Rebel News Podcast - SHEILA GUNN REID ｜ April Fool's Day meant the joke was on Canadian taxpayers

00:00:00.000 The carbon tax just went up. What does it mean for your family? I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed and you're watching The Gunn Show.

00:00:30.000 April 1st, April Fool's Day, and our national clown, Justin Trudeau, has decided to make living in Canada even more unbearably expensive.

00:00:47.340 Hiking the carbon tax has cost on everything from $65 a ton to $80. This will add hundreds of dollars in tax burden to everyday Canadians, even though Justin Trudeau often repeats the misinformation that Canadians will receive more back in rebates than they pay in the carbon tax. Look at this.

00:01:11.460 The facts matter. The premiers, Conservative premiers specifically, are misleading Canadians.

00:01:21.600 The Conservative opposition in Ottawa and Pierre Polyev are not telling the truth to Canadians.

00:01:30.960 The parliamentary budget officer himself says very clearly that 8 out of 10 families across the country do better with the Canada carbon rebate because we have put a price on pollution.

00:01:49.300 It is more money in the pockets of families right across the country at a time where more money is needed, and it's concrete action to fight climate change at a time where we're seeing the impacts of extreme weather events, floods, fires, droughts.

00:02:08.300 Conservatives are ideologically opposed to fighting climate change, to making polluters, even big polluters pay, and we put a price on pollution that makes sure people are looking for ways to reduce their emissions,

00:02:28.300 and families, and families, particularly low-income and middle-income families do better with more money in their pockets to continue to raise their families and build a future.

00:02:40.720 That's what our price on pollution is all about, and that's what the Conservatives, politicians across this country are trying to mislead Canadians about.

00:02:51.940 But his own parliamentary budget officer says something entirely different, as you'll hear from my guest today, Chris Sims of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, who joined me to break down all the misinformation about the carbon tax, what it means for your family's bottom line, and a lot more on how the government spends your money.

00:03:12.680 Take a listen.

00:03:21.940 My good friend, Chris Sims from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, and we are recording this on Tuesday, April 2nd, so we are one day into the enormous carbon tax hike.

00:03:36.780 Chris, tell us how much the carbon tax is going up and how much it is going to cost your average everyday Canadian family already struggling to get by thanks to the government-induced inflation.

00:03:48.800 Yeah, sorry to be the rain cloud, but I think it's really important that people know the math here.

00:03:53.800 So the carbon tax is going up to $80 per ton.

00:03:57.300 What that means is that it's now going to be $0.17 per litre of gasoline, $0.21 per litre of diesel, and $0.15 per cubic metre of natural gas.

00:04:07.580 We, of course, use natural gas for things like heating our home, and some people even use it for their electricity.

00:04:12.820 So that then means that the cost of everything is going up, because even if, you know, you're Monica and you're living in downtown Calgary and you're filling up a tiny hatchback, that is not the sum of your carbon tax bill.

00:04:26.900 No, no, because we all eat and use things, so all of that stuff is brought to us on a truck.

00:04:33.460 And a trucker now, just picture this, filling up a big rig is going to be spending over $200 extra just in the carbon tax, filling up those big rigs of diesel.

00:04:45.200 That's not including the GST, not including other taxes, or, of course, the price of the fuel.

00:04:49.500 So that's a huge cost.

00:04:50.780 And then farmers, farmers are also nailed, actually, by Justin Trudeau's carbon tax, because they have to keep things like barns of chickens alive in the middle of February.

00:05:01.120 And they can't do that with solar panels.

00:05:03.500 You have to use natural gas and propane to do that, to keep it at 30 degrees Celsius.

00:05:07.940 And so farmers are actually nailed for heating their barns and drying their grain with the carbon tax.

00:05:14.040 And so then you get this kind of layering effect at the farm, at the trucking level, at your level of driving to the grocery store, at the store's level.

00:05:22.680 We're keeping things hot and cold using fuels.

00:05:24.980 And so this is why this is such an enormous cost.

00:05:28.620 And the parliamentary budget officer did the math.

00:05:31.600 The average Alberta family will be out net more than $900 this year because of the carbon tax.

00:05:39.760 That's with rebates factored in.

00:05:41.560 That's my sign I have back there.

00:05:44.040 So I was waving that around in Lethbridge yesterday.

00:05:47.200 So, yeah, no matter what Prime Minister Trudeau tries to tell you, when he tries to look you dead in the eye and say, my increased taxes are making you richer.

00:05:55.580 Just trust me.

00:05:56.360 Like, that's pretty gross.

00:05:58.500 Everybody knows that's not true.

00:06:00.300 But it's really, really not true, especially here in Alberta.

00:06:03.440 Average family, you're out more than $900.

00:06:06.060 And again, this is just going to go up.

00:06:07.800 Like, he has not indicated he's going to reduce it or scrap it or whatever.

00:06:11.820 Yeah, and emissions aren't going down either because people need to eat.

00:06:16.020 We need to stay warm.

00:06:17.380 And, you know, there's another side note that, you know, when Justin Trudeau says, oh, I just offset it all with rebates.

00:06:25.800 Well, no, because even if that were true, even if the rebates equaled the amount of money they were expropriating from your family cumulatively along the way,

00:06:38.260 even if that were true, it has to be cycled through the hands of a thousand bureaucrats and they don't work for free either.

00:06:46.700 That is a great point.

00:06:48.100 Yeah, it costs us hundreds of millions of dollars to both administer and process the carbon tax and also the GST, which is added to the carbon tax.

00:06:58.500 I know that just I get quite a few emails about that of what this is a tax on tax.

