Off the Record - CTV News shows its true colours

00:00:00.000 I have to wonder if there's been a stupider week in the House of Commons than the one we just had.

00:00:04.980 I know we're going to talk about it in a bit, but if you guys can think of a stupider moment

00:00:10.340 in Canadian politics than we've had this week, I think one of you deserve a bonus on the next

00:00:15.960 paycheck. It might be Elbowgate, if you guys remember Elbowgate. Yeah, that was probably

00:00:21.780 up there. You know, question period's always kind of been pretty dumb. And I say that from

00:00:29.980 people who have been in opposition and on the government side, you know, non-questions being

00:00:34.740 given non-answers. But sometimes you wonder, couldn't our elected officials and the thousands

00:00:39.840 of people we employ to support them be doing something better or at least more productive

00:00:46.360 with their time, maybe even less costly? I don't know. I guess we'll talk about it when we get going.

00:00:53.380 Leah, let's get started.

00:00:59.980 Well, happy Friday, everybody. Hope you had a great week. You know, Friday, we like to take

00:01:07.740 a more casual tone, kick back. It's a little early where I live, so we haven't poured ourselves a

00:01:12.960 drink quite yet, but you feel free to go right ahead and do so. You've got us for Off the Record

00:01:18.220 this week. I'm joined with Isaac Lamoureux. Say hi, Isaac. Hello. And Cosming, Georgia, out in BC.

00:01:27.740 And as I was reminded how to pronounce my own name, I'm William Macbeth, and I'm excited to be here

00:01:32.220 being your guest host. So, yeah, as I said, a little pre-roll there. We've had a very stupid week

00:01:37.300 in the House of Commons. Some serious stuff, but some not so serious stuff. But why don't we get

00:01:43.120 started first with the big liars in the mainstream media? Cosman, you want to tell us about CTV News

00:01:49.320 who got caught doing some fibbing? Yeah, for sure. So for those not in the media, there's an unwritten

00:01:56.140 rule that journalists are not supposed to become the story. But this week, we've seen CTV News

00:02:03.660 essentially launch themselves into the national news scene because they were caught red-handed

00:02:11.700 splicing a video of conservative leader Pierre Polyev to make it look like he said something

00:02:18.440 that he entirely did not say. So they took a clip of him talking about a carbon tax election completely

00:02:26.120 out of context and spun it so that it looked like he was opposing the liberal government's

00:02:32.580 dental care plan. So we've got a couple clips here. The first one is actually the original

00:02:39.300 unedited version of this clip. So let's launch that now.

00:02:45.360 That's why it's time to put forward a motion for a carbon tax election.

00:02:54.560 So that's the unedited clip. That's what Pierre Polyev actually said. Here is the clip

00:03:01.080 that CTV News spliced and used. That's why we need to put forward a motion.

00:03:10.460 So that was prefaced by a CTV News reporter talking about the liberal dental care plan and opposition

00:03:18.500 to it, which is not true. So the conservatives, their director of communications, called out CTV News

00:03:26.920 for this tweet, for this video, essentially saying that it was entirely edited, taken out of context

00:03:35.220 and spliced and demanding that CTV News account for this. Now, CTV News officials actually came out

00:03:43.660 and gave a sort of muddied statement, you know, half an apology, half an admission of guilt,

00:03:51.980 but they didn't really actually say sorry. And this led the CPC to come back at CTV News

00:03:59.820 and blacklist any MPs, any member of caucus from actually taking interviews showing on appearances

00:04:06.760 on CTV News. So this has been going on pretty much the second half of this entire week. And it's

00:04:14.620 become a scandal in the legacy media because it really shows their bias. And the latest development

00:04:22.320 is CTV News saying they've let go the two editors, I presume responsible for this clip splicing. And

00:04:31.040 they put out a statement, essentially saying, admitting that this was wrong, but they don't

00:04:37.000 actually say that it was done purposefully in that statement. So I'm going to put it to you,

00:04:41.920 Isaac. Is this enough from the CTV? Well, that's a tough question, Cosmin. And

00:04:50.420 I'll put it this way. The statement on Monday that CTV issued got ratioed completely, having far more

00:04:57.980 comments than likes and people just bashing them completely. Whereas their newest statement on

00:05:03.700 Thursday, where they announced firing the journalists, it had a lot more likes than comments,

00:05:08.280 first of all. But the comments were largely filled with people noting their surprise that CTV took any

