The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - Talking a big game.

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

00:00:16.000 your host, Jamie Schmael, Member of Parliament for Halliburton, Coortho Lakes, with new content

00:00:20.120 for you every single Tuesday, 1.30 p.m. Eastern Time. Don't forget to like, comment, subscribe,

00:00:24.860 and share this program. Tell your friends they can download it on platforms like CastBox,

00:00:29.040 iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify. You name it, it is out there. On today's show, the First Ministers

00:00:34.500 are meeting in Saskatoon. Also, no federal budget on the horizon until possibly the fall. To talk

00:00:41.500 about this and much, much more, we bring on Warren Steinle, the Member of Parliament for Regina Luvan.

00:00:46.300 Thanks for coming on the show. Thanks very much for having me, Jamie. Happy to be here.

00:00:49.700 I appreciate this because we had a bit of hiatus because of the election. Now we're getting into

00:00:54.540 regular content. So good to have one of our regulars back on to really kick off this season.

00:00:59.700 Yeah, absolutely. It's great to be here. And just before we get started, I just want to say everyone

00:01:04.320 in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, be safe. We have some wildfires going on right now, and there are states

00:01:09.240 of emergencies in both those provinces. So stay safe and listen to all the emergency response advice

00:01:14.680 you're getting out there. Absolutely. So thousands of people have been evacuated so far.

00:01:18.920 Evacuations, big fires, and everyone's working hard. And thank you to the first responders and

00:01:23.960 everyone working hard to get the fires under control. And hopefully they get a few more

00:01:28.200 under control this coming week. And hope for some rain.

00:01:31.540 Yes, let's hope so. But for all those dealing with that, you know, to know that we are thinking

00:01:37.440 about you. Absolutely.

00:01:38.400 Absolutely. So hopefully that gets resolved. As you said, let's hope for rain. Let's hope that

00:01:43.120 gets taken care of and get these people back to their homes safe and sound.

00:01:46.660 Let's kick it off because you're from Saskatchewan. The first ministers and the prime minister

00:01:52.700 are in Saskatoon to discuss a whole wide range of issues. One of them, hopefully, is a resource

00:02:00.820 development and getting our product to market. And I just want to pull up that one clip here.

00:02:06.580 So this is how it starts off. So he's in Calgary here. They're talking about fast tracking major

00:02:11.080 projects across the country that'll make Canada energy superpower. And that's, I think we all

00:02:16.020 agree with that, I think. The issue here is they can use all these fancy words, but until they get

00:02:24.840 rid of C-69, the no more pipelines bill, and C-48, the tanker ban, there is no way anything's getting

00:02:32.560 built. Correct. And I think the premiers both sent letters to the prime minister, Premier Molle and

00:02:38.740 Premier Danielle Smith in Alberta talking about some of the things they need to do. And that was at the

00:02:43.920 top of their list. Getting rid of the industrial carbon tax, getting rid of Bill C-69 and 48. Without

00:02:50.440 getting that done, scrapping the emissions cap as well. Because without getting rid of these

00:02:55.540 legislations, they're really tying the hands of our producers and people that want to invest in

00:02:59.920 our country. And if they don't get rid of these pieces of legislation and policies, it'll be very

00:03:04.400 hard to attract investment into our energy sector. Yeah, that's the thing, right? They can use all these

00:03:09.940 big, fancy words. They can talk a big game. But if there are major hurdles for business to even

00:03:16.460 just barely limp over, there's no way people will risk millions, maybe billions of dollars worth of

00:03:25.880 capital on a country that will probably or could turn them down after almost a decade of permitting

00:03:33.340 approvals. There's just no certainty. The process is way too long. Investors want that certainty.

00:03:40.000 And we'll see. The proof's in the pudding. Let's see if these Liberals put the money where their

00:03:44.700 mouth is and actually get rid of some of these hurdles. And if they don't, we'll have exactly

00:03:48.380 what we had in the last 10 years. You know, they say they're a new government, but all I see is the

00:03:54.240 same faces, just in some different places. Absolutely. It's the same ministers. The key

00:03:58.660 ministers are the same as they were under Justin Trudeau. It's the same old Liberals. We said this during

00:04:04.200 the campaign, I don't know how many times, it's going to be the same old, same old. And so far,

00:04:08.580 this is the same old, same old. Trudeau talked about a big game about resource development, but

00:04:13.780 actually stifled it at every opportunity he got. Well, look around the cabinet table and all the

00:04:19.120 anti-energy activists. The head of that is Stephen Giebel. Obviously, he's never going to be in favor

00:04:25.620 of our energy sector. And he's got a big voice as a Quebec lieutenant. He got elevated into Mark

00:04:31.620 Carney's cabinet. And he has a voice that is always going to be against our energy sector.

