Juno News - Trudeau's budget an attempt to buy re-election

00:00:00.240 Good afternoon everyone. Welcome to another edition of the True North Report.

00:00:05.120 My name is Andrew Lawton, a fellow with True North, here with you to discuss the federal budget

00:00:10.960 or the unofficial kickoff of Justin Trudeau's re-election campaign.

00:00:15.300 If you can't tell, I'm a little bit pessimistic about the whole thing here insofar as pre-election budgets are concerned.

00:00:23.800 But you know, I want to talk about a few different stories that are unfolding here.

00:00:28.500 And I'm going to get to the latest in the SNC-Labola issue because it is, in many respects, connected to the budget.

00:00:35.240 But I also want to look at some of the numbers that we're seeing in the budget here, breaking it down.

00:00:40.880 I've had the chance since the budget was tabled to go through some of the numbers

00:00:44.800 and look at some of the programs and the promises and all of that stuff.

00:00:48.680 Some of it I'm still getting coming in, so I'm going to be a little bit more, you know, scattered than usual,

00:00:55.460 which is saying something in this particular edition because I want to keep up to date on new information that's emerging.

00:01:02.180 I thankfully was not in the lockup because that sounds like one of the most painfully boring things that one can do with their life,

00:01:08.240 to spend a day, an entire day, not even able to use your phone in a government budget talk.

00:01:14.300 So instead I was like, oh, you know, everyone in the lockup, once they get out,

00:01:18.040 they're going to tell me what I need to know about it.

00:01:19.800 And I was able to, you know, spend my day doing everything other than going over the federal budget.

00:01:24.560 So I thank you very much for all who had messaged me today asking if I was in the lockup.

00:01:29.420 The answer was no.

00:01:31.060 But I do think there are some important things to go over here.

00:01:34.240 And just the top line of this is that the budget has more than $20 billion of new spending,

00:01:41.180 more than $20 billion of new spending.

00:01:43.920 And most importantly, and I think this is the biggest thing that people need to understand about the 2019 federal budget,

00:01:51.600 no end in sight to the deficit, no end in sight at all.

00:01:55.760 This is particularly important when you understand a headline from four years ago that I'm going to share with you here.

00:02:04.800 And this is a very, very important headline, one that was from a Canadian press story, December 17th, 2015.

00:02:15.300 Justin Trudeau says vow to balance budget in four years is very cast in stone.

00:02:23.240 The story I'm going to read a little bit of.

00:02:27.060 Even as economic hurdles pile up, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau insists his pledge to balance the federal books in four years is very cast in stone.

00:02:36.280 On top of the balanced budget, Trudeau told the Canadian press that the Liberal government will also live up to its other fiscal anchor

00:02:44.160 to lower the debt-to-GDP ratio every year until the end of its mandate.

00:02:49.800 So Justin Trudeau didn't just say that he was going to balance.

00:02:52.300 Remember, this is, by the way, the second or the amended promise.

00:02:55.580 The first part of it was, you may remember in the campaign, there's just going to be no deficit at all.

00:03:01.960 And then it was, there's going to be a little itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny, yellow polka-dot deficit.

00:03:06.280 And then it was something that, okay, even though we have the deficit, it's going to be gone within four years.

00:03:11.500 This was an ironclad promise made by Justin Trudeau during the election and then doubled down on when he was the Prime Minister.

00:03:19.760 And that went from no, the deficit's going to be gone within four years to here we are now facing billions and billions and billions of dollars in new spending

00:03:29.160 with not even a prediction on when the deficit is going to be gone.

00:03:34.320 Not even a prediction at all.

00:03:36.060 And I want to run you the numbers here.

00:03:38.120 So the budget this year has $22.8 billion in new spending.

00:03:43.580 The budget is ultimately going to become the springboard for the Liberal platform.

00:03:48.080 So we know from looking at these promises what the Liberals are going to be running on in the election as they head forward with that.

00:03:55.800 And I want to look at some of the specifics here.

00:03:58.920 And I am going to get into the specifics.

00:04:01.340 But right now I'm talking about the generals.

00:04:04.120 And even CBC said the following, which I think is important.

00:04:08.780 Morneau's 460-page budget titled Investing in the Middle Class Offers No Timeline for Erasing the Deficit.

