00:01:01.160House in Williams Lake, of course, Surrey and Maple Ridge, Chilliwack and Kelowna, Saanich,
00:01:06.520Souk and Langford, Richmond and Vancouver. I have had a lot of coffee in the last couple weeks.
00:01:14.360Frankly, I've had quite a bit tonight. But British Columbians are hard-working,
00:01:19.880trailblazing people. They want a fair shot at building something in this province.
00:01:25.400that is the acceptance speech from British Columbia's brand new conservative
00:01:33.600premier Lauren Dirksen something I never thought I would see in my entire lifetime
00:01:38.620and I found it really inspirational to hear a premier of British Columbia talk so effectively
00:01:47.280and affectionately about the wealth of natural resources British Columbia has and the potential
00:01:52.620for those natural resources to bring about a renaissance in British Columbia post-NDP
00:02:01.700depression. And the idea of having a pro-resource premier in British Columbia, well, that's great
00:02:07.840news for us here in Alberta, because British Columbia's former premier, David Eby, was
00:02:12.780nothing but obstructionist, let's just say, when it came to getting oil and gas infrastructure
00:02:22.300to the west coast built so joining me today to discuss the british columbia
00:02:26.520new day is my friend robbie picard take a listen
00:02:31.960so joining me now is my dear friend robbie picard from oil and gas world magazine and
00:02:44.900you know the facebook page oil sand strong robbie i wanted to have you on to talk about
00:02:50.540the election of the BC Conservatives and what that immediately means for Western Canadian
00:02:56.400oil and gas and the prospect of us getting some pipelines done.
00:03:01.100It is the best news that we've had in a very, very long time.
00:03:06.020One of the reasons that I'm super excited about it is for the first time in a long time,
00:03:11.020you have three provincial leaders that are politically aligned, that are pro-business,
00:03:17.440that are pro-pipeline that have been pro-business and pro-pipeline for quite some time so one of
00:03:22.560the things that i think is important is the fact that you might be able to get stuff done quickly
00:03:28.880in timely and in a efficient fashion like the last pipeline that was built was done sort of
00:03:38.420in a weird situation people pushing it didn't really want it but they needed it and the province
00:03:43.740the former premier of British Columbia at the time, he completely and utterly was against it.
00:03:50.980And look how good that pipeline's been.
00:03:53.020Now, can you imagine if you have three provinces working together, it'll be huge prosperity for the country.
00:04:02.020And, you know, I think the idea of giving the British Columbia premier a veto in the MOU just blew up in Mark Carney's face.
00:04:11.620because I think Mark Carney, I don't think he necessarily wants this pipeline. He will say
00:04:16.400that publicly, but he put all these poison pills in the MOU. We can't do it without Indigenous1.00
00:04:20.600permission. We can't do it without the permission of British Columbia. Well, guess what, brother?0.99
00:04:24.600Now you are the bad guy if you cancel it, because the Premier of British Columbia is very pro-resource
00:04:31.460industry. And we heard that in his acceptance speech. He talked about mining. He talked about
00:04:36.420forestry. He wants to double gas production. So that's a big boom for the peace country.
00:04:42.280But that is also a big boom for northern Alberta, which supplies a lot of the services to the
00:04:48.280British Columbia gas fields in the peace country. So I guess if Mark Carney thinks or if he ever
00:04:55.360thought that his little planted seed of a poison pill would ever hold, well, now he's got to come
00:05:01.760with something else you can plan around a no but you can't plan around a baby i believe in cutting
00:05:09.680red tape i believe in energy we will double yes we will cut red tape like it's never been cut before
00:05:21.280we will double natural gas production by 2032 and triple it by 2035.
00:05:28.880Folks, that is tens of thousands of jobs in our province and at least six billion dollars a year
00:05:38.540for hospitals and schools that we all depend on. I believe in the people who build, dig,
00:05:46.160and grow more fibre on the trucks, permits in months instead of years, and backing for
00:05:54.740exploration that finds the next mine in our province.
00:06:05.780I believe in building the ports and the rail that get it all to market, and the power to
00:06:11.920run a new plant without years of waiting for grid connection.
00:06:17.600Technology that keeps BC's ideas and jobs right here.
00:06:21.260I believe in our young people and their futures being right here in our province and I believe
00:06:27.600absolutely and I believe in you keeping more of what you earn.
00:06:39.700I think it's kind of ironic because I don't get a read on a lot of Mark Carney
00:06:51.140what he really wants now on in one hand he says something but on the other hand it's not quite
00:06:57.700what he says but the best part of this is the fact that he can't undo supporting that pipeline he
00:07:05.300cannot undo um making it a major project he cannot undo any of that and anything that would have undid
00:07:14.900that is now gone and i'm wondering what david eby is really thinking now because like he it
00:07:25.400happened in alberta when prentice said look in the mirror and called an early election and it
00:07:30.420changed alberta but for british columbia's premier to be so opportunistic and i think he looked at
00:07:38.900the conservators and i mean let's be honest the conservators had a lot of like leader issues and
00:07:43.820it was messy it was for quite a while and um you know and even in the last election and then they
00:07:51.280joined forces so it was just like crazy but the fact that he thought okay look it's sort of like
00:07:57.720you hit a deer um you you wound a deer on the highway but there's still a chance that that deer
00:08:05.020could get up and take off or a moose or whatever well that uh conservative party was not obviously
00:08:12.940that wounded and now he gave up like he had two years in his mandate and he gave that up
00:08:19.220and it's the best thing that could ever happen to canada it's actually the best thing that could
00:08:22.820happen to canada unity because if we get these pipelines it'll calm down a little bit so he
00:08:29.600actually achieved like so much good came out of him leaving and that goes to show how important
00:08:38.020the right political leaders are because their incompetence, their hesitation, their lack of
00:08:45.120business experience can seriously screw up a country. We might get the tanker ban removed.
00:08:53.040We might get two or three pipelines. We're going to see pipelines to the East Coast because they're
00:08:58.080not going to want to be left out. And you know what's going to have a prediction? I'm going to
00:09:01.580give daniel smith credit here i see equalization payments from alberta slowly disappearing and
00:09:09.460i'll tell you why she is going to make it so these provinces are have provinces and that's
00:09:15.880going to include quebec one way or another you're going to see the game change because alberta is
00:09:23.540tired of not i mean all of our you know 20 to 30 billion a year leaving to multiple provinces
00:09:31.300And they don't even give us a pipeline. And I think you're going to see a big, significant change. I see three pipelines in British Columbia and I see a pipeline to Ontario. I truly do.
00:09:39.900Well, from your lips to God's ears, Robbie. And, you know, for me, like it was very hopeful to hear for the first time in my lifetime, BC Premier saying we are going to double gas production, which sounds very much like Premier Smith when she says we're going to double oil production in Alberta.
00:10:01.440For him to say, we're going to double gas production, we're going to frack, we're going to drill and we're going to do it and we're going to create good jobs in these communities so young people don't have to head to the hellscape of Vancouver to try to find work.
00:10:14.500I mean, it was just it was like I was living in another world listening to that speech to hear somebody talk so glowingly about something that the NDP would never do.
00:10:27.940And that is the wealth of natural resources that should be exploited in British Columbia.
00:10:34.240And of course, exploited responsibly to the benefit of British Columbians.
00:10:37.700But as you say, to the benefit of all Canadians, if you care about national unity, you want every province to do its best.
00:10:44.720A thousand dollar tax cut is just the start with no new taxes in British Columbia.
00:10:50.780I believe in health care that is fully and publicly funded.
00:10:59.960I believe rural ERs and maternity wards that are actually open.
00:11:06.340And I believe, yes, I believe in getting British Columbians the family doctors that they need
00:11:13.780and the hospitals that are safe for our doctors and our nurses who work in them.
00:11:20.440And I believe in public safety that protects our communities, make sure criminals stay
00:11:25.900behind bars and that those who need treatment actually get healthy in British Columbia.
00:11:36.640I also believe in the protection of private property rights and that British Columbia
00:11:48.960British Columbia, where parks are open to all British Columbians.
