Off the Record - Is Trudeau trying to bribe Canadians？

00:00:00.000 I think the Canadian geese are pretty meme worthy because not only do they like attack

00:00:04.120 people on the streets, you know, they immigrate southward and attack people there too. So 1.00

00:00:08.600 yeah, I think that could maybe, you know, get there.

00:00:12.280 Well, I recall the goose was like a meme during the freedom convoy because of the Hong Kong stuff.

00:00:18.780 So it's, I think it is a good mascot and candidate.

00:00:22.040 I was attacked by geese as a child. Those things are dangerous. Those things are cobra chickens.

00:00:27.160 All right. That's a common childhood experience in Canada.

00:00:32.020 They don't just bite you. They wing buffet you. They're really, really brave creatures. All right.

00:00:37.980 This is too much fun. We got to get into some heavy stuff. Let's get this thing started.

00:00:50.020 Hey there. My name is Chris Sims. I'm the Alberta director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

00:00:54.340 I'm honoured to be here on True North with my dear friends, Cosmin and Noah.

00:00:59.140 Gentlemen, we've got a lot to go over. A lot of it is money related and there is some good news.

00:01:04.820 I'm insisting on plucking some good news out of this announcement.

00:01:08.380 We just heard from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau saying that, surprise,

00:01:13.040 everybody's going to get some relief on the GST, but only for two months. Let's listen.

00:01:18.260 Canadians have been through a lot. They work hard. We see that.

00:01:22.840 We've been able to get through the past couple of years.

00:01:26.580 Everyone had to tighten their belts a little bit.

00:01:29.340 Now we're going to be able to give a tax break for all Canadians.

00:01:33.200 For two months, starting December 14th, we're going to remove the GST, HST from groceries, 100% of groceries, all groceries.

00:01:48.560 We're going to remove the GST from restaurant meals, takeouts, fast food.

00:01:54.340 Removing the GST from beer and wine. Removing the GST for essentials, like kids' clothing, footwear, diapers, and toys.

00:02:10.100 All tax-free. Removing the GST and HST.

00:02:15.200 For two months, Canadians are going to get a real break on everything they do.

00:02:20.700 We also know that there's more we need to do, particularly for working Canadians.

00:02:28.620 So if you worked in 2023 and earned up to $150,000, we're going to be sending you a check for $250 in just a few months.

00:02:41.800 Okay. So again, the good news. This is saving people money.

00:02:46.640 Saving people money is always a good thing, especially this time of year.

00:02:50.780 But a couple of things. Number one, that was a really long clip, and I apologize to your listener for you listening to that for that long.

00:02:57.440 But we do have a second Trudeau clip coming up next, so brace yourself.

00:03:00.660 But two, just to note, removing the GST from groceries, that usually doesn't fit.

00:03:08.680 In very rare instances will you actually pay GST at the grocery store on food.

00:03:14.960 Now, of course, grocery stores now sell everything, like can openers to video games.

00:03:19.300 But for the actual foodstuffs, as they would say, you don't usually pay GST on that stuff.

00:03:24.960 I think we actually have a picture of this. It's from the backdrop.

00:03:27.760 If we can pull it up, guys. It's from the backdrop.

00:03:30.060 So this is from the same announcement that you just saw the Prime Minister at, and it's just slightly out of frame.

00:03:35.840 And if you zoom in here and look, you've got stuff there on the top right-hand side.

00:03:39.940 That's bread.

00:03:40.780 You bottom, kind of middle left, that's big bags of pasta.

00:03:46.260 Okay, that doesn't carry GST.

00:03:50.160 Like, I'll just point that out.

00:03:52.060 Some of those things on there do, like the snacks and the cut-up fruit.

00:03:55.620 But most of that stuff does not carry GST right now.

00:04:00.760 So it's just, again, one of those weird kind of tone-deaf, disconnected moments of,

00:04:05.620 do you guys really understand how much people are struggling?

00:04:08.960 What did you guys think about this announcement?

00:04:10.860 I'll start with you, Cosmin.

00:04:12.320 I think it's funny that he says Canadians need a break, 1.00

00:04:16.200 because the implication is, who do Canadians need a break from?

00:04:19.840 And it's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his ballooning government

00:04:23.540 that seems to extend into every aspect of the average citizen's life.

00:04:29.400 And you're absolutely right.

00:04:31.060 The undertones in this announcement, for me, were sort of cynical, opportunistic,

00:04:37.080 and disingenuous, because all of a sudden, the government cares about cutting taxes.

00:04:43.180 This government that introduced the carbon tax on the entire country,

00:04:48.500 whether they like it or not.

00:04:50.540 And it makes me wonder, wouldn't it have just been easier to get rid of the carbon tax?

00:04:56.460 How much is it going to cost to administer all the minute details

00:05:00.240 of the different GST, HST exemptions, also negotiating that with the provinces?

00:05:07.280 It doesn't really make sense.

00:05:08.960 I think it would have been easier to give relief,

00:05:11.520 long-term, permanent relief to Canadians, by just cutting the carbon tax.

00:05:16.240 Yeah, great points.

00:05:17.180 I will also point out, again, super happy people are saving some money.

00:05:20.840 This is good.

00:05:21.740 Like, I know people are struggling.

00:05:23.360 It's right before Christmas.

00:05:24.660 It's a really good thing to save money.

00:05:26.120 But it's also really temporary.

00:05:28.380 He's putting a sunset clause on this in February,

00:05:30.340 and he's planning on hiking the tax back up in February.

00:05:33.480 Good luck with that, bud.

00:05:34.520 Better saddle up.

00:05:35.820 Noah, what was your take on this?

00:05:37.920 Well, you brought up a great point, Chris, in that this is a temporary tax cut.

