The Liberal government’s out-of-touch restriction policies continue.
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Summary
Melissa Lansman, Transportation Critic and Member of Parliament for Thornhill, joins us to talk about the ongoing problems with Canada's airports and the lack of action from the Trudeau government to fix them. She also talks about the growing problem of inflation, and why we should be worried about it.
Transcript
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Hello and welcome once again to The Blueprints. This is Canada's Conservative Podcast. I'm
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your host, Jamie Schmael, Member of Parliament for Halliburton for the Legs Brock, with new
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content for you every single Tuesday, 1.30pm Eastern Time. We are not taking time off. We
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are not slowing down because we are giving you content to like, subscribe, comment, share.
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Together we can push back against the ever-moving Liberal agenda. And of course, if you can't
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listen or watch the entire program right in a second, download it, listen to it on platforms
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like CastBox, iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, you name it, it is out there. And of course,
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you know two friends, they know two friends. Let's keep the chain going. We're going to
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bring back a good friend of the show. We're going to bring back Melissa Lansman, the Member
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of Parliament for Thornhill, also the transportation critic. We appreciate you coming back because
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we're going to talk about the long list of Liberal government failures because, of course,
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they're failing what they're doing now, and yet they want to take more onto their plate.
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This is absolutely incredible. Melissa, welcome to the show.
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All right. We'll quickly talk about the airports because they are still a disaster. Then we'll
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get into everything else. What can you tell us is going on? Of course, we saw pictures
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over the weekend again. Pearson is just incredible with their delays, with their problems, and the
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Yeah, look, I think we have a situation where we've got a government that is out of touch.
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We have a government that's saying, everything's okay. Everything's getting better. We're working
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on it, but there are no benchmarks to what that means. For some people, things might be
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okay. You might breeze through it. For others, they are waiting in long lineups. They're waiting
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in customs halls. They're waiting for their baggage. Add three kids to that after a long flight,
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and you've got some very frustrated people. I think it's our job to figure out why.
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Well, maybe a task force, another government task force will come into play here.
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Yeah, I don't think anything's gotten markedly better with the current task force. I think
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that's the point. We see a lot of fancy infographics, a lot of numbers, a lot of percentages about
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sort of what's going well. But at the end of the day, the experience on the ground is vastly different
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for families, for travelers, for those looking to Canada as a place to come.
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Maybe it's because Justin Trudeau just has his own private area where he goes to catch his plane.
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He doesn't really have to wait in line with regular people. But you're right. The talking points we're
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getting from the government is everything's A-OK. We're working on it. The sky's blue. The angels are
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singing. The flowers are in bloom. Yeah, I think if you're, you know, you see this in your office,
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I'm sure Canadians are frustrated. They can't get the basic government services, whether it's going
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through an airport, whether it's figuring out how to, you know, finick with a new app, whether it's
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getting a passport where you have to camp out. Things just aren't working for people. And you've
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got a government that's not acknowledging it. It's the same thing they did as inflation. What they say
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is that it's happening elsewhere. So it's OK that it's happening to you. Yeah,
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your groceries are getting ridiculously out of control. You can't fill up your tank of gas,
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your car with a tank of gas. But yet, don't worry, it's it's worse over there. Well,
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yeah, no, imagine this. Imagine this. Imagine in 2008, global recession, right? We we we know what
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happened. We know the story of Canada. We know how we came out of it faster and stronger than most
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others. Imagine a politician standing up in the house and saying, you know what? This is happening in
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other countries. So we're not going to do anything about it. We're just going to wait this storm out.
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And I think that's what you're seeing. And I think that's why you're seeing a huge level of frustration
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with just getting the basics right. Well, not only that, imagine saying we know inflation is out of
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control, but we're going to keep printing money because somehow it'll fix itself. You know,
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I know he doesn't think about monetary policy, but you can't treat cancer with more cancer. You can't
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keep printing money, borrowing money and expecting something to change. Yeah, I think it's look, I think
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it's really disappointing. And I think that's why, you know, that's why you're seeing this is a this is
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a new level of of anger over the summer on on sort of those basic things. And it's just the government
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not delivering again on the very basic. So if they can't get the small things right, how on earth are they
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going to get the big things right? Well, that's exactly a great question, because they're picking
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winners and losers in many areas, especially when it comes to our energy, right? They they'll fund
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certain projects, certain things that fall within their sphere of acceptance. And meanwhile, everything
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else gets pushed by the wayside, right? Can you imagine that entrepreneur who's coming up with the next
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great fuel source that has to go against the subsidies and the tax benefits for solar and wind and all the
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others? And you have to fight against that force. That innovation takes even longer to get where it
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needs to be. And that is on to the market where people can buy it in abundance at an affordable
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price. That's right. And to make all of our goods cheaper when they when they you know, when the price
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of gas is as high as it is in this in this country, and we've ignored an entire industry for for a long
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time, it's, it's, it's, it's frustrating, and it's going to take a while to fix. And it's going to
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take a full, you know, a full change approach, to actually do the right things, because we've actually
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fallen behind in that, in that industry. And that needs to be corrected.
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I think we're falling behind, as we've noticed over the years, we've lost hundreds of million dollars
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in the natural resources and investment. And, and that, that's not even counting the stuff we don't know
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about, right? Because an investor will look at a market and say, well, this country is too volatile,
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there's issues here, there's issues there. And you just don't actually see that investment coming in,
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you may hear about it in other countries, but you miss it when it comes to your own jurisdiction. I
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think that's the other thing that we are missing here. During the pandemic, we have lost out on a lot
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of opportunity, but also realize that over the years, putting in massive rules, red tape obstacles for
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business isn't good when you're trying to build things in your country. And when the pandemic
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started, we realized, yeah, we don't build a lot here. We don't start doing that again.
