The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - Another Liberal scandal

00:00:00.000 hello and welcome once again to the blueprints this is canada's conservative podcast i'm your

00:00:10.760 host jamie schmael member of parliament for halliburton 4th likes brock with new content

00:00:14.460 for you every single tuesday 1 30 p.m eastern time we ask that you like subscribe share this

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00:00:33.420 second in its entirety you can download it listen to it later on to platforms like castbox itunes

00:00:38.160 google play spotify you name it it is out there we are going to continue the conversation we had

00:00:44.640 last week with another guest michael barrett the member of parliament for leeds and grenville

00:00:49.420 thousand island the rito lakes also the ethics critic we're going to bring him on he we haven't

00:00:54.180 had him in a while we we have him back we're going to continue the conversation we had last week with

00:00:57.960 stephanie cusey about this massive increase in spending for government consultants despite the

00:01:04.740 fact that public civil service has grown exponentially same time so michael barrett thanks for coming on

00:01:10.820 the show hey thanks so much for having me jamie okay you had an emergency committee meeting last week

00:01:18.800 to bring this up bring this issue up and talk about it why don't you give us a quick explanation

00:01:24.520 but what happened then we'll get into what is mckinsey the hundred million dollars that the

00:01:29.020 liberals gave to this one particular company that has tentacles in about 30 other countries

00:01:34.500 and is actually investigated is being investigated a few up for criminal charges and others

00:01:40.080 yeah so um lots lots to cover about mckinsey for sure but last week we had a um an emergency

00:01:51.700 meeting of the government operations committee where um i sit with uh stephanie cusey and kelly block as

00:01:58.920 um as permanent members of that committee and uh the opposition parties had worked together to bring

00:02:06.980 this issue uh to committee during the during the parliamentary recess um to take a look at this

00:02:13.340 as you mentioned more than 100 million dollars going to mckinsey now uh the liberals uh you know

00:02:19.980 feeling the pressure from media feeling the pressure from the public from um you know people who uh you

00:02:27.020 know listen to this and watch this podcast who've been um you know calling their mps and uh have been

00:02:33.260 you know talking about this with their friends and family that that pressure um had the liberals

00:02:38.300 vote to support the opposition calls that will see um multiple ministers uh appear and all order of

00:02:47.460 detail and documents being ordered from mckinsey uh to be produced within three weeks to the committee so

00:02:55.440 um we were able to get this motion passed for production of documents and for witnesses uh several

00:03:01.920 ministers to appear and uh because of public pressure uh the liberals uh came on side and um you know

00:03:09.420 they're they're going along to get along at this point but uh really it's because of conservative

00:03:14.820 the conservative opposition that um this order for um details right down to the last dime has been made

00:03:21.760 i want to commend you and the others on that committee for digging into this so well that i think

00:03:27.560 there's a lot to unearth for those not familiar as we talked about last week i'll just do a quick

00:03:32.080 refresher uh mckinsey currently subject of a criminal probe in france um under criminal charges in south

00:03:39.380 africa also a pretty damning thing they were in charge of here uh 600 million dollars they were just 0.96

00:03:47.160 forced to pay uh with u.s authorities over charges that the firm helped design an aggressive marketing

00:03:52.880 strategy over oxycontinant a drug whose over prescription spawned the current opioid crisis

00:03:58.580 and you'll remember they also uh got paid 27 million for new york state in 2019 to reduce violence

00:04:05.420 in prisons violence actually went up and they were also involved in uh the use of lobbying tactics

00:04:13.940 to promote tobacco and its so-called good measures so this company has a lot of history

00:04:21.960 founded in 1926 30 000 employees 60 countries and the liberals have given them a massive increase

00:04:31.460 in funding to do a whole bunch of work specifically one in particular through the immigration department

00:04:37.180 yeah they've received a 50-fold increase that the liberals have given them and this is all uh in the

00:04:46.040 light of all of the items that you mentioned jamie so um so past governments um did do

00:04:51.820 business with mckinsey but we didn't know then what we know now about them as a as a corporate citizen

00:04:58.900 what their corporate ethics are like or what they're lacking to be more accurate and you know the list

00:05:05.460 goes on you listed some great examples but um you know another dubious example of the ethics of this

00:05:12.200 this company is that they held a corporate retreat a couple thousand meters from a concentration camp

00:05:20.960 in china where weaker muslims are interned and this is unbelievable this this same company that 1.00

00:05:30.000 completely disregards human rights around the world was used by the government of saudi arabia

00:05:36.920 to target and track individuals who are critical of the government of saudi arabia so they tracked them

00:05:44.340 online prepared this report and then the saudi government used that that analysis to um to to

00:05:51.700 punish the individuals who were in the country who were listed in the report and the ones who were

00:05:56.660 outside the country being critical of of the government they tracked down their family in saudi arabia

00:06:01.260 and uh and punished them and so unbelievable that the government would would do business with a

00:06:10.040 company like this but it's it's mind-boggling that they would increase the business by such a large

00:06:17.880 order of magnitude and of that hundred million dollars you know more than 40 million of it were

00:06:23.640 untendered contracts and so these are sole source contracts going to this company and i'm just not

00:06:29.440 sure what what virtues they bring to the table at a time when we have the largest public service in the

00:06:36.620 history of our country and we have members of our public service who've blown the whistle and said

00:06:41.540 we don't know uh what these guys are supposed to be doing but what we do know is that they're crafting

00:06:47.600 a policy in our departments and we don't have any say over it so what we have is this multinational

00:06:55.740 company that as you said has its tentacles into countries all around the world and has its

00:07:01.860 fingerprints all over all kinds of scandals and criminal investigations and uh and pay uh paying

00:07:09.340 out um settlements in in the u.s for the um for the opioid crisis and they're crafting policy like

00:07:18.960 immigration policy in canada and our civil servants are saying whoa this is this is not the way it's

00:07:26.180 supposed to work canadians don't elect members of parliament to form a government only to have

00:07:34.840 some shadowy multinational company make decisions in their boardroom on the governance of canada and

00:07:42.880 what canadian policy should look like so it's it's really mind-blowing that um you know that that

00:07:49.280 this has been allowed to go on and really flourish under the trudeau liberals well you can also question

00:07:55.280 the fact that using a consultant can sometimes bypass a number of uh you know rules and regulations

00:08:03.840 in place that the civil servants has to be more open about so then it begs the question are we now

00:08:09.280 getting governments around the world that are filled with a bunch of technocrats kind of moving people

00:08:14.920 around like pieces on a chessboard and and and only having a centralized few deciding for the many

00:08:23.200 well absolutely and who's making the decision to do that well of course it's the prime minister

00:08:30.720 and why is he choosing this company well we know that the prime minister has a close relationship

00:08:37.740 with dominic barton who was the former head of mckinsey and again we see this emerging as part of a pattern

00:08:45.860 where liberal insiders continue to do so much better than they ever did before under a liberal

00:08:54.500 government and so while canadians are struggling struggling to pay their their heat bill struggling

00:09:03.140 to put gas in the tank of their car you know struggling to fill the grocery cart and having

00:09:08.020 to supplement their groceries uh by going to the food bank we're seeing record numbers of people going to

00:09:12.560 the food bank the the government's paying our civil service which is bigger than ever and then paying

00:09:20.180 100 million dollars to this this company who seems that um the only thing to their credit is that they

00:09:27.520 have a connection to the liberals and it's more liberal insiders getting rich while canadians struggle

00:09:36.700 just to get by so just before christmas i think it was minister ing was uh was uh found to be giving

00:09:46.240 tens of thousands of dollars to her buddy to do some work we saw during the pandemic when things were

00:09:52.360 chaotic liberal friendly firms getting money to do things they'd never have one of those companies was

00:09:58.100 to make ventilators and they never actually made a ventilator so uh you know well as you said as we're

00:10:03.600 struggling but this is just a repeat pattern this is not a one-off this has been going on over and

00:10:09.480 over and over again do these liberals have any ethics whatsoever well this is a top-down problem and

00:10:18.920 when the prime minister has been found guilty multiple times of breaking ethics laws and thinks that

00:10:26.020 it's simply sufficient to to say sorry um but that there needn't be any other consequence and that he doesn't

00:10:35.760 need to resign in disgrace as he should have that that's contagious it's contagious around his cabinet

00:10:43.020 table and it's contagious in his caucus and that's why we've seen these these things reoccur we saw it with his trip

00:10:50.940 to billionaire island we saw it with uh the prime minister's um you know interference in the criminal

00:10:57.200 prosecution of his friends at the liberal friendly firm snc lavalon we saw it uh when uh the prime

00:11:05.620 minister's uh disgraced former finance minister uh was found guilty of breaking the ethics act in the

00:11:10.700 we charity scandal we we've seen it with his former fisheries minister uh dominic leblanc you know giving

00:11:19.740 contracts to family members claim scam it's it really is this contagion around the cabinet table

00:11:26.820 that the prime minister has demonstrated that he doesn't think it's a problem if his ministers act

00:11:35.700 unethically and that they only have to say they're sorry if they get caught and that's why it's so

00:11:42.020 important that the opposition does its job to hold the government accountable and we've got

00:11:46.660 we've got a really strong uh a really strong team of mps on the conservative side i can say that

00:11:52.940 uh comfortably and i can think of no shortage of examples people in shadow minister portfolios or

00:11:58.680 um you know people in associate shadow minister portfolios or sitting around the table at um at the

00:12:05.380 various committees our benches are full of people who are working to get accountability from the

00:12:10.520 government on all orders of things but um as the as the shadow minister responsible for ethics and

00:12:18.720 accountable government i gotta tell you um it's uh it's as if um justin trudeau and his cabinet

00:12:26.100 um want to see just how busy that they can make me um and and and i'm i'm prepared to do the work

00:12:33.720 but my goodness uh when i hear from canadians about how disappointed and frustrated they are

00:12:39.860 in this liberal government it's um it's no wonder that over the last couple of weeks

00:12:44.380 we've seen liberals fortunes falling in polling and uh conservatives on the upswing

00:12:50.680 it's almost like they can't help themselves right liberals are going to liberal and this is

00:12:55.280 this is what they do but also this goes to our conversation that we've had many times about

00:13:00.420 why smaller government is better why taking power away from the well-lawyered and the well-lobbied

00:13:06.900 in the ottawa bubble is a good thing giving communities the ability giving individuals the

00:13:12.920 opportunity to reach their full potential without being told what to do how to do it by big government

00:13:18.940 which keeps saying they know best but every time they take something under their their their wings

00:13:25.980 they make a mess of it and you can name any file they have right now how long does it

00:13:30.340 take you get a passport right like even the simplest of services all the way up to two

00:13:34.860 million backlog at the immigration department veterans still waiting online we we can just

00:13:39.440 go on and on and on so when we talk about canada is broken these are the examples we're talking about

00:13:44.920 yeah absolutely and and the things in canada that are broken are that way because justin trudeau

00:13:52.960 broke them and they weren't broken before uh and you know uh our leader pierre polyev he talked about

00:14:00.380 this you know we had winter in canada before justin trudeau but it seems like there isn't a travel

00:14:05.760 season that we have now that it's not an unmitigated disaster and and that's because of uh the failures of

00:14:14.700 leadership of justin trudeau and his ministers and in that case his his transport minister um this

00:14:21.060 government would be only too happy to to tax every dollar away from canadians because they think that

00:14:29.080 they know how to spend it better than canadians do um just like their um carbon tax uh scam where

00:14:37.500 they tell canadians uh that they're going to get more money back than they pay into it um you know

00:14:42.980 if someone showed up at your door and knocked and said now if you give me a hundred dollars i'll give

00:14:46.240 you two hundred dollars back um you're going to say oh this is this is some kind of scammer um well

00:14:52.260 those people that come to your door and say that are liberal candidates during the election and you're

00:14:56.860 absolutely right in believing that that person is is a scammer um because that doesn't make any sense

00:15:02.620 and neither does their neither does uh their carbon tax scam but what they want to do is um is they

00:15:08.920 want to control how canadians uh spend their money uh they think that ottawa knows best and and we know

00:15:15.040 that that's absolutely not the case and that a dollar um in the pocket of the canadian who earned

00:15:21.320 it is going to be spent much better 100 of the time than the politician who taxed it

00:15:28.300 well the government itself should be trying to maximize an individual's freedom not trying to

00:15:35.600 control their behavior by the tax code right we saw the prime minister up in saskatchewan where he

00:15:40.820 forgot to invite premier mo which was absolutely embarrassing and i know if that had been under a

00:15:47.700 conservative prime minister the media would have been lighting their hair on fire but of course

00:15:51.280 you know trudeau gets a pass promoting the extraction of rare earth materials at the expense

00:15:59.100 of oil and gas workers right like talking about the the the you know this this transition to green

00:16:07.260 energy well we're not opposed to green energy but you always add to your portfolio you add the new

00:16:12.980 technologies the new innovations that come on the market you keep adding to them and then at that

00:16:18.180 point you can phase out the stuff that might be uh changing the the consumer demand but you don't say

00:16:26.320 we're going to get rid of our oil and gas workers then at the same time we're going to try to come up

00:16:32.100 with this new technology that isn't proven isn't reliable and isn't affordable and if we get it

00:16:37.780 wrong well you're just going to have to suffer through it until we figure it out because we're

00:16:41.260 just so super smart in ottawa yeah again that's that ottawa knows best mentality and it doesn't it

00:16:48.900 doesn't um mesh with uh even what they put forward they talk about wanting to reduce greenhouse gas

00:16:55.780 emissions and global they want canada to punch above its weight canada can punch above its weight

00:16:59.960 um and not only reduce our greenhouse gas emissions but also displace uh dirty dictator oil uh by by

00:17:10.340 maximizing the natural resource extraction in this country getting our lng to tidewater um by by you

00:17:18.900 know the a barrel of oil in canada is much uh cleaner it's extracted with tougher environmental

00:17:24.500 regulations and done with the human rights protections of everyone involved um versus you

00:17:29.700 getting it from from places some places overseas um to say nothing of the cost of of dragging that

00:17:36.820 oil um you know in a in a ship across the ocean so uh there's a lot of ways that the government can

00:17:43.920 can do these things but they don't seem to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time they want to

00:17:48.820 shut down the natural resource sector in canada um and then they want to very selectively deal with

00:17:55.560 you know mining of of you know these these rare earth uh minerals but um they don't even want to

00:18:01.480 do it in partnership with the provinces that they're visiting and so you have to wonder how

00:18:05.640 genuine um they are and and really how far they're they're looking um down the road or if this is really

00:18:12.200 just very shallow electioneering that we're getting from the government they need to take a holistic

00:18:17.400 approach to these things and you know we're starting to see them get shut out of conversations and deals

00:18:21.400 with um with our allies whether it's on you know microprocessors or whether it's uh defense

00:18:26.840 agreements and this is going to happen more and more uh when our allies are seriously engaging on

00:18:33.800 issues and they see nothing but shallow posturing from um from the trudeau liberals uh it's it's going

00:18:40.200 to leave canada out in the cold it's important to remember that we are mining rare earth materials

00:18:46.040 right they're called rare earth for a reason so according to justin trudeau oil and natural gas

00:18:51.720 bad mining for rare earth materials with tailing ponds etc that's okay having said all of that

00:19:01.240 german chancellor a few months ago came to canada hat in hand we need your natural gas

00:19:07.880 says there's no business case because of course he sometimes knows more than what industry does they

00:19:12.520 want to build they can under this current government japanese prime minister comes to canada

00:19:18.360 wants to do business says no sends him on his way so germany goes to qatar spends i can't remember i

00:19:26.600 think it was a couple billion dollars on a uh 10 plus year contract for for natural gas and canada

00:19:32.520 gets shut out of that yet again the japanese are probably going to do the same in another country as well

00:19:37.320 yeah and this is this is um uh classic trudeau he said there was no business case for it but you know

00:19:47.160 we see those uh billions of dollars are going to flow elsewhere and it's at the expense of of canadian

00:19:52.520 prosperity so uh it's um you know we're at a time now when canadians are are are not seeing prosperity

00:20:00.760 in their communities and across the country um like they had in in other periods in time and are

00:20:07.080 taking a real critical look at um what the trudeau government is doing um to you know to help

00:20:13.160 mitigate uh these tough times and i i think that it's going to be real really cold comfort um for

00:20:20.920 people and there's going to be um a lot of um you know a lot of uh consideration given um the next time

00:20:29.240 you know justin trudeau uh wants to have an election because my goodness uh when he's not putting

00:20:36.760 anything in the window for in terms of partnership with other countries uh and they're choosing not

00:20:41.640 to partner with us and do business with us because you know uh we don't look like we're open for

00:20:46.920 business then i um i think that that's that's going to help spur a change um the next time we uh we end

00:20:54.920 up at the ballot box time always goes so quickly and unfortunately we are running out of it here today

00:21:01.000 but as you know michael the guests always get the last word so the floor is yours

00:21:05.640 well it's uh so important that we continue to get the word out about um the waste that we're seeing

00:21:13.400 from these liberals at this um really critical time for our country you know uh just just last week that

00:21:21.160 that motion where we're going to have to investigate a hundred million dollars going to liberal insiders

00:21:27.800 at a time when uh when canadians are struggling so um we're going to keep doing the hard work of

00:21:32.360 holding the government accountable thank you so much for uh having me on today so that we can we

00:21:36.760 can get the word out and so that folks can um do their part by by sharing uh sharing this video liking

00:21:42.760 this page and uh making sure that um that canadians are informed about what's going on in ottawa

00:21:49.320 absolutely michael barrett thank you so much we really appreciate your time member of parliament for

00:21:54.360 leeds grenville thousand island of rito lake salsa the ethics creditor critic we appreciate his time

00:21:59.320 we appreciate your time as well and as michael said please like comment subscribe share this program

00:22:05.160 together we can push back against that ever-moving liberal agenda and of course download this program

00:22:09.560 tell your friends they can do it too on platforms like cast box itunes google play spotify you name it

00:22:14.680 is out there new content every single tuesday 1 30 pm eastern time until next week we say low taxes

00:22:21.000 less government more freedom that's the blueprint

The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - June 25, 2021

Another Liberal scandal

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