The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast

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

00:00:11.120 host jamie schmale member of parliament for halliburton quarter length rock thank you very

00:00:14.980 much for joining us again another great show lined up for you so we ask that you like comment

00:00:19.900 subscribe share this program help us push back against the ever-moving liberal agenda

00:00:24.360 maybe there will be someone in your social media network that might be open to hearing that

00:00:28.620 conservative message something they aren't getting in the mainstream media this is your chance

00:00:32.640 to help ensure that erin o'toole is the next prime minister of canada of course as always you can't

00:00:38.000 watch or listen to the whole thing right now you can download it later on listen to us

00:00:41.840 on platforms like castbox itunes google play spotify you name it it is out there without further delay

00:00:48.700 we bring in our guest it is james coming he's the member of parliament for edmonton center he's also

00:00:53.960 the shadow minister for small business and economic recovery we welcome him to the show

00:00:59.920 a good friend you've been on before thanks for coming on again glad to be here again always good

00:01:05.100 to be able to talk to uh you jamie and thanks for putting on this show i almost drew a blank on on your

00:01:11.020 title but uh i'm glad i got it um well let's start it up a bit it's covid uh 19 economic recovery but

00:01:18.440 close enough close well see i was making i gave you a promotion did i give you a promotion hope so

00:01:22.980 well congratulations yeah well let's start with a couple things the economic recovery part and small

00:01:29.500 business so i want to touch on that but also i want to touch on the budget i know it was a few weeks ago

00:01:34.200 um i love this quote from don martin of ctv he said the budget was a super spreader of spending

00:01:41.520 and this whole envelope of extra spending either borrowed or printed money

00:01:47.980 under the couched under the umbrella of covid release but they also put in all these other

00:01:54.400 pet projects they decided to throw money on but yet actually forgot that the pandemic was about

00:02:00.720 health care so maybe you can talk a bit about the the budget catastrophe sure um so you'll often hear

00:02:08.040 from the liberals that it's the build back better budget and i refer to it as it's the build back

00:02:14.340 bigger budget which you know generations upon generations are going to have to pay back over

00:02:20.540 time now that said would we support because you've shut down businesses and you've and you've created

00:02:26.300 an environment where people can't work so are there some levels of support sure absolutely but the real

00:02:32.660 reality though is two things on the health care side uh there was nothing to deal with what the

00:02:39.020 provinces really wanted which was a budget items towards covid recovery and a further transfer

00:02:45.680 increase in transfer of health payments and and you didn't see any of that in the budget

00:02:50.080 and probably my biggest issue jamie is that a lack of clear direction on how this budget is going to

00:02:58.120 help with a long-term uh economic recovery you know there's a ton of money in there for

00:03:04.080 infrastructure spending but it's not infrastructure towards things that will create more revenue

00:03:10.840 so in this country we even before the budget uh we were uh our growth was quite anemic it was about

00:03:19.060 one percent and post covid most of the spending programs aren't designated towards towards things that

00:03:26.560 will improve canada's competitiveness improve our productivity it's on a lot of boutique projects

00:03:32.300 that the liberals have come up with that don't have a revenue number attached to them so how are we

00:03:37.840 going to grow ourselves out of this if we just continue to spend spend spend without that opportunity

00:03:42.820 for growth and when we talk about growth the economy going forward we have some important stuff

00:03:49.320 we're waiting for on enbridge line five that will have pretty catastrophic results if if it does

00:03:55.700 get shut down in ontario quebec and also your province of alberta

00:03:59.440 yeah and you know the budget had virtually no mention of the natural resource sector

00:04:08.440 the the sector that has fueled this economy and is critical not just to the sector itself

00:04:15.480 but i think of ontario with line five and with increasing energy prices and and so dependent

00:04:21.840 on manufacturing that we will lose our competitive edge against our peers internationally and and these

00:04:28.660 are companies that want to grow and they want to expand you know the reality is we can't just sell

