Rebel News Podcast - SHEILA GUNN REID ｜ CBC CEO Catherine Tait won't turn down her bonus, severance pay

00:00:00.000 CBC executives are entitled to their entitlements and they're doing a great job.

00:00:18.760 Just ask them. I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed and you're watching The Gunn Show.

00:00:30.000 Earlier this week, CBC CEO Catherine Tate testified before the House of Commons Heritage Committee

00:00:47.200 to her extensive bonuses and the millions of dollars in bonuses received by CBC executives

00:00:54.560 while the network continues to fail. She says she thinks she's doing a great job and Canadians would

00:01:00.880 be concerned if she didn't take in all the perks her position provides to her. Just take a listen. 1.00

00:01:08.080 What I would say is first of all, if we're talking about 22-23, the results of that year are public.

00:01:15.840 For 23-24, all of the key performance indicators set out and approved by the board were achieved if not exceeded.

00:01:27.360 Thank you. So with respect, Ms. Tate, I did ask specifically about your compensation.

00:01:32.320 So when the range of compensation that is provided, you make more than the Prime Minister of this country.

00:01:38.240 That's your compensation. So to get a bonus on top of that at a time when viewership is down,

00:01:43.360 ad revenue for your organization is down. I asked specifically about whether or not

00:01:47.760 you would refuse to take a severance package at the conclusion of your term as CEO.

00:01:54.160 I believe that Canadians would expect that the corporation honor its commitments to

00:01:59.760 its non-unionized employees as it would to its unionized employees. And I would just correct the record.

00:02:06.400 Whereas total ad revenues are down, digital ad revenues are up since the beginning of my tenure,

00:02:13.200 which digital revenue was at about $38 million. This last year, it clocked in at about $100 million.

00:02:19.600 So I think it's important that we have accurate descriptors of what's going on at CBC Radio-Canada.

00:02:26.240 So, Ms. Tate, you said that it's confidential,

00:02:31.040 that information, but that just doesn't work for Canadians. Canadians look at $18 million awarded in

00:02:37.840 bonuses. The fact that you just spent $1,000 a night for a hotel room in Paris during the Olympics,

00:02:45.040 and we are in a situation where you are coming to the conclusion of your term being paid more than the

00:02:53.200 prime minister of this country makes. And you refuse today to rule out that you will receive

00:03:02.400 either bonuses or so-called performance pay or a severance package at the conclusion of your term.

00:03:08.880 It's confidential, doesn't cut it for Canadians. It doesn't cut it for parliamentary oversight.

00:03:13.920 So again, I ask, will you specifically today share with this committee whether or not you will

00:03:20.240 refuse a severance package or bonus at the conclusion of your term as president and CEO of CBC?

00:03:27.440 As I've said, I consider that to be a personal matter.

00:03:31.040 And I believe I'm protected by the Privacy Act in that regard.

00:03:34.160 So, Ms. Tate, taxpayers pay your salary, as they do for all of us. And you can Google an MP's salary,

00:03:41.680 you can Google the prime minister's salary. But here we are discussing $18 million paid out to bonuses,

00:03:47.760 $3 million paid out to executives. Madam Tate, your own documents show that there are 631 managers at CBC,

00:03:55.760 43, I believe it is, executives. And you're defending those, the average bonus paid out

00:04:03.840 to executives at your organization is more than most Canadians make an ear. And you're claiming that

00:04:08.480 it's confidential? Madam Speaker, Madam Chair, through you, I would suggest that it is unbelievable

00:04:16.800 that Ms. Tate would come before this committee with a very specific motion outlining that answers

00:04:22.560 are demanded when it comes to the compensation received by a public broadcaster. These are

00:04:27.920 taxpayers' dollars that are paying for this organization. So, again, I will ask and emphasize,

00:04:34.800 Ms. Tate, at the conclusion of your term, whether it's for previous fiscal year's bonuses or so-called

00:04:40.880 performance pay, or the conclusion of a severance package, will you refuse

00:04:47.520 that out of respect for the taxpayers that have paid for you to have this role over the last number

00:04:55.200 of years? Ms. Tate, I believe I've answered the question. And for the record, I would like to

00:04:59.280 correct some of the errors, in fact, that the member has articulated. One, this $18 million in performance

00:05:09.760 pay is not – these are not dollars that aren't agreed upon well in advance of the end of the fiscal

00:05:17.600 year. We have a rigorous process in place, a process that has been in place for 20 years,

00:05:23.920 Madam Chair. It's a process that is similar to that of other crown corporations, other government agencies,

00:05:30.720 and most private companies. A process that is guided by third-party consultants that advise us,

00:05:38.720 experts that advise us on what it is we should be paying our executives and our managers.

