What do you guys think?

00:04:13.620 Do you think that this is a chance that they might be able to convince them to actually put

00:04:18.020 this thing through?

00:04:18.780 Like, do you think they'd get countries signing on to this?

00:04:21.800 William, do you want to take a crack at this?

00:04:23.020 Yeah, you know, this COP conference just, you know, makes me cringe every time I hear

00:04:28.620 it happening.

00:04:29.040 It might as well be called COP of Feel Conference because every time they have one, they want

00:04:32.860 to reach into your pants and pick your wallet and grab a few more dollars for whatever crazy

00:04:37.980 project that they've just come up with.

00:04:40.260 So, yeah, I mean, you know, if you ask around, and I think the U.S. election really brought home

00:04:45.680 the case of this, people aren't exactly saying, I have just too much money in my pockets.

00:04:50.980 I have too much disposable income and not enough things to spend it on.

00:04:55.920 My rent is too low.

00:04:57.300 My groceries are too cheap.

00:04:59.240 Transportation is too cheap and affordable.

00:05:02.280 And so what I really need is a big government tax to come and make my life even more expensive

00:05:08.060 to get rid of some of my excess cash.

00:05:10.620 It's, you know, it would be ludicrous if it weren't quite so criminal and sad.

00:05:17.060 And yeah, you know, we're coming up on Christmas.

00:05:18.860 It's the busiest shopping time of the year.

00:05:21.500 A lot of people are buying things from faraway places that need to be shipped.

00:05:25.840 You know, my family's waiting for Black Friday and Amazon to put on some deals to look at

00:05:31.480 what we're going to buy for my nephews.

00:05:33.180 And now we're going to make that more expensive because everything that gets shipped is going

00:05:36.880 to have a new carbon tax.

00:05:39.100 And then you're going to send it to developing countries who, of course, their first priority 1.00

00:05:43.480 isn't the fact that huge swaths of their populations are unemployed and can't afford

00:05:48.160 health care and maybe don't have enough to eat.

00:05:50.820 We're going to pay them to have the privilege of releasing slightly less carbon.

00:05:55.360 And, you know, I'm absolutely certain that that money won't be spent on other priorities,

00:05:59.140 you know, because when I talk to people who work with third world charity groups,

00:06:03.060 they're always telling me it's all about the carbon, not about not about food and shelter

00:06:08.180 and health care.

00:06:09.360 Clean water, you know, luxuries like that.

00:06:11.960 Isaac, what was your take on this?

00:06:14.280 Yeah, you know, Chris, I was trying to go through in my head and think to myself, which

00:06:18.420 of the countries at COP29 here would even fathom agreeing to something like this?

00:06:23.740 Of course, Donald Trump, President-elect Donald Trump hasn't had his inauguration date yet.

00:06:28.680 But I'm thinking, imagine Guibo trying to pitch this to Trump.

00:06:31.620 I mean, he would obliterate him.

00:06:33.160 There's absolutely no chance that Trump would do something like this.

00:06:36.820 His his.

00:06:37.800 In fact, we've seen over the recent days how Trump has been coming out, in fact, in partnership

00:06:43.640 with Danielle Smith as recently as today on prioritizing making energy as cheap as possible

00:06:49.740 because he understands that is how you make a strong economy, not by making it expensive.

00:06:54.980 And by the way, we still haven't seen any evidence from liberals or anyone else that this

00:07:00.120 carbon tax does anything to reduce carbon emissions because our carbon emissions keep

00:07:04.240 going up.

00:07:05.000 But so, too, does the carbon tax.

00:07:06.760 So really, there's no logical reason that anyone would sign on to this, I think.

00:07:11.840 And we'll see what happens at COP.

00:07:13.540 No, you nailed it there.

00:07:15.000 To be clear, here in Canada, the carbon tax is a disaster.

00:07:19.020 But the government just keeps on digging like any sane person with an ounce of common sense.

00:07:25.260 If they dig themselves into that whole first job, stop digging.

00:07:28.380 But they just keep on going for it.

00:07:30.200 And now they're turning their shovels on other countries or at least trying to.

00:07:33.460 So here in Canada, we actually already have three carbon taxes.

