Trudeau’s reckless spending is making life harder for Canadians
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Summary
In this episode of The Blueprints, Conservative MP's Michael Barrett and Greg Mclean join me to talk about the new travel restrictions for unvaccinated Canadians, cost of living, and the Rivetavie app.
Transcript
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Hello and welcome once again to The Blueprints. This is Canada's Conservative Podcast. I'm your
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host, Jamie Schmael, Member of Parliament for Halliburton, Kawartha Lakes, Brock, with new
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content for you every single Tuesday, 1.30 p.m. Eastern Time. We are going right through the
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summer. We are not taking a break because that ever-moving Liberal agenda is doing just that.
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We need to push back. So with this content, we ask that you like, subscribe, comment, share this
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program, and together we can do that. Of course, please tell your friends if you can't listen or
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watch the entire program right this second. You can download it, listen to it on platforms like
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CastBox, iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, you name it, it is out there. Today, another great show lined up
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for you. We are talking cost of living. We are talking that incredible Rive Can app. And with
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those topics, we have two friends of the show coming back again. We have Michael Barrett,
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the Member of Parliament for Leeds, Grenville, Thousand Islands, and Rideau Lakes, a beautiful
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province of Ontario who is also the critic for health. Joining him right beside him is Greg
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McLean, the Member of Parliament for Calgary Centre, also the critic for Natural Resources.
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Thank you, gentlemen, for coming. It's a pleasure. All right, let's talk about the health mandate. So
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we have new measures announced for unvaccinated Canadians. They are now allowed to travel
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internationally and domestically, finally, after months of pressure by yourself and other colleagues
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trying to get this fixed. But there are still hurdles they have to go through, including
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potential quarantine when they arrive back from an international location.
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Right. Yeah. So this is something that our Conservative team has been fighting. We've been
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fighting against these vaccine mandates, you know, certainly over the last year through the
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last election. And we've put a lot of pressure on the government to simply just show us what the
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data is that they've been using to keep these mandates in place. These are the same mandates that
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they use to lay off, spend, fire federal public servants, including the RCMP. And really, it's
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been a situation where Canadians haven't been able to take a plane. They haven't been able to take a
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train. And so it didn't matter what their situation was. It could have been, you know, a compassionate
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circumstance to just, you know, a happy one to see the, to reunite with their family for the birth of a
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child or, you know, or a sad and somber occasion like saying goodbye to someone, a celebration of
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life or a funeral. The government hasn't relented up until this point. And so they have suspended or
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paused these mandates for now saying that they might bring them back in the future. So our work isn't done.
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But what this means right now is that Canadians do not have to show proof of vaccination to travel
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domestically on those federally regulated, you know, transportation modes like flying and trains.
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And when they return to Canada, they still are subjected to quarantine requirements,
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testing requirements. And when you're traveling by plane, of course, everyone, vaccinated or not,
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is still going to have to wear a mask. So we continue to challenge the government for the science,
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though, Jamie, it's, it's very... Well, the science changed everywhere else except
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in the federally regulated jurisdictions in Canada. That's right. And so the top public health officers
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in, in all of the provinces said it was safe to lift those mandates and, and showed the modeling
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that they needed to, the benchmarks that they needed to hit to be able to lift those, to lift those
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mandates. And the federal government has refused to share any of the data. So we don't know what the
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conditions were that, that required them to stay in place. And we don't know what the conditions
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that were met that saw them lifted. So the fact that they're suspending them with the threat of
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reimposing them, we don't know at what time that might happen.