00:05:44.160 And how much do those third-party consultants cost?

00:05:46.480 Well, Canadian taxpayers have a different view of the CBC than the CEO of CBC herself, Catherine Tate.

00:05:53.840 They don't like it, they want the bonuses to stop, and frankly, they don't even watch it. No.

00:05:59.440 Joining me to discuss this and more is Franco Teresano from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Take a listen.

00:06:08.960 Federal Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, Franco Teresano, to talk about just a wild week

00:06:15.760 in Canadian politics and in Canadian finances and in taxation. But first, let's talk about one of

00:06:24.400 the more fun things I saw happen in and around Ottawa this week, and that was Catherine Tate, CEO of CBC, 0.74

00:06:34.800 being called to testify about CBC bonuses. And it happened at the most inopportune time for Catherine

00:06:43.040 Tate, but also I guess for the Canadian taxpayers, because scandal had just broken earlier that morning

00:06:49.840 that she had dinged the taxpayers six grand for her trip to Paris. And more information came out about

00:06:56.160 that during the committee too. But first, let's talk about CBC bonuses. Why should Canadians care

00:07:03.360 about this? Well, because it's our money, right? First of all, these are taxpayer funded bonuses

00:07:10.640 going to a failing Crown Corporation. And we're not just talking about a couple bucks here or there,

00:07:16.000 we're talking about a lot of money, right? This year, the CBC alone rubber stamped, what, more than

00:07:21.600 $18 million in bonuses to about 1,200 managers and executives and other non-union staff at the

00:07:29.920 state broadcaster. 18 million bucks, right? Let's look at the bonuses for their, what, 43 executives,

00:07:36.560 more than $3 million to their executives in bonuses, like an average bonus, Sheila,

00:07:42.720 of more of about 73,000 bucks. That's more than what the average Canadian worker makes in an entire

00:07:50.400 year, going to a bonus for a CBC executive. But even that downplays the cost of bonuses, right?

00:07:57.440 The CBC is handing out bonuses like participation awards every single year. Since 2015,

00:08:03.280 the CBC's bonuses have cost taxpayers $132 million. It's a ton of money wasted.

00:08:10.080 Yeah, well, and as it came out yesterday, I think a Liberal MP didn't know the answer to his own

00:08:15.360 question, which is a big mistake, a committee, and asked Catherine Tate about the doubling of people

00:08:23.200 who qualify for bonuses at the CBC. Under Stephen Harper in 2014, it was somewhere around 500.

00:08:30.480 And then as soon as Justin Trudeau takes power, it doubles to nearly 1,100 people at the CBC qualifying

00:08:39.600 for these performance bonuses, which is absolutely outrageous because usually you have to be doing

00:08:47.440 well to qualify for a performance bonus, but that's not the state of affairs down at the CBC.

00:08:52.400 Madame Tate, can you talk to us about what the CBC performance pay model was in 2014 versus what it is

00:09:06.640 today in terms of its structure and how it's organized? Or is there any difference?

00:09:11.520 Madame Tate, just let me have a look here for my file. You say specifically in 2014. In 2014,

00:09:23.360 the number of people receiving the performance pay was only 544 as opposed to 1,180. There was a decision

00:09:33.520 taken before my arrival to expand the number of people receiving performance pay because we were

00:09:41.280 having difficulty retaining certain pay bands within the organization. You need to understand

00:09:49.440 that when I say we are paid at 50 percent what the industry pays, that means we have retention

00:09:56.320 challenges. And therefore, the performance pay was put in place to a larger group of people in order to

00:10:03.520 ensure retention. Well, you know, these bonuses in government isn't like a bonus in the private sector,

00:10:09.440 right? Where if you do a good job, then you get a bonus. No, in government, it's like if you show up to

00:10:15.040 work twice a week with your shoes tied, oh, here's a taxpayer funded bonus, right? And like, it's not just the

00:10:21.280 bonuses that are going through the roof at the CBC. I looked this up, but even just the number of six

00:10:27.840 figure salary staffers has ballooned in the state broadcaster, right? So about over 1,400 CBC staffers,

00:10:37.680 right? More than 1,400 CBC staffers now are collecting a six figure taxpayer funded salary.