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We certainly, we certainly don't. It's really, really hard to get something built here. And there
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are, you know, there are immediate solutions to that. But what this is causing is, there's a bigger
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problem here. We're getting a reputation for it. And once you get a reputation for it, it's really hard
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to bring that back. Because people sort of say, you know what, Canada, that's kind of hard. It's
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kind of expensive to do business there. We're going to look elsewhere. And you know what, the
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relationships develop elsewhere. And all of a sudden, we're not sort of at the top of the list
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when people are thinking for a place to park their money. That's the dangerous thing. So if we continue
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on this trajectory too long, we're gonna pay for it for a long time.
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Well, we're already seeing like we talked about the energy sector, we talked about it a lot on this
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show, because it's so important. It's one of the anchors of our economy. The lumber industry is
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hurting, the mining industry is hurting. And if we want to actually, you know, find the minerals to
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build these batteries that we keep talking about, which is fine, we need to actually have a mining
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sector that's able to get shovels in the ground relatively quickly, respecting, you know, indigenous
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rights, property rights, and all that other stuff. But we have to have a process that is pretty
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streamlined. So we can get to a yes, or no answer, or at least make it clear when when investors are
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saying that looks like a good opportunity there. Yeah, look, I think you've talked about this a lot
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and sort of clearing that that regulation and red tape burden that the companies have, I think,
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is our number one priority where we're doing one half of it, where we're sort of mandating and
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forcing a change without actually having the things in place to make that change a reality. So
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I, you know, I think we're sort of doubly, you know, screwing ourselves over in terms of, of making,
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of making those mandates or putting those mandates in, in place like sales for EVs, like we're not all
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going to drive electric cars by 2030. It's just going to take us a while to admit that because we don't
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have the things in place for that to actually happen. So let's, you know, let's walk before we
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run. Well, yeah, absolutely. And also, how about we create a marketplace, the free, the free market
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will always provide, right? That if a business or an opportunity turns one person down, chances are
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there's going to be an opportunity or a door open somewhere else. And that's like a conservative.
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Exactly. And then so that's what we're talking about, right? Like, if you want to make,
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you know, to get off fossil fuels, well, let's have a, an economy, a market that allows people
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the multitude of choice, better price, better service, all of it, but also reduce the rules,
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regulations, red tape to that, stopping that from happening right here in Canada.
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For sure. I will, I will say this. Look, we've got enough food to feed the world. We've got some
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of the smartest people here working on innovation every single day. We could be energy independent.
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We could do all of these things. And a lot of these opportunities have been squandered. So the
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question is always, you know, how do we do so little with so much? And I think the answer lies
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in what we started talking about. Regulation, red tape, sort of a hate on for, for the industry and
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a government that's too incompetent to deliver basic services. So we're not even thinking about
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the big picture. Absolutely. Well, there, well, like 2015 to 2019, how often did we talk about in the
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House that you shouldn't really spend on the credit card when times are good? You should be
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paying off debt, preparing for it. And how often did we get told by the Liberals? Oh, don't worry
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about it. The bad times aren't coming. Sure enough, the pandemic comes along. And here we go again.
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We're dipping into the well even more. Yeah, I'm looking forward to a time where we're not using
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the pandemic as an excuse for mediocrity, because I think that's what, you know, that's what the
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government has gotten used to. I think that's the message that had worked for, for a little while.
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And people are looking around the world, like the jig is up. If you look beyond our borders,
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everybody has moved on. And I think Canadians are starting to see that. And we need a government
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that's going to catch up. Okay, well, I know we're almost out of time. So many more questions. Maybe
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I can finish it up with, let's, I was talking about moving on. Wow, the, the, we started off
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with the airports are a mess. Arrive Can app. What is, what is the point of that right now?
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Well, look, we just, we just had the minister tell, you know, tell a committee that the Arrive
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Can app is actually speeding things up, you know, and without it, it would take a whole lot longer
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because we have to do these things on paper. You know, we could just get rid of the mandates. That
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would certainly help. But look, every, I can't find a single person in, you know, in my, in my
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orbit. And we've talked to lots of people on the ground that support this, not border mayors,
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not tourism councils, not chambers of commerce, not even our allies on the other side of the border,
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certainly not seniors, not those who are disabled, perhaps not those who speak, who don't speak
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English or French as their first language. Maybe those who don't have a smartphone. There is a long
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list of people raising concerns, privacy experts, who say this thing needs to go. And the only ones
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clinging to it are the government. And I just can't understand why.
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All right. As you know, Melissa, we always give the guests the last word here. So the floor is yours,
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Well, keep watching this. Stay tuned. And I think that we're going to come back in September to the
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House and, and hold this government's feet to the fire. So the Canadians can get what they need,
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when they need it. Melissa Lansman, thank you so much. I know your schedule is busy. Appreciate
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your time. The Member of Parliament for Thornhill, also the Transportation Critic. And we appreciate
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your time too. That's why we're coming back with new content for you every single Tuesday,
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1.30 p.m. Eastern time. Please like, comment, subscribe, share this program. We know you have
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we'll see you next Tuesday. Remember until then, low taxes, less government, more freedom.