Off the Record - How does Carney really feel about the carbon tax？

00:00:00.000 yeah i don't know if you guys have checked outside where you live but uh it's minus everything out

00:00:04.320 here i just took the dog for a walk and you know when the dog turns around and wants to go home

00:00:09.120 but it's too cold um it's below minus 20 here overnight in lethbridge uh and what really was

00:00:16.420 cheesing me off is that we're still paying the carbon tax on the home heating and yeah yeah

00:00:23.700 chris i got my uh energy bill yesterday and uh i was shocked to seeing that it doubled uh basically

00:00:32.720 from the month prior yeah it was like minus 30 here the last few days but it is starting to warm

00:00:36.940 up obviously in edmonton it's like minus 15 right now so it's not that bad but uh heating uh my house

00:00:41.820 is uh obviously no easy task and uh the natural gas i mean and i i looked at the the receipt and

00:00:47.520 like a quarter of the bill or something is uh carbon tax so that's nice just disgusting usually

00:00:53.220 the carbon tax actually costs you more than the natural gas uh cosmon do you have the courage to

00:00:58.820 open your home heating bill um i'm kind of a chicken i just don't open them i just throw money on it

00:01:03.360 well i feel like whenever we talk about the weather i can't flex because uh i'm in victoria bc we had

00:01:11.080 about minus one actually the first snowfall of the year and the city nearly shut down uh but luckily

00:01:18.720 the school stayed open but it came very close it's almost an apocalypse over here i saw you're

00:01:25.660 right chris sorry i just checked the breakdown the the federal carbon tax is more than the energy

00:01:30.660 itself so again real slow the carbon tax isaac's paying on his home heating is more than the natural

00:01:38.480 gas he was using and yes cosmon i was checking weather in your neck of the woods apparently they

00:01:43.600 shut down the malahat highway because there was like this much snow god love bc all right let's

00:01:49.340 get this thing going welcome to off the record here on true north my name is chris sims i'm the

00:01:58.860 alberta director for the canadian taxpayers federation thank you so much to true north for graciously

00:02:03.740 letting me host i'm here with my good friends isaac and cosmon we've got a lot to go through here

00:02:09.100 uh and i wanted to kick things off with the outstanding job you guys are doing on mark carney

00:02:15.860 mark carney is of course the former central banker former governor of bank of canada former governor

00:02:20.900 of bank of england and he is now the perceived front runner to replace prime minister justin trudeau

00:02:26.700 as the liberal party leader and yes that means if he wins he will be prime minister of canada

00:02:32.740 it doesn't matter that he doesn't have a seat in the house of commons at least for a brief period of

00:02:37.140 time who wanted to kick this thing off did we want to start with the carbon tax uh i know cosmon

00:02:42.760 you read carney's book uh what were your findings in there yeah sure so we had the idea that you know

00:02:52.780 carney published this 600 page tome in in the year 2021 and we wanted to use this as a launch point to

00:03:02.300 investigate carney's background beliefs and plans for canada and the world at large and in this book

00:03:10.100 it's quite interesting although i wouldn't recommend you read it but you can read our articles where we

00:03:17.180 summarized basically everything he said and we're going to break it down by topic and the first article

00:03:22.360 in the series we released as you mentioned is on the carbon tax but he lays out specifically

00:03:28.440 in quite plain language and detail what he thinks about the carbon tax and there he says that

00:03:35.080 the canadian federal carbon tax the pricing scheme that the liberals introduced with the

00:03:40.480 uh i think it was called the canada carbon pricing act uh was the best model for the rest of the world

00:03:47.980 to follow and he's also talked about holding politicians accountable who abandoned certain

00:03:56.120 climate policies and if you recall if you've been watching the news if you've been following

00:04:01.220 mark carney's campaign he's now walked back and done the exact same thing he said politicians shouldn't do

00:04:09.960 now that he's vying for a political office and not a public servant office uh he did the exact same

00:04:17.420 thing he's walked back on the consumer pricing uh portion of the carbon tax now the question is

00:04:24.640 is he serious about that because he's talked about introducing some sort of incentive initiatives for

00:04:32.280 carbon uh reduction and he's also talked about implementing a tariff believe it or not a carbon

00:04:39.520 tariff on countries importing goods to canada charging them for their uh i guess their carbon

00:04:46.640 consumption of their goods could you get into that just a bit more before i jump to you isaac for one

00:04:52.700 sec uh cosman what did he mean by like holding politicians accountable if they dare sin against

00:05:00.500 the dogma of pro-carbon taxary like what's the punishment here what did he get into that right so

00:05:07.660 what he says and i'll quote him specifically he says climate policies need broad political support

00:05:16.300 to be credible and he actually points to the fact i guess when when he was writing this in 2021 i'm not

00:05:23.140 sure that this was actually a fact but he viewed it this way he says that a majority of canadians

00:05:28.520 support the carbon tax and he's talking about the canadian model specifically and then he goes on to say

00:05:34.900 backtracking on ambitious climate agendas is more difficult if politicians share the same goals and expect

00:05:43.000 to be held accountable and specifically what that means how to hold politicians accountable

00:05:50.440 he doesn't get into detail but when you look at his whole argument he provides a essentially an

00:05:58.060 across-the-board climate agenda for carbon reduction he talks about you know introducing climate uh carbon

00:06:05.840 reduction policies for financial institutions where they don't invest in carbon intensive projects he

00:06:12.120 talks about uh encouraging corporations to adopt uh carbon pricing models governments etc so he he wants

00:06:20.980 a whole societal approach to carbon pricing not just a governmental one but like i mentioned he does