00:10:45.360 That's a what a 231 percent increase since 2015. But Sheila, do you mind if I just jump into another

00:10:53.360 direction here? Because go, you know, it's not just the cost. It's the complete disdain, lack of respect

00:11:02.640 for taxpayers, right? They have no problem taking taxpayers money, but they do have a problem telling

00:11:08.960 taxpayers exactly what they're spending it on. And let me explain. We do know the total amount of

00:11:14.960 bonuses going to the non-union staff. What we don't know is Tate's bonus are the bonuses for the other

00:11:24.240 seven senior executives. The CBC has continued to stonewall the release of that information.

00:11:31.680 Uh, you know, even at committee, I'm sure we'll get into this, but Tate refused to say what her bonus

00:11:37.440 is and refused to say if she will accept or refuse a bonus or severance payout when she leaves the state

00:11:44.800 broadcaster in the new year. Yeah, that did come out at committee. She won't commit to not taking a

00:11:50.240 bonus, although she said, look, I didn't take a bonus this year. But as it was pointed out by Kevin

00:11:55.120 Waugh at committee, uh, Conservative MP Kevin Waugh, she could actually be banking these bonuses and her

00:12:02.480 severance, take them all at once on the way out the door so that there's no ability for Canadians to 0.98

00:12:08.160 hold her or the government that is awarding her these failing upwards bonuses accountable for any

00:12:14.160 of it. Oh, it's, it's, it's, it's so bad, not just in terms of cost, but a lack of accountability and

00:12:20.240 a lack of transparency. Right. And let me just put some of these numbers into perspective here. So

00:12:25.120 Tate's annual salary, the CBC won't say exactly what it is. It gives us a range,

00:12:31.280 right, is somewhere between $420,000 and $497,000 a year. Tate's annual salary. So the prime minister's

00:12:41.360 salary is $406,000. So the head of a state broadcaster is making more than the prime minister

00:12:49.520 and the prime minister is already overpaid. Okay. But not just that, right. They won't even tell us

00:12:55.920 what the bonus is. Uh, some analysis from global news that I saw estimates that the maximum bonus

00:13:02.960 for Tate could be like $145,000, $145,000. That could be her maximum bonus. Uh, but again,

00:13:13.520 like all of this information should be public, right? It is taxpayers money. Taxpayers deserve to know what

00:13:21.840 we're spending our money on. Now you rightly pointed out that they're handing out these

00:13:27.120 performance bonuses, like participation awards, and they've actually rigged the system so that

00:13:33.360 that happens. It came out in committee that they are, um, lowering the KPI, the key performance

00:13:40.320 indicators so that no matter how bad the CBC fails at being a state broadcaster, they qualify

00:13:48.480 for these bonuses. So they can say like, look, we're meeting, we're meeting the KPIs. So we qualify

00:13:54.960 for the bonuses. But when you drill down on the KPIs, they're just, I guess you get it for showing

00:14:00.400 up. Is that how it works in government? I don't know. It's like writing your own tests that you have

00:14:05.280 to write. Right. Oh, look, I passed my own test. Well, you know what? They're not passing the test of

00:14:10.800 taxpayers. Now, Sheila, as we've been talking about, they've been handing out bonuses. You know,

00:14:15.200 one thing they haven't done, they haven't asked Canadians if Canadians support their bonuses.

00:14:22.320 So at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, we decided to ask Canadians. We hired a reputable polling firm,

00:14:28.240 Leger, to conduct a poll. And guess what? Surprise, surprise. Seven in 10 Canadians are against the CBC

00:14:36.000 bonuses. 70% thereabout are against the CBC bonuses, right? You even have defenders of the CBC speaking

00:14:46.000 out against the bonuses. But you know, I know we're going to stay on the CBC, but I do want to broaden

00:14:52.320 this just a bit here. Because the problem with this is that the long arm of government is essentially

00:14:59.440 reaching everywhere in people's pockets. And no matter where you look, they're handing out these

00:15:04.560 taxpayer-funded bonuses, right? Federal departments have taken more than $1.5 billion in bonuses since

00:15:12.240 2015. They can't even meet half of their own performance targets on a consistent annual basis.

00:15:18.720 The Bank of Canada completely failed to do its only job of keeping inflation low and around 2% over the

00:15:25.680 last couple of years. They've handed out tens of millions of dollars in bonuses. The Canada Mortgage

00:15:31.680 and Housing Corporation, another Crown Corporation, right? Their number one objective, according to

00:15:38.400 themselves, has been, you know, housing affordability for all. Well, Canadians can't afford homes.