00:07:03.400 Yes, brothers and sisters, this is a tax on tax and it's costing you megabucks.

00:07:07.980 And your point is exactly correct, Sheila.

00:07:10.340 And I just want to encourage people because politicians of every strike, once they've been in power for a while, they can kind of take on the characteristics of a bully.

00:07:19.560 OK, and I don't care what party you're in and a bully will often tell you that them picking on you is your fault, right?

00:07:30.760 OK, this is not your fault, folks.

00:07:33.080 If you are struggling to get by, if you are shocked at how much it is costing you on your heat bill, if you're like gagging when you're trying to fill up your pickup truck because it's costing you so much money, this is not your fault.

00:07:44.320 OK, when the prime minister tells you, you get more money back than you pay in, don't listen to that.

00:07:50.040 OK, so, you know, the the very, very poor, OK, who can't even afford a car, all right, who are already taking the bus or walking to whatever they need to do close to their home.

00:08:00.700 Yeah, they're going to be getting some money back.

00:08:02.900 But again, that's the very, very poor.

00:08:05.100 When they launched this carbon tax, remember, folks, this was to save the planet.

00:08:09.720 This was to dramatically reduce emissions in order to save the planet.

00:08:15.420 This was not supposed to be a wealth redistribution plan.

00:08:20.300 But now, bizarrely, we are seeing ministers admit to basically that.

00:08:25.420 It's like, yeah, this is a way to redistribute wealth to those who need it.

00:08:28.360 Like this was never what the carbon tax was supposed to be about.

00:08:31.820 OK, and now they're panicking and scrambling and trying to change the narrative.

00:08:36.280 Don't listen to that noise.

00:08:37.700 Just picture it like this.

00:08:38.860 If you gave the government a $20 bill, how are they supposed to turn that into a $50 and hand it back to you?

00:08:46.780 They can't.

00:08:47.880 Like, they can't.

00:08:48.700 That's a policy scheme.

00:08:49.380 That's a policy scheme.

00:08:50.760 Exactly.

00:08:51.460 Like, government costs money.

00:08:53.820 It does not, like, increase the wealth or value of a banknote and hand it back to you.

00:08:59.080 This is not how this is working.

00:09:00.800 And so, again, anybody who wants the hard math, go check out the Parliamentary Budget Officer report.

00:09:06.220 I know it sounds daunting, but it's not.

00:09:08.440 Scroll to the bottom and he's got all the charts on there.

00:09:11.580 And look at the very bottom line for Alberta, for example.

00:09:14.280 And it's got that number on it.

00:09:16.060 And what they did is they didn't just do Monica and her little Honda Civic.

00:09:20.760 That wasn't it because that, of course, is not the entirety of the carbon tax.

00:09:24.300 They did the farming.

00:09:25.560 They did the GST.

00:09:26.680 They did the administration.

00:09:27.580 They did the economic holistic cost for the individual for the carbon tax, which is the true cost.

00:09:34.640 That's how that number is so true.

00:09:36.840 So, again, you're out net more than $900.

00:09:38.720 And there are people who, you know, like, you realize that this is driving food inflation.

00:09:46.700 I mean, you don't need a Parliamentary Budget Officer to tell you that your two liter of milk at the grocery store right now costs as much as the four liter did three years ago.

00:09:58.860 Just go and check it out for yourself.

00:10:01.120 I looked at that the other day because you have to buy milk.

00:10:04.520 You just you have to buy milk.

00:10:06.140 It's a necessity.

00:10:08.300 And, you know, grabbing it off the shelf, I'm really realizing I'm paying 100% more for it than I did.

00:10:15.520 And then when you think about families who are on the cusp who have to make hard nutritional decisions now, not just hard recreational decisions.

00:10:23.660 No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

00:10:24.800 But nutritional decisions because of the carbon tax.

00:10:28.320 Yep.

00:10:28.620 And then there are farmers, right?

00:10:30.560 Farmers are price takers by and large.

00:10:33.460 Yeah.

00:10:33.620 They're not price setters.

00:10:35.040 So when farmers sell their grain, they take what the price of grain is on the open market that day.

00:10:44.780 So that when their input costs go up, they just get poorer.

00:10:49.440 They can't pass that along to the consumer whatsoever.

00:10:52.000 And so they're at the whims of the open market, which normally works for us.

00:10:57.320 The government isn't gouging us on the other side with their little green schemes.

00:11:02.440 Yeah, exactly.

00:11:03.200 If you just want to do a mental note, compare, say, Saskatchewan to Montana.

00:11:08.180 Yeah.

00:11:08.320 They're not paying it in Montana.

00:11:09.900 It's the same stuff that they're growing.

00:11:11.660 But in Saskatchewan, they're paying through the nose for that exact same product because of the government's actions.

00:11:18.640 There's also so there's the carbon tax makes everything cost more.

00:11:21.180 And then I was asked about this by the media yesterday.

00:11:24.600 And it's like, well, what else is driving, you know, food inflation?

00:11:27.900 And I said, well, inflation.

00:11:29.740 Inflation itself, which is also the federal government's fault.

00:11:33.540 So the next time that the federal government tries to say, oh, well, this was, you know, the global phenomenon, like it like as if like a tsunami suddenly rolled naturally around the earth and they did not cause this.

00:11:45.140 It's like, no, no, you guys are the ones who locked down businesses, who drove the economy to a grinding halt, who stopped the production of goods.

00:11:53.560 OK, we're talking about dollars and goods and the basics of supply economics here.

00:11:58.260 So you guys ground the production of goods in many cases to a halt or a trickle for a long time.

