The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - April 02, 2024


This was no April Fools joke. The numbers at the pumps are no laughing matter.


Episode Stats

Length

22 minutes

Words per Minute

198.74518

Word Count

4,382

Sentence Count

299

Misogynist Sentences

2


Summary

On today's show, we are talking about the carbon tax. It went up yesterday, so you're probably waking up to more effects of prices going up and life getting harder and harder. Greg Mclean, a Member of Parliament for Calgary Centre, joins me to talk about it.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome once again to The Blueprints. This is Canada's Conservative Podcast. I'm your
00:00:09.720 host, Jamie Schmael, Member of Parliament for Halliburton-Caworthalikes Brock with new content
00:00:13.500 for you every single Tuesday, 1.30 p.m. Eastern Time. On today's show, we are talking about the
00:00:19.760 carbon tax. It went up yesterday, so you're probably waking up to more effects of prices
00:00:25.540 going up and life getting harder and harder. Please like, comment, subscribe, and share this
00:00:30.300 program. A very important message. Tell your friends they can download it on platforms like
00:00:34.180 iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify. You name it, it is out there. Greg McClain, thanks for coming on the
00:00:38.960 show, Member of Parliament for Calgary Centre. You're going to talk carbon tax here today.
00:00:42.560 Thanks, Jamie. Happy to be here. My goodness, it's up again. We're up to $80 a ton. It went from $65
00:00:47.960 up to $80 on April 1st. Let's recognize in the last election it was $50, which it was supposed to be
00:00:54.100 capped at. Then it went $15 a year after that. So $65 last year. Just right up to $80 today. A 23%
00:01:00.700 increase on April 1st. Congratulations, everyone. So most people will be feeling it almost immediately
00:01:06.580 at the pumps, but there are other things that will take time to implement. It's just groceries. As new
00:01:11.900 groceries come in, the new price takes effect. Prices will gradually start to increase. So even though
00:01:17.600 some people may not have seen it outside the price of the pump, there will be effects coming for the
00:01:22.060 weeks ahead. All kinds of effects. Number one, let's take a look at how opaque this carbon tax is.
00:01:27.860 So it's going up 23% as a direct cost. So on your fuel bill, it goes up, the tax goes up by 23%,
00:01:33.920 the carbon tax. But in the grand scheme of things, you take a look at how much tax we actually pay
00:01:38.500 on fuel. There's a whole bunch of mitigating effects that have to go into that. So the provinces,
00:01:42.460 many provinces are actually lowering the tax they charge on fuel because of that. So that means
00:01:46.980 lower, less revenue for provinces. More money for the feds, less money for the provinces. But you're
00:01:52.620 right. The indirect effects of this are astounding. And the parliamentary budget officer has said that
00:01:57.860 very clearly. The government cannot just measure the direct effects because it affects our economy.
00:02:03.580 Like we always say in the House of Commons, the trucker that trucks the food, the grocers that sell
00:02:07.800 the food, the producer that produces the food. These are all cumulative effects that are happening
00:02:12.440 within our tax system. And people are bearing that in inflation. It's absolutely incredible
00:02:17.340 that even the NDP Premier of Manitoba took away the provincial tax on fuel or reduced it.
00:02:25.300 That sends a message that this is not just on partisan lines. It goes across partisan lines.
00:02:31.320 Even the Liberal Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, territorial premiers, they're all calling
00:02:37.020 for either a pause or a reduction because life has got so unaffordable because of this federal government.
00:02:44.360 All the metrics are there. You take a look at what housing costs Canadians now, it's gone up significantly.
00:02:48.860 40% over the last handful of years. This is astronomical. 10% year over year across Canada for rent.
00:02:56.240 These are numbers that you can't keep up with if you're a consumer. So how do you actually abate this?
00:03:01.400 Well, one of the ways to abate this, of course, is to stop escalating the taxes. And the taxes are a direct
00:03:07.060 impact on the cost of living for all Canadians. So the provinces are doing that because they're
00:03:11.900 recognizing that all their citizens are saying, everything's costing me too much now. Help me out
00:03:16.420 here. And they're all going to face the ballot. The ballot question is going to be like, what have you