00:04:36.740 And you look at his housing minister, a major anti-energy activist, and so many more.

00:04:42.040 His new chief of staff. New chief of staff, anti-energy. So his words sound great. We'll see

00:04:49.260 if they get some action into it. And I hope for the sake of Canada, sake of the revenue that could

00:04:56.220 be generated, the jobs, the opportunity that wealth that could be created because of a potentially

00:05:02.020 energy project, maybe two, maybe three moving forward. This will be a game changer for our

00:05:06.900 country, a game changer for the rest of the world, because they can get responsibly extracted energy

00:05:11.980 and, you know, help us on our budget too, right? Like we're running massive deficits here.

00:05:18.540 If they ever bring a budget.

00:05:19.420 If they ever bring a budget. Well, we're going to talk about that in a second. Let's throw that

00:05:22.220 graphic up because I don't want to pass by this little point here. Just to say, you know,

00:05:27.080 you probably heard in question period, I know you did, Warren, they keep talking about

00:05:31.340 slogans, slogans, Canada's new government. That's a slogan. Yep. Sorry to tell them,

00:05:36.720 Mr. Carney, man with the plan, you're using slogans. Let's have a plan. Let's have some

00:05:41.740 action. Absolutely. All right. So let's queue up cut two. Go to that clip there. Okay. So

00:05:47.020 again, using the big words, but listen to the key points on what he says and we'll unpack it when

00:05:54.940 he gets there. So play cut two. Because it goes to the heart of the transformation this government

00:06:00.880 intends. The first is to shift the core of spending from day-to-day spending, operational spending

00:06:09.680 to investment spending. In other words, spending that catalyzes investment, particularly investment

00:06:16.200 in the private sector. Mr. Speaker, we'll see that through Build Canada Homes. We'll see that

00:06:21.160 through the nation building projects. We'll see that through facilities to accelerate private business

00:06:27.360 investments, such as accelerated capital allowances. Very, yeah. So you're probably going to say the

00:06:35.720 same thing I was, but very telling language here. Yes. And I think it's funny. They're like,

00:06:39.220 we're going to do investment spending now. Right. It's like they weren't in government for the past 10

00:06:43.240 years. What have you been doing for the past 10 years if you haven't been trying to do investment

00:06:46.940 spending to create a better economy for a country? Like you guys held the pen for 10 years and they're

00:06:53.080 acting like, boy, if we find out who was in charge these last 10 years, they're going to be in trouble.

00:06:57.240 Yeah. We're going to give them heck for it. Yeah. Yeah. But the key language, transformation,

00:07:01.680 right? What does that actually mean? But he goes on to kind of explain it. They're going to,

00:07:07.200 less on operational. So we'll see if they shrink the size of government. Okay. But let's see if they

00:07:12.180 actually do it. To investment, right? This is the issue I have when liberals especially start using

00:07:18.900 these buzzwords. When they're talking about investment, it means government innovation.

00:07:23.900 And as we all know, when government inserts itself into the marketplace, you get slower innovation.

00:07:29.340 And when he's talking about government investment in terms of dollars going here and there,

00:07:34.000 it's usually based, especially when liberals are in charge, usually based on an outcome already

00:07:40.360 determined by the PMO or the minister's office, right? So if you do A, B, and C, whether it works,

00:07:46.560 doesn't matter. But our political objective is A, B, and C, you will get some money. And not actually

00:07:52.120 what the marketplace wants. That's the key. And transformational. It just reminds me of a

00:07:57.660 couple of years ago when they talked about the just transition. Yeah, same thing.

00:08:01.660 I always get quite scared when I hear liberals talking about transformation and just transition.

