The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - Costly Liberal budget

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

00:00:13.280 host, Jamie Schmael, Member of Parliament for Halliburton, Cawortha Lakes, with new content

00:00:16.700 for you every single Tuesday, 1.30 p.m. Eastern Time. Don't forget to like, comment, subscribe,

00:00:21.680 and share this program. Tell your friends too. They can download it on platforms like CastBox,

00:00:25.980 iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify. On today's show, the federal budget is just a few hours away to

00:00:32.240 talk about this and so much more. We bring on the Member of Parliament for Calgary East, also

00:00:36.880 our finance critic, Jasraj Halan. Thanks for coming back on the show. Hey, Jamie, thanks for having me

00:00:41.800 on again. Always a pleasure. Always. We've got some pretty exciting news. I think the budget is taking

00:00:47.920 up a lot of airspace right now. People are speculating on what is or isn't going to be in that document,

00:00:54.140 and that really lays out the blueprint for how the government wishes to proceed through the coming

00:00:58.600 year. And of course, it's usually done, you know, in the spring. The government moved it to the fall

00:01:04.120 for whatever reason. What are you, as the finance critic, anticipating this budget to contain?

00:01:10.560 Well, I don't know if there's much excitement. I think there's a lot of uneasiness and a lot of

00:01:15.520 Canadians are scared to see what's in this budget. As much as we are, from what we're hearing,

00:01:19.880 there could be a massive deficit. You know, under Kearney, Canada is the fastest shrinking economy

00:01:27.960 in the G7. We have an unemployment crisis. Unemployment has not been this high outside

00:01:32.280 of COVID in 40 years. Youth unemployment, there's an absolute crisis going on. Food prices are rising

00:01:38.260 faster than they are in the U.S. by almost 40 percent. And food is actually almost double the

00:01:46.300 bank's target, the inflation that's on it. Homes are not being built. Home starts are going to decline,

00:01:51.220 according to the government's own department. So what our leader came out and what we are asking for

00:01:57.100 is that, number one, the deficit should not exceed $42 billion. That was Trudeau's target. And since

00:02:06.080 we're almost two-thirds of the way into the year, that's probably already been spent. The second

00:02:11.740 thing is to get rid of food taxes. As I said, the food inflation is so high in Canada. Anyone that

00:02:17.920 goes to a grocery store can see what liberal policies have done to food. So getting rid of

00:02:22.880 the industrial carbon tax, getting rid of the packaging tax, which costs almost a billion dollars

00:02:28.240 in hidden taxes. So that's number two. That was a second requirement. Number three is end the liberal

00:02:34.760 tax, the inflation tax. So all the money printing, all of the resource blocking, all of the new home

00:02:42.860 blocking, all of those things we need to get rid of those. And that'll basically get rid of the

00:02:48.880 liberal tax that gets put onto everything. We're going to see a bit of smoke and mirrors here in

00:02:53.400 this budget because they are separating the budget from the operational to the so-called investments.

00:03:00.100 And that's just a fancy word for subsidizing something is really what it is the fancy word

00:03:05.260 for. Let's queue up cup one. This kind of tees up what we're about to talk about and how the

00:03:10.700 government is going to try to fool Canadians in what's in the budget. The liberals are also

00:03:16.360 changing the budget framework to separate day-to-day spending from capital investments. Operational

00:03:22.820 day-to-day costs include health and social transfers and government salaries, while capital investments

00:03:29.080 encompass spending on major projects, housing, clean energy and infrastructure. When will the budget be

00:03:37.040 balanced? At the finance committee, the opposition slammed the minister for budget changes that don't

00:03:42.940 add up. That is still debt at the end of the day. It doesn't matter how many columns you try to present

00:03:47.140 in front of Canadians and try to trick them. Are you guys going to be cooking the books? It's 0.95

00:03:52.860 irresponsible for a member of parliament to use language like that. Wow, he told you.

00:03:58.160 But it's true. They are moving around numbers to try to fool Canadians. So you have kind of the

00:04:05.520 senior who grew up in an era where, you know, balancing your checkbook was pretty darn important

00:04:10.340 and most tried and strived to do that. Not all achieved it, but most, I think, strived to do that.

00:04:16.040 Now, the government is trying to kind of reach those people on that level to say, hey, look, we're

00:04:21.320 getting operational spending under control. But at the same time, there's all this money being thrown

00:04:26.260 out to the door on projects that governments deem worthy.