00:12:05.120 And on the other side of things, you printed hundreds of billions of dollars out of thin air.

00:12:09.880 So as my friend and economist Franco Terrazano would say, you're having too many dollars chasing too few goods.

00:12:16.540 Bingo, there's inflation.

00:12:17.540 And so you've got this terrible, perfect storm of both inflation and carbon tax increases, which, again, is costing people big time money.

00:12:27.040 Yeah.

00:12:27.260 Remember when we had that cold snap here on the prairies?

00:12:29.900 How could we sure do that?

00:12:31.660 We were threatened with rolling blackouts because we have polluted our electricity grid with green energy.

00:12:40.500 We brought our coal fired plants offline and are phasing them out before we could ramp up natural gas production.

00:12:47.540 Thanks, NDP.

00:12:49.280 But inflation in Alberta was high that month, but lower in Saskatchewan because Saskatchewan was able to produce reliable electricity at a reasonable rate without collecting the carbon tax.

00:13:05.920 And Alberta had to buy coal fired electricity at an increased cost because of supply demands and charge the carbon tax on it from our friends in Montana and Wyoming.

00:13:16.460 So that's just one little place where inflation is affected directly by the carbon tax.

00:13:22.600 And it happened to Alberta where we're just we're the Saudi Arabia of coal that we are not allowed to use for some reason.

00:13:29.280 And and it's because of green schemes, carbon taxes, electricity shortages.

00:13:35.320 And apparently we're having a Dickens of a time of getting new gas gas gas fired plants online.

00:13:42.060 We're delayed.

00:13:43.180 Yeah, we're delayed.

00:13:44.780 And I was talking to my friend Michelle Sterling from Friends of Science, and she said a lot of that has to do with the it takes time to get these natural gas powered plants online and they just can't get built overnight.

00:13:58.640 And what happened was with the NDP in power, those plants weren't being built with.

00:14:04.580 So you have the NDP in power in Alberta plus Justin Trudeau.

00:14:08.160 You've got a lot of regulatory uncertainty.

00:14:10.960 Companies don't want to make multibillion dollar investments in electricity production in a place where they might tell you, actually, now that's illegal.

00:14:19.780 So, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

00:14:23.940 How is that good for anybody's investment?

00:14:26.020 So, no, I remember that distinctly.

00:14:27.660 I had to go out and get a little battery pack for my son's fish tank that he takes such good care of.

00:14:33.020 Like he's so conscientious.

00:14:34.360 And there was no way I was letting poor fish die because, of course, they need a bubbler and like an eater and stuff.

00:14:39.460 It was the middle of I think it was February, wasn't it?

00:14:41.820 Yeah.

00:14:41.980 For January.

00:14:43.040 That was a big snap.

00:14:44.020 So never did I think moving to Alberta that I would have the premier having an alert going across your phone saying we might have to be rolling blackouts.

00:14:52.320 That was pretty brutal.

00:14:54.300 Not NDP.

00:14:55.040 Not even once.

00:14:56.240 That's a lesson for everybody.

00:14:58.920 Now, I wanted to ask you about how it felt to see Canadians out yesterday, Monday, all across the country protesting the hike in the carbon tax.

00:15:09.560 I know you were out there just doing your little solo protests, but there were thousands of Canadians out in small towns and big cities in places you wouldn't expect it, like Vancouver and Ottawa, although Ottawa is becoming a bit of a conservative protest hub lately.

00:15:25.940 Did something happen there before?

00:15:27.220 Yeah, some weird.

00:15:29.020 But in spite of the fact that the federal government doesn't like it when conservatives are out protesting on the street, they considered a national emergency.

00:15:37.240 People were out there, and I think across all party lines, I should say, protesting the hike in the carbon tax.

00:15:43.740 And I was at one in Lloydminster to the site of, you know, the cross-border holy hands against the carbon tax protest.

00:15:53.440 And it was great.

00:15:54.920 But how did it make you feel as someone who objects to taxes, generally speaking?

00:15:59.160 You know, it's something that the CTF has been fighting since it was first hatched in British Columbia way back in 2008 by then-BC Liberal Premier Gordon Campbell.

00:16:10.760 And that's how it slid under the door in Canada, by the way, because they sold it as revenue neutral.

00:16:15.680 And to be fair, it was for the first year or so because they did a corresponding income tax cut.

00:16:19.740 But like an alligator, these things grow, and then they eat your family.

00:16:24.120 So that's exactly what's happened with the carbon tax now.

00:16:26.680 So CTF has been fighting this forever.

00:16:28.880 You can even tell because, like, some of our bumper stickers are old versions.

00:16:32.260 So it was wonderful to see people speaking up, again, across party lines, saying, we want this thing gone and scrapped.

00:16:39.060 And that is showing true with the polling.

00:16:42.500 So we've seen polling coming out now that around 70% of Canadians, 7-0, either want this thing frozen or scrapped.

00:16:49.380 We now, I think, Wab Kanu of NDP Premier of Manitoba has now officially said, yes, I want this thing frozen or scrapped.

00:16:57.380 So I think that's now 8 out of 10 provincial premiers.

00:17:01.360 Like, that's pretty darn impressive.

00:17:03.740 And we've also, keep in mind, that's, again, across party lines because we have the Liberal Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, Premier Fury, saying the same thing.

00:17:11.460 So this is really encouraging to see people finally finding their confidence, finding their bravery in their voice and speaking up and pushing back on this.

00:17:20.480 And I'm pretty happy to hear, for example, that you said there is a protest in Vancouver.

00:17:24.380 They should be protesting in Vancouver.