00:15:44.000 They've handed out tens of millions of dollars in bonuses in recent years as well. So we need someone

00:15:51.040 to not just get to the bottom of these taxpayer-funded bonuses for failure at the CBC, but we need them to

00:15:57.200 cut out the rot across all of government. Yeah, you left one off the list that I thought was quite

00:16:01.680 remarkable. That's the CBSA. The CBSA broiled in their Rive scam scandal. Their execs all qualified for

00:16:09.520 performance bonuses too, which is absolutely outrageous. They shouldn't be getting bonuses.

00:16:13.920 They should be getting fired. Still staying on Catherine Tate, I touch on it a little bit.

00:16:19.920 She charged the taxpayer $6,000, including a $1,000 per night hotel room to attend the Olympics in Paris,

00:16:32.560 France. But she says, don't worry about it, Canadian taxpayers, because, well, for two reasons. One,

00:16:39.840 we would be concerned, I think is the word she used, if the head of the CBC wasn't in Paris for the

00:16:46.160 Olympics, as if any of us actually care. But secondarily, we should be grateful that she

00:16:52.880 didn't charge us for her airfare because she's double dipping. She was in Paris, or at least in 0.67

00:16:59.520 France on a personal holiday while charging us to go to the Olympics. Did you say that you were on a

00:17:07.920 personal trip to France, decided to extend your vacation, go to the Olympics, and then bill the taxpayer

00:17:15.360 for it? Is that correct? I was on a personal trip to France, and I did not bill the taxpayer for my

00:17:23.440 flight or travel from Canada. What did you bill the taxpayer for? The hotel and the train to get to

00:17:30.400 Paris. Where does your personal trip end and your taxpayer billing begin? When I, as part of my job,

00:17:38.480 being at the, at the opening of the Olympics was absolutely expected of me, so I interrupted my

00:17:44.400 holiday and took the four days to go to the Olympics. Could you understand why that sounds

00:17:49.840 concerning to somebody? Just because, you know, a bit of a weird situation where you get to go on a trip,

00:17:55.760 you're having your personal time, and then you just unilaterally get to decide what becomes work

00:18:00.960 and what doesn't? Well, not if I'm not charging the company for the trip. But you did charge the taxpayer

00:18:06.000 $6,000? Correct. When I was working in Paris, I did, yes. But could you understand why it would be

00:18:11.440 concerning for somebody to think that you get to make that decision completely on your own? It would

00:18:15.680 be concerning if the CEO of CBC Radio-Canada did not attend the opening of the Olympics, given it was

00:18:22.560 one of the most important events of our calendar year. But when the average Canadian hears that you're

00:18:28.560 charging thousands of dollars to the taxpayer, and you are just kind of deciding when your personal

00:18:33.600 time ends and your billable time begins, it gets to sort of a broader concern, and to the point

00:18:39.920 about bonuses that many of our colleagues have made today, whether you have respect for the taxpayer.

00:18:45.040 Can you see why that would be concerning to the average Canadian? I do not make those decisions

00:18:48.960 alone. I always check in with my chair, and I behave in a responsible fashion. Well, you know,

00:18:55.440 I guess we just got, what, 6,000 new reasons to defund the CBC. But, oh, I'm so frustrated with the

00:19:05.680 government thinking it's entitled to live high on the hog at our expense, right? As if we need the 0.98

00:19:13.600 head of a state broadcaster to bill taxpayers for what, about $1,000 per night hotel stay for the

00:19:19.760 Olympics, and to claim that we must have the head of the state broadcaster at the Olympics. Like,

00:19:24.640 how many Canadians knew that the head of the state broadcaster was at the Olympics? What,

00:19:30.240 Tate and her family and a couple other CBC employees? Like, come on, right? Like, they live

00:19:35.600 in such a bubble where I think they've convinced themselves that they're just so important that

00:19:41.120 they are entitled to bill taxpayers for this obscene amount of spending. And look, Tate, the CBC,

00:19:48.880 whoever booked that hotel, whoever booked those expenses, they have some explaining to do,

00:19:54.560 but again, like, this is such a problem across all of government. Whether it's Trudeau staying

00:20:01.040 in that $6,000 per night luxury hotel suite during the Queen's funeral in England, or the Governor