00:04:16.380 The Liberals had pledged to run deficits to finance a massive infrastructure program, but broke their promise to return to balance by 2019.

00:04:26.340 And this is something that we now see in this particular budget has a $20 billion deficit next year,

00:04:33.240 which in two years is going to fall to $15 billion.

00:04:38.320 And then in 2023-2024 is going to fall to $10 billion.

00:04:43.220 So if you look at this, we're having deficit projections over the next six years in this budget to the tune of about $90 some odd billion.

00:04:54.320 That's $90 billion.

00:04:56.600 I don't know why I wrote it in the air.

00:04:57.960 I mean, you can hear me talk.

00:04:59.020 But $90 billion, more than that, over the next six years that's projected in this budget.

00:05:03.900 And I want it to be noted that we have gone from no deficit by 2019, so no deficit after four years, to 10 years of deficits and probably beyond.

00:05:15.640 We just don't know yet because the budget doesn't forecast that far in advance.

00:05:20.600 So this budget is exactly what most people predicted it was going to be.

00:05:25.620 And Aaron Woodrick, who you may be familiar with, he's the federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

00:05:32.580 He's the perennial pessimist on things like this.

00:05:35.340 He did an interview earlier, and I know some people were jumping up and down on him for it, where he's like,

00:05:39.260 well, you know, it's just going to be spend this, spend that.

00:05:41.920 There's not going to be deficits.

00:05:43.040 There's going to be massive spending, spending everywhere.

00:05:45.120 And people were saying to him on Twitter, oh, you know, Aaron, come on, you know, be an optimist.

00:05:49.020 And then the budget comes out, and he's exactly right.

00:05:52.340 Every prediction that every fiscal conservative gave ahead of this budget has been correct.

00:05:57.780 Because Justin Trudeau isn't just a liberal that believes spending your money is better than any other path for government.

00:06:04.780 But Justin Trudeau believes that he is going to use that $22.8 billion of new spending to buy his way into re-election.

00:06:13.480 That's what he's banking on.

00:06:15.120 And the terrible thing about this gamble is that he's gambling with money that's not his own.

00:06:20.600 He's gambling with your and my money.

00:06:22.460 And even if he wins, we lose.

00:06:24.360 And even if we win, we lose.

00:06:26.020 Because there is no win when Justin Trudeau is spending billions of our money to get re-election for himself,

00:06:31.900 so that he then, for the next four years, can spend billions more of the money. 0.92

00:06:36.740 Thomas writes, let's talk about all the free crap he's going to do to buy our votes.

00:06:40.380 Well, I'm glad you want that, Thomas, because that is exactly what we're going to talk about 0.93

00:06:44.160 in just a couple of moments.

00:06:46.200 Corey writes, the scam's over.

00:06:47.760 Remember Trudeau told us so?

00:06:49.420 Yeah, and I am going to get to S&C Lavalin as well.

00:06:52.080 That's a big thing, and it is related to the budget.

00:06:55.320 Debbie writes, more spending we do not need.

00:06:57.680 We need him to resign, though.

00:07:00.200 Dale writes, buying all target demographic groups, nothing more or less.

00:07:04.880 And that's a very critical point here, because this is trying to look at each segment of the population

00:07:10.660 that the liberals think it can rely on to have vote for it.

00:07:14.900 And they're trying to get that support from each of these individual groups,

00:07:20.280 you know, $1 billion, $2 billion, $5 billion at a time.

00:07:23.060 And I will go over some of the specifics here, because I think that there may be some value

00:07:29.300 in individual programs, but you have to look at the whole of it.

00:07:33.020 You have to look at the gestalt, and you also have to question the why now.

00:07:37.420 And one big example of this is the first-time homebuyer incentive.

00:07:40.700 Now, this is a program that would reduce the mortgage payments that you have to have to own a home

00:07:48.240 by having the Canadian Mortgage Housing Commission, I think CMHC, pay about 5% to 10% of your down payments.

00:07:56.220 So, theoretically, they could put up to, let's say, $20,000 down.

00:08:02.000 If you were buying, let's say, a $400,000 house, and you wanted to put down a $20,000 down payment,

00:08:08.720 the CMHC would match that theoretically, and put down another $20,000.