00:05:42.080 Why would you make it temporary when Canadians aren't just dealing with 0.99

00:05:45.740 cost of living concerns for only two months of the year?

00:05:48.100 They're dealing with it for the entire year.

00:05:50.440 And the reason why Trudeau feels as if he has to implement these measures

00:05:53.980 is because his government has been contributing to a tax environment

00:05:58.320 in which Canadians are being overtaxed for the cost of everyday items.

00:06:03.520 You know, the carbon tax has been purposed.

00:06:06.160 The goal of the carbon tax is to increase the cost of energy.

00:06:08.940 And Canadians have been dealing with rising energy prices for several years now.

00:06:13.820 And all of a sudden, he wants to do a little two-month measure

00:06:17.360 so that he can compensate for the years and years of carnage

00:06:20.800 and increasing affordability concerns.

00:06:23.260 This little tax cut that he's trying to deliver,

00:06:26.840 it's basically swimming against a tide of increasing taxation and increasing regulation.

00:06:32.680 And it's a little odd, the selection of items that the Trudeau government is choosing to exempt.

00:06:38.860 Sure, they're exempting kids' clothing, but why not exempt all clothing?

00:06:43.340 I'm pretty sure everyone needs clothing.

00:06:45.140 If you look at some of the most vulnerable people in our country,

00:06:49.260 say like the homeless, they are generally adults who need clothing too.

00:06:53.580 You know, they especially need socks. 0.94

00:06:55.840 That's one of the most requested items at food banks.

00:06:59.100 And why are they exempting print newspapers?

00:07:01.840 It seems as if it's a sneaky way to help the legacy media

00:07:06.840 and their dying newspaper chains.

00:07:09.200 It is really odd to see not only the list of items that they're exempting,

00:07:14.140 but the temporary nature of this tax cut.

00:07:17.560 Why not just lower the GST for everyone on all items to ameliorate affordability concerns?

00:07:24.220 It's really just because they are trying to bribe voters,

00:07:28.140 especially with the $250 subsidy that they're trying to provide people.

00:07:32.720 Yeah, that'll be interesting to see when those come out,

00:07:35.800 because it's coming out, I think, after Christmas.

00:07:40.100 And that's going to be leading into the budget.

00:07:42.220 That's going to be leading into them putting the tax back on.

00:07:44.580 So that's going to be a bit of a sticky comms situation for them to deal with.

00:07:48.820 I didn't actually see in the backgrounder if this includes home heating bills,

00:07:54.360 because I think you would have mentioned it.

00:07:57.940 I'll have to go back and check just to be fair.

00:07:59.960 But to be totally fair to the NDP,

00:08:03.380 as much as I yell at them every day about trying to get rid of the carbon tax on home heating,

00:08:07.720 and we wish they would remember their roots, including Jack Layton,

00:08:10.640 who said you should never put a carbon tax on home heating bills because it's unfair,

00:08:15.100 they have consistently said that we shouldn't have the GST on home heating bills.

00:08:21.020 So I'm a little bit surprised that that wasn't one of the first things out of his mouth,

00:08:24.740 if he did include that.

00:08:26.060 And if he failed to include that on the GST exemption, that's a big miss.

00:08:30.680 Because a lot of people are, you know, of course, got their furnaces going because we've got winter.

00:08:34.700 I've got a little bit of snow on the ground outside the house here in Lethbridge.

00:08:38.220 I'm not sure what you guys have.

00:08:39.920 Never mind, Cosmin, you're near Vancouver. 0.92

00:08:42.160 You're just sitting there smiling.

00:08:43.540 I don't need to shovel the rain.

00:08:44.860 No, snow in November is kind of crazy.

00:08:48.200 It's nuts.

00:08:49.580 We're still getting positive temps.

00:08:51.780 So I'm glad I'm not over there in Lethbridge right now.

00:08:54.660 No, no, we had to shovel this morning.

00:08:57.240 All right.

00:08:57.560 So I would say there is a little bit of good news because I'm trying to be positive leading into Christmas

00:09:02.280 and that people will be saving some money.

00:09:04.000 But the downside, of course, as you gentlemen both point out, just scrap the carbon tax or just cut the GST altogether.

00:09:11.060 We were talking before the show, before we started rolling.

00:09:14.080 And I remember, and a lot of our listeners will remember, when Prime Minister Stephen Harper was reducing the GST,

00:09:21.600 the Liberals were kicking up a fuss.

00:09:23.260 Yes, I'm also old enough to remember when Prime Minister Jean Chrétien was campaigning against the Progressive Conservatives

00:09:31.760 and he was railing against Brian Mulroney's GST and he promised to get rid of it.

00:09:36.940 Oops, they failed to keep that promise.

00:09:39.020 So interesting to see the GST, something as personal and in your face as a sales tax right in there again.

00:09:46.120 And I will point out, you shouldn't be paying GST on diapers anyway.

00:09:51.740 Like, you shouldn't be paying GST on essentials anyway.

00:09:55.700 If I could, Chris, if I could just jump in.

00:09:58.240 Sorry, I've been itching to say something.

00:10:00.140 I feel like the Liberals have entered this phase where they've run out of their own ideas.

00:10:06.800 They have no more original policies to propose.

00:10:10.580 And they're just borrowing, nitpicking from every single party, including the Conservatives, including the NDP,

00:10:17.580 and introducing, repackaging these ideas as their own.

00:10:20.460 And you're seeing them take positions that used to be held by Conservatives, held by the NDP,

00:10:27.620 and just repackaging them without any original plan.

00:10:32.320 And I think, just going back to what I said about it being inauthentic,

00:10:36.220 it doesn't come from a place where it's a long-term vision.

00:10:39.300 It just seems like this cynical, short-term gain.