00:20:07.440 General spending $71,000 on limo services in Iceland, or Trudeau during his last year Indo-Pacific trip,

00:20:16.320 a six-day trip, billing taxpayers $220,000 for airplane food, him and his entourage. Like,

00:20:24.240 enough is enough. They're living high on the hog, and they're sending the bill back to Canadians. 0.99

00:20:29.520 You know, I'm so glad you pointed out how self-important these people are. Catherine

00:20:33.760 Tate testified that had it not been for the CBC, there would be no such thing as women's sports in 0.98

00:20:39.360 this country. She's simultaneously responsible for the saving of Canadian music and the language of

00:20:46.000 Inuktitut. CBC Hydro-Canada has made a commitment to gender parity in amateur sports coverage. That means

00:20:54.480 we've gone from 4% of women covered in sport to 50%. And in para sports, we've made an enormous

00:21:03.600 commitment to coverage on a year-round basis. The IOC considers CBC Hydro-Canada in the top five Olympic

00:21:11.200 broadcasters in the world because of our year-round commitment to amateur sports. And just to be clear,

00:21:19.440 if not for CBC Hydro-Canada, and we heard this from the Canadian Olympic Committee, the Paralympic

00:21:27.200 Committee last week at a conference where they stated, without prompting from us, that without CBC

00:21:35.680 Hydro-Canada, there would be no support for our amateur athletes in this country. So it is profound.

00:21:44.240 Similarly, on the music side, without the Junos, without La Disque, without all of the things that

00:21:49.840 we do for emerging talent, music, writing, performing, we would be impoverishing this country.

00:21:58.720 I would say that CBC, Hydro-Canada, with its programming like La Cainou, like Portoie Floja,

00:22:06.400 like Bones of Crows, like Son of a Critch, like Allegiance, these are shows that represent Canada's values,

00:22:14.400 Canada's talent, and that are widely distributed on the world stage and speak enormously about our values of

00:22:24.160 tolerance, our values of truth. And I do believe that without CBC, again, it would be a huge impoverishment of

00:22:33.920 our status and our place on the world stage. And I think Deputy Member Martin Champoux said that without

00:22:44.960 Radio-Canada in the minority language communities, I'm talking francophones in Edmonton, in North Bay,

00:22:50.800 all over the country, there would be no French news service available to them. And I tried to mention

00:22:59.760 that our role in the North, Nathan Obed, president of ITK at the conference last week here in Ottawa,

00:23:06.720 said unequivocally there would be no Inuktitut in this country if not for CBC. CBC has been in the North

00:23:15.760 since 1958, broadcasting in Inuktitut. Without the CBC, that language would have disappeared.

00:23:24.720 That's what she testified to, like my goodness.

00:23:27.040 Let me get into that, right? Because that is a claim of the CBC that needs to be looked at,

00:23:31.440 where they talk about, well, you need us for Indigenous services or Indigenous language services

00:23:36.400 and news. Well, we decided to look at the numbers. Okay, so the CBC, I believe it was last year,

00:23:42.080 spent about $6.4 million on Indigenous services. $6.4 million. They take $1.4 billion from taxpayers

00:23:55.360 every single year. So less than what? Less than half of a percent of what they're taking from taxpayers

00:24:04.240 is what they're spending on Indigenous services. Or to put it another way, less than half of the amount

00:24:09.840 of money they hand out in bonuses are going to those Indigenous services. So Tate's claim about

00:24:16.400 that just doesn't pass the sniff test. Let's move on from Tate, although I could talk about her all day, 0.96

00:24:23.440 because that woman is absolutely outrageous. You know what? I can't wait to see who they replace 1.00

00:24:28.480 her with, because I think that's going to be fun. But let's talk about the drop in tax competitiveness

00:24:35.440 in Canada. This is something that we saw happen on a smaller scale here in Alberta when the NDP

00:24:42.160 took power, and it ended the Alberta Advantage. And we saw oil and gas companies decide, you know what,

00:24:49.440 we're just going to not even be Canadian anymore. We're going to head office in Texas. And this is

00:24:54.160 happening now across Canada writ large because of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's policies.

00:24:59.920 Absolutely. And I remember living through that in Alberta, right? I remember being downtown Calgary,

00:25:07.200 seeing people leaving the office buildings, cardboard boxes in hand, crying. So I remember

00:25:12.800 that. So this isn't just about GDP numbers. This isn't just about tax competitiveness. What a tough

00:25:19.840 word. It's not just about the macroeconomics, right? Like this impacts people's day-to-day lives.

