Rebel News Podcast - October 24, 2024


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


Episode Stats

Length

39 minutes

Words per Minute

151.94608

Word Count

6,012

Sentence Count

363

Misogynist Sentences

10

Hate Speech Sentences

6


Summary

In the House of Commons, CBC CEO Catherine Tate testified about her extensive bonuses and the millions of dollars in bonuses received by CBC executives while the network continues to fail. She says she thinks she's doing a great job, and Canadians would be concerned if she didn't take in all the perks her position provides to her.


Transcript

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.
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,
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
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
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
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.
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
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,
00:24:23.440 because that woman is absolutely outrageous. You know what? I can't wait to see who they replace
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
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
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
00:30:39.520 Freeland, our finance minister run a division of Reuters and she destroyed it through her mismanagement.
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
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.