Danielle Smith Gives Carney ADVICE On Live TV
Episode Stats
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Summary
In this episode, we talk to Daniel Smith, CEO of the Kinder Morgan pipeline project, about the government's approach to the project, the challenges it's facing, and what it can do to get it built.
Transcript
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mark carney is having a real rough time lately last week both ctv and cbc turned on him as well
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as his own budget officer this week is looking even worse if that's possible yesterday he gave
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a long rambling incoherent speech about truth and reconciliation where he used indigenous people as
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props now daniel smith is on television giving him a series of love taps let's look at that together
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and then stick around to the end for some commentary back in june of 2025 so just a number of months ago
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you told bloomberg i hope all of the financing for this project comes from the private sector
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i don't think governments should have to be involved in financing this the laws that exist
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around the environment regulations are the same the greater context is the same what changed
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we are prepared to put 14 million on the table to get us through the first couple of stages one would
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be the technical analysis and understanding what the route might be and some initial consultation
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to get it to a point where it can be approved by the major projects office and part of the feedback
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that we got from the industry was that they're not prepared to take on the risk of moving forward on
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this until we can see some major changes in some of the laws so i've proposed i've been what i've been
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calling the grand bargain with the federal government let's address the nine bad laws let's uh commit to
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a bitumen pipeline and let's commit to the pathways project and i think that that's going to be a path
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forward if we can if we can come to those agreements together so we just wanted to push this forward to
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break through the logjam and see if we can get that approval from the federal government
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what logjam exists though if the path forward as you identify it did exist if those conversations were
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happening with the prime minister and the federal government they had put the pathways list for the
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pathways project for example on those secondary five items under the five projects that they wanted to
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give the green light right away like if all of that was happening why does it require
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taxpayer money to advance anything well it's 14 million and i think that the reason is because
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a proponent has told us that they cannot get companies lined up to ship on their pipeline as
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long as we continue to have a tanker ban an emissions cap and some of the other bad laws that
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are in place and so we know that it's going to take our work to make sure that the federal government
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repeals or in some way revises those job those those bad laws substantially and to get to that point
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we want to make sure that there's some of the technical work being done in the meantime i i'm
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the ball's going to be in in prime minister mark carney's court about whether he is committed to
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becoming an energy superpower is if he's committed in in creating an economy in canada that will lead
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the g7 this is the kind of project that needs to be approved and in creating the investment climate
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that will attract private capital back that i think would be the exercise that we're all trying to
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do here if every project has to be underwritten or paid for outright by federal taxpayers or
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provincial taxpayers then it's a failure what we have to do is attract back private capital again
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why are you confident that the removal of those irritants as you identify them will do the job in
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attracting back private capital and and i ask because i think back to a time when those things
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didn't exist right under the previous harper government it certainly didn't see uh you know an
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increase in oil production that was through the roof or pipelines get built through the roof like
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there was very specific opposition that existed let's just take northern gateway which was this
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10 years ago that ultimately made its way through the courts the courts agreed that adequate consultation
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wasn't done and that at the time was what blocked the pipeline from going ahead not the existence of
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a tanker ban not the existence of c69 not the existence of the emissions cap so why are you so certain
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if those things are removed the opposition that existed 10 years ago will not provide an impediment
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this time well we did have a private proponent 10 years ago it was enbridge we had a proponent
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of energy east 10 years ago as well tc energy we also had a private proponent of keystone xl tc energy
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but when you layer on bad policy and bad law after one after another that that is what's chased the
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private capital away and so if we can get to a point where i think aspirationally the private the
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the prime minister wants to get to where we can have this work around on all of those bad laws
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which is what the two-year time horizon is for the major projects office and at the same time
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work to repeal or replace uh the bad laws that to create an overall improvement in the investment
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climate we we think that's where uh we our our interests are going to to synchronize and we think
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in doing so the fact that we have so many of the companies that are at the table wanting to advise
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us from a technical point of view the fact that we had over 100 executives in the room from different
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energy companies that that shows to me the enthusiasm to get to a yes so i i believe very
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strongly that if we can get to a point where this is on the major projects list there's a commitment to
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get it approved within a reasonable time frame that we will be able to attract those dollars back
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as we've been able to in the past so is it your impression from those proponents that they believe
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if for example all those irritants in the form of those laws are removed that there will be a
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proponent for this pipeline because again they will still be up against for example coastal first
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nations which just released a press release saying as the rights and title holders of bc's
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north and central coast and haida guai we must inform premier smith once again that there is no
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support from coastal first nations for a pipeline and oil tankers project in our coastal waters like
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that opposition doesn't disappear even if mark kearney does everything you want him to
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well we'll see i mean we i have a very skilled indigenous relations minister is very sensitive
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to the fact that any major project that goes forward has to have indigenous ownership as
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the foundation that's a bit different than it was 10 years ago that we're beginning with the
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conversation about how we can get to a yes and she began the conversations already on monday making
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a number of phone calls and she's going to continue doing that she's already visited port of prince
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rupert and had a chance to to talk with with some indigenous leadership there so it's a process and
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we have to begin with relationship building in and make sure that that there's an understanding of
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the benefits that all of us get not just alberta but all of canada and the bands in particular and
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so we're prepared to do a lot of that hard work that's uh that's what indigenous consultation and
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meaningful consultation is all about and so that's why we got started on it right away
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and i do understand your point about endeavoring to change that and if it were you know one or five or
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even 10 first nations that had expressed some opposition to this i i i can you know envision
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a path forward but i think it was 61 first nations 10 years ago that expressed opposition so much so