00:06:27.980 really laud the canadian model as the ideal one that all countries should support the current canadian

00:06:36.160 model where we can see largely the carbon tax that we're paying like isaac was just talking about

00:06:41.720 there on his home heating bill uh isaac was it you that was getting in a little bit more into this

00:06:46.260 whole idea of a carbon tariff um were you doing a bit of a dive into that or so i saw a headline about

00:06:54.340 this and it was one of those things i could barely wrap my head around it because i can't really think

00:06:58.800 of two words that are more unpopular right now than carbon and tariff but he's sticking them together

00:07:04.000 like the worst peanut butter and jam sandwich ever um what did what was your take on this when you saw

00:07:10.580 carny wheel out his carbon tax idea in halifax walking back what looks like decades of thinking on this

00:07:18.720 yeah uh well it wasn't me who reported on that but uh you got that right chris about there perhaps

00:07:25.880 being no two less popular words in canada than carbon and tariff and we know this from from polling

00:07:31.540 i mean canadians are vehemently against the carbon tax and you would assume against tariffs given the

00:07:38.660 recent uh situation we just went through with the united states of course we only recently received a

00:07:44.860 one month reprieve but the tariff threat is far from over we've seen premieres from across the

00:07:49.740 nation be against the tariffs canadians against the tariffs we'll talk about that later in the show

00:07:53.620 about the poll showing that the tariff war has actually united canadians because they they hate it

00:07:58.600 so much but what i did want to get into chris was a few things i've written on carny because you said

00:08:04.800 uh earlier that he's the front runner for the of course liberal party election but uh he might be taking

00:08:11.720 that a bit too to heart because he of course has been criticized by a fellow leader in the leadership

00:08:19.320 election for the liberals uh ruby dolla who is saying carny you're you're not the prime minister

00:08:23.840 yet i don't know why you're behaving as if you already are you know we have to go through the due

00:08:28.120 process here of the liberal party leadership election uh why are you talking as if you're already the prime

00:08:33.980 minister and remember that election doesn't conclude until march 9th so she called him out on on various

00:08:40.800 occasions for example he said he was in um constant communication with various canadian ministers and

00:08:47.740 then dolla said uh in what official capacity he was communicating with them with and she said quote

00:08:53.420 does carny have a cabinet position we do not know about how is a private citizen communicating with

00:08:59.200 cabinet ministers and what are they telling him what information are they revealing to a private

00:09:03.740 citizen that should shouldn't be happening and then uh adding to that various canadians started uh

00:09:09.600 calling carny out on x as well because we'll remember he was on the um john stewart show speaking

00:09:15.280 on the country's behalf again as if he were already the prime minister this is of course the same

00:09:20.160 interview where he uh referred to himself as a political outsider i know and then uh uh swapping

00:09:26.980 to another story i wrote about carny um alberta environment minister rebecca schultz actually called on

00:09:32.760 the four remaining canadian banks in a net zero alliance that carny created back at uh was it cop

00:09:39.360 one of the cops where he was uh leading it anyways since then so there were four banks remaining when

00:09:45.240 schultz uh asked that they leave essentially which was two weeks ago since then i think her call has

00:09:52.560 garnered some value considering rbc and scotia bank have since left leaving only coast capital and

00:09:59.220 van city which of course are two smaller banks compared to rbc and scotia bank the two

00:10:03.140 huge banks that left this net zero scheme so yeah i mean yeah uh what do you what do you think about

00:10:11.360 that chris the the do you think schultz had any influence on those banks leaving i'm curious oh

00:10:16.200 hopefully uh i must say that premier daniel smith has largely been the only adult in the room when it

00:10:24.720 comes to trying to talk u.s president donald trump down from these tariffs trying to show instead of tell

00:10:31.000 actually showing the law enforcement that was lining up at the border showing the black hawk

00:10:35.680 helicopters the drones all the work that was being put in there explaining that we should have a north

00:10:41.940 south energy corridor if you want to have sort of a fortress america thing like she was really

00:10:46.920 pressuring them diplomatically and i think that showed because on the eve of the tariff imposition

00:10:53.080 we were going to get nailed with 10 percent instead of 25 percent here in alberta especially for our

00:10:58.460 energy in particular so i think that shows and i think it's really important for other ministers in

00:11:04.260 her cabinet including minister schultz to show leadership on this stuff like we cannot sit back

00:11:10.400 and hope that someone else points out the fact that it's a joke that we do not have an east west

00:11:17.560 pipeline in canada in our own country it was one of those moments i don't know if you guys have

00:11:23.480 experienced this recently you know what it's like when you've got family coming in and visiting from

00:11:27.520 out of town and you're showing them around your own town or city and you kind of notice stuff

00:11:31.920 through fresh eyes because you're visiting it was kind of that experience recently watching a lot of

00:11:38.300 this canadian stuff be covered by american networks and hearing it stated out loud that we do not have

00:11:45.300 an east to west pipeline for our own energy was asinine and so hearing that again was really important

00:11:55.280 very eye-opening and so anytime that we can push put pressure on these sorts of power move brokers

00:12:02.480 on things like having good access to canadian energy is super smart um the elements i wanted to pick on

00:12:10.280 here with carney's announcement is two things one the carbon tax is still here i'm a little bit worried

00:12:18.160 that i'm hearing the narrative coming from mainstream media but also i'm sensing a slight slipping of

00:12:24.580 focus with the conservative party that the carbon tax issue is put to bed it's over now it's not

00:12:32.520 number one isaac you just opened your bill it's still there we all have to still pay it period two it's going

00:12:40.480 to increase on april 1st nothing has changed so that's a huge important point here it is still here

00:12:48.760 it is not gone the second element is exactly what these liberal leadership candidates are saying and

00:12:56.460 in particular carney he didn't say he was going to completely get rid of the carbon tax and nuke it

00:13:04.340 from orbit like what needs to happen no he's going to make big polluters pay well what does that mean

00:13:12.000 in normal people talk that means a power plant running on natural gas you think they're going

00:13:18.540 to eat that cost and not pass it on to you like think again what about a refinery that's making our

00:13:26.000 gasoline and diesel for our pumps we think they're just going to eat the cost of a government-imposed

00:13:30.900 carbon tax no like give your heads a shake so this is just going to hide the carbon tax

00:13:37.720 you're going to still pay it and just to add a cherry on top to this which is so insane i can't

00:13:43.820 believe i need to explain this again not to you guys but like to people at large it was so crazy to

00:13:49.060 hear this come back up carney is going to get rid of the rebates so as anemic and scattered and

00:13:57.020 unreliable as they are for a lot of people as of right now some people get some money back

00:14:04.060 sometimes it's a totally screwed up system i know i get it but at least it's money that you can choose

00:14:11.620 what to do with it you can put it towards your next heat bill isaac or you can pay try to pay down

00:14:17.180 some credit card bills or people can buy i don't know a birthday candles for their kids you name it

00:14:21.780 it's money but no no that's not good enough for central planners like carney they get really itchy

00:14:27.720 with that kind of freedom cashiness so he's going to take away that rebate and give you back these 0.97

00:14:34.260 green points remember back when erin o'toole tried this stupid idea when he was conservative leader 0.90

00:14:39.780 and you're going to get a solar blender so somebody who is strapped for cash who's fighting to afford 0.97

00:14:46.720 groceries is not on the market for a new furnace an e-scooter is not going to solve their problems

00:14:54.460 what will solve their problems or at least help solve their problems is canceling the carbon tax

00:14:59.420 altogether getting rid of it as a cost so carney trotted out his carbon tax idea and it's the worst

00:15:04.840 one i've seen yet that was that was my take coming from carney yeah chris if i may jump off of that

00:15:10.120 it seems to me that this is an attempt to disarm the conservative opposition he's thinking into the

00:15:17.160 future uh probably thinking that he's going to win this liberal leadership race and have to square off

00:15:23.840 against pure polyev and he wants to disarm that carbon tax election plan that they had going but

00:15:29.940 where i would differ is that i don't really think it has worked because it raises more questions

00:15:35.480 than answers and you've pointed out a lot of those questions he talks about a climate incentive

00:15:41.780 program to replace this consumer carbon tax the carbon rebates but who is going to fund that who

00:15:48.340 will fund this initiative and the incentive and with regard to continuing to apply a carbon tax on

00:15:56.440 major polluters as he calls them and major industries specifically the oil and gas industry

00:16:01.940 it just obviously how he's an economist right he should know that industries facing that sort

00:16:10.120 of cost will pass it down to consumers it's going to end up we're going to be paying it at the pump

00:16:15.920 we're going to be paying it with any good that's transported via truck so he's not answering any of

00:16:22.920 these questions and i posed these questions directly to his campaign and there was no answer at all

00:16:29.920 and the problem is the legacy media refuses to look into his past to look into all of the policies

00:16:36.820 which he's promoted during his time as the governor of bank of england you know his time at the united

00:16:42.900 nations his time at the he did a g30 thing with janet yellen the former uh secretary of the treasury in

00:16:49.620 the united states they were all pushing carbon taxes in the business world as well as uh with governments

00:16:55.960 and nobody's asking him whether he still believes these things or not they just take what he says

00:17:02.400 now at face value and reports it as fact but in reality hidden in these announcements and there's no

00:17:09.040 clear plan but what he's really talking about here is a national policy and he's not provided any details

00:17:15.560 or any uh sense of relief to canadians who are worried about continuing rising costs of living and all of

00:17:24.180 the things that come with the carbon tax like isaac's heating bill and the high price at the pumps here

00:17:29.960 in british columbia and victoria it's like a dollar 89 at the pump for regular fuel oh it's it wasn't like

00:17:37.500 that before that's disgusting i'm sorry um i mean it's not great here but man it's a lot better i think

00:17:44.360 we're at 151 right down in in lethbridge i'm sorry i'm truly sorry because that makes it unaffordable

00:17:51.200 for people to fill up their trucks to go to work like dropping their kids off that is rough man um

00:17:57.260 you mentioned the details that he kind of rolled out what i noticed is that he kind of slipped and said

00:18:05.300 the loud part out with his quiet part out loud when he was in halifax because one of the last things

00:18:11.060 he said and i'm paraphrasing a bit but not much he said the problem with the current carbon tax the one

00:18:17.700 that's kicking you in the teeth right now isaac on your home heating bill the problem with the carbon

00:18:21.820 tax is perception he said it's a perception problem for the carbon tax and he said that the current

00:18:29.940 carbon tax had basically been a victim of quote misinformation and lies he used that word um

00:18:40.100 that gets my dander up pretty fast because it's not lies we know what we're paying in the carbon tax

00:18:47.580 people aren't stupid they can read their bill and they know that they can do the math in fact right

00:18:53.140 now the government of canada lists the cost per liter of fuels gasoline uh square meter of uh

00:19:03.200 or rather cubic meter of natural gas diesel per liter and as long as you know your tank capacity

00:19:09.640 it's pretty simple math so that's why it costs you about 20 bucks right now extra to fill up a

00:19:15.380 pickup truck it's why it costs a trucker about 200 extra to fill up with diesel um isaac i'll just

00:19:21.760 finish off with you on the carbon tax issue um do you think that carney calling the carbon tax a

00:19:28.700 perception problem and that the the bad rep that it has right now is due to misinformation and lies

00:19:34.680 do you think that'll be accepted by the majority of canadians for like yeah he's right

00:19:39.580 this is all this is on me it's my fault i really don't think so we saw a similar story a few months

00:19:47.320 ago with uh steven guibo remember he when he said oh people just don't like they're they're not they're

00:19:52.440 not they're not the rebates aren't clear enough to canadians we need to make it more obvious this

00:19:57.700 is when he forced banks to label it uh more appropriately so oh people just don't know how

00:20:02.460 great these rebates are trust me they're they're misinformed but i mean to call it misinformation

00:20:06.940 what are you saying and max is misinforming me that i'm not really paying what i'm paying in in the

00:20:11.240 federal carbon tax and as you said chris this doesn't even begin to uh calculate the compounding

00:20:18.320 effect of simple trickle down economics that i would honestly expect a child to understand

00:20:23.720 obviously if a trucker is paying more for the product they're delivering to you the pat the cost

00:20:28.520 will be passed on to you they can't just absorb this cost this is not how economics work this is not

00:20:33.100 how the bottom line can be calculated i mean it's ridiculous and and just one other thing i wanted

00:20:37.100 to add chris because you mentioned this earlier but um when i was writing my article on how all of

00:20:41.680 the premiers were reacting to the tariffs uh i just wanted to say that i watched about a 30 minute or so

00:20:47.100 uh press conference from the quebec's premier francois legault and he said that he's not in favor

00:20:53.200 of energy east so just wanted to get that on the record because we're wondering why we don't have a

00:20:58.280 pipeline across canada i mean there are various players uh in this uh equation yep and uh that

00:21:05.340 whole i had to say man during that frenzy that was happening when we all you know the terrorists

00:21:11.100 were coming and everybody who had their hair on fire was running around and all of a sudden team

00:21:15.260 canada was a thing again um dirty alberta oil sands sure changed to canadian energy real quick didn't

00:21:23.600 it yeah no i even wrote an article today about bc all of a sudden they're pro energy though they want

00:21:28.540 to fast track all these energy products so they can become less reliant on the united states as if

00:21:32.500 their whole government's platform over the last decade hasn't been a war against energy amazing

00:21:37.940 it's as if they think we haven't been paying attention i will point out uh exactly to your point

00:21:43.440 with you know background in economics and that uh coming from carny um he knows he just probably

00:21:50.380 doesn't care anymore because he's been insulated from worried about opening your energy bill or

00:21:56.380 worried about being able to make rent for an awful long time like one of his most recent gigs as the

00:22:01.280 governor of bank of england paid him more than eight hundred thousand dollars canadian per year

00:22:07.160 plus a four hundred and fifty thousand dollar housing allowance like hearing the cries of the average

00:22:14.860 working person through those ermine earmuffs it's got to be pretty tough after a while um do we want

00:22:21.060 to shift gears slightly it's still technically on carny but on capital gains tax sure we wanted to

00:22:27.580 take that one away did you want me to take the lead on them what carsman cosmon what do you want to do

00:22:30.800 sure just like he's flip-flopped on his views about the carbon tax now he's suddenly against the capital

00:22:40.160 gains tax and it's interesting because if you know a little bit about carny and his relationship

00:22:45.800 with the trudeau government he was actually advising prime minister justin trudeau for a little bit

00:22:50.580 and speculation was that he was poised to become the next finance minister and that's what caused the

00:22:57.200 whole uh perfuffle with christia freeland who decided to resign and the reason she resigned was 0.99

00:23:05.440 essentially because of she disagreed with certain policies but that's up for debate but now carny is

00:23:12.840 saying he wants to repeal the car uh the capital gains tax uh but in reality that was being collected

00:23:21.100 by the cra now they've said they've paused it but it's not it's not really clear where that is right

00:23:26.100 now i mean maybe chris knows a little bit better than i do what the status of that is or whether

00:23:31.060 people are paying it currently so as of right now as far as i know at tape time they have paused the

00:23:38.900 collection of the increase so the capital gains tax still exists i wish it were gone completely

00:23:44.440 wouldn't it be awesome if a federal political party actually campaigned on eliminating the capital gains 0.96

00:23:51.120 tax that would be super awesome but what we're talking about is the increase so the increase

00:23:56.720 hadn't even gone through parliament and crazily the cra canada revenue agency was acting as if it

00:24:05.260 had they were already collecting the tax rate on people as if it had gone through parliament and the

00:24:11.980 king had stamped it the whole bit no none of that had happened it was so crazy that the canadian

00:24:18.000 taxpayers federation like we took it to court and i think we're still fighting it in court because

00:24:22.820 you want to talk about taxation of the representation that was wild and that isn't just like a really

00:24:28.800 cool principle or like a an inspiring slogan that's in our constitution of no taxation without

00:24:35.860 representation so as far as i understand the cra has hit pause on that their their insane

00:24:43.060 collection of the tax increase and now the liberals as of right now the liberal government is saying

00:24:49.020 they're delaying the increase so it's a win in one sense and that people aren't paying the increase

00:24:56.420 but what's crazy here and isaac you and i were talking about this before we hit record um it just

00:25:02.620 gives the government gives businesses more runway of like we're still going to hit you with this crazy

00:25:08.260 tax increase but now you have longer to flee the country get all your assets sold off and take them

00:25:14.320 somewhere else it's crazy they should just eliminate it all together yeah chris i think you're being

00:25:21.120 a bit humble because obviously i've done a lot of reporting on this and the ctf took the cra to court

00:25:27.380 and then a few days later or maybe a week later oh all of a sudden the capital gains is being delayed

00:25:32.440 a year so uh interesting timeline there but i mean it was we've done extensive reporting on the capital

00:25:39.560 gains tax hike at true north uh this is a terrible thing for canadians we we've seen groups warn that

00:25:45.220 it will decimate the tech sector health care leaders have said that doctors will leave canada

00:25:50.540 to go to the united states that i mean as if we're not already in a shortage of of family doctors like

00:25:56.020 this is just going to make all of the outstanding issues in canada uh exacerbate them essentially and

00:26:01.820 make them worse so yeah but and as you said chris i mean they delayed it a year now so that's kind of

00:26:08.080 weird uh because all of the liberal party candidates are against it all of the parties seem to be

00:26:13.160 against it so why don't we just abolish it altogether i'm not really understanding that and

00:26:17.760 on the bright side i guess they're it's pushed now until after the next federal election will have taken

00:26:23.600 place so at that point pierre polyefra has said he too will eliminate the tax hike so if he does form

00:26:29.380 office it will be taken care of and if the liberals win i mean who knows what will happen

00:26:34.460 and quickly for folks who think that oh this only affects rich people no no it does not just affect

00:26:40.360 rich people it affects so many people uh the cd howe institute uh estimated that this would blow a

00:26:46.680 90 billion dollar hole in our gdp in our economy like we just can't afford to do that like we have

00:26:54.340 un-money right now we are 1.2 trillion dollars in debt our inflation is crazy our interest payments

00:27:00.620 on the debt are crazy like we can't afford to goof around at all and here they are saying oh let's

00:27:06.800 just increase a capital gain tax so very quickly on capital gains uh and i would say this if it was of

00:27:13.840 a different party that made a video this good but pierre polyev's team made a great kind of

00:27:19.420 informational video on what capital gain is like what is capital what happens if there's a capital gain

00:27:26.060 so that could be anything from say you're a heavy duty mechanic like my father-in-law was and you've

00:27:32.000 got all this really expensive equipment like drill presses and parts washers and all this stuff like

00:27:38.420 fabrication like welding that is capital and if you sell it if it's over a certain amount that can be

00:27:47.040 considered to be a capital gain okay so that isn't just these aren't just mucky mucks playing the stock

00:27:52.780 market and stuff no um same sort of thing say you know an older family member dies and they leave you

00:27:59.260 their cabin or their cottage or some secondary property that is now in your name when you sell

00:28:05.140 that you are punished with the capital gains tax so if you increase that thing you are increasing the

00:28:12.840 costs this tax take for so many people and to your point exactly isaac on physicians um about a year or so

00:28:20.560 ago i was in the emergency room with a friend of mine and totally unprompted it must have been

00:28:25.760 because i had like a taxpayer's hat on because that's what i was wearing at the time we went into

00:28:29.380 the er i wasn't thinking about it totally unprompted three or two or three separate physicians brought up

00:28:36.020 the capital gains tax increase to me and apparently when they go through med school and stuff they're

00:28:41.280 told hey listen you don't get a pension the same way say uh a nurse or like uh you know a tech would

00:28:48.760 get okay you're not employed in the same way so you need to structure your business because that's

00:28:54.460 what doctors have to run in such a way that you this is how you save for retirement it's a doctor

00:29:00.800 thing okay you'd have to ask a doctor but apparently by hiking up indiscriminately the capital gains tax

00:29:07.220 on them without warning it was totally upsetting their entire plans for retirement so this is why

00:29:13.860 i was hearing from them saying like unprompted i'm going to leave canada and a bunch of my friends

00:29:18.920 coming through med school are going to i'm like whoa okay like so yeah it's it's a major issue um

00:29:24.120 cosmon did we want to get to the clip here on uh from from carney where he was making his most recent

00:29:30.140 announcement sure i and i also think it'll be a good jump off point for our next story but carney

00:29:36.680 essentially uh compares canada to the united states he says that you know the united states is

00:29:43.980 waging a war on woke and can't under you know his vision for this country canada will maintain its

00:29:52.100 inclusivity etc but i would wager that the united states and in particular doge or the department of

00:30:00.640 government efficiency is waging a war on overspending and wasteful spending particularly it just so

00:30:08.460 happens that woke initiatives overlap with overspending and wasteful spending and money just

00:30:16.420 not well used to the benefit of the taxpayer and we see that in canada as well if you've been on social

00:30:26.320 media or particularly x recently there's been a huge discussion about global affairs canada and

00:30:33.180 where canada's money has been going in terms of international and foreign uh spending and that

00:30:39.680 was sparked by donald trump's you know defunding of us aid which is a very similar has overlaps with

00:30:47.520 global affairs and the mandates that they both share and an interesting thing that has come to light

00:30:54.260 i honestly didn't know some of these things about global affairs canada what we've been funding but

00:30:58.800 the first one i've seen floating around is that we've actually been funding the bbc's that's the

00:31:05.160 british broadcasting center which is uh the cbc equivalent in the united kingdom their charity arm

00:31:12.700 and canada has funded about 1.6 million uh to the bc bbc's charity and you see that if we have our

00:31:23.760 graph up there's a little orange bar there and that's in pounds but in canadian dollars that's about

00:31:29.500 1.6 over 1.6 million canadian dollars from global affairs canada to the bbc so isaac like why are we

00:31:39.400 funding the bbc just wait just wait we should probably play the clip i think of carnie first

