The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - The Canadian entrepreneurial spirit is being damaged by costly policies.

00:00:00.000 hello and welcome once again to the blueprints this is canada's conservative podcast i'm your

00:00:15.120 host to jamie schmell member of parliament for halliburton corps the legs brock with new content

00:00:19.220 for you in 2025 every single tuesday 1 30 p.m eastern time don't forget to like comment subscribe

00:00:24.460 and share this program because on today's show the liberals are continuing their efforts to dig

00:00:30.900 deeper and deeper into your pockets to take every last cent you have so they can spend it on their

00:00:37.220 priorities to talk about this much much more we bring on tracy gray the member of parliament for 0.84

00:00:42.040 kelona lake country thanks for coming on absolutely great to be here all right uh there isn't a tax the

00:00:48.600 liberals don't love that is clear and the harder they make it for people the more they get upset

00:00:54.700 with people right so canadians say gas prices are too high taxes are too high the carbon tax is is

00:01:01.700 driving me into poverty and and the liberals are like what are you complaining for like we have the

00:01:07.800 greater good in our grasp right utopia is just on the other side if you just pay more taxes and have

00:01:14.300 more patience but people are literally lining up to the food bank in record numbers right this life

00:01:20.800 is harder under this liberal government yeah absolutely i mean really families are being

00:01:26.340 crushed you've got small businesses that are are really struggling and now we're looking at people's

00:01:30.980 retirements as well and we're looking at jobs and and one of the areas that we've seen that is is

00:01:37.560 really affecting people's decisions is the capital gains tax increase it's just another tax increase

00:01:43.920 this is another example and they're putting this in at a time when if you look at the oecd

00:01:49.400 you know canada out of 38 countries has slipped down to being one of the lowest in productivity

00:01:55.760 which means productivity relates to quality of life so our quality of life has fallen and the oecd

00:02:03.500 themselves had said that unless there's substantial fiscal and economic policy changes in canada we will be at

00:02:10.060 the bottom and will continue so for 40 years and so so this capital gains tax is another example of

00:02:18.220 something that is affecting people's retirements it's affecting investment and it's affecting jobs

00:02:23.040 so yeah and and we're not even building stuff in this country anymore right our gdp has gone down

00:02:28.420 investments gone down everything has gone to every marker that you would traditionally use to measure how

00:02:34.560 well a country is doing in comparison to others we are on the way down and i i don't mean to say this

00:02:40.920 in a negative context because we always want to promote canada because it is the best country in

00:02:45.500 the world in which to live but at the same time these policies being brought in by the ndp and the liberals

00:02:51.140 are hurting everyday canadians the most yeah absolutely and we're looking at hurting retirees or those that

00:02:59.260 are wanting to retire soon we're looking at at the working class which has been some of the hardest hit

00:03:04.860 when you compare us to the united states for example uh we are now about 22 000 difference for the average

00:03:12.380 for the average income whereas nine years ago it was it was very much on par so we're slipping in how far

00:03:19.060 our dollar is going and most of the investment that we are getting is government invested right like

00:03:24.980 government innovation we the government will decide what we choose is the chosen topic or direction we

00:03:32.600 should be going and industry especially the big companies follow along because they're chasing the

00:03:37.700 money right but in return they're getting barriers to competition so new entrants into the marketplace have

00:03:42.900 a tougher time and often don't enter the marketplace so we get more consolidation and more of the fact

00:03:49.180 you look at our telecom industry airline industry right the grocery industry there's a few big ones

00:03:54.740 small ones and very few small ones and you're a business owner yourself yeah former business owner

00:04:00.600 absolutely and you know once once an entrepreneur always an entrepreneur at heart and and that's the

00:04:05.360 lens that i use a lot you know we know that small businesses is the backbone of the country it's the

00:04:10.120 the biggest employer the most amount of businesses and small businesses we know many of their sales are

00:04:15.380 not up to what they were pre-pandemic they're still carrying a lot of debt and increases in taxes along the

00:04:21.560 way whether it's capital gains tax for someone that's looking to uh to potentially retire i know

00:04:26.600 you know even in my own riding i had heard from uh business owners saying well i guess i'm going to