00:04:33.900 to ourselves we could have about 38 million people which you know it's helpful but the reality

00:04:39.540 is canada is an exporting nation and and we have to make sure that we're set up for success and

00:04:44.720 i didn't see anything in the budget that did that now if we are talking about growing for success a lot

00:04:50.580 of the slowdowns in the economy is because government has its boot on the neck of the economy so how do

00:04:57.340 we release that boot not with more government spending we need to actually get vaccines and yet

00:05:02.780 as we see in many countries right around the world the uk italy for example is talking about reopening

00:05:08.620 and many others israel the uae and the list goes on the united states they are reopening because

00:05:14.840 they did not they they being their government did not make major mistakes in the procurement process

00:05:20.880 that caused canada to get behind so many other countries we should be farther ahead than what we

00:05:26.560 are right now absolutely you cannot have an economic recovery until you have a health recovery

00:05:31.960 and it frustrates me to no end to continue to hear this speaking point from the liberals that

00:05:39.480 we had we have more contracts for vaccines than anybody else so effectively what they're telling

00:05:46.060 the public is we wrote more purchase orders than anybody else for a variety of vaccines what they

00:05:52.840 neglect to tell you is that those purchase orders didn't have clear objectives on when we're going

00:05:59.500 to receive these vaccines so if you look at israel they didn't write massive po's to a bunch of

00:06:04.720 different drug companies they were really focused and look at where they are today because they're

00:06:09.900 able to get vaccines and they now lead i think they lead the world now in double vaccinated population

00:06:16.280 and it's because they were very strategic and they made sure that they put together a program that

00:06:22.940 would work based upon outcomes not based upon bragging points that i've got this massive portfolio

00:06:29.340 you know the reality is i just find it so ironic that when i was in the construction business

00:06:36.160 that we would you know you're issuing a po does not guarantee that the job gets done

00:06:41.780 you actually have to write into the po when are you going to finish the job

00:06:46.060 now i'm sure you're hearing a lot about this from small business owners the hotel the hospitality

00:06:52.460 industry restaurants my goodness all trying to figure it out most i think the

00:06:59.140 survey i saw from the canadian federation of independent business was 84 percent of businesses

00:07:03.480 took on more debt through this crisis um they they need some certainty at the end of this on the small

00:07:09.600 business side i know we talked about the the larger players kind of in natural resources but even at

00:07:14.120 the community level um the the vaccine problems and then of course we had at the beginning of the

00:07:20.040 pandemic the the rent program that only 10 percent of businesses took in because the the liberals

00:07:26.080 wouldn't take advice from the opposition we had the the wage subsidy was started at 10 percent

00:07:30.400 eventually got to over 70 but those were problems that happened along the way that caused businesses

00:07:35.360 to take on more debt and then with lack of certainty because of not enough vaccines coming in we have

00:07:41.360 more problems more delays in getting these businesses up and running i absolutely agree you know we have a

00:07:48.060 huge main street problem right now for these small businesses and although the programs have been

00:07:53.400 helpful to a certain extent a lot of them have been adding on debt and and putting more leverage against

00:07:59.520 these companies so what i'm hearing from companies now is that they're concerned about their debt load

00:08:05.240 but the more important point jamie is they need some level of certainty and i recognize that with the

00:08:12.640 variance that it's really hard to determine that but other countries have others have actually come up with

00:08:20.460 constructive programs on how they're going to get their economy back and open and they've been

00:08:24.980 strategic by sector they've they've done risk analysis they've done a proper plan on being able to tell

00:08:32.160 these small businesses okay here's how we think uh you will be able to open up now granted a lot of that

00:08:38.520 is provincial responsibility but the government can take a leadership role by saying here's how we're going

00:08:45.340 to procure more vaccines here's how we're going to get them to you quicker and quite frankly late to

00:08:51.000 the gate on rapid testing they've just now started to recognize as a bridge the availability of testing

