Housing; beyond the parents’ basement
Episode Stats
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Summary
In this episode, Conservative MP Scott Aitchison joins us to talk about the housing crisis in Canada and how the federal government is contributing to the problem. He also talks about the role of the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, in addressing the housing shortage.
Transcript
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Hello and welcome once again to The Blueprint. This is Canada's Conservative Podcast. I'm your
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host, Jamie Schmael, member of Parliament for Halliburton Corps with Alex Brock, with new
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content for you every single Tuesday, even throughout the summer, 1.30 p.m. Eastern
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Time. We do appreciate you joining us. Don't forget, you can like, you can comment, you
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subscribe, and you can share this program. Let your friends know that this kind of content,
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this kind of message, something they're probably not getting in the mainstream media, is out
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there. And don't forget, you can download it and play it on platforms like CastBox, iTunes,
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Google Play, and Spotify. You name it, it is out there. Another great show lined up for
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you again this week. Of course, a topic we're going to be talking about is something that
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has been called, according to the Ottawa Citizen, Canada's most pressing issue of our time, and
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that is the housing shortage. So, to talk about that, Scott Aitchison is going to join us, the
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member of Parliament for Perry South Muskoka, also the critic for housing. Thanks very much,
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Mike, my neighbour to the north. Thanks for coming on.
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Yeah, sort of the northwest, I guess, isn't it? It's good to be here, Jamie. Thank you for
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Best part of the country is Muskoka, Halliburton area. Of course, everywhere up in this area is
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paradise. So, great to have you on the show. It's unfortunate we're talking about a topic
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that is kind of raging throughout the country and is really hurting a lot of people. It
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doesn't matter if you're in the older age group, younger age group, it is something that has
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affected everyone. And everywhere I go, people are talking about this.
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Yeah, you're right, Jamie. And the fact of the matter is, it comes down to a question
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of supply. We don't have enough homes for the people who live here and the people that we're
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welcoming to this country as well. And, of course, the situation has only gotten worse under the
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current government because, of course, they've promised the world with their national housing
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strategy. But in the end, what's resulted from their efforts has been a doubling in house prices,
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a doubling in rent, double of your mortgage payments have doubled, interest rates are skyrocketing,
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inflation's out of control. So, while groceries and everything are expensive, literally everything's
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more expensive, but most particularly housing. And it comes down to this. There's no real leadership at
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the federal level to make sure that municipalities who are on the front lines of the housing crisis
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are getting developments approved quickly with as minimal cost as possible. And you have a federal
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government that funnels money to municipalities without any strings attached, without any expectation
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of results. And, of course, their excessive borrowing and massive deficits are only adding
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to inflation and making everything more expensive, including housing. So, it's a real spiral that
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they've created. And, you know, Canadians are paying the price.
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So, let's remind Canadians how we got here in the first place. If you remember during the pandemic,
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when it first hit, housing prices dropped significantly. The market slowed down. Of course, prices
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were reasonable. People could afford it for the most part. And then, all of a sudden, when the printing
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presses kicked in and all that extra cash was just funneled into the marketplace, the pandemic saw
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prices go out of control. Like, you had bidding wars. People bidding and losing out no matter how
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high they went in some cases. And young people who were trying to start a family, who wanted to get in
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the housing market, they had to put everything on the line for even a chance for a bid to be considered.
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And we saw the many stories of people going $100,000, $150,000, $200,000 over asking and still being
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turned down because there was someone that was willing to go higher. And, of course, with the rising
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interest rates, I think this might cause some pain very shortly.
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Well, and Canadians heard Pierre Polyave warn about this over and over and over again.
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You have too much money chasing too few goods. And as a result, you get inflation.
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He said it, if he said it once, he said it a million times. And, you know, as we said before,
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Justin Trudeau was a teacher. This wasn't a math teacher. And so he didn't understand what Pierre was
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trying to explain to him. Well, Canadians see the results.
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Well, first, we were told inflation wasn't going to be a problem. But at the same time,
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you had people that saw the value because of all this cash. People were buying things,
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like you said, too many dollars chasing too few goods. And there were people that became,
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you know, if you had a house, you became in some cases, a lot of cases, instantly wealthy. Your value
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went up hundreds of thousand dollars. Even if you bought it a few months ago, prior to the pandemic,
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and now after, you probably didn't put a dollar into it. And all of a sudden, your house has gone
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Well, yeah, there's no question about that. But of course, you know, you talk to people
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that are thinking of maybe selling and trying to capitalize on that growth and the value of their
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homes. And they realize, well, where would I go? You know, and this really is a big part of the
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problem. And so, you know, when we talk about the housing spectrum, you know, it's everything from
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literally emergency shelter up to, you know, maybe, you know, your first home you buy to, you know,
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maybe even a cottage or a second home. That's it's a it's a it's a broad spectrum. But it's also a
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continuum. People move through the housing spectrum based on their needs and their circumstances.
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And when people are not able to move through that spectrum, everybody gets trapped and the most
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vulnerable in our society pay the highest price. And really, the genesis of the crisis we're seeing
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today started with the first Trudeau government back in 1975, when they changed the tax system that
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encouraged the construction of purpose built rentals, what we mean is like buildings that were
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built specifically to rent, not condos, not for sale, but multi unit residential apartment buildings.
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And so when when when that stopped, you know, the private sector was looking for ways to make money.
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And of course, it didn't make sense to build rentals because your return was so much farther in the
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future. And so the federal government decided at the time that they would get into building housing
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themselves. Whether you agree with that policy prescription or not in, you know, shortly after
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they decided to do that, the world economy took a downturn. And one of the first things they stopped
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investing in was housing. And so there's been this cumulative impact. And now we see the second Trudeau
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government. And of course, they've added literally fuel to the fire with deficit spending, with, you
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know, massive debt, and literally just shoveling money out the door. It feels very much like their
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prescription to solve every problem is to throw money in the air and see what happens. Well, we know
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what happens. It just makes everything more expensive.
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Yes, the results really aren't a key measuring tool for this government. It's just we put X amount
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of millions or billions into this file, and hopefully magically it will take care of itself. So how many
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just to just to restore affordability? How many housing units do we need by say 2030? Just to restore
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affordability. Yeah, it's a good question. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, which does analysis and
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research on housing generally in Canada, has reported that we would need 5.8, almost 6 million
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housing units by 2030 to restore affordability. So just to give you a sense of what that means, that's
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from today that that would mean 750 or 60,000 housing units completed every year. Just so you have a
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sense. The most Canada has ever built in terms of housing units in a year was in the 70s. And I think
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we peaked out about 275,000 units that year. So we do on average about 225 to 30,000 units a year now.
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And of course, it's far more complex process, which is another part of the problem. Yeah,
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the municipalities have layers and layers of rules now. And it's harder and harder to get things
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approved because of, you know, NIMBYism, you know, people don't like change in their communities. They
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don't want to see higher density development. And, and of course, local politicians oftentimes will just
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sort of defer to the crowd as opposed to doing the right thing. We see some provinces stepping up,
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and trying to, you know, basically, you know, remove those obstacles.
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But what's missing is real federal leadership. And this is another thing, Jamie, that Pierre has
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talked a lot about, about about using federal dollars, basically, whether it's, you know,
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federal transit infrastructure dollars, you know, the federal government gives billions of dollars
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every year to cities, for their, for their, their transit systems to expand them and to grow them.
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Whether it's, you know, actual housing dollars, all those infrastructure dollars have to be tied
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to results. We can't just sort of hope that municipalities get it right and hope that they'll
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come on board, because that hasn't worked. You know, Justin Trudeau has tried the, you know,
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let's hold hands and get a long approach and hopefully everything gets better. But we all
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have seen the results, it doesn't work. And so the federal government under Pierre Polyev,
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prime minister, would tie billions of federal dollars to municipalities to results. We call it dollars
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for doors. If you're delaying and adding costs, and making housing more expensive, we want you to get out
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of the way. So how, how does the, how do we reach that target? And, and, and at the same time, we're
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seeing a very real shortage in the skilled trades, right? If anyone has tried to get a roofer, in many
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cases, it's almost near impossible, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, etc. For the longest time,
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I remember when I was in high school, we were told everyone has to go to university, right? You have to go to
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university, that's the path. Now things are changing. People in, in school boards across the country are, are,
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are changing that view and trying to direct people into the skilled trades because not everyone is a
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university student and there's nothing wrong with going to a skilled trade. It's the most noble profession.
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Um, so we should be pushing that. So how do we accelerate that part of the, the labor market shortage?
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Because that, that too is, is contributing to the price of a house.
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Well, and this is a really crucial point, Jim. I'm glad you raised it because, you know, encouraging
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young people in the education system to go into the trades is absolutely crucial and it's important,
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but there's going to take some time for those young people, those students to be into the workforce.
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So the other thing that's going on, of course, in this country is that, is that we welcome new
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Canadians every year. Uh, but we need to make sure our immigration system is attracting and enticing
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people with the skills and the abilities we need to help build this country. Uh, and that also means
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working very closely with the provinces to make sure that those skills and abilities are recognized
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as soon as they get here, like as quickly as possible. So we can get people working in their,
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in their field right away. And so we've, you've heard Pierre talked about this in terms of nurses
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and doctors, but it also needs to happen when it comes to electricians and plumbers and carpenters.
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These are the skills that we need in this country. And we need to be making sure that our immigration
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system is meeting the needs of the economy and the citizens of this country.
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And we can do all of that. And I, I totally on board with everything you've said and, and love it.
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At the same time, we have to also, and you mentioned it earlier, uh, almost actually right off the top is
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what the former liberal finance minister, John Manley had said with, with the government still deficit
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spending with, with their inflationary spending, you're, you're trying to put your foot on the gas
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and the brake at the same time. And, and you really have to get the books under control,
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some fiscal sanity back in Ottawa in order to bring the prices of everything back down.
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Well, I'm glad you used his, uh, his example of your, you know, your, your one foot on the gas
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and one foot on the brake at the same time. He's correct. And you know, this, I can, this is another
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thing that, you know, Pierre has warned, uh, parliament about over and over and over again.
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Uh, now the liberals will have you believe that, you know, Pierre is a, you know, bad guy who just
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wants to cut everything. Uh, and frankly, that's not the case. He wants us to get fiscal sanity back
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in place, uh, and make sure that we're not deficit spending. It, it'd be very easy to, to rein in the
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spending of this government. They've increased the public sector, uh, by 30%. And at the same time,
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has spent literally billions and billions and billions of dollars on outside consultants.
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You could, you could just cut, cut the consulting budget of this government. You could almost have
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things back in balance. Like that's how insane their spending is. Uh, so just some common sense
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approach to how we invest Canadians tax dollars and how we make sure that, uh, you know, we're,
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we're investing in the things and the, and the service that Canadians need and spending a lot less
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money on, you know, making Justin Trudeau look good and, and, uh, and keeping his consultant
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friends well, well healed. And, and just being responsible with the dollars we had. Ottawa has
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never been more flush with cash. It has so much money right now, but yet Justin Trudeau can't, can't
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control what he spends money on. We have the, the, uh, the infrastructure bank that hasn't actually
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produced a job where we're funding pipelines in China for crying out loud. Like how about some
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responsibility with the dollars we have? How about some respect for the dollars that we were taking
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in? Cause people have to work hard in order for the government to collect that. We, we have to be
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more prudent. Well, I listen, I there's, there's no shortage of that waste, Jamie. You've seen it a
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lot longer than I have. My, my background is in municipal politics. And I got to tell you, if we burn
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through cash at the local level, the way they do at the federal level, they'd ever, you know, butts out of
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office in a New York minute. It's, it's shameful the way money is wasted in Ottawa. Uh, and, and for
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me, it's not, it's not just about being responsible. It's about being respectful. It's about being
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respectful to the hardworking Canadians. Who, who's that, whose money that is. There's this sense in
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Ottawa that everything you have is actually theirs until they decide to give some back to you as
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conservatives. That is not the way we approach things. Obviously it's your money and the money that,
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that, you know, you, you pay to the government, you give to the government to deliver services for
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you had better be delivered in a very efficient and a very effective way. And not a nickel more
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