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So arrive can, and a lot of people say arrive can't, because it is, it's, it's not, it's not
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friendly to travelers. It's not friendly to our tourism sector. I can tell you, I've got a couple
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duty free stores at the land border crossings in my riding. They field all kinds of calls from folks
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who are saying, well, what's this requirement? And how do I use that app? But you know what, nevermind,
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we're going to, we're going to stay stateside. So this is having a real impact on people who are,
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you know, wanting to travel to Canada. It's having a real impact on border communities,
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on our, on our tourism sector. And it's just, it's just more red tape from the government. It
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makes job, the job harder for our CBSA officers who are there to keep us safe, not to just keep in
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place unscientific tools that have been, you know, imposed by the governments and arbitrarily left in
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place. Okay. We're talking transportation. Now we're talking vehicular traffic. Cost of gasoline
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is absolutely through the roof. And I note here, the province of Alberta has the lowest price right
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now at $1.89 per litre. Congratulations. That's because your premier had the foresight to reduce
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some taxes temporarily. We don't have the same benefit here in Canada. 14 cents a litre came off
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in Alberta and we could reduce that by another 60 cents if you think about all the taxes that go on
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gas is across Canada. So about $2.09 as the last I saw is the average price in Canada. We expect that
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to go up through the summer as of course supply is constrained and demand will go up as people
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drive for vacations. It is a formula. So the biggest question we get in there, why we have lots of oil
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here in Canada. Why can we not somehow bring the price down? What's the answer to that? We get it all the time.
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We are constrained by our infrastructure, how we actually supply that oil. We're actually even
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discouraging the industry most of the time from actually producing more oil. That actually leads
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to of course production. Oil comes out of the ground and you've got to process it into actually
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finished goods. So gasoline, diesel, airline fuel. But that happens often stateside and is brought back
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into Canada. We have a division in Canada between where we produce the oil and where we consume the
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oil. A lot of our production in Western Canada goes south of the border. Some of that comes back
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north to supply refineries in Canada, but also all our consumers in Canada get American processed
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gas. So if you think about Pearson Airport, most of that supply of aviation fuel comes from refineries
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south of the border. So it's not a strict equation, but we are seeing a reduction in refining capacity
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across North America. And that is because governments in both jurisdictions, Canada and the United States,
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have told the industry, we don't want you producing as much. We see less demand going forward
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from a more or less structural point of view. How does industry adjust to that when the demand that they see
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is increasing? And the only thing that can happen, of course, is lower supply, higher demand. You tell me what
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happens to price. Absolutely. It always goes up. Well, that's the biggest issue. The government now is noticing
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it's politically bad for them to have high gas prices. But at the same time, they for decades have come up with
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policies that have hampered the ability for these companies to get their product to market. European, Asian,
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even the United States. As you know, Joe Biden, the first thing he did was kill Keystone XL, which would
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have been quite helpful right now with the price of gasoline in the United States. There are other
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nations that can't up their production, just like you said, to to offset what's happening in Russia,
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Ukraine. Yeah. And the narrative around Europe has always been we need to price gasoline higher so that
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alternative energies look more attractive from a cost perspective. In the last six months or since the
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war in Ukraine, you've watched that come crashing down. The Europeans now are taking 20 billion euros
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less from their consumers in taxes. In Canada, at the same time, we've wrapped it up. So we're taking
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2.5 billion more from consumers in Canada. It makes no sense. Our approach on this is backwards
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vis-a-vis the rest of the world. Absolutely. So going back to the health part, this is where
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it kind of ties in and the tourism. We're having people stopped at the border coming from the United
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States. They're just getting fed up with the Arrive Can app. We have high gas prices, high fuel prices,
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whether it be planes or vehicles. You live in a tourist town. You represent tourist agents. This
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is just another kick to an industry that has been down and out for the last two years. Well, absolutely.