00:05:15.960 accountability at all. So that was interesting for me. People at least are celebrating that they did

00:05:21.820 take accountability. However, on the flip side of things, there were people suggesting that the CTV

00:05:29.300 News just essentially scapegoated these two journalists, whoever they are, from something that

00:05:35.020 came from the higher ups, likely. So it's hard to say whether they truly are taking accountability,

00:05:39.780 because as you said, they didn't necessarily apologize for what they did. But something else

00:05:45.240 that comes to mind here is, I've seen other people celebrating the conservatives for essentially

00:05:52.060 standing up to legacy media and CTV in this instance for slandering them, if you want to call it that,

00:05:58.460 or splicing these clips. I mean, this is just a complete fabrication of facts, especially with the

00:06:02.940 video. I can't believe they went to this extreme measure. Like, you really thought you were going

00:06:07.680 to get away with this, splicing videos together? I mean, it's ridiculous, especially as a journalist

00:06:13.180 myself, thinking about journalistic integrity. Who could possibly imagine doing something like this?

00:06:18.900 Now, William, Pierre Polyev has sort of made himself this anti-legacy media figure,

00:06:25.580 a politician willing to stand up to media lies and mistruths that are propagated out there. Did the

00:06:33.820 CTV play into the conservatives' hands with this blunder? Yeah, I mean, you gotta wonder what CTV was

00:06:42.100 thinking when they came up with this cartoonishly evil plan to try and splice together a fake quote

00:06:48.920 to misrepresent what Pierre Polyver was saying. You know, I used to work for the government back in the

00:06:54.940 day for the Harper government. And whenever one of our ministers was doing a press conference or a

00:06:59.300 press event, you would always see a political party staffer or a ministerial staffer recording

00:07:05.260 the press conference on their own phone. And media used to say, well, why would you do that? And our

00:07:10.720 answer was honestly, because we don't trust you to accurately report what we said at this press

00:07:17.320 conference. And they would say, oh, we would never take someone's words out of context. And we would

00:07:23.740 never splice a quote to give it an unfair meaning. Well, when arguably the second largest, maybe even

00:07:31.040 the largest, I don't know, the viewing figures, they're also terrible now for legacy media, it's

00:07:34.760 hard to tell. But one of Canada's largest news broadcasters can't be trusted to put together a

00:07:40.040 simple story without inventing a whole fictionalized narrative that Pierre Polyev was trying to hold an

00:07:46.060 election over the national dental care strategy. You know, it brings out the question of real trouble.

00:07:52.740 And as Isaac's pointed out, I've really enjoyed some of the fallout, you know, because now I'm seeing

00:07:58.100 former liberal staffers say, oh, this poor working single mother has lost her job because of Pierre 0.96

00:08:05.520 Polyev's attack against the media. It's like, you know, pretty certain that the person who faked the

00:08:11.620 clip lost her own job when she decided not to do news anymore. But fiction. And I don't think she's

00:08:19.400 got anyone to blame but herself. Certainly, I know conservative supporters have argued for a long

00:08:24.020 time that the legacy media are not fair, that they're biased, that they don't like the conservatives,

00:08:29.320 that none of them come even close to voting conservative in election. And I think you're

00:08:33.860 now seeing again, an example of that bias on full display. And when they get knocked off their high

00:08:38.160 horse, yes, conservative party supporters do tend to enjoy that experience.

00:08:42.620 Well, I just wanted to add because you would expect this sort of behavior from CBC, which is a

00:08:48.500 publicly government funded outlet that receives all of its money due to the graces of the liberal

00:08:54.300 government. But as you were correct to mention, William, CTV News is I'm pretty sure the biggest

00:09:00.760 privately owned media company in Canada. They're owned by Bell Media. And to see this like blatant

00:09:08.620 anti conservative bias. It's funny, actually, yesterday, they did a segment here in British

00:09:15.100 Columbia, where the BC conservatives are surging, they're actually tied with the BC NDP, they did a

00:09:20.820 segment about john rustat talking about how climate advocates have been pushing people to, you know,

00:09:27.420 adopt eating insect proteins, alternative proteins instead of meat to save the climate. And they tried

00:09:34.340 to mock him. But then I found a clip from a year before where they went to a bug bake off talking

00:09:41.060 about how great it is to eat bugs. So the bias is so obvious. And I think more Canadians are waking up

00:09:47.540 to this evident fact that there is an anti conservative leaning in the legacy media.

00:09:55.020 Yeah, I mean, Isaac, your background has a bit of, of, well, maybe not full legacy media,

00:10:00.320 but certainly we would say non independent media. What was your experience like when you had to

00:10:06.940 cover stories? Did you ever find there was either an explicit or maybe implicit direction? If it's a

00:10:13.360 conservative, you know, try and hurt them, mock them, make fun of them, spin them, maybe don't give

00:10:19.240 a full story. I'm just guessing, you know, you can tell me that never happened. And I would accept it.

00:10:23.740 But yeah, no, obviously, for those who don't know, I worked for various French legacy media,

00:10:30.560 but my editors were pretty respectful, I guess, in the sense that they knew I was a conservative. So

00:10:37.260 they really didn't make me do any media bias in the political sense. Although I did have to cover a few

00:10:44.940 conferences on like, yeah, climate craze, let's call it where where where they would be, I'd go as far

00:10:54.360 as saying indoctrinating kids regarding eco stuff. And the main thing I the main problem I had with

00:11:01.120 those conferences would they they would raise all these concerns and raise all these problems, but

00:11:04.760 they would offer no solution. So it's like, well, you're saying all of these things, you're saying

00:11:08.040 this is the worst thing that's ever going to happen to you. These kids are scared for their lives. But

00:11:11.400 it's like, well, what's the solution you you haven't offered any. So that was the main thing

00:11:17.040 with with me working in legacy media. Last thing I wanted to mention, which I almost forgot was I saw

00:11:22.120 a statement issued by Anna Polievre, Pierre's wife, obviously. And she said, quote, my husband is a

00:11:30.360 fighter, and I couldn't be more proud. Canada needs a leader with unwavering principle and conviction,

00:11:36.080 someone who stands firm for what's right. Even when the media critics and so called experts

00:11:41.080 try to tear him down. He's strong, smart, and exactly who this country needs. The fight for

00:11:46.880 a better Canada continues. And then in parentheses, yes, the media bias is real. But conservatives

00:11:53.060 will keep fighting for the people. So that kind of speaks to what you're saying, William feeding into

00:11:56.720 this media bias story. You know, I'm sure the statement of support from Sophie Trudeau for her

00:12:04.560 husband will be coming out any moment now. The ex-husband.

00:12:10.860 So, of course, this was all beginning with the comments related to the non-confidence motion that

00:12:17.460 happened earlier this week, following the famous tearing up of the supply and confidence agreement

00:12:23.340 by Jagmeet Singh. There was a motion of non-confidence put forward in the House of Commons by the conservatives.

00:12:29.800 And as we know now, that motion wasn't successful. But I think it kicks off the season of no confidence

00:12:37.200 votes in Ottawa. And we have a bit of a clip showing the end of that confidence vote and some of the

00:12:43.100 subsequent analysis, quote unquote. Now, I should say this is a CTV news clip. We believe that this is

00:12:49.880 accurately what happened. But as we maybe have learned over the past week, take it with a grain of salt in

00:12:55.940 case. CTV had also done some splicing and dicing on this one.

00:13:03.920 This was the first but not the last test of the liberal minority this fall. The conservative-led push

00:13:09.620 to bring down the government was defeated, despite pressure from Pierre Paliève to send Canadians to

00:13:15.140 the polls. He wants a climate change election. Let's have that election in the right time.

00:13:20.020 Will he call it today? The Bloc and NDP voted with the government, stating they still have confidence

00:13:26.920 in Justin Trudeau. But before the vote was even called, Bloc leader E. Francois Blanchet issued an

00:13:32.980 ultimatum, giving the government until the end of October to help enact a pair of Bloc bills about 0.98

00:13:38.560 pensions and supply management or risk an election before the new year.

00:13:42.760 There's not so much room for discussion. Wasting no time, the Conservatives are set to serve up

00:13:48.680 another non-confidence motion on Thursday, a move the Liberals called lame parliamentary games.

00:13:54.280 But I think it shows the desperation of Mr. Paliève.

00:13:59.200 I do love that analogy. That's what has been the desperation of Mr. Paliève. Well, yes,

00:14:04.720 along with millions of Canadians desperate to have an election. Also, was it my imagination or in that

00:14:10.120 vote? Did Jagmeet Singh bring a baby into the House of Commons? I'm not sure what that was in

00:14:16.280 aid of. Maybe he just couldn't get affordable childcare, despite that being a major promise of

00:14:21.880 his once coalition partner. So with all of that, you know, do you think it's interesting, of course,

00:14:28.300 that political parties like the Bloc and the Democrats, who have been routinely attacking the

00:14:32.640 government, when asked to put their money where their mouth is, actually aren't following through

00:14:37.600 and voting down this government to cause an election? Cosman, what do you what do you think?

00:14:42.080 For sure. I think the Liberals are in a precarious situation. They are backed in a corner. And the

00:14:49.400 Bloc are salivating at the opportunity to get every last ounce of concessions from this government, 1.00

00:14:56.900 because they have the upper hand here. The NDP has backed away. And now the next, you know,

00:15:02.880 cannibal party that feasts on the corpse of this liberal government is going to take what it can.

00:15:09.900 And it's, it's, it's just the situation we're in, we're gonna, it's going to be a volatile period

00:15:15.800 in the House of Commons, you're going to see these pushes for non confidence motions. But honestly,

00:15:22.900 I have my doubts that either the Bloc or the NDP want an election right now. I know the Bloc had a good

00:15:30.720 running in the recent by election, but I'm not so sure that will translate in a general election.

00:15:38.420 And Isaac, you know, thinking about the other opposition parties, the ones who aren't the

00:15:42.640 conservatives, the Democrats, the Bloc, do you think there's any impetus for them to pull the

00:15:48.020 plug on this government? Or do you think they're, they're, you know, in the case of the NDP in

00:15:52.420 particular, do you think they're afraid to face the electorate in an actual general election?

00:15:57.020 Yeah, William, it's, it's funny, I still remember the feeling I initially had when I heard that Jagmeet 1.00

00:16:04.840 Singh was going to rip up his supply and confidence agreement, which unfortunately did was short lived,

00:16:10.300 because then I realized that that really doesn't mean anything, especially as we've seen Singh

00:16:16.300 continue to prop up his government. But now, it's almost as if we're in a worse position than we were

00:16:23.140 prior to this development, let's call it, because now both the Bloc and the NDP have shown that they

00:16:28.940 will prop up this Liberal government. And at least the Bloc are doing it for some gain. Obviously, 0.56

00:16:36.520 Blanchet said he'd give the Liberals until October 29, to meet his demands, whereas Singh, I don't even

00:16:42.760 know what they're getting out of this agreement right now. But both of these parties would have to

00:16:47.800 turn against the Liberals, which, as Cosmin mentioned, I really don't think either of those

00:16:52.680 parties would benefit from an election right now, because they have to be essentially weighing the

00:16:56.580 odds in the sense that, are we going to benefit more from a Trudeau government or a Prolivre

00:17:02.340 government? And I don't see Pierre going to either of those parties and saying, hey, let's do this

00:17:11.900 together. I'll give you what you want. Otherwise, he probably already would have done that. And then

00:17:16.780 that might be what it's going to take to bring down this Liberal government.

00:17:19.880 Now, Cosmin, do you think that one of the factors might be happening is the fact that we have a

00:17:26.780 provincial election happening in BC right now, a very competitive one between the BC NDP and the

00:17:32.800 BC Conservatives? We have an election, I think, scheduled next month in Saskatchewan, another place

00:17:39.440 where the New Democrats are probably going to be, if not strong contenders, actual contenders,

00:17:46.860 which they're not in a lot of other parts of this country. Do you think the calculus on the part of

00:17:51.620 the NDP is they don't want an unpopular federal leader dragging down the support for their provincial

00:17:59.280 cousins in these two provincial elections?

00:18:03.100 No, for sure. And I'll just add, Ontario Premier Doug Ford has also talked about an early election as

00:18:08.760 well. So there's definitely the provincial elements at play 100%. Let's remember that Jagmeet Singh was

00:18:18.160 elected in a by-election in Burnaby. That's where his seat is in British Columbia. So there's no way

00:18:25.000 that he wants to detract attention from the BC NDP's shot at forming government again. I think that is

00:18:34.020 definitely at top of mind for Jagmeet Singh. But I also wanted to mention, off of what Isaac said,

00:18:41.680 Canadians are hurting right now. They're suffering from financial woes, cost of living, inability to

00:18:49.600 get housing. And I think what's happening in the House of Commons right now, with all these parties

00:18:56.420 vying to get what they want out of this government with the bloc and the NDP trying to get concessions,

00:19:02.400 it comes across as very self-interested, cynical politics. And I think it leaves a really bad taste

00:19:09.420 in Canadians' mouths. 0.52

00:19:11.900 Yeah, here in my province of Alberta, the new New Democrat leader, former Calgary Mayor Nehed Nengshi,

00:19:17.760 has gone so far as to say he doesn't want to be affiliated with the federal NDP anymore. I think

00:19:22.920 he probably even wants to change the provincial party's name to something new. And part of that is

00:19:29.380 simply, it's tough to run as a new Democrat here in Alberta. Fair enough. But also, I think he

00:19:35.420 particularly doesn't like the association with Mr. Singh, who, of course, has been so anti-Alberta in

00:19:41.000 many of his policy positions, opposes the oil sands, opposes the construction of pipelines,

00:19:45.960 opposes Alberta's major industries. And so, you know, if his own cousins aren't willing to support him,

00:19:53.120 I guess Mr. Singh probably thinks that Canadians from coast to coast won't either. Now, unfortunately,

00:20:01.980 that wasn't the only thing that happened in Ottawa this week. And the next part is probably the genesis

00:20:09.100 of my Is the House of Commons Occasionally Stupid theme that I put on. We had an argument over a bathtub

00:20:15.740 and whether or not there was a suggestion that the prime minister might be gay in that bathtub,

00:20:22.700 you know, if you interpreted the remark in that way. Why don't we start by watching

00:20:27.460 this clip, which was following Pierre Polyevre, opposition leader Pierre Polyevre, talking about

00:20:33.320 the apartment the Government of Canada bought for New York Consul General Tom Clark and just how luxurious

00:20:39.680 it is with its quartz countertops, a $5,000 bathtub, and a bunch of other very special amenities.

00:20:46.640 This is the prime minister's defense of that luxury apartment.

00:20:51.980 Mr. Speaker, engaging with international leaders on fighting climate change,

00:20:58.080 on solving global crises, on standing up unequivocally for Ukraine.

00:21:03.640 Mr. Speaker, don't worry on this side of the house. We're used to casual homophobic comments

00:21:15.300 from the other side of the house.

00:21:18.640 Now, in case you couldn't hear, that was what has now been identified to be conservative MP

00:21:24.200 Garnet Jenuous asking if the prime minister or the consul general

00:21:29.600 was entertaining world leaders in the bathtub. And I actually think Garnet has a perfectly

00:21:36.480 legitimate question. There might be an argument to say we need a government-owned apartment

00:21:41.120 in a city like New York, where a lot of world leaders, business leaders, and other people

00:21:45.760 come on a frequent basis. And maybe we need it to be sufficiently large to accommodate a reception.

00:21:52.160 But do we really need the $5,000 bathtub in order to maintain cordial relations with some of

00:21:58.980 these foreign leaders? How many of them are we entertaining in the bath? And if we are, 0.99

00:22:03.860 should we be worried about foreign interference on one level or another? So do you think that this

00:22:10.480 was a homophobic joke? Or do you think this was an MP pointing out the lunacy of why we needed a 0.52

00:22:18.020 $5,000 bathtub? Isaac, what do you think?

00:22:20.860 Yeah, I definitely do not think it was a homophobic joke. And you mentioned, or Trudeau did,

00:22:27.480 how people were interpreting it. No, I don't think anyone would have interpreted it that way before

00:22:33.240 he brought up the homophobia. But we've seen this from Trudeau in response to completely unrelated

00:22:40.060 things. He'll always tie it back to his main talking points, which are homophobia or LGBTQ

00:22:46.140 rights, climate change. You've heard them all before. I don't see how this has anything to do

00:22:52.640 with that, though. And Cosman, what do you think? House of Commons, valuable democratic institution

00:22:58.120 or place where stupid stuff gets yelled about? Well, we've got a drama teacher for a prime minister.

00:23:05.960 He's engaging in theatrics every opportunity he can. And I think it's just deflection. Let's be

00:23:13.320 serious. It's an attempt to get off of the issue about why did taxpayers spend so much money for this

00:23:21.020 extravagant apartment and all of these extra features that, as you're right to mention, are not

00:23:26.800 necessary for hosting guests. And just in case you thought that maybe upon reflection, the prime

00:23:32.980 minister would back down from his ludicrous assertion that this was a drive by homophobic attack

00:23:39.700 when asked to clarify or reiterate his position leaving the House of Commons. This was the prime

00:23:44.980 minister's response. Sounds like the guy could use a nice relaxing bath with one or more of his

00:23:59.780 closest personal friends in order to de-stress. Yeah, I must admit, when I read the rundown of

00:24:06.900 show stories, I was initially opposed to doing this one out of the opinion that it would add to

00:24:12.680 global stupidity. And I'm sorry to say I still find this entire affair to be pretty dumb. But let's

00:24:20.400 move into, I guess you could argue it's a related area. I guess we're going to talk a little bit

00:24:25.860 about ass there, Isaac. Do you want to give us the lowdown? Yeah, related in the sense that this is

00:24:32.220 another odd comment, let's call it. So Ontario Premier Doug Ford let able-bodied homeless people who

00:24:41.700 aren't working know that he's sick and tired of them. So he was asked about the more than a,

00:24:47.580 sorry, a thousand people currently on wait lists for affordable housing at a completely unrelated

00:24:52.040 news conference on Monday. And then he said the following, let's just roll the clip quickly.

00:24:56.680 Do you know what the best way to get people be able to get out of the encampments,

00:25:01.180 get out of the homeless, get an application and drop it off one of these companies and start

00:25:06.900 working? You need to start working if you're healthy. Bottom line, if you're unhealthy, I'll

00:25:12.060 take care of you the rest of my life. Your life will take care of you. But if you're healthy,

00:25:16.700 get off your ASS and start working like everyone else's. Very simple.

00:25:20.740 And then I'll just cover a few other things that Ford mentioned at the press conference,

00:25:27.380 which was firstly, he said that Ontario is the fastest growing jurisdiction in North America.

00:25:33.300 He said they added 800,000 people last year, which was largest or sorry, larger than the biggest two

00:25:39.440 states in the United States combined. He went on to say that 136 companies came to invest in Ontario,

00:25:46.160 creating over 12,500 jobs, which really doesn't seem like that many jobs when we're talking about 800,000

00:25:52.780 people coming there. So while I appreciate Ford treating able-bodied homeless people like adults 0.89

00:26:01.240 saying, look, if you want to change your woes, you got to start working. I don't know that it's that simple.

00:26:07.100 Obviously, when 800,000 people immigrate to your province and then use the next citation you make is adding

00:26:12.980 12,500 jobs. Obviously, there's going to be a discrepancy there. And we've seen the unemployment

00:26:19.640 rates in Ontario, which are quite high. Do you guys think it's as simple as Ford is trying to make it

00:26:25.640 out to be? Well, I'll just start. I found his comment to be a little bit of a non sequitur because he was

00:26:32.320 asked about an affordable housing waitlist. And we talked about this on Daily Brief. Affordable housing

00:26:38.380 doesn't mean you're homeless. There's cutoffs for $100,000 a year to get into affordable housing.

00:26:45.180 There's a lot of ordinary middle class people who rely on affordable housing, sadly, in Canada today,

00:26:51.520 so that they can have a place to live because they can't afford the multi-thousand dollar rents in

00:26:58.740 Vancouver, Toronto, or Montreal. But you're right to say that immigration has a huge impact on this

00:27:06.460 because the fact is, if you look at the statistics, a lot of new immigrants, international students,

00:27:13.520 temporary foreign workers are going into those entry level jobs that somebody who's coming off

00:27:19.680 the street coming out of, you know, living in their car would rely on to get a step up and be able to

00:27:26.000 afford a place to live. And it's just astounding that nobody really touches on that issue. Our politicians

00:27:33.560 don't admit that we're importing more people than we can afford to take care of. And they're also going 0.96

00:27:42.020 into homeless shelters, the places where people who are on the street go to halfway houses, homeless

00:27:49.660 shelters, to have that transition from being homeless to actually being a functioning member in society.

00:27:57.040 So if we're not going to deal with the causes of this problem, just saying, go get a job, it's not

00:28:03.160 quite that simple, right?

00:28:05.500 So when I heard the comment, it reminded me, I phoned Rob Ford, sorry, Doug Ford, God rest Rob Ford,

00:28:13.040 Doug Ford to be channeling his inner Ronald Reagan, because the president was famously asked about social

00:28:18.940 program funding. And he said that the best social program out there was a job. Do you think

00:28:24.840 there's a belief that some people are simply taking advantage of Canada's generosity, as opposed to

00:28:32.180 doing what the rest of us do, which is to get up each morning, go to work, work at a job, earn a living

00:28:38.320 and use that to pay for our bills and our living expenses? Do you think there are some people who

00:28:43.240 said, nah, I'd rather not work and take advantage of Canada's generous social programs instead? Do you

00:28:49.360 think it's a problem? Yeah, I do. And some people, for many streams, not just the immigrant side of 1.00

00:28:56.220 things, but also Canadian employers, we've seen have exploited, in some instances, the temporary

00:29:01.900 foreign worker program, for example, where they're only supposed to be hiring temporary foreign workers

00:29:06.400 when they have an essential need for them. But of course, they're going with them instead of Canadians 1.00

00:29:10.500 because they can pay them less, or other instances. So yeah, I mean, there's very, there's many

00:29:15.760 different streams of exploitation, let's call it, but we've seen the videos in Toronto for these

00:29:21.440 entry level jobs. I mean, the lineups for them are hours long. So so as you mentioned, Cosmin, for

00:29:26.940 someone who's homeless and would rely on a job as such to get back on their feet, if you will,

00:29:34.900 it's not as simple as just going to McDonald's and getting a job when these places are pretty much

00:29:40.700 impossible to get a job at. And I'll just say this, as somebody was born in a different country, 1.00

00:29:47.200 Canada, barring Scandinavian countries, is one of the hardest countries to become homeless in.

00:29:54.300 Let's be real. There are so many opportunities, so many safety nets for people to rely on where they

00:30:00.440 don't have to be in that situation. Now, I'm not going to discount the serious things such as like

00:30:05.840 addiction, mental health issues, you know, trauma, being a victim of abuse, having to flee an abusive

00:30:12.540 household. Those are very real. But there are definitely people who choose to be out on the

00:30:18.500 streets. Here in Vancouver, in, you know, downtown Eastside, there's a lot of people who decide to be

00:30:25.700 there because it's a lifestyle for them almost. They don't want to get a job. They do get either,

00:30:32.500 you know, employment insurance. They have other means to get social grants and money. And they'd

00:30:39.560 rather be out here than actually live their life. And that asks, begs the question, what has happened

00:30:46.200 where people are choosing that over a meaningful life where they can be productive members of society?

00:30:52.680 I think there's some fundamental questions we need to ask about why people are choosing that path. And

00:30:58.400 with the drug crisis, a lot of these people are actually young men, men between the ages of 20 to

00:31:05.620 40, who have just found no purpose in society any longer. I'm just reading a quick note from the

00:31:13.100 producer saying that I should have given a warning that I was going to use the word ass. This is now a

00:31:18.080 PG-13 segment. And that segment should not have been watched by young children without prevental

00:31:24.820 supervision. True North apologizes for anyone scandalized by the use of that word. Just heading

00:31:31.220 into just a related story there, Cosman, about affordable housing and homelessness. We see a

00:31:38.100 quote unquote innovative housing strategy coming out of British Columbia. Some actually aren't convinced

00:31:45.120 it's innovative at all. What is happening on the affordable housing front in British Columbia's election?

00:31:49.980 Right. So in the last week, premier David Eby has made two significant housing announcements,

00:31:57.740 but what they essentially entail is they are leasehold schemes. So we have a situation where

00:32:06.700 the government is partnering with first nations and certain private investors to build these homes

00:32:14.140 that will still be owned by the land. At least we'll be owned by the first nation, but 0.93

00:32:19.920 people will be able to essentially sign up for a 99 year lease, 40% of which is funded by taxpayers.

00:32:30.160 So the government will be using taxpayer money to spend on 40% of the value of these properties,

00:32:36.600 whereas 60% the buyer will be able to put a down payment on. But like I said, this is a leasehold.

00:32:43.160 So if you know anything about real estate, a leasehold means that you might have some stake on the

00:32:49.540 building, but you don't have the land title. So you don't actually own the piece of land that the

00:32:54.220 property is on. And that raises a lot of consequences. First of all, the property doesn't

00:33:01.500 appreciate. So when you go to resell it, you're not going to make any sort of profit on it. And then

00:33:07.020 secondly, the person who owns the land could kick you off theoretically if they really wanted to.

00:33:13.020 So it's very troubling. And I spoke to a realtor from Vancouver who was, who put this in plain

00:33:20.020 terms that this is glorified rentals. The government is becoming a land Lord. So you're going to have

00:33:26.940 people who need housing and, and premier David Eby is calling this a housing owner, home ownership

00:33:33.340 dream as if this is what people want. They want to lease a property for 99 years from the government.

00:33:39.280 That's not it. They want something they can have for their entire life and then pass it on to their

00:33:44.400 next generations. So William, what's your, like, is this the solution to the housing crisis?

00:33:51.760 Yeah. I was going to say, it sounds almost like a timeshare plan where you buy in for a set amount

00:33:56.500 of time and then it reverts to the property owner. And certainly the idea that your house isn't going

00:34:01.800 to gain any value. And in fact, we'll lose value over the course of you owning it is not attractive

00:34:07.080 for a lot of people who see their property as a place to build some equity, to build up some

00:34:13.060 revenue, some, or some wealth that they can use in order to fund their retirement or, or something

00:34:18.060 else. So, uh, Isaac, what do you think? Uh, the dream of home ownership or government scheme that you

00:34:24.600 try and get sold upon visiting a hotel in Mexico and say, Oh, you could, you could live here full time

00:34:30.780 for only nine 99. Yeah. So many different things. Uh, I want to mention about this first, we'll start

00:34:38.220 off with the quote from EB home ownership dream. I mean, that in itself is a lie. You don't own the

00:34:44.000 land. How is it home on a home ownership dream? Uh, and you mentioned one of the two most important

00:34:50.120 things, uh, that I think, uh, of owning property are firstly, as you said, building equity, but next

00:34:56.920 owning the land, you literally own land that, that those are the two most important things of

00:35:01.040 owning a property in my opinion. And obviously one of these things just is not true with these

00:35:05.880 something that you didn't mention Cosmin, which I think needs to be, uh, said was the price of these

00:35:12.400 properties are $850,000 to $1.5 million. So, uh, we were talking about affordable housing. This is far

00:35:21.420 from, uh, affordable who, who can afford this. Of course you take 40% off of that. It's still a

00:35:27.420 ridiculous price. Well, yeah, I want to jump in on that, Isaac, if I may, because the, I was astounded

00:35:33.580 by how the housing minister arrived at these property valuations. If you actually look at where this

00:35:40.060 property is, it's in the dead center of, of Vancouver in a neighborhood called Canby. And it's

00:35:47.020 not a special area. It's literally in the middle of a metropolitan area, but for, and this is the

00:35:52.820 three bedrooms are valued at 1.5 million. This is the market valuation that the government arrived at

00:35:58.040 for these properties in this area, but you can get a leasehold property on, uh, with, with a ocean view

00:36:06.860 on false Creek for $1.5 million with a beautiful view of the Harbor for the exact same amount of money.

00:36:14.440 You can find a leasehold for three bedrooms, uh, in, in Kitsilano for $999,000. So it doesn't make

00:36:25.260 sense. And, and the reason they put this valuation so high is because they wrote into this deal a profit

00:36:32.280 for the private developers and the first nations developers. That's the reason they, they get the

00:36:37.640 payout. You know, the question that goes through my head is how much is the bathtub worth? If it's not

00:36:43.300 worth 5,000, then I'm not dropping 1.5 million on a home. Uh, I think that's completely outrageous.

00:36:49.280 So, uh, well, I think that brings us to the end of our, uh, of our new segment there. Um, you know,

00:36:55.540 I'm, I'm always amazed at the value for our tax dollars. We get whenever we take a good look at

00:37:00.860 what our governments are up to across the country. So I hope that we haven't depressed our viewers too

00:37:06.260 much by telling them just how much their tax dollars were wasted. And of course, a general reminder

00:37:11.720 that everything you've heard today is off the record. Well, now I'm worried that we're actually

00:37:26.640 going to have a segment of our viewers who own very expensive bathtubs, and I'm going to be accused

00:37:31.820 of being pejorative or, uh, bigoted against the wealthy bathtub community. That is not what I'm

00:37:37.920 saying. I'm saying if you own an expensive bathtub that you paid for yourself, that's perfectly fine.

00:37:43.460 Uh, it's the publicly funded bathtubs are the ones that I object to. So just to clarify for anybody

00:37:49.420 with a very expensive bathtub, it's not you, it's when it's paid for by taxpayers.

Off the Record - September 27, 2024

CTV News shows its true colours

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