Rebel News Podcast - SHEILA GUNN REID ｜ Alberta's latest budget delays one promise and fulfills another

00:00:00.000 Today, we're going through the good and the bad of Alberta's most recent budget.

00:00:19.760 I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed, and you're watching The Gunn Show.

00:00:30.000 Today's interview with my guest is a long one, but it's an interesting one,

00:00:42.720 so I'm going to cut my intro short and sweet so you can hear what she has to say.

00:00:47.180 Joining me today is my good friend Chris Sims of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

00:00:51.260 We're talking about a lot.

00:00:53.280 We're talking about the federal carbon tax and some of the crazy vindictive things

00:00:58.180 that Federal Environment Minister Stephen Gilbeau was saying about Saskatchewan

00:01:02.140 as the Premier there takes a stand for his residence.

00:01:06.200 We're talking about the Alberta budget, what's good in it, what's bad in it,

00:01:10.600 what's a promise kept, and what's a promise broken.

00:01:13.540 And then we're talking about the Online Harms Act.

00:01:15.720 Why?

00:01:15.940 Because Chris is also a former journalist, and the Online Harms Act from Justin Trudeau

00:01:21.640 is one of the largest pieces of censorship legislation in the free world.

00:01:28.180 And it also makes government less accountable, which is part of her work at the Canadian

00:01:33.480 Taxpayers Federation.

00:01:34.560 So I'll zip it.

00:01:35.800 Let's go to the interview.

00:01:40.700 Joining me now is my good friend Chris Sims of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

00:01:45.000 I want to have Chris on because I need a breakdown of the good and the bad in the most recent Alberta

00:01:52.280 budget.

00:01:52.640 If you got all your news from the mainstream media, it would be all bad.

00:01:57.700 And if you got your news from, I guess, the United Conservative Party and their press releases,

00:02:02.600 they would say it's all good.

00:02:04.480 Tell us what you think.

00:02:06.740 Since you are an advocate for the people, what do you think, Chris?

00:02:10.620 It's good and bad.

00:02:11.940 Do you want to start with the good or do you want to start with the bad?

00:02:14.480 Let's start with the good.

00:02:15.700 Okay.

00:02:16.180 There's a lot of good here.

00:02:17.340 So number one, the budget is balanced, which is a great thing to hear.

00:02:22.040 So we're hearing that there's going to be a deficit next door in Saskatchewan.

00:02:26.000 We see a jimongous deficit, like billions of dollars next door in British Columbia.

00:02:31.740 I don't know what they're doing over there.

00:02:33.640 Like they've lost the plot.

00:02:35.300 So they've gone banana pants in British Columbia when it comes to finances.

00:02:39.180 So the good news is the budget is balanced.

00:02:42.140 It's a little teeny weeny surplus.

00:02:44.280 Like it's a little baby surplus.

00:02:45.660 It's like 360 million with an M dollars.

00:02:51.060 So, but it is, it's balanced.

00:02:53.580 And we're really happy to see that there's a big element that I'm super keen about.

00:02:58.480 And all of CTF is that gets lost a lot of time.

00:03:02.320 They're keeping spending reined in, which is an excellent thing.

00:03:06.880 And they're not just keeping it reined in based on their own parameters.

00:03:10.460 They passed a law so that they must keep spending increases below the rate of inflation plus population growth.

00:03:19.140 Now, what that means in normal people talk is, you know how the price of groceries goes up, price of gas goes up.

00:03:25.700 That's inflation.

00:03:26.960 You know how there's more people moving here.

00:03:29.520 That's your population increase.

00:03:31.000 So it is common sense then for them to turn to the government and say, okay, keep your spending increases apace.

00:03:38.840 Don't go crazy.

00:03:40.800 Don't go too far the other way.

00:03:42.600 Just keep it apace with the rate of inflation plus population growth.

00:03:46.360 They're doing that.

00:03:48.080 And that is really good.

00:03:49.720 Because I went back and did the math and I did this report where if they had started doing this, Sheila, back in the mid-90s.

00:03:58.180 So imagine like Spice Girls are topping the charts, right?

00:04:01.940 I'm just finishing high school.

00:04:03.580 If they had implemented this rule back then and stuck to it all this time, they'd have around $300 billion in the bank.

00:04:16.140 Just from that little teeny rule.

00:04:18.580 I'm not talking resource windfalls, no lottery wins, nothing like that.

00:04:23.020 Just this little teeny spending rule.

00:04:24.980 So this is why we're praising them a lot for keeping this rule.

00:04:29.560 It's just the first year that they're doing it, but they have to keep doing it.

00:04:34.120 So there's that.

00:04:35.380 They also put billions of dollars down on the debt.

00:04:39.000 Thunk.

00:04:39.540 Nice payment there.

00:04:40.620 And they put, I think it was $2 billion into the Heritage Savings Fund.

00:04:45.220 So they've balanced the budget.

00:04:46.940 They're keeping spending restrained.

00:04:48.420 They're paying the debt as best as we can right now.

00:04:51.120 And we're saving for a rainy day.

00:04:52.960 Those are all excellent.

00:04:54.060 Tax cut being phased in in a couple of years.

00:04:58.320 This is the bad part.

00:04:59.600 Okay.

00:05:00.620 Because when the UCP campaigned in 2023, this was a big promise.

00:05:07.780 And in fact, I think their little tagline thing they used was tax cuts for all Albertans.

00:05:13.900 They didn't say little tiny tax cuts if we think we can afford them like three and a half years from now.

00:05:20.340 On the first 60,000.

00:05:22.280 Exactly.

00:05:23.420 So what this is for folks who weren't following the election breathlessly.