00:08:15.340 So, instead of having 5% down on a house, you put 10% down, thus reducing your mortgage payments.

00:08:21.760 And you need to give the CMHC the money back, but it's interest-free.

00:08:25.320 So, this is an incentive that would put interest-free loans, essentially,

00:08:30.500 to first-time homebuyers to better ease the burden of home ownership.

00:08:35.720 And there are a couple of issues with this.

00:08:37.700 Number one, I think that there are a lot of millennials that are completely priced out of the housing market,

00:08:42.480 and I'm sympathetic to a government program that is trying to bring that in check.

00:08:48.520 But one of the biggest issues that we have that's causing houses to be so expensive

00:08:52.700 for first-time homebuyers or people buying and selling is the fact that there is a supply issue.

00:08:59.340 And Nicole Verkint, who's a really smart CEO and commentator, had looked at this,

00:09:04.800 and she was actually mentioning the number on BNN Bloomberg earlier this afternoon,

00:09:08.540 that the average time it takes to get a simple, basic warehouse built from permit,

00:09:15.480 or to wait for a permit, is 230-some-odd days.

00:09:18.800 So, basically, two-thirds of the year is how long you need to wait and sit on your hands,

00:09:23.720 not making any money, just to get permission to build, to invest.

00:09:27.760 And we know that in the housing sector, that problem is very similar,

00:09:31.100 where you have people that want to build, they want to put houses on the market,

00:09:34.360 and the more supply there is, the better the demand is met, and they simply can't.

00:09:39.380 And remember, back in, I think it was about a year and a half ago,

00:09:43.400 there were huge issues with supply.

00:09:45.820 So, the issue wasn't, I mean, the issue is that homes were going for such dramatically inflated prices,

00:09:51.760 and something like this doesn't really protect people from overpaying for houses.

00:09:57.260 So, that's one of the issues here.

00:09:59.620 Matthew writes, at what point does the budget balance itself?

00:10:02.800 We're still waiting for that, Matthew.

00:10:04.340 The budget at this point has not yet balanced itself.

00:10:07.140 We've told the budget to balance itself, but unfortunately, it hasn't gotten there yet.

00:10:12.860 So, this first-time homebuyer incentive was actually something the Liberals promised four years ago.

00:10:18.800 Why now?

00:10:19.860 Why are you not putting it forward until now?

00:10:22.260 Because they want the re-election cachet that this is going to bring.

00:10:25.940 If four years ago they put this in, and Millennials realized it doesn't solve all their problems, 0.73

00:10:30.300 they're not going to win support, they do it now,

00:10:32.480 the thing doesn't even go into effect until September.

00:10:35.140 Which means that by the time the Millennials that Justin Trudeau is trying to buy the votes of,

00:10:40.860 go to vote in October, the vast majority won't have even seen anything of this program,

00:10:46.340 but Justin Trudeau is telling them he's gotten them looked after.

00:10:49.940 So, that's one of the items here.

00:10:51.740 New Canada Training Benefit.

00:10:53.600 This is a program that I actually think is a really good one.

00:10:56.220 This is a benefit that will give workers money to pay for training and allow them to retrain as they go through their career.

00:11:04.360 So, this is something that's meant to, I don't want to say protect against automation,

00:11:08.360 but something that allows people to keep up with changes in their industry,

00:11:12.060 to continue to make sure that they're at the top of their game.

00:11:15.100 So, this is something that I think mostly is a provincial mandate,

00:11:19.040 but I think as far as policies go, I think it's a fairly productive one.

00:11:25.400 This one I'm not a fan of.

00:11:27.760 Lowering interest rates on Canada student loans,

00:11:30.560 making the six-month grace period interest-free after a student loan borrower leaves school.

00:11:35.880 This will also create 84,000 new student work placements by the year 2023-2024.

00:11:43.720 So, as someone who had student loans, who paid student loans,

00:11:46.460 who paid a lot of interest on student loans,

00:11:48.840 the problem with this is that it is making government more and more involved in something that is not working right now.

00:11:57.240 And I'm talking specifically about the student work placements.

00:12:00.500 So, it's government that has to bankroll those.