00:03:21.160 done for me? And the provinces are all running up higher deficits as a result. So again, recognize what
00:03:25.940 we're doing. We're taking money from the provinces and we're giving it to the federal government.
00:03:29.600 It's a push-pull. Somebody's got to deal with it at some point in time.
00:03:32.880 And it kind of got out of control because the federal government was supposed to be the level that you
00:03:36.680 most times least interacted with, right? They had defense and trade and a few other things that
00:03:42.380 most Canadians have no idea what's going on. They would mostly deal with either the province or
00:03:46.720 municipality. But the federal government has gotten so, so large under this liberal government.
00:03:54.740 It's like a big beast that they've allowed to get out of control.
00:03:58.060 It's a push-pull of confederation. What are the provinces responsible for? The stuff on the
00:04:02.540 ground to deliver to Canadian citizens. But what the federal government responsible for?
00:04:06.740 Primarily taxation. The bigger chunk of taxation on your income tax goes to the federal government
00:04:12.100 by far. And what they've done here is they've moved back into provincial jurisdiction about how
00:04:16.300 they get indirect taxes as well. They already had the GST slash HST, but now they're coming in
00:04:22.160 there and they're trimming where the provinces used to collect revenues for things like roads.
00:04:26.400 Now they're taking that away from the provinces and going, we're collecting that at the federal
00:04:29.940 level. And we're telling people that we're giving it back to them. Well, not so, says the
00:04:34.340 parliamentary budget officer. You're only giving them a little bit of it back. You're not giving
00:04:38.080 them any of the indirect parts of that back that they have to pay and increase groceries,
00:04:42.420 increase shipping, increase goods across the line.
00:04:44.840 And instead of the liberals just raising taxes, which they have on a number of things, including
00:04:50.060 beer and other liquor, which they all of a sudden said, well, we're going to put a stop to that
00:04:54.320 because it just automatically happened. And, and, and, you know, the no fun government.
00:04:59.620 But this, this, they're doing it behind the scenes, right? When they printed all that money out of
00:05:05.080 thin air, when they borrowed, they, they're, they're doing it under the radar, right? Because it's,
00:05:11.540 it's that tax, that, that pressure on life's essentials that are, that are happening. And people,
00:05:17.080 some people can't put their finger on it, but it's a result of, of policies by this federal
00:05:21.860 government. It could be rules and regulations, stuff that you don't see, stuff that isn't voted
00:05:25.680 on in the House of Commons. Exactly right. So let's, let's break that down. Six years from now,
00:05:30.040 2030, what is the carbon tax supposed to be? $170 a tonne. That'll translate to about 37 cents a
00:05:36.880 liter of gasoline. And that also means the second tax on that, of course, is the clean fuels
00:05:41.160 regulation tax, which would be another 17 cents a liter. So 54 cents a liter in gasoline. All
00:05:47.880 things being equal, that, that equates to about 45% of the value of your gasoline is going to be
00:05:53.620 in taxes at that point in time. But add on to that, the GST, HST, and the PST as well, and you've
00:06:00.560 got tax on tax happening. Government's collecting a lot of money through this process. And government
00:06:05.300 really, those at the top level, they're not affected by this, right? They are, they are just,
00:06:09.720 the planners are planning, but they don't actually take part in the plan.
00:06:14.440 They get to talk out two sides of their mind, right? We're dealing with inflation,
00:06:17.420 but we're adding more costs into everyday Canadians. Now, the Bank of Canada governor
00:06:21.120 appeared before our finance committee and actually admitted that, yes, this is causing
00:06:25.780 inflation. Now, he says it's about 0.15% of the inflation rate. If you think about the
00:06:30.520 inflation rate in Canada right now, just around 4%, 0.15%, that is a carbon tax. It adds up though.
00:06:37.000 And the actual, he actually got that number, I think, from the International Chamber of Commerce,
00:06:41.080 which looks at every $10 added in carbon tax equates to about 10, 0.1% of an actual increase
00:06:50.120 in inflation. So you think about $15, 0.15%, the translation is pretty clear. So that's where
00:06:56.920 he gets it. But you think about it, if you're actually facing an inflationary spiral, why do you
00:07:01.700 keep adding to it? And not just the carbon tax itself, but the clean fuels regulation,