00:05:27.040 When the UCP were in the middle of their fight against the NDP and Rachel Notley, they promised to create a new lower income tax bracket in Alberta.

00:05:37.980 That can sound boring, but it shouldn't because it'll save you money if they ever actually do this.

00:05:43.780 So right now, if you move folks, maybe some people who have moved to the province of Alberta might have noticed this affect their paychecks.

00:05:50.900 If you move from British Columbia, for example, and you make around $100,000, say you're a police officer or a plumber, you're going to notice that your chunk taken out of your paycheck is bigger, actually, in Alberta than it is in BC.

00:06:05.920 And you're going to be like, what the heck?

00:06:08.000 I thought that Alberta was the land of low taxes.

00:06:10.900 Not when it comes to income tax.

00:06:13.000 So the first tax bracket starts from, I think it's $20,000 or whatever it is for your personal exemption.

00:06:19.260 It goes all the way up to $140,000 a year and change.

00:06:25.800 That's a pretty wide lower tax bracket.

00:06:29.060 And it's at 10%.

00:06:31.060 Like, it's not at 5%.

00:06:33.720 It's not at 8%.

00:06:35.020 Like, it's a smack in the nose 10%.

00:06:37.240 So what, I almost called her Danielle, what Premier Smith promised was that she was going to reduce that down to 8%.

00:06:47.200 For those making up to $60,000 a year, on average, that would save an average person around $700 per year, times two per household, two-person working household.

00:07:00.100 You're closing in on $15,000.

00:07:01.520 Sneeze at.

00:07:02.020 Yeah, exactly.

00:07:02.940 Nothing to sneeze at.

00:07:03.800 You're clocking in on about $1,500 a year.

00:07:07.440 So I haven't yet found when they answered this question or when they said they were going to implement this buy, but I'm going to.

00:07:17.200 Because I'm going through all of the old tapes.

00:07:20.600 But all of the indicators were, this is happening imminently, like soon, now.

00:07:26.700 But now there's two things.

00:07:28.320 One, they're saying that it's only going to start at 9%.

00:07:32.280 And it's going to happen two years from now, 2026.

00:07:37.400 And we're going to have to wait until 2027 to see it brought down to 8%.

00:07:43.440 And here's the kicker.

00:07:45.460 As far as I can tell from these budget documents, and I will stand corrected if I'm wrong.

00:07:50.480 I've looked across where you look at their projected spending.

00:07:53.540 They haven't factored this in.

00:07:57.480 In the next few years, I know.

00:08:00.660 This is a problem.

00:08:02.460 Right.

00:08:02.760 So if you go to the revenue column where they're expecting, you know, how much money are we taking from people or businesses?

00:08:08.200 And you look at personal income tax and you follow along.

00:08:12.280 It's just going up based on population growth.

00:08:15.580 There's no dip there.

00:08:16.960 And if they were really going to do this, there should be a dip there.

00:08:21.340 And I don't see one.

00:08:23.000 So this is the bad.

00:08:25.060 This is the problem.

00:08:26.500 And they need to not screw around with this.

00:08:29.620 They need to put this tax cut. 0.50

00:08:30.660 But we've got some borrowing happening, too, in this budget.

00:08:35.420 Yeah, this was the weird thing.

00:08:37.260 And I'm still, I'm going to have to sit down and, like, buy Franco a beer and get him to explain this in economics brain terms.

00:08:44.920 Because I do not have an economics degree.

00:08:47.580 Franco has two.

00:08:48.800 I have zero.

00:08:50.180 But they borrowed money from last quarter, as far as I can understand, which is the fourth quarter.

00:08:58.580 So when they did their budget update back in November, when they announced the $5.5 billion surplus, they borrowed during that quarter to cover off spending for what lands as this budget.

00:09:10.400 Really, what the budget is is, like, a massive quarterly update.

00:09:13.740 So it's just kind of a reset button each time.

00:09:16.740 So, yeah, there is some spending going on.

00:09:18.700 And that is why you will see some outlets say that, oh, it's an accounting surplus.

00:09:24.040 They put, like, a little asterisk glitter thing next to the word surplus.

00:09:28.980 I didn't because I think it just confuses people and it jumbles up your language.

00:09:32.840 But to your point, yeah, they were still borrowing money to cover off some expenses.

00:09:38.720 Which is also why we're still seeing the debt charge so that we pay an interest charge on our debt the same way anybody who does if you borrow money.

00:09:47.720 And I think that's costing us around three and a half-ish billion dollars per year.

00:09:53.660 That's a lot of hospitals.

00:09:54.900 Sure is.

00:09:55.720 That's three hospitals.

00:09:57.100 That is a lot of money.

00:09:59.060 And so this is why it's good that they're saying verbally that they're taking the debt seriously and they won't pay it down,

00:10:05.740 that they want to save money for a rainy day through the Heritage Fund, that they won't keep spending in check.

00:10:10.340 Those are all good things, but they really need to do them.

00:10:14.840 And one thing they said they were going to do is cut taxes for all Albertans.

00:10:20.360 And they haven't done that.

00:10:22.360 They have partially reinstated the fuel tax.

00:10:25.860 So it's now nine cents a liter instead of zero.

00:10:28.980 Also, oh, I don't think I've mentioned this in another interview.

00:10:32.680 I also noticed in their budget, Sheila, that they're planning on hiking the provincial fuel tax back up.

00:10:40.340 All the way to 13 cents on April 1st.

00:10:44.160 So same day that Trudeau nails us with a two-by-four of his carbon tax hike,

00:10:49.520 the Alberta government is planning on bringing that all the way back up.