00:07:37.840 We have the first carbon tax, which is often referred to as the retail carbon tax.

00:07:42.060 That's the one that adds like 13 bucks per fill up of a minivan, 20 bucks per fill up

00:07:47.940 of a pickup truck, over $400 this winter alone here in Alberta.

00:07:53.380 The carbon tax is going to cost us to heat our homes with natural gas.

00:07:56.800 Truckers, they're costing like 200 bucks extra, extra just for filling up with diesel.

00:08:02.900 And that's just the one carbon tax.

00:08:04.700 We have the second carbon tax, which is the highest in British Columbia.

00:08:08.040 It's a form of government fuel regulation where they basically penalize a company of how dare

00:08:13.400 you, oil and gas company, produce something like oil and gas.

00:08:17.740 We're going to fine you.

00:08:19.380 And then, of course, the company takes that fine and they pass it on down the hose.

00:08:23.820 And that's you, again, filling up your vehicle.

00:08:26.560 In British Columbia, it's on average floating costs because they do a whole bunch of weird

00:08:30.540 online credits and markets going on.

00:08:33.100 It's around 18 cents extra per liter of gasoline and diesel.

00:08:37.080 Still, Trudeau, legit, he saw British Columbia.

00:08:41.180 He saw how high their price of gasoline and diesel was.

00:08:44.320 And he's like, that's awesome.

00:08:46.060 I'm going to do that across the whole country.

00:08:48.260 I'm not kidding.

00:08:48.980 He used BC as a template.

00:08:50.920 And so now we have a second carbon tax that's federal.

00:08:53.940 It's not as high as it is in BC, but we still have it.

00:08:57.100 The third carbon tax we have is often referred to as the industrial carbon tax.

00:09:01.460 It's really similar to what I just explained with the second carbon tax, but this time it's

00:09:06.160 big companies that are paying these credits and offsets and all this other jazz.

00:09:10.860 At the end of the day, that just makes our stuff cost more.

00:09:14.620 So now we have these three carbon taxes already in Canada.

00:09:17.860 We also have record numbers of people saying they cannot make ends meet, that they're within

00:09:24.740 200 bucks of not making all their minimum payments on their bills.

00:09:28.380 That's also known as nearly going bankrupt.

00:09:30.760 Okay.

00:09:31.180 And we also have record demand for food banks, especially from working families.

00:09:36.060 So what the Trudeau government does is say, you know what, these carbon taxes are so super

00:09:40.840 awesome and they're not reducing emissions.

00:09:42.600 You're absolutely right, Isaac.

00:09:44.040 So let's make the whole world pay for one.

00:09:46.160 Like, it's just, anyway, I have confidence that, how did that go?

00:09:51.880 One of my friends said, I think a Trump size hole has been driven through that plan.

00:09:58.240 I don't think that one's going to happen.

00:10:00.600 Speaking of president-elect Trump, okay.

00:10:03.140 Former presidents are supposed to be given the honorific of president, William, but he's

00:10:09.360 a former president and now a president-elect.

00:10:12.380 So do we call him president-elect President Trump?

00:10:16.520 Or what do we call him now?

00:10:18.340 Just see how many times we can put the word president in front of the name Trump.

00:10:22.620 I know there'd be quite a number of people who would support that.

00:10:25.700 It is true that U.S. office holders do retain their titles for life.

00:10:30.400 But I guess in the case, it's also, though, rare to have someone who was a president then,

00:10:37.120 you know, sort of leave public life, you know, voluntarily or otherwise, to then have them

00:10:42.500 come back into public life.

00:10:44.740 Again, it's only happened a handful of times in U.S. history.

00:10:47.620 Yeah.

00:10:47.920 So let's just, I'm just going to keep it simple.

00:10:50.460 President Trump, who is not yet inaugurated, he is making good on some of his promises.

00:10:56.940 He has assigned Elon Musk.

00:11:00.500 If you don't know who that dude is, I can't help you.

00:11:02.860 And he's also assigned Vivek Ramsey, who is a kind of a fascinating character.

00:11:08.100 He actually ran for the leadership of the Republicans.

00:11:11.200 Super dynamic, interesting guy.

