Rebel News Podcast - SHEILA GUNN REID ｜ Trudeau introduces the Netflix tax he promised would never come

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00:00:47.800 On Tuesday morning, many of us woke up to a promise of a Netflix tax.

00:00:52.780 The Canadian Taxpayers Federation joins me tonight to talk about it.

00:00:56.220 I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed and you're watching The Gunn Show.

00:01:15.060 What happens if you tax a company?

00:01:17.520 Well, what always happens?

00:01:19.580 The company always passes along the increased cost to the consumer.

00:01:23.680 That's exactly what's going to happen now that Justin Trudeau's broadcasting bureaucracy, the CRTC, has promised a 5% streaming tax that will be applied to the likes of Netflix and Paramount Plus and Disney Plus and Amazon Prime and so on down the list.

00:01:42.320 5% off the top of your bill will go to support the things that you move to streaming services to escape.

00:01:50.660 Boring Canadian content, the CBC, and the shoehorned diversity programming that you see on many of Canada's national broadcasters.

00:02:02.040 But will Netflix actually pay this?

00:02:05.940 Of course not.

00:02:07.640 They'll do what every company does.

00:02:09.400 They'll just tack it onto your bill.

00:02:10.800 Or they might not want to do business with Canada altogether as we saw when Justin Trudeau tried to shake down Facebook for the crime of one of Facebook's users linking to Canadian news publishers.

00:02:28.520 Facebook just said, well, no more link sharing to Canadian news publishers instead of paying that Justin Trudeau tax.

00:02:36.940 So joining me tonight to talk about the implications of this and their recent legal challenge against the CBC is Chris Sims of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

00:02:46.980 Take a listen.

00:02:47.420 Joining me now is my friend Chris Sims of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and I wanted to have Chris Sims on because they're engaged in litigation over at the Taxpayers Federation against the CBC and I wanted a big explainer.

00:03:02.720 Chris, thanks so much for coming on the show.

00:03:05.220 Tell us what you're up to with the state broadcaster, wouldn't you?

00:03:08.900 Yeah, for sure.

00:03:09.540 So we've gone back and forth with the state broadcaster now for many years because, of course, here at the Taxpayers Federation, we take offense to the fact that it is costing us about $1.4 billion per year.

00:03:21.260 Again, to put that into perspective, folks, you could pay for 7,000 paramedics and 7,000 plumbers combined every year, all the time, for what we pay for the CBC, which almost no Canadian watches.

00:03:34.700 So, fast forward, folks might remember back when their CEO, Catherine Tate, who was paid around $500,000 and change, by the way, huge bonus, she was at committee and she was kind of feigning ignorance about whether or not the executives would be getting bonuses at the CBC.

00:03:58.520 People might also remember this, I thought I was having a fever dream, Sheila, but at one point, Adrienne Arsenault, the actual anchor of the CBC National News, had her boss on the air.

00:04:11.700 It was a super weird interview, very awkward.

00:04:14.600 She cited the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, like, out loud with her face and said, well, you're handing out layoff notices around Christmas, so no bonuses for executives this year?

00:04:24.720 And Tate wouldn't commit either way.

00:04:27.380 She wouldn't answer.

00:04:28.300 She did the same thing at committee. 0.60

00:04:30.560 Sorry, we have freedom of information reports that show that, yes, indeed, executives did get bonuses.

00:04:38.560 It was between $14 and $15 million with an M.

00:04:42.620 But what we really want to know is which executives got what bonuses and how much.

00:04:50.180 So that is specifically what we asked for in our freedom of information request.

00:04:55.460 Now, the folks in Ottawa, they worded it much better than I just did, but it was very particular, and that's what they asked for.

00:05:01.760 Turns out the CBC kicked the can as hard as they could, Sheila, so that this ATIP information wouldn't come back until after Tate's next committee appearance.

00:05:12.180 So that was back in May, and this is where we're like, okay, this is enough silly business, and that is why we have started legal procedures through the access to information law.

00:05:23.200 Okay, so there's, like, ombuds people involved, and there's an information commissioner involved, and we are now saying, you need to cough up this specific granular data.

00:05:31.520 Which executives got what bonuses and how much?

00:05:36.620 And we've done this very similar thing before with the information commissioner, because folks might remember, back when the dearly departed Her Majesty the Queen passed away, there was, of course, a gigantic funeral over in London, England.

00:05:50.360 And, of course, the prime minister went.

00:05:52.520 What people were a little frustrated about is that some mystery person stayed in a $6,000 per night hotel room.

00:06:01.560 I know, right?

00:06:03.340 Grab your magnifying glasses, right, Watson?

00:06:05.960 So they wouldn't tell us who stayed in the hotel.

00:06:08.940 We really wanted to know, for realsies.

00:06:10.760 Like, was it the governor general?

00:06:12.140 Was it a friend?

00:06:12.940 Was it the prime minister?

00:06:14.220 Of course, we had to then take this, again, legal action to drag this information out of the federal government, and they released it.

00:06:22.700 They finally coughed it up on the day Biden was visiting Ottawa in order to bury the story.

00:06:27.520 So we're doing a very similar thing here, where we are telling the CBC, nah, you can't play games like this.

00:06:33.980 You need to tell us right away.

00:06:35.780 And to be totally clear, other crown corporations have told us the information we want right away.

00:06:41.200 So CMHC, Bank of Canada, other crown corporations, when we've asked pretty much identical questions, they've told us immediately.

00:06:49.380 It's the CBC who kicked the can and is trying to play cute with this information.

00:06:53.720 Now, of course, this is upsetting the CBC.

00:06:56.360 The CBC gets very upset very easily, of course.

00:06:59.260 Because they're doing journalism?

00:07:00.560 Well, you know, who wants to do journalism when you can...

00:07:04.740 Did you see that they didn't broadcast two NHL playoff games?

00:07:08.900 You're not broadcasting the Oilers games.