00:10:53.260 So they're going to add an extra four cents per liter of gasoline and diesel back up.

00:10:57.780 Yeah, so again, I'm trying to be positive with the spending stuff, which they are doing, and we need to praise them for it.

00:11:04.280 But there's some tax increase stuff that we're not happy about here.

00:11:08.040 Now, I'm glad you touched on the carbon tax because I think Canadians need to be aware that the clock is ticking on their attempts at affordability and saving money

00:11:20.340 because the federal government is about to pick our pockets really hard come April 1st, April Fool's Day.

00:11:28.620 Carbon tax is going up.

00:11:29.920 What does that mean for Canadians?

00:11:31.760 So it means, in a nutshell, that everything gets more expensive.

00:11:36.760 And I just want to pause for a moment.

00:11:38.600 I know that's hard for people to hear.

00:11:39.960 It's terrible out there for a lot of people, and we hear you, okay?

00:11:45.320 We are lucky enough to be able to be commentators and journalists and be able to cover these things.

00:11:50.180 A lot of folks aren't, and they don't have that voice.

00:11:53.540 We hear you.

00:11:54.780 So if you ever hear me laughing about this, it's because I'd otherwise cry.

00:11:58.540 So we have to mock these people.

00:12:01.220 Otherwise, they're going to take themselves too seriously, and they're going to think they can get away with it.

00:12:04.780 So, unless there's a miracle, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's carbon tax is going up on April 1st.

00:12:11.840 Now, the reason why that happens on April 1st, people ask me, is because that's when the first year of fiscal starts.

00:12:17.400 That's the beginning of a new fiscal year.

00:12:19.440 So it's going to go up to $0.17 per litre of gasoline, $0.21 per litre of diesel,

00:12:28.500 and I think it's going up to $0.15 per cubic metre of natural gas.

00:12:35.360 That means it's going to cost you more to drive your kids to school.

00:12:38.680 It's going to cost you more to go grab groceries, because, of course, there's the cascade of gasoline plus diesel plus farm fuels, all that stuff.

00:12:46.300 And it's going to cost you more to heat your home.

00:12:49.300 And for folks who are thinking, oh, well, I just drive a little itty-bitty car, the diesel factor here is a big one.

00:12:57.000 Yeah.

00:12:57.100 So every time you eat or when you fill up your coffee cup or any of those things, all of those supplies were brought to you on a truck.

00:13:06.020 That truck is using diesel.

00:13:08.300 The next time you're in a parking lot or in a truck stop, look at that massive cylinder under the driver's side door.

00:13:15.660 They've got two tanks on them.

00:13:17.780 These massive cylinders, they hold like more than 1,000 litres.

00:13:21.820 Times that by 21 cents.

00:13:23.520 Those are Trudeau voters, by the way.

00:13:49.600 Not just conservatives.

00:13:50.960 Those are Trudeau voters.

00:13:51.960 Those are NDP voters as well.

00:13:53.760 Correct.

00:13:54.260 And this is what I found really interesting.

00:13:56.140 I don't have the exact granular data, but I was chatting with Franco because I talked to him several times a day, every day.

00:14:01.620 And he pointed out that I think it's found that women are more opposed to this carpet tactic.

00:14:10.260 We buy the groceries.

00:14:11.960 Ding.

00:14:12.820 Exactly.

00:14:13.260 By and large, there's exceptions, of course, but by and large, we're the ones literally holding the purse strings because it's our purse.

00:14:21.620 And we're the ones buying the kids new winter boots.

00:14:24.720 We're the ones, you know, trying to afford the groceries.

00:14:27.360 We're the ones filling up the minivan.

00:14:29.020 We're the ones idling, waiting for soccer when it's minus 20 or outside basketball or something.

00:14:34.600 I know my son plays basketball and I'm going to be ferrying him around all day.

00:14:38.080 And my daughter has a play.

00:14:38.960 So I'm going to be mom taxi and it has minus 20 here and we're not going to die.

00:14:44.240 So the vehicle stays idling.

00:14:46.140 That's all money.

00:14:47.480 And so as a mom, I know how much that is costing.

00:14:50.540 And so I find this really interesting that women are opposed to this carbon tax increase more.

00:14:56.180 So maybe he'll listen to that element.

00:14:58.680 We'll see.

00:14:59.880 Yeah.

00:15:00.060 I mean, he's always relied on suburban women to carry him through.

00:15:04.360 But this is an issue that hits at the hearts of suburban women. 1.00

00:15:09.720 Still on the carbon tax topic.

00:15:12.260 Let's talk a little bit about what's happening in Saskatchewan.

00:15:15.100 Saskatchewan, you know, I'm not one to argue in favor of Crown Corporations.

00:15:19.860 I know.

00:15:20.420 But this one time.

00:15:22.620 But Saskatchewan has a Crown Corporation.

00:15:24.780 It's their energy retailer.

00:15:26.520 And they are able to not collect the carbon tax.

00:15:30.580 And by not collecting the carbon tax, they are also not remitting the carbon tax to the federal government.

00:15:36.220 And all Premier Scott Moe is doing is saying, we just want fair treatment like our fellow Canadians in Atlanta, Canada,

00:15:43.800 who are getting a carbon tax break on their home heating oil.

00:15:49.240 Yeah, I see his point.

00:15:51.240 I think normal people see his point.

00:15:53.300 But Stephen Gilboa, our environment minister, is revealing himself as not really a normal person because he doesn't see the point.

00:16:01.100 And in fact, he's going one step further.

00:16:03.260 He's threatening Saskatchewan now because what else is he going to do?

00:16:07.120 Take Scott Moe away in handcuffs?

00:16:08.620 That's not a great look.