00:25:26.080 And I saw that firsthand as I know you did as well. You lived through that too.

00:25:30.000 And so when I say like Canada just fell behind two spots compared to last year,

00:25:35.440 and the fact that there are 16 other industrialized peers that are doing better than us on tax

00:25:40.000 competitiveness, it really means a lot. It means that, you know, it's going to be harder to start

00:25:45.360 a business in Canada. Businesses could leave Canada. It's going to be harder to attract investment.

00:25:51.360 And all of that means fewer and fewer jobs. Now the report compared 38 industrialized countries.

00:25:57.840 Okay. Our peers, we ranked 31st on individual tax competitiveness, 30 countries are better.

00:26:06.800 We ranked 26th out of 38 on business tax competitiveness. So this is brutal, right?

00:26:14.880 The government is taking too much money from Canadians, from families, from businesses,

00:26:20.240 and that hurts all of us. It's just incentivizing job creation too. I mean,

00:26:27.600 the idea that jobs are created by large scale businesses is really just not the truth. Most

00:26:36.080 jobs are created by small and medium sized businesses. Those are your friends. Those are your neighbors.

00:26:41.280 That's the welder up the road. And it makes it harder and harder to do that when the government

00:26:46.480 is taking more and more. But with regard to the larger businesses, they've got 30 other places they

00:26:52.880 can go. Many of those people or those countries on the list produce many of the same things we do. They

00:26:59.920 are competitors against us in the international marketplace. And our businesses can relocate and do

00:27:08.240 business there. And those take Canadian jobs with them. And let me tie all of your points there,

00:27:13.760 Sheila, into the government's recent capital gains tax hike. Okay. Because this report specifically

00:27:20.240 cites the capital gains tax hike as a reason why Canada is falling behind other countries.

00:27:26.080 It notes that Canada taxes capital gains, quote, well above other OECD averages.

00:27:34.400 Okay. So our capital gains tax hikes are already hurt. The government is trying to spin Canadians 1.00

00:27:39.520 like, oh, this is only going to hurt a couple wealthy Canadians. That's not true. The capital gains tax

00:27:45.680 hike punishes success in Canada. It's going after doctors, entrepreneurs, and people who are trying 1.00

00:27:52.000 to save for their retirements. But let's also remember what the government is also doing,

00:27:57.840 right? The government is announcing what about $30 billion in corporate welfare to multinational

00:28:04.720 corporations like Honda, Volkswagen, Stellantis, Northvolt. Okay. So the government is taking more

00:28:11.760 money from Canadian doctors, Canadian entrepreneurs, Canadian small businesses, and putting taxpayers on

00:28:18.000 the hook for this corporate welfare to the boardrooms in what Germany and Japan. Okay. So if the government

00:28:25.120 really cared about growing the economy, it would cut taxes for everyday Canadians and everyday Canadian

00:28:32.880 business owners, and it would stop giving our hard earned money to these multinational corporations.

00:28:40.000 Quite ideological at the end of the day, because we saw Stephen Harper cut taxes and the economy grew,

00:28:45.520 because people have more money to spend and more money to invest in their own businesses. And when you

00:28:50.240 invest in your own business, you create jobs. So it's really ideologically driven because the results

00:28:56.160 are there from past governments. If the liberals ever wanted to look at it.

00:29:02.000 I mean, look, these bureaucrats and politicians in Ottawa couldn't balance the budget of a lemonade

00:29:07.440 stand. Right. And yet they want to run around pretending to be investment banker with our money.

00:29:13.440 Like, give me a break. Right. If these bureaucrats and politicians were any good at being investment

00:29:19.600 bankers, they would be doing it with their own money, but they're not. So they're bureaucrats and

00:29:25.280 they're politicians. Right. I mean, like, you're right. This is, this is all about ideology because

00:29:31.600 like number one, the capital gains tax hike is going to hurt the economy. It's going to hurt Canadians.