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This is it's been one thing after another. And, you know, we heard we heard Mr. Trudeau say that the
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pandemic's not over and so they're going to keep these measures in place. Well, it hasn't relented
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for our tourism sector. And they continue to suffer under painful regulations and rules put in place
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by and policies put in place by the Liberals. And so on gasoline, it's been punishing and it will be a
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punishing summer for folks who depend on people to get in their car and enjoy, in my case, the
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province of Ontario to come to Leeds, Granville, Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, which, as you
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know, is a beautiful country. And the Arrive Can app and the policies at our border, the requirement
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for proof of vaccination for American travelers coming into Canada, it's going to continue to hamper
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that tourism that we rely on, frankly. And so it's going to be another tough summer, frankly, for
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people that operate in the tourism space. It's going to be a tough summer for people in my
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community. And they're looking for some action, some compassion from the government. You know, we know
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that the official opposition has put forward, Canada's Conservatives have put forward concrete
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proposals that would give Canadians a break and would also, you know, encourage some of that
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traveling. And, you know, for Americans who would come to Ontario or come, you know, come across to
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Canada, who would overcome the Arrive Can app and that bureaucracy, who did make a choice to get
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vaccinated, have that proof of vaccination. Well, once they get into Canada, they're going to see gas
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prices that are just absolutely unrecognizable to them. And when even the strength of the U.S. dollar
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against the Canadian dollar isn't making it worth their while, they're going to say, you know what,
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we're going to stay home this summer. So it's going to be really tough. The government has
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failed to take action on that. They want to talk about all other, you know, measures that they've
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put in place, billions and billions and billions of spending that's, you know, frankly, further
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fueling the fire. I'd say throw gas on the fire, but I don't even think they can afford the gas. So
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it's going to be tough times. Well, let's talk about, let's build on what Michael just said.
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And Greg, I love talking finance with you as well. As Michael just said, they're fighting
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inflation with more spending. So it's like fighting cancer with more cancer. It just really
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doesn't make any sense when we're trying to bring down the cost, but they keep putting fuel on the
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fire. And very indicative. And the next report of CPI comes out tomorrow, or I guess Wednesday,
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I guess it'll be a week since we're recording this. I apologize. So that is actually going to be
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in the seven print. We're expecting a seven print on that at this point, 6.8 to 7. And we'll see,
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you know, how much that affects everything. But the big influence on that, of course, is fuel prices.
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Fuel prices are continuing to push inflation across Canada. And the government has in their toolbox
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something they can actually use to bring that down. Because the two biggest contributors
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to inflation are employment and energy. And energy is continuing to be ramped up by this government.
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The costs are in the pocketbook at the end of the day. People are going to have to pay it.
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And that's going to be indicated in your inflation numbers through and through. How do you deal with
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that? You deal with it by reducing that amount as quickly as possible. Otherwise, we're going to
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continue to see these prints. But you know, this is a finance minister that is only starting to
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understand that she can't print money ad nauseum here. We're going to have to stop printing money in
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order to deal with these problems going forward. That is part of, and even the governor of the Bank of
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Canada, God bless him, if you will, he's actually even indicated that it is the fiscal problems at
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this point in time, not the monetary problems that are holding back the fight against inflation.
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So you're going to see a disconnect here between different officials and the government coming
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So we're talking high energy prices, mortgage rates are going up, seeing the price of groceries,
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everything's going up. People are getting, well, they're noticing their paychecks aren't going as far.
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That means a cut down in discretionary spending. This is a very concerning path that the liberals
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just don't seem to be concerned about at all. And all the marks are here. Like the warning signs are
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Right. I mean, they didn't seem to have a good read on it. You know, over the last year, we heard that
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we would not have inflation. We heard that the problems that we were experiencing were transitory.
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We've heard that everything's stable. They put all the right steps in place to take care of Canadians.
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They're going to tell you if you can't pay your mortgage and you're a single senior, don't worry.
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We cut your child care costs for you. So it's very confusing messaging.
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We heard from the finance minister a week ago when she was talking to, you know, to the richest
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Canadians in Toronto that it was, you know, something we've heard from the prime minister.
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This is the desired effect that even when, even at a time when Canadians were struggling to make end meets,
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they still increased the carbon tax because, you know, they wanted to, they wanted to continue to advance
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their, that agenda. So the government is now saying that they're going to continue to rake in record profits.