00:11:13.500 What I find fascinating is he's appointed these two gentlemen to, what would you call it,

00:11:19.060 guys, a task force, a mission to reduce government waste and improve government efficiency.

00:11:27.040 And the acronym, I'm not kidding for folks who are on X or Twitter, is Department of Government

00:11:34.180 Efficiency.

00:11:35.420 Doge.

00:11:36.760 Okay.

00:11:37.640 This is an actual tweet from Elon Musk.

00:11:40.260 I mean, the guy can definitely move things.

00:11:42.800 It's not just rockets.

00:11:45.440 Do we, so that's music to Taxpayers Federation ears.

00:11:49.140 The idea that you could actually go through departments, get rid of entire departments

00:11:53.240 if they're inefficient and just a big waste of money, find actual waste like we have here

00:11:58.120 at the Taxpayers Federation where we spent taxpayers' money, you know, sending sex toys to a show 1.00

00:12:04.060 in Germany, like completely stupid things. 1.00

00:12:06.200 Do we think this will make meaningful change though? 1.00

00:12:10.460 And can they?

00:12:12.380 Because the way that their system is set up, don't they have to get this stuff through Congress?

00:12:17.720 And will they be able to do that?

00:12:19.440 Like, I actually don't know.

00:12:23.060 Yeah, Isaac, do you want to grab that one?

00:12:25.000 Yeah, here's what I'll say because obviously, and I'm sure many people felt the same way when

00:12:30.040 I first heard about this dog or dog, I don't know how it's pronounced.

00:12:34.200 Doge Task Force or Department.

00:12:37.940 The first thing I, of course, thought of was Argentina leader, Javier Malay, who his whole

00:12:44.140 campaign was based on the fact that he would slash public service to the bone, essentially.

00:12:51.260 And I think we have a clip, in fact.

00:12:52.980 Do we want to show that right now?

00:12:54.160 Oh, yes, we do.

00:12:55.320 Play that tape.

00:12:56.040 Ministerio de Turismo y Deporte, afuera.

00:12:59.020 Ministerio de Cultura, afuera.

00:13:01.220 Ministerio de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sostenible, afuera.

00:13:04.520 Ministerio de las Mujeres, Género y Diversidad, afuera.

00:13:07.480 Ministerio de Obras Públicas, afuera.

00:13:10.540 Aunque te resistas.

00:13:11.820 Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología e Innovación, afuera.

00:13:15.140 Ministerio de Trabajo, Empleo y Seguridad Social, afuera.

00:13:18.540 Ministerio de Educación, adoctrinamiento, afuera.

00:13:22.460 Ministerio de Transporte, afuera.

00:13:24.640 Ministerio de Salud, afuera.

00:13:27.460 Ministerio de Desarrollo Social, afuera.

00:13:31.460 Se acabó el curro de la política.

00:13:34.960 ¡Viva la libertad, carajo!

00:13:37.800 Yeah, so obviously...

00:13:39.200 I have that tape in my phone.

00:13:41.840 Malay's been in office now for just about a year.

00:13:44.480 I think he became the president in December 2023.

00:13:47.820 So I was curious what has slashing these public services done.

00:13:52.060 And I just looked quickly online, you know, and I seen AP came out yesterday saying Argentina has seen the lowest inflation that it's had in the last three years.

00:14:03.940 Okay.

00:14:04.460 What else?

00:14:05.480 Their GDP per capita at a record.

00:14:07.460 I mean, all the things you'd hope for.

00:14:09.740 So obviously this is not having a negative effect and may, in fact, be having a positive effect.

00:14:14.880 I'm curious to see if similar cuts would have the same effect in America.

00:14:20.480 And obviously with Trump prioritizing energy development and otherwise, that is going to have a strong effect on the economy as well.

00:14:27.580 Yeah, I can say.

00:14:30.300 I think it's unclear to me how much power this new group task force agency department will have.

00:14:38.200 It doesn't look like, at least at first, they're setting it up as a fully fledged department that would have a secretary and cabinet power.

00:14:45.900 But I think one of the things it will have is an ability to expose examples of government waste and mismanagement.

00:14:54.040 And I think that public opinion pressure will be very valuable to President Trump when he starts a campaign to try and cut wasteful spending.