00:07:11.020 I know!

00:07:11.740 Two of them!

00:07:12.600 Two of them!

00:07:13.060 It was bizarre.

00:07:13.960 I thought there was something wrong with my system, because I'm trying to watch it with my kids.

00:07:17.460 And of course, nuh-uh, you only have to get this super extra-duty Sportsnet channel.

00:07:22.300 So here they are.

00:07:23.420 They will blow money on executive bonuses.

00:07:25.940 They'll get mad when we call them bonuses.

00:07:28.440 Like, they call it performance pay.

00:07:30.560 That's, like, why are we playing, like, word games here?

00:07:35.740 What's funny is in one of their documents, Sheila, they even called it a bonus.

00:07:39.760 Like, with a beat, themselves.

00:07:41.580 So, it's just so strange.

00:07:43.420 And again, it's another reason why we just need to defund the CBC.

00:07:46.880 They are not serving Canadians. 1.00

00:07:48.740 Very few of us are watching them.

00:07:50.440 Even when we do try to tune in to watch Edmonton beat Dallas,

00:07:55.660 they don't bother showing it to us.

00:07:57.460 They show us a rerun of Just for Laughs or something.

00:07:59.660 Yeah, it was Just for Laughs.

00:08:02.160 It was Just for Laughs.

00:08:03.260 I saw somebody joke on Twitter, or X, or whatever it's called now,

00:08:06.780 that maybe if we change the name to the Edmonton solar panels,

00:08:09.860 CBC might broadcast them.

00:08:13.600 But this issue of federal bonuses,

00:08:17.840 this is not just a CBC thing.

00:08:20.080 CBC is just clutching the information close to itself because it's embarrassing.

00:08:26.320 That they're getting performance bonuses for not performing.

00:08:30.280 Yes.

00:08:30.460 Nobody watches it.

00:08:31.400 Nobody likes it.

00:08:33.180 They make dumb decisions for broadcasting.

00:08:35.220 Yes.

00:08:35.820 Right.

00:08:36.200 And this is, you know, like, I think the greatest thing that young Canadians can do

00:08:41.460 to liberate us of the CBC is to teach their grandparents how to use the remote control.

00:08:46.780 Because I think a lot of them are just sort of stuck on it.

00:08:50.180 And you just show them.

00:08:50.960 You could just click up.

00:08:52.300 You can go to Fox News.

00:08:53.560 Just go up from there.

00:08:55.800 But this is a big issue.

00:08:58.960 These federal bonuses, performance bonuses.

00:09:01.280 The federal government is bigger than ever, slower than ever, zero respect for tax dollars, unaccountable.

00:09:10.360 Have you ever tried to use a government service in the last three years?

00:09:13.740 Go to the passport office.

00:09:15.740 Unless you have your personal MP intervene on your behalf, good luck getting service down there.

00:09:22.560 But you have to bring them with you.

00:09:24.080 Yeah.

00:09:24.500 Here's Garnett Jenis.

00:09:25.660 He's here to help.

00:09:26.240 But the feds have dished out nearly a half a billion dollars in bonuses in 2023.

00:09:34.940 You can't even get these people to go to the office anymore.

00:09:38.420 They're launching litigation if you try to make them go to the office.

00:09:41.880 I saw an order paper question that I'm working on.

00:09:44.600 I think the story will, we're recording this on Tuesday, so it might be out on Tuesday.

00:09:49.360 The percentage of department managers that are qualifying for bonuses, it was Andrew Scheer actually asked the question.

00:09:59.840 I'll flip this to you, Chris.

00:10:01.440 Please.

00:10:01.900 If you want to do something with it.

00:10:03.420 100% of managers at Statistics Canada got bonuses.

00:10:06.980 100% of managers at the Human Rights Commission and the CRTC got...

00:10:11.340 Well, good censorship complex.

00:10:13.240 They got to feather that nest. 0.90

00:10:15.280 Yeah.

00:10:15.440 Here's the one that really got me.

00:10:18.440 Astoundingly, 100% of managers at the Public Health Agency of Canada took home bonuses.

00:10:23.120 For those of you who don't recall, that's the department that...

00:10:26.700 Sole reason for existing is pandemic readiness.

00:10:29.940 And yet we had to shut down our country for three years because we were not pandemic ready.

00:10:34.220 And these are the same people that tossed out most of the national stockpile in the warehouse in Regina

00:10:39.380 because they couldn't rotate it the way you rotate the milk in your fridge.

00:10:43.780 That's right.

00:10:44.260 100% bonuses over there.

00:10:46.680 Veterans Affairs, 100% bonuses there.

00:10:50.640 Even though bureaucrats, instead of doing their jobs, are telling our veterans to go get made.

00:10:56.120 And the CBSA, currently embroiled in the ARRIVE scandal, 96% of them got bonuses.

00:11:04.680 98% of Corrections Canada managers received bonuses, no doubt for how they handled the serial killer Paul Bernardo and gay hustler, cannibal killer Luca Magnata. 0.58

00:11:18.380 Putting those guys in medium security, causing big controversies.

00:11:22.480 98% of them got performance bonuses.

00:11:27.540 And Public Service and Procurement Canada, nearly 99% of managers over there are getting bonuses.

00:11:34.000 Must be all the great work they're doing on combating fraud and conflicts of interest in the procurement process.

00:11:40.140 Wow.

00:11:41.140 If you want to fail upwards, just join the federal government.

00:11:45.400 I want to know how bad the other 1% of people are at procurement.

00:11:52.620 Like, how bad do you have to be to not get a bonus over there?

00:11:57.900 Maybe they were the ones who made the first phone call to get some of these stupid contracts and deals rolling.

00:12:04.360 Whistleblowers. 1.00

00:12:05.300 Yeah.

00:12:05.980 Whistleblowers. 1.00

00:12:06.760 Yeah.