00:31:45.420 because sure we're going to need a wake up after we finish listening to him talk so stay with us

00:31:51.760 folks listen to this clip of carnie because we're going to talk about sex toys in a second okay roll

00:31:56.160 tape now the one thing i've learned over the many years of managing crises is that plan beats no plan

00:32:04.240 plans create focus discipline and the energy that major changes a crisis demands and make no mistake

00:32:14.560 we are in a crisis we can do little to change the external forces that are causing it but we can

00:32:22.800 act as canadians there's a fever gripping america and while it rages canadians will remain resolute

00:32:32.400 and true to our values while america engages in a war on woke canadians will continue to value

00:32:41.160 inclusiveness while america shuns the vulnerable we will continue to show solidarity with one another

00:32:49.460 while america attempts to turn back the clock canadians will build sustainability for future

00:32:57.280 generations before america's fever passes we must seize this moment for canada this is the time to

00:33:08.820 change this is our time to build this is the time for canada okay so that i gotta say just party apart

00:33:22.120 okay i would say this if he was ndp and i would say this if he was conservative he's gotta get a

00:33:28.140 battery pack or something man because he's more boring than michael ignatiev like he makes prime

00:33:33.580 minister steven harper look like a stand-up comedian he's gotta put some lightning in those shoes um uh

00:33:39.720 isaac exactly getting back to the throw there from cosmon uh what was your take on this as you've been

00:33:45.380 watching this go down yeah sorry i uh thanks for repeating the question there chris uh my mind

00:33:50.520 waking you up yeah brought me back to life there yeah no i mean look i've always had a uh i haven't

00:33:58.980 been shy to say that i've been against foreign spending in general when our economy is so weak

00:34:04.760 let alone on ridiculous initiatives that we saw today come out from global affairs canada everyone

00:34:10.320 was revealing these things because we know they uh scrubbed their website or something happened there

00:34:15.760 where none of these projects existed anymore so everyone i was on x this morning i mean i couldn't

00:34:20.960 find anything except people calling out global affairs canada saying what is going on here like

00:34:25.080 this is criminal activity you can't just get rid of all this public data hide it from us because

00:34:30.420 well maybe because of what's happening in in the states with doge and and the public shift we're

00:34:36.860 seeing against uh woke initiatives but i mean i feel that all canadians would probably be along

00:34:42.580 this line where it's like we can't afford our energy bills our our groceries why are we sending

00:34:48.340 billions in some cases to other countries to fund things that don't affect us as canadians the bbc what

00:34:54.660 what effect does that have on any canadian i've never watched the bbc i don't know how it affects my

00:34:58.940 life in any way there are way more ridiculous and ludicrous examples i know you have a list chris whenever

00:35:03.940 i'm reading a ctf uh press release you you guys have lists of what foreign spending has been on and

00:35:10.460 it's just almost unbelievable it it is and uh so that's why number one i think it's great that elon

00:35:19.040 musk has dumped gasoline onto this fire and gotten so much attention about government waste if we can

00:35:25.660 have everybody be this kind of activated tax fighter and go find government waste on both sides of the

00:35:31.760 border we will all be the better for it so the mission cultural fund is a pot of money within

00:35:39.280 global affairs canada which we used to call foreign affairs canada it's a pot of money that bureaucrats

00:35:45.440 use all over the world they blow money from this pot of cash and i'm just gonna say if people are

00:35:52.960 noticing a theme with these ridiculous expenditures woke is a cloak for government waste if they can

00:36:02.400 paint it give it a certain paint job and make it woke they then inoculate themselves they think from

00:36:10.260 criticism because they think we wouldn't dare criticize it well just watch us okay so we spent

00:36:17.060 more than eight thousand dollars on a sex toy show in germany so making these items and then putting

00:36:26.540 them on display i will point out we spent thousands more doing a little bus tour through germany

00:36:31.660 afterwards with artists promoting these things and the name of this show is so disgusting i'm not

00:36:39.820 saying it like i refuse google it yourself sex toy show in germany canadian dollars went towards it

00:36:46.860 second um we spent thousands of dollars to listen to sex stories again if you guys noticing a theme 0.97

00:36:55.660 here i don't know what's wrong with these bureaucrats sex stories from seniors old people sex stories but 0.97

00:37:03.960 here's the kicker they weren't happy just wasting taxpayers dollars on domestic old people sex stories 0.98

00:37:11.840 no no bill and doris in you know kitchener that wasn't good enough they had to take this on the road 0.96

00:37:18.300 we were outsourcing old people sex stories we spent thousands of dollars on a lesbian pirate musical 0.97

00:37:25.580 i'm not joking these are all on that website and folks want detailed explanations go to taxpayer.com

00:37:34.580 look up teddy waste awards go back through 20 years of this stuff it'll set your hair on fire and so

00:37:42.560 legit if people want to find out where their money is going and hey man if that's what you want to

00:37:48.340 listen to if you want to go watch a lesbian pirate opera fill your boots or your peg leg pay for it 1.00

00:37:55.980 yourself like nobody cares just don't make taxpayers pay for this nonsense and so cosmon do you think 0.96

00:38:05.080 that this will catch on up here this kind of doge let's ferret out and get these kind of like tech

00:38:11.000 bros that are noticing code to actually find waste up here will it become popular well i think it's set

00:38:18.760 a precedent whether or not there's actual government motion to audit any of this spending and to see

00:38:26.760 where it's all going and whether it's actually achieving results or it's just being spent frivolously

00:38:31.860 frivolously that's yet to be seen and it would take quite a an amount of effort it would spark up a lot

00:38:39.880 of political conflict the liberals like to accuse the conservatives of cutting services etc but when

00:38:46.480 they're talking about what cuts need to be made it is this stuff it's the stuff that's unnecessary it's

00:38:52.720 the stuff that's wasteful and sure perhaps it provides jobs for a few bureaucrats but does it

00:38:59.500 actually provide substance and and improve the lives of ordinary people no we're just subsidizing these

00:39:06.540 programs uh to fill the pockets of individuals who haven't are invested in it into some degree and

00:39:13.260 NGOs etc so in many ways it does work like a patronage network to these activist organizations

00:39:19.800 that take over this take the money from taxpayers and transfer it into their own pockets uh but back

00:39:26.860 in 2023 i just want to point to another story the government essentially admitted that it was not

00:39:33.280 tracking billions of dollars going towards uh foreign aid gender projects they don't even have you're 0.98

00:39:40.960 right i forgot about this yeah they don't even have a way to measure how much money is going where

00:39:46.760 it's going who's receiving this money and they just shrug their shoulders it's an insane amount of

00:39:53.380 negligence when we're talking about billions of dollars that could be used for much better things

00:39:59.560 it could be used for infrastructure we need houses we need the health care situation is in dire crisis

00:40:06.140 to your point on health care to give people an idea of a billion because i explain this all the time

00:40:12.680 a billion dollars will build you a pretty nice hospital so the next time you hear some bureaucrat

00:40:20.700 flapping their gums about spending a billion here and here and there that's a hospital picture it

00:40:27.340 with its shiny glass doors and elevators and fanciness and all that stuff it's a wild waste of money

00:40:33.340 um i'll also point out i'm waiting for the moment when elon notices march madness so as of right now

00:40:43.320 it's really good number one it's really a good idea to focus on the insane stuff like we were just

00:40:48.100 describing oh yeah one of my other favorite ones was um studying whether or not outer space is sexist

00:40:53.580 like crazy waste of money on nonsense so it's important to point out that stuff because it gets

00:41:01.320 people's attention and it is costing thousands and in some cases millions of dollars we spent more

00:41:07.280 than a million dollars on a deer cull off the west coast of canada through parks canada by hiring

00:41:14.560 gunmen out of new zealand to shoot deer out of a helicopter and they did a crappy job of it too

00:41:21.200 because they're terrible shots like all of that was a gong show so tons of government waste but when you

00:41:27.020 get down to the big ticket items it's slightly more boring but mind-boggling just you wait until

00:41:33.460 elon musk and his doge team discovers how much they waste around the end of february beginning of march

00:41:39.820 because that's of course when fiscal rolls over at least up here in canada it's probably the equivalent

00:41:44.940 down in the states so what that is is and i've worked on both sides of the fence in government and

00:41:50.260 out of government is right around now ish pretty soon an email is going to be going out among the 0.97

00:41:56.360 departments saying does anyone have anything really stupid that they need to waste money on 0.96

00:42:01.720 couch cushions you know uh color portraits whatever an espresso machine like ridiculously overpriced 0.98

00:42:09.760 office chairs because they will lose their budget if they don't blow all of it yeah so at the end of

00:42:18.700 fiscal each department has to use it or lose it so say they've actually been a good manager and

00:42:25.340 they've got a lot saved and left over they don't just put that back in the treasury they don't just

00:42:30.260 give that back to taxpayers or save money no they all rush and blow it at the last minute in february

00:42:35.800 it costs billions of dollars every year to do this wait until they find that out in the states

00:42:43.820 um if i may just quick on that uh just because i know a lot of people are fans of the office and

00:42:48.920 there's a good episode illustrating that point exactly where they essentially teach michael what

00:42:53.580 a surplus is so they're like look we have a surplus it's x amount we need to spend it by the end of the

00:42:58.440 day or we won't get it next year so then they have this huge debate on what whether to buy a new

00:43:03.240 chairs for everyone or a copier or what they're gonna waste well not waste but use the money on uh in

00:43:07.940 this instance so yeah if any fans of the office out there that's just a quick little uh shout out

00:43:12.320 that's a perfect i'm gonna go check that out because i'm gonna use that example from now on

00:43:16.260 it's a perfect example um did we want to get to uh tariffs and pride are we there yet yeah no i'll

00:43:24.600 take this one away and i'm already kind of excited because i got this uh this office anecdote but now

00:43:29.260 i'm excited again because uh i get to talk about data which excites me i love going through this stuff

00:43:34.820 uh so this was a pretty he's got a spreadsheet okay oh i've got a few uh no so this was a recent

00:43:41.880 survey by um the angus reed institute which was pretty interesting to me because uh the threat

00:43:47.180 of tariffs from u.s donald trump or u.s president donald trump actually sparked a surge in national

00:43:52.920 pride among canadians which we've only seen essentially decline since 1985 so this is the

00:43:59.520 first big rise in national pride that we've seen in decades so this is a a miracle of sorts but uh

00:44:05.880 it may be for questionable reasons or if you want to say that because of the the tariff situation

00:44:12.680 but we actually reported on a previous version of the same study in december which showed that

00:44:18.320 pride had recently plummeted thanks to the pandemic and economic woes that canadians were feeling they

00:44:23.380 were no longer proud of the country but now we're seeing that the pride is taking a shift for the

00:44:29.780 better as canadians are feeling united with one another and the country as a whole uh fighting these

00:44:35.320 tariffs from from trump but another interesting thing that i saw in the study and this might have

00:44:40.520 might be something you you miss first time reading it through but this was pretty interesting i found

00:44:46.100 uh canadians said they were following the trump tariffs more closely than they followed the israel