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that they took it all the way through the courts and ultimately got a decision in their favor how much
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taxpayer money are you willing to bet on something like this when the track record is what it is
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well i guess i would say that uh justin trudeau was not a fan of pipelines and yet under his
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under his term in office the coastal gas link pipeline got built the trans mountain expansion
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happened so it is possible for us to build large linear projects we have to be able to find a way
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to do it at much less expense and with much greater a benefit to indigenous communities as well
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as much more reliance on private sector money so it is possible to build these kinds of major projects
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and so this is part of the reason why we want to start that conversation now we want to we want
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to get to a yes we want this to be a win for everyone a win for alberta win for the nations
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that are impacted and a win for canada also this is going to be ultimately if it's a million barrels
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a day a 20 billion dollar annual boost to our gdp governments end up benefiting about 40 from that
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you can you can help to meet your nato commitments at the federal level it would help us to be able to
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meet our our health and education and infrastructure needs provincially we have to be able to build these
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kinds of projects we've got a nine trillion dollar value in our bitumen that are beneath our feet in
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alberta we have to be able to get it to market and this would be the way that we'd be able to access
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the new markets in asia that are very keen to work with us on this i suppose we could keep on relying on
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the same market in the united states working with american partners and sending more of our products
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south but that's also a failure of the exercise the reason why everyone is talking about major
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projects in the first place is because we've become over reliant on a single customer and
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we need to build new markets this is what it looks like is that we've got to work together to make that
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happen and i do understand that point i guess uh you know tmx has already greatly expanded our share of
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of our ability i would say to to diversify our markets to the boon of both provincial and and federal
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coffers my question though was about how much taxpayer money at a maximum you're willing to sink in
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because it's it's you know the the type of bet you're making is ultimately contingent on the
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return for and you talked about the potential return right i'm you know i remember a time when
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your predecessor of the same priority premier jason kenney sunk 1.3 billion dollars into making a bet
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on keystone that taxpayers ultimately ended up footing the bill for so on behalf of those taxpayers
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isn't it fair to ask if they're really going to get value for money and how much of their money
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you're willing to sink into a project that could not get anywhere 10 years ago well and and the
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ndp sunk 1.3 billion dollars into a oil by rail that didn't work um and the federal government
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ended up probably overpaying i'm just letting you know and the federal government overpaid
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by probably about 10 billion dollars on building the trans mountain pipeline this is why we need to
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create a process that is streamlined where we bring in private capital i i would look at this as a success
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by having a private sector proponent come forward are you asking me if i have 34 billion dollars
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kicking around to be able to pay for this no i don't nor does the federal government when you
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look at what the parliamentary budget officer said when you look at the significant deficit that
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they're facing we need to have these kinds of projects built to create wealth to create government
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government revenue for both our government and the federal government and we can't keep saying no
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to everything we have to find a way to get to yes we have to have to find a way to address the
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legitimate concerns that are being raised but this has to be a country that builds things again
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because otherwise we're all going to face very very dire situations in our in our federal budget
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deficits and our provincial budget deficits we just can't afford to to keep on doing things the
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way we've done them the past 10 years we've got to get the private sector back and confident that
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these are the kind of projects that they can get to the finish line just very quickly is 14 million that
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the max that your government will invest of taxpayer money i hope so um but i as i've said we will
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well i'll tell you why it's because we have a facility called the alberta indigenous opportunities
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corporation where we have the ability to underwrite up to 3 billion dollars in loan guarantees so that
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indigenous uh nations are able to take an equity stake so that gives you an idea of how serious we are
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about underwriting these kinds of projects we've already done that with 750 million worth of projects
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including pipeline projects that are going to deliver a 1.3 billion dollars worth of revenue
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to a 43 of our of our 44 nations so we've already put our money where our mouth is and we're prepared
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to do more of that the federal government also has a similar type of program and we're hoping to be
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able to partner with them on that i think that that's the appropriate way for governments to
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intervene is to make sure that indigenous equity uh stakes can can be purchased and that they can get
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the long-term benefit from it but just to be clear like that's loans i'm saying like right now you're
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putting 14 million dollars in to get this process going are you going to put 5 billion in to get it
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built that's the question well look we we have to find out what it's going to cost to build i'm i've
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been told that it could be anywhere from 20 to 30 billion dollars and no alberta doesn't have the
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money to build 20 or 30 billion dollars we need a private sector proponent the way we get a private
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sector proponent is we work with the federal government so that there's an answer that's going
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to be yes at the end of this process and i am very confident when we get to that point the private
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sector will will come in it's going to be up to prime minister carney whether or not he wants to
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work with us on being able to advance these kinds of projects or not whether uh what he campaigned on
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in being a leader in the g7 and being an energy superpower on conventional and new energy is real
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and so we will see um we'll know in pretty short order because we'll be well i'll be meeting with him
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and we'll be continuing to do the technical work and i would hope that the answer is yes
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okay i'll leave it on that note appreciate your time as always premier thank you so much
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yeah thank you i have to say daniel smith is my favorite politician in canada aside from poly of
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of course she's smart well-spoken and pretty good looking considering her age now i know the last part's
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not really important but it is a bonus now it does appear that smith is trying really hard to get
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carney to the table on pipelines however i think she secretly knows he won't budge but that'll help
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fuel the discontent towards carney and help boost poly evan the polls it isn't really debatable at
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this point canada needs more pipelines and smith is a hundred percent right will carney do the right
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thing of course not but that's only going to help us get poly evan faster like i said before i don't
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think carney is going to last much longer than six months he literally has the weight of the world
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crashing down on him and he continues to get worse and worse every single day hang in there have some
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faith we'll have poly evan office soon enough talk to you tomorrow patriots