00:12:02.400 So, it's trying to basically deceive people into thinking that there's a much greater connection from students to employment than there is.

00:12:11.860 Because, no, it's just government that's making this happen.

00:12:14.280 So, it's not fiscally sustainable.

00:12:16.120 And this is something, when you put the money into this,

00:12:18.420 it's government that has to keep it on life support for indefinite periods of time.

00:12:23.620 And if government pulls the plug, and we saw this with Doug Ford in Ontario,

00:12:27.680 he takes over, he's looking at all these things,

00:12:29.500 and every single time you even hint at touching one of them,

00:12:32.860 everyone gets outraged because they're so used to programs that exist only on government subsidy.

00:12:38.060 So, I don't like new programs that can only be sustained by government money.

00:12:42.800 A new Canadian drug agency.

00:12:44.680 This is a biggie.

00:12:46.220 The National Pharmacare plan that we've been told is happening is not in this budget,

00:12:53.200 which I find fascinating.

00:12:54.600 So, I don't think the Liberals were able to find the money to do this National Pharmacare plan

00:12:59.860 that they brought Eric Hoskins on to talk about, that they've been talking about, that the left wants.

00:13:04.240 But you can tell they're trying to work towards it.

00:13:06.940 So, the new Canadian drug agency will lower Canadian drug costs, allegedly,

00:13:12.320 by as much as $3 billion a year.

00:13:15.800 And it does this by creating a new guideline, basically,

00:13:19.980 a new national formulary for prescription drugs and a national strategy for high-cost drugs for rare diseases.

00:13:27.020 Now, I think that the national strategy for the high-cost drugs, that's a good one,

00:13:31.220 and that's long overdue.

00:13:32.580 You get, you know, young, you know, child cancer patients, for example,

00:13:36.340 that have drugs they need that are worth tens of thousands of dollars.

00:13:39.460 I think that if we're going to say that we have a health care system where the government is looking after you

00:13:45.060 and we don't have the private insurance alternatives that people in free market health care systems have,

00:13:51.120 the government has to be able to answer this question.

00:13:53.700 So, that section of it I don't take issue with, but, again, they're now trying to handicap Pharmacare,

00:14:00.660 which means they're trying to move more and more towards that socialized system, which means...

00:14:05.280 And, look, we talked about Canadians that are leaving the country for health care.

00:14:09.600 I did that yesterday with Colin Craig from SecondStreet.org.

00:14:12.640 It's already a huge issue.

00:14:14.580 Canadians are leaving the country because they don't like the health care system here.

00:14:17.920 So, why would we then replicate that health care system by putting a national Pharmacare system on

00:14:23.420 that's going to run basically with the same level of inefficiency?

00:14:27.260 Dave writes, retrain for panhandling as life becomes too expensive to live.

00:14:34.320 Well, yeah, I don't know how much training you need for panhandling, but either way, you know,

00:14:39.960 people are going to be able to retrain for something.

00:14:43.420 Patricia writes, Trudeau is still a liar as promises mean nothing, nothing at all.

00:14:47.200 Well, you know, I don't necessarily agree with that because I think one of the most dangerous

00:14:53.800 things about this budget is that the Liberals have been painfully honest about their intentions.

00:14:57.800 They want big government to be the answer to everything, and this is a budget that is based

00:15:03.500 on making big government the answer to everything, and that's all the Liberals are trying to do.

00:15:09.300 So, the problem...

00:15:10.640 And don't get me wrong.

00:15:11.500 He's been very dishonest about SNC-Lavalin and other stuff like that.

00:15:14.880 But my big concern is that this is a very ideological budget, and it's the kind of thing

00:15:20.920 that if the Liberals get another mandate, we don't know how many billions and billions

00:15:25.460 more will be spent.

00:15:27.700 And in all honesty, I've got to point out here that Liberal budgets used to be fiscally conservative.

00:15:35.860 And, you know, whatever issues I may have had with Paul Martin, the Prime Minister, or

00:15:39.680 Jean Chrétien, the Prime Minister, Paul Martin, the Finance Minister in Jean Chrétien's

00:15:44.200 government, was someone who today would not have a home in the Liberal Party.