00:07:06.340 which is about 50% more on top of the carbon tax. This is just adding to the burden. The trouble
00:07:12.580 with it is, it's also very opaque. Do people actually see when they're paying this? Do they
00:07:16.740 see the effects when it comes onto the grocery bill? Look, my food's going up. Well, let's blame
00:07:20.500 the grocers on this, as this government does. Exactly. Okay, we need a grocer, you know,
00:07:24.980 code of conduct. Well, how about stop the tax on them that they have to pay, and it accumulates
00:07:29.860 along the way. Yeah, life was not this unaffordable before Justin Trudeau, and as our leader always
00:07:34.500 says, life will be more affordable after he's gone. It's that old saying, right? Government will give you,
00:07:40.980 with the open hand, so it was the rebates. But they have that clenched fist behind their back,
00:07:47.220 right? It's the carbon tax, or more regulation, or more rules, and making it harder for business,
00:07:52.660 and increasing the cost, and making life unaffordable, so that they'll say, hey, look at this over here,
00:07:57.140 it's the rebate. But if you just don't take it from people in the first place, and allow costs to come
00:08:02.660 down, they will actually have more money in the long run. And you know, you think about that messaging
00:08:06.500 that they're giving here now, the Liberals are desperate for some messaging on this, because it
00:08:09.940 actually has landed. People have actually figured out that this is costing them money. They're feeling it
00:08:15.220 every day, but they're also, the data's there as well. And the government's trying to ignore that,
00:08:19.620 and pretend it isn't happening. They're saying, well, this is why you get a rebate. So, okay, well,
00:08:23.220 the rebate and the tax are supposed to be neutral, according to you, according to the parliamentary
00:08:27.140 budget officer. They're far from neutral. They're causing Canadians a lot. But what's the point of
00:08:32.340 setting up a tax where you give back all the money? It doesn't make any sense to me whatsoever.
00:08:36.900 It doesn't. So, the rich and the well-connected, they're not affected by this whatsoever,
00:08:41.860 right? The price of gasoline goes, it really doesn't affect where they go on vacation.
00:08:46.260 At the same time, you have an NDP party that claims they're for the working person, but they
00:08:51.860 are far from it. They're actually supporting all of these increases. They are actually saying more.
00:08:58.340 I don't understand how people in Northern Ontario, where there are NDP seats, actually are okay with
00:09:04.100 what's going on, because they are feeling the pinch the most being in those Northern and rural communities.
00:09:09.700 You know me, I'm the member partner for Calgary Centre. So, Calgary is the heart and soul of
00:09:14.420 Canada's oil and gas industry. Now, every time I get up and speak in the House of Commons,
00:09:18.980 somebody from one of the other parties will go, well, you belong to oil and gas. I don't belong to
00:09:22.500 anybody. And if you actually talk to people in oil and gas, they know I'm critical of some of the
00:09:26.260 ways they do things as well, including some of the ways they participate in the clean fuels regulation
00:09:30.580 standards, which isn't doing anything for the environment. We actually need to better at the end of the day.
00:09:35.060 But you know, when I ask those questions from the NDP, well, what do you think about oil and gas?
00:09:39.780 We have to end this as quickly as possible. But they provide no pathway for that that actually
00:09:45.620 means anything to the common person. How does this affect your driving habits? How does this affect
00:09:50.820 you heating your home? The basics of life are intertwined with what we consume and pay for with
00:09:57.460 this carbon tax. We have said many times in this show, we have oil and gas that we should be proud
00:10:03.940 of. We do it as ethically as possible in many cases. We have labor, strong labor standards,
00:10:09.940 environmental standards, the list goes on. We should be promoting this industry. We should be providing
00:10:16.980 low cost energy, which then makes life affordable for people. And developing nations too, right? One of their
00:10:24.740 biggest hurdles is affordable energy. We have it. We have the ability. We've just been hampered by this
00:10:30.740 government. There's a lot of narrative around how Canadian oil and gas is bad and everybody wants to
00:10:36.580 end it as soon as possible because it's causing climate effects. It is causing climate effects.
00:10:42.420 Everything we burn in the world is causing a climate effect, whether it's natural gas, oil, coal, wood,
