The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - May 23, 2018


Life is more expensive under Justin Trudeau

Topics
affordability crisis fuel prices and commuting distances carbon tax failures in BC importing foreign oil affordability promoting LNG and resource industries for environmental benefit
Hosted by
Jamie Schmal
Mentioned
Mark Strahl Justin Trudeau Bob Zimmer Tony Clement Kinder Morgan Elizabeth May Andrew Scheer John Prince George, Peace River Barry Sanders Chilliwack
Liberals put their friends first in Atlantic Canada Landlords should have a say in medical marijuana growth： MP McLeod

Episode Stats


Length

19 minutes

Words per minute

185.96

Word count

3,589

Sentence count

255

Harmful content

Misogyny

4

sentences flagged

Toxicity

1

sentences flagged

Hate speech

1

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

On this episode of The Blueprint, Canada's Conservative Podcast, we'll be talking about BC Gas Prices, and all those carbon taxes that Justin Trudeau wants to impose, with Bob Zimmer, MP, and Mark Strahl, MP.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 On this episode of The Blueprint, Canada's Conservative Podcast, we'll be talking about BC gas prices and all those carbon taxes that Justin Trudeau wants to impose with Bob Zimmer, MP, and Mark Strahl, MP. Stay tuned.
00:00:13.260 You're listening to The Blueprint, Canada's Conservative Podcast.
00:00:18.280 Is the Prime Minister actually saying that taxpayers should be on the hook when he breaks the law?
00:00:30.000 What is it going to take for the Prime Minister to have any respect for any laws in this country that may curb his out-of-control behaviour?
00:00:40.100 All these deficits leading to nothing but burying Canadians in taxes.
00:00:43.720 Taxes is very good.
00:00:50.040 And now, here's your host, Tony Clement.
00:00:52.800 Welcome to The Blueprint, Canada's Conservative Podcast.
00:00:56.220 I'm your host, Tony Clement, Member of Parliament, Parry Sound, Muskoka.
00:00:59.700 And we're going to talk affordability today.
00:01:01.700 I've got two special guests with us.
00:01:04.180 Bob Zimmer, Member of Parliament, Prince George, Peace River, Northern Rockies, and Mark Strahl, the Member of Parliament for Chilliwack Hope.
00:01:13.380 Gentlemen, thank you for joining our podcast.
00:01:15.920 Glad to be here.
00:01:16.840 Well, we know that life is more expensive for Canadians, and we also know that Justin Trudeau is making life more expensive for Canadian families.
00:01:25.640 It doesn't matter whether it's gas prices or electricity rates, taxes, mortgage payments, they're all increasing.
00:01:32.240 So, this is a major theme for the Conservative Party of Canada, isn't it?
00:01:35.940 I'm going to go to you, Mark Strahl, first.
00:01:38.200 Tell us, what is this all about?
00:01:40.820 What is this affordability crisis all about?
00:01:43.420 Well, British Columbians certainly have some of the highest cost of living in the entire country,
00:01:48.120 whether it's property values or, as we've been talking about lately, our fuel prices.
00:01:53.580 I just checked back home.
00:01:54.820 It's $1.43 per litre.
00:01:57.100 And in Vancouver, it's closer to $1.60.
00:01:59.960 And what we've been pointing out on that issue is that, you know, Justin Trudeau was in B.C. the other day,
00:02:05.300 and he said that's going exactly how he wants.
00:02:07.460 He wants people to feel the pain at the pump so that they drive less.
00:02:12.560 And for my constituents, that's just not an option.
00:02:15.700 We live, we're increasingly becoming a bedroom community where people are commuting to work.
00:02:21.200 They can come to Chilliwack and get a home for a more reasonable price than some of the places further west.
00:02:26.860 So, people are commuting 100 kilometres into work.
00:02:29.400 They just don't have the option.
00:02:30.500 There's no transit option available.
00:02:32.920 So, when he says this is exactly what we want, people should change their behaviours,
00:02:37.000 all that means for my constituents is less money in their pockets at the end of the month.
00:02:40.680 Bob Zimmer, you're from a northern B.C. riding as well.
00:02:43.960 Tell us what it means for your constituents.
00:02:45.900 Yeah, and again, I just checked our fuel prices today.
00:02:48.480 It's $138.99 for a regular litre of fuel in Fort St. John.
00:02:52.420 And I think the big problem with that is from a rural perspective is that everywhere we go, it's a long distance.
00:02:58.340 So, some of our workers go two and three hours to work and back.
00:03:02.180 And that's not an option for them.
00:03:03.560 They can't ride their bike to work.
00:03:04.740 And I'm a guy that has a bicycle.
00:03:06.180 I understand, you know, the good part's about riding a bicycle, but the practical part of it is that we just can't get to work that way.
00:03:13.240 And I think to have punitive taxes like that to people that really have something out of their control, it's not great.
00:03:20.500 I'm here with Bob Zimmer and Mark Strahl, two MPs from British Columbia.
00:03:24.540 We're talking about B.C. gas prices and affordability.
00:03:27.640 This is all connected, Mark Strahl, with the carbon tax, isn't it?
00:03:31.100 And, of course, in a sense, British Columbia has been the great experimenter with the carbon tax,
00:03:36.680 which they promised everyone it was going to be revenue neutral
00:03:39.680 and people would get back from a different pot of money if they were paying more for their carbon tax.
00:03:47.320 Tell me how this has been working out in B.C.
00:03:49.220 Well, we have a new government in B.C., a B.C. NDP government propped up by a few green MLAs.
00:03:56.820 So, that promise of revenue neutrality has gone out the window.
00:04:00.420 They've simply said that they're going to take this money in and spend it on priorities of the B.C. NDP government,
00:04:06.200 which are not the priorities of my constituents.
00:04:09.980 And we just continue to see, you know, we were supposed to be the great hope of North America when this was brought in.
00:04:18.480 But what we saw was costs go up, the price of energy go up, and emissions continued to go up.
00:04:25.560 So, it didn't have the impact that the bureaucrats and the politicians in British Columbia said it would.
00:04:32.140 Our greenhouse gas emissions have not come down.
00:04:34.520 So, it's been a failure, and it's just resulted in a lack of affordability from my constituents.
00:04:40.020 Bob Zimmer, we've had all these promises about how the carbon tax was going to solve our emissions issues
00:04:46.340 and how it wasn't going to impact on ordinary Canadians.
00:04:49.360 Tell us what your constituents are telling you.
00:04:51.500 Well, absolutely.
00:04:52.100 We just came out of a really cold winter up in Fort St. John,
00:04:54.700 so it's not an option for us to turn on the thermostat or not.
00:04:57.500 It's survival.
00:04:58.220 That's the way we stay alive up there.
00:04:59.560 So, to tax something that's needed for survival in Fort St. John, to me, is just simply wrong.
00:05:05.100 And to add, you know, we're already being challenged with the resource challenges with the Kinder Morgan pipeline, etc.,
00:05:11.460 and it's being more difficult to get our resources to port.
00:05:14.800 And with that in mind, and people's jobs at risk,
00:05:18.400 they're even being hit even harder by paying more for fuel and for price of natural gas to their homes.
00:05:23.600 So, it's really a double whammy for us in our resource sector communities.
00:05:28.020 And is this having an impact on small business?
00:05:30.940 They seem to get beset by decisions made by Justin Trudeau and his liberals.
00:05:36.100 So, this is another thing that adds to the cost of doing business in B.C., isn't it?
00:05:41.520 Yeah, absolutely.
00:05:42.200 And when it's, you know, you're competing with companies in Vancouver and across the border, too,
00:05:47.940 it makes it that much more difficult to compete
00:05:49.820 because it's one thing that's out of our control is fuel costs.
00:05:52.240 And I think the great irony of ironies here, Tony,
00:05:55.700 especially with some of these people that say carbon tax is a great thing for Canadians,
00:05:59.340 Elizabeth May and the NDP are the same people.
00:06:02.020 We see them get on our flights every week from Ottawa to Vancouver.
00:06:06.440 And we see them protest the next day on a Friday
00:06:09.160 against Kinder Morgan and natural resource development in B.C.
00:06:13.320 And then we see them get back on the same flight
00:06:15.200 that uses Kinder Morgan product to get the jet back to Ottawa.
00:06:19.100 We see those same people that say carbon tax is a great thing.
00:06:22.540 We see them use the fuel to get back to Ottawa.
00:06:25.520 And when Bob has pointed that out in the past on his social media streams,
00:06:29.680 Elizabeth May is taking great offense. 1.00
00:06:31.080 She said, that's unfair.
00:06:32.680 I need to fly to do my job.
00:06:35.580 Well, my construction workers need to drive a pickup to do their jobs. 0.98
00:06:39.840 My farmers need to drive tractors to do their jobs.
00:06:43.020 Everyone needs to use their mode of transportation to get to their job.
00:06:47.680 We don't have light rapid transit to Chilliwack.
00:06:50.840 We have very limited bus service that takes a very long time to get to Metro Vancouver.
00:06:55.920 So it is the height of hypocrisy to see the people that want to drive up those costs
00:07:00.140 and then complain when it's pointed out that they travel using a ton of greenhouse gas emissions
00:07:06.060 and carbon energy products, well, I have to do that for my work.
00:07:10.400 So do my constituents.
00:07:11.500 You can't haul drywall in a Prius and you can't plow a field in a Tesla.
00:07:16.540 Well, absolutely. 0.85
00:07:17.420 And, you know, this is the ultimate hypocrisy of the liberal left, isn't it?
00:07:20.920 That they've got all these grand social experiment solutions which don't seem to work
00:07:26.640 and yet they seem to want to corner the market.
00:07:29.400 We're the only ones who care about the environment.
00:07:31.080 We're the only ones who care about jobs.
00:07:32.520 But that's not the reality on the ground.
00:07:34.940 And even social policy, Tony, you brought it up.
00:07:37.760 You know, who would you rather buy fuel from?
00:07:40.060 Would you rather buy it from a Canadian society where we respect the rights of women, 0.97
00:07:43.520 we respect the rights of many, many...
00:07:45.760 The Canadian, it's a great melting pot that we have in our country.
00:07:48.420 And then you go, we're actually importing fuel from places like Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.
00:07:53.360 Venezuela, yeah.
00:07:54.220 And to me, that's problematic even on that level.
00:07:56.940 People are lining up for medications in Venezuela.
00:07:59.400 So they don't seem to be profiting from the great oil bonanza that is Venezuela.
00:08:04.060 Right.
00:08:04.220 And yet we have a government today that's supporting that process to continue of importing foreign oil
00:08:09.380 when we have, you know, a bunch of oil, especially in Alberta and northern B.C. where I live.
00:08:16.520 We have all this to develop and use ourselves and we can do it responsibly.
00:08:19.520 And to me, it's strange that we wouldn't be doing that in-house first.
00:08:24.780 Mark Strahl, let's broaden this out a little bit.
00:08:27.340 This is not only a British Columbia debate, of course.
00:08:29.520 One of the reasons why it's on our national podcast is because the carbon taxes are coming.
00:08:34.680 Justin Trudeau is going to force it down the throats of every citizen in every province.
00:08:39.400 So what are the lessons to be learned from the B.C. situation?
00:08:42.940 What does this mean for the national carbon tax that Justin Trudeau is pursuing?
00:08:47.260 Well, I think what it means clearly is that it will not reduce this $50 a ton carbon tax,
00:08:55.140 which is really hard for the average Canadian to understand what that means to them personally.
00:09:00.060 But what it means for $50 a ton carbon tax that the Liberals are forcing onto Canadians by 2022
00:09:05.680 will add 11 cents a litre to the price of fuel.
00:09:09.040 So some people have asked me and my running, well, what can be done about these high fuel prices?
00:09:13.380 And say, well, the first thing you can do is not make them higher.
00:09:16.720 The first thing you can do is reduce the amount of taxes, which, of course, we did when we were in government.
00:09:21.620 We reduced the GST, which had the impact of lowering the price of fuel.
00:09:25.680 And when you see this government simply saying, yeah, you know, sure, that's fine.
00:09:31.040 But here comes another 10 or 11 cents a litre with no idea what the impact will actually be on the environment.
00:09:38.200 That, to me, is just a tax grab.
00:09:40.000 And we've seen from these guys, they take the money and they spend it on their own priorities.
00:09:44.040 We have no confidence that they're actually going to do anything to improve, you know, make our air, water, or land cleaner.
00:09:51.380 This is simply a way for Justin Trudeau and these Liberals to get their hands on more Canadian tax dollars.
00:09:57.120 Bob, did you have a comment on that?
00:09:58.620 Yeah, yeah.
00:09:59.100 Well, just the whole carbon tax.
00:10:00.540 We've seen it in British Columbia, and this is a warning to all provinces that are even considering it.
00:10:04.100 We've seen projects like Pacific Northwest, you know, when it finally comes down to that margin that the company needs to have a go-ahead with their particular project.
00:10:12.320 Well, carbon tax just put it out of reach for them.
00:10:15.280 It was too risky.
00:10:16.600 So to see those kind of projects and, again, to see this ripple across Canada with all our resource development sector is deeply concerning.
00:10:23.900 It should be concerning to all Canadians that we're just driving the price up.
00:10:26.680 We're reducing our capacity as a result, and that drives that price again for Canadian consumers.
00:10:31.600 We really need to have hard luck at what the result is, and ultimately it results in less money in people's pockets.
00:10:37.100 Well, this is what I wanted to come back to, affordability, because the governing Liberals, the Greens, NDP,
00:10:44.340 they all talk a good game about how they care about ordinary Canadians,
00:10:48.520 but they keep making life less affordable for ordinary Canadians.
00:10:52.960 Is that your experience too?
00:10:55.400 Absolutely, and I think, you know, you see it with this government in particular where you just have to wonder who they're getting their advice from
00:11:04.440 because, you know, the Prime Minister was born, fortunately for him, into wealth.
00:11:12.240 He's never known it to be difficult to make ends meet.
00:11:16.420 The Finance Minister, the same thing.
00:11:18.720 These are both individuals that have family fortunes, as they put it.
00:11:24.060 The Prime Minister himself said that he has a family fortune.
00:11:27.820 And I think when you come from that place, it's very easy to tell other people that they should make do with less.
00:11:36.320 When you've never had to worry about living paycheck to paycheck or making ends meet,
00:11:41.040 it's awfully easy to tell other people to change the way they live.
00:11:44.420 And I think it really is, the perspective that these guys are coming from is one of extreme privilege and it taints their view.
00:11:54.620 And unconcerned about what the average person is going through.
00:11:57.880 They think the, you know, they just don't face the same pressures that an average Canadian family does.
00:12:04.320 And when they tell the average Canadian family, you just need to tighten your belt a little bit.
00:12:08.600 When they've never had to even consider doing that, I think that's pretty tough for Canadians to take.
00:12:13.440 Now, tougher question.
00:12:14.780 I want to discuss this a little bit because I think some of our listeners may want to say,
00:12:20.340 well, okay, you're against this policy.
00:12:23.120 What would you do if you were in government?
00:12:25.120 What would Andrew Scheer do?
00:12:26.360 Now, Andrew Scheer has been very clear that we are not for a carbon tax.
00:12:31.240 We are against a carbon tax.
00:12:32.800 And that's at least the start of the conversation.
00:12:34.760 We don't want to add costs to people in their household finances.
00:12:40.420 We want to make it easier for them to meet their bills.
00:12:42.200 Is that correct, gentlemen?
00:12:43.240 Absolutely.
00:12:43.900 Yeah, I think from a larger perspective, just about what we care about in terms of pollution,
00:12:49.420 you know, as conservatives, it's often thrown back at us.
00:12:52.300 Well, you guys, you don't care about the environment.
00:12:53.800 We absolutely do.
00:12:54.600 And we had a great policy, which the current government has adopted as their own.
00:12:59.620 Not with the carbon tax, of course, but we were doing our best in terms of combating pollution
00:13:04.580 and dealing with those kind of issues.
00:13:07.080 We do care about our environment.
00:13:08.180 We like to fish and hunt, and we like to drink our fresh water in British Columbia.
00:13:11.640 We enjoy the outdoors like anybody else, especially in British Columbia.
00:13:15.460 So we want to see that maintained as much as anybody.
00:13:18.420 And with our standards and high regulatory process that we have in our country, that's happening.
00:13:23.400 It's already happening now, the stringent regulations to keep the resource sector doing things well.
00:13:29.040 And the natural resource sector is the world leader.
00:13:34.320 The Canadian natural resource sector is the world leader in innovation and clean technology.
00:13:39.420 They have reduced their own greenhouse gas emissions.
00:13:43.260 They are more efficient than ever at producing a barrel of oil or a cubic foot of gas.
00:13:49.820 They continue to drive down the impact that they have on the environment.
00:13:55.340 We are the world leaders in technology.
00:13:58.120 Look at carbon capture storage technology in Saskatchewan, where they're reducing from conventional coal-fired electrical plants.
00:14:06.540 They're taking tens of thousands of tons of CO2 emissions out of the environment every single month.
00:14:13.760 And if we invest in that technology and promote it around the world, we will see a real tangible benefit to not only our environment, but to the well-being of Canadians here.
00:14:24.760 And what Bob talked about earlier with the LNG in British Columbia, liquid natural gas displaces coal.
00:14:35.100 And if we can promote our responsible resource development of our liquid natural gas, it displaces dirty coal being burned in other parts of the world.
00:14:45.580 So we should be, the greatest thing we can do for the environment is actually to promote our responsibly developed natural resource industries.
00:14:52.900 Our liquid natural gas puts, you know, displaces coal in China.
00:14:57.060 That's good for everybody.
00:14:57.940 It's good for Canada. 0.55
00:14:58.700 It's good for the world.
00:14:59.400 And this is where Justin Trudeau has gone off the rails because that is not his answer anymore.
00:15:05.440 At least it's not his answer when he's outside of the prairie provinces or when he's in international forums.
00:15:11.660 Like he was in France recently speaking at the National Assembly of France.
00:15:15.380 Then he's all about phasing out all carbon emissions.
00:15:19.900 Can't do it fast enough.
00:15:20.980 Including clean carbon.
00:15:23.460 But that's his message when he's outside of earshot of Canadians whose jobs will be ruined and how we won't be able to heat ourselves or to travel.
00:15:33.060 So this is part of the problem.
00:15:34.520 He actually doesn't have a consistent message himself.
00:15:37.320 Well, and the fact of the matter is renewable resources, they're limited to a certain extent at this point in time.
00:15:42.820 Windmills can only produce so much energy. 0.73
00:15:44.520 It's only windy so many days of the year.
00:15:45.960 So to augment that, we need hydroelectric dams and we need natural resources developed to produce the rest of the energy that we really need as a society.
00:15:54.520 So to me, it's, yeah, we're getting there.
00:15:57.740 But to completely move into that right now would be irresponsible.
00:16:00.520 And we have this huge resource, and like Mark was saying, the way we can help reduce global pollution, if you want to call it global pollution, is to provide natural gas to Asia.
00:16:09.680 And to not see that, not understand that, to me, is unbelievable, really.
00:16:13.900 So two items I want to discuss.
00:16:16.620 First of all, in terms of further development of conservative policy, we've got a party conference coming up in August in Halifax, where we can debate some of these issues about where we as conservatives can take environmentalism, proper environmentalism, have a different approach than the Trudeau Liberals or the Liberal Left consensus on this issue.
00:16:39.460 So that's a big moment for us, isn't it, Mark?
00:16:41.720 Absolutely.
00:16:42.520 And I think we've been working diligently on that, especially as a BC caucus.
00:16:47.180 You know, I like to tell people that everyone in British Columbia is an environmentalist, and it's just a matter of degrees.
00:16:54.580 And we all love our natural heritage that we've received, that we've been blessed to receive, and we want it to be protected and preserved for the next generation.
00:17:06.120 And so we're working hard on things that, you know, the root word of conservative is conserve, you know, conserve, conservation.
00:17:13.200 That's what we're about.
00:17:14.300 And there's no one better at protecting our resources and that natural heritage than conservatives.
00:17:21.620 We want to protect our fish and wildlife and our natural spaces.
00:17:25.740 That's something that's a core of who we are.
00:17:28.000 And we haven't done a good enough job of explaining that about ourselves over the last little bit, but we're working on it.
00:17:34.360 And Halifax is going to be a great opportunity in August to do that.
00:17:37.020 Gentlemen, we've got just a minute left.
00:17:39.160 Call to action for our listeners.
00:17:41.500 Visit conservative.ca.
00:17:43.380 Sign on to our emails and to our messages.
00:17:46.740 There may be a petition or two on there about the carbon tax as well.
00:17:52.260 So that's a message too, isn't it, Bob?
00:17:54.320 Yeah, I think it's key too, when you see a petition, the opportunity to have some feedback to do it.
00:17:59.340 You know, we bring that kind of stuff into the House and it does make an impact.
00:18:02.880 And just to see that many Canadians represent a certain issue, I think it really does matter.
00:18:06.480 People need to understand that in calling into the minister's offices and calling into their constituency offices, it does make a difference.
00:18:12.440 So we've seen ministers back down on certain bad policies, we just need to keep up the pressure.
00:18:16.960 We'll keep it up.
00:18:17.940 Yeah, I was just going to say, I was going to say, you know, people who go to work, play by the rules and pay their taxes often aren't the most vocal people on these issues.
00:18:28.680 And we can't let ourselves be defined by those who are holding the picket signs and holding up progress.
00:18:35.220 We need everyone who believes in a strong environment and a strong economy for Canadians to let their voice be heard.
00:18:43.200 And we're doing our part to bring those voices here to Ottawa.
00:18:45.740 Well, and bringing the voices to the Blueprint, Canada's Conservative Podcast.
00:18:49.240 I want to say thank you to Bob Zimmer, Member of Parliament for Prince George, Peace River and Northern Rockies,
00:18:54.460 and Mark Strahl, the MP for Chilliwack Hope.
00:18:57.860 Thank you for joining us on the Blueprint.
00:18:59.620 Our pleasure.
00:19:00.620 Thanks.
00:19:00.840 Thank you for listening to the Blueprint, Canada's Conservative Podcast.
00:19:07.080 To find more episodes, interviews, and in-depth discussions of politics in Canada,
00:19:12.400 search for the Blueprint on iTunes or visit podcast.conservative.ca.
00:19:17.860 Thank you.