The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - Auto workers deserve so much better.

00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome once again to The Blueprints. This is Canada's Conservative Podcast. I'm your

00:00:13.680 host, Jamie Schmael, Member of Parliament for Halliburton-Caworthalakes, with new content for

00:00:17.580 you every single Tuesday, 1.30 p.m. Eastern Time. Don't forget to like, comment, subscribe,

00:00:22.020 and share this program. Tell your friends, too. They can download it on platforms like

00:00:25.660 CastBox, iTunes, Google Play and Spotify, you name it, it is out there. On today's show, we are

00:00:30.500 talking about the government's plan for electric vehicles, also auto manufacturing in Canada. To

00:00:36.020 talk about this and so much more, we bring on Rhonda Kirkland, the Member of Parliament for

00:00:40.600 Oshawa, Ontario, probably one of the places most known for auto manufacturing in Canada. So thanks

00:00:46.760 for coming on the show. Thank you for having me. Glad to be here. All right. We've had some

00:00:50.620 kind of devastating news for your community in the last few weeks. It's kind of been just shocking,

00:00:57.260 right? Like you and I are geographically not too far apart. Lots of people drive to Oshawa from my

00:01:02.240 area to go to work at the plant and the shocks are just coming through each community. Maybe give us

00:01:09.380 your initial thoughts on this. Well, you know, the shock is one thing to talk about, the ripple

00:01:14.320 effect that it has. GM, many workers at the plant reached out to me last Friday saying I'm working

00:01:21.120 my last shift. I just, 1,200 auto workers in Oshawa and in the Durham region, and yes, many from your

00:01:27.900 writing as well, worked their last shift last Friday. And although it was announced that they

00:01:32.920 could be losing their jobs shortly after the last election, these folks in Oshawa just hoped that

00:01:40.140 the Prime Minister would keep his promise and get that deal by July 21st. They had held out

00:01:47.640 hope they'd keep their jobs. And unfortunately, that's not the case. Well, let's put up a chart

00:01:52.120 here. Manufacturing in Canada has been up and down quite a bit. You can see the chart and that

00:01:58.400 very steep drop, unfortunately, that is showing here and into where we are now, 2025. But the

00:02:06.340 United States, like everyone took a drop during COVID. You can see that. Then the United States

00:02:10.240 just took off. And that was, you know, Joe Biden, that was Donald Trump as president. So the United

00:02:16.600 States has been fairly steady on their rise where Canada is going down. Unfortunately, I think

00:02:22.500 a lot of our problems is over taxation. The red tape that bureaucracy throws on business is just

00:02:29.980 making life difficult for those who are manufacturing. And of course, the current

00:02:33.980 atmosphere and tensions between Canada and U.S. doesn't help either. Yeah, absolutely. And we

00:02:38.760 talk to auto workers on a regular basis and those in the sector say we can't always control what

00:02:47.320 happens with the conversation with Donald Trump and the tariffs and what's happening over the

00:02:51.480 border, although they would like to see our Prime Minister get the deal he promised. What we can

00:02:56.000 control absolutely are policies at home that are making things worse. Those include the industrial

00:03:00.960 carbon tax you know the ev mandate which thankfully has has the government has sort of backtracked on

00:03:05.980 but now we're talking about uh ev incentives that essentially are going to 95 percent are going to

00:03:12.420 go to u.s automakers instead of those cars made in canada all right let's queue up cut one and

00:03:17.460 we'll get into what our plan is and opposed to what the government is doing play cut one i'm

00:03:23.000 going to be laid off as of today we do have callback rights now so i'm getting to the point

00:03:28.500 right now, I'm getting older, but I'm looking for something different.

00:03:31.460 Yeah, I'm one of the lucky ones, but there's a lot of people who aren't so much.

00:03:34.180 Yeah, some people are going, some people are staying, but hopefully they get better luck.

00:03:39.780 I'm considering moving to Alberta for work because the jobs in Ontario are disappearing

00:03:45.540 quickly. I blame that on the governments, both Canada and US. I just wish Kearney would

00:03:52.900 go down to the states and get a friggin deal for some type of deal made with with with trump

00:03:59.220 so that at least ontario can be saved because right now ontario is not looking very very good

00:04:03.940 at all obviously lots of emotion in those comments from workers at the general motors plant in oshawa

00:04:09.300 and rightfully so i don't blame them we want to see a deal we want to see manufacturing stay in

00:04:13.540 canada now the liberals plan when it comes to electric vehicles is to offer a general subsidy

00:04:19.460 for anyone buying the electric vehicle that in you know for the most part that will reward cars

00:04:29.140 made elsewhere not necessarily in Canada there's a one model maybe two a few that are that will

00:04:35.300 qualify for this subsidy made in Canada our plan is and if you want to drive electric vehicle that's

00:04:41.380 fine whatever our plan is to take the tax off all vehicles manufactured in Canada so if you do want

00:04:49.460 a traditional, you know, gasoline power vehicle, you can get that. But if you want a hybrid or

00:04:55.460 electric vehicle, whatever it is, as long as it's made in Canada, let's take the tax off that.

00:05:00.020 Let's give manufacturers a little bit of breathing room here, but also reward those that want to buy

00:05:05.860 domestically. Yeah, absolutely. It comes down to consumer choice, right? So conservatives have

00:05:10.580 always said, we don't have a problem with electric vehicles. We would love to see targets where we

00:05:15.460 we have more. We can promote that through incentives. But what better incentive than

00:05:19.780 removing the tax on all Canadian-made vehicles? Then consumers can still choose whether they want

00:05:25.120 their traditional gas vehicle or a new EV. But it's made in Canada, and that's the key.

00:05:30.920 And I think it goes with the general theme that liberals want to do, right? They want to use the

00:05:35.540 tax code to limit your choices, right? We're saying, let's expand freedoms, right? Let's

00:05:41.340 expand choice for the marketplace. And then if people want to buy electric vehicles, you can,

00:05:46.060 you can. But let's also give those that are manufacturing, those that stuck with Canada,

00:05:52.560 that bit of a breathing room here as they go through this very tense period here.

00:05:58.700 Yeah, it truly sends a message to Donald Trump and the unjustified tariffs that

00:06:03.840 we're going to reward Canadians who buy Canadian-made products. And that's no

00:06:08.840 truer than in the automotive sector. Also today, MP Arpan Khanna, Kyle Seebeck, as well as the

00:06:18.440 leader, sent a letter to the Prime Minister suggesting that the buyout that those at the

00:06:24.700 Kami plant got, that 50% of that was removed immediately. Let's work collaboratively and 0.52

00:06:30.620 see what our government can do to help support the workers in the meantime. But they don't want 0.93

00:06:36.140 support, they want their jobs back. Yeah, exactly. And Ontario used to be a manufacturing hub. It used

00:06:43.100 to be where manufacturers did business, where they set up and were able to be very successful.

00:06:49.840 And unfortunately, the provincial liberals messed with that when they dipped their toes,

00:06:54.780 so to speak, into the electrical grid and made electricity some of the most expensive in North

00:07:00.060 america due to their horrible policies and what do manufacturing plants use the most electricity and

00:07:06.780 it made them very uncompetitive so we want to see the government get out of the way we want to see

00:07:11.800 manufacturing flourish we need to reduce their costs as well this is one way to do it um but it

00:07:18.080 also as we talked about earlier creates the ripple effect when you see a plant like this close down

00:07:22.980 i believe the stat earlier was 1200 jobs at 500 direct were affected this has ripple effects not

00:07:29.320 just for Oshawa, not just for surrounding area, my area, and in general, because you have all the

00:07:34.160 spinoff jobs that are associated with that. And unfortunately, we have a report that continues

00:07:39.300 to bubble, and that is food bank usage is at record levels in this country. People are finding

00:07:44.600 it harder and harder to get by. And that is, I think, a symptom of this ongoing problem with

00:07:51.320 Canada's economy. Yeah, absolutely. The Friday before Christmas, I was graced with a wonderful

00:08:00.140 visit from Pierre Polyev, the leader of the opposition and our party. And he came and spent

00:08:05.840 an hour with me down at the Union Hall in Oshawa, listening to the workers who were about to about

00:08:12.380 to lose their jobs. But then he spent some time with me at Simcoe Hall Settlement House, which is

00:08:16.480 a food bank in Oshawa and we brought some some items in there and the message is clear Tiffany

00:08:22.400 Kift the electric the executive director from Simcoe Hall said the amount of people that are

00:08:28.960 coming in is astounding but also who's coming in double income families now are having trouble

00:08:34.340 getting their getting their items from the grocery store they can't afford it

00:08:39.140 and the the pittance that our government you know we take a thousand dollars from Canadians and we

00:08:43.880 give them $10 back. And we call that doing good. And Canadians just want to be able to put food on

00:08:49.700 their own tables. Let's queue up cut two. This is a report from Food Bank's CEO. Pretty stark news

00:08:57.400 here. Clay, cut two. Well, what I'm coming with is the voices of the millions of folks across the

00:09:03.160 country right now who are using food banks, as well as the thousands of folks who operate food

00:09:07.660 banks. And we are sending a message that things are really hard right now for folks. We are seeing

00:09:12.740 record levels of food bank use 2.2 million visits in a single month

00:09:16.760 currently right across Canada and we need to see action in order to ensure

00:09:21.800 that folks have what they need to have the essentials of life since 2019 food

00:09:27.500 bank use in Canada has doubled these are community organizations that are showing

00:09:31.880 up to make sure that their community members their neighbors are fed we're

00:09:37.040 seeing an increase across the board troubling numbers include the number of

00:09:41.000 children. So a third of those using food banks are children. We're seeing an increase in single

00:09:46.180 adults who tend not to be seen in legislative priorities. We're seeing an increase in seniors.

00:09:52.060 And, you know, one of the troubling things that we're seeing is an increase in the number of

00:09:55.900 people who are employed, who have jobs, who are now turning to the food banks.

00:09:59.320 And let's be clear, the situation we're looking at is Canada. This has been building

00:10:03.980 since 2015. When you had Justin Crudeau shutting down any development, any ability to get a pipeline

00:10:10.600 built to either the east or west coast. We've had a very slowdown in investments and opening

00:10:16.760 new mines and the lumber industry is on life support. Just look at how we progress to this

00:10:23.660 point. And obviously when food bank usage got to its worst, that's actually when Mark Carney was

00:10:28.860 the economic advisor to Justin Trudeau, right? So when it was at his worst, Mark Carney is behind

00:10:33.720 the scenes. But it's been a long domino effect to where we are now. And yes, Donald Trump isn't

00:10:39.400 helping things. And yes, we need to stand up to him. But I think the overall structure is the

00:10:45.400 fact that the Liberals have enacted so many bad pieces of legislation. Investment is fleeing.

00:10:50.380 The confidence that consumers have in our economy is starting to wane a little. We have issues with

00:10:55.340 manufacturing. It's a long series of decisions that got us here. A long series of decisions. And

00:11:02.220 the ministers that are at the table now, we're the same ministers who've been at the table for

00:11:06.380 the last 10 years. So anyone who claims that this is a new government hasn't really paid close

00:11:11.540 attention. Because when I'm sitting opposite, it looks like the same people making the same

00:11:15.640 decisions and the failed decisions that have got us to the place we are today. Absolutely.

00:11:19.680 It's a shame that we've actually got to this point. It is a shame. And again, it's 10 years

00:11:25.820 of liberal mismanagement. Donald Trump isn't helping things. Absolutely. But we did this to

00:11:31.260 ourselves, unfortunately. And when I say we, the government, we have a few graphics here. I want

00:11:35.380 to talk about what the government is doing in terms of their ability to help lower prices at

00:11:42.120 the grocery store. I think anybody that goes to the grocery store right now, my goodness,

00:11:46.500 it's just insane what the prices are doing right now. Up, up, up. So the liberals, the governments

00:11:52.560 under Mark Carney are trying something they tried under Justin Trudeau, right? Give people a bit of

00:11:58.160 a break on the grocery prices. I think, you know, we're going to support this as the opposition

00:12:03.960 because I think any break is welcome at this point in time

00:12:08.460 based on what is exactly what you just said.

00:12:10.040 But it's the underlying issue that is not being addressed here.

00:12:15.320 Well, the government has had a history of not addressing

00:12:18.420 what the root of the problem is.

00:12:20.360 You know, we can give $10 to someone on a $300 grocery order,

00:12:24.680 but the fact of the matter is nothing in this legislation

00:12:28.380 will lower grocery prices, right?

00:12:31.140 And conservatives have called on the government time and time again.

00:12:34.060 We've asked them to take some of our great ideas, like getting rid of that industrial carbon tax, the food packaging tax.

00:12:41.020 I had someone on my social media send a picture of their receipts from the grocery store and say to me, look, there's no hidden taxes.

00:12:51.100 And I just want to say, well, the hidden is the key word here.

00:12:54.180 you know they're they're being passed down to the consumer and the consumer has has no idea

00:12:58.240 what is actually causing you know the prices to go up the smart consumers know and they know that

00:13:02.720 it's the bad policies of mark carney and this liberal government yeah obviously that's the

00:13:07.680 point right like they're not gonna that's the sneaky thing about government right you start

00:13:11.500 adding tax maybe a few steps down but it eventually gets passed on because no manufacturer no like

00:13:19.540 they're not going to eat or no you can try to eat the cost result no pun intended eat that

00:13:23.860 tax for so long, but eventually you're going to go put yourself out of business. So you have to

00:13:28.380 pass those taxes down. Companies, they write a check, yes, physical check or e-transfer whatever

00:13:35.860 to the government to pay their taxes, but it's not necessarily them paying. It is the consumer

00:13:40.920 paying. So that all adds up to the price that we are seeing at the grocery store. And if that

00:13:47.640 doesn't satisfy kind of the naysayers, how come Canada is growing so fast in terms of food

00:13:53.280 inflation. We are at the top of the list on the fact that our groceries are getting more expensive

00:13:59.180 every single month. Absolutely. We're number one in the G7 on food inflation. I think it was 6.2%

00:14:05.600 and I hear members opposite telling us that one of the main reasons for that is climate change

00:14:11.480 and my rejoinder to that is those other six countries also experience climate change. So

00:14:17.220 why is our country the only one that has such an issue with food inflation? It's our bad policies

00:14:22.660 at home. Bad policies and the taxes that we put into it plus our you know the foods that we import

00:14:28.820 obviously our dollar isn't as powerful it used to be that all factored in we have the government

00:14:34.180 running who knows what they're running in terms of deficit 70 billion 80 billion we'll get the

00:14:39.060 numbers in a few months but all of that contributes to the fact that we are in a very unfortunate

00:14:47.460 situation where so many are suffering and so many, like you said earlier, have to turn to the food

00:14:53.540 banks despite having good jobs. Right, so it's compacted, right? It's just a constant pile-on

00:15:00.020 and Oshawa has been feeling it. The constant pile-on, jobs lost last week, increase in food

00:15:06.820 bank usage. The food banks don't want, will they welcome funding to help them get

00:15:13.700 enough food to help those folks lining up. But what they really want are those lines to be shorter

00:15:18.660 and not longer. Yeah, exactly. And we need a strong economy. So we need to deal with the United 0.95

00:15:23.620 States, our largest trading partner. Yes, we value, as conservatives, we value trade with other

00:15:29.300 countries. Absolutely. We welcome that. Stephen Harper signed, what, 47, I think, trade agreements

00:15:35.540 it was during his time in office. So he did recognize and we recognize that, yes, it's great

00:15:40.900 to have the world's powerful economy right next door to us. But at the same time, when they're

00:15:46.180 being not so nice, we need to be able to have outlets to get our goods to other markets. And

00:15:51.860 unfortunately, when world leaders come to us asking for our oil and natural gas, when we have

00:15:56.820 a Prime Minister that sends those world leaders on their way and they go make deals with other

00:16:00.900 nations like Qatar for their energy, we take the brunt of that. We take the hit.

00:16:05.860 We do take the hit. And I saw a sign here a couple of years ago in Ottawa that said,

00:16:09.620 as long as the world needs oil and gas, it might as well be Canadian. And you know, it hit me

00:16:13.860 because we have some of the best standards in terms of our labor force for extracting this

00:16:20.100 oil and getting it out to market. We could have a real impact on European countries who rely on

00:16:26.020 Russia for their oil. We could be supplying that. And how could that help Ukraine? So the ripple

00:16:30.580 effect of us, you know, getting it out of the ground is going to be fantastic when we do that.

00:16:36.500 and you know we're going to do that when we form a government. All right, I love our conversation,

00:16:40.340 but we're pretty much out of time. The guests always get the last word, so you can talk about

00:16:44.900 the subject we just talked about, close it out, or whatever is on your mind.

00:16:48.660 I just want to thank you for having me. Anytime I can highlight the needs that my

00:16:53.060 my friends and neighbors are facing in Oshawa, I'm happy to do so. Right now the auto sector is

00:16:58.420 being hit and that's hurting my hometown, and I will speak up as often as I can about that.

00:17:02.660 Rhonda Kirkland, Member of Parliament for Oshawa, we feel your pain and do appreciate you coming on the show.

00:17:07.840 Thank you for your time. Thank you for yours.

00:17:09.900 Don't forget, we have new content for you every single Tuesday, 1.30 p.m. Eastern Time.

00:17:14.160 Don't forget to like, comment, subscribe, and share this program.

00:17:17.580 Until next week, remember, low taxes, less government, more freedom.

00:17:21.100 That's the movement.

00:17:32.660 Thank you.

The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - February 10, 2026

Auto workers deserve so much better.

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