00:10:42.340 And a lot of people are talking about a potential spring election.

00:10:46.060 And if this payment is coming out a few months towards that, you know, it might very well be that bribe just to get those extra votes,

00:10:54.140 potentially avoiding a crushing defeat.

00:10:56.280 Yeah, and talk about repackaging policy.

00:10:59.540 It was only, like, about a month ago that Doug Ford announced that he's going to be sending out $200 to every adult in Ontario.

00:11:07.180 So it seems as if Trudeau and his best buddy, Doug Ford, got together in a room and started talking about ways that they're going to make themselves popular.

00:11:15.820 At least with Doug Ford, he's generally popular in this province.

00:11:18.940 It's still a terrible, terrible idea to just blow out $200 to everyone else instead of, you know, giving a carbon tax.

00:11:25.100 And the cost of administering such a giveaway is, you know, pretty good to be pretty large.

00:11:32.580 So Trudeau probably just saw, you know, what Doug Ford was doing and he said, hey, I'm going to try the same thing.

00:11:37.760 Hopefully that will give me popularity ahead of an election.

00:11:41.460 But I hope Canadians are smart enough, and I think they are, to realize that this is just a vote buying.

00:11:47.200 You know, you see this in third world countries where you have these African leaders going around handing people, you know, $100 bills or whatever.

00:11:53.880 And then say, hey, you know, come vote for my party or whatever.

00:11:57.820 But it's happening here in Canada. 0.99

00:12:00.160 It is a shame that political leaders think that Canadians are this dumb and this easy to, you know, get their, it's this easy to get their votes. 0.97

00:12:09.300 And, you know, it's not really addressing the long-term affordability concerns of Canadians who are dealing with bills and the thousands of dollars for, you know, filling up at the gas tank or, you know, heating their home. 0.98

00:12:21.300 Yeah, regardless of jersey color and party, I have seen every single form of government do this.

00:12:28.640 They just grab the shovel and they start throwing it off the back of a truck.

00:12:32.840 And as a taxpayer, I need to keep on pointing out, this is your money.

00:12:36.420 Like, they just took it from you.

00:12:39.720 It reminds me of this great cartoon.

00:12:41.820 People might have seen it.

00:12:42.940 It's a husband and wife kind of standing there.

00:12:45.300 And Trudeau, in this case, it could be any politician when they do stuff like this.

00:12:48.880 Trudeau is running by flinging money, like tossing money to people.

00:12:53.320 And the guy says, oh, look, he's so generous.

00:12:55.700 And the wife says, he's got your wallet.

00:12:59.480 It's a really good cartoon.

00:13:00.720 Speaking of affordability and the carbon tax, did we want to move on to the lecture that we got?

00:13:06.600 Okay.

00:13:07.340 I did, in all seriousness, want to warn people about this next clip.

00:13:12.040 It is lengthy and it's frankly infuriating and hard to listen to.

00:13:19.540 I know a lot of people are struggling.

00:13:22.120 About half of people now in Canada are reporting they're within $200 of not being able to cover their minimum payments on their bills.

00:13:29.520 Meaning, like, they're borrowing money from friends or going into debt to pay their power bills.

00:13:37.660 That, like, things are tough for so many people right now.

00:13:43.280 And I wanted to put this into context before I play this next clip for you.

00:13:48.040 So this is Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

00:13:50.840 He flew down to some global up with people whatever conference in Brazil.

00:13:56.140 I literally don't even know the name and it doesn't matter.

00:13:58.000 What matters is what he said.

00:14:00.640 And he was asked about the cost of the carbon tax and how people in Canada, based on all the polls and anybody you talk to, they're done.

00:14:10.640 They're done.

00:14:11.340 They want the carbon tax gone.

00:14:13.060 But here he is at one of these global summits talking to all of his fancy global friends about the carbon tax.

00:14:20.280 Listen to this.

00:14:20.920 It's really, really easy when you're in a short-term survive, I've got to be able to pay the rent this month, I've got to be able to buy groceries for my kids, to say, okay, let's put climate change as a slightly lower priority.

00:14:37.880 And that's something that's instinctive.

00:14:39.680 When the storm comes, you want to hunker down and just sort of huddle up and wait for it to blow over.

00:14:44.400 We can't do that around climate change.

00:14:49.260 Yeah.

00:14:49.960 Okay.

00:14:50.320 So, I've had to actually kind of stay calm because it made me so mad.

00:14:55.180 Number one, he wouldn't know.

00:14:58.240 He doesn't know.

00:14:59.340 For him to dare say something like, you're in survival mode trying to pay the rent, he has no experience with that.

00:15:07.520 He was born very rich, literally on Christmas Day, while his father was Prime Minister, living at 24 Sussex.

00:15:16.840 He has never had to worry about paying a bill or affording groceries.

00:15:23.180 The help goes and does that.

00:15:25.200 That has been the case his entire lived experience.

00:15:28.640 And it wouldn't be so hard to swallow this, folks, Noah and Cosman, if he wasn't constantly turning the screws on us and cranking up the carbon tax,

00:15:39.820 which is helping to make life basics unaffordable here in Canada, while not helping the environment.

00:15:48.280 The carbon tax does not reduce global emissions.

00:15:52.700 So, this is 100% financial pain with zero environmental gain.

00:15:57.420 Okay, I'll get off my soapbox, but that just ticked me off, man.

00:16:01.240 Go ahead, Cosman.

00:16:01.980 Yeah, just to put into perspective this Prime Minister's lifestyle, back in 2022, we did an ATIP looking exactly at the Prime Minister's expenses on groceries, chefs, etc.

00:16:16.400 And in one month, they managed to spend over $12,000.

00:16:20.280 Now, that is a fraction, like, literally, for some people, that is a fourth of what they make in an entire year.