00:17:26.020 For sure.

00:17:27.900 Gasoline is $2 something a litre there right now.

00:17:31.280 That is disgusting.

00:17:32.220 If you were filling up a family minivan there, just doing the math, that's costing you $150 to fill up, like, a Dodge Caravan. 0.97

00:17:43.080 Like, that's insane.

00:17:44.780 I remember, Sheila, one of the last conversations I had with a lady in BC before fleeing financially to Alberta was this lady phoned me.

00:17:55.100 And Taxpayers Federation, they think, like, you're the tax person and can help them somehow, like, with the government and that.

00:18:00.980 And so sometimes you wind up just listening because they need somebody to talk to.

00:18:05.020 It's therapy a little bit, yeah.

00:18:06.560 It is.

00:18:07.260 And so this is in the depths of the lockdown.

00:18:09.320 Things were really rough.

00:18:10.940 And gas, I forget when this happened.

00:18:13.560 Or maybe I'm getting my times mixed up.

00:18:15.020 Gas was about $2 a litre.

00:18:16.780 That I remember.

00:18:17.920 And she phoned me from Chilliwack.

00:18:20.060 She was in her 60s.

00:18:21.240 She was living in a basement suite.

00:18:22.900 She was paying around $25 to $2,600 a month rent.

00:18:27.320 With her adult son living with her, who is a tradesman, she started crying, Sheila, because her son couldn't afford to fill up even his small little pickup truck, his little Chevy S10, to get himself and his tools over to the job site in Maple Ridge.

00:18:43.780 Because, of course, people had to commute down the valley.

00:18:46.940 Nobody could afford to live, you know, close to the epicenter of Vancouver, including tradespeople.

00:18:52.260 And so when that kind of a working person is at their rope's end, this is when people, they must, they must speak up.

00:18:59.440 Like, we don't care who you vote for or whatever, but you need to pay attention to the topics and the conversation.

00:19:04.160 And it's good that people were out protesting the carbon tax.

00:19:06.720 Yeah, I was by myself.

00:19:07.860 I did some media chats yesterday, and then I stood on Mayor McGrath here in Lethbridge by the gas station and got people honking and waving.

00:19:15.360 But it's, I think, I think the tide has turned.

00:19:18.140 I think it's turning on the carbon tax.

00:19:20.000 And I don't think that the Trudeau government can sustain this kind of pressure for that much longer.

00:19:24.520 When you have that many people speaking up and so many premiers pushing back across party lines.

00:19:29.620 I'm actually hearing now, the scuttlebutts through different staffers and stuff in Ottawa, is that the provincial level of the party, of the Liberals, have put out kind of a communique, so to speak, of keep up the fight.

00:19:45.660 Don't cave on the carbon tax.

00:19:47.300 We're not letting go of this one.

00:19:49.120 Which is very interesting, especially when you see this fight going on between Trudeau and the premier of Newfoundland and Labrador.

00:19:55.940 So that's either the same or very similar party.

00:19:59.340 And to have the rank and file at the provincial level saying, you know what?

00:20:02.620 No, we're going to keep up this fight.

00:20:04.560 That's very telling.

00:20:06.480 Yeah.

00:20:06.940 And I mean, I think it's going to manifest at the polls in ways that the Liberals don't even, I think maybe they do see coming.

00:20:15.180 But I was reading some abacus polling data because I'm a nerd.

00:20:19.780 And it was on the electoral topics that are of concern for Gen Z and millennials.

00:20:32.060 And wouldn't you know it, climate change is really not even in the top five.

00:20:37.400 It's affordability issues.

00:20:39.120 And they are making the connection now that climate change policies are driving the problem with affordability.

00:20:50.860 And I think really only the conservatives right now are the ones speaking to young people about those affordability issues.

00:20:58.460 And they are leaving the Liberal Party in droves.

00:21:01.620 Like those are your reliable Liberal voters.

00:21:05.020 And they are saying we can't afford to live in Trudeau's Canada.

00:21:10.620 And I think the Liberals are going to get mugged by reality at the polls.

00:21:14.540 Mugged by reality is a great term for this.

00:21:16.120 And you know what's kind of grim and a little bit fascinating at the same time is, so rewind years ago, before the carbon tax had started costing this amount of money and before it came to this kind of a head.

00:21:27.180 Because keep in mind, it's not just carbon taxes.

00:21:28.660 It's trying to block pipelines.

00:21:30.380 It's trying to strangle energy.

00:21:31.800 Like it isn't just the carbon tax.

00:21:33.760 It's so much that goes along with that kind of rigid ideology.

00:21:36.580 But remember years back when we would be having discussions about, say, small e-environmentalism.

00:21:44.040 Okay, I'm talking about keeping your water clean, not destroying an entire species.

00:21:47.880 Right, with that?

00:21:48.760 Don't litter.

00:21:49.840 Exactly, don't litter. 0.99

00:21:51.300 You know, let's not kill off all the whales.

00:21:53.680 Like those normal environmental sort of concerns that decent people have.

00:21:57.640 Remember when the smart people were often pointing out, you know what, as countries, not here, as countries become more wealthy, as people have more disposable income and the ability to, you know, they don't need to worry about feeding their kids.

00:22:13.620 They don't need to worry as much about being able to afford a house or heat or that sort of stuff.

00:22:19.460 Then an environmental consciousness can start manifesting.

00:22:23.720 Then you start wondering, hmm, do I pick the free-range eggs versus the caged eggs?

00:22:29.240 Do I want to go to this direction or that direction?

00:22:31.860 Because it frees up their minds in order to think about lofty goals like that.