00:04:31.840 have to wait longer now to retire you know they're just going to have to put it aside and the thing with

00:04:36.260 with business owners especially small business owners is they want to be independent of course that's

00:04:40.200 why they're small business owners so they're looking at at you know holding for their retirement

00:04:44.300 whether or not it's you know to get family members involved or maybe to to sell and so that's the

00:04:49.380 retirement and so when you look at something like the capital gains taxes actually affected

00:04:53.420 the retirement plans this isn't the wealthiest of the wealthy like like the liberals and the ndp like

00:04:59.060 to say where the capital gains will affect only the you know the top point you know percent of you

00:05:05.900 know less than one percent it that's not the case at all all right let's dig into that capital gains

00:05:10.780 uh because uh for some people that don't know what it is um the the liberal changes if you will uh well

00:05:18.360 ndp liberal changes let's go there um anything over 250 000 gets the new rate which is 67 i believe so

00:05:27.360 it's it's even higher right so anyone making those investments for the long term that want to cash out

00:05:32.260 are going to pay ever more in taxes right and you're right it's it stops that investment why are you going

00:05:38.000 to put risk if there's no reward on the other side yeah and and we've seen this in in a couple of

00:05:43.860 areas for example at the uh at the housing committee we've had a lot of testimony there

00:05:48.740 from builders and people that work in construction saying that the capital gains tax will actually be

00:05:54.360 harming home building and this is at a time when we're in a housing where we're in a housing crisis

00:05:59.700 i have many quotes actually from yeah from from from the uh from the the housing committee uh one was

00:06:05.860 from the executive director of the canadian uh roofing contractors association where he was talking

00:06:11.540 about opportunities down in the united states um they have taxes that they have to pay there versus

00:06:16.320 here it's very real um he's heard it directly firsthand of of that that they're going meaning

00:06:21.800 there's businesses going and workers going as well people that are going down there to work

00:06:26.180 uh we've heard from other companies uh that talk about raising taxes or levies uh are obviously a

00:06:32.240 negative another one uh talking that they're already seeing land transactions slowing down as a result of

00:06:37.680 the increased capital gains tax uh another this was the independent contractors and business

00:06:41.960 association of bc talking about the capital gains tax having a dampening effect and uh will have a

00:06:48.740 negative effect on home building for sure and it goes on so this isn't you know conservatives these are

00:06:53.580 actual uh these are these are individuals who are working in industries like construction

00:06:58.100 that are saying that this will not be helpful it's actually going to hurt home construction

00:07:02.100 absolutely it will 100 so home construction when we're in a housing crisis we need to accelerate

00:07:07.380 but of course it's it's hard for people to invest because again there's no reward there has to be

00:07:12.520 reward right there's risk and reward right nobody's going to put their money into uh something

00:07:18.760 break their back working to make it uh you know profitable and then sell it and then and then give

00:07:25.300 almost 70 percent back to the government yeah we're seeing this as well in the innovation economy

00:07:29.700 yeah i had the privilege of sitting in on the trade committee recently that was doing a study

00:07:33.680 and the the issue of capital gains tax we were uh asking i was i was asking quite a quite a few of the

00:07:40.660 witnesses that were testifying there so the innovation uh economy is basically in the tech sector

00:07:46.200 so there have been many many people and businesses and organizations in the tech sector saying that

00:07:52.000 this is actually going to hurt innovation or innovation economy and this then does flow into what we were

00:07:56.740 talking about earlier which has to do with the productivity of canada so if we're not innovating

00:08:00.840 you know we're not going to be bringing in that investment and we're not going to be

00:08:04.600 uh keeping jobs here and creating good jobs well the majority of jobs that have been created are all

00:08:09.920 government jobs and we know government does not ensure speedy turnaround right it's the exact opposite

00:08:15.980 right their job is to slow things down so let's play cut one you'll probably recognize the person

00:08:20.860 you're questioning i probably don't need to introduce her but uh let's play cut one as an entrepreneur 1.00

00:08:26.700 and as a venture capitalist will canada be less competitive for talent investment or capital in

00:08:33.120 the global market because of this capital liberal gains tax hike yes um we're going to lose entrepreneurs