00:16:29.160 And this Prime Minister is just blowing taxpayer money, mind you, away on luxury goods.

00:16:36.000 You know, he's shopping, he's getting deliveries from fancy bagel places, these organic bakeries, these French and Italian delis.

00:16:44.280 And it's just astounding.

00:16:47.620 And I don't think Canadians often get a look into the lifestyle of our Prime Minister beyond what he presents himself as on TV.

00:16:56.740 But it's crazy.

00:16:58.000 He has personal chefs.

00:16:59.360 He goes through multiple chefs.

00:17:01.420 He's had multiple chefs during his term in office, and they get paid a ridiculous amount of money to cook him food.

00:17:08.160 So, absolutely out of touch.

00:17:10.180 He doesn't understand the struggles of ordinary Canadians.

00:17:13.760 And if he did, he would understand that $250 doesn't go a very long way.

00:17:20.500 No, that no longer covers even a big grocery shop for a family of four.

00:17:25.380 It used to, back before the lockdowns, back before the Trudeau government, $250 would generally be, for a family of four, kind of your big Saturday grocery shop.

00:17:35.840 But that doesn't cover it anymore.

00:17:37.880 And I needed to stress what he was saying there.

00:17:40.880 He's saying that people who literally are struggling to afford food in survival mode ought not to be thinking about themselves and their children.

00:17:52.840 They should be thinking about his pet carbon tax, darn it, and how it makes him look when he's here with his friends on the global stage.

00:18:01.560 Even in defiance of the data, I have to continue to stress this.

00:18:07.020 Even if you loved the carbon tax, even if your main concern that kept you up at night was global emissions, sorry, even if Canada ceased to exist, it wouldn't make a dent in global emissions.

00:18:18.820 So his little carbon tax pet project here is doing nothing except causing us financial pain, of which he knows nothing.

00:18:27.360 Sorry, go ahead, Noah.

00:18:28.360 I'll let you jump in on this.

00:18:29.860 No, you make a really good point, Chris.

00:18:31.800 I mean, Canada only makes up about 1.6% of global emissions worldwide.

00:18:36.720 If Canada was wiped off the face of the earth, we're not going to make a dent of it, especially since India is trying to modernize their economy, and they're going to need a lot of energy for that.

00:18:47.720 China is also doing the same with the 1.3 billion people that they have.

00:18:51.640 That's already two countries that is accounting for about 2.5 billion people in the world, and we only have about 42 million in our country.

00:18:59.420 So if we slash emissions to zero tomorrow, it isn't going to make much of a difference at all.

00:19:05.800 And the goal that the United Nations and these world leaders who are buying into this zero emissions ploy, their claim is that they want to ensure that the world doesn't heat up by 3 degrees Celsius by 2100.

00:19:20.980 It'll only heat up by 2 degrees Celsius.

00:19:23.840 So if we're looking for a 1 degree Celsius change in global warming and Canada only makes up like under 1% of the world population, it doesn't actually make a whole lot of sense for Canada to be going to such lengths to try and fight climate change when, A, emissions are still going up even though the carbon tax is still in place, and B, the cost of living concerns that Canadians have already been having has been increasing.

00:19:51.500 When you go to the gas pump, I'm going to have to pay about $1.60 per liter on my gas.

00:19:59.540 It's actually insane because it was never this high before.

00:20:03.040 When you go to the grocery store, you're going to have to pay about double what you were paying back in 2019 because the Trudeau government has been just shoveling out a bunch of money out the door, and they had no concern for fiscal matters.

00:20:17.400 You know, Justin Trudeau famously said that he doesn't pay attention to monetary policy.

00:20:21.400 That's not something that he thinks about.

00:20:23.840 So for him, you know, to turn around and say that, oh, yeah, I care so much about, you know, the cost of living concerns of Canadians, but, you know, we still have to fight climate change.

00:20:33.140 It's just so disconnected from the reality that most Canadians are facing who are struggling to pay the bills, who are, you know, having having to skip meals sometimes in order to put food on the table for the children.

00:20:45.820 It is, you know, really someone who it is the words of someone who grew up rich in a posh sort of circumstances, and it doesn't understand the average experience of average Canadians.

00:20:56.900 If I could just add one more thing to what Noah is saying, the most infuriating thing about this is that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and others like him ask everybody else to sacrifice except for themselves.

00:21:11.480 They still continue to go on these trips, take their entire delegations with these jets to Brazil, wherever, mind you, and they refuse to sacrifice on pay.

00:21:22.900 They refuse to sacrifice on all the privileges they're afforded in their positions.

00:21:27.240 So it's massive hypocrisy.

00:21:30.740 It just, and I think it's, it's become so endemic to the political class that Canadians are really starting to react and recoil when they're being lectured in this way.

00:21:42.420 Yeah, to put a point on it, like I pointed out, he was born wealthy and talk about privileged, literally the son of the prime minister at the time.

00:21:51.980 Um, they put in a pool while he was there.

00:21:54.460 That always got me to remember a few months back when he got all huffy and said that, oh, the only people who have to pay the carbon tax are the people with indoor swimming pools.

00:22:03.380 And, uh, I say, I think three personal cars say number one, he was raised with an indoor swimming pool.

00:22:09.300 So he'd know number two, the fact that he said three personal cars, because of course the help parks outside too, for him.

00:22:15.580 So he had to specify that they were personal cars.

00:22:18.020 This is the thing, and I needed to stress the math here for anybody who forgets, and I promise we'll end on a, we'll end the show on a good note.

00:22:24.960 So stick with us.

00:22:26.100 The carbon tax costs you every time you fill up your car.

00:22:29.140 So if you've got a minivan, it's an extra 13 bucks or so.