00:22:37.160 Isn't it startling that now we are seeing the same sort of bare-knuckles mentality coming down to our own young people?

00:22:46.580 And I don't blame them whatsoever.

00:22:47.960 You know, my family and I moved to Alberta so we could afford a house in our 40s.

00:22:54.240 So the idea that, you know, a young person in a place like British Columbia, for example, or Toronto, saving for 30 or 40 years, for what?

00:23:03.800 For what?

00:23:04.880 To be able to afford a house that their parents easily afforded?

00:23:08.360 And why?

00:23:09.180 And again, getting back to, like, inflation has helped cause this.

00:23:12.620 So much government policy and lack of policy has helped cause these problems.

00:23:17.180 And so isn't it interesting how now these sort of more lofty foreign affairs magazine ideas have come home to roost here in Canada and they're playing it out economically?

00:23:26.380 I want to ask you, before we move on to a couple of other things, you are disappointed in Premier Danielle Smith because she's been so great on the carbon tax and pushing back against the fence on their, you know, clean energy regulations and emissions caps, all the things that stifle economic growth and job creation out here in the West. 0.80

00:23:51.000 She's been great on that.

00:23:52.380 Yeah.

00:23:52.660 Awesome.

00:23:53.360 Like, rock star level.

00:23:55.100 The gas tax.

00:23:56.520 Yeah.

00:23:58.120 Yeah.

00:23:58.780 So I think it's no secret.

00:24:01.880 I really like Danielle Smith.

00:24:04.660 I knew her before she was Premier.

00:24:06.640 We both worked on radio.

00:24:08.240 We would meet each other at conferences and stuff.

00:24:10.160 She's a super likable person.

00:24:11.740 In fact, I would hazard to guess people who probably don't even vote for her probably enjoy being in her company.

00:24:17.860 Right.

00:24:18.020 And so I think this is why I'll admit this is kind of a tough situation, a bit of a tricky situation where I would argue most kind of freedom oriented, small government, low tax people, especially in Alberta, to exactly your point, really like the Premier.

00:24:35.440 So I want to separate this from the personal.

00:24:38.580 So this isn't personal.

00:24:40.240 This is policy.

00:24:41.760 But what the heck is going on with the fuel tax?

00:24:44.780 For real.

00:24:45.920 So I don't get this.

00:24:47.300 So they did the Alberta government did the right thing when they dropped the Alberta fuel tax, which is usually 13 cents per liter of gasoline and diesel.

00:24:56.480 They dropped it all the way down to zero.

00:24:58.660 Premier Smith, when she made her announcement, said, and I'm paraphrasing, affordability is a major crisis.

00:25:04.200 People are struggling to buy the basics.

00:25:06.680 I want to put up a shield against Prime Minister Trudeau's carbon tax.

00:25:10.380 Again, I'm paraphrasing and do the right thing.

00:25:12.560 So she dropped it to zero for an entire year, which was awesome.

00:25:16.000 So Albertans saved around a billion dollars with a beat.

00:25:20.400 It was great.

00:25:21.240 Really good move.

00:25:22.060 We praised them to the skies.

00:25:23.680 I did an entire tour praising this government for doing that.

00:25:26.620 But now we've come down to this point where yesterday we had this huge carbon tax hike coming from Prime Minister Trudeau, which got a lot of attention.

00:25:35.340 But on the same day, our provincial fuel tax went all the way back up to 13 cents per liter.

00:25:42.740 Right.

00:25:43.260 Like, what gives?

00:25:46.340 Like, I am actually puzzled.

00:25:48.320 I don't understand.

00:25:49.940 And here we have just today, like I think it was just an hour ago, NDP, Premier of Manitoba, Wob Canoe, announced, by the way, my fuel tax holiday is extended.

00:26:00.620 So for the first, yeah, for the foreseeable future, Manitobans are paying zero for their provincial fuel tax, 14 cents gone here in Alberta, full freight, 13 cents a liter.

00:26:13.420 So this is where it's frustrating, where you can cheer on a premier going to a committee and doing the right things, like yelling at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over his carbon tax.

00:26:24.360 But yet here, coming out of Edmonton, we're getting a tax hike nonetheless.

00:26:29.860 And so this is where I'm in a bit of a quandary.

00:26:32.200 I would, you know, if a viewer is watching and they have an explanation or some advice for me, like, please email me because I'm a bit stumped.

00:26:38.620 Yeah, I don't know how Justin Trudeau's fuel tax is bad, but our fuel tax is good.

00:26:44.160 Like, take out the motivation for the fuel tax, whatever it might be.

00:26:49.340 If one is making me poorer, then surely the other one is too.

00:26:53.820 Yeah, it's just money, right?

00:26:55.660 It's just money.

00:26:56.380 Like, numbers are numbers.

00:26:57.480 Money is money.

00:26:58.640 And it's one of those things where, even just from a, if you can put my communications hat on, why did they do this on the same day?

00:27:05.920 Because, right, like, you could have had the entire song and dance of going to Ottawa, and everybody could have just cheered vigorously while you're going out for the carbon tax.

00:27:18.580 But if you do, if you increase your own tax at home, like, that took at least 50% of their messaging away.

00:27:25.180 Sure.

00:27:25.700 Like, it's one of those things where I almost, it's like, listen, I understand.

00:27:29.700 He's being a bad man.

00:27:31.140 He's increasing our carbon tax.

00:27:32.440 Let him be the bad man today.

00:27:33.980 Like, I want to help you throw shoes at him, girlfriend. 1.00

00:27:37.020 But why are you hiking my taxes at the same time?

00:27:40.100 Like, help me help you.

00:27:41.620 I've got two shoes.

00:27:42.580 One's for him and one's for you right now.

00:27:44.660 Yeah.

00:27:45.320 Exactly.

00:27:46.080 And so, and by throwing shoes, I mean that metaphorically, of course.

00:27:49.020 You know, if you can.

00:27:50.480 Don't write me letters.

00:27:51.840 No, please don't.

00:27:52.600 And, you know, speaking of things all happening on the same day, liberals give themselves an $8,500 pay raise.

00:28:01.020 And it's not just the liberals, but all MPs.

00:28:04.380 Well, I have no, I should note, some conservative MPs are donating theirs out of solidarity with the struggling Canadian taxpayer.

00:28:13.640 But MPs got their April Fool's Day raise, $8,500, I think is the average, while the rest of us get poorer.

00:28:22.520 Yes, and again, to your point, I know there, I think there's a few who are saying I'm donating to charity.

00:28:29.620 Good job.

00:28:30.460 But we have yet to see a full-throated press conference throw down. 0.52

00:28:35.640 As soon as I'm leader, I'm scrapping these ridiculous pay hikes.

00:28:38.780 This is wrong.

00:28:39.840 We haven't seen that happen yet.

00:28:41.540 And we really want to.

00:28:42.880 Franco has said federally, keep in mind that over all these past four years, right, during lockdowns and people losing their businesses, people getting their wages drastically slashed, like losing, like, pretty much everything, every single year, these folks have gotten a raise.

00:29:01.060 They haven't skipped one, right?

00:29:04.140 That's pretty gross.

00:29:05.420 And the prime minister, to put a dollar figure on it, is now making around $400,000.

00:29:12.740 A cabinet minister or a leader of the opposition, the very similar sort of levels of authority in the House of Commons, now is close to $300,000.

00:29:22.920 And to really describe it, like, the prime minister lives in a mansion, like, everything is basically paid for.

00:29:29.460 Right.

00:29:29.760 Plus a salary.

00:29:30.660 Pocket money.

00:29:31.380 Pocket money.

00:29:32.480 Pocket money, $400,000.

00:29:33.760 And then keep in mind, also, just MPs in general, like, for the most part, their power bills are paid, their food is paid for, their travel is paid for, all that.

00:29:43.440 Thank you.

00:29:44.100 All that stuff that you and I and normal working people are like, oh, got to get these bills paid, that's covered, for the most part, for MPs.

00:29:52.460 Even little things, or people would call it little things.

00:29:54.960 I actually find it really annoying.

00:29:56.400 A lot of members of Parliament, even when they're in Ottawa, okay, I'm not talking about if they're traveling or having to go somewhere far out of their way, but at Ottawa, where they have apartments, okay, and lunch and dinner are served to them in the House of Commons lobby, like, hot fish type stuff, yeah, every day.

00:30:14.080 Like, they still charge a per diem.

00:30:16.860 Yeah.

00:30:17.540 Because they're away from home.

00:30:20.200 Even though they've got, like, they're not just living out of a suitcase, they're not in a hotel, they're in, like, an apartment that is paid for.

00:30:26.340 But I know, not all of them do it, but I know for a fact that some MPs do it every single day, they rack up the most per diem they can every day while in Ottawa.

00:30:35.820 Gross.

00:30:36.740 Yeah. 0.99

00:30:36.960 Gross. 0.96

00:30:37.140 Totally gross.

00:30:38.080 So, yeah, we want, and again, it happens all on the same day, and I know it sounds like a cruel joke, and for the longest time, I couldn't understand what was happening on the same day, and it's, of course, because it's the end of fiscal.

00:30:49.080 So, fiscal financial nerds, like, you and I celebrate New Year's Day on January 1st.

00:30:54.700 Financial nerds, for some reason, they do this at the end of fiscal, which is April 1st, so go figure.

00:31:00.140 I think it's fitting.

00:31:01.940 It's fitting.

00:31:03.540 That's the hand of God working there. 0.99

00:31:05.680 They're playing us for fools, Sheila. 0.99

00:31:08.020 Absolutely. 0.98

00:31:09.220 Now, before I let you go, I wanted to ask you about the recent news that the Justin Trudeau liberals have managed to waste, unsurprising to, I think, nobody, 42, I think it is, million dollars in their gun confiscation program without confiscating any guns.

00:31:30.820 And I'm happy, don't get me wrong, I'm happy for the government ineptitude here.

00:31:35.600 I'm overjoyed that they can't manage to take our guns away.

00:31:40.260 I'm annoyed with the amount of money they've spent to accomplish nothing.

00:31:44.400 That's where I'm at.

00:31:45.200 I feel that way about so many things that the government tries to do.

00:31:48.880 It's like, oh, wow, that's a horrific waste of money.

00:31:51.200 Thank goodness it didn't work.

00:31:53.740 So, yeah, they have not confiscated a single firearm from a law-abiding Canadian.

00:31:59.340 So, that's, I guess, a good thing.

00:32:01.360 That's a win.

00:32:02.060 Yeah.

00:32:02.420 But they've still, in prime Ottawa fashion, have managed to blow more than $40 million.

00:32:08.000 And folks who don't yet follow this, you should start paying attention to it.

00:32:13.360 Because the firearm seizure, I don't like calling it a buyback because we didn't buy.

00:32:18.920 Yeah.

00:32:19.180 I didn't buy my shotgun from Justin Trudeau.

00:32:21.880 I didn't buy it from the federal government.

00:32:23.460 And so, it's not a buyback.