00:08:07.480 For me, it just sounds like more government, less private sector jobs, less investment in what

00:08:13.940 we've been doing well for years, less investment in the energy sector, agriculture, and more

00:08:20.120 richie-sigerling. Yeah. And you look at the programs the liberals already had in place,

00:08:26.220 you know, the Green Slush Fund, of course. Who can forget that? A group of liberal-friendly

00:08:30.220 people donating, or sorry, agreeing to give each other, you know, hundreds of thousands and about

00:08:37.540 millions of dollars, you know, sitting on the board together, all in it together,

00:08:42.040 padding their own pockets. Isn't that amazing how it just went away?

00:08:43.720 Right? It's not necessarily going where the market wants. You're not achieving targets set out by the

00:08:50.180 marketplace. You're setting out political objectives and then forcing people to go along with it.

00:08:56.640 Well, it's like getting rid of gas-powered vehicles by 2035. Where did that target come from?

00:09:02.480 Right. And what are people going to do? Like, it's not listening to what people want and what

00:09:08.120 people are trying to achieve. They're setting out these goals, picking numbers, having no idea how

00:09:14.340 to get there. If that would happen, how would you charge all these vehicles? Where is that

00:09:19.220 transmission line that would be able to get the power to charge these vehicles? Like,

00:09:22.600 it's almost overwhelmed already. It's just targets without any plans, kind of like not having a plan

00:09:27.860 for a budget. And if you even want to talk about that, the alternative energy or whatever you want

00:09:35.360 to call it, if we're going into the batteries, well, do we not have to look at where the material

00:09:40.500 is coming from? And what conditions are the materials being extracted? Are they using child labor? Are they

00:09:47.860 being environmentally friendly? In some of these countries where you get the materials to build

00:09:52.840 those batteries? The answer is no. So the fact that we just put that all aside and go in this one

00:10:02.040 direction, but is the market ready for it? The market always decides. That's the great equalizer

00:10:06.920 in all of this. I can tell you the market in Saskatchewan in minus 40 degree winters probably isn't going

00:10:12.700 to be that big. Yeah. And you're going to cause a huge, if that target that liberals set out

00:10:18.440 of no more combustion engine vehicle sales is true and holds true, you're going to have a huge spike

00:10:26.040 in the amount of combustion engine sales leading up to it, causing price increases. And of course,

00:10:31.760 there's parts and everything else afterwards. And I'll be clear, like if people want to drive EVs,

00:10:35.520 I think they should go ahead. Absolutely. But the government shouldn't mandate it. Like,

00:10:39.420 let people make their own decisions. And if it works for you, that's excellent. I think in some

00:10:42.960 conditions, in some environments, it just doesn't work when you're in different areas of the

00:10:47.520 country. But if it works for you, and you want to buy one, that's perfectly, that's great. But it

00:10:52.320 shouldn't be mandated by government, what type of vehicle you should have to drive.

00:10:55.120 Well, exactly. If we set the standard, and that's usually what happened, you know, you and I,

00:11:00.840 I think, I'm a little older, but you remember the prices, right? I've used this example before,

00:11:05.480 right? When you always got a new car, Rod Roddy, the announcer would say a new car, he'd explain

00:11:11.020 what features it had. But at the end, he usually says, and California admissions, right? It meets

00:11:16.760 California admission standards. And that was kind of a benchmark that circulated across pretty much

00:11:22.660 all of North America. But it was the government saying, we need it to be your engines to be

00:11:27.960 this efficient. And it changed, the benchmark changed. But companies then met those standards

00:11:33.580 using different methods, right? Maybe you get a six cylinder, now a four cylinder with the same amount

00:11:39.080 of power, using more aluminum rather than steel. But every company was different, and they achieved the

00:11:44.340 targets based on their own innovation, which happened very quickly, because they had to meet

00:11:49.520 those targets. But it also gave the consumers what they wanted, options. 100%. So that's, that's what

00:11:55.740 we're going for. That is what we're going for, more choice options in the marketplace. And hey,

00:12:00.180 maybe Nissan or another company or General Motors or whatever, comes up with a solid state battery,

00:12:04.820 or whatever, right? You shouldn't have them fighting against government grants on this,

00:12:09.900 this side of you, just to meet what the government wants. Yep. Couldn't have said it better myself.