00:15:02.880 And I mean, you know, we have wasteful spending up in Canada.

00:15:05.760 There's a there's a ton of it, including just a massive bloated bureaucracy that has, you know, tens of thousands of more people, maybe even hundreds of thousands more than we need.

00:15:15.940 Down in the States, in some ways, it can be even worse because when they're trying to get a bill through Congress, every congressman or congresswoman will have a demand that they want to put on.

00:15:28.200 And in order to get their vote, you sometimes have to buy them.

00:15:31.740 And it means, you know, a bill for child's health care includes funding for erectile dysfunction medication or, you know, a bill to study farm products in the Midwest includes salmon fishing out in the Pacific Northwest.

00:15:49.920 There's there's all sorts of these things are called Christmas trees.

00:15:52.280 Everybody likes to hang little spending ornaments on them.

00:15:55.280 But I'm personally very excited about what the Department of Government Efficiency is going to find.

00:16:00.700 And it really takes the air out of the sails of people who talk about how government is this force for good in the lives of everyday people, how we need government and how government spending is efficient.

00:16:12.420 And when the government tackles problems, that's the best way to solve it.

00:16:16.680 You know, the late great Margaret Thatcher, my personal political hero, some minister came to her and said, you know, we've identified this problem.

00:16:25.320 And his solution was to create a new ministry that would be responsible for this problem.

00:16:30.920 And she looked him in the eye and said, if the existence of the ministry and the minister depends on this problem continuing to exist, then it will never be solved.

00:16:40.360 We will never rid ourselves of it once jobs depend on having this problem be around.

00:16:45.900 So I say Godspeed to the new Department of Government Efficiency and please find some places to cut wasteful spending.

00:16:54.960 That would be great.

00:16:56.240 Yeah, I think I've got hope in that.

00:16:58.720 I think this will change the momentum and the tone.

00:17:01.540 The very idea that they're now openly saying we need Ron Paul in here to come help.

00:17:07.560 Like for the longest time, Dr. Ron Paul, bless his heart, has been trying to reduce government spending, reduce government waste, expose government corruption, hold government to account.

00:17:17.420 And for the longest time also, it's, you know, advocacy organizations similar to ours in the United States, like the Americans for Tax Reform with Grover Norquist, trying to restrain spending.

00:17:27.180 And there's always been, you know, a healthy push behind that, but it hasn't gone mainstream or viral in an awful long time.

00:17:36.300 And to be able to see something like small government, like dramatically reducing the size and scope and power and spending of government to make that shiny and attractive again is huge.

00:17:50.700 I think we do have a clip.

00:17:52.300 Do we want to play that clip of Vivek Ramsey?

00:17:54.200 It's just really inspiring.

00:17:55.520 Let's roll that.

00:17:57.900 Reject the impulse.

00:17:59.040 It's going to happen in the next four years.

00:18:00.560 We will face temptation to say that we want to replace that left-wing nanny state with a right-wing nanny state.

00:18:06.300 The right answer to that question is hell no.

00:18:09.020 The right answer is to dismantle the nanny state.

00:18:10.900 We will face the temptation to say we want to replace the left-wing regulatory state with a right-wing regulatory state.

00:18:18.480 The right answer to that is hell no.

00:18:20.380 We want to dismantle the regulatory state.

00:18:22.580 We will face the temptation to say, hey, we want to staff the bureaucracies with our own people and claim that we want to reform them.

00:18:29.720 No, the right answer is to get down, get in there and shut down the bureaucracy.

00:18:34.180 That's how we save this country.

00:18:36.320 That's what our founding fathers fought for in 1776.

00:18:39.860 And if we do, then we don't have to be this nation in decline anymore that we've become.

00:18:46.020 Amazing hearing that.

00:18:50.000 And for the handful of folks who are watching who like big government and they think that we need big government to take care of us and do everything,

00:18:57.380 I just heartily encourage you to really think again.

00:19:00.900 Ask yourself if whatever it is that needs to be done could be done better by honest, earnest private citizens or a charity group or an advocacy organization.

00:19:10.960 I'll give you a quick example, and I won't get too graphic because otherwise I might start crying.

00:19:14.940 You guys might remember that there was a case in British Columbia off one of the Gulf Islands where they had deer that Parks Canada wanted to get rid of, right?

00:19:25.380 OK, so this became kind of a, you know, it was a thing, right?

00:19:28.980 And kudos to the reporters in Vancouver who dug up this story.

00:19:32.580 They did a great job and they phoned us about a year ago.

00:19:36.240 So what was happening is taxpayers were paying like it was like a million dollars, something crazy.

00:19:41.880 It was a crazy amount of money for foreigners, New Zealanders, if I recall correctly, sharpshooters to shoot deer out of a circling helicopter. 0.98

00:19:52.160 OK, so I grew up in B.C.

00:19:56.060 You could get people, hunters, with legal firearms to come shoot deer for free.

00:20:01.260 They will fill up their trucks themselves and bring all their gear themselves.

00:20:04.980 Just open the bag limit and your problem will be gone.

00:20:08.520 But wait, there's more.

00:20:10.700 This is where it gets really upsetting.

00:20:12.960 So they got all this pushback about them hiring people to shoot deer out of helicopters and wasting taxpayers' money doing this.

00:20:19.180 You know what they actually went and did?

00:20:22.380 They set up nets in the forest and in the meadows of this island.

00:20:30.460 They set up netting to keep the deer in a certain place.

00:20:35.900 Anyone watching this who has a lick of experience with wildlife, especially deer, knows what happened here.

00:20:42.460 These deer tangled themselves in these nets by themselves for weeks at a time and thrashed themselves to death.

00:20:51.680 That's government.

00:20:53.600 That is a perfect example of we should get the government to fix this.

00:20:57.580 No, you really shouldn't.

00:20:59.500 And the more you dig into things, the more the government screws up.

00:21:02.420 So, yes, I, for one, I keep that little doge thing on my phone because I wanted to inspire people to reduce government waste and to cut taxes.

00:21:10.980 This one's also ticking me off.

00:21:13.940 Who wants to lead off the Remembrance Day stuff?

00:21:17.980 Yeah, so hopping from the federal government's failures to the municipals, also on a broad scale,

00:21:26.000 we saw a lot of backlash across the country from woke initiatives that were implemented at Remembrance Day,

00:21:34.300 like lengthy land acknowledgements, even pro-Hamas activism, and all of really these initiatives that overlooked the importance of Remembrance Day,

00:21:44.800 which is, of course, honoring fallen soldiers.

00:21:48.360 I think we have a picture of Harrison Faulkner.

00:21:51.860 He kind of went through the list here, if we could show that.

00:21:54.360 Yeah, this isn't by no means all-encompassing, but it really did list a lot of the good ones here.

00:22:00.960 I mean, take your pick. 0.93

00:22:04.860 I don't even know where to start because they're all as ridiculous as the last. 0.90

00:22:10.680 Is there any one of these that stands out to either view? 0.64

00:22:13.940 The one that jumped out at me at first was because a friend of mine who lives in Nova Scotia sent it to me,

00:22:19.620 was being told that active veterans, so yes, Remembrance Day is absolutely about honoring the fallen.

00:22:26.180 It's also to give a nod to our veterans who came home who were still dealing with what they saw and were.

00:22:31.960 And to tell them, don't show up in your uniform, like, that really got my hair standing up.

00:22:39.880 So that one really stood out.

00:22:42.760 I think there was another one where it was in Ottawa and they sang a song in a foreign language,

00:22:48.000 which, you know, to be really clear, so taking off my Taxpayers Federation hat completely,

00:22:53.020 I used to work with Veterans Affairs Canada.

00:22:56.280 A lot of the men in my family have served in the armed forces, including in places like Cyprus.

00:23:03.600 Remembrance Day ceremonies are solemn and really simple.

00:23:06.840 Like, we've been doing them this way for about 100 years, okay?

00:23:11.720 You play last post, you might have a fly pass, hopefully you have a prayer, you lay wreaths, you know, you honour the fallen.

00:23:18.200 They're solemn and beautiful and meaningful.

00:23:20.660 You don't need to add stuff to them.

00:23:22.400 So the two that popped into my mind were telling living veterans, don't show up in your uniform.

00:23:27.000 And then also that there was a different song that was shoved into the ceremony, I think, at the last minute at a school in Ottawa.

00:23:35.080 Yeah, I mean, there were just some, you know, again, they would be laughable if they weren't so deeply insulting and painful to people who, you know, have friends, family members and loved ones serving or who have served in the Canadian Armed Forces.

00:23:52.140 I did enjoy, or rather shake my head at the example of Langley, British Columbia, where they only had one reading from a religious text during their ceremony, and it was a reading from the Quran, which I think a lot of people would find surprising.

00:24:09.540 You know, if you look at the people who generally have served in our armed forces, they do represent a whole range of different religions.

00:24:18.520 But the major one, I think, would be Christianity, particularly for people who fought in, say, World War I or World War II on behalf of our country.

00:24:26.360 So the fact that they went out of their way to pick one that doesn't represent the majority of people, and then said, but we shall have no others, no other readings of this apart from this reading from the Quran.

00:24:36.920 And, you know, you have to wonder what goes through the minds of some of these woke politicians when they decide to use these events in order to try and further one of their pet causes.

00:24:50.460 You know, Mayor Gondek in my beloved city of Calgary, less beloved mayor herself, she decided to do quite a lengthy land acknowledgement at the beginning of her Remembrance Day ceremony,

00:25:02.960 and did indeed refer to the people there and the veterans themselves as settlers on colonized land.

00:25:10.220 And I think, you know, Canada has a day to, you know, reflect on Indigenous issues.

00:25:16.700 We have a National Day of Truth and Reconciliation.

00:25:18.580 Why are we now trying to co-opt the one day that we have, especially for veterans, who in many cases gave, you know, the ultimate sacrifice, paid the ultimate price for our freedom and for our liberty?

00:25:33.140 Why are we now trying to co-opt this day into serving some other purpose, some other special interest, some other woke agenda item?

00:25:41.280 And I think it is, you know, not just sad, but I think, you know, deeply offensive to people who do have family members who are serving and have served in our armed forces.

00:25:53.540 The other, I think this also speaks to a lack of understanding and knowledge of our history.

00:26:01.120 I think it's easier for people to do things like this if they haven't really thought about it and they haven't really learned about it.

00:26:13.340 Just to put it glibly, it's easy to beak off and make something your own when you truly haven't empathized with what you're talking about.

00:26:22.480 And to put a pin on it, November 11th was for Armistice Day.

00:26:28.140 It was for the end of what they hoped would be the war to end all wars.

00:26:34.620 Millions of people died.

00:26:37.960 Millions of them.

00:26:39.680 Mostly young men.

00:26:42.060 And Dr. John Robson, a friend of mine, pointed something out to me years ago, and it stayed with me.

00:26:48.360 He said, it isn't just those millions of young men.

00:26:52.720 Think of the children who were never born.

00:26:56.380 Ever.

00:26:56.940 End their children. 1.00

00:26:58.640 End their children. 0.77

00:26:59.580 Until here we are right now.

00:27:01.920 And it, of course, also led into the Second World War.

00:27:05.720 A lot of historians are now simply referring to it as the 20th Century War.

00:27:10.240 Because there was a big lull in the middle, but the two are inextricably connected.

00:27:15.120 So I would just urge people who want to make it their day or change it or whatever, whatever your thing is, it doesn't matter, really read about it.

00:27:26.160 Really think about it.

00:27:27.360 Imagine being someone in one of those countries or being a soldier shipped off or being a soldier shipped off or being their mother or being their wife or their sister.

00:27:35.420 Imagine living through that truly.

00:27:38.420 And then ask yourself if you really need to do that for a few hours in the morning on one day.

00:27:43.520 Or maybe you could wait till the next day or even in the afternoon once people have gone home.

00:27:49.080 Did we want to go to the school board?

00:27:51.060 Because this one was a little bit funny and I think I need something to cheer me up.

00:27:54.420 I do have to say that coming off a very somber topic, we, you know, now have an example of, you know, maybe we'll just revisit that first one about there's no wasteful spending in government.

00:28:06.580 Yes.

00:28:07.020 And say, oh, well, are you sure?

00:28:09.240 Because what we had recently was what I'm calling a school trustees gone wild Italy edition.