00:08:40.260 to other nations who are going to go to more tax-friendly environments um we are going to not be as

00:08:45.160 competitive because we won't have the same amount of capital being put back into entrepreneurs

00:08:49.040 in particular if you think about um the fact that we there is no tax benefit to investing your private

00:08:55.440 capital into helping other businesses get started and in fact then you're penalized later on there's

00:09:00.280 just there's just so many negative connotations to this yeah we're not even talking we're talking about

00:09:05.460 you know the ones already established but she makes a good point arlene dickinson who's we all

00:09:10.800 probably know that's why i didn't introduce her very famous um we're not even counting the opportunities 0.86

00:09:15.620 that we miss that canada misses out on that goes south or other jurisdictions yeah absolutely we're

00:09:21.900 missing out on those opportunities and we've heard testimony just very similar to this over and over

00:09:26.780 and over again and this is at a time when we've already lost investment in in canada whether it's

00:09:32.380 the resource sector or or you know in the innovation economy we've lost hundreds of thousands of jobs for

00:09:38.080 example in the resource sector and you know and here we we now have emerging entrepreneurs emerging

00:09:43.720 businesses that you know that canada's making it more difficult the liberals and the ndp are making

00:09:49.540 it more difficult for businesses to start up here for businesses to to have investors uh invest here

00:09:56.420 and for workers to stay here it's like it's like the perfect storm of of of going in the wrong

00:10:01.680 direction they the the liberals uh and the ndp they just they just need to stop yes they do let's

00:10:08.140 cue up cut two you'll see the uh as we get on this testimony so those uh watching and listening at home

00:10:14.140 will see a bit of a a pattern here and the answers are very very very heartbreaking play cut two will

00:10:21.580 canada be less competitive for talent investment or capital in the global market because of the

00:10:25.820 liberal capital gains tax hike certainly i mean the short answer is yes thank you it's been widely

00:10:30.240 reported how canada's gdp per capita has dropped over the last nine years so my question is will

00:10:35.580 canada be less competitive for talent investment or capital in the global market because of this

00:10:40.800 capital gains tax hike i believe so yes the liberals always talk about this gender-based analysis that

00:10:46.920 they supposedly do on everything they bring in but that looked like a lot of female entrepreneurs 1.00

00:10:51.660 who are saying this is coming upon scary times yeah absolutely and so they're you know their policies

00:10:57.480 are not they're they're not helping you know if anything they're hurting they're hurting uh tech

00:11:03.480 companies they're hurting uh those that are building housing and and all kinds of other industries as

00:11:09.020 well and so they're they're not helping uh people uh wanting to be entrepreneurs they're not helping

00:11:15.240 uh and by helping i mean from a policy perspective and from a tax perspective uh that that they're they're

00:11:21.480 setting a sort of a like the way that we operate here in canada is not is not is not friendly it's not

00:11:29.120 friendly for uh for small businesses and for entrepreneurs and they're making it worse that's

00:11:35.040 shocking because you think about all the the the brain power that goes behind starting a business

00:11:40.960 and everything like that and the the long hours and the heartache and you know the the worry um

00:11:47.300 if they go to other jurisdictions say they move to the united states or something right we've we've

00:11:52.360 lost all of that we've lost all of that capacity yeah yeah the intellectual capacity the jobs the

00:11:59.140 opportunity the wealth that we create here it's all going away because of bad government policy

00:12:05.360 and entrepreneurs are their visionaries yes you know they're visionaries so these are these are

00:12:10.520 people that have ideas and they want to bring them to fruition and you know many times an entrepreneur

00:12:16.720 can't go to a traditional uh financial institution you've got to look in in other areas and and

00:12:22.440 start you know start somewhere or maybe grow you know sometimes that's an issue as well you might have a

00:12:27.400 a business that's doing well but then you need to expand and so that's why you need to have people

00:12:32.100 that might want to invest and if you're creating an environment that is really not in favor of that

00:12:37.680 it just makes it more difficult for even our existing companies to expand and grow and maybe export

00:12:42.740 as well well actually you know what you made a very good point too because as the money leaves

00:12:48.720 the jurisdiction we want we want people to put the money in canadian banks right so they then in turn

00:12:54.740 can loan it out and and do what they do um because people need mortgages they need cars and whatever

00:13:00.280 right or start a business we're we're we're creating this ever growing environment where it's just

00:13:08.380 not hospitable to ideas outside the box right the government approved box and and and and and this

00:13:18.680 is extremely frustrating anyone that has owned a business anyone that's looking to start a business

00:13:23.760 or even a young person coming out that might not want to go the traditional route of starting to work

00:13:28.440 in some corporate structure that might want to do it their own but even farmers right like farmers

00:13:33.020 starting their business we need food and we're striking down those people who actually want to

00:13:39.260 provide it for us you know absolutely every everything that this government is doing is is is not helping

00:13:46.900 you know it's not helping the tax increases whether it's the carbon tax increase whether depending on

00:13:52.020 what industry someone works in the excise tax increase you know you've got the carbon tax increase

00:13:56.540 or sorry the um the capital gains tax increase so you know there's all of these increases which is why

00:14:02.020 uh you know we as conservatives and and our leader uh the peer up here paliev has said that it that

00:14:08.240 when we're in government that we would do a tax reform task force we're basically going to look at at all

00:14:14.560 of the taxes and look at what we can reform in order to make uh so that people can have more money in their

00:14:20.000 pocket and so that we can really prompt the investment and and uh you know have those entrepreneurs stay

00:14:28.280 here and and help with our productivity in canada bring you know make our gdp per capita better

00:14:34.500 and make people's lives better

00:14:36.500 yeah dollar freed from taxation is a dollar invested in the economy right it's not me who said that i believe

00:14:42.920 it was john f kennedy but the the the statement holds true right the more people and you just said it the more

00:14:48.220 money people have in their pockets the more they spend in the economy and as the economy grows new jobs are created they start buying things economic activity starts to churn and and you have the spin-off

00:14:58.280 jobs right it just steamrolls from there but if you you us as canadians are only given a certain amount

00:15:05.960 of choice whether it be telecoms airlines groceries etc you're only feeding the big corporations and the

00:15:11.480 smaller chains are the ones that suffering or don't start up at all that's basically where we are

00:15:15.800 yeah exactly and and many small businesses in particular they many businesses do but in particular

00:15:22.360 small businesses reinvest you know they really don't uh there's many small business owners that

00:15:27.320 take you know as a personal wage very low especially at the very beginning uh of their business and but

00:15:32.600 they know that you know down the road you know it'll pay off all of that investment and all of that hardship

00:15:37.480 early on will pay off but that that uh sort of vision at the end isn't isn't as good as it used to be

00:15:45.240 yeah you know they're the ones sponsoring kids hockey teams or soccer teams or whatever right

00:15:49.720 they're the ones investing in the communities in which they live and we need to really change

00:15:55.240 the mentality as you said to the liberals just stop just please please all right we're pretty much out

00:16:01.160 of time but as you know the guests get the last word the floor is yours it was really great to be here

00:16:05.560 and uh and just know that uh that us you know as conservatives we're out in our communities we're out

00:16:11.080 across the country listening to people and really listening you know as you saw just some of the the

00:16:16.920 little example of some of the testimony here as to actually how government policy is affecting

00:16:23.880 people and affecting businesses yeah not necessarily a good way and we say that out of concern

00:16:30.280 not to push down the the canadian dream right this is concern that we are hearing as members of

00:16:35.720 parliament from our constituents and those in liberal and ndp held writings right there's

00:16:41.000 great concern out there the promise of canada the promise of canada bring that back let's bring

00:16:45.080 that let's bring it home at home tracy gray always a pleasure member of parliament for colonna lake 1.00

00:16:49.560 country we appreciate your time we appreciate yours as well don't forget to like comment share

00:16:54.280 and subscribe to this program if you're on youtube hit the bell be notified when new content is being

00:16:59.240 made available new content as i said every single tuesday 1 30 pm eastern time until next week

00:17:04.440 remember low taxes less government more freedom that's the blueprint

The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - January 21, 2025

The Canadian entrepreneurial spirit is being damaged by costly policies.

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