00:15:48.960 Paul Martin very much ran his governments, or his, uh, Chrétien's government's books

00:15:55.180 like they were that of a business.

00:15:57.500 And that doesn't mean you agreed with everything they were spending money on, but at least the

00:16:01.560 money was there.

00:16:02.340 And it's one thing if you want to make this Bernie Sanders-esque budget where we're going

00:16:07.240 to pay for X, Y, Z, and we're going to tax you X, Y, Z so we can pay for it, which is

00:16:12.480 more morally defensible than what the Liberals are doing right now, which is saying we're

00:16:17.260 going to pay for X, Y, Z, but we're not actually going to bring in the money to cover it.

00:16:22.180 So they're trying to get the best of both worlds, they're trying to get the political play of

00:16:26.620 big government spending and the political play of fiscal responsibility, when neither

00:16:31.460 is being done in a sustainable way.

00:16:34.360 And this is dangerous.

00:16:36.440 This is dangerous.

00:16:38.500 In any case, continuing on with what's happening here.

00:16:40.940 The guaranteed income supplement for low-income Canadian seniors who choose to stay in the

00:16:46.560 workplace is going to be enhanced.

00:16:48.620 I haven't seen the specific numbers on that, so I can't speak to those.

00:16:53.460 High-speed internet government is committing so that all homes and businesses have access

00:16:58.980 to 50 megabit per second internet, no matter where they live.

00:17:02.900 This is something we heard was coming, a broadband initiative.

00:17:06.840 I would love to see how many Canadians don't have access to this.

00:17:11.800 And this is access, not whether they choose to put it in their homes, but whether they actually

00:17:17.080 can.

00:17:18.080 So the idea is that if you're an Attawafaskat and you want to stream Netflix, you should 0.99

00:17:22.760 be able to access high-speed internet if you desire it.

00:17:26.800 It doesn't mean that every, you know, senior has to have 50 mbps internet.

00:17:32.700 But I would love to see, because I've never been able to get a sense of the number of how

00:17:36.040 many Canadians don't have access to it, and it's rural, remote, and northern.

00:17:40.600 So this is not for you city folks, and I'm a city folk.

00:17:43.500 This is for people in rural parts of the country.

00:17:46.240 But I have a feeling that government is going to spend more than it would cost if we just

00:17:50.500 went to Rogers and said, hey Rogers, you know, go lay some cable out there or something. 0.95

00:17:55.840 And this one's just ridiculous.

00:17:57.040 A new incentive if you buy an electric battery or hydrogen fuel cell vehicle under $45,000.

00:18:05.500 Now they've done this so that it's not a repeat of what happened in Ontario, where the vast

00:18:11.240 majority of people that were getting the, it was actually kind of hilarious, the vast majority

00:18:15.600 of people that were getting access to this green energy vehicle fund in Ontario were using

00:18:21.700 it to buy their, you know, $100,000 Tesla.

00:18:24.940 So you had all these multi-millionaires that were getting government help on, on their electric

00:18:29.840 car because, you know, we got to save the baby seals and all that crap.

00:18:33.320 But what was interesting about it was that this, there was such a backlash, it was costing

00:18:37.780 millions and millions of dollars.

00:18:39.480 So now the federal government has decided it's going to pay off people that get electric vehicles,

00:18:45.020 which are far from perfect.

00:18:47.440 And what's happening is they're making it so that the vehicle has to be under $45,000.

00:18:52.660 So if you're, if you're doing your thing for the world by getting a Tesla, the government

00:18:56.120 won't help you.

00:18:57.180 If you get a Prius, maybe it will.

00:18:59.940 All right.

00:19:01.780 What else do we have here?

00:19:03.560 Like I mentioned, I'm making sure that I get as much here.

00:19:05.980 This is a 400 and I think, how many pages?

00:19:09.720 464 page budget.

00:19:11.120 I haven't read it all, but I'm going through the key points here that really speak to what

00:19:16.620 it is the government is trying to do and what it is that the government is trying to define

00:19:21.680 itself as.

00:19:23.040 And on that note, I actually want to share with you, if I can, the letter that Bill Morneau

00:19:29.560 had as the introduction to the, the introduction to the budget here.

00:19:36.840 He writes nearly four years ago, Canadians helped us build a plan for real change.