00:32:26.620 It's a seizure or a confiscation.

00:32:28.580 And already, they're wasting this much money.

00:32:31.780 And again, we have to stress that leaders of police officers have said out loud with their faces,

00:32:38.660 this does not help public safety.

00:32:41.380 What will help public safety is trying to catch illegal guns at the border.

00:32:45.740 Okay?

00:32:46.440 Or putting more boots on the ground to deal with gang violence.

00:32:49.400 Bad guys in jail.

00:32:50.380 Thank you.

00:32:50.800 More bad guys in jail.

00:32:52.180 More boots on the ground.

00:32:53.240 Especially in urban communities or in rural communities that need to have higher patrol for security purposes.

00:32:59.180 That sort of stuff.

00:33:00.400 This is coming from the police themselves.

00:33:02.680 And so, this is where things get really frustrating.

00:33:05.040 Because the government just starts trying to wildly do things that they know very little about.

00:33:10.980 It costs people a ton of money.

00:33:13.000 And it's wrong.

00:33:13.960 Seizing people's private property is absolutely wrong.

00:33:16.320 And for folks who don't own firearms, just wait till it's something else that the government wants to seize.

00:33:21.480 And you own it legally and lawfully.

00:33:23.360 And you're not doing anything wrong.

00:33:24.920 Because it's eventually going to happen.

00:33:26.720 They'll start with things like firearms.

00:33:28.640 Because it's an easy wedge issue.

00:33:30.580 But, so the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, we were instrumental in the fight against the old long gun registry.

00:33:35.680 Which wound up costing, like, I think it was close to $2 billion by the time the smoke cleared.

00:33:40.860 Again, didn't make Canadians any safer.

00:33:43.480 And again, we are also fighting this one as well.

00:33:45.740 Now, Chris, I could talk to you all day.

00:33:49.340 Yeah, likewise.

00:33:50.280 Sometimes we do.

00:33:51.720 Sometimes we do.

00:33:52.880 We do.

00:33:54.100 However, I've got to get back to the Foreign Interference Commission to find out how much money and time the government wasted doing nothing about things that we knew were happening.

00:34:05.620 How do people support the work that you do over at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation?

00:34:10.140 And not just support the work that you do, but really get involved in the fight?

00:34:14.400 This is the big part.

00:34:15.300 So, again, we know folks are strapped.

00:34:18.120 So, all that understood.

00:34:19.560 If you can't donate, we do understand, for real.

00:34:22.480 But we want you as part of the team, nonetheless.

00:34:25.300 So, you can join up on whatever version of the army you want, which was great.

00:34:29.400 So, if you're a gunny and you own firearms legally and you want to push back against the confiscation, we have a team for that.

00:34:36.200 So, just go to our website, taxpayer.com.

00:34:39.140 Sign the petition with your email and your name against the gun buyback or the gun ban, whatever you want to call it.

00:34:45.300 And then, whenever anything like that happens, whenever there's news about waste, whenever there's new elements of the legislation happening, coming through the House, we'll alert you.

00:34:53.640 Okay?

00:34:53.900 And we'll either do, like, a mass email campaign or we'll, you know, get people out at a pub night.

00:34:58.120 We'll do some sort of organizing.

00:34:59.940 Same deal goes for things like, you know, defunding the CBC, even niche things like getting rid of the sales tax on used items, which just hurts poor people.

00:35:09.360 Like, those things.

00:35:11.220 So, we all have a petition for those sorts of things, including scrapping the carbon tax.

00:35:15.300 Go to our website, taxpayer.com.

00:35:17.240 Find out what tickles your fancy and sign those petitions.

00:35:19.700 And then, you're part of the standing army of taxpayers.

00:35:22.920 Don't tax my thrifting.

00:35:24.840 No.

00:35:25.260 I'm annoyed with this.

00:35:27.060 I know.

00:35:27.620 British Columbia.

00:35:28.740 You get, they have a terrible PST on used items.

00:35:31.600 I'm not joking.

00:35:32.700 Like, even, I'm not even talking, like, you know, mainstream thrift.

00:35:35.700 So, it's not just Value Village where you get nailed with the provincial sales tax.

00:35:38.820 Like, little hospital thrift shops, Sheila.

00:35:42.100 It's gross.

00:35:43.340 And they nail people for buying a used car. 0.98

00:35:46.360 If you buy, like, a 2010 Corolla you've saved up cash for, you're paying through the nose for that.

00:35:51.580 Like, 13%.

00:35:52.780 How many times do they need the GST on the exact same item?

00:35:56.920 Oh, it's annoying.

00:35:58.140 This is PST in BC.

00:35:59.880 Oh, so, led by, I will point out, led by the NDP provincial government looking out for the little guy, nuking poor people for buying used cars.

00:36:07.660 It's pretty bad.

00:36:08.440 Anyway, don't get me started.

00:36:09.380 That's a whole other show.

00:36:10.500 NDP, not even once.

00:36:12.040 Let me try it.

00:36:12.800 Don't try it.

00:36:13.360 Not even once.

00:36:14.360 It is.

00:36:14.840 Thanks for coming on the show.

00:36:16.180 Thanks for all the hard work that you do on behalf of Canadian families just like mine.

00:36:20.420 And, boy, are we ever glad that you're in Alberta now.

00:36:23.240 Thanks, Sheila.

00:36:23.560 Thanks for coming on.

00:36:53.560 And it's the reason I give out my email address right now.

00:36:58.280 It's Sheila at RebelNews.com.

00:37:00.260 If you've got something to say about the show today, put gun show letters in the subject line so that it's easier for me to find.