00:12:07.300 I have this bad habit of trying to give the benefit of the doubt, and I really need to stop doing that.

00:12:12.260 Like, it's bizarre.

00:12:13.460 Again, two people's points.

00:12:15.580 If you are doing a good job, that is usually when one gets a bonus.

00:12:19.960 In any normal situation, that is when one gets a bonus.

00:12:22.760 But when apparently you're with the Trudeau government, no matter what kind of an employee you are, it sounds like, you're going to be getting a bonus.

00:12:31.460 And Sheila's right.

00:12:32.600 I think they've added close around ballpark between 80 and 100,000 people to the ranks of the public.

00:12:40.180 They call it the public service.

00:12:41.460 We call them government employees.

00:12:43.020 And you're right.

00:12:44.160 Again, there is a big pushback happening in the Ottawa-Gatineau area coming from these government unions because they're mad that apparently they're now being asked to go into the office three days per week.

00:12:57.120 So I get it.

00:12:58.340 Some people do work from home, and they do so productively.

00:13:01.360 But you can hit very clear performance metrics.

00:13:04.180 Exactly.

00:13:05.080 And if you can do so, that's great.

00:13:07.500 You're doing a good job.

00:13:08.600 What we're seeing here, of course, is that even within the ranks of the federal government employees, quite often, they're not hitting their own marks.

00:13:16.380 Really easy ones that they're trying to hit, they're often not hitting them.

00:13:19.840 So the idea that they would be told to put on pants and go into the office three times a week while being paid by the taxpayer doesn't seem that outrageous.

00:13:29.520 Yeah.

00:13:29.960 It's 90% of executives and managers are receiving bonuses across the federal government.

00:13:35.140 And, yeah, if going to the office is such a cumbersome thing, let's sell the office.

00:13:42.700 You know, like I work from home and you work from home because it saves our respective organizations money because they don't have to put me in a physical studio.

00:13:50.660 I'm in the closet under the stairs.

00:13:53.280 But the sound is good.

00:13:54.180 Like Harry Potter?

00:13:55.060 Yeah, basically.

00:13:55.680 Um, but, uh, that's not what's happening here.

00:13:59.680 Not only are these people not going to the office, taxpayers are paying to maintain these gray Soviet style buildings in Ottawa.

00:14:09.460 Um, why don't we sell those?

00:14:12.280 Pierre Polyev had a great idea.

00:14:13.760 Sell them and turn them into affordable housing.

00:14:15.960 Right?

00:14:16.440 I kind of feel bad for people living in them.

00:14:18.360 Maybe we should do it.

00:14:19.240 What is it, Deb Gray or Preston Manning that said we need to turn them into bingo halls?

00:14:22.640 Turn, turn 24 Sussex into a bingo hall?

00:14:26.380 But that's true.

00:14:27.360 And apparently downtown Ottawa, like it used to be, so I lived down there for years, even like as a pedestrian and a cyclist.

00:14:34.140 So I got to know that downtown core really well.

00:14:36.420 And it was always a government town in the sense that, yeah, the sidewalks would roll up at about 4.30 and all of the bureaucrats would be taking the buses home back out to Orleans and Canada or wherever they lived.

00:14:47.360 But then the last time I went back there, it is just a ghost town.

00:14:50.820 Like, there's nobody downtown.

00:14:53.520 Like, you could just jaywalk across the street all day and never get worried about getting hit by anything because it is so dead.

00:14:59.400 I actually feel really bad for some of the businesses that are down there, the private businesses who are trying to make a go of it.

00:15:05.440 Because, yeah, they're not going down there.

00:15:07.220 But again, we're not seeing the productivity.

00:15:09.480 Like, I don't know anybody who's like, wow, I've really seen an improvement over the last five years in my government services.

00:15:15.680 Right.

00:15:16.380 It's usually the opposite.

00:15:17.920 And here we are paying for the thing.

00:15:20.320 And again, folks, we have un-money to pay for this.

00:15:23.860 Okay.

00:15:24.500 We are so crazy in debt.

00:15:26.820 $1.2 trillion.

00:15:29.120 The Trudeau government has doubled the debt.

00:15:32.340 We are paying more on the interest on our debt than we are for health care.

00:15:37.360 What we pay in the GST, Sheila, is now 100% going to the interest payment on the debt.

00:15:45.200 Like, it's mind-boggling because the CTF, the Taxpayers Federation, started largely in protest in 1990 against things like the GST.

00:15:53.780 So, something so formative and fundamental for, like, a tax revolt happening in Canada as the GST, just envision that amount of money now.

00:16:03.200 Boom.

00:16:03.860 That's going on to gone.

00:16:06.020 Gone.

00:16:06.700 It's going to nothing.

00:16:07.860 It's paying interest to bond fund holders and Bay Street.

00:16:11.200 So, yeah, we're in serious trouble here.

00:16:13.280 And here they are.

00:16:14.360 They just keep on handing out bonuses.

00:16:16.400 And they're not even sheepish about it.

00:16:18.500 They get huffy even when you call it a bonus and they tell you to like it.

00:16:22.220 But, yeah, the Americans, I believe, fought a revolution over stuff like this.

00:16:28.680 Over much less.

00:16:29.980 Much less.

00:16:30.160 I will say, that T-Tax and that stamp tax, I think those were only like a penny each or half a penny each.

00:16:36.260 They were throwing stuff into the harbor really fast.

00:16:39.520 And just envision, I love this one because it gets kind of sad, but it's also a good way to fight.

00:16:44.220 I wish I could remember the gentleman on Twitter who recommended it.

00:16:47.980 Close your eyes if it's safe to do so.

00:16:49.820 Well, picture your salary doubling.

00:16:53.380 Like your take-home pay, what lands in your bank account, hopefully every two weeks.

00:16:57.140 Boom, it's doubled.

00:16:58.300 What could you do with that?

00:16:59.780 Could you pay down your line of credit?

00:17:01.440 Could you pay off a credit card?

00:17:02.600 Could you save up money to maybe buy a house?

00:17:04.780 Could you put your kid through an awesome private school?

00:17:07.180 Double your take-home pay.

00:17:09.660 That's what the government takes from you.

00:17:11.580 About, about that amount.

00:17:14.640 Like just shy of 50% goes to various levels of government in taxes and fees.

00:17:20.460 So it is like, and we've been slowly the frog boiling in the water, right?

00:17:24.920 So it's hard to kind of remember, but just close your eyes and picture your take-home pay doubling.

00:17:30.400 That is how much money the government is taking from you.

00:17:32.740 And the next time your sister-in-law at dinner tries saying, oh, well, it pays for services, ask yourself how awesome those government services are. 1.00

00:17:40.920 Yeah.

00:17:41.260 And what you could do with that money instead.

00:17:44.020 Could you pay for these services with your own money, get better services, and pay less?

00:17:49.080 Probably.

00:17:49.460 Now, while we were just ragging on the CBC out, I just want to talk about this thing that I saw this morning, landed in my email.

00:17:59.860 The CRTC is now going to make Canadians, even if you try to escape the clutches of unwatchable Canadian content on the CBC and other terrestrial broadcasting, that doesn't matter.

00:18:16.160 Because not only are you paying for it through your taxes and subsequent media bailouts, now you're over minding your own business on Netflix.

00:18:25.560 You're over on Disney Plus minding your own business.

00:18:27.880 Maybe you're watching on Paramount, Amazon Prime.

00:18:30.760 It doesn't matter.

00:18:31.940 You're still going to have to pay for that stuff you ran away from thanks to a 5% tax that the CRTC says, no worries.

00:18:41.160 The streamers will pay for it, the streaming services.

00:18:44.880 They won't.

00:18:45.580 They're going to pass it along to us.

00:18:47.320 And apparently, the only person who's going to escape this tax in all of Canada is Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, because wouldn't you know, she professes to have cancelled her Disney Plus.

00:18:57.980 All this stuff gets passed along to the taxpayer and the consumer.

00:19:02.180 It doesn't affect the streaming services.

00:19:04.440 They just tack it onto our bill at the end of the day.

00:19:06.900 Yeah, exactly.

00:19:07.560 So this happened in British Columbia years ago, and they put it in the weirdest possible wording, the provincial government there, but we still found it on budget day.

00:19:18.080 And yeah, essentially, it's a Netflix tax.

00:19:20.480 It's a streaming tax.

00:19:22.220 So back then, it was applying to Netflix, Spotify, SoundCloud, basically anything that came from outside of Canada that was a streaming service.

00:19:32.900 And I think on average, it was going to be adding something like 15 bucks to the bill or something like that.

00:19:38.160 Yeah.

00:19:38.440 To your point, these companies won't just eat this.

00:19:43.540 No.

00:19:44.120 They do not just eat this.

00:19:46.080 Okay.

00:19:46.260 Number one, that's not how corporations make money.

00:19:49.320 Okay.

00:19:49.600 Spoiler alert.

00:19:50.680 Number two, Canada, just by its population, is not a big enough player for them to bother even thinking about eating it.

00:19:59.880 They will just tack it on to our cost.

00:20:02.080 And I'm old enough to remember back when Prime Minister Stephen Harper warned that the Trudeau government would put through a Netflix tax.

00:20:10.120 And I think that was called fake news and everybody threw tomatoes.

00:20:13.820 Here we are.

00:20:14.540 Now, again, I'm not saying that, you know, a blue team would never do something like this.

00:20:18.720 We would go after them just as hard if they tried doing something like this.

00:20:22.440 Again, we already pay close to 50% of our wages in taxes.

00:20:26.840 Okay.

00:20:27.000 This is just another one where they're imposing it upon Netflix.

00:20:30.540 And again, you're right.

00:20:31.640 Here it is.

00:20:32.360 It's going to be funneled back in some way, shape, or form to Canadian content programming.

00:20:38.280 And again, people aren't watching the CBC.

00:20:41.540 And what really was a bee in my bonnet was one of the times when Tate was at committee and she was very rightly getting grilled over the fact that the CBC's ratings are plummeting.

00:20:53.460 Like around one-ish percent, give or take, of Canadians are watching the six o'clock news, for example.

00:21:00.000 One percent thereabouts.

00:21:02.120 And she said something to the effect of, well, yes, TV ratings are down, but we're making up for it in GEM, CBC GEM.

00:21:10.460 And it's like, okay, tell us how many people are watching through CBC GEM.

00:21:14.680 We don't release that information.

00:21:18.600 So that's like the kid in elementary school who swore he could turn invisible just when you're not looking at him, though.

00:21:24.720 Right.

00:21:25.480 Like, it's ridiculous.

00:21:27.040 And here we are paying for it.

00:21:28.240 Yeah, they said, the funding will be directed to areas of immediate need in the Canadian broadcasting system, such as local news, on radio and television, French language content, Indigenous content, and content created by and for equity-deserving communities, official language minority communities, and Canadians of diverse backgrounds.

00:21:53.820 I think that's also called the CBC.

00:21:56.600 Yes.

00:21:56.900 Like, that's the definition or the long-form definition of what they're trying to hide there.

00:22:03.060 Isn't that wild?

00:22:03.640 It's very similar to what I would refer to as the link tax.

00:22:07.280 Yes.

00:22:07.600 Right?

00:22:08.280 Yeah.

00:22:08.540 This is just the streaming version of the link tax.

00:22:11.620 Yeah, exactly.

00:22:12.600 So that's, again, folks, why you can't post news stories onto Facebook anymore, because Facebook told the Trudeau government to get bent and that they weren't going to be paying a tax, a fee,

00:22:24.880 every time that they allowed for a news story to be posted on their sharing service.

00:22:31.040 Again, this is bizarre.

00:22:32.360 It's like taxing the paperboy for the sin of delivering your paper.

00:22:35.480 It is the weirdest thing ever for content and sharing.

00:22:38.420 But Google did go along with it, from what I understand.

00:22:43.240 And again, guess who's taking the lion's share of the Google money?

00:22:47.280 That was CBC.

00:22:48.660 So this whole little snowball started, apparently so, this is how the story goes, with a few print guys.

00:22:55.180 So there were a few print guys saying, hey, the CBC's eating our lunch, because, of course, they were only meant to be a broadcast service.

00:23:01.760 They were never meant to be print.

00:23:03.260 But now, of course, they're print online.

00:23:05.220 They do that all the time.

00:23:06.480 So a lot of the original print guys were pretty mad about that, saying, you're exceeding your mandate and jumping the fence, and you're mowing my lawn.

00:23:13.220 And stop doing it.

00:23:14.400 And so this is one of the reasons why they got together.

00:23:16.900 And they said, hey, let's make a corporation like Google pay for it. 0.99

00:23:20.400 And here we are.

00:23:21.440 The CBC just rode right in, and they're actually taking the lion's share of the so-called link tax, much to the chagrin of the print guys.

00:23:28.240 So again, any time you try to get the government in on something, they're going to make it worse.

00:23:33.840 Like, they're just going to make it worse.

00:23:35.460 And here we are with a Netflix tax.

00:23:37.820 Yeah, and that link tax, I mean, blew up in the people who wanted the handouts face, right?

00:23:42.660 Because now, Facebook was this great way to deliver news to consumers where the news consumers are.

00:23:50.220 They're generally a little bit older.

00:23:51.800 A little bit older people are on Facebook.

00:23:53.820 They're finding their news there.

00:23:56.380 Clicking through.

00:23:57.660 The advertisers see, oh, you're getting a ton of traffic to your website.

00:24:01.780 Let me advertise with you.

00:24:03.860 Advertising dried up.

00:24:05.640 Of course.

00:24:05.980 For a lot of these Canadian news companies, because their reach dried up nearly instantly, because they weren't getting their news.

00:24:13.180 People weren't getting their news where they were looking for it anymore.

00:24:16.000 So, careful what you wish for, jerks.

00:24:17.840 Yeah, and for folks who are watching, and I understand we're like, oh, we're all mainstream media, blah, blah.

00:24:22.600 No, it wasn't just the mainstream media that was getting hurt by this.

00:24:25.620 This was a lot of independent news organizations, like Western Standard.

00:24:29.880 We love Western Standard.

00:24:31.140 They were getting nuked by this ridiculousness.

00:24:33.480 Because the Trudeau government started messing around with this industry.

00:24:37.800 And they don't take government money.

00:24:40.040 They're an independent news organization.

00:24:41.720 They just finished signing the Ottawa Declaration, saying, no, we're not going to take government money for media.

00:24:47.060 And sure enough, though, of course, they were doing on a private company, private business, Facebook, and they're getting hurt by this.

00:24:53.960 Again, folks, don't expect the government to come rolling into town and roll up on your property and make things better.

00:25:00.420 Reagan was right when he said, I'm from the government and here to help, or really scary words.

00:25:05.200 Yeah.

00:25:05.640 Yeah.

00:25:06.880 Everything they do generally makes it that much worse.

00:25:10.460 There's nothing that they do that is really all that benevolent.

00:25:14.560 No.

00:25:15.180 Before I let you go, because I could talk to you all day and, you know, we always have a robust conversation before I hit record.

00:25:21.900 It was about Sasquatches mostly.

00:25:23.660 It was really awesome.

00:25:24.940 It was.

00:25:26.320 We have our theories.

00:25:27.800 We share theories.

00:25:29.440 I want to talk to you about this hidden carbon tax report.

00:25:32.920 So the government has a carbon tax report, but much like the CBC bonuses, we don't get to see it.

00:25:38.680 What's going on there?

00:25:39.380 So this is a complicated thing.

00:25:42.320 Okay.

00:25:42.560 So folks probably remember the parliamentary budget office had come forward with the report.

00:25:48.740 I think it was around last year.

00:25:50.200 In fact, I think it was around this time last year, basically where they had two separate numbers.

00:25:55.160 The top number of their grids was just the straight cost for Monica filling up her Honda Civic in downtown Toronto.

00:26:02.300 So that would be about $6.75 if I'm doing my math right.

00:26:06.840 So boom, straight across.

00:26:08.720 How much does she get in rebate? 1.00

00:26:10.520 Okay.

00:26:10.960 That is what the Trudeau government was cherry picking for months saying you get more back than you pay in.

00:26:17.580 Okay.

00:26:18.320 Number one, anyone with a shred of common sense understands that you can't hand the government a 20 and get back a 50 at no cost to you.

00:26:26.520 Right.

00:26:27.160 That doesn't work that way.

00:26:29.040 Thank you.

00:26:29.680 That's a pyramid scheme.

00:26:31.420 Thank you.

00:26:32.040 They do not have a wealth generating machine under West Block.

00:26:35.420 Okay.

00:26:35.680 This is not how this works.

00:26:37.460 There's no lady there spinning flax into gold. 1.00

00:26:40.880 Okay.

00:26:41.600 So that aside, there was also a second number that Yves Giraud, the head of the Parliamentary Budget Office, had calculated.

00:26:50.360 And that is what the Taxpayers Federation talked about all the time.

00:26:53.160 That is what the Conservatives talked about quite often.

00:26:55.420 That's frankly what the NDP should be bringing up all the time too.

00:26:58.580 So that is basically the, yes, the cost of filling up your vehicle.

00:27:02.420 So it's about $20 now per pickup truck, just in the carbon tax, around $400 per household here in Alberta, for example, to heat your home with natural gas.

00:27:15.760 Then you layer in the trucker's cost.

00:27:17.880 So that's about $200 in diesel for the carbon tax every time they're filling up their trucks, plus the farmers.

00:27:24.360 Now you get the layering effect.

00:27:26.540 Okay.

00:27:27.060 That is the other number, the second number, that the Parliamentary Budget Officer came up with.

00:27:32.660 Okay.

00:27:33.720 That's what everybody talked about.

00:27:35.280 So including the Taxpayers Federation, when we say the PBO estimates that over $900 will be the net cost for an average Alberta family.

00:27:44.040 That's all your background.

00:27:46.020 All that said, now the Parliamentary Budget Office, I'm not quite sure why, are recalculating the carbon tax cost.

00:27:55.680 So I think there was a question as to whether or not the researchers at the Parliamentary Budget Office had included what's often referred to as the industrial carbon taxes of various provinces when they were doing that second calculation number.

00:28:14.460 Okay.

00:28:14.800 That's what I've heard.

00:28:16.580 Okay.

00:28:16.940 That is like the scuttlebutt that we've been hearing.

00:28:19.680 Now, what was interesting, because of course we heard that, and we're like, really?

00:28:25.040 Because that's a pretty big number and a pretty big factor.

00:28:28.380 Like, if you factor that in, you need to account for it.

00:28:30.920 Right.

00:28:31.020 And we need to know.

00:28:32.160 Like, number one, we know that it still costs Canadians.

00:28:34.780 Like, you can't put a tax on the lifeblood of the economy of gasoline, diesel, and natural gas, how we eat and heat and move, and not cost Canadians a ton of money.

00:28:43.120 Yep.

00:28:43.320 That's understood.

00:28:44.480 But we were concerned, because we like having the exact precise number to point to in a chart.

00:28:49.820 Now, this is the key.

00:28:52.300 Apparently, Giraud, the Parliamentary Budget Officer, says, oh, this is still a cost.

00:28:59.420 Like, net cost.

00:29:00.700 So, the Trudeau carbon tax is still a net cost to the majority of Canadian families, is what the verbiage is coming out of that office right now.

00:29:09.820 But apparently, that, as far as I understand, that part of the report that they're trying to recalculate, they're apparently not letting him say so.

00:29:19.180 They're not letting him release that number or that information.

00:29:22.220 It's ongoing right now, as of our taping on Tuesday.

00:29:25.180 Like, there's back and forth with a committee and everything and happening in the House of Commons.

00:29:28.700 So, that's where we're at as of right now, is apparently the Trudeau government is not letting the Parliamentary Budget Officer release that new number.

00:29:38.720 So, what do you think that means?

00:29:39.980 Do you think it's even worse for the government?

00:29:42.720 Yeah.

00:29:42.920 Yeah.

00:29:43.480 Yeah.

00:29:44.020 That would be my guess.

00:29:45.280 Like, even just taking my CTF hat off, and I've worked on the other side of the rope line for a little while on Parliament Hill.

00:29:52.140 So, I've worked in a minister's office, you know, I was involved with some of this stuff before.

00:29:58.280 I can't see why.

00:29:59.920 If it were lower, and people were...

00:30:02.300 They would be out tomorrow.

00:30:02.640 Yeah.

00:30:02.940 Yeah, right?

00:30:03.840 Like, it would be out tomorrow with a press conference and, like, the full meal deal backdrop and stuff.

00:30:08.480 Even if they tried to do that, Fred, you try to convince me that you can put a carbon tax on everything we use to heat and eat and move and grow food.

00:30:17.160 Right.

00:30:17.620 It wouldn't make sense.

00:30:18.680 But, even just numerically, if it somehow magically, numerically came out and said, oh, it costs people much less, it would already be out.

00:30:27.820 They wouldn't be trying to suppress that information.

00:30:30.120 So, yeah, that's where my money is.

00:30:32.280 Yeah.

00:30:32.500 I mean, if they forgot to factor in large emitters, that means they didn't factor in electricity into it.

00:30:39.700 Right?

00:30:40.140 Yeah.

00:30:40.880 For folks in BC who only use hydro, a lot of electricity is produced using natural gas, to your point, Sheila.

00:30:47.920 Or coal.

00:30:49.060 Yeah.

00:30:49.720 So, that means, like, in Alberta, when we're refrigerating the groceries in the grocery store, and that the increased cost of electricity adds to the cost of milk, that's not being factored in if they're missing large emitters from all of this.

00:31:05.980 Yeah.

00:31:06.500 Big time.

00:31:07.360 Big time.

00:31:07.880 And then there's also different elements of farming, where I'm not sure they can fully understand exactly how much it's costing megabucks.

00:31:16.640 Right.

00:31:16.940 I mean, that's, again, not factoring in electricity in a hog barn or a poultry barn, which are incredibly electricity intensive.

00:31:27.160 Yep.

00:31:27.600 Yep.

00:31:27.880 It's just for heating.

00:31:29.120 Right?

00:31:29.320 So, you try to say, say you use natural gas or propane to heat or cool, like, to heat the barn, and you have to keep your poultry barn at a steady 30.

00:31:38.520 Yeah, you're not keeping in the electrification there, too.

00:31:41.600 Like, I just finished talking to a lovely gentleman out here.

00:31:44.420 I'm talking about the fans in a poultry barn are going constantly.

00:31:47.860 Oh, great point.

00:31:49.280 And so, even if they're capturing the natural gas in what we call a pig tank.

00:31:52.900 The fans, you know, you're right.

00:31:54.120 Sitting outside, the electricity for a poultry or hog barn are so, it's so intensive because of the constant fans going inside.

00:32:02.360 I just finished getting back.

00:32:04.400 We'll probably have the video up in the next couple of weeks.

00:32:06.920 This lovely gentleman who's a fish farmer in Claire's home, of all places.

00:32:12.140 So, I'm from the West Coast.

00:32:13.400 So, the idea of growing fish in the middle of the prairie was astonishing to me.

00:32:16.380 Is he doing it in a sea can?

00:32:18.260 It was, no, it's this gigantic thing.

00:32:20.740 You should see it.

00:32:21.860 There's a guy who grows them in, I think it's salmon, in a sea can.

00:32:26.620 That's amazing.

00:32:27.440 A long sea can is just gone, you know, prairie innovation.

00:32:30.220 It is amazing.

00:32:30.880 Yeah, they're these massive concrete tanks, and they're beautiful, healthy tilapia fish right here in Canada.

00:32:36.920 So, you don't need to import them at all.

00:32:38.620 You should see these big honking healthy fish.

00:32:40.240 They were amazing.

00:32:41.080 But you're right.

00:32:41.660 It was this gigantic room, like the size close to, like, a hockey rink.

00:32:47.480 And it was full of tanks.

00:32:48.820 And you're right.

00:32:49.820 The fans and the aerators and the bubblers, of course, to keep all these filters going and stuff and all the aeration and the air movement.

00:32:58.600 You're right.

00:32:59.200 And so, I'm waiting.

00:33:00.840 I really want to know what those numbers are coming out of the Parliamentary Budget Office.

00:33:04.800 But that is, there's so much going on.

00:33:06.480 I know things are crazy in the United States.

00:33:08.640 I know there's, like, censorship everywhere.

00:33:10.740 But even here in Canada, man, there's so much going on.

00:33:14.660 And so, like, the Netflix tax is just the beginning.

00:33:17.440 There's also a huge, apparently there's something going on with their Green Fund, where there's a big Auditor General report coming out.

00:33:24.820 They're missing a bunch of money.

00:33:26.880 This is it.

00:33:27.400 It's all unaccountable.

00:33:28.420 Yeah.

00:33:28.560 This, this is it.

00:33:29.780 And so, a little part of me wonders if the Netflix tax was supposed to be distraction.

00:33:34.940 Like, you know, back when, you know, we call it distraction chicken in Trailer Park Boys.

00:33:41.060 Remember when they set up all that fried chicken on the counter for Ricky?

00:33:43.720 Can't wait.

00:33:43.940 So, I think, I think the Netflix tax might be distraction chicken away from, like, the bigger ones of how much it's costing people with these Auditor General reports.

00:33:56.780 But we shall see.

00:33:57.620 Stay tuned.

00:33:58.080 Oh, can't wait.

00:34:00.620 Can't wait.

00:34:02.240 Chris, tell us how people can get involved in the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and support the work that you do.

00:34:08.860 Because you don't take money from Justin Trudeau.

00:34:12.020 How could you hold him to account if you did?

00:34:13.900 But also, you don't even, like, reap the tax benefits of being, you know, a not-for-profit organization.

00:34:22.580 You guys just completely wash your hands of any sort of government benefit.

00:34:25.660 Yeah, we don't even, if you give us a donation, we really thank you, guys.

00:34:29.600 But we don't even give you a tax receipt for it because we don't want to cost any money in any way, shape, or form.

00:34:35.720 So, yeah, we're not a charity.

00:34:36.800 We're a not-for-profit for that reason.

00:34:38.820 So, you can go to taxpayer.com.

00:34:41.240 And what I love about it is you can sign any petition there that you want.

00:34:45.080 And I can hear it right now.

00:34:46.460 Petitions don't do anything.

00:34:47.520 Yes, they do.

00:34:48.620 Because then you join our standing army on that issue.

00:34:52.220 And it can be whatever you want.

00:34:53.540 Defund the CBC.

00:34:54.640 Stop the gun grab.

00:34:56.100 Stop having PST charged on thrift shop items in British Columbia, Sheila.

00:35:00.760 Yeah.

00:35:01.660 Stop hurting poor people, government.

00:35:04.620 And that means you're now part of that standing army.

00:35:07.280 And whenever it comes up, we will send you an email blast of now.

00:35:11.960 Phone the minister.

00:35:12.960 Email the minister.

00:35:14.100 You know, help us buy a chicken suit.

00:35:15.720 Let's do a protest. 0.97

00:35:17.060 So, it mobilizes you.

00:35:19.000 So, just go to taxpayer.com.

00:35:20.620 Read what we're all about.

00:35:21.560 And you can sign petitions that tickle your fancy.

00:35:23.620 You know, it also does another thing.

00:35:26.940 Ralph Klein once said, show me a parade that's marching and I'll jump in front of it and lead it.

00:35:31.460 That's right.

00:35:31.980 So, what these petitions do.

00:35:33.620 the size of these petitions shows your conservative politician, that might be a little bit of a distraction chicken coward,

00:35:41.620 that there are thousands of people who care deeply about this issue.

00:35:47.340 The parade is marching and a good opportunistic politician will jump in front of it and lead that parade. 0.97

00:35:52.560 And it's, so it signals to the politicians on your side that you care deeply about these issues and they need to fight for them.

00:36:01.020 So, it changes policies and it gives politicians courage.

00:36:05.960 So, sign those petitions.

00:36:07.060 Hey, perfect example.

00:36:08.180 And I say this earnestly and with full respect.

00:36:10.220 There was a blistering op-ed.

00:36:12.320 You've probably read it that Pierre Polyev put in the National Post about two or three weeks ago.

00:36:16.940 And he said, I'm not really interested in having a lobby group come meet me in the office for some rubber chicken lunch.

00:36:24.480 What I care about, I'm paraphrasing him, is when I'm knocking on doors and a normal person tells me about it.

00:36:31.560 Yeah.

00:36:31.820 Or when a normal person emails me or phones me directly.

00:36:34.640 Tell, convince the people and the people can help work with me.

00:36:39.780 Now, again, we're totally in favour of him wanting to scrap the carbon tax, defund the CBC, cancel the gun grab.

00:36:45.380 There's lots of good stuff that he's promising to do and he's saying so directly in this piece.

00:36:49.980 If you haven't read it, go read it.

00:36:51.760 He wrote it in the National Post and it's exactly to our point.

00:36:55.600 If you bring the people off of the stands, you get them in the arena, you build the army of people, real people, we will convince politicians to go in the right direction.

00:37:06.040 And he said as much.

00:37:07.760 From your lips to God's ears, Chris Sims.

00:37:10.100 Thanks so much for coming on the show.

00:37:11.780 So, you know, no offence to my other guests, but this is some of the funnest work I do every single month is having Chris on the show.

00:37:19.380 So, I really wish the folks were privy to our pre-record conversations.

00:37:26.100 One day.

00:37:26.560 But then sometimes I wish I'm sort of glad they're not.

00:37:30.740 Anyway, thanks so much for coming on the show.

00:37:32.480 Thanks so much for all the work that you do on behalf of normal people just like me, just trying to keep a little bit of extra money in their bank account.

00:37:40.420 And as always, we'll have you back on again very soon.

00:37:43.680 Thanks, Sheila.

00:37:44.100 We'll see you next time.

00:38:14.100 Now, last week, I made you the guest of the show.

00:38:19.500 Regular viewers of the show will know that I was in the back of an RV filming my show because we were screening our latest documentary called Made, The Dark Side of Canadian Compassion.

00:38:32.240 It touches on Justin Trudeau's radical euthanasia policies, what he calls medical assistance in dying.

00:38:38.740 I was in a parking lot in Fort St. John, British Columbia while the documentary was showing at the Lido Theatre and I wanted to make good use of my time.

00:38:49.140 But as I indicated, I didn't have time to book a show guest and how could I?

00:38:54.400 I was filming the show on the fly and I made a call out for your viewer feedback.

00:39:01.300 I said, send me a letter.

00:39:03.000 I'll read as many of them as I can on air while still making the show not 10 hours long because, boy, did I ever get a lot of viewer feedback there.

00:39:13.260 So I thought I'll go back and pick another one this week.

00:39:17.220 And I did.

00:39:18.120 This one comes to me from David McCready, who writes to me saying,

00:39:22.980 I live in New Brunswick.

00:39:24.200 Premier Higgs has made big headlines in the last year around the broad issue of parental rights and children under 16.

00:39:30.100 What do your listeners in other provinces think about this matter?

00:39:32.480 Thanks, Sheila.

00:39:34.060 Okay.

00:39:35.440 I'm a fan of Blaine Higgs now.

00:39:37.220 I have not been a fan of Blaine Higgs in the past.

00:39:41.240 Actually, I should clarify.

00:39:42.520 I'm a fan of Blaine Higgs on this issue, which I think is an election issue for a lot of people.

00:39:50.340 I was not a fan of Blaine Higgs for how he treated the pastors during the lockdowns and regular people during lockdowns,

00:39:58.140 including my friend, Pastor Phil Hutchins, who spent seven days in solitary confinement for the crime of what?

00:40:04.940 Opening his church.

00:40:06.760 And then subsequent, Pastor Phil and his family, along with him, were dragged through the court system for several months, a year.

00:40:15.220 So not a Blaine Higgs fan there.

00:40:19.360 Blaine Higgs is doing his best to redeem himself, however,

00:40:21.660 because he is going after the use of what should be a safe place for children, the classroom,

00:40:31.800 by radical sexual activists to indoctrinate children into their radical agenda

00:40:38.020 and thus exposed other people's kids to sexualized materials before the parents think the children are ready

00:40:45.060 and behind the parents' backs.

00:40:47.480 And some of this stuff is so atrocious, I don't think anybody can be ready.

00:40:51.900 Look, look, I'm not ready to see some of it.

00:40:54.340 I'm in my 40s and my middle child just became an adult.

00:40:57.780 So that should tell you how graphic some of it is.

00:41:00.440 It grosses me out.

00:41:01.600 I don't have a strong stomach for that sort of stuff and it revolts me.

00:41:07.200 So I like what Blaine Higgs is doing.

00:41:11.880 I think he joins Scott Moe and Premier Daniel Smith here in Alberta in taking a strong stance

00:41:20.200 to protect the innocence of children and to give parents a say in the education system.

00:41:30.420 On what planet should someone who is ostensibly a stranger be exposing somebody else's minor child

00:41:41.260 to graphic sexual material behind the parents' back?

00:41:46.160 If you think that that's okay, I want to see your hard drive.

00:41:53.780 Right?

00:41:55.720 Anyway, I think most normal people are happy to see what Blaine Higgs is doing.

00:42:01.120 I think some of the other conservative premiers should follow suit.

00:42:06.600 I'm looking at you, Doug Ford.

00:42:08.180 I would like to see Doug Ford take a strong stance on this, but he's just sort of taking

00:42:13.720 a hands-off approach.

00:42:16.560 Who knows?

00:42:17.420 We might see the closer he gets to re-election time coming out on this issue because it is

00:42:23.240 a non-partisan issue.

00:42:25.260 This is a thing that lots of people who are traditional liberal voters care deeply about.

00:42:32.680 So we'll see.

00:42:33.600 So if you want to know what people across the other provinces think about this, I think

00:42:39.220 we're fans.

00:42:40.520 I think we approve.

00:42:41.900 Rubber stamp of approval from, I believe, the viewers over here at The Gun Show.

00:42:48.740 Well, everybody, that's the show for tonight.

00:42:50.440 Thank you so much for tuning in.

00:42:51.760 I'll see everybody back here in the same time, in the same place next week.

00:42:54.900 Although I made that guarantee two weeks ago, and I was not in the same place I normally am.

00:43:01.320 But, you know, that's my sign-off, so don't take it literally.

00:43:04.720 But do take this literally.

00:43:06.160 Don't let the government tell you that you've had too much to think.

Rebel News Podcast - June 05, 2024

SHEILA GUNN REID ｜ Trudeau introduces the Netflix tax he promised would never come

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