00:28:16.100 And honestly, if you if it weren't actually true, you would have a hard time making something like this up.

00:28:22.140 The and I wrote down, so I would get it right.

00:28:24.660 The Brant Haldeman Norfolk Catholic District School Board.

00:28:29.160 So this be a school district in southwestern Ontario encompassing Brant, Norfolk and Haldeman County.

00:28:36.520 Well, they have two schools that needed some art.

00:28:41.220 Specifically, they wanted some religious art.

00:28:43.940 And I guess they thought, well, if we want religious art, where do we have to go to get that?

00:28:48.260 Clearly, none is made in Canada.

00:28:50.080 None is made in North America.

00:28:52.140 The only place apparently that they could get it was Italy.

00:28:54.840 So they spent more than $50,000 on travel expenses to go to Italy for a week to buy $100,000 worth of religious art,

00:29:09.580 which they subsequently brought back to Canada.

00:29:12.580 And I'll just give you a little list here.

00:29:14.440 Some of the things they spent on.

00:29:17.360 Well, one of the things I have to laugh is their trip to Italy included two nights in Germany, which is a country famous for not being Italy.

00:29:25.060 So a lot of people wonder why that was.

00:29:29.100 Well, apparently, according to the board chair, who has recognized the air of his ways, it's quite a long flight from Italy, Canada to Italy.

00:29:37.380 So they needed a night to recover.

00:29:39.640 They needed a night to get caught up on the rest and on the jet lag.

00:29:43.520 And apparently they needed one at the end of their trip as well, which explains why there's two nights in Germany in Italy.

00:29:51.080 But William, just a second, William, it's not like Italy has major cities, right?

00:29:56.720 Like it doesn't have Rome or anything.

00:29:58.840 No, no, no.

00:29:59.460 I mean, Rome and Milan and Naples and none of the people.

00:30:03.960 I don't think Italy has any tourism either.

00:30:06.100 I don't think people go to Italy as tourists for these things.

00:30:09.580 It would have been way too hard.

00:30:10.720 They had to land in Germany and then commute.

00:30:13.000 For the religious art.

00:30:13.980 And so the real question is, though, would they have really been so tired, given that their average flight cost was $7,000 apiece, which, you know, for those of us who have occasionally studied flights, know that they flew business class in the nice lie flat pods that they have at the front of the plane.

00:30:32.680 So why did they have jet lag when they spent $28,000 on their flights for these four people so that they could get a good night's sleep over the Atlantic Ocean?

00:30:45.840 They also stayed in what have been described as luxury or deluxe hotel rooms and suites during their course there.

00:30:52.780 They enjoyed a limousine ride at one point.

00:30:56.420 Maybe there was a lack of parking at the religious art factory that they were visiting.

00:31:01.420 So they rented a limo.

00:31:03.440 They enjoyed several gourmet, boozy dinners, too, while they were in Italy.

00:31:09.320 Total cost coming in at $50,000.

00:31:12.580 So for anybody out there who doesn't think there's wasteful spending in government, I would just urge you to look at this example.

00:31:20.100 When places are crying out for funding for education to hire more teachers, to hire more teaching assistants, to have more resources in classrooms.

00:31:27.680 Well, this Brandt-Haldeman Catholic School District group, they decided four people, $50,000.

00:31:34.880 I tell you, if I ever am planning a luxury trip to Italy, I want to get that school board to do my trip planning.

00:31:41.140 They know how to put on a luxury vacation.

00:31:43.020 This is excellent.

00:31:44.940 And it really puts the point on it that there is just so much waste.

00:31:48.300 And to be clear, this is just what we know about.

00:31:50.820 It's not like this is the one bad school board in all of Ontario.

00:31:54.420 No, no.

00:31:55.500 This is just the one that we've heard about.

00:31:58.040 There's tons of stuff that we've never heard about.

00:32:00.640 At the Taxpayers Federation, we do the annual Teddy Waste Awards where we hand out golden pig statues to levels of government that waste your money in spectacular fashion.

00:32:09.580 We do it to make fun of it because otherwise you'd cry.

00:32:13.160 Like, it's such a huge waste of money.