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You know, they claim it's to reduce the deficit, but we haven't seen evidence that they have any
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interest in that over the last seven years. So it's going to be, it's going to be a tough,
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tough year for Canadians. And the government really just doesn't seem to get it.
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Well, they continue to hide behind events, if you will. So they had COVID and they blew their brains
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out on spending or COVID. And we know that at least one third of the spending had nothing to do with COVID.
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And then they had the war in Ukraine, they're blaming it. And they had the floods in BC and all these
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things are saying, that's the problem. That's the problem. That's the problem. We live in a world
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where we're going to continue to have problems going forward here. We have to start adjusting
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to a normal that says we don't keep spending money for the sake of spending money.
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Well, that should have been a message we, we hopefully will get across to the Liberals at some
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point, because that that's the main issue. They keep spending money they don't have. They keep coming
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up with new programs with money they don't have. And I think that's, that's what Canadians,
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I think are coming around to that the government in large part created a lot of the crisis we are
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seeing right now. I think I'm hoping that more and more start to realize what is going on.
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Yeah, absolutely. We have a government that, as Greg said, thinks that the solution to the
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problems is, is to print money. They're very ideologically driven, very interested in impressing,
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you know, celebrities on the world stage. That's been Mr. Trudeau's, you know, his primary objective.
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And while we've got real problems here in Canada, we saw that, you know, him filling up his Instagram
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with photos with, you know, celebrities in Los Angeles a couple of weeks ago. It defies reasoning.
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And while we have, there's an energy crisis, you know, that is caused by Russia's invasion and war in
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Ukraine. And there's an opportunity in Canada. We should be, we should see the prime minister,
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the finance minister, the environment minister, the natural resource minister on an international
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sales tour, selling Canada as the most ethical, cleanest, responsible energy producer in the world.
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And, and, and we can sell it to you for many of them at a great price, you know, with the strength
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of their currency against ours. And they're not doing that. And so what are we seeing instead? We're
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seeing countries like Germany who are taking nuclear offline and bringing cold fired plants
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online. And all the while we were not hearing from our government that they're going to come up
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with solutions to get LNG, to get our, our, our, our petroleum products to tidewater so that we can
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be a, be a real player to, to solve, to get them off that, that, you know, Russian oil or conflict oil
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or unethical oil, but also to bring down global greenhouse gas emissions and, and to have it done
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with, with, you know, a product made in Canada that is made under the, and extracted under the
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strictest environmental regimes in the world. And as well, we know that all the workers are treated
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with, with dignity. They have the human rights that are afforded to, to, to everyone in this country.
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And, and it's, it's baffling. So we have an Instagram tour from the prime minister instead
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of a sales tour from the full federal cabinet that, that could really, you know, move the mark
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and, and make life better, make life better for Canadians at the same time.
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And let me add to that because I hear that narrative of the minister of natural resources
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There's a gap between project, actual proposal and building these things. And that gap is growing
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larger because of the regulatory burden that's been presented by this government over the past
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seven years. Nothing is getting built here for good reason. They're not bringing capital in
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from overseas because nobody has line of sight on getting projects built.
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Now, if the minister of natural resources wants to export Canadian resources, he's going to have
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to build the infrastructure to export that. That's going to take a long time. My sense is this
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government just wants all these problems to go away. So it doesn't actually have to deal
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with the reality that we can propose these solutions to the world. Those solutions aren't
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evident right now. And the rest of the world doesn't look at Canada as a supplier right
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now. We've missed the boat for seven years on building that infrastructure. And the rest
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of the world is going, where were you? Because now we need you. The time to actually build
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a defense system is not in the middle of a war. You build it ahead of time. You get prepared
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for what's coming. Now, Russia expanded its production of oil and gas by over 10%. It doubled
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as far as the supply to Europe goes over the last seven years. And here we are in Canada
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sitting on our hands with all these resources and no way to get them to market. And that's
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a failure of the regulatory system. Ask anybody who was setting up all those projects in Canada
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for LNG, for pipelines, for getting oil offshore. Ask them why all those got cancelled. And they
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continue to get built in other parts of the world. That's a failure of this government.