00:11:55.880Well, and you know, like, when it comes to the referendum, like, that was a quarter of
00:12:03.360Alberta's population that talked about separating. That's not small. That's pretty significant.
00:12:13.600and the entire country they need to take this seriously and um we need to as albertans
00:12:23.080we need to find partners that want to work with us and if it's saskatchewan um alberta and british
00:12:29.580columbia teaming up and accomplishing some amazing things that's epic and that just goes into other
00:12:36.280stuff there's so much more here there's sulfur there's all kinds of minerals and i also think
00:12:42.040that simultaneously um because i was why i was actually studying greenpeace last night because
00:12:47.940you know david suzuki's popping up again from you know he's back and so is my great friends for
00:12:54.640vermin and uh you know kind of gearing up a little bit and um but one of the things i actually thought
00:13:02.060that i i quite liked was there was this program for you know bees in urban centers and i'm like
00:13:09.240There's no reason that we can't take some of these profits from oil and gas and help do reforest revitalization, make cities cleaner, plant more trees like Trudeau promised but never did.
00:13:24.460The environment and oil and gas can coexist and thrive more because of the economic benefits of a country that has money.
00:13:33.960And I'm actually working on a project right now looking at how to take tailings and throw them into biodiverse systems that the environment, they plant trees and you create ecosystems.
00:13:47.980There's so much good things that we can do if we work together.
00:13:51.080And I'm actually optimistic, but you can't do that when your country's broke and people are losing jobs.0.79
00:14:02.660You like that exactly. You have a big farm and it's like we need to look in those situations where we actually work together for the betterment.
00:14:12.120And I think that is happening. And I'm very excited about that.
00:14:15.600You know, and that's one thing that, you know, if if companies do well and people who work for those companies are well taken care of, you have then the money to care about things like remediation.
00:14:28.440now i should say that remediation is legislated here in alberta and oil and gas and forestry
00:14:34.440they do the majority of tree planting everywhere in this country they don't get enough credit for
00:14:40.020that by the way like what why would the government say we're going to come and plant trees in the
00:14:43.840forestry industries like pardon us but um you know i think you are right though just going back to
00:14:51.380what you started off saying you are right to start paying attention to greenpeace and the
00:14:54.900activists right now because you know that they are right now gearing up for the battle of a lifetime
00:15:03.300against the bc conservative government they haven't had to do much this last little bit
00:15:09.620because they've had justin trudeau who's an obstructionist to oil and gas projects
00:15:14.600in the prime minister's office mark carney's the guy who wrote values so you know he told us who he
00:15:20.940earlier um and they had david eby doing their dirty work at the legislative level in british
00:15:26.900columbia now they don't have that so watch the foreign money the foreign money from san francisco
00:15:33.220is going to start pouring into british columbia and we are going to see environmentalist nonsense
00:15:39.760the likes of which we haven't seen since 2012 through to 2014 oh yeah it'll be it'll be absolutely0.98
00:15:46.860crazy but that being said we've kicked their ass before we can do it again i remember very like0.52
00:15:57.260i find it funny because so david suzuki's like well there's no way we're going to get a pipeline0.99
00:16:01.880you already have a pipeline has there been any major environmental issues with that pipeline
00:16:06.420right not since the korean war by the way the the trans mountain pipeline is operating smoothly
00:16:14.980and there's no big issues so um they need to lift the tanker ban they need to build more pipelines
00:16:23.280and give the world the energy we need and candidly i'm really hoping you're gonna see
00:16:31.060some progressive stuff to help those poor people in hastings i was just in vancouver and i was
00:16:36.980gotten a little bit better i'll say that but i mean you shouldn't be able to you should be
00:16:41.160walk down the street in uh vancouver and feel safe there shouldn't be the the issues and they
00:16:46.820need to address those issues in in a positive way where they help these people with programs that
00:16:52.180actually get them off drugs and get them off the streets get housing so people can build their own
00:16:57.520lives and i think that if the conservatives i mean here's my advice to them stay humble
00:17:03.980listen to all sides don't go too crazy like give it a little time try to build bridges so this
00:17:11.900isn't just four years that we get more and more of pro-energy leaders in there um but on the flip
00:17:18.940side of this coin it's like we have an opportunity now for western canada to really unite and thrive
00:17:28.180And I and I feel good about that. Yeah, I mean, you listed BC, Alberta and Saskatchewan, but let us not forget our friends in the Yukon with their new Yukon Party government up there. So it really is a Western block of conservatism. And I think if we do it well, and I believe we can, we are going to show the rest of the country what can be done if we do it right. And I'm excited for that.
00:17:54.420And that's important because, like, I think one thing we all could do a little better, too, is highlighting the wins of Scott Moe and Danielle Smith.
00:18:08.500I think the way she handled that referendum was pure genius, Sheila.
00:18:14.360She gave everybody a voice, whether, you know what I mean?
00:21:48.340What we can do is simultaneously build an economy that respects the environment and gives people opportunities, jobs, and money.
00:22:00.340So we can have a – Canada could be the richest country in the world.
00:22:03.900there's no reason we're not if we actually take the moment now um just changing lanes
00:22:10.820i wanted to talk to you a little bit about what's happening with the grassy mountain
00:22:16.720mine in the crow's nest pass because you've been a real advocate for that community one of the few
00:22:22.400people who's actually listening to that community um and the war on coal um from outsiders the
00:22:30.380community itself supports the grassy mountain mine the they had a local plebiscite on it and yet
00:22:36.420um the fight to stop the mine from people outside the community still rolls on
00:22:43.240so i've been spending a lot of time there um i uh i i'm uh going back there actually after i'm uh
00:22:53.540i'm headed there right after rebel live on saturday where i'm speaking at rebel live um
00:22:58.780And I'm very excited about it. I'm working on my speech now.
00:23:02.940So I'm headed back there pretty quick here, and I'm going to be spending quite a bit of time there.
00:23:09.640I'm going to try to interview a thousand people from that whole community.
00:23:14.000And I'm dedicating the January issue of Oil and Gas World 100% to that community.
00:23:19.980So the community is beautiful, and there is some tourism opportunities that could come.
00:23:26.360But at the end of the day, when they shut down the mine, they were fairly devastated by this.
00:23:33.120And it's sort of the town of Blairmoor has lived in this sort of limbo state.
00:23:38.320Meanwhile, just across the British Columbia border, there is a thriving coal community with lots of coal mines that are doing incredibly well.
00:23:51.140And let's be honest, even under Scarecrow David Aby, the economy of British Columbia, their number one export is coal.
00:24:05.240So the town of Blairmore is not going to say it's completely dying, but you can see it needs some injections.
00:24:12.120There's also sort of like Yellowstone, the TV show.
00:24:17.080You've got all these really rich people buying properties, but they don't want anything to mess with them.
00:24:23.520But the local community, I went to the Miners Club and checked out a few of the places, and they need this.
00:25:18.720It's about Alberta resources, farming, forestry, and simultaneously helping make Alberta clean and have the greatest environmental standards in the world and help with wetlands.
00:25:32.020you can do both so that's sort of been my focus um but this that coal mine will be open and that
00:25:38.060community deserves um that they deserve the jobs and stability um have you ever watched the
00:25:45.640documentary frack nation no but i will i will you must it's made i don't know maybe 12 years ago
00:25:53.860Phelan McAleer and Anne McElhaney, two fun names to say, Irish filmmakers. They went to a town in
00:26:03.240Pennsylvania that had been completely lied about, about, oh, their water is on fire and it's poison
00:26:08.620because of the fracking and this and that. And they did exactly what you're doing. And they went
00:26:13.140and talked to the farmers who said, the royalties off this well will save my farm. It will keep my
00:26:20.100grandchildren on the farm that's what these resource jobs mean to these people besides the
00:26:26.080lies about the water like there's a reason a town up the road was called burning springs
00:26:30.220um because the gas seeps into the water table it's been like that since time immemorial it's
00:26:36.140not a new phenomenon but the but they you know they went there and they told the stories of the
00:26:42.020people who are it's really saving their way of life by living in in you know harmony with oil
00:26:50.200and gas and I hope the same thing can be true for Blairmore because they really deserve it
00:26:54.620they do and and that whole grassy mountain community there like I mean they there's some
00:26:59.540cool stuff like they've got a great museums and and they love coal mining they really truly do
00:27:05.960And that is that is what what's important for sure.
00:27:10.620Robbie, I know that you have things to do today and I am just jam packed.
00:27:16.060Can you tell us how people can find your work advocating for, I think, all the resources of Alberta, I think, is your new your new focus, all those things that the left wages war on?
00:27:29.180how can people find that work and also importantly support your work because a lot of the work that
00:27:33.600you do is just for your love of the game and your love of albertans so we are going to start um
00:27:40.240trying to sell oil and gas world magazine now oil and gas world magazine has actually made like a
00:27:44.560coffee table book it's beautiful it's really good and we're going to sell it for seven dollars and
00:27:49.86050 cents and if people could order it we'll mail it to them um it helps us um go to oilandgasworld.ca
00:27:56.520and rockpacard.com i'm doing all of our sites um and i i'm kind of building a new page the four
00:28:03.920pillars um so the advocacy that i do but then the other stuff is like where am i because i'm gonna
00:28:09.980i'm working on i've lost uh 27 pounds um i'm working on uh getting into um a little bit of
00:28:17.080a mediterranean diet eating a lot more meat a little bit of greens i kind of use you as a model
00:28:22.800and i lost now i need to tone so i'm gonna do that and then there's stuff like my advocacy for
00:28:27.740uh old turtles and kiki and coco and all that and but i also you know because i i want to focus and
00:28:35.580narrow it down a little bit but um there's i think that what i'm trying to put out is just everything
00:28:41.660that i'm into um i've had some pretty successful interviews i just interviewed premier doug fork
00:28:46.620he's on the next issue of oil and gas world magazine um i really doubled down on the people
00:28:54.160who made this industry um in fort mcmurray i'm doing everything i can to be as a little more
00:29:01.000non-partisan now because let's be honest justin trudeau was the worst thing that happened to
00:29:07.000canada um more than any other leader and his team um and everything behind it you know what i mean
00:29:14.280i want to help if people support oil and gas and want to get pipelines built you know i want to
00:29:20.800work with that and so i am trying my hardest to open some doors that have been closed for 10
00:29:25.520years because of trudeau um but that being said um yeah like so ruggedcar.com next week we'll
00:29:31.580have a brand new website please follow all my socials um um we have you know oil and gas world
00:29:37.460on facebook it does really well and yeah like we're uh we're back there and just we're and we're
00:29:42.660ready to fight for coal we're ready to fight for we're ready to fight and we're going to help
00:29:47.260things happen great and i know you're a fighter you've been through a lot and you continue to
00:29:52.300fight robbie thanks so much for fighting for families just like mine and we'll see you on
00:29:58.180saturday we'll see you saturday awesome take care okay bye
00:34:14.700Equally troubling is the apparent absence of a compelling vision for Toronto's future.
00:34:19.180Where is the ambitious plan to tackle homelessness, restore public confidence, improve essential services, and make the city a better place to live and work?
00:34:27.320Where are the transformative ideas that will move Toronto forward rather than leave it trapped in the same cycle of problems and political excuses?
00:34:34.600Mayor's job is not merely to manage decline or defend yesterday's decisions.
00:34:42.220If Olivia Chow cannot articulate a credible path toward meaningful progress, why should residents expect the next four years to be any different?1.00
00:34:50.160Toronto deserves better than four more years of excuses, complacency and the status quo.1.00
00:34:55.180An election victory grants a mayor the authority to govern. It does not grant immunity from criticism.
00:35:00.520Olivia Chow may have won another term, but the real test of leadership lies ahead.
00:35:04.880If the city continues to struggle without measurable progress, residents must hold their mayor accountable and demand better alternatives when the next election arrives.
00:35:13.720I think that is a good summation of what actually happened in British Columbia.
00:35:20.020because the people of British Columbia,
00:35:24.260they did elect the NDP last time around.
00:35:28.380And it was close with the Conservatives,