00:08:57.400 could really help out with some of these industries let's talk about quickly inflation for the moment as

00:09:04.120 as we continue to borrow as we continue to print more money we're going to see some inflationary

00:09:09.680 pressures because you can't do this forever you can only you can only do that for so long before you

00:09:14.000 debauch the economy and the currency probably a combination of both uh what are your main

00:09:19.440 concerns when it comes to that well there's two things one is that the the central bank has been

00:09:24.740 buying bonds like there's no tomorrow uh the government's ratcheted up spending um like we've never seen

00:09:32.000 before but the other piece of the puzzle is that the supply chains have been drastically affected by this

00:09:38.620 pandemic and so those supply chains now i'm hearing from businesses that their materials that they're

00:09:44.740 bringing in have increased in costs significantly both by a shipping both by the source cost and so

00:09:51.940 building that into their products they're all suggesting that they're going to have to increase

00:09:55.820 their prices so that's going to be a real push on inflation so history tells us when you have a push

00:10:02.060 on inflation you start to see those numbers go up interest rates have to go up and when you're

00:10:07.040 running a 1.4 trillion dollar debt principally at floating interest rates because most of it hasn't

00:10:15.520 been secured over term it's very very concerning and even if they did start to block it out over term

00:10:22.400 they will not get the rate they're getting today over a longer term so we're going to have a significant

00:10:28.420 issue in this country of being able to service that debt and that's all going to future generations

00:10:34.620 and that and to me that's incredibly distressing and i i hope it has people's attention well i think

00:10:42.140 it should because if you look at the numbers and some have been projected going forward the the amount

00:10:47.500 canada is going to spend on on paying interest on the debt is going to far out outpace what we're

00:10:54.380 spending on on the universal child care benefit and a lot of other programs this is just basically going

00:11:00.100 to be wasted money because again the liberals have created this budget the super spreader of spending

00:11:05.540 on a whole bunch of pet projects outside what should be the pandemic spending envelope and then couched

00:11:13.720 it all and put it on to future generations yeah yeah and jamie you bring up a valid point but not only

00:11:20.100 was there the short-term spending which quite frankly we voted in favor of most of the bills that dealt with

00:11:26.080 helping out small businesses uh helping out individuals that are out of work but in this

00:11:31.620 budget they've layered in a bunch of structural spending issues with no plan on growth no way to

00:11:39.440 describe on how are we actually going to pay for this into the future and the budget's loaded with

00:11:45.440 issues like that that aren't dealing with the direct short-term issue they've created this long-term

00:11:51.340 spending um uh commitment and that and that's very concerning without this strategy around growth

00:11:58.420 and and it just frustrates me that there is you know you'll hear in the budget we're going to have

00:12:04.380 the new economy the new jobs the green jobs but there's there's nothing descriptive about when are

00:12:11.360 these jobs going to happen what sectors are they going to be in how high paying will they be it's just

00:12:18.080 fluff and you know as conservatives i think we like to see actual plans documented that actually show

00:12:25.400 how are you going to get to that well here's a prediction i'm going to to give you a prediction right

00:12:30.760 here james uh when this happens they're going the government is going the left is going to ask for more

00:12:36.120 time more patience and more taxpayer dollars and at some point they will get it right i i'm

00:12:42.640 they're they're almost convinced of it yeah and and and and we really don't have the value of time

00:12:50.220 because as they drag this on you know we we had a hundred billion dollars worth of new debt prior to

00:12:56.560 covet we've latched on to short-term and long-term spending that will likely take us up to uh we're at

00:13:04.200 1.4 trillion and they've asked for a debt ceiling of i believe 1.8 trillion so that would tell me that's

00:13:11.080 sort of where their target is the numbers are staggering for the size of the economy when you

00:13:16.540 layer in the federal debt then take provincial debt then take municipal debt and you add that

00:13:23.100 all together it's staggering okay let's talk about what the conservatives would do conservatives have

00:13:29.300 laid out a plan maybe you can talk a bit about that what the difference will i see someone turn

00:13:33.660 their lights out on you i think you've overstayed your welcome but what would the conservatives do

00:13:38.580 uh obviously if we were given the opportunity to govern the next election how would we fix this mess

00:13:44.500 well we without question we would jeez you got to pay your hydro again without question we would work

00:13:51.940 on economic recovery and start to look at where can we um grow the economy because this has to be

00:13:59.080 about growth you know there there's going to be some rationalization with spending but but the reality

00:14:04.960 is with the level of debt that we've taken on under this government we are absolutely going to need

00:14:10.020 massive growth so we'll come up with programs respecting those industries that have got us there

00:14:15.760 already see how we can gain market share and start to grow the economy again and grow opportunities

00:14:21.040 so there's the conventional industries and then i think there'll be new emerging industries that we

00:14:26.460 will be able to be very strategic in our thinking and focus on external growth because reality jamie is that

00:14:34.420 we need to grow uh building our our trade with uh with other partners because our our economy is just

00:14:42.260 not big enough on its own without that external growth and that's i think uh we got to wind it up here

00:14:48.220 but i think you touched on it pretty well uh there but just want to unpack a little more i think that's

00:14:53.980 where the conservative approach comes in when you lower taxes when you keep government rules regulations

00:14:58.520 and red tape at a reasonable level you have rapid innovation you can incentivize a whole new group of

00:15:06.840 people coming up with the next great product the next great thing that people want to buy freely with

00:15:11.260 their own money and and when you don't have the constraints of government we've seen other instances

00:15:16.220 across the across the globe where when the government gets out of the way people the individuals

00:15:22.520 will come up with the products the market will be there to to provide what the the consumers need

00:15:29.420 yeah jamie i tell people i started in business when i was 21 years old i had my first opportunity to buy

00:15:37.420 into a construction company which we built into a bigger company and not once did i think about

00:15:43.960 government helping me or air assisting me it was always about this opportunity like i just was so

00:15:51.740 excited that i'd be able to contribute build something do something we've lost our edge on

00:15:57.340 that we've we've lost the ability people don't think that way we have to get it back and i'm

00:16:02.840 convinced that under conservative policies we'll get it back james and we'll and we'll make sure that

00:16:09.040 the lights stay on in a room when you're doing a video well that's odd usually in venezuela the lights

00:16:14.720 never go off in the government quarter in caracas but for some reason in ottawa it is in your room so

00:16:19.820 uh look into that but i i always give our guests the the last word james you did sum it up perfectly

00:16:26.340 there but uh i'll give you the final word here yeah i you know i ran for politics jamie for the

00:16:33.700 main reason is i wanted to see public policy that would create this entrepreneurial spirit in this

00:16:39.420 country again and make this country the place to set up and grow raise a family and do something and

00:16:46.360 create something and create wealth and we've lost our swagger and and i do think we can get it back

00:16:52.500 i'm i'm positive that we can get it back if we get a new government i'm not so convinced if we see the

00:16:58.500 current policies going on for any extended period of time getting our swagger back i love it james

00:17:04.460 coming the member of parliament for edmonton center also the shadow minister for covid19 economic

00:17:10.120 recovery i got it right that time thank you so much for joining us new content every single tuesday

00:17:15.560 1 30 p.m eastern time we do appreciate you joining us but we also need your help we need you to like

00:17:20.780 comment subscribe share this program help us push back against the ever-moving liberal agenda and of

00:17:26.440 course you can't listen or watch it all now on facebook download it listen to it on platforms like

00:17:31.480 castbox itunes spotify google play you name it it is out there we do appreciate your time

00:17:36.900 your help and together we can ensure that erin o'toole is the next prime minister of canada

00:17:41.540 as always remember low taxes less government more freedom that is the blueprint thanks for joining us

00:17:48.260 you

The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - May 12, 2021

The Liberal Budget

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