00:16:09.680 So what he's saying is, Scott Moe, if you don't start collecting the carbon tax and sending it to us,

00:16:16.560 we are no longer going to send carbon tax rebates to the residents of Saskatchewan.

00:16:21.740 Who pay carbon tax on their fuel, on their groceries, because it is a cumulative tax all the way down the supply chain?

00:16:29.400 He's saying, if you don't give me their money, I'm going to continue to punish them.

00:16:34.440 And he's even said it's immoral for Saskatchewan to try to fight for fairness for Saskatchewan residents.

00:16:43.320 What do you think?

00:16:43.860 It doesn't surprise me.

00:16:46.500 So one, good on, Scott Moe.

00:16:48.560 I don't know where this is going to land legally because I'm not an expert in that field.

00:16:52.340 But out of principle and use the word moral, I mean, he's right.

00:16:56.760 He's standing up for his people.

00:16:58.440 And even just on a blanket fairness.

00:17:01.520 So for people who don't know, there is now an exemption, a three-year exemption.

00:17:06.040 Funny choice of time, right?

00:17:08.220 There's a three-year exemption on the carbon tax on home heating oil.

00:17:13.100 So for a long time in the prairies, we used home heating oil here, too.

00:17:16.000 We've largely switched to natural gas.

00:17:17.660 It happened in the late 80s, early 90s, apparently.

00:17:20.280 But in Nova Scotia, lots of people, in Prince Edward Island, in New Brunswick, but mostly Nova Scotia, lots of people still use home heating oil.

00:17:28.660 It's delivered to them on a truck and there's a big tank outside.

00:17:30.980 And so, lo and behold, they started paying the actual real carbon tax on July 1st, just this past year.

00:17:38.940 So 2023, July 1st, folks in Atlantic Canada suddenly got sticker shock.

00:17:44.060 All this time, they'd had this little exemption thing going on.

00:17:47.000 So they were in a little bit of a different reality from the rest of us.

00:17:49.920 All of a sudden, they went, oh my gosh, look at all of this flaming wreckage.

00:17:53.400 This is expensive.

00:17:54.020 And then all of the voters started phoning the constituency office and the constituency office of those liberals, the Atlantic Canadian liberals, hauled Justin Trudeau into a room and said, hey, bye, we're not doing this anymore.

00:18:05.900 You've got to give us an exemption.

00:18:07.200 And I don't know what they did with Minister Keebo at that time, if they, like, gagged him and muffled him and shoved him in a locker and waited for a minute, but he was not at that press conference.

00:18:17.900 There was this little press conference where they said, okay, we're giving you an exemption for three years on home heating oil.

00:18:25.280 The vast majority of those people, it's available all across Canada, of course, but the vast majority of those homes are principally in that region.

00:18:33.160 Where that is.

00:18:33.580 World polling is plummeting.

00:18:35.580 Exactly.

00:18:36.400 Because of the cost of the carbon tax.

00:18:38.460 So this is why Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said, well, that's not fair.

00:18:43.160 But very understatedly, he said it so quietly.

00:18:46.960 He's like, that's not fair.

00:18:48.140 I'm not going to do that.

00:18:50.020 And so as of July 1st, January 1st this year, he's not collecting the carbon tax on people's home heating because it's not fair.

00:18:58.380 And so this is now why we have this fight going on.

00:19:01.320 And it's so interesting hearing Guy Boe saying that something is immoral.

00:19:05.820 So politicians' thinking often informs their policy.

00:19:13.660 That may sound like a, well, duh.

00:19:16.080 But actually, a lot of people who are super nerdy and into political science and stuff, they start just seeing everything as like a chess game.

00:19:23.960 And they forget that we're dealing with people who have opinions.

00:19:27.000 And as far as I can tell, Minister Guy Boe's opinions are pretty out there when it comes to driving your car, how big your truck is allowed to be, how big your house is allowed to be, what you should be eating, how you should be fueling it, keep it warm in your home.

00:19:44.560 So all this is to say, I think his politics and his ideology are really informing his policy here when it comes to the carbon tax.

00:19:52.520 This is why they think we ought to be punished for using oil and gas.

00:19:59.020 So years ago, I was debating one of the architects, one of the draftees of the carbon tax legislation.

00:20:05.560 He's not a civilian.

00:20:06.900 He's a right in there.

00:20:07.940 He's part of the policy department with liberals.

00:20:10.200 And he called this punishment.

00:20:12.400 It is punishment.

00:20:13.360 And so for him, for Guy Boe, to say that, oh, now Scott Moe is being immoral, you know, I'm waiting to see what Premier Smith says, because I don't think she'll wait too long before throwing her elbow in here.

00:20:26.000 Yeah, I mean, there's a piece of legislation where they have created this crown corporation that might act as a sort of a holding entity, because Alberta's system is completely privatized.

00:20:39.720 So how do we get around that without asking our energy creators and energy retailers to break the liberal law?

00:20:49.320 And so there's this sort of phantom crown corporation that could come into existence to mimic sort of what's happening in Saskatchewan, because I got to give Saskatchewan credit.

00:21:00.120 Most of their good ideas we steal here in Alberta, and then we do it with more fanfare.

00:21:03.500 We sort of take credit for it.

00:21:06.260 You know, we did it on the Sovereignty Act.

00:21:08.980 We do it on parents' rights legislation.

00:21:11.100 Saskatchewan's already doing that. 0.96

00:21:12.320 They're doing it quietly and modestly the way people from Saskatchewan are.

00:21:16.060 And then so we're sort of the obnoxious Texas sometimes.

00:21:19.460 And so it is sort of on the table.