00:22:32.320 Every time you're filling up that minivan, a pickup truck, that's costing you $20 extra just in the carbon tax.

00:22:39.860 Every time you fill up for the truckers who are filling up their tanks with diesel, that's an extra $200 in the carbon tax.

00:22:48.240 This is just the first carbon tax.

00:22:50.660 It's not including the second carbon tax or the industrial carbon tax.

00:22:54.900 Okay.

00:22:55.380 Here in Alberta, this coming winter, the average household will have to pay out more than $400 extra in Trudeau's carbon tax.

00:23:05.360 And then I can hear them right now, these ridiculous people within the Liberal Party, the Liberal government right now.

00:23:11.780 You get more back than you pay in. 0.93

00:23:13.660 Number one, that's not true.

00:23:15.280 So anyone with a scrap of common sense understands you can't hand the Trudeau government a $20 bill and expect a $50 back with no cost to you.

00:23:23.040 That's not how money works.

00:23:25.220 Number two, the parliamentary budget officer has done the math over and over again.

00:23:29.600 And the average Canadian is still out money, net, every single year, even with the rebates factored in.

00:23:38.100 No matter how much they slice it, the carbon tax costs you huge money.

00:23:43.460 And so for him to, like you point out, Cosmin, jet off to this fancy summit wherever it is in Brazil doing whatever,

00:23:49.680 in order to talk about how the peasants back home should really understand how important this fight is to me.

00:23:57.540 It just defies belief.

00:23:59.540 But I wanted to encourage people.

00:24:01.740 I understand getting mad at this.

00:24:04.180 Use that fuel to write to your member of parliament, no matter who, what party they're a part of.

00:24:09.900 And quote this.

00:24:11.420 And say, this, man, this is why you guys are not getting it.

00:24:14.500 This is why affordability, okay, I know things are important.

00:24:18.520 The frozen bank accounts were important.

00:24:20.740 Inflation is super important.

00:24:22.600 We know that.

00:24:24.020 But affordability is the key issue for the vast majority of Canadians right now.

00:24:30.620 And for them to not get it is astonishing.

00:24:35.000 And so just keep sending those emails to your MPs, no matter which party they're a part of.

00:24:39.380 And you tell them, hey, man, or lady, this is why you guys really need to get the message here.

00:24:45.060 Do we want to go on to your neck of the woods here, Cosmin?

00:24:47.400 Because you guys have, it's not even a new government.

00:24:50.660 New to you?

00:24:51.620 I'm not sure.

00:24:52.820 Kind of a new government?

00:24:53.940 Not really.

00:24:54.440 You have a kind of a new cabinet.

00:24:56.120 They reshuffled the deck chairs there with EB's NDP government there in BC.

00:25:01.760 What's happening there in BC?

00:25:03.500 How big is this cabinet?

00:25:05.020 How much is this costing us?

00:25:07.300 Yeah, sure.

00:25:07.740 Let's run through it pretty quickly.

00:25:09.820 It's the same size as EB's last cabinet.

00:25:13.120 But that cabinet itself was a historically large one, larger actually, than former Premier John Horgan's cabinet.

00:25:21.960 And we have to realize that Horgan left the EB government with a surplus, a quite sizable surplus.

00:25:29.460 And EB has managed to turn it into a record-breaking deficit with very little to show for it.

00:25:36.780 But as for the cabinet itself, it might be the same size, but it's actually more expensive.

00:25:41.960 It's going to cost British Columbians more because the EB government just before the election this year gave themselves all pay raises for cabinet ministers as well as secretaries.

00:25:54.860 So we have about $60,000 extra in salaries for cabinet ministers, and I think it's about $40,000 more for the secretaries.

00:26:03.780 So it's going to cost British Columbians more.

00:26:06.760 And some of the picks themselves, so there's been quite a few shifts.

00:26:11.440 A lot of people didn't get reelected, including like the former minister of education.

00:26:16.200 But he's moved, shuffled some people around.

00:26:19.140 Some rookies have been put into positions.

00:26:21.700 A few key ones that I kept my eye on was Adrian Dix, the former health minister, who was in charge of COVID, who was in charge of dealing with the drug opioid crisis, mental health crisis.

00:26:33.580 He's been moved out of that file and sent to energy.

00:26:37.780 And I was talking to you about this earlier, Chris, you being from British Columbia, you recall Adrian Dix used to be the NDP leader in BC when he was in opposition.

00:26:49.240 And at that time, he actually opposed the Kinder Morgan expansion, which is now known as the Trans Mountain Pipeline after it was purchased.

00:26:58.980 So it gives you a sense of the priorities of this government.

00:27:01.980 They're actually anti-reinforcing the energy industry in this province.

00:27:07.060 And the other position that I saw was he handed a spot to Christine Boyle.

00:27:12.760 It's the first cabinet position for this MLA.

00:27:15.980 And she used to be a Vancouver city councilor who, during the big BLM, you know, Black Lives Matter craze, she advocated for the defunding of the police. 0.57

00:27:27.080 And it actually cost Vancouver council, quite a Vancouver police force, quite a substantial amount of money in budget, which the Vancouver City Council had to recuperate after they realized what they had done and how horrible of a mistake it was by raising taxes on Vancouver residences in terms of property taxes.

00:27:49.640 So, and she's also, just to clarify, she's been appointed in the Indigenous ministry.

00:27:55.200 She's not in public safety, but she's also a proponent of the land back movement, you know, this sort of radical wing of Indigenous activists who want to decolonize Canada and et cetera.

00:28:07.480 So there are some suggestions that this is more of the same, if not even more radically left than the last cabinet.

00:28:17.040 So just to be clear, did you say that Dix is now energy?

00:28:22.000 That's right.

00:28:22.780 He's the minister of energy in British Columbia.

