The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - January 13, 2021


The Beverage Industry Has Been Neglected by the Trudeau Government


Episode Stats

Length

21 minutes

Words per Minute

183.96768

Word Count

4,007

Sentence Count

3


Summary

Our guest today is Dan Albus, who is the Shadow Minister for Climate Change and in the Environment. He is also the Member of Parliament in British Columbia for Similkminnicola and the MP for Halliburton in Ontario.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 to the blueprint it is canada's conservative podcast i'm your host jamie schmale member
00:00:16.760 parliament for halliburton for the legs brock in ontario thank you so much for joining us
00:00:21.660 again we have a great show lined up for you but first we need you to like comment subscribe
00:00:27.280 share this program help us push back against the ever-moving liberal agenda of course if you can't
00:00:32.400 watch it all today on facebook or youtube you can download us and listen to us on platforms like
00:00:37.780 castbox itunes google play you name it it is out there and we can do this together so again thank
00:00:44.360 you very much we have new content every single tuesday 1 30 p.m eastern time our guest today is
00:00:50.900 dan albus he is the shadow minister for climate change and in the environment he's also the member
00:00:56.260 of parliament in british columbia for central okanagan similkmin nicola thank you so much for
00:01:01.380 joining us hey thanks jamie great great to be here with you well we have a lot to talk to you about
00:01:06.540 believe it or not i i know it's hard to believe but you are tabling a private member members bill but
00:01:12.220 you have to deal with some interprovincial trade issues but i i want to put that to the side just
00:01:17.020 for a quick second because i think something else popped up just as parliament shut down for the the
00:01:23.760 christmas break was the fact that the carbon tax is going to be increasing something the liberals
00:01:29.740 said for i don't know how many months even years that they would not increase it so according to the
00:01:35.960 liberals the the carbon tax will start to rise by about 15 each year starting in 2023 until it hits
00:01:43.280 170 per ton in 2030 that is a complete that that is complete i i can i say lie here can i say lie on
00:01:54.420 this platform that the liberals said they would never do that they would not increase it past what was
00:01:59.960 coming in 2022 which was 50 yeah absolutely during the election jamie they denied they said we are not
00:02:07.160 going to be raising uh the carbon tax pass uh you know to 2022 uh we specifically raised this that
00:02:14.500 they were going to do this and many in the media fact checked to us saying that it would not happen
00:02:19.700 uh but here we are the last day of the house of commons sitting in december the prime minister and his
00:02:27.180 environment minister do an announcement guess what we're going to 170 tons or 170 dollars a ton
00:02:34.460 uh from where most jurisdictions are at 30 dollars so this was a slap in the face for all those
00:02:40.800 businesses right now that are just struggling with the pandemic um but have been struggling also to
00:02:45.200 deal with a 30 a ton carbon tax so um you know right off the bat to be saying that they did not
00:02:52.360 exercise any um you know democratic uh accountability on this it's just shocking that they would lie to the
00:03:02.100 public uh put this out there on a friday late afternoon and then and then not have any scrutiny
00:03:07.880 on this so what does that mean to the average consumer for a liter of gas uh what what does this
00:03:14.200 mean i know like everyone will be impacted the supply chain will be impacted prices will increase
00:03:19.680 so for for the pump at the pump what what does this mean how how will people be dealing with this
00:03:24.960 well again there's also the uh the canadian fuel standard that they're going to be adding as well
00:03:30.700 so uh prices inevitably will be going up but look um first of all erin o'toole has said from day one
00:03:36.560 we oppose the trudeau carbon tax and once we form government that is the first thing to go we will
00:03:43.960 work with provinces uh to to work uh together on climate initiatives uh but we're going to do it
00:03:49.520 rather than uh than than than preaching to them or scolding them we're actually going to work hand
00:03:55.440 in glove with them you know our provincial premiers and provinces should be partners not punching bags
00:04:00.920 but you know look there's other things here the supreme court hasn't yet ruled on the constitutionality
00:04:06.940 of the trudeau carbon tax uh both scott moe and jason kenney have fought this all the way through the
00:04:13.420 supreme court uh and so we're still waiting to hear that so if the supreme court strikes it down
00:04:18.160 uh it's just curious that the government would go out and do this so what is it it's about political
00:04:23.000 uh you know chances we hear that there could be an election so obviously what they're trying to do is
00:04:28.880 signal to those people that believe a carbon tax is good for canada uh and and ignoring everyone else
00:04:35.700 look right now there are businesses as i've mentioned earlier in the uh that are under the trudeau carbon
00:04:42.160 tax uh that are already struggling to get by at 30 a ton for them to be hearing now during the middle
00:04:49.140 of a pandemic where they're struggling to keep their doors open that it's going to go to 170
00:04:53.720 look farmers often are price takers they're not price makers and so if they have to use natural gas
00:05:01.220 or propane uh to be able to uh dry their grain so that they can sell it on a world market where it's a