00:10:49.700 garbage, anything else you're burning up in the air is causing effects in the environment. What we have
00:10:55.540 to do is make those emissions as clean as possible so they're having as little negative effect as
00:11:00.580 possible while continuing to build the advantages that clean energy, clean affordable energy has given to
00:11:07.060 the world. So even with the carbon tax emissions haven't gone down. In British Columbia you see it,
00:11:12.420 they've had the carbon tax the longest. Emissions keep going up. It stopped being revenue neutral and
00:11:17.620 became actually a cash cow for the provincial government and now the federal government is
00:11:22.020 getting their cut of that. At the same time, when you say life, Canadians say to the prime minister,
00:11:28.740 life is getting harder and harder. I can't pay my bills. I'm having trouble eating. My mortgage has
00:11:33.380 gone through the roof. Justin Trudeau's answer is always, I just need more time, more resources,
00:11:40.420 and at some point I'll get it right. I'll fix this problem eventually. In my mind, leadership
00:11:46.660 isn't kind of navigating through the crisis. It's preventing the crisis in the first place.
00:11:52.340 I'm not sure that the prime minister actually does have a plan here. It's kind of like throwing
00:11:56.660 darts at a wall and playing whack-a-mole with all the problems that come out. This is going to cause
00:12:01.140 significant problems across the country. There's no way it's not going to be inflationary and we've had
00:12:05.300 a bit of a dip down in inflation in Canada in the last little while. This will cause an inflationary
00:12:09.940 bump. Take a look at our trading partners. Our main trading partner in the United States does not have
00:12:14.340 a carbon tax. So how many of the industries that you and I meet with when they come and lobby us
00:12:18.260 here say you need to subsidize us because we pay this carbon tax that doesn't make us a trading
00:12:23.620 competitor with the United States? Our main trading partner doesn't have the same tax regime we have,
00:12:28.580 making everything we produce here more expensive. And I don't think our role is to tax them and then
00:12:33.620 subsidize them at the end of the day. Let's make sure we've got a very transparent board,
00:12:37.540 of which the free trade agreements that we've signed with the United States and other countries
00:12:41.060 were meant to solve. Make sure we have things going on in Canada where Canada adds value and
00:12:45.940 things going on we import from the states where they add value. And that should lead to prosperity
00:12:50.500 for everybody as long as it's done fairly. And that's what we need to achieve again.
00:12:54.020 Up until it seems eight years ago or so when the Liberals took power, it was always government who
00:13:02.020 laid out a target for industry to hit. When you're talking about automobiles, right? They want
00:13:06.420 emissions to be capped at this level, fuel efficiency to be this. And it was up to the industry to figure
00:13:12.180 it out whether it's using lighter materials such as aluminum on their vehicles or whatever, or a
00:13:19.220 four-cylinder engine that did the same work as a six-cylinder. There was always differences and then the
00:13:24.260 market chose accordingly which worked best for them. This government seems to say we're going to subsidize who
00:13:30.900 we, the industry that we believe is going to give us the future we want, right? And I say we as the
00:13:37.860 government. So it's government innovation not actually market individual innovation or even
00:13:42.660 individual innovation. That's right. The government's putting their thumb on the scale about which
00:13:46.340 industries it thinks it should sponsor here going forward. Think about the number of battery plants
00:13:52.260 we're subsidizing in Canada right now and the one, the ones in Ontario and Quebec combined are about
00:13:57.300 four million dollars we're subsidizing per job. You tell me how many years those people are going to
00:14:02.420 have to pay taxes in order to make up that subsidy of four million dollars. This is a boondoggle for
00:14:07.540 the companies involved with it. Is there actually any net value added economic activity happening as a
00:14:13.780 result? And you think about the companies involved, some of those companies are facing still international
00:14:18.180 charges from nine years ago going back to how they broke environmental laws. And now the Canadian
00:14:24.660 government's giving them billions of dollars. It's obscene what we're going through here in this
00:14:28.820 practice and yet you know I always I always call a minister, the Minister of Industry, I always say
00:14:34.740 he's the Minister of Writing Checks because he actually doesn't know how to analyze exactly a business
00:14:38.900 case that makes sense for this country going forward. There's all kinds of great economic activity that
00:14:43.940 could happen in this country but we are not getting that foreign investment into this country because
00:14:48.660 the rules are so opaque. You know government gets to choose we're going to go here. If this project
00:14:53.700 goes ahead in Canada it's only because the government's going to put a whole bunch of money in it. Otherwise
00:14:58.660 it's going to get stuck in all kinds of regulatory delays, all kinds of other delays, all kinds of cost
00:15:04.660 add-ons that this government is imposing on certain industries versus others. What does government actually
00:15:09.940 innovate? Does it do well in innovation? Absolutely not. That's the problem. It is the problem. I mean the government
00:15:16.660 sits there and it can participate in some of the funding for these mechanisms and there's no purity
00:15:22.500 around the world about the way governments actually participate in aiding innovation and development
00:15:29.140 and research. We're a very poor country of that in Canada. We don't spend nearly as you know a significant
00:15:34.820 amount of our GDP as we should on that research and development. Fixing that is what we have to do
00:15:40.500 through a tax system that actually rewards innovation as opposed to the government just shoveling money
00:15:46.500 on chosen projects. And some of those projects within a year they go well it didn't work.
00:15:52.820 So that's Canadian taxpayer money that's gone out the door that we're not going to get back.
00:15:57.460 Well and at that point that year is gone. Those Canadians who are finding it tough they have to suffer
00:16:03.780 and then they have to keep suffering because again the government will say just we just need more time
00:16:08.180 and more money and we'll get there. We swear we'll get there. We promise. Trust us. Yeah trust us.
00:16:13.860 Because we know super smart in Ottawa we can figure this out. We can innovate faster than industry can.
00:16:20.260 We can hire more people. We can hire more consultants. We can keep spinning our wheels at this but they're
00:16:24.820 not getting a job done. There's so many aspects and I have to explain this to my constituents all the time.
00:16:29.140 Show me something that's going well with this government because I'm not sure they have anybody in their
00:16:34.420 cabinet that actually says here's what we need to do in order to move these files forward.
00:16:38.660 Now there are exceptions. I'm not going to cover everybody with the same blanket here.
00:16:41.860 But the fact is is every recognizable file in the economy they fail that miserably.
00:16:46.740 Carbon tax is I think the egregious outlier of that because it is more tax more tax more tax
00:16:53.620 going forward here to 2030 without an environmental outcome at the end of the day. You take a look at
00:16:59.620 the countries around the world. The two extreme outliers are Canada and the United Kingdom as far
00:17:04.980 as offshoring our manufacturing capacity to other countries. Now what does that do for carbon
00:17:11.220 abatement around the world? All they're doing is producing what we used to produce here elsewhere
00:17:15.620 because there's no regulations where they're producing it now. That's not accomplishing environmental
00:17:20.980 advancement whatsoever. Matter of fact you take a look at the actual carbon emissions around the world
00:17:25.620 they've gone up significantly since we introduced a carbon tax in Canada. We've lost industry.
00:17:31.060 Carbon emissions are going up around the world. We need to find a better path forward that actually
00:17:35.220 reduces worldwide emissions because we're all in the same atmosphere and how we participate in that
00:17:40.020 economically and environmentally. I think one way to look at it, if you're looking at how government
00:17:45.140 controls innovation and how the market controls innovation, a good way to look at it, I just kind of was
00:17:50.340 was kind of searching some examples, but the beer industry, right? Every town has a craft brewery.
00:17:57.860 Maybe more. Thank goodness. Thank goodness. And aside from some of the regulatory issues we have
00:18:02.340 provincial bodies, I know you're in Alberta, it's different, different in Quebec, I get that,
00:18:05.620 I'm from Ontario, but at the same time there are people innovating, making different brews, right?