00:19:41.840 It was a plan that would invest in the things that matter most, good, well-paying jobs for

00:19:45.740 the middle class and people working hard to join it.

00:19:48.740 More help for families struggling with the high cost of living, strong, connected communities

00:19:53.240 and better opportunities for our children and grandchildren.

00:19:56.200 Canadians chose to invest in their future.

00:19:59.160 And in the years since, those investments have begun to pay off.

00:20:03.040 And the Liberals are touting this idea that they've created 900,000 new jobs, forgetting

00:20:07.340 the fact that when Justin Trudeau took over, the economy was already on an upturn.

00:20:12.160 And a lot of the positive economic situations we've seen in Canada have been really part

00:20:17.040 of a natural and organic progression.

00:20:20.560 And a lot of spillover from the United States economy as well, American employers in Canada.

00:20:26.400 But what's happening here is the Liberals are claiming credit.

00:20:29.920 The Liberals are claiming victory.

00:20:32.340 They're saying that they're lowering taxes on the middle class, despite the fact that they're

00:20:37.400 also increasing the services on the middle class, making it fiscally unsustainable to

00:20:44.280 do all of the things.

00:20:45.280 And for all that Bill Morneau likes to talk about, invest, invest, invest, and the investments

00:20:49.640 paid off and you've invested here and invested there.

00:20:52.960 What the Liberals have not done is been honest about what they mean when they say invest.

00:20:57.660 They mean spent.

00:20:58.800 They mean spent.

00:20:59.880 But they still do not have a plan to balance the budget for at least 10 years from when

00:21:05.120 they first took office in 2015.

00:21:07.880 And this is something the Canadians are, in their view, not going to be perturbed by.

00:21:13.780 And I hope they're not right.

00:21:16.060 I hope they're not right.

00:21:17.880 Because the Liberals genuinely want government to be the be all and end all, and that's part

00:21:24.380 of the ideology.

00:21:25.380 It's the same as the NDP.

00:21:26.880 They want government to be at the epicenter of spending, which is, I don't want to say

00:21:30.720 it's fine, but we accept that.

00:21:32.740 We understand that's who they are.

00:21:35.560 The bigger problem here is that the Liberals, I fear, will be successful in this.

00:21:41.360 Because there are a lot of Canadians, and you've heard me talk about this phenomenon before,

00:21:45.220 who are not interested in politics.

00:21:47.400 They're not reading through the 464-page budget either.

00:21:50.640 They're not watching BNN Bloomberg.

00:21:52.220 They're not delving into the meat of this because they don't care, or because they've

00:21:55.680 got bigger fish to fry in their own lives.

00:21:58.140 And I fear that a lot of these Canadians will be duped by, take the first-time homebuyers 1.00

00:22:05.240 incentive, for example.

00:22:06.800 The government says, we might give you $20,000 towards buying a house.

00:22:11.400 If you're a millennial, that's huge.

00:22:14.220 If you're trying to buy a house, and let's say you're trying to buy a $400,000 house,

00:22:18.360 or a $400,000 condo, or something like that, and the government says, we'll pay for half

00:22:23.560 of your down payment.

00:22:25.880 That's huge.

00:22:27.880 So let's say you were going to put 5% down.

00:22:29.460 Well, now you can put 10% down and lower your mortgage payment.

00:22:33.140 Let's say you were going to put 10% down.

00:22:35.020 Well, maybe you hold a bit of that money back, and it's interest-free, so maybe you put the

00:22:39.960 money that you were going to put forward there towards paying off your mortgage payments

00:22:46.120 down the road.

00:22:47.420 But again, it's easy to think, okay, wow, this is, you know, the government's giving

00:22:50.720 me $20,000, $25,000, $40,000.

00:22:53.420 It's up to $40,000, I think.

00:22:55.380 So the government's giving me all of this, and it doesn't matter that you have to pay

00:22:59.320 it back.

00:23:00.740 And it doesn't matter that the government is bankrolling this program by running up deficits.

00:23:05.360 If you feel that it's benefiting you, you're going to look at Justin Trudeau and be like,

00:23:09.860 thanks, Justin.

00:23:10.860 Thank you.

00:23:11.860 I couldn't buy a house before.

