Government bureaucracy will not help get projects built.
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Summary
On today's show, we are talking about the murder of Conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, Parliament has resumed and Mark Carney, the Prime Minister of Canada, has announced five nation building projects. To talk about this and much more, we bring on Dan Albus, a Member of Parliament for Okanagan Lake West South Kelowna.
Transcript
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Hello and welcome once again to The Blueprints. This is Canada's Conservative Podcast. I'm your
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host, Jamie Schmael, Member of Parliament for Halliburton-Gaworth Lakes, with new content for
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you every single Tuesday, 1.30 p.m. Eastern Time. Don't forget to like, comment, subscribe, and
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share this program. On today's show, we are talking about the murder of Charlie Kirk.
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Parliament has resumed. And Mark Carney, the Prime Minister of Canada, has announced five
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nation-building projects. He says new, we say otherwise. To talk about this and much, much
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more, we bring on Dan Albus, the Member of Parliament for Okanagan Lake West South Kelowna.
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Holy smokes. I had your old writing name memorized. This one throws me off, but I'm sure it's beautiful.
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Kelowna's beautiful. Okanagan's beautiful. Well, especially for the Speaker. Just think of what
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the Speaker has to go through with all these new Conservative MPs. That's true. And especially
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they're so excited about representing their areas. So it's been a great week because of the energy that
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these new caucus members bring to our cause. Absolutely. And sadly, I bring this up a few
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times and we'll get on to the other stuff, but when you look at what's been happening, a lot of things
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happening in 2025. Parliament's only sat for about a month. Up until now, it's only been a month because
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we rose for Christmas, as per usual, in December. Parliament's prorogued. We had the leadership
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race for the Liberals. Mark Carney took over at the election, sat for a month, and summer recess,
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and now we're coming back. So there's a lot going on, but Parliament has not been involved in much.
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No, no. And that's why I think the accountability has to come back.
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Yeah, I agree. So I think it would be just crazy not to talk about Charlie Kirk,
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Conservative commentator in the United States, brutally murdered in front of thousands while
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talking at a campus in Utah, just using his words, just using words in debate. And he was
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murdered for it. 31 years old, has a wife, two children. And so obviously our hearts go out to
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them, you know, to be, to have, to have your father taken away, have your husband taken away so suddenly,
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especially being such a bright and articulate person. And this reaffirms, and we've been seeing
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it from some sides, I'd like to say all, but at least from some, that political violence is never
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justified. And I think Charlie himself would be the first to say, use words, persuade.
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Yep. Keep talking. Keep the conversation going. And that's the way it's always been.
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Like there, there seems to be this, this movement where you must agree with everything,
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you know, but we've never really agreed on everything all 100% of the time. And that's
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what the conversation, that's what debate's all about.
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The best ideas are the ones that stand to scrutiny. That's right. And, and again, if someone comes up
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with a good idea that doesn't necessarily meet with the status quo, that's how we talk about these
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things. And then we learn from them. Anyway, but like I said, where my heart goes for is to the family.
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Yeah, it was just completely awful. And just for someone who just tried to engage youth,
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get them thinking, get them talking to one another. And, and unfortunately his life was
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taken, but he leaves a pretty strong legacy in the fact that he had a movement behind him. That's
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good. But again, his family, his two kids will grow up without, uh, without knowing their father too
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well. So absolutely sad and horrific. Um, moving on to more domestic politics, as we talked about,
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uh, parliament is resuming this week. However, we had some pretty bad news not too long ago.
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The Canadian economy shed 66,000 jobs in August. Our unemployment rate stands at 7.1%. That's the
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highest since the pandemic. I think we on the ground as members of parliament and probably our viewers and
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listeners have been feeling some uneasiness in the economy at their local level. Um, so for some,
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this might not be a surprise, but after 10 years of liberal government, you know, we predicted,
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sadly, uh, this ball getting to where we are now in this court. Absolutely. And we we've seen that,
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uh, GDP per capita numbers continue to fall. Uh, we saw our gross domestic product in this last
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quarter fall and unemployment in the last two months. That's 105,000 Canadians that no longer have
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a job. So, you know, our hearts are with them, but we also need to start asking questions like,
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what is the plan and having a plan to have a plan or, you know, talking, uh, you know, that you have
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a plan, but really not doing anything is not going to cut it for those individuals. Uh, you know, I was
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asked recently to, to comment on, uh, the prime minister's, uh, press conference where he was
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talking about a whole bunch of different measures. If I was someone who just received a pink slip
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and listening to the word salad that was offered at that particular press conference,
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and I'm not the only one to say that there was a word salad of a press conference,
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I wouldn't have left with one tangible thing, uh, that was going to improve my condition.
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And you know what, Jamie, we're back to work here, um, holding the government accountable for its
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promise because this government has made a ton of promises and especially around economic growth.
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And right now we're going in the wrong direction. Well, it's, sadly, I want to like the man with the
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plan, right? We're told in the election, man with the plan, he's got this all
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laid out, you know, nothing but winds at our back kind of thing. The five new nation building
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projects. So when, when they talk, when Mark Carney announced, this is obviously before the
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big announcement, the list came out. Oh, oil pipelines, not on that list at a time when the
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world's begging to get off Russian oil and natural gas. Canada has lots of it. Be great to get it to
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new markets, but the government said no, but it did list five new projects. Phase two of the LNG
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plant in Kitimat, BC in your home province, the Darlington nuclear project in Clarenton,
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Ontario, which is near me. However, as we talked about off air, this has already been a project
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in progression for years. It's already got its license, work's already going. Uh, so it's not
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new. It's talking about a project to expand the port of Montreal, um, expanding a copper mine
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in Saskatchewan and expansion of a mine in Northwestern BC. So it looks like things that
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are already in process, probably already going through the permitting process itself. They just
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finally gave the green light to it. Well, and this is the really curious thing. These projects are well
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established, well-known and are proceeding in spite of all the damaging bills like C 69, C 48, uh, and
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all, all, all the things that Justin Trudeau did. Um, and it's not because of C five, which is, uh,
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it's a new legislation that was passed in the spring, uh, under the Mark Kearney watch it. These things are
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happening in spite of not because of C five. And so when I see that list, I hear you go through it
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at Darlington. We've known that, that, that is a long last, a long, uh, lasting project. Um, and I,
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I just don't see as we studied in C five, uh, that's one of the areas where the minister can't just
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simply say we're proceeding without going through all these guidelines. They have to go to the Canadian
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Nuclear Safety Commission. So I just don't see these as being a new contribution. Um, I just think
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that they're, they're just re-Christianing these old projects, uh, because they don't have any of
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their own. But this has been similar. And what we've been experiencing the last few months, ever
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since prime minister Cardi was sworn in before the election and after he's making all these grand
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statements, but there's no action behind it. Absolutely. It's, it's almost like, it's almost like
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Justin Trudeau continues. Oh, uh, absolutely. C five itself, the one that the legislation that
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allowed for these, uh, these national interest projects to, to be exempted from the, uh, rules
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that Justin Trudeau put into place. Um, those specifically, uh, you know, to me, uh, are an
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indictment that you can't build anything under the regulatory frameworks that we have for
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environmental assessments under Justin Trudeau and Mark Carney. So essentially they've created
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this, this exemption process, which is going to, uh, be one of the most heavily lobbied,
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uh, issues. Right. Uh, and so that's where I just look at this list and I say, there's,
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he's not bringing anything new to the table here, uh, from, from a C five angle.
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And we talked about this a few times on previous shows. When you, when you set up a process where
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ministers can circumvent pieces of federal legislation that's on the books already, argument would be
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just get rid of or streamline that regulations and process. That way you don't have to worry
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about creating this magic piece of legislation. But now that you have the minister and the
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government deciding which projects goes ahead, that leaves it up to lawyers and lobbyists and
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donors to the party and who, who can suck up most gets the green light, not the market demanding
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or the market choosing its path. Oh, absolutely. And there's, and there's probably hundreds of
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potential pro projects that already have done considerable work that are not going to have
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the political connections. And so they're forced to wait in a very long line, uh, a long line, uh,
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wait to, to get their proper review. So rather than focus on the problem, which is a overly complex
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regulatory environment where no one wants to see things, uh, or don't believe that they can get
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it through without years and tears. Um, what do they decide to do instead of performing that?
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They, they decide to exempt, uh, because it's so complicated as to what they've done.
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And the fact that there is no, uh, oil pipelines whatsoever, because, um, for the case of British
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Columbia, Jamie, let me just put this into it. Not only does Canada send 97% plus, uh, of our,
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uh, of our Canadian energy to the U S. So they're our biggest customer who pay us in, uh, U S dollars
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at highly discounted prices. Um, but also in British Columbia, for example, we're, we're dependent
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for one third of our, um, refined, uh, transport fuels like, like gas from Cherry Point in Washington
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state. It's a refinery that's there. Uh, almost a good chunk of our jet fuel that's used at Vancouver
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airport comes from Cherry Point. So we end up as VC, uh, consumers paying up the nose, uh, because we
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were paying at premium prices, product that actually came from Alberta that they bought
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at a discount. And then BC consumers pay at, at very high premium prices in Canadian dollars,
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the U S, um, you know, to, to, to, to get that, uh, that stuff. So essentially we need to have a
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change here. We need to get world prices for that, that finite resources that we have, but we also need
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to become more sovereign in, in, in BC with our energy security. And, uh, you know, we saw in February,
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uh, the, the former minister, uh, for the environment, Stephen Guibault, essentially canceled an
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environmental assessment for a, uh, long standing, uh, issue for getting a, uh, new refinery in British
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Columbia. So again, we are, we are basically tying ourselves up into pretzels by keeping those,
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uh, those bills like C 69, C 48, all from the Trudeau years. Um, essentially it's, it's, it's hurting our
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sovereignty, our ability to fund our healthcare, our ability to fund our military, all of these things.
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Uh, the price of groceries is heavily dependent on fuel costs. So for me, as a BC based MP,
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seeing taxes everywhere, seeing an oil pipeline in any direction, uh, that can get us tight water
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and get us access to world prices, uh, makes us less dependent on the Americans and helps, uh, you
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know, I think improve our sovereignty. Unfortunately, not a single one of those projects seems to get,
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to get onto, uh, Mr. Um, Carney's, uh, list. And let's just bear in mind when he was running for
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the leadership, he came to Kelowna and said, I will use the emergency powers of the federal government
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to approve national infrastructure. And it was in response to a question about pipelines.
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Five days later, he goes to Quebec and says, I won't impose it.
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Well, Stephen Gilboa, I believe was standing in that press conference, you know,
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so, so, so this is one of those things. If we are going to see an increase to our sovereignty,
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we need to support legislation that will repeal a lot of this. That's why the Canadian Sovereignty
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Act, uh, this is something that, uh, Pierre Polyev and Shannon Stubbs have been working so hard on,
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would essentially eliminate all of those obstacles. So rather than C5 exempting from some of those
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obstacles and still allowing premiers, uh, to put up vetoes, um, this, the, the Canadian Sovereignty
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Act would actually remove all of those things. And we get back to, you know, less political,
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politicalization where a prime minister or a premier can put a thumb on the scale. Uh, we should just let
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these projects go through if they prove that they can be run, uh, commercially. So no public funds.
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And also that they meet environmental standards that Canadians expect.
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And the fact that they weren't on the list tells us something too, right? Maybe Justin Trudeau was
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right. I remember him saying a lot of silly things. One in particular was telling world leaders that
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came to Canada one after one after one, asking, begging in some cases for Canada, Canadian oil and
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gas, that there's no business case, right? Well, maybe there isn't because as you just pointed out,
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C69, the no more pipelines, that makes it very difficult. But even if they were, companies were
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able to get an approval, which would take so many years, investors would, you know, probably lose
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their shirts. You still have the tanker ban. You can't get it outside of BC anyway. So,
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Yeah, that there's no pipelines on that, right?
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And this is what I see on Twitter. Well, there's no proponent, Dan. Well, yeah, no one wants to put
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themselves on a project that they believe the law has forbidden to ever proceed. So again, this is,
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this is where the, the, the, uh, Carney liberals, uh, you know, will say all the right things when
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they're in Calgary or at Edmonton or places like Kelowna, uh, to say, oh yes, we understand
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saying 97% of our, our, our oil to one customers is not good for Canada, but then they just leave the
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status quo in play. Yeah. Or they blame that there's no proponent. Which is another good one.
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Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Meaning because if you're trying to make a pitch to a board of directors
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at which project to put your resources into, right? You got all these other countries where
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things are moving a lot faster than Canada. It's, it's a no brainer to say, well, we can probably get
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this permit a heck of a lot quicker months, if not years faster. We can start production and start
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getting a return on investment and, and seeing some profit. They're not, they're not getting
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that, that warm, fuzzy feeling from Canada. I think that there is probably, um, uh, and again,
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I'd have to check online to see if this is true, but I bet you there are more Canadian pipeline
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companies that are doing projects in Mexico and the United States than Canada. And that is telling.
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Yeah, absolutely. Dan, we're pretty much out of time. Um, the guests always get the last word.
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So the floor is right. I just want to do a quick shout out, uh, to the, the conservatives
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on our transportation infrastructure and communities, uh, the committee over the summer,
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we were busy working on calling out Mark Carney's, uh, and Christia Freeland's essentially watching
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our, our jobs sail away to a Chinese shipyard. Uh, so what I'm talking about is the BC ferries
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is receiving a loan from the Canada infrastructure bank for over a billion dollars. And we held hearings
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over the summer. Um, new MP, for example, Aaron Gunn was there as long, uh, as well as, uh,
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longstanding MPs like Phil Lawrence and, uh, Leslyn Lewis, two of our other shadow ministers.
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And it was great to see that kind of accountability, uh, because when we asked, uh, the government to
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explain itself, they basically said, well, you know, we're, we're dismayed that the province
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is doing, but what we can't do anything. Yeah. That's certain, there's a normal line.
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Well, there's, there's this thing saying, no, you can stop it. And, uh, and so rather than,
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um, to address it right up front and say, let's not reward, uh, the communist, uh, government in
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Beijing with a billion dollars funded by tax, uh, paying Canadians. Let's, let's try it. Let's cancel
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that loan. And let's see if we can build these ships here in Canada where those, those steel
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aluminum and shipbuilding jobs happen here. And so, uh, you could really tell that those ministers
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weren't happy to have that kind of accountability. So what I'm going to finish on with is, is that now
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that parliament's resumed, I think we're going to see a lot of, of, of similar responses for ministers
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where they have nothing good to show for what they're, what they're doing for Canadians and for
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the tax dollars that they're spending on their behalf. And so I'm excited, uh, to be joining my
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colleagues, uh, on those things. And like I said, these new members of parliament from places we
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haven't won in a long time, uh, it's great to have that energy and they're doing, they're ready to do
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their jobs. Absolutely. Another idea, crazy idea. Let's take the industrial carbon tax off our steel
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manufacturers to make our steel more competitive. That would be amazing. It would absolutely be
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amazing. And actually that's another part of the Canadian sovereignty act. So the, so I have to say
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if Mark Carney wants to, wants to take a conservative idea and put it to work,
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he should start first with the Canadian sovereignty act. He might learn a thing or two.
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I like how you think. Dan Albus, member of parliament for Okanagan, Lake West, South Kelowna.
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Thanks very much for your time. And thank you for yours. Don't forget to like, comment,
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Tuesday, 1 30 PM Eastern time until next week. Remember low taxes, less governments,