00:18:12.820 Different, they're experimenting and they're able to keep afloat based on the fact that they have a unique
00:18:17.940 product, but the government has very little to do with that and it's a thriving industry.
00:18:23.300 You look at where government is tamping down, you actually get slower innovation, you get less choice,
00:18:29.940 less price comparisons, right? There is just a stark difference in my mind when you look at where
00:18:38.660 the government regulates and gets their hand in things and where the market and the brilliant minds
00:18:43.940 of our entrepreneurs are allowed to flourish. I love that example. The beer example is a great one.
00:18:47.860 Because you think about all the craft brewers, you've got a lot of craft brewers in downtown
00:18:51.700 Calgary and they've written me many times about these escalator taxes the government keeps pushing
00:18:56.900 onto the alcohol industry. Now the issue of course is Canadians are consuming less beer per capita
00:19:02.500 and yet this industry is doing well despite the fact the government keeps trying to tax them more
00:19:07.700 and more. But think of all the brew pubs, about all the social activity that goes around brew pubs. Even
00:19:12.820 though we're drinking less, which is probably good for our health, we're actually participating more.
00:19:17.860 We'll pay a little more for a nicer product at the end of the day. I remember when you're in
00:19:21.620 university of course you probably bought some inexpensive beer. It was the budget beer at that
00:19:25.860 point, right? That's right, but now it's kind of okay, you know I've got some good taste there,
00:19:28.500 you know, and let's go try out some... Let's try something different. Some saisons or some IPAs or whatever,
00:19:34.260 whatever the local flavor is. It's a great example. But that's how government, if it gets out of the way,
00:19:38.580 the market could provide a whole slew of choices in pretty much every field. But unfortunately we
00:19:45.460 regulated ourselves to death. Carbon tax unfortunately went up yesterday to $80 a ton,
00:19:50.500 a 23% increase from just a couple days ago. Unbelievable. We're almost out of time.
00:19:56.420 As you know, guests always get the last word. The floor is yours. Well Jamie, keep doing what you're
00:20:00.100 doing because it's important Canadians see that there are alternatives to this tax and spend government.
00:20:06.260 We have to make sure that we're actually delivering good government for Canadians at the end of the day.
00:20:10.420 We're also wildly in debt in Canada. Take a look at the budget numbers that come out here at the end of
00:20:15.140 at the end of the estimates period. Projected $37 billion, pardon me, $47 billion deficit this year.
00:20:24.580 This is runaway spending that is just out of control and that's on the future generation. Interest is going up.
00:20:31.460 10% of our budget now is towards debt servicing costs. This has to be addressed. This is runaway debt,
00:20:38.740 runaway interest payments, runaway money disappearing from the pockets of taxpayers.
00:20:44.660 We have to get ahead of that. You know I'm a budget conservative through and through. We've got
00:20:49.300 to stop excessive spending across Canada. I just think the government doesn't know how to get out of
00:20:54.580 it other than more spending. They just can't figure it out. It's got its playbook. We need to spend more
00:21:00.180 money. Well spending more money is what got you here in the first place and spending more money is
00:21:04.580 probably what you need to stop doing right now. And the Bank of Canada Governor has as much as said
00:21:08.900 that. The effects of inflation are largely a result now of the fiscal policy of this government.
00:21:14.740 And as Margaret Thatcher said, eventually you're running out a few other people's money, right?
00:21:18.340 That's exactly right. Yeah. Greg McLean, Member of Parliament, Congress and Senator. Thank you very
00:21:22.340 much for your time. Thank you. It's always a pleasure having you on the show.
00:21:24.500 Yeah. Long time no see. Absolutely. You're welcome back anytime. Thank you for yours as well. Don't
00:21:29.220 forget new content every single Tuesday, 1.30pm Eastern Time. Like, comment, subscribe and share
00:21:34.580 this program. I know everybody is dealing with the effects of the carbon tax. Let's get this message out.
00:21:40.100 Let's make sure people are aware of why this is happening and it's because of Justin Trudeau
00:21:44.740 and his horrible policies. You can also download the program on platforms like CastBox, iTunes,
00:21:49.220 Google Play, and Spotify. Until next week, remember low taxes,
00:21:52.260 less government, more freedom. That's the blueprint.