00:23:12.860 I couldn't buy a house under the evil conservatives.

00:23:14.860 If Andrew Scheer wins, I won't be able to buy a house.

00:23:16.660 But under you, I can afford to buy a house.

00:23:21.340 And I agree that something needs to be done to help people get into the real estate market

00:23:26.680 if they want to.

00:23:28.880 My position is this should be done on the supply side, not by artificially fudging the

00:23:33.260 numbers like this, because now, remember, everyone's buying power goes up.

00:23:37.140 Everyone's buying power goes up if you're in that first-time homebuyer category.

00:23:41.240 So it's not to say it won't have an impact, but it may also drive up the number of people

00:23:45.120 that are buying houses, which is the point, but there are still negative repercussions

00:23:50.080 to that.

00:23:52.420 But again, it's that it's not being done in a fiscally sustainable way.

00:23:55.860 We're talking about billions of dollars.

00:23:57.760 And if you're just tuning into the stream here, welcome.

00:24:00.120 My name's Andrew Lott, and we're talking about the budget, and specifically the fact that

00:24:03.520 this is just shy of $23 billion in new spending with no end in sight for the deficit.

00:24:10.740 And that's the biggest part here, no end in sight for the deficit.

00:24:13.260 So let's talk very briefly, if we can, about the SNC-Lavalin issue.

00:24:17.820 Not because I want to beat this with a dead horse, but because there is something to be

00:24:21.320 said about the Liberals distracting from this.

00:24:24.700 Now, the budget was going to be today anyway, so it's not like the fact that there is a budget

00:24:28.820 is a political ploy.

00:24:30.500 But what's in it is.

00:24:33.120 What's in the budget is very much a distraction.

00:24:35.900 Because they're trying to get as much coverage of we're giving you this, we're giving you

00:24:38.740 this, we're giving you this, we're giving you this.

00:24:40.940 So the people can't talk about what they were giving SNC-Lavalin.

00:24:43.520 I think that was last year's budget, whatever SNC-Lavalin was getting or wanted to get out

00:24:47.580 of the government.

00:24:48.920 But the problem that we see in this dynamic here is that Canadians are moving on.

00:24:55.480 Canadians are moving on from SNC-Lavalin.

00:24:57.120 The Liberals have succeeded in forcing Canadians to turn the page on this by blocking Jody Wilson-Raybould,

00:25:03.620 by fighting the Conservatives.

00:25:05.400 The Conservatives were going to have some, I understand it, procedural showdown today.

00:25:10.000 They were trying to delay the budget from being tabled and they were unsuccessful.

00:25:14.340 They got, you know, Bill Morneau to basically say, just here's the budget, have fun, and he

00:25:18.880 still is going to be giving a speech if he's not giving it already.

00:25:22.720 But it doesn't make a difference because here's the budget.

00:25:25.360 It's out, the Conservatives lost, the Liberals won.

00:25:28.540 And it's that simple.

00:25:29.920 The Conservatives have lost the SNC-Lavalin debate.

00:25:32.760 And I don't say that because I think they've done anything wrong.

00:25:35.640 I don't say it because I think that they've been on the wrong side of it.

00:25:39.120 I say it because the Liberals won.

00:25:41.380 And even though the media has been covering it, it is a message that ultimately has become

00:25:47.240 diluted.

00:25:48.240 And unless, and I said this last week, unless the story changes, people are going to move

00:25:53.420 on.

00:25:55.420 And now they've got 600 or 400 and some odd, 464 pages of other things to talk about.

00:26:01.340 And that's the big problem.

00:26:02.300 They've now got almost 500 pages of other things to talk about other than SNC-Lavalin.

00:26:08.660 And these are all going to be the most fresh in people's minds as the election nears.

00:26:14.840 This is going to be an area where there's a lot more to talk about and chew on.

00:26:18.620 And ultimately this will hijack the news cycle for the next week and probably the next few

00:26:22.840 weeks.

00:26:24.220 So what does this mean for Canadians?

00:26:26.220 Well, look, if you're getting something out of the budget, congratulations.

00:26:29.340 If you're getting a little goody or a little perk in here, that's the whole point of this.