00:28:26.260 Wow.

00:28:26.960 So for folks who are from BC, the fight to get the Kinder Morgan pipeline twinned, which at the time was owned by a private company and at the time was going to employ a whole bunch of people at their own expense.

00:28:39.180 That was a big fight to get that through, and I'm 99% sure that he was one of the guys who was super opposed to it at the time.

00:28:47.840 And now he's the minister in charge of their energy.

00:28:50.220 Just to give you guys a, for folks who aren't familiar with BC, to give you a perspective, John Horgan, before he became premier and before he was even in MLA, he was working in an MLA's office that was managing like natural gas.

00:29:06.740 Like he actually knew a thing or two around the energy sector as far as it goes in British Columbia.

00:29:13.180 To have this now switch over from having a surplus with a premier who, for whatever, at least seemed to understand energy a little bit more, now going to a massive deficit, and a minister now who was opposed to a pipeline expansion.

00:29:30.900 Wow.

00:29:31.640 You're in tough there, Cosmin.

00:29:33.620 May the force be with you.

00:29:34.820 Noah, did you have any thoughts on what's going on out in BC?

00:29:38.420 Yeah, I'm pretty concerned with your new energy minister, not only because of her previous experience campaigning against the fine people working in the energy sector, but also because of her mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic. 0.93

00:29:54.480 It seems as if the NDP, they got one of their most zealotous ministers, and then they put her in a position where she can-

00:30:02.700 Him, him, just one sec.

00:30:04.300 Oh, sorry.

00:30:05.240 The dude, it's okay, it's a boy named Sue situation.

00:30:07.520 Go ahead.

00:30:07.860 But, yeah, they put one of their most radical ministers in a department that is very important.

00:30:15.660 During the COVID-19 pandemic, BC had some, you know, it wasn't some of the most harsh restrictions in the country.

00:30:22.980 I would give that award to Quebec, but, you know, the BC government definitely did not pursue a moderate course when it came to the COVID-19 pandemic, and now this minister is going to be at energy.

00:30:37.800 It doesn't seem as if British Columbians are going to be getting any relief when it comes to the competent government.

00:30:43.900 However, I would be a little bit optimistic if I were a British Columbian because the NDP, they are holding onto power very tenuously, and if a NDP MLA or two decides to resign, if the Greens also decide to kick the bums out whenever they want to, BC could see themselves within another election in just a very short amount of time. 0.83

00:31:10.640 And I think the BC Conservatives would be really well positioned to win an election now that they have more representation in the BC legislature.

00:31:21.980 Their reputation has been developing over the course of a year plus now, and going into an election when the NDP have been in government for so long now, I think a lot of British Columbians are going to want to see a change of leadership.

00:31:37.340 So, Cosman, sorry to put you on the spot, but are you hearing any good stuff coming from the BC Conservatives?

00:31:43.740 Are they kind of sticking to their guns of things like, you know, let's scrap the carbon tax, let's have taxpayer protection, let's fight these deficits, that sort of stuff?

00:31:51.600 Like, are they sticking to what they were saying during the election?

00:31:55.400 Like, are they staying organized and united?

00:31:57.220 What are you hearing?

00:31:58.680 Yeah, it's interesting.

00:31:59.800 The election was all attack, attack, attack against the BC Conservatives, both from the NDP and the legacy media here in British Columbia.

00:32:09.580 But I feel like it's, from what I'm seeing, it's only reinforced the positions of John Rustad and the BC Conservative Caucus.

00:32:18.300 They've sort of had an unapologetic approach.

00:32:21.900 You know, they've admitted we've, you know, we've made some mistakes.

00:32:24.320 We've had some, you know, issues with our candidates, but they're doubling down on a lot of the solid core positions they have, including their opposition to the carbon tax, including their stress to improve public safety, to get rid of drugs off of the streets by getting rid of safe supply programs, and moving people into those recovery and addiction treatment programs.

00:32:51.880 But just to kind of steer the BC conversation a little bit, Noah, you were talking about how, you know, there might not be that much time left for the BC NDP.

00:33:02.880 And I think that is true to some degree, because we just saw BC NDP Premier David Eby appoint a new chief of staff.

00:33:12.620 And this new chief of staff conveniently used to work for Alberta NDP Premier Rachel Notley.

00:33:21.240 He was actually her principal secretary.

00:33:25.480 So it's interesting, because if you know anything about the NDP, this is a sort of nationally syndicated party.

00:33:32.460 The provincial parties are just like tendrils, tentacles of this national body.

00:33:38.720 And sometimes it comes across that they act like a united front.

00:33:43.580 They all propose similar policies and push this national agenda towards more socialism, more radical progressivism.

00:33:51.460 And it's because of this.

00:33:52.480 They employ the same people.

00:33:53.940 They have the same advisors.

00:33:55.080 They just trade and swap these people into positions of power and authority to guide the future of the provinces they're elected in. 0.65

00:34:03.780 And on the issue of the length of the term, Eby only hired this guy for six months, which indicates to me that he might not think he has a lot of time left before another election is called.

00:34:15.060 Usually, if you hire a chief of staff, you know, you hire them for the term or you give them a lengthier contract.

00:34:20.440 But six months seems to me like a ridiculously short time for a new chief of staff.

00:34:25.940 And there could be an election coming whenever, you know, somebody gets sick, somebody passes away.

00:34:32.140 The Greens refuse to be cooperative.

00:34:35.680 It could be another election coming in British Columbia.

00:34:38.300 Somebody gets stuck at a ferry sailing.

00:34:41.040 Hey, weirder things have happened.

00:34:42.840 Victoria is on an island.

00:34:43.980 And I'm picturing all the hijinks now.

00:34:47.340 All right.

00:34:47.520 Do we want to end on our happy note?

00:34:49.200 Do we want to go to?

00:34:50.520 Well, it starts with bad.

00:34:51.900 Sorry, guys.

00:34:52.660 Yeah.

00:34:52.900 Somewhat happy.

00:34:54.300 OK.

00:34:54.920 The top line is, is we're paying way too much for our bureaucracy.

00:34:59.400 Noel wanted to let you take that one away.

00:35:02.100 Yeah.

00:35:02.340 So when Trudeau got into office, he assumed office in a state in which the Canadian government was spending about $40 billion on the federal bureaucracy.

00:35:12.340 There's still a lot, but at least it was a bit manageable.

00:35:16.360 Now we are spending nearly $70 billion on our bureaucracy, going up 73% in only nine years of, you know, as the conservative party would say, after nine years of Justin Trudeau, you know, blah, blah, blah.

00:35:30.140 But it's actually real.

00:35:31.880 Like the cost of the federal bureaucracy has gone up 73,000.

00:35:36.620 And the population of the federal bureaucracy has gone up by over 100,000, from 257,000 to 367,000.

00:35:45.480 Now, for the increasing cost and the increasing size of a federal bureaucracy, you would expect that the federal services that we are receiving are, you know, just so much better than what we've been getting before.

00:35:56.360 That the quality is better, that we're getting more services, that, you know, the departments are being more, about being more efficient.

00:36:04.000 But that is actually the opposite.

00:36:06.020 Many Canadians report that the bureaucracy has not been doing their job, that the federal government is not delivering the services that they should.

00:36:13.200 If you remember, if you remember, when we were coming out of the pandemic, the passport offices were so crowded that you had to wait in line for several, several hours, maybe even 10 plus hours, just to go out and get your passport.

00:36:26.500 The federal government really has not been placing a great emphasis on the quality of the federal service.

00:36:32.540 But, you know, they're more than happy to spend a lot more on the federal, on the bureaucracy.

00:36:38.520 Now, if we look down south, who are our friends in the United States, they just elected President-elect Donald Trump.

00:36:47.980 And his administration looks like it'll be taking a much different approach to dealing with the bureaucracy than we are doing in Canada.

00:36:56.060 In Canada, we don't mind ballooning bureaucracy, well, Canadians do, but our government doesn't mind.

00:37:01.140 But it seems as if the federal government in the United States wants to create a department in order to make the bureaucracy a lot more efficient.

00:37:09.940 They are calling the department DOGE, its acronym for Department of Government Efficiency.

00:37:16.360 And Trump has appointed Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk to lead the department to help cut down on costs that the federal, on things that the federal government doesn't need to be spending on, cutting back on jobs for people that, you know, aren't really contributing to anything whatsoever.

00:37:35.980 And they're really trying to do this in order to bring down the cost of the government in the United States.

00:37:42.760 So how do you guys contrast the difference between the approaches that we are taking in our respective countries?

00:37:50.620 Well, for anybody who's been waking up from a three-week long nap, yeah, President Trump is now President Trump again, or President-elect Trump.

00:37:59.400 He won the presidency, the Senate, the House, and the popular vote.

00:38:04.420 The popular vote, I think, that was pretty impressive.

00:38:06.480 It was, I think, by about 5 million people.

00:38:08.720 So in political terms, he's got a mandate.

00:38:11.900 I think technically under the U.S. Constitution, he now has to be the dog catcher in Washington, D.C., too, because he just got so many votes.

00:38:19.020 And so now he's set up this Department of Government Efficiency.

00:38:21.980 I was very excited to see that there actually looks like they're talking to Ron Paul, who's been wanting to reduce the size and the cost of government now for so long that it's really nice to see.

00:38:33.960 Yeah, that guy's fierce.

00:38:35.160 Yeah, right.

00:38:35.860 And so it's really good to see for taxpayers.

00:38:38.000 And so I am begging and hoping that we can get something like that up here in Canada.

00:38:42.520 But the one thing is funny, people laugh at the Doge thing, but people remember logos.

00:38:49.960 They remember icons and images, and it does sink in.

00:38:53.840 And so I really am wondering, Cosmin, what do you think our equivalent could be up here?

00:39:00.040 We were having some fun earlier this week on X about this, saying, what would the Canadian equivalent be of that little dog here?

00:39:06.920 Oh, here, this is the tweet I threw out a few days ago.

00:39:08.960 So Canada needs its own Doge to eliminate government waste.

00:39:12.400 The dog icon is taken for the Department of Government Efficiency.

00:39:15.340 But what should we have?

00:39:16.580 A bear?

00:39:17.520 Bureaucratic Efficiency Action Regiment?

00:39:19.360 What should we have?

00:39:20.900 And so I link then to my friend Franco Teresano's piece in the Western Standard, where he goes through just a ton of government waste.

00:39:27.960 And there's everything in there.

00:39:29.360 There's like old people sex stories. 0.97

00:39:31.160 There's sex toy shows in Germany. 0.97

00:39:32.660 You paid for all of it. 0.99

00:39:34.080 Like gay ghosts on podcasts that the government is producing. 1.00

00:39:37.180 Like you pay for all of it.

00:39:38.960 Cosmin, what do you think our icon could be that would fit seriously into an acronym for reducing the size and cost of government?

00:39:49.700 Yeah, that's a good question.

00:39:51.720 There were some suggestions floated around for like moose, goose.

00:39:56.400 I think goose would be good because it became a symbol during the Freedom Convoy, as I mentioned earlier.

00:40:01.820 Perhaps like even maple, something like that could be turned into a useful acronym.

00:40:07.300 But just to add on, like the genius behind this new department in the United States is that it's not only a department of efficiency.

00:40:14.800 It's a department of transparency.