00:29:35.920 But number two, like what, what, what is the government doing? Right. So this year,

00:29:41.120 the capital gains tax increase will, will take about $6.9 billion from Canadians. Okay. Well,

00:29:47.680 Trudeau is spending $535 billion. So Trudeau is going to burn through that capital gains tax cash

00:29:55.680 in less than a week. So this isn't about like reducing the debt, right? It's also not about

00:30:02.880 making the tax system more fair because if the government was trying to make the tax system more

00:30:07.600 fair, then somebody's taxes would be going down, but taxes are only going up. Capital gains tax

00:30:15.760 increase, alcohol tax increase, carbon tax increase, digital service tax, online streaming tax,

00:30:22.720 right? It goes on and on and on and on. I almost forgot about one of the most damaging

00:30:28.080 tax increases of all the payroll tax hikes. Yes. And you know, I'm glad you pointed out that

00:30:34.320 the politicians could run a lemonade stand because I'm old enough to remember when they let Chrystia 1.00

00:30:39.520 Freeland, our finance minister run a division of Reuters and she destroyed it through her mismanagement. 0.99

00:30:47.200 So then Justin Trudeau was like, you know what, that's the one we should put her in charge of the

00:30:50.800 economy. And here we are, who could have ever seen that coming? Now, speaking of who could have seen

00:30:56.160 that coming, um, you asked Canadian taxpayers, uh, how they feel about the carbon tax on home

00:31:03.040 heating. And I think in a really obvious response, uh, the majority of Canadians say, yeah,

00:31:09.520 we wouldn't mind paying less for home heating. Thank you very much.

00:31:12.880 Yeah. I mean the poll, again, we commissioned this by Leger. The poll results very clear. Um,

00:31:18.640 60% of Canadians said, take the carbon tax off everyone's home heating, right? Don't just do an Atlantic

00:31:25.760 Canada carbon tax carve out, take it off everyone's home heating bills. In fact, even in Atlanta,

00:31:31.200 Canada, 68% support removing the carbon tax from everyone's home heating bills. Uh, Sheila in

00:31:37.360 Alberta, that was the highest amount of support for carbon tax relief at 70%. Um, yeah, predictable love

00:31:44.960 Albertans. Right. Um, but you know what it shows to me, because if you remove the undecideds from this

00:31:52.160 poll, it's 74% of Canadians that want the carbon tax removed from everyone's home heating bill. So

00:31:58.320 like, it's pretty clear to me, Canadians don't think the government should be punishing people

00:32:04.080 for trying to stay warm during the winter. Right. And this is why the carbon tax is, is such a damaging

00:32:10.800 tax. It essentially makes every aspect of Canadian life more expensive. Canada is a big place. You got to

00:32:17.680 drive to work. You got to drive to the store. The carbon tax makes that more expensive. Canada's a

00:32:22.240 cold place. The carbon tax makes staying warm more expensive and you got to eat. Well, the carbon tax

00:32:27.840 by punishing farmers, by punishing truckers also makes your grocery haul more expensive.

00:32:33.440 It does. And it, it makes your grocery haul more expensive, but sometimes the farmer, and I know this

00:32:39.760 personally, we can't eat that cost because we're not price setters. We're price takers. So that comes

00:32:45.600 right out of our family's pocket when we are selling our commodity into a world price. But Justin

00:32:51.600 Trudeau just made our inputs that much more expensive. So it gets the carbon tax still makes

00:32:57.200 your food more expensive. And at the end of the day, it makes the farmer poorer. Those high grocery store

00:33:02.800 prices, they don't end up enriching families like mine. That's for sure. Franco, I want to thank you so

00:33:08.960 much for coming on the show. Um, I know that you have, uh, to have to get going, but before you do,

00:33:15.520 I think it's really important for you to tell viewers of the gun show, how they can get involved

00:33:20.640 in supporting the CTF in the very important work that they do. As my friend Chris Sims points out,

00:33:26.080 you guys don't even take a tax advantage from the government for the, uh, nonprofit work that you do.

00:33:31.680 Well, we've never taken a penny from any government, never have never will. Uh, you can support all of

00:33:38.000 our work, head over to taxpayer.com, check out our newsroom, breaking a bunch of good stories all the

00:33:42.640 time and sign some of those good petitions. My favorite, scrap the carbon tax, all of that at

00:33:47.680 taxpayer.com. We've come to the portion of the show wherein I invite your viewer feedback. I know I say

00:34:03.520 it every single week and I know it's redundant for some of you, but the good news is we're getting

00:34:07.600 new people here all the time. So we've got to tell them what the rules are, right guys?

00:34:11.600 I want to hear from you. I care about your views about the work that I do here at rebel news,

00:34:17.280 the work that all of us do here at rebel news, because without you, there is no rebel news because

00:34:22.000 like the Canadian taxpayers federation, we'll never take a penny from any government that we are

00:34:29.040 trying to hold to account. It's our duty to hold them to account. It's our duty to speak truth to

00:34:33.840 power, uh, and to hold politicians accountable for the things they do and say behind closed doors to

00:34:39.280 the people who voted for them or didn't vote for them for that matter. And so I open up my email

00:34:45.440 to you right now. It's Sheila at rebel news.com. If you've got a comment about the show here today

00:34:52.480 with Franco Tirizano of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, send it to me there, put gun show

00:34:57.280 letters in the subject line. So I know why you're emailing me because I get hundreds of emails every

00:35:04.480 single week. Uh, could be more depending on the controversial thing we've done at the network that

00:35:09.120 week, um, or leave a comment on the free parts of the show. So we post clips of the show to YouTube

00:35:18.480 and rumble after the fact. If you leave a comment over there, I frequently go looking. So those are

00:35:24.480 the rules. Send me your feedback. This week's feedback comes to me from the email and it's from Peter

00:35:32.640 who writes to me about a show that I did earlier about Daniel Smith and the Alberta bill of rights,

00:35:42.960 making changes to the Alberta bill of rights. And Peter says, Sheila, you said in the show,

00:35:48.240 Daniel Smith and Alberta's bill of rights that Rustad that's John Rustad might be premier after

00:35:54.240 the October 19th election. Wow. We're post October 19th election by three days when I'm filming this

00:36:00.640 four days. By the time you see the show, he is not the premier yet. Although we don't even have all

00:36:07.840 the votes in. Um, there are two writings that are holding the balance right now, uh, and hanging things

00:36:14.080 up. Um, the count is within a hundred in both of those writings right now. It's 46 seats for the NDP,

00:36:24.480 45 for the conservative party of BC and two for the greens, which terrifies me because we don't want

00:36:35.120 the greens forming a coalition with the NDP the way they did in 2017, thus costing Alberta billions

00:36:42.720 of dollars in lost resource revenue. Let's keep going though. Chris Elston, that's billboard Chris,

00:36:48.720 said recently that Rustad is a very long shot for premier. Well, he wasn't that long, was he?

00:36:55.680 He had a party that didn't really exist 52 weeks ago. And yet he is within a couple of hundred votes

00:37:05.680 of forming government in British Columbia. That is an amazing accomplishment. Elston said that the

00:37:14.880 conservative party of BC support is suffused. So spread out all over the place.

00:37:23.040 That suggests the BC conservatives will get few seats in the legislature.

00:37:29.680 They almost have everything outside of the major municipalities in the lower mainland. And that's

00:37:37.520 not even true. I mean, they took Abbotsford, Chilliwack. So, I mean, there's a sliver of orange

00:37:45.120 where all the population is, but everything else in that province is beautiful blue.

00:37:51.760 The BC NDP support is concentrated in the cities. Yes, but not all the cities. I mean,

00:37:56.400 the conservatives took two seats on Vancouver Island, the hippie hotbed of Vancouver Island. I think that goes

00:38:04.000 to having the vaccines crammed down your throat on Vancouver Island. Hippies and conservatives hate 0.98

00:38:14.320 big pharma the same. Anyways, let's keep going. The BC NDP support is concentrated in the cities where

00:38:20.160 most MLAs get elected. Peter. I think we're half right, both of us. So, I think you underestimated the

00:38:28.320 uh BC conservative seats. I said he had a chance at forming government. I still believe he has a

00:38:38.320 chance at forming government and even a much better chance than I had at the beginning than I had him

00:38:43.360 pegged at at the beginning of the live stream coverage of election night. So, if you're watching

00:38:51.920 this on Wednesday, I'm filming it on Tuesday, you might know more. We both might know more when this goes

00:38:56.800 to air, but we don't know anything yet except that John Rustad really did something incredible in

00:39:05.200 British Columbia and it should frighten the daylights out of Justin Trudeau. Because if you can do that

00:39:15.840 in British Columbia, you imagine what Pierre Polyev is going to do across the rest of the country.

00:39:21.520 I'm excited just thinking about it. Well, everybody, that's the show for tonight. Thank you so much for

00:39:27.280 tuning in. I'll see everybody back here in the same time, in the same place next week. And as always,

00:39:31.440 don't let the government tell you that you've had too much to think.

Rebel News Podcast - October 24, 2024

SHEILA GUNN REID ｜ CBC CEO Catherine Tait won't turn down her bonus, severance pay

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