00:32:15.300 And, yeah, this sounds like, I don't know, the $100,000 or $200,000 that our federal politicians blow on airplane food.

00:32:22.300 And they say, oh, it was normal airplane food.

00:32:24.440 Meanwhile, it's stuff you can't pronounce.

00:32:26.060 It's like beef carpaccio and super fancy stuff.

00:32:29.140 And it has to be served on China plate.

00:32:30.980 Like, this is just a gross waste of taxpayers' money.

00:32:34.020 And I have to stress, it wasn't always like this.

00:32:36.800 Okay, the reason the term public servant exists is because it used to be people like retired teachers, former police officers, local small business owners who donate their time for a tiny stipend.

00:32:52.340 Like, they might get parking.

00:32:54.180 They might get lunch.

00:32:55.360 But it was a tiny stipend that they were paid to be a public servant.

00:33:00.560 And now we're spending, would you say, $50,000?

00:33:04.400 Spending them to Italy?

00:33:05.400 Just over $50,000 for the expenses, another $100,000 for the art.

00:33:10.220 This.

00:33:10.960 This is where we mean when we say government waste and too big of government because it should not be like this.

00:33:16.960 Isaac, do you remember, did you go to Italy to get art for your school?

00:33:21.260 Was that a regular field trip?

00:33:22.540 No, yeah.

00:33:23.040 I was going to say everyone, every good Catholic, practicing Catholic knows the only place to get religious art is in the Vatican City, actually, in Italy.

00:33:31.740 I'm pretty sure if this school board walked down the street to a church and just said, hey, do you guys know any art we could get?

00:33:38.380 They would have gotten it for free.

00:33:40.600 Could have maybe spent that $50,000 or $100,000 on something that would contribute to the school in some way, shape, or form.

00:33:48.480 I'm sure there are a few examples that come to mind that don't include $100,000 paintings from the Vatican City itself.

00:33:56.540 No wonder they're so expensive.

00:33:57.520 They had to go straight to the source.

00:34:02.080 And, yeah, to be clear, for people who don't know, there are shops where you can go get religious art, like, for real.

00:34:07.680 And it's beautiful.

00:34:08.820 And a lot of it is from Italy.

00:34:10.420 But you don't need to pay $50,000 to local bureaucrats from the school board to fly there, stuff themselves full of gourmet food to bring it back to you.

00:34:18.340 You can just pay for it.

00:34:19.400 And it's not that much money. 0.90

00:34:20.460 That is a ridiculous waste of money.

00:34:22.920 But I really think it's important that we highlight this sort of stuff, especially in light of what we were talking about with the movement for the Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE, in the United States.

00:34:33.860 If we can make cutting spending and reducing the size and power of government cool again, then we'll definitely be winning as taxpayers.

00:34:44.020 Isaac, William, thank you both so much for joining us today.

00:34:47.200 Really appreciate it.

00:34:48.040 And, folks, thank you so much for watching and listening.

00:34:50.020 Be sure to share this show with someone you know needs to hear it.

00:34:54.920 But remember, everything is off the record.

00:35:05.040 Chris, I just thought of a real good question for you.

00:35:08.100 Every report and every data I've ever seen on essentially comparing public to private spending in various sectors has shown that private can do it better.

00:35:17.300 I'm wondering if you know of any examples where the public sector can actually outperform the private sector.

00:35:25.940 The only one I know on the top of my head, because I've given this a lot of thought, is we fought a lot against ICBC.

00:35:34.700 So that's the government monopoly on auto insurance in British Columbia.

00:35:37.780 And their rates are disgusting and they're through the roof, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

00:35:42.240 The vast majority of the time, having private competition reduces the cost.

00:35:47.500 I don't know why, but in Saskatchewan, they have a government-controlled auto insurance monopoly, and it's cheap.

00:35:58.640 So I've basically, like, not made eye contact with it because it's, like, accidentally running on time.

00:36:04.620 So I just don't want to spook them.

00:36:06.640 Don't break it.

00:36:07.760 Yeah.

00:36:08.240 Like, it's just like, okay, I'm just going to forget that you exist.

00:36:10.940 But that's the only one.

00:36:17.500 Thank you.

Juno News - November 15, 2024

Guilbeault wants ANOTHER carbon tax

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