00:04:31.240 Right. Look, Mark Carney tried this experiment with the UK when he advised the UK government last

00:04:37.700 year to do this exact thing. It was a disaster. And it didn't work there. It didn't work anywhere

00:04:43.360 else it was tried. And now he's trying the same accounting trick here in Canada. But the reason

00:04:48.220 why is because they want to get rid of transparency. They want to essentially just cook the books to

00:04:54.440 whatever they'd like. The PBO said this exactly, that the term capital is so broad, it could

00:05:01.580 include anything that the government wants in it. Like, remember the Green Stash Fund?

00:05:06.060 Those are investments.

00:05:07.280 Those are, yeah, so-called investments. And will that be a part of this capital expenditure,

00:05:12.060 where they could just hide giving, you know, consultants and their insiders a lot of money?

00:05:17.420 Just remember, that's, it held up the House. Nothing moved from the House of Commons for how many

00:05:22.060 months because of that scandal that happened. So it's scary to know that Mark Carney already

00:05:27.700 failed this one experiment to the UK. Now he wants to try the same thing here. Canadians 0.99

00:05:32.620 want transparency. And as I said in that clip, and that's what the parliamentary budgeting officer

00:05:37.120 said, at the end of the day, the debt is still the debt. The overall number, you can call it

00:05:41.860 whatever you want. You can call it expenditure. You can call it investment. You can call it whatever

00:05:46.860 the government wants to trick Canadians. But debt is still debt, and that's going to be on Canadians

00:05:53.000 to pay when, you know, the deficit and debt have, are essentially going to double under these guys.

00:05:59.420 And so what does that mean? That means for future generations and current generations

00:06:03.100 are being slammed by taxes. Future generations are, that are going to have to pay off all of that

00:06:08.420 debt as well. So it's, it's a scary accounting trick that they're going to try to do here,

00:06:14.140 implement here in Canada. It's not going to be good for Canadians. It's not going to be good for 0.65

00:06:17.860 transparency. That's why this, this failed experiment needs to stop. Another thing Mark Carney

00:06:23.660 did while he was bank of governor, or sorry, bank of England governor is print money. Like that's easy.

00:06:28.740 Anybody can do that, right? Like you just keep printing money. What is challenging is starting a

00:06:33.560 business, taking risk, coming up with an idea to pitch to others, the general public to want to buy.

00:06:39.680 And that is getting harder and harder to do in this country, unfortunately. And it's going to

00:06:44.720 impact the youth. And that's the topic we're going to touch on next. But if you want to respond to that

00:06:48.480 before I get to the next. Yeah, definitely. Look, that's why one of our asks is very clear to get

00:06:52.660 rid of liberal inflation. That includes things like getting rid of all these, all this red tape and

00:07:00.000 burden that is being put on small businesses, on big corporations, on homeowners, things like the

00:07:05.580 known new pipelines bill, the tanker ban, that's bill C-48, the oil and gas emissions cap, all of

00:07:13.680 these things and the industrial carbon tax, all these things are contributing to business that

00:07:18.720 is fleeing away from Canada investment, that's fleeing away from Canada. And that's why we see

00:07:23.460 jobs are not available now, especially for our youth. And that's why there's a crisis going on.

00:07:29.000 The government, the liberal government has done such a great job of running away all of our

00:07:33.980 investment by putting up all this red tape and roadblocks. It makes it almost impossible for

00:07:40.820 anyone that wants to invest here. And that trickles down to the small business owner. It trickles down

00:07:45.400 to workers. Absolutely. Cue up, cut two. Let's give the finance minister a chance to explain to the

00:07:52.300 young people why their future is looking a little dim right now. Play cut two.

00:07:57.220 Banque Nationale says the federal debt is going to rise from maybe $1 trillion to $3 trillion over the

00:08:02.460 next 10 years. We already took on a lot of debt during COVID. I just think of example of a girl 1.00

00:08:08.160 or a boy who's 10 years old today, 10 years from now, you know, they could be facing a tax bill

00:08:13.300 hypothetically that's triple what I pay. And in effect, you know, putting money in my pocket at

00:08:19.000 the expense of youth. I mean, is this really a fair approach to future generations?

00:08:23.420 Well, what is fair is for us to present the budget in a different way this year. We're going to

00:08:28.380 distinguish between spending and capital investment. People understand when you go and you pay your

00:08:32.720 cell phone bill, this is spending. When you're buying a house, you're investing. What we're

00:08:37.240 shifting is to say in three years from now, we're going to balance operating budget with the revenues

00:08:41.720 we have. It's been said before, it's like a Jedi mind trick, right? These are not the numbers you're

00:08:46.440 looking for. Like, don't worry about it. That's right. And as you said, debt is debt. Let's show up the

00:08:50.480 graphic here that shows the amount Canadians paid on government interest on interest on the debt. This is

00:08:57.280 money that just goes away, has no benefit in healthcare and transportation, nothing. It's

00:09:03.280 just wasted. Yeah, I mean, the youth today have already made so many sacrifices because of the

00:09:09.380 civil government. And the Prime Minister, Mark Carney, is telling them to make even more sacrifices. He

00:09:14.440 stood up in a room full of youth and gave them grim hope of ever being able to own a home because

00:09:22.040 dream of home ownership is dead in this country under this government. Unless you have the bank of mom 0.80

00:09:26.480 and dad, that can help you with a down payment. You know, in 25 years, you could pay off a mortgage

00:09:30.940 and that's how long it takes to save up for a down payment now on a house. That's the reality

00:09:36.020 under the Liberals. You know, as I said, youth unemployment is one of the highest it's ever

00:09:42.220 been. And it's because they've chased out almost half a trillion dollars worth of investment,

00:09:47.320 Canadian investment, went to the US. Investment is always going to go where there's less friction,

00:09:52.260 less burden, less red tape. And that's what America has become. The Canadian dream that we used to,

00:09:58.000 you know, brag about when the previous conservative government was in under Stephen Harper, there was

00:10:03.640 articles that were written that said the American dream has moved to Canada. It's the opposite now

00:10:09.140 because they've made it go away and it's the youth that has to suffer from that. It's the high grocery

00:10:14.700 prices. It's never being able to leave their mom and dad's basement because they just can't afford a home

00:10:19.380 or rent anymore because rents and mortgages have doubled under the Liberals. All of these things

00:10:24.200 combined, and there was a stat somewhere that I think it's like if a child is born today, they're

00:10:29.400 already born with $32,000 of tax over their head. And when you see this figure of $90 billion in debt

00:10:35.840 interest, you have to put it into perspective that last year and this year, there was more going to

00:10:43.900 bankers and bondholders on that debt in interest payments than what goes to the provinces in health

00:10:50.080 care transfers. And there was more that went to the debt, so the interest on it, again, to rich bankers

00:10:57.640 and bondholders than what we even have in GST revenues. That's incredible. And you just talk about

00:11:04.160 incompetence. And what is it all for? Right. And you ask any youth today, they're doing all the right things.

00:11:10.240 They're trying to get work. They're working hard to get a degree. But once they graduate, there's nothing there

00:11:16.900 for them, especially in their own field, so they have to leave. And so there's more. This is probably one of the

00:11:22.540 first generations and future generations where the kids will be worse off than the parents. Any parent can say that

00:11:30.760 they work as hard as they can, so their children will be better off than they did. And that's impossible

00:11:36.300 under the Liberals. And so I'm not sure what this Liberal government would be proud of to say out of

00:11:42.600 all of that, that, you know, you see the finance minister saying, well, we're going to change the

00:11:46.380 accounting practice. That's his answer to doubling housing costs and, you know, the food inflation that's

00:11:54.500 out of control and the fact that a youth can't buy a home. They've lost the home ownership dream.

00:12:00.100 That's what he's proud of. So that was his answer is that I'm going to change the accounting practices

00:12:03.980 in Canada. Like, come on. Well, I think that's a good point. We didn't get here by accident,

00:12:08.860 right? There are countries that are doing very well. Canada is lagging behind because of roadblocks

00:12:15.160 put in place by the federal Liberal government. These are, what we're experiencing now is the result

00:12:22.840 of those policies. We opposed pretty much all of them. And we said, this is the point we're going

00:12:29.500 to get to. Unfortunately, we are here and it's regular people who are going to suffer through

00:12:35.140 this. And you know what? It's Pierre Polyev that's going to have to reverse all that. We're going to

00:12:39.720 have to get rid of these, the no new pipeline bill, Bill C-69. So resource projects get built

00:12:44.400 quickly. That'll get approved quickly within six months to a year. In this country, that'll signal

00:12:49.380 to the world that Canada's open for business once again. That means mines. That means pipelines.

00:12:54.580 That means any green project that needs to be built here with consultations of indigenous groups,

00:12:59.100 with consultation with the provinces. We need to get rid of that bill so we can get, we need to

00:13:03.580 build, build, build in Canada. Same thing with homes. Get rid of all of the bureaucratic, you know,

00:13:10.000 mess and hurdles that the municipalities have put up in front of home builders so that we can get

00:13:15.040 homes built that can bring down the cost of homes. We need to control the deficit, which means capping

00:13:20.940 government spending, getting rid of wasteful spending, actually being able to balance a

00:13:25.600 budget. So that means taxes can come down. That means interest rates can stay low and inflation

00:13:30.440 can come down. And of course, getting rid of all the things that are hidden taxes that make the price

00:13:36.240 of food go up, including the industrial carbon tax and things like the packaging, food packaging tax,

00:13:41.940 the plastic ban. Those things essentially will help bring the cost of food down. What this will do

00:13:48.900 also is signal, like I said, to the world that we're open for business, which means we'll have

00:13:52.720 more competition in the country. More competition means lower price for goods. That's always going

00:13:58.640 to be good for Canadians. We pay some of the highest cell phone bills in the world, highest banking fees

00:14:02.960 in the world. And now food. Food is, how are we paying more than America? We have less people here,

00:14:08.960 but we just don't have, we don't have enough of the people that are selling the food. So we need to be

00:14:14.700 able to, A, grow our own food at lower costs. So less cost to our farmers, which means getting rid

00:14:21.720 of the industrial carbon tax. And then making sure we have a good environment for business here,

00:14:28.660 so that more companies want to come to Canada and invest, which means lower price of goods.

00:14:32.780 To that end, we're talking about, you hear in the media a lot, so we're talking about standing up to

00:14:37.320 Trump. Okay, so what does that mean? You know, for the Mark Carney elbows up crowd, that seemed to be

00:14:44.760 tough talk to the president. What we're talking about is making Canada as strong as possible. So

00:14:50.020 we are negotiating from a strong position as we possibly can get, which means getting our energy

00:14:57.220 to market, getting opportunities to sell our product. And how many world leaders have we come,

00:15:03.960 seen come to Canada that were just, you know, pushed away by Justin Trudeau? There's no business case,

00:15:09.760 there's no this, you know, you don't get a oil or natural gas. Let's play cut three, and then we'll

00:15:14.220 get your closing thoughts on a few things. This is our leader Pierre Polyev talking about that exact

00:15:19.300 same thing. Play cut three. He met with the Chinese president, you know, and they made a decision that

00:15:24.160 their officials were going to get together and try and solve the trade irritants. He is trying to make

00:15:28.960 some progress. No, you don't see those things as a bit of progress. What progress? Can you name one

00:15:33.920 tariff line that he's reduced abroad? Not at this stage, no. Not one. He said seven months. He's been

00:15:39.900 on 20 trips. What would you like to see him do then? What do you think is the missing piece here?

00:15:44.260 Keep his promise. Yeah, but how? It's easy to say that. It's the how that's difficult.

00:15:49.400 Well, the how, I said that I would face President Trump and the rest of the world from a position of

00:15:54.080 strength. Right now, we're in a position of weakness. The Americans know we can't sell our

00:15:58.660 goods to anyone else because we don't have pipelines and LNG plants to get our most valuable

00:16:02.880 export to other markets. Interesting, when Pierre said, Mark Carney, the prime minister,

00:16:10.240 has to keep his promise, and Rosemary Barton was like, how? Well, the question also could have been,

00:16:16.360 like, why make the promises if you knew it was going to be so difficult?

00:16:19.140 Right. I mean, he's the guy that said he'd have a deal with Trump by July 21st. He told Canadians

00:16:24.560 during the election, he's the guy that'll deal with Trump because he's got his elbows up.

00:16:28.120 His elbows went missing, and he literally went begging now. He's on his knees, and he's begging

00:16:32.940 President Trump, and he had to apologize to him. And that shows even more weakness. You know,

00:16:39.720 when Prime Minister Stephen Harper was the prime minister of this country under a conservative

00:16:44.120 government, we did, we were, we had a standing on the world stage that people used to envy.

00:16:50.420 Our allies used to respect us. We used to be an energy superpower. We used to be able to be included

00:16:55.580 in discussions when other world leaders would make decisions. And under the Liberals, that's all

00:17:01.920 withered away. Canada does not have a good standing in the world. We're not respected by our allies.

00:17:06.540 We don't have a good, we don't have anything to stand on anymore. Our leader is absolutely right

00:17:11.260 that without being an energy superpower, without unleashing our resources,

00:17:15.880 we are bound to having the same trading partner, the main trading partner, when we should have

00:17:21.160 diversified it. Already by now, as you had mentioned, some of our allies came here,

00:17:25.460 asked for our product, and you know, the Liberals turned them away, said we don't have any business

00:17:29.180 keys for them. I asked the Environment Minister, the current one, are pipelines in the national

00:17:35.300 interest of the country? And she refused to even say the word pipeline, let alone admit that

00:17:39.760 those are things that could help us. All of these things are to say that we could be an energy

00:17:44.520 superpower. Only Pierre Polyev, he's the only leader that will not only have a backbone to stand

00:17:52.580 up to other countries, but also be able to negotiate deals. Because we saw that under Prime Minister

00:17:58.600 Stephen Harper, we got a lumber, a softwood lumber deal within 80 to 90 days. And that was

00:18:03.660 tariff-free at the time. So, and now we're outstanding for our softwood lumber deal, and

00:18:10.500 the tariffs keep going up. Every time Mark Carney or if one of his ministers go anywhere, they come

00:18:16.300 back and they do these press conferences and cheer for themselves. And then the same day or the next

00:18:20.980 day, the tariffs go up from that country. We've seen that happen over and over again. That's why

00:18:25.880 Pierre Polyev is the only, is the only person that has the experience, as he was a, as a Cabinet

00:18:32.720 Minister before, but also someone that understands that our energy here, our resources in Canada

00:18:38.300 can help us on the world stage. It'll help Canadians. And what does that end up boiling

00:18:43.140 down to? A strong Canada, an affordable Canada, and our workers that are here in Canada who are,

00:18:50.440 keep losing their jobs because of failed liberal policies, will have powerful, strong paychecks

00:18:55.180 with lower taxes that'll help them buy affordable food, affordable housing, in safe neighborhoods

00:19:01.720 once again. And that's the only, the only leader that understands that is Pierre Polyev.

00:19:06.220 Jazz, the budget's coming down very soon, so I know you have to get out of here. Your staff's

00:19:11.220 having a heart attack, so I want to make sure you are where you're supposed to be when you're

00:19:14.720 supposed to be. Let's close out the show. The guests usually get the last word, but having

00:19:18.420 said that, the question that, or the comment that continues to flow around the Ottawa bubble,

00:19:23.640 probably outside this city, nobody really is talking about it, but close out with this. Yes

00:19:30.240 or no? Christmas election or not on the budget? You know what, let's take a look at this budget and

00:19:36.860 see which way, we can only control which way we vote. Our demands are very clear for this budget as

00:19:42.800 we've laid out, as Pierre Polyev has laid out. We want an affordable budget for an affordable Canada

00:19:47.120 once again. Anyone you talk to today, Canada's not Canada anymore. Whether you immigrated here or

00:19:53.640 with sky-high prices when it comes to food and housing, crime out of control, all because of

00:19:58.800 failed liberal policies, that's why Canada doesn't feel like it was before. And we've had our demand

00:20:05.560 for the budget, which they need to cap or lower the deficit from $42 billion. We need to see food

00:20:13.000 taxes gone, and we need to stop the liberal inflation tax with all the money printing. An affordable

00:20:19.780 Canada, what does that look like under Pierre Polyev? It means that your hard work will give you that

00:20:25.700 affordable paycheck with low taxes on it. You'll be able to live in safe neighborhoods because we'll

00:20:29.860 have stronger justice bills that will help strengthen our criminal justice system once again, unlike what

00:20:36.580 we've seen under liberals with their soft on crime policies. You'll be able to afford housing like you

00:20:40.580 used to be able to because it was half the cost. Housing was half the cost under the previous

00:20:44.420 conservative government. And of course, food prices. We will bring them down in an affordable

00:20:50.500 Canada for those workers and those people that work hard by getting rid of the industrial carbon tax

00:20:54.980 and food packaging tax. That's what a Canada under a Pierre Polyev common sense conservative government

00:21:00.500 will look like. Let's restore that promise of Canada that you work hard and you'll be able to

00:21:04.820 get somewhere in this country once again. Jaz Rajalan, thank you very much for your time. The

00:21:09.700 finance critic, also the member of parliament for Calgary East. We look forward to your leadership as

00:21:14.580 you go through this federal budget. Should be interesting. Thank you for your time, man. And

00:21:19.220 thank you for yours. Don't forget to like, comment, subscribe, and share this program. Tell your

00:21:22.820 friends to download it on platforms like CastBox, iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify. I know we have new

00:21:27.780 content every single Tuesday, but since next Tuesday is Remembrance Day, we will have it on Wednesday for

00:21:33.700 you, 1 30 p.m. Eastern time. So until then, next Wednesday, don't forget, low taxes, less government,

00:21:39.460 more freedom. That's the blueprints.

The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - November 04, 2025

Costly Liberal budget

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