00:44:51.940 hamas conflict russia invading ukraine the snc lavalin scandal and much much more in fact the only thing

00:44:58.420 um canadians said they paid more attention to than the trump tariffs was the emergence of covet 19 and

00:45:05.140 this was only a one percent difference so 90 of canadians said they followed covet 19 closely or

00:45:10.600 very closely and this is 89 saying the same of the trump tariffs so that's how high of an um

00:45:16.400 international event we're talking about here but uh another thing that i found very interesting and

00:45:23.360 you might not have found this interesting if you didn't know the same background things i do but

00:45:27.460 this one struck me by surprise and i wanted to ask you guys about it

00:45:30.640 so the percentage of canadians who said they had a deep emotional attachment or were very proud or

00:45:37.420 proud to be canadian increased in every single province except manitoba where it actually decreased

00:45:43.620 in both categories now this is interesting because every single premier from every province in canada

00:45:49.060 issued a response to the tariffs except manitoba premier wab canoe so i'm just wondering if there's any

00:45:55.840 equivalency or relation between these two things because i i found that very strange a very strange

00:46:02.820 correlation what do you guys think go ahead cosman sure i would just suspect that the uh it's a

00:46:11.060 temporary phenomenon whenever you get into conflicts uh i mean particularly wars but a trade war

00:46:17.080 is a minor version of that that doesn't involve real violence but it does spur a sentiment of national

00:46:25.360 pride but we're talking about years where our own government and bureaucrats and the media have

00:46:34.540 you know if i could put it in any other way they've crapped on canada canada's history and here we are we're

00:46:41.440 in a situation where we are facing conflict uh and a potential recession as a result of of tariffs and of

00:46:50.280 course canadians are going to band together but whether that's a sustainable uh lift in national

00:46:56.820 spirits i'm not so sure because because of the constant barrage of telling us to be ashamed of our

00:47:03.980 history telling us to be to put down our our past and and to view canada as some sort of you know

00:47:11.740 genocidal country that has committed all of these horrible past wrongs it's very difficult to look at

00:47:19.500 the federal government who's calling for a united approach when they've done nothing to actually

00:47:27.140 inspire unity among canadians they've actually made regionalism and regional divides worse over the last

00:47:34.060 nine years and chris i know we got to wrap up soon here so i'll ask you a different question because

00:47:39.240 you might have a key insight into this so the this survey asks canadians their top three concerns or

00:47:45.300 issues and during this instance of the survey with the tariffs two new categories emerged so that was

00:47:50.020 of course u.s tariffs and relations with the u.s but perhaps unsurprisingly the top three concerns

00:47:56.420 remained cost of living slash inflation health care and housing affordability so obviously these tariffs

00:48:02.540 aren't taking the eye off the ball for canadians that are really going through the struggles with

00:48:07.440 i mean the most pressing matters you could almost imagine i i yeah i just want to get your thoughts on

00:48:12.400 that chris yeah for sure so uh right off the top when it comes to the whole unity thing um just as a

00:48:18.940 human being and a canadian and someone who has always loved canada and i've read our history and

00:48:24.280 embrace it i'm not embarrassed of it i embrace it and i teach my kids about it um i was a little annoyed

00:48:30.360 when i heard u.s president donald trump say oh it's not a real country you know and i like a lot of things

00:48:35.920 that he did in his previous term like i like you know obviously going after government waste and all this

00:48:40.460 stuff going having low energy costs like those are all smart policy choices so if even i was annoyed

00:48:46.400 when he said that i can i can see why there would be a little bit of a bump there of like hey man

00:48:51.680 like don't make me like grab you by the sweater and punch you back um however i to your point i don't

00:48:58.120 know how long this will be how long lived this will be because it sure didn't take very long uh for

00:49:03.900 the premier of quebec to come out and say yeah no energy east that whole east west thing that whole

00:49:10.340 getting our energy to market thing yeah that that's just not going to happen um and so what was your

00:49:15.700 main question for me though i was just totally distracted by the trump part again yeah no just

00:49:19.640 on the the top three issues remaining um cost of living health care uh housing affordability for

00:49:25.100 sure so of those three two of them are still affordability so taxes inflation housing affordability

00:49:31.940 that's all cost that is all the fact that 50 percent of canadians half of canadians are within

00:49:38.640 200 of not being able to make the minimum payments on all their bills not paying stuff off let's not be

00:49:45.240 crazy but we can't make the minimum payments on our credit card bills um it's so rough to be able to

00:49:50.920 afford rent every month like half of people are in that boat right now and so yeah it's no wonder

00:49:57.040 that affordability is right up their top of mind and really bluntly tariffs are just taxes they are

00:50:05.400 trade taxes and we can impose them on ourselves by mistake if we start trying to nail the americans

00:50:11.620 with our own tariffs if we tariff fresh fruits and vegetables coming from california our broccoli is

00:50:19.540 going to be 25 or 30 percent more expensive at the grocery store does that sound like a great idea

00:50:25.880 right now totally doesn't and so i will also point out that the carbon tax is going up on april 1st

00:50:33.820 for diesel which as you pointed out earlier in the show for trucking which is the lifeblood of our

00:50:39.440 economy it is what delivers everything we eat and use so talk about a layered effect of affordability

00:50:45.420 the carbon tax on diesel is going up 20 percent that's a tariff we're hitting ourselves in the face with

00:50:54.160 so yeah not surprised whatsoever isaac uh from those poll numbers uh i think that's all the time we have

00:51:00.600 for today's show

00:51:01.420 you

Off the Record - February 07, 2025

How does Carney really feel about the carbon tax？

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript