The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - Reckless spending continues to fuel Canada’s inflation and affordability crisis.

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

00:00:14.940 host, Jamie Schmael, Member of Parliament for Halliburton Caworthal Lake Sprocket with new

00:00:18.780 content for you every single Tuesday, 1.30pm Eastern Time. We are not slowing down. We are

00:00:24.320 not taking time off. We will fight back against that ever-moving Liberal agenda. And with that,

00:00:29.320 we have a great guest for you lined up today. And before I get to him, I just want to remind you

00:00:33.680 to like, comment, subscribe, share this program, and together we can do that pushback as I mentioned

00:00:38.780 earlier. And of course, if you can't listen to the entire program right this second, you can download

00:00:43.140 it, listen to it on platforms like CastBox, iTunes, Google Play, Spotify. You know it. It is out there.

00:00:48.780 So without further delay, we're bringing back Adam Chambers, a Member of Parliament for Simcoe North.

00:00:53.580 He's also the Deputy Shadow Minister for Finance, a great friend of the show, my next-door neighbor.

00:00:58.780 We're going to talk about a lot of kitchen table issues today. We're talking about inflation,

00:01:04.420 the cost of living. Everything seems to get harder and harder under this Liberal government,

00:01:09.560 not to mention that they're actually okay with high prices of gasoline. So Adam, thanks for coming

00:01:14.040 back on.

00:01:15.360 Great to be here with you, Jamie.

00:01:17.020 All right. Inflation is almost at 8%. It's absolutely incredible. The Finance Minister,

00:01:22.940 Chrystia Freeland, gets asked about that at a news conference, and she goes into talking points

00:01:27.220 basically about how this must accelerate their investments, their so-called investments,

00:01:32.940 into green energy. It's like they don't even care that the price of everyday items is driving

00:01:39.020 people, many hardworking people, into almost poverty to trying to pay for the increases

00:01:44.860 that are skyrocketing right across the supply chain.

00:01:47.740 You're exactly right. It's another example of the government being behind the curve.

00:01:55.340 You know, 12 months ago, they were telling people, don't worry. They were using the word,

00:01:59.380 it's transitory. And yet every single month or quarter that there's another data point that kind

00:02:05.380 of undercuts their entire narrative, they keep kind of saying, you know, don't worry, look at the

00:02:11.680 inflation around the rest of the world. Now they're blaming inflation on the war in Ukraine,

00:02:16.760 which no doubt has an impact on the price of goods. We're not disputing that. But inflation was

00:02:23.800 at 30-year highs before the war started. And now we're at the highest level since 1983. And interest

00:02:32.240 rates at that period of time were significantly high in order to bring down inflation. So the

00:02:38.700 government's behind the ball. I asked a question in question period just six weeks ago about what

00:02:44.200 the government is going to do as there were signs the growth in the economy was slowing. And the answer

00:02:50.660 I got back was, we've had the strongest growth three to six months ago. Not forward looking,

00:02:57.120 always looking rear view mirror. They're being caught behind the curve once again. And I'm not sure

00:03:02.280 they're prepared for the economic, potential economic challenges that lie ahead.

00:03:07.220 Well, well, you said a lot there and to pick up on some of it, like there's more money in the

00:03:11.940 atmosphere right now. It's obviously worth less now, because as you pointed out, we have,

00:03:16.800 we have currency inflation because of the printing of almost $400 billion in currency. At the same time,

00:03:22.580 the demand, which has increased the price of everyday essentials, all hitting at the same time,

00:03:30.020 not to mention that what's the solution that the government has and the NDP have? Well,

00:03:34.920 let's tax the oil and gas companies. Well, that's only going to drive the price up even higher. 0.99

00:03:39.560 Like you're punishing a group, a business. Yes, they're in it to make money, but they've been

00:03:44.680 trying to expand their footprint here in Canada for as long as I can remember, decades. And they're

00:03:50.800 dealing with the brunt of it. And you can't just up production just on a snap of a finger. It doesn't

00:03:55.400 happen that way.

00:03:56.080 Well, there's a couple of things happening there. First, you know, the NDP is talking about

00:04:00.940 excess profit taxes, in particular in the oil and gas industry. I mean, where was the NDP

00:04:06.440 talking about, were they thanking the oil and gas industry for the last 10 years when they were

00:04:12.620 having massive losses and they were keeping inflation and prices low for people? I mean,

00:04:16.820 it really doesn't make sense. If you're going to go after them now, what about the flip side when

00:04:21.620 things weren't going so well for that industry? I haven't really seen them defending the industry

00:04:25.380 over the last 10 years when they had some serious challenges. The second is for some reason,

00:04:30.880 the answer to inflation, both primarily from the NDP, but even some in the government caucus,

00:04:37.340 is to make government revenues bigger, is to grow the size of government. Well,

00:04:44.040 the federal government's actually never made as much money as it's making right now. Every month,

00:04:50.760 it's breaking records for the amount of revenue that it's bringing in. The federal government has

00:04:55.640 more money than it knows what to do with, and I'm not sure that giving it even more money is going to

00:05:02.700 solve the inflation problem. In fact, giving this government more money means inflation is likely to

00:05:07.760 get worse because they're going to spend it, and that's what's driving one of the things that's

00:05:12.700 driving inflation. We've talked about this before on this show. It's like the government's solution

00:05:17.360 to the inflation crisis just to spend more. They can find a way to spend their way out of this. It's

00:05:23.340 like fighting cancer with more cancer. It absolutely doesn't make any sense whatsoever, and the media

00:05:29.860 is sadly very silent on this. I think there are real alternatives that we're proposing that just

00:05:36.100 get overlooked because it can't make Justin Trudeau look bad. Well, you raise an incredibly good point.

00:05:43.380 There are some alternatives. I get that the government doesn't necessarily want to listen

00:05:48.140 to its main opposition party in the House of Commons, so let's use some other examples.

00:05:55.940 Former Governor of Bank of Canada, Stephen Polo says, excuse me, David Dodge, he was quoted recently

00:06:03.720 saying, look, in order to bring inflation down, we have to see prices for energy, in particular oil and

00:06:11.500 fuel, also come down. Well, 60 cents of every liter that we pay in gasoline charges is taxes that go to

00:06:21.180 some level of government, whether it's federal, provincial, or municipal. In fact, in France,

00:06:27.300 their central bank said one of the reasons that France's inflation rate is lower than most other

00:06:33.060 areas in Europe is because they cut taxes on gasoline. And so we have to be a little bit

00:06:41.060 creative. I mean, listen, if the government is so ideologically wedded to a carbon tax, okay, fine.

00:06:50.920 Why don't they then say, listen, if fuel is $1.50 a liter or $1.40 a liter, the carbon tax is this

00:06:58.700 number of cents. But if it gets to $2 a liter, we don't need the carbon tax anymore. We're already

00:07:04.180 actually have such a high price move up in gas. Anyone who can reduce their consumption is, and

00:07:11.660 anyone who's continuing to consume is consuming because they have to. They have to drive to work.

00:07:17.300 They have to pick up their kids from soccer practice. They have to drive that truck

00:07:20.920 to the job site or deliver goods. You know, some of these folks are independent truckers. 0.52

00:07:28.000 diesel has doubled in about 12 months or just a little bit more than that. So these are real

00:07:34.820 challenges. I think the government has to be thinking a bit outside the box. I mean,

00:07:40.160 their plan to fight inflation was just an announcement of things that was in the budget.

00:07:44.780 There's nothing new here for people. And the NDP is just, you know, continuing to criticize them,

00:07:51.280 but they're supporting every step of the way.

00:07:53.500 Okay. Okay. A couple of things there. As you mentioned, yes, the government is pulling in

00:08:00.100 more and more money than it ever has before, but yet we can't get a passport. Canadians can't get a 0.55

00:08:05.300 passport. The airports are a disaster. Immigration departments backed up about 2 million files. I saw

00:08:11.200 veterans are still waiting in line for their benefits. And the list just goes on and on and on.

00:08:18.000 At the same time, the plan to fix inflation is to spend more. So they're taking in more revenue.

00:08:25.460 So they're just going to spend it on more government programs. They're just going to keep

00:08:28.180 circulating all of that. But at the same time, they're actually putting more people

00:08:32.660 into financial hardship by doing this. But the rich, they're really wealthy in society. They

00:08:39.900 barely notice it. They'll still fill up their cars. They might notice a blimp. Maybe they already have

00:08:45.720 the electric vehicles. But at the same time, the ordinary, hardworking Canadians are getting

00:08:51.620 punished. It's the invisible tax that are just hammering them one day after the next.

00:08:57.940 You're exactly right. Last week, when the Bank of Canada increased interest rates by one full

00:09:03.800 percentage point, which was a significant raise, you know, hadn't happened since I think 1998.

00:09:10.240 So we're talking, you know, 20 plus years since this has happened. So inflation is very serious.

00:09:14.360 The NDP came out and said, you know, at an interest rate increase of 1%, you know, we're going to be

00:09:19.620 hurting people. Well, OK, yes, people's costs will increase. But you know what hurts the vulnerable

00:09:26.380 and low income people more? Higher inflation. We have to get inflation under control. That means

00:09:32.200 the government has to get its spending under control. That means we will have to endure some

00:09:37.880 higher interest in the short term, interest rates in the short term to bring down the level of

00:09:45.060 inflation to get people's expectations back down. But I mean, this is a result of the government

00:09:50.400 continuing to spend. The real challenge, and Jamie, I'd love to hear from you on this. When I talk to

00:09:55.780 any business owners in Simcoe North, and I also talked to some over in Brockville last week with our

00:10:01.760 colleague Michael Barrett, they cannot find anyone to work. They want to grow. They want to grow their

00:10:10.280 revenues, pay more taxes, hire more people. They can't find anyone. Well, guess what? Of all of the

00:10:17.020 jobs created and recovered since the pandemic started, 85% of them are in the public sector. So this is

00:10:25.620 crowding out jobs in the private sector so that we can add more jobs in the public sector. Look,

00:10:33.940 they are great jobs. People do great work for the federal government. I feel for the people on the

00:10:38.640 front lines. But when the private sector is looking to hire people and they can't find anyone, yet the

00:10:44.300 federal government's growing at 10,000 people per year and still having a hard time doing essential

00:10:49.560 services, you have to wonder, this is not economically sustainable. Well, I'm glad you brought that up.

00:10:55.620 That was actually one of the things I wanted to talk about, the growth in the hiring in the public

00:11:01.080 sector. A lot of job gains has been into the bureaucracy. And I don't think the idea right now

00:11:08.140 is we need more government. We don't need bigger government. That's actually slowing down the private

00:11:13.760 sector growth. The more layers, the more red tape, the more regulation of the rules, which some of them

00:11:19.860 in this pile of 10,000 a year are being hired are hired to do just that. It's actually hampering our

00:11:27.600 ability as a country, as a province, our provinces, our territories, to grow the economic activity we

00:11:35.160 need to push our way through this. But one after the other, just pile on, pile on. It's deflating in

00:11:42.700 some circumstances. Absolutely. Especially when you think about, we'll just use an example that

00:11:49.080 everyone can, that resonates with everybody, tourism. We have certain, we have restaurants

00:11:55.920 that are closed certain days of the week because they don't have people. We have motels and hotels

00:12:01.100 that are not open fully. They've got floors that are shut because they don't have enough people

00:12:05.520 to, you know, say, take care of the property and maintenance, et cetera. So that means in a time

00:12:14.480 when tourism is supposed to be getting back up off it, on its feet, off of its knees, they're being

00:12:20.540 held from recovering fully from the pandemic because they don't have enough people. I mean, this is

00:12:27.280 potential economic growth that we are, that is disappearing forever. You know, every hotel room that goes

00:12:34.260 unused every night is, is money that can never be recovered, right? That is a perishable good that

00:12:41.520 expires at the end of each day, as an example. And so people are, business owners are frustrated because

00:12:49.640 they can't find labor. They're having a hard time getting any help from government on this front,

00:12:55.400 yet at the same time are seeing the size of government continuing to grow and the services are

00:13:01.700 actually not keeping up with that growth. So it's a big problem. I really feel for the small

00:13:08.320 businesses out there that are kind of the lifeblood and engine of the actual economy and they're trying

00:13:12.980 to grow, but they can't find the people. And so we need to figure out how we're going to stop the

00:13:19.060 growth of government, but how we're going to encourage more people to kind of enter and remain

00:13:23.340 in the workforce that we can help our small businesses recover fully. Well, that's one thing that really

00:13:28.700 doesn't get covered when you're looking at the loss of economic opportunities. The activity is

00:13:35.220 the creation that never happens. You know, most organizations try to determine small business

00:13:41.300 that, well, if I do this, I may have got here, but at the end of the day, you really can't get a exact

00:13:47.200 idea of how much opportunity has been lost by the lack of businesses growing, the lack of opportunity,

00:13:55.240 the lack of growth within the private sector. And when you can't do it here, those jobs either don't

00:14:03.060 happen, they close down or they go elsewhere in the case of some manufacturing. And those jobs

00:14:08.400 don't come back. As you mentioned, those jobs are lost and all the spinoffs are gone with them.

00:14:14.340 People are making and businesses, global businesses are making investment decisions. They look at

00:14:19.680 a country, they look at a labor force availability metrics. We have one of the tightest labor markets

00:14:27.560 ever. In many ways, it's a good thing, right? People are still able to find work if they're

00:14:33.560 looking for work. The challenge is when you have bureaucracy and red tape and all these things

00:14:39.680 getting in the way, these individuals and businesses are actually choosing to invest their

00:14:44.460 money elsewhere. And so that is actually lost. You're right. That's lost forever. It's very

00:14:51.000 hard to bring that investment back once a decision has been made. And that's ultimately going to hurt

00:14:56.580 us in the long term because we actually need the private sector to be strong and flourishing and get

00:15:02.600 back to where it should be. Certainly in the tourism sector, as an example, which is big in our ridings,

00:15:10.460 uh, but in other parts too, both in technology and financial technology and manufacturing,

00:15:16.600 um, we want to fight for those mandates to come to Canada. We don't want to keep continually losing

00:15:22.520 them. And the government, I don't think is being very, uh, business friendly at this moment.

00:15:28.160 I don't think they have for quite some time because don't forget. And I like to remind people,

00:15:33.020 especially those who are tuning in for the first time that from 2015 to 2019 during

00:15:39.080 the Trudeau government's first majority parliament, they immediately started running

00:15:45.040 the country on the credit card. They were already spending way above their means and really had no

00:15:50.920 apologies for it. And they were told day in and day out, save for that rainy day, because it will

00:15:56.060 not always be good time. Sure enough, the pandemic hit and our fitness fiscal capacity was hampered

00:16:01.040 because they should have been paying off debt. They should have been storing away ready for the bad

00:16:05.040 times. You're exactly right, Jamie. The other thing I'd remind people is while they were spending,

00:16:11.460 the government kept saying, interest rates are low. Don't worry. Interest rates are low. We can

00:16:17.360 afford this. Now we have interest rates increasing at a substantial pace and rate in order to get

00:16:25.160 inflation under control. That means the cost of government borrowing, just like everybody else,

00:16:30.260 is also going to increase. That means more money of every dollar is going to pay interest on the

00:16:35.300 debt and not go to services that we need. And so the government's narrative is starting to crumble.

00:16:43.980 Well, as mentioned, lots more money out there, not worth as much as it was before. And as people

00:16:49.540 start to notice these increases, whether it be the grocery store, the fuel pump, you name it,

00:16:55.640 everywhere across the supply chain. They make difficult decisions. And when they make those

00:17:00.740 difficult decisions, it's usually the discretionary spending that goes first. When they're looking at

00:17:05.740 their budget, where they can cut back, where they can try to make efficiencies in terms of their

00:17:10.760 spending, it is the discretionary spending that goes first. And that's the stuff you notice on the

00:17:16.560 ground at the movies, the restaurants, some sports activities, amusement parks, the fun stuff

00:17:22.920 usually get scaled back first. And that's, as you can see, I'm sure you're seeing it where you are.

00:17:29.520 People are talking about this is real.

00:17:32.200 Look, people are delaying their trips. They're not taking their RV anymore on the summer vacation

00:17:39.620 because they're worried about fuel prices. They're not talking about traveling because they're worried

00:17:44.520 about the airports and actually coming back to Canada and making a flight on time and losing

00:17:49.780 their luggage. Maybe some of them have delayed their travel because they don't have a passport yet.

00:17:56.020 We applied for my son's passport in March. We still don't have it. You've got people worried

00:18:02.100 about the economic future. They think that it's very uncertain. Most people now expect inflation

00:18:09.680 to stick around for a little longer. And that's important because once inflation embeds itself in

00:18:16.620 terms of people's expectations, it can be very hard to bring back down. And there's a very well-known

00:18:25.960 professor. He calls himself the food professor on Twitter. Follow him. We will be okay in terms of

00:18:34.960 the amount of food that we have in Canada. It will be more expensive, but it's going to be nothing like

00:18:40.580 the challenges that people in other parts of the world are going to feel. And we need to be very smart

00:18:45.980 about food security. So when we talk about adding more regulations and rules on for farmers in terms

00:18:53.500 of fertilizer and costs with the carbon tax, I mean, we've got to be realistic. The world is going to

00:18:58.560 go through a global food shortage and we need to step up big, not only just to help our people at home,

00:19:05.880 but to make sure we can feed the world. That's actually a topic for a future discussion.

00:19:10.640 Actually, we're going to talk about what is going on in parts of Europe, how the government

00:19:14.600 is playing in the marketplace and distorting the agriculture sector, especially in countries like

00:19:19.840 the Netherlands, which are a huge exporter in agriculture, as well as what Canada is doing

00:19:24.320 to its farmers right now with fertilizer and other measures they say are for the common good.

00:19:30.520 So Adam, as you know, we always give the guests the last word. Let's talk about what the

00:19:37.320 Conservative Party is proposing. Just to reiterate, I know you and many others have talked about it in

00:19:41.640 Parliament over and over and over again. But, you know, there's an article in the Financial Post

00:19:48.260 today by John Williamson, our colleague from New Brunswick Southwest, who talked about how the left

00:19:53.300 loves rising gas prices, but now they're all of a sudden concerned about rising gas prices

00:19:58.180 because they're actually hurting people's pocketbook. And it's not politically popular,

00:20:02.900 but yet they've advocated for endless rules, regulations and red tape in our oil and gas

00:20:08.320 industry. They've championed the carbon tax. They've shut down pipelines, the ability for Canada

00:20:13.500 to add to the supply shortage that is out there. But we have done this. The left has done this.

00:20:21.220 And yet now they're saying, well, let's tax them. Let's do something else because Canadians are mad 0.99

00:20:27.220 about this. And rightfully so. Well, and you heard just yesterday, the federal government talking about

00:20:35.160 capping like a total cap on emissions for the oil and gas sector. I mean, someone's got to explain

00:20:41.620 to Canada how capping our oil and gas emissions is going to help the rest of the world decarbonize.

00:20:50.260 If you just think about Alberta for a moment, Alberta moved from coal to natural gas. That is

00:20:56.420 way cleaner for the world. Canada with its massive natural gas reserves could help countries like

00:21:03.200 India and China in their transition from coal to natural gas as a midpoint until we eventually

00:21:11.500 maybe get to some of the green and renewable energy sources. But you know what, Jamie, I'm one of all

00:21:18.640 of the above guys. We need oil. We need natural gas. We need green. We need solar. We need all,

00:21:24.120 we need all kinds of sources of energy. And Canada has a role to play in almost all of those energy

00:21:31.300 sources. We can be an energy, a clean energy superpower, which respects the rule of law,

00:21:37.360 respects democracy, respects human rights and respects the environment. The world should want

00:21:43.440 more Canadian energy. We absolutely have to be there to provide it. But every single thing that this

00:21:49.580 government has done since it's come in has left a lot of people wondering if they're serious about

00:21:56.420 our energy sector. And as a closing comment, I think the one thing people need to be paying close

00:22:03.200 attention to is this food security issue. You're going to hear more about it. We will be fortunate

00:22:08.100 in Canada. You know, it will be tough for a number of people, but around the world, it's going to be really

00:22:14.760 tough. And the, and the, and the gentleman to follow is Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, a well-known

00:22:19.340 professor at Dalhousie. And that paints a very, very difficult picture coming up. So maybe a future

00:22:25.840 conversation, Jamie, we'll talk about food. We can get our colleague on here, John Barlow, who's all

00:22:31.160 about that, all about that file and doing an excellent job. But it's, I'm really worried about

00:22:37.080 for what's to come on the food security piece for us. I am too. And I think we'll have Barlow on,

00:22:42.380 or try to get them for next week. Cause I think you're right. That is a hot issue. Many people

00:22:46.680 are starting to pay attention into, and those that aren't, we ask that you like, comment,

00:22:51.000 subscribe, share this program together. We'll be able to get that, that word out. But at the same

00:22:55.260 time, as we mentioned before, and I agree with you, Adam, our energy portfolio, that's the strategy

00:23:00.260 for Canada should be A plus B, not taking away A, not just B, right? We should be adding, always adding,

00:23:08.460 not just subtracting what the left wants to do. They just want to subtract oil and gas,

00:23:14.500 rely on the renewables that aren't readily available. They're not affordable for the vast

00:23:19.440 majority of Canadians. Until we get to that point, we need that oil and gas sector.

00:23:24.800 Absolutely. Thank you, Adam, for being there. Member of Parliament for Simcoe North, also

00:23:28.640 the Deputy Shadow Minister for Finance. We appreciate his time. We appreciate your time. And we ask that

00:23:33.900 you like, comment, subscribe, share this program with new content every single Tuesday, 1.30pm

00:23:38.820 Eastern Time. If you haven't had the time to watch or listen to this entire program right this second,

00:23:44.420 download it, listen to it on platforms like CastBox, iTunes, Google Play, Spotify,

00:23:48.520 you name it, it is out there. Until next week, we remind you, low taxes, less government,

00:23:53.600 more freedom. That's the blueprint.

00:24:03.900 Have a great look.

00:24:21.760 .

00:24:27.760 .

00:24:31.620 .

00:24:31.760 .

The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - July 21, 2022

Reckless spending continues to fuel Canada’s inflation and affordability crisis.

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