00:05:07.060 commodity you know it's shocking that this government would go ahead and look what are we
00:05:12.560 going to deal with the provinces like this is an area of shared jurisdiction so jamie um you know
00:05:18.220 what what happens if a particular province does not want to go on along with this is are the trudeau
00:05:24.760 liberals basically proposing that if the carbon tax that a province or cap and trade system that a
00:05:29.720 province has right now isn't sufficient are they going to slap down a second one so there's lots of
00:05:34.820 questions that we need to have answered uh but again they did this at the very end of the house
00:05:39.460 of commons so we couldn't hold them accountable uh like we should and we will you mentioned a few
00:05:44.740 times about how businesses are struggling as it is what does this do what does a carbon tax at that
00:05:50.340 level do to canada's overall competitiveness across the global markets look i'll give you the example
00:05:57.580 when i was in windsor i talked to a gentleman who had a special bakery operation he does the pita bread
00:06:03.020 that you see at your local market and he said specifically at the time that the rates of
00:06:08.900 electric uh the cost to run uh his his facilities in ontario due to many of the actions uh done uh by
00:06:16.460 jerry butts uh and kathleen wynn provincially had led him where he was losing ground because he could not
00:06:24.780 match the prices by someone over just across the bridge in detroit so these are tangible examples
00:06:31.180 where government costs get loaded down onto these small businesses and inevitably they either have
00:06:37.720 to shut down uh and move to the other jurisdiction or they just shut down and right now during the
00:06:43.060 pandemic this isn't the time to be doing that one of the famous lines the liberals always use is
00:06:49.020 canadians will be getting more money back there will be money in the rebates but we all know
00:06:54.740 government doesn't have anything at at first it has to take it from others in the form of taxes so
00:07:01.400 how are the rebates getting bigger at some point who is paying this yeah there's some questions about
00:07:09.440 how this uh carbon tax works uh from the federal perspective dan kelly the canadian federation of
00:07:15.400 independent business uh head has said that right now they're actually taking from uh the local
00:07:21.380 ma and pa store that have to pay that carbon tax and often have to eat it because again they're
00:07:25.900 price takers not price makers and essentially the government is giving it uh to other people
00:07:31.280 and so uh that makes it so eventually they're going to get squeezed out this is the reason why we oppose
00:07:37.280 the carbon tax it's going to push jobs and opportunities to other areas like the united states that don't
00:07:42.400 have it through carbon leakage uh and it also uh just again puts more more more burden
00:07:48.260 on those that are trying to to just stay there keep their head above water during this time of
00:07:53.760 covet one of the other lines we also hear from the liberals a lot of time is that they need to invest
00:07:59.080 in green technology i think i think we all to a point agree with that but i think the difference is
00:08:04.940 the liberal plan picks winners and losers in the market it's almost like predetermined innovation is
00:08:09.740 what they're trying to get at whereas our plan for the most part calls for incentives for businesses
00:08:15.380 to produce the best product or the best service that the individual gets to choose from and letting
00:08:21.740 the market decide the path forward well and that's why we need to be working with provinces not against
00:08:27.080 them uh and that's simply because every province has an energy mix for example uh hydro is used
00:08:33.320 extensively in british columbia and quebec uh while nuclear is used a lot more to replace uh coal in
00:08:40.000 ontario um every province has a different mix it has a different energy need and we need to be
00:08:46.100 working with them and that's the real big difference between conservatives and liberals
00:08:49.920 liberals want to see a reality where what they want to see happens conservatives want to see it done
00:08:55.580 from the ground up in a reasonable way where provinces that are best situated and also have under
00:09:01.000 the constitution the levers uh for control of energy and and many of these other uh important aspects
00:09:06.760 to climate change uh and that's why we need to work with them as i said earlier uh this government
00:09:11.900 seems to want to scold i saw the minister of the environment actually trolling the uh premier of
00:09:18.240 saskatchewan that's just not something you'll see on an erin o'toole government we'll work with provinces
00:09:23.280 because we think that there's lots of things we can do together we can champion champion forestry we can
00:09:28.920 champion uh clean lng to be exported to offset uh many of the coal-fired facilities in in places like
00:09:36.160 china or other asian countries that are growing and hungry for uh more fuel like this is where we can
00:09:42.860 actually be fighting climate change and helping jobs and the economy that's the biggest difference
00:09:48.160 here jamie under an erin o'toole government you'll actually see emissions go down jobs going up
00:09:53.500 investment coming to canada and we'll see uh more uh critical habitat restored that's what we're aiming
00:09:59.680 to do and uh we will hold these liberals feet to the fire for betraying what they told the canadian
00:10:06.220 public saying that they would not be raising uh the carbon tax after 2022 i just want to unpack
00:10:13.420 quickly something you had just mentioned the fact that energy demand around the world is growing
00:10:20.440 so if we shut down through the liberals plan or significantly limit the amount of production
00:10:27.420 in the canadian energy sector that does not stop the overall global demand for energy which of course
00:10:35.080 in many cases could drive up prices and make living even more expensive for people uh this this is not
00:10:41.420 something that can you can't shut down the canadian energy industry and and expect the demand for energy
00:10:47.600 not to increase so we should have a clean way of doing it well exactly and look the united states has
00:10:53.420 shown they've become some of the the one of the biggest exporters of oil and gas in the world
00:10:58.100 but you know you raise something right there is is that the choice to buy and support a particular
00:11:03.620 country's energy is a moral one uh do you want us to see russia uh saudi arabia uh and many other
00:11:10.380 regimes that have terrible human rights traffic uh or human rights records like iran uh or do you want
00:11:17.320 to see canada and the united states uh that have stable or democratic countries rule of law these
00:11:24.500 are these are the things that countries need to understand that energy is uh is a form of politics
00:11:29.900 and uh we need to be smart we need to use the markets where they're appropriate and we also need
00:11:34.620 to make sure that democratic countries uh you know buy from one another during the last election i think a
00:11:42.520 lot of the campaign was run on overall affordability the cost of living was increasing and i remember at
00:11:50.100 the debates listening to to my opponents talk about new taxes they want to bring in new regulations all of
00:11:57.660 which combined work to increase the cost of living for individuals so when we'd sit out a bit debate and
00:12:04.600 talk about why the cost of food is going up or the price of energy especially in ontario is going up
00:12:10.760 they never actually got to the root cause their their their solution was to get another government
00:12:16.100 program to fix the problem that they created in the first place no and this is this is again the big
00:12:21.880 problem uh is is that uh you know many people uh and again i i don't attribute this to everyone because
00:12:27.840 obviously canadians are as many as that are partisan but a lot of liberals um feel that they can use
00:12:33.620 government to change what canada is despite the realities uh that we work in look we're we're an open
00:12:40.640 and small uh economy and we produce things that people want and we need to make smart choices on
00:12:48.300 that now we can actually fight climate change at the same time stay in harmony with the united states
00:12:54.280 at the same time we can actually see more jobs and growth here in canada that is something you can do
00:13:00.560 but unfortunately many of the decisions the trudeau government has made is actually pushing
00:13:05.520 our investment in our jobs south of the border uh and we're actually seeing where other countries are
00:13:11.740 benefiting from canadian know-how erin o'toole is determined to be smart on these policies and to make
00:13:17.940 the right moves for canada and that's something that i think conservatives can be proud of but i also
00:13:22.280 think that canadians who may be not you know that politically uh involved that's what they want
00:13:28.380 to see they want to see how are we going to take care of the massive debts that this government
00:13:33.460 has put on even before covet 19 we need to keep canadians working we need to keep uh you know our
00:13:40.240 our approach to governing uh smart and limited very well said i could go on this topic for quite some
00:13:48.780 time but i i do have a limited amount of time and i also wanted to talk to you quickly about your
00:13:54.360 private members bill that deals with a few interprovincial trade issues i know has been a uh an issue
00:14:00.240 of yours something you've been fighting for for for quite some time as long as i've known you why don't
00:14:04.480 you tell us a bit about that well jamie this is an issue that's close to my heart and also to my
00:14:08.960 constituents ultimately my constituents have said time and time again that we need to do something
00:14:13.640 about these archaic uh prohibition era laws now look the government uh put together what it calls its
00:14:20.600 canadian free trade agreement i think it's kind of laughable that in a confederation you need to have
00:14:25.900 a signed agreement uh between provinces uh to be able to trade between uh provinces with each other
00:14:32.920 i think that's a bit silly um but even with that trade deal which half of it about 150 pages are
00:14:39.320 exemptions one of the exemptions was alcohol and so we have a case right now where some provinces
00:14:45.820 like british columbia nova scotia manitoba saskatchewan are open to the free trade of canadian products like
00:14:54.660 like uh craft beer like uh artist and uh like uh spirits and as well as uh wine made by these
00:15:03.260 small family wineries so there's there's right now a huge need uh and uh right now people are
00:15:10.360 starting to utilize uh home delivery more and more ordering things online more and more we're seeing at
00:15:18.020 the same time of covet 19 many of these small family wineries and many of these artists and distillers
00:15:23.920 are seeing their foot traffic drop people are just not feeling comfortable to go out
00:15:28.760 and expose themselves and so they have a market that they could be hitting by online sales over the
00:15:35.400 telephone uh and right now certain provinces are blocking it so what my bill essentially would do