00:37:06.920 But maybe you are not watching the paywalled version of the show.

00:37:10.940 Maybe you are waiting around for a couple of days so that you can watch a clip or a segment or even the full show for free on YouTube or Rumble.

00:37:21.260 And you're sitting through a couple ads.

00:37:22.520 Thank you for that.

00:37:24.200 Leave your comment there.

00:37:26.600 Leave it in the YouTube comments or leave it in the Rumble comments if you don't want your comments censored by the people at Google.

00:37:34.420 And I go looking over there, too.

00:37:37.660 So, actually, today's comments come to us.

00:37:42.560 There are two of them, although they're on the same issue on my reporting from Monday's protest at the Lloydminster, Alberta, Saskatchewan border with relation to the carbon tax hike.

00:37:57.040 I was there all day with my friend and head of documentary filmmaking here at Rebel News, Kian Simone, and a couple of our beloved volunteers, Elise from Saskatchewan and Marion.

00:38:08.020 And we worked hard all day to bring you the other side of the story.

00:38:11.280 And, you know, who wasn't there?

00:38:12.240 And, you know, who wasn't there?

00:38:12.740 CBC.

00:38:13.120 CBC.

00:38:14.120 CBC.

00:38:15.120 Anyway, from that location, I was on Ezra's emergency livestream broadcast where us rebels who were out in the world across the country covering the protests.

00:38:30.980 He brought us onto the show remotely, anyway, from a ditch.

00:38:36.860 For me, along the side of Highway 16 with horns blaring in the background and flags waving in the background.

00:38:45.680 And we clipped that and we put it up on YouTube and I thought, what were people saying about what I had to say while I appeared on that emergency livestream broadcast?

00:38:56.060 And there were two things that stuck out to me and I want to address them because I think these people are absolutely wrong.

00:39:04.500 And I'll tell you why, in the nicest possible way.

00:39:07.120 So, the first person is SeifonLawrence2044 who says,

00:39:15.700 Protest amounts to nothing, unfortunately.

00:39:19.600 We'll just hang tight and we'll come back to that in a second.

00:39:21.600 And the other one, named Extinction Hauling, 247, also writes,

00:39:30.000 Protests are a joke.

00:39:31.360 Government MPs job stop it. 1.00

00:39:34.020 Waste of time.

00:39:35.360 Okay.

00:39:36.240 Let's talk about this.

00:39:37.340 You think protests accomplish nothing?

00:39:40.560 Perhaps you could talk to somebody from the Freedom Convoy.

00:39:43.780 So, once the Freedom Convoy started rolling here, as it rolled through Alberta and hit the Saskatchewan border,

00:39:53.540 guess what happened there?

00:39:54.580 Restrictions fell.

00:39:55.420 Once the protesters took to the Coutts border crossing in Alberta, our restriction exemptions program,

00:40:07.020 which was our vaccine passport by another name because Justin, wow, that's a Freudian slip.

00:40:14.920 Jason Kenney, our premier at the time, I almost called him Justin Trudeau.

00:40:18.500 So, he had a restriction exemptions program in place, our vaccine passport,

00:40:26.420 because he couldn't bring himself to call it a vaccine passport, but that's exactly what it was.

00:40:30.960 It went from, oh, we're going to get rid of it in two weeks to we're going to get rid of it by the end of the week

00:40:35.720 to we're getting rid of it tonight at midnight.

00:40:37.880 So, the protests accomplished that.

00:40:40.620 And while the Freedom Convoy, during its time in Ottawa, didn't get rid of Justin Trudeau,

00:40:49.060 I think the knock-on effect to Justin Trudeau's popularity has been very tangible.

00:40:55.900 It's just been nose-diving since then.

00:40:59.740 And because even people who genuinely lived in fear of COVID and even people who believed in the restrictions

00:41:08.840 find how Justin Trudeau treated peaceful protesters in the nation's capital objectionable,

00:41:17.780 treating them as though they were a national emergency, freezing their bank accounts,

00:41:22.060 arresting them, incarcerating them for up to 50 days, as is the case with my friend Tamara Leach.

00:41:26.700 So, protests do accomplish something, especially when they're handled in the best possible way.

00:41:35.440 Peaceful, resilient, with a common message.

00:41:41.720 I mean, heck, the reason that old vegetable lasagna, butter noodles leader of the Conservative Party, Aaron O'Toole,

00:41:49.860 is no longer in power, well, that's because of the Freedom Convoy.

00:41:53.500 He refused to support the Freedom Convoy, so his own party tossed him out.

00:41:59.220 So, now you have Conservative leader, Pierre Polyev, who is just walloping Justin Trudeau in the polls.

00:42:08.240 He's the leader now because of a protest, because of the Freedom Convoy.

00:42:13.600 So, you might think that protests accomplish nothing, but they do.

00:42:17.960 They do, and sometimes you are unable to measure that in the immediate aftermath of the protest,

00:42:25.740 but they do accomplish things, and honestly, what's the option?

00:42:31.960 Doing nothing?

00:42:34.560 Is that the option?

00:42:36.060 Otherwise?

00:42:37.200 No thanks.

00:42:37.780 Well, everybody, that's the show for tonight.

00:42:40.680 Thank you so much for tuning in.

00:42:41.860 I'll see everybody back here in the same time, in the same place next week,

00:42:44.680 and as always, don't let the government tell you that you've had too much to think.

00:42:48.580 Thank you.

00:42:49.520 Thank you.

Rebel News Podcast - April 04, 2024

SHEILA GUNN REID ｜ April Fool's Day meant the joke was on Canadian taxpayers

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