00:26:32.600 The Liberals want to be able to, because remember, everyone in Canada when you're in politics

00:26:36.140 is in a certain group.

00:26:38.000 And the Conservatives do this.

00:26:39.220 The Liberals do it.

00:26:40.220 Conservatives were better at it, at kind of segmenting the population.

00:26:44.140 So Tom Flanagan's book, Harper's Team, talked about this, where if you were a blue collar

00:26:51.580 working class guy, you were a Dougie, they said.

00:26:54.340 If you're a downtown Toronto soy latte drinking millennial woman, you're a Zoe. 0.97

00:26:58.900 If you're a childless upper income level couple, you're Marcus and Fiona.

00:27:04.000 If you're a couple that owns a business, you're Steve and Heather.

00:27:06.980 And how I remember these names, I have no idea.

00:27:09.720 But the whole point of it is that they know that, yeah, you know, Zoe's never going to

00:27:13.780 vote Conservative, Dougie might, Marcus and Fiona, they might, Steve and Heather, they'll

00:27:18.380 probably vote Conservative.

00:27:20.160 And they want to win over those people and make sure they get these people, their people

00:27:24.640 out to vote.

00:27:26.100 And what the Liberals are trying to do here is look at their map and say, okay, we don't

00:27:28.880 care about the Alberta oil patch.

00:27:31.080 We don't care about these people that aren't going to vote for us.

00:27:33.800 But millennials, we think they'll vote for us.

00:27:36.300 We think Indigenous people are going to vote for us.

00:27:38.380 So we've got money for them.

00:27:39.820 Millennials, we've got money for them. 1.00

00:27:41.700 We think people in Ontario, Quebec are going to vote for us.

00:27:44.000 We've got money for them.

00:27:45.380 And what they've done here is they've basically gone through and they say, who in the country

00:27:49.740 is on our side or could be on our side?

00:27:53.500 And what can we give them so they don't care about anything else?

00:27:57.720 And you know, Merrill writes something very important here, and I've talked about this in

00:28:01.260 the past that half of Canada's population is within $200 of not being able to meet their

00:28:06.580 monthly debt payments.

00:28:09.500 And this means that if you are a Canadian and you're in this average category or half

00:28:14.700 of the category, and something goes up, let's say dental surgery or a car repair or a leak

00:28:21.500 pipe and you've got to bring in a plumber, if you have something in your home that you

00:28:25.100 need to shell out $200 for, you're having to go into debt because that is the difference

00:28:30.960 between you making your monthly payments or not.

00:28:33.940 So all of this is to say that we have a government that's running things in an even more irresponsible

00:28:40.820 way, racking up monumental levels of debt with no end in sight, and Canadians who are essentially 1.00

00:28:47.500 looking to government to model healthy financial behaviour have no model in sight for that.

00:28:52.780 And I would hope by now that most Canadians aren't looking to government to model healthy

00:28:57.340 behaviour, but this is the problem here, is that government is now proving that you don't

00:29:02.800 need to have the money to spend the money, and I hope Canadians don't fall for it. 0.75

00:29:07.400 That's my solemn hope and my solemn goal in this.

00:29:10.200 And this is the goal that True North is really making it imperative to fulfil, unlike the Liberals

00:29:15.420 who just forget about their balanced budget pledge.

00:29:18.100 We are fiscally responsible, but more importantly we're dedicated to our mission, which is informing

00:29:22.980 Canadians and exposing the governments that are, and any political leaders that are not

00:29:28.580 being honest and not being good stewards of taxpayer money.

00:29:31.640 We can't do this alone, if you would like to help us out with a $10 monthly contribution,

00:29:36.240 it would be great.

00:29:37.240 If you want to help us out with a $50 monthly contribution, if you want to help us out with

00:29:40.840 shares in S&C Lavalin, maybe not those, but in all honesty we do appreciate any support

00:29:46.180 you can give.

00:29:47.180 Head on over to truenorthcanada.com and you can sign up for the Andrew Lawton Heritage Club

00:29:52.040 or the Patriot Club there.

00:29:53.640 In the meantime, more budget coverage to come, but thank you, God bless, and good day to you

00:29:57.920 all Canada.

Juno News - March 19, 2019

Trudeau's budget an attempt to buy re-election

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