00:15:42.200 would make it so that canada post a crown corporation would be able to send uh right across this great
00:15:49.460 country uh are great canadian products so that canadians can trade with canadians it'll give
00:15:55.180 more consumer choice and um you know i'm just hoping that the big provincial liquor monopolies
00:16:01.600 can understand that this change is happening and they need to get out of the way i think it would be
00:16:08.380 kind of a surprise to a lot of canadians to know that in a lot of cases in this one in particular
00:16:13.240 um it is easier to do business with other countries that it is with some provinces believe it or not
00:16:20.180 in some cases i i to many when i say say it to people who you know really don't follow politics
00:16:25.640 or aren't involved a lot of just it just kind of hits them like really like how is this possible and
00:16:31.780 i think you said at the beginning of your your statement how in this confederation are we still
00:16:35.800 dealing with this look sir john a mcdonald and george brown two opponents uh that uh
00:16:43.220 hated each other's guts if you if you read some of the history both agreed that canada would be
00:16:49.340 stronger if we could trade with one another i believe that we can we can live up to that look
00:16:55.400 let's not wait another 150 years to bring this issue to the forefront let's get this done let's see
00:17:01.340 this bill bill c 260 there's a online petition right now so uh if you type in your google dan elbus
00:17:08.860 e-petition uh it'll come it'll take your right to the petition you can sign up right there and send
00:17:14.900 your member of parliament a note outlining that you want to see this supported we can get this done
00:17:21.160 it's not a difficult bill uh and we can support these small uh and medium-sized businesses because
00:17:26.680 look you know that we see there's going to be tax increases uh come april april 1st uh on excise
00:17:33.960 for for beer and spirits uh we have some trade uncertainty for small and medium-sized wineries
00:17:41.080 uh because the liberals botched uh you know a negotiation on the wto with australia
00:17:47.660 um this is the time for us to be showing some real support if entrepreneurs who are willing to put
00:17:53.600 everything on the line to make a great product do not feel that they are wanted in this world they will
00:17:59.720 close down let's show them that covid19 is an opportunity to say no there's opportunity here
00:18:05.200 in canada we want your beer we want your wine we want your spirits and we want to make sure that any
00:18:09.760 canadian can order them i think this goes to kind of a link to our our previous conversation about how
00:18:17.060 canada is falling behind in terms of being competitive in the global market or even in the
00:18:22.880 domestic market we're seeing struggles within our energy industry the anchor in our economy in a lot
00:18:29.780 of cases in the mining industry in and and it goes on and on there are a lot of industries that are
00:18:36.340 hurting right now and as you mentioned because of policies by this liberal government well absolutely
00:18:42.580 and aaron o'toole in his leadership uh bid he had issues on uh internal trade he had them on oil and gas
00:18:49.160 uh and he's had them on competitiveness so look we are every day in the house of commons we are
00:18:54.920 criticizing the government but we're also offering solutions this is a solution that can change uh the
00:19:01.140 way that we do these things and look when other countries if you went to france or spain or the united
00:19:06.700 states or australia and asked them to see if they allow interprovincial or interstate trade they would
00:19:12.760 laugh of course they do if you don't own your own domestic market to get the economies of scale to build
00:19:19.000 that great product how are you going to be successful internationally now canada has had some great
00:19:24.080 success on the international stage but you know what they can't scale up and the fastest way to scale up
00:19:30.260 for these small and medium-sized business is to give them more opportunities at home where they can send
00:19:37.100 their products look there's too many uh great uh wineries i know jason kenney's been tweeting about some
00:19:42.980 the great craft brewers uh and some of the whiskeys that uh that they've been producing that has won
00:19:49.020 international uh acclaim well let's let's start trading with one another and this bill is the great
00:19:55.440 reset for oh that's pardon me it's a terrible terrible term to be using right now i should be scolded for
00:20:01.140 that i think we're gonna this is this is an opportunity though for us to now give that that uh
00:20:07.240 uh that uh beacon of hope to those businesses that right now are are looking for a reason to stay
00:20:14.660 open dan i always give the guest the last word here and i'll give you a chance to redeem yourself
00:20:20.960 on that last little bit any closing remarks hey this country is great and it was built on hard work and
00:20:26.900 sacrifice let's not tie ourselves into knots let's uh let's uh you know keep support your local member
00:20:33.160 of parliament if they're conservative give them your best ideas uh and uh we're out there and
00:20:38.700 we're going to hold this government to account all right we'll have you on again dan thank you very
00:20:42.920 much dan albus the member of parliament for central okanagan samilkmin nicola in the beautiful province
00:20:48.080 of british columbia i hope to get out there once again when the borders open up and uh travel is allowed
00:20:54.060 because it is a gorgeous part of our country thank you very much for joining us again 1 30 p.m eastern
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