00:21:21.320 We're Texas.

00:21:21.700 And, you know, it is funny to see Gilboe focus like a laser beam on Saskatchewan because he has cut Atlantic Canada a deal on the carbon tax, and he's also sending them carbon tax rebate checks.

00:21:39.080 Yep.

00:21:39.840 Right?

00:21:40.460 Yep.

00:21:41.120 So his argument here sort of falls flat on its face, like so many of his arguments, you know, with what he's doing with Saskatchewan.

00:21:48.120 Yeah, exactly.

00:21:48.720 And for folks who say you've got a sister-in-law who tells you, well, we get more back than we pay in.

00:21:56.860 Okay.

00:21:57.420 Number one, like, that's really silly.

00:22:00.340 How do you even know that?

00:22:01.980 Yeah.

00:22:02.300 Like, how do you even know that?

00:22:03.980 Exactly.

00:22:05.200 That just on its very surface, that's silly.

00:22:07.800 Like, to think that you could give a $100 bill to the government, and they would somehow, I don't know, plant it under a tomato plant, dust it in gold, hand it back to you.

00:22:19.840 Like, they do not have a wealth generation machine under center block.

00:22:25.240 Okay?

00:22:25.520 They don't, like, Willy Wonka, take that $100 and run it through their chocolate factory and make it taste better and then give it to you.

00:22:32.640 Worth more.

00:22:33.200 However, that is not how government works.

00:22:35.920 Okay?

00:22:36.200 That's not how anything works.

00:22:37.300 If you said that in the private sector, you'd be investigated for running a pyramid scheme, right?

00:22:42.060 You know, give me money and I'll give you more money back?

00:22:44.820 That's crazy.

00:22:45.400 I mean, you're just like, okay, well, you know, how long have you invested this in a blue chip stock for?

00:22:49.560 How many years?

00:22:50.220 It's like, um, zero.

00:22:51.660 Nothing.

00:22:52.120 I just ran it through the hands of a thousand bureaucrats before writing you a larger check.

00:22:56.440 This is it exactly, and you nailed it.

00:22:58.040 It seems legit.

00:22:59.180 Exactly.

00:22:59.760 So on the surface, the very idea of giving the government money and magically getting more back is silly.

00:23:05.560 Two, exactly to your point, Sheila, on the practical side, there are humans who have jobs to do in the national capital region.

00:23:14.140 We pay them.

00:23:16.540 So for them to administer, even, your little rebate is costing you money.

00:23:22.620 Okay?

00:23:22.840 Yes.

00:23:23.420 Exactly.

00:23:24.420 Millions of dollars.

00:23:25.440 So on top of that, you also pay the GST on top of your carbon tax, okay?

00:23:30.760 On top of that, we've got the parliamentary budget officer has done the calculations and said,

00:23:37.920 even with the rebates factored in, net, the average Alberta family this year, 2024, this next fiscal, is going to be out more than $900.

00:23:49.900 That's net with rebates calculated in.

00:23:52.740 So don't believe me, okay?

00:23:54.800 Don't believe your own common sense handing over, you know, Robert Borden on a $100 bill.

00:23:59.180 Well, that's fine.

00:24:00.680 You can believe the parliamentary budget officer because they're an independent watchdog.

00:24:04.880 They've done the math.

00:24:06.500 You're out about $900 per household here in Alberta with the rebates factored in.

00:24:11.780 So just a little note, if you're getting together for, I don't know, a St. Patrick's Day fish grill or something like that with your sister-in-law,

00:24:18.240 you tell them that you don't get more back than you pay in.

00:24:21.260 No.

00:24:21.820 That's crazy.

00:24:22.960 Literally, if somebody told you that in the private sector, you'd be like, no, take your Ponzi somewhere else, buddy.

00:24:27.960 That's not my money in my pocket.

00:24:30.340 Exactly.

00:24:31.700 Now, I wanted to ask you while I have you, because not only are you an advocate for smaller, more accountable government through your work with the CTF,

00:24:40.060 but you are also a former journalist.

00:24:41.440 And I wanted to talk to you about the Online Harms Act.

00:24:45.260 That's Justin Trudeau's latest piece of censorship legislation.

00:24:48.860 I think it is probably going to be the single largest piece of censorship legislation in the Western world.

00:24:54.800 It is going to create basically a ministry of pre-crimes, so that if you are considered to be possibly considering committing hate,

00:25:06.420 you could be put under house arrest.

00:25:07.880 It's adding additional crimes to the criminal code, penalties for social media companies for not complying with the law,

00:25:19.880 whatever it might be, allowing people to be dragged before human rights tribunals,

00:25:26.520 for things that they have said far before the enactment of the law, with $20,000 in penalties to the victim of the hate,

00:25:35.640 as well as $50,000 in fees to the government.

00:25:39.240 I mean, it's just outrageous.

00:25:41.600 But inside this, I mean, just to administer something so sweeping,

00:25:46.520 the Liberals have said they're going to create three separate bureaucracies within it.

00:25:52.720 And I think that might be the saving grace in all of this,

00:25:57.000 is that this will work at the speed of government,

00:25:59.500 even though I think it's going to be past a breakneck speed.

00:26:02.160 To staff up and administer bureaucracies,

00:26:06.460 that'll take us into the next election.

00:26:08.460 The Liberals will surely lose.

00:26:10.140 And that might save us.

00:26:12.360 But just from an accountability and size and scope of government viewpoint,

00:26:18.580 this is outrageous.

00:26:20.500 It is absolutely outrageous.

00:26:22.380 So I'm of the school of what Grover Norquist had said,

00:26:26.720 and he leads up, I think it's called the American Center for Tax Reform.

00:26:29.720 It's basically the American version of the Taxpayers Federation,

00:26:32.280 but we're not affiliated.

00:26:33.600 It's a different group.

00:26:34.660 But Grover Norquist said,

00:26:36.480 government should be small enough so that you can drown it in a bathtub. 0.98

00:26:40.140 Yeah.

00:26:41.620 And that's because we all need to be able to live our lives individually

00:26:46.120 and raise our kids and earn our money and keep as much of our money as we can

00:26:51.800 and our property and be good law-abiding, nice citizens.

00:26:55.840 But when you grow the size and scope of government, it takes that away.

00:27:00.680 So it takes away the accountability of government, okay,

00:27:04.260 because through the Taxpayers Federation, we stand for lower taxes,

00:27:07.380 less waste, and more accountable government.

00:27:09.380 So what this piece of legislation does, as far as I can see it, okay,

00:27:14.000 and I'm separating out all of the actual obvious harms,

00:27:18.260 like child harm, all that stuff, which are already illegal, okay,

00:27:21.720 and I'm focusing in on the stuff that they're inexplicably choosing to keep

00:27:27.960 in this piece of legislation,

00:27:29.180 and that is dealing with hate speech, as they would define it.

00:27:33.980 So this is the kicker.

00:27:37.200 Who now gets to decide hate speech?

00:27:39.780 How wide is that parameter going to be?

00:27:42.560 Are they going to start including things like what they call misinformation or disinformation?

00:27:47.700 Say somebody, you know, really, really feels strongly

00:27:54.440 that climate change is going to become a catastrophe in, like, the next 18 months.

00:27:59.920 And I've met people who truly feel this way.

00:28:02.780 Like, they're really frightened, and, like, I have nothing but sympathy for them.

00:28:07.680 And they think it's happening, like, now.

00:28:10.260 Not, like, five years from now, not 10 years from now, not 100 years from now,

00:28:13.380 but, like, they're making plans.

00:28:17.160 Is it now going to become hate crime to try to counsel those folks and say,

00:28:22.300 you know what, you may want to just tap the brakes here.

00:28:24.320 We might be okay.

00:28:25.680 Maybe we can figure out a way to carbon capture,

00:28:28.360 and we don't need the carbon tax, and we'll figure out this way.

00:28:31.040 We'll sell, you know, natural gas to India.

00:28:33.360 We'll work it out.

00:28:35.120 Some folks, when they hear that argument, they get really upset,

00:28:37.980 and they start using words like climate denier and stuff.

00:28:41.860 They have heard that, and so are they going to, like,

00:28:44.360 this is the problem, is I don't know.

00:28:47.240 And is that lack of knowledge now going to chill people's speech?

00:28:51.360 Right.

00:28:52.300 This is it.

00:28:53.060 This is how gag laws and infringements on freedom of expression work.

00:28:57.760 And I'm paraphrasing Christine Van Gein from the Canadian Constitution Foundation,

00:29:01.860 who is doing a really good job explaining this.

00:29:05.060 And she used to work with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation,

00:29:07.280 which is how I know her.

00:29:08.120 She's a lawyer. 0.86

00:29:09.080 She did a great book on the pandemic.

00:29:11.320 So I would encourage everybody to listen to what she's having to say on this,

00:29:15.440 because I don't know yet,

00:29:16.820 but I think her organization is going to be challenging this.

00:29:20.380 They're one of the groups who successfully challenged the Emergencies Act.

00:29:26.600 Right.

00:29:26.680 So the big ruling that came out of the federal court, it was that group.

00:29:30.720 There were two groups, but hers was one of them.

00:29:33.540 And so all this is to say we can't hold our governments to account

00:29:38.800 if we can't express ourselves.

00:29:42.440 So that includes spokespeople like myself,

00:29:45.620 but that also includes, and yourself exactly,

00:29:48.980 but that also includes your viewers, Sheila, and your listeners,

00:29:52.000 your moms and dads and the shopkeepers who support us and the farmers who support us.

00:29:58.800 That means that if they start getting scared to speak,

00:30:02.600 that we're not going to be able to hold government to account.

00:30:06.560 Right.

00:30:07.000 And that's a really bad thing.

00:30:08.720 Right.

00:30:08.860 So I haven't read the entire document of the legislation yet,

00:30:11.880 but this is what this is sounding like.

00:30:14.160 And I certainly hope that there's a way of separating these bills.

00:30:19.020 To me, that sounds like the most reasonable solution here.

00:30:22.680 All right.

00:30:23.240 Separate it.

00:30:24.260 Take what the actual, any decent or reasonable person would call a harm

00:30:28.600 that's happening on the internet.

00:30:30.540 Separate that.

00:30:31.060 Okay.

00:30:31.940 Deal with that quickly and in your own way.

00:30:34.600 And I'm sure it'll pass quickly,

00:30:35.600 but take this future and past potential hate speech tribunally stuff out of it.

00:30:45.700 Hopefully that's what happens.

00:30:48.360 If somebody smarter has a better idea, then by all means, we're all ears.

00:30:53.820 But as of right now, the CTF is concerned.

00:30:58.120 I'll put it that way.

00:30:58.800 We're concerned because this looks like it could affect online expression,

00:31:03.920 which in the American version, they'd be talking about free speech.

00:31:07.140 We talk about free expression here.

00:31:09.240 Right.

00:31:09.920 Well, and I'm skeptical that they would remove the, you know,

00:31:16.180 separate the two aspects of this law, because as you rightly point out,

00:31:22.040 and as we've had lawyers from the Justice Center point out,

00:31:24.740 laws against, you know, what are true online harm already exist.

00:31:30.360 Yes.

00:31:30.460 We need to be in here.

00:31:31.840 That is put into this censorship law as a poison pill for the liberals to be able to argue,

00:31:39.800 look, if you don't let us censor the internet and everything you see and say writ large,

00:31:44.800 then you don't care about kids being safe on the internet.

00:31:48.100 I can see that happening.

00:31:53.000 What I'm curious to see is how both how the media here responds.

00:31:59.300 That's always a question.

00:32:01.120 Both, you know, mainstream government funded and alternative.

00:32:04.620 I'm curious to see who stands up and who says what.

00:32:07.300 But I'm also really curious to see the reaction on in an international media circles.

00:32:13.780 Sorry.

00:32:14.360 So I think I saw a headline.

00:32:16.100 I can't remember.

00:32:16.740 It was a UK paper and it looked like a mainstream UK paper.

00:32:19.720 They said something to the effect of Trudeau staffing up his thought police.

00:32:25.640 Very succinct.

00:32:26.920 And so, again, isn't it interesting how we get right back to the original?

00:32:31.200 Right.

00:32:31.340 When I first saw my first first time I ever saw a man named Ezra Levant, he was going toe to toe with a human rights tribunal.

00:32:39.260 I can't even remember if it was Alberta, Ontario.

00:32:41.560 But it was Alberta.

00:32:42.500 There you go.

00:32:43.140 I was working in Ottawa at the time as a chase producer for mainstream media doing, you know, we were all doing really good work.

00:32:48.880 We were chasing down sponsorship scandal stuff.

00:32:51.220 And I remember seeing this kind of semi grainy handy cam footage that he had set up on a tripod.

00:32:57.100 And it was him arguing it was and I believe it was a free speech issue.

00:33:01.580 Yes.

00:33:01.820 So isn't it interesting now we've come how many years later and now they're trying to put this through again.

00:33:07.800 And it's for the Internet age.

00:33:09.860 Yeah.

00:33:10.100 Well, we'll do it all again.

00:33:11.720 I think Ezra is built for this.

00:33:13.840 I know that we are built for fighting for freedom because we must.

00:33:19.040 What's the alternative?

00:33:20.680 Yes.

00:33:20.800 Chris, tell us how people can support the very important work you do on behalf of all of us at the CTS.

00:33:27.480 Wonderful.

00:33:28.240 So if this is sort of your thing, if you're really concerned about things like free expression or the government not funding the media or the government not trying to regulate podcasts through the CRTC for like moose meat recipes and Celine Dion songs or whatever they're trying to do, you can sign a petition against that stuff on our website.

00:33:47.180 Or if you're just the fiscal stuff, ma'am, thanks very much.

00:33:50.940 You can sign petitions against things like the PST ever happening here in Alberta or carbon taxes, stuff like that.

00:33:58.280 You can do all of that.

00:33:59.600 And by signing our petitions on our website, you then are part of the taxpayer standing army.

00:34:04.740 And when it comes next time for us to mass email someone, for example, if for some reason the conservative party leader loses his way and starts promoting a carbon tax levy after signing a pledge to oppose a carbon tax, there's a tsunami of emails.

00:34:22.380 And phone calls that starts happening.

00:34:24.380 So that's what we do.

00:34:25.800 We are nonpartisan.

00:34:27.540 We're not for profit.

00:34:28.740 We don't care what color jersey you're wearing.

00:34:30.660 Just don't waste our money.

00:34:31.940 And you've got to have accountable government.

00:34:33.560 And don't hike our taxes.

00:34:34.740 And so if you go to our website, taxpayer.com, you can sign up there and you can also read our original journalism as well because we have an investigative journalist on staff now.

00:34:43.660 Yeah.

00:34:43.900 You guys do some great work on access to information filing, which I appreciate because I know just exactly how much work and monotony goes into those little fishing expeditions.

00:34:55.480 And sometimes there's the fish don't bite.

00:34:58.360 You have to start again.

00:35:00.300 I have to do some clarification emails later this afternoon.

00:35:03.240 What did you mean by the word the?

00:35:05.280 Yes.

00:35:05.700 Yes.

00:35:06.340 Yes.

00:35:06.800 And also, I know we're supposed to give you these documents in 30 days, but you'll get them in three years.

00:35:12.060 Which happens all the time.

00:35:15.440 Smiley face.

00:35:16.240 Sorry.

00:35:16.780 Yeah.

00:35:17.280 So that's a whole other kettle of fish.

00:35:18.980 We need reform in our FOI system.

00:35:20.540 Oh, yeah.

00:35:21.380 You know, they'll email me three years later and say, do you still want these documents?

00:35:27.380 You're like, well, my child is now graduated high school.

00:35:30.360 So we're good.

00:35:30.940 The NDP aren't in power anymore in Alberta.

00:35:34.220 But yes, I do still want those documents about the NDP.

00:35:37.620 Yes.

00:35:38.160 To make sure it never happens again.

00:35:40.240 Chris, thank you so much for coming on the show.

00:35:42.200 Thanks so much for the hard work that you do on behalf of families just like mine.

00:35:47.340 Just normal, everyday families just trying to get by while several layers of government do their best to make you poor and shut you up when you complain about it.

00:35:57.740 Thanks so much.

00:35:58.820 Thank you.

00:36:06.160 Well, friends, we've come to the portion of the show wherein I invite your viewer feedback.

00:36:10.260 I say this every week.

00:36:11.120 I know it's redundant, but without you, there's no rebel news.

00:36:13.720 So I actually want to hear from you.

00:36:15.580 I'm not like the mainstream media in that I won't take any money from Justin Trudeau and the opinion of the people who watch us actually matters to me.

00:36:25.100 That's why we keep the comment section open.

00:36:28.360 It's why I give you my email address right now.

00:36:30.340 If you've got something to say about the show today, put gun show letters in the subject line and email me at Sheila at rebelnews.com.

00:36:37.000 But maybe you're not an email person.

00:36:39.640 Maybe you're watching the free version of the show on YouTube or Rumble as it comes out towards the weekend.

00:36:44.760 Thanks for sitting through those ads, by the way.

00:36:46.880 Every little bit helps.

00:36:47.760 But if you are watching there, leave a comment in the comment section.

00:36:53.780 I don't think they limit you on how much or how little you can write.

00:36:57.360 So if you've got something just burning in the bosom about what I've said on the show, for the good or the bad, put it there.

00:37:04.500 And I do read those comments because, as I said, I want to know what you have to say about the topics that I cover here.

00:37:12.560 I try to talk about things that the mainstream media won't touch on or take a different perspective than the mainstream media.

00:37:19.640 I try to talk about things that normal people care about around the dinner table.

00:37:23.680 You know, affordability, free speech, jobs.

00:37:28.280 So let's get into today's gun show letter.

00:37:31.600 And it actually comes from the email inbox.

00:37:34.620 And it's from a regular viewer of the show, Bruce, up in Radway, Alberta.

00:37:38.720 And sometimes he signs off the letter, both him and his cat.

00:37:44.820 And Bruce was watching the show a couple of weeks ago with my former colleague, William Diaz Bertayon, who now works for Young Canadians for Resources.

00:37:57.660 And I couldn't be more proud of the work that he's doing over there.

00:38:00.800 I like to take some maternity over, training that young fellow to be on camera. 0.99

00:38:05.020 And I think he's doing a great job advocating for oil and gas.

00:38:08.840 Now, the problem with his advocacy for oil and gas, well, really, there's no problem for people like me or people like you.

00:38:15.520 But for people like NDP's Charlie Angus, well, he wants to have that speech criminalized.

00:38:21.940 And he wants to treat oil and gas the same way we treat cigarettes with like the scary warning labels and make sure that you can actually never see oil and gas, even though oil and gas is a net benefit to human life and welfare, particularly here in the Western world, where it's a little bit frostier than some of the more temperate equatorial regions where they can rely on solar and wind for their energy needs.

00:38:50.040 Not so here when it is, I think it's minus 28 here today.

00:38:56.620 So warmed up a little from this morning.

00:39:00.100 Anyway, let's get into the letter from our friend Bruce.

00:39:03.380 Hi, Sheila.

00:39:04.360 I guess I'll be in prison too if that lunatic Charlie Angus gets his way.

00:39:09.500 I've posted on Facebook about how good Alberta oil is.

00:39:12.520 Yes, Bruce, you can join my prison band.

00:39:14.780 And, you know, it's one thing to mock Charlie Angus because he's a member of the third party and he's their fringe radicals.

00:39:24.080 But is what Charlie Angus, is what he's proposing any less crazy than what Justin Trudeau wants to do with the Online Harms Act?

00:39:33.880 You know, imprison you for pre-crimes or things that you said or did before they were crimes at all.

00:39:42.840 And the crime here being hurting somebody's feelings, making them be uncomfortable or sharing a divergent viewpoint than that of the mainstream media or the governing party.

00:39:52.960 But I think there's the Venn diagram there is actually a circle.

00:39:56.720 Let's keep going.

00:39:57.600 I also posted on the Rebel News site how oil saved the whales and the trees.

00:40:01.780 Yes, it did.

00:40:02.820 It did.

00:40:03.360 We humans were killing whales for whale oil until we decided that we should maybe burn oil oil in our oil lamps instead of whale oil.

00:40:15.680 And plastic bags did save the trees.

00:40:18.000 Now they want us to go back to paper.

00:40:20.860 Okay.

00:40:21.920 Imagine having to use whale oil for lamps and cutting down forests just to keep warm.

00:40:25.960 Fossil fuels have saved both creatures.

00:40:30.540 Definitely.

00:40:31.420 They've saved us, Albertans, who live in the wilds like I do and Bruce does.

00:40:42.200 I agree that most folks have never heard the other side of the story.

00:40:45.360 And most people are being brainwashed to believe the lies of anti-oil activists.

00:40:49.920 We need to proclaim the awesome benefits of Alberta oil, gas, and coal.

00:40:53.240 Since children aren't taught to think things through, we must help adults see the flaws in the hard left propagandist's claims.

00:41:00.400 Yours in Radway, Bruce.

00:41:02.360 Yes.

00:41:03.260 I think that's why the work of my friend Robbie Picard is so important with Oil Sand Strong and Oil and Gas World magazine.

00:41:10.800 And, of course, my young former colleague, William.

00:41:15.380 It's nice to see him doing well and fully integrating into his new home of Alberta.

00:41:20.500 We've really made him one of ours.

00:41:23.900 He left the progressive government hellscape of Ottawa, and he is a fully inculcated Albertan fighting for our way of life.

00:41:34.160 And it's wonderful to see.

00:41:36.280 It's the land of opportunity, truly, truly.

00:41:38.620 Well, friends, that's the show for tonight.

00:41:39.940 Thank you so much for tuning in.

00:41:41.260 And I'll see everybody back here in the same time, in the same place next week.

00:41:44.160 And, as always, especially as the Online Harms Act looms before us, don't let the government tell you that you've had too much to think.

Rebel News Podcast - March 07, 2024

SHEILA GUNN REID ｜ Alberta's latest budget delays one promise and fulfills another

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