00:40:17.560 Yes.

00:40:18.040 Because to do any cuts to make the government more efficient, it implies you need to take an audit of exactly what's going on, the amount of money that's being spent, all of the doubling of positions where people are doing the same work or not doing any work at all.

00:40:33.820 So I think that is the most crucial and positive development is that it's going to be a lot of transparency.

00:40:40.840 And Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have promised that they're going to dedicate a daily update on this audit and the transparency of the government.

00:40:49.500 And that's what needs to happen in Canada.

00:40:51.120 Unfortunately, Canada doesn't have as much of a tradition of small government conservatism.

00:40:58.340 It is there, but it's not really written into our history like it is in the United States.

00:41:04.120 And so here, I think the first step is just like getting an audit of what the government is, what the size of it is, what people are doing.

00:41:12.880 How many hours are people working? 0.81

00:41:14.840 Because I suspect out of an eight-hour workday or however many hours they actually mandate in the federal government, they might be working two hours at their desks.

00:41:24.780 So that's key.

00:41:26.520 I think the transparency and an audit of government comes before you can make those efficient cuts.

00:41:31.780 And I think once people are aware and told exactly what the size of the government is and all of the problems within it, they will be supporting and cheering on every decision to cut.

00:41:42.000 And it won't become this bogeyman of, oh, you're cutting services.

00:41:45.700 No, we're cutting waste.

00:41:47.780 Yeah.

00:41:48.140 If we can make smaller government and cutting government waste great again, like this will be a very special thing.

00:41:54.960 That's how the Taxpayers Federation got started back in 1990.

00:41:57.900 It was before the internet even existed.

00:41:59.880 And it was a protest against government waste, high taxes, and too big of government.

00:42:03.880 I wanted to read one out here.

00:42:05.420 Moose, it was from Alex on X, said it would be the Ministry of Operational Optimization and Strategic Efficiency.

00:42:12.920 So that's Moose.

00:42:14.180 There was a few others here.

00:42:15.580 Goose was Government Office of Operations Standards and Ethics.

00:42:20.600 For folks who are commenting on the YouTube channel or whatever, like do, suggest them.

00:42:25.180 Because we can try to make a bit of a campaign out of this in all seriousness, exactly to Cosman's point.

00:42:30.820 This can then get real traction and have real teeth.

00:42:34.900 And we can start getting rid of the crazy amount of waste that we hear every single year.

00:42:39.640 Noah, did you have a favorite or are you hopeful that this could actually catch on up here?

00:42:44.700 Yeah, I think Goose is really good.

00:42:47.420 But I do think it will catch on because I think increasingly Canadians are looking at the amount of money that the federal government is spending and the types of services that they are receiving,

00:42:57.600 the type of benefits that they are getting from the federal government and they don't think that it is necessarily worth the cost.

00:43:04.200 And if a conservative government does become, if the conservatives do form the next government,

00:43:08.900 I think Prime Minister Poliev would look at the situation and say,

00:43:12.620 Hey, you know, back when Harper and the conservatives were previously running the government,

00:43:17.840 they were able to bring down the size of the bureaucracy.

00:43:21.500 Now, I think from 2006 to 2008 or 2009, it increased.

00:43:24.880 But over the last several years of the Harper government, they were actually able to bring down the size of the bureaucracy.

00:43:31.420 And they didn't sacrifice government services.

00:43:34.760 They weren't cutting government programs like the NDP and the liberals like to fear monger about.

00:43:39.140 So I think there is going to be a concerted effort to do so, especially since the Poliev government, they need to get through their agenda.

00:43:47.800 They want to move away from the incremental approach of the Harper government.

00:43:52.800 And I think to do so, they're going to want to make sure that the government is running efficiently and that they are able to implement their policies in a quick and efficient manner.

00:44:01.300 So I think that not only will the Canadian people have an appetite for this, but also I think that the future government or a potential future government would have an appetite for cutting down the bureaucracy and trying to make it more efficient.

00:44:15.340 Now, if that means, you know, I don't know what the acronym would be, moose or goose, we'll have to see.

00:44:21.700 I definitely, you know, I'm advocating for a goose because, you know, it is an iconic Canadian animal.

00:44:31.480 Everyone knows them.

00:44:32.480 Even if you're not living in Canada, sometimes you'll see a Canadian goose in maybe Florida.

00:44:36.920 I don't know where they immigrate down south to in the winter.

00:44:39.500 But yeah, it's just summer down there.

00:44:42.520 But yeah, one of those inferior countries. 0.85

00:44:45.140 But at the end of the day, I think Canadians are looking forward to some looking forward to the federal government running in a much more smooth manner than the Trudeau government has been able to produce.

00:44:56.460 Yeah, I like it.

00:44:57.680 And we can do the talk to me goose.

00:44:59.500 Like it'll work.

00:45:00.620 It'll totally work.

00:45:01.480 And I think that I know Mr.

00:45:04.140 Polly of likes he likes acronyms, likes nicknames, that sort of stuff.

00:45:08.520 I think this could have some traction.

00:45:10.100 So folks, give your recommendations.

00:45:13.080 You can either send them to True North, send them to the Taxpayers Federation, or just comment on the YouTube channel.

00:45:18.660 But remember, this entire show, everything is off the record.

00:45:30.460 Noah, I think it's really funny that you said geese immigrate southward because I'm imagining them going to like the passport office and like getting a visa and standing in line.

00:45:40.100 Like the border line at the border.

00:45:41.980 Angrily, very impatiently standing there.

00:45:44.980 Like the border guards looking at the pictures and they all look the same.

00:45:48.760 Hey man, the cost of living concerns are getting the geese too.

Off the Record - November 22, 2024

Is Trudeau trying to bribe Canadians？

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