00:12:14.540 Yeah. Well, thank you. You gave me a compliment there. All right. Let's go to the budget,

00:12:19.080 because it doesn't look like we're getting in one anytime soon. Yeah. Well, they're asking for a

00:12:22.860 half trillion dollars. And let's be clear, right? The budget doesn't really authorize the spending.

00:12:27.620 It's the estimates procedure that we go through that gets the money flowed. But the budget's the plan.

00:12:32.900 Exactly. The budget's the roadmap. I believe he's supposed to be a man with a plan.

00:12:35.960 He is the man with a plan. Well, we told that during the election, he's a man with a plan.

00:12:40.160 Elect him because he's so super smart. He's got the plan. Well, well, like cut three.

00:12:45.600 Experience as a former governor of two central banks,

00:12:48.120 why not present Canadians with a budget at the very first opportunity?

00:12:51.260 Well, this is, this is in fact, based on my economic experience, there is not much value in

00:12:57.400 my judgment. And it's considered judgment, and it's judgment based on experience,

00:13:01.540 that there is not much value in trying to rush through a budget in a very narrow window,

00:13:09.140 three weeks with a new cabinet, effectively a new finance minister, just reappointed,

00:13:15.800 but a new finance minister rushed that through.

00:13:18.120 So the man with the plan has no budget. So we don't have the roadmap, although he and his ministers

00:13:22.500 are asking for almost a half trillion dollars in parliamentary approval with no real roadmap on

00:13:27.640 where that is, is going. I think that's extremely concerning.

00:13:31.980 So I believe he has planned to spend what, 288 billion more dollars than was in Trudeau's budget?

00:13:38.600 Apparently. Well, we don't, you know, we're just hearing these rumors.

00:13:41.960 So his first economic update was basically, I'm going to spend more money than Justin Trudeau.

00:13:48.480 Who saw that coming?

00:13:49.860 Right. Well, he was the man with the plan.

00:13:51.660 But, you know, no budget, so no roadmap. He's blindsiding Parliament. Budgets have been presented

00:13:58.680 after elections many times in the past. We've had budgets during wars, World War I, World War II,

00:14:04.480 other conflicts, economic downturns. Like, a budget after an election is not new.

00:14:09.640 No. And I believe there's probably been people in the finance department working on a budget

00:14:14.740 when they looked at the platforms. I believe platforms have all been costed.

00:14:18.500 So it would be pretty much a fair assessment to say there have been people working on budgets

00:14:25.460 for a couple of months now.

00:14:27.380 And Pierre Polyev said during the campaign, if Conservatives were elected,

00:14:30.940 we would sit through the summer to get pieces of legislation, key pieces passed,

00:14:35.920 or at least through the process or starting through the process.

00:14:39.140 But one of them would be a budget, you know, to get the ball rolling on that.

00:14:43.760 So we've been prorogued since, what, December 14th, give or take.

00:14:49.920 We rose. And then Justin Trudeau, of course, prorogued Parliament,

00:14:53.920 stepped down, had the leadership, all during a trade war,

00:14:56.780 a bunch of other crises that were going on.

00:14:58.980 We had the election, and then we just got started, I guess, last week.

00:15:03.360 And in a few more weeks, Parliament will rise.

00:15:06.400 Let's get to work here.

00:15:07.460 And talking about those tariffs, I believe in the platform,

00:15:11.280 Carney had budgeted $20 billion of income from tariffs.

00:15:16.080 And without telling anyone, even before the election is over,

00:15:19.480 they sneakily took those tariffs off.

00:15:21.740 So that's another $20 billion hole in the economic forecast

00:15:26.260 for the Liberal government as well.

00:15:27.620 Yeah, we are already projected, you know, what was it last year?

00:15:32.040 It was about $40 to $60, somewhere in there.

00:15:34.480 It's $60 billion in the hole.

00:15:35.800 And now we have $20 billion on top of the other-

00:15:39.920 $280.

00:15:40.740 Right? Like, how bad is it?

00:15:43.820 Well, it looks like it's a half a trillion dollar deficit, just about.

00:15:47.180 And we're getting- yeah, exactly.

00:15:48.480 And we're getting a whole lot of warnings from economists, banks-

00:15:52.500 Recession.

00:15:53.500 Yeah, I didn't want to say that word,

00:15:55.040 but there could be some really big stormwaters coming.

00:15:59.300 And I don't think this government's ready for it at all.

00:16:01.360 And yeah, we're going to find some economic headwinds, you're right.

00:16:04.240 And I think we- when the government talks about investment spending,

00:16:09.960 I don't know what that looks like from a Liberal government.

00:16:12.800 Yeah, what does that- well, hey, how is he getting the money?

00:16:14.660 You can only tax, borrow, or print so much.

00:16:16.860 And I think we've maxed out each and every avenue they have.

00:16:20.200 Right.

00:16:20.680 And I'll say fine.

00:16:21.620 And the answer, as we talked about just a second ago, is growing the economy.

00:16:27.200 One of the ways to do it, based on market demand, supply and demand, that law is near absolute,

00:16:32.800 is our energy sector.

00:16:34.320 The world wants our oil, our natural gas, our minerals.

00:16:37.520 Let's get them out of the ground as responsibly as possible,

00:16:41.100 in the most environmentally sustainable way we can.

00:16:44.340 And we do it well in this country, with tough labor standards that requires,

00:16:47.800 you know, our workers to be as safe as possible.

00:16:50.460 Let's create the jobs, the opportunity, and wealth right here.

00:16:52.980 And the infrastructure to get it to Tidewater,

00:16:54.640 so we can get it to trading partners around the world.

00:16:56.540 And that means Ottawa out of the way.

00:16:58.120 Yep.

00:16:58.500 We need to build pipelines, increase our capacity at terminals,

00:17:02.440 make sure that we can be a reliable trading partner around the world,

00:17:05.380 and we need to get those jobs back into Canadian hands.

00:17:08.720 Absolutely.

00:17:09.300 And when you have a piece of legislation that won't let any more tankers out of the West Coast leave,

00:17:14.420 so you can't get Alberta Energy off the West Coast,

00:17:16.740 but you can import Saudi oil on our East Coast.

00:17:20.580 How does that make any sense? 0.99

00:17:21.500 It's asinine. 0.99

00:17:22.180 Absolutely. 0.99

00:17:23.400 Every tanker that comes in, I scratch my head.

00:17:26.460 And how we are using our own oil that is great, like you said, environmentally sustainable,

00:17:32.360 and shipping that across the country, and having that be what powers Canadians' vehicles.

00:17:37.740 See, that makes common sense.

00:17:39.240 And that's a plan we would have had, and hopefully we will have a chance to implement that

00:17:43.940 when the next election comes, whenever it comes.

00:17:46.840 We're out of time, but as you know, the guests always get the last word.

00:17:50.020 The floor is yours.

00:17:50.800 Well, thank you very much.

00:17:51.600 I appreciate being on the blueprint, and I think we have to look to see what these Liberals are going to do,

00:17:56.320 and not just give them a blank check.

00:17:58.020 If they're going to invest in our energy sector, our agriculture sector, that's something we can get behind.

00:18:03.000 We'll support their good ideas, because they took most of them from us,

00:18:06.160 and when we have to propose new ideas, that's what we're going to do,

00:18:09.460 and I'm looking forward to working for the people for John Leuven and Canadians across the country.

00:18:13.040 Well, you're doing a great job, and you're right.

00:18:14.800 During the first week of the campaign, the Liberals stole five of our key platform planks,

00:18:19.820 and hopefully they actually implement it.

00:18:22.120 We'll see.

00:18:22.640 We'll see if it was just campaign rhetoric or not.

00:18:25.300 Warren Steinle, Member of Parliament for Regina Leuven, thank you for your time.

00:18:28.800 Thank you for yours as well.

00:18:30.460 Don't forget, we have new content for you every single Tuesday, 1.30 p.m. Eastern Time.

00:18:34.800 Don't forget to like, comment, subscribe, and share this program.

00:18:37.780 Tell your friends to download it on platforms like CastBox, iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify.

00:18:41.660 You name it, it is out there.

00:18:43.480 Until next week, remember, low taxes, less government, more freedom.

00:18:46.980 That's the blueprint.

The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - June 03, 2025

Talking a big game.

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