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How much further would we be ahead if Energy East was completed? Or even started? It would
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have been started already. Northern Gateway, among others. Keystone XL, who's allowed to
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be finished. We would have the ability to help increase the supply that's desperately needed
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Oh, exactly. I mean, you think about all the infrastructure we needed to have built. And
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now it's being proposed to be built. We still have TMX, which is grossly over budget. Once
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the government got a hold of it. Only because the government had to save it. Well, the government
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came in because the government regulations is more or less what put it in peril in the first
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place. So they stepped in and they spent over $10 billion more than the private sector party
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actually had budgeted for building that. And it's just a twinning of a pipeline. There's no,
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or there's barely any new route on that whole route. It is actually something that was very
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simple to do. Less than $8 billion is what Kinder Morgan proposed to have that built. And it's
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cost over $18 billion so far. We'll see where it ends up. But there's a whole bunch of
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process that's been built in there, regulatory process in particular, that's being put on
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the backs of Canadian taxpayers at this point in time. Is this going to be viable? Yes,
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it is, because we still have a differential that we receive on Canadian oil because we
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only have one customer. Getting our oil to Tidewater is a very important part of diversification
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of the Canadian energy system. Now that's important. So you think about 99% of oil right
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now where exports go to the United States. Once TMX is built, we'll have a bunch of it going
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to Tidewater available for other parties, whether they'll take it or not, because a lot
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of it will be swallowed up by our neighbor to the south. And your closest customer, of
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course, is your best customer often. But it'll give us a bit of a pricing advantage,
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which we think equates to about $6 billion more on a differential basis for Canadian oil.
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And that's fantastic. I mean, that's money we're throwing away right now. It's going
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into the pockets of United States refiners and the United States government that collects
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tax on it. So it's a big bonus, but we need a lot more of that, obviously. We need
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more infrastructure in Canada to get our resources to market.
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I was absolutely shocked when you told me that government bungled the project that they
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took control of. I can't believe that's possible. We're just running out of time. So as you
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know, I always give the guests the final words. So Michael, why don't I start with you? The
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Well, we've had a busy few months really pressing the government for the science, for the numbers
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behind what they've been doing with respect to mandates. And, you know, they've obfuscated.
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They haven't given us that information. But we've put enough pressure on them, and that
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pressure was really amplified with the voices of Canadians, people who are concerned about
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the effects that these mandates were having. And so Conservatives continue to fight for Canadians,
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and we're going to keep doing that throughout the summer. So the House of Commons has risen
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for the year. But when it comes back in the fall, it will be with months of Conservative
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advocacy on the behalf of Canadians that has happened in the meantime. So I look forward
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to continuing to fight, you know, with our Conservative team for Canadians because, you
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know, Canada needs a champion. And sadly, we don't see that in Mr. Trudeau's government.
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And I also give you and the team credit for your continual work on showcasing what a disaster
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our airports are, especially Pearson International. So Greg?
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Well, it's been an interesting winter-spring session here. And you look at how much the
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Liberals want this to end at this point in time, because everything we've said for years
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now is coming to pass for them. World security is a big problem for them. They want that to
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go away, because we've said you've got to start preparing for the future here. Energy
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security is front line for all these people at this point in time, particularly with our allies
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in Europe. We've been saying this for a long time. Inflation is mounting like crazy. Liberals
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just don't want to deal with this. The solutions are there for them. We've proposed those solutions,
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and they're not taking it up at this point in time. It's only a matter of time before
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people start saying, there's a party here putting forward viable solutions for the problems
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we're facing in Canada and the world, both from an economic perspective, a security perspective,
00:22:08.580
and an environmental perspective. And the Liberals are not approaching those at all right
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now. I don't know if it's because it's not in their backyard that they haven't thought
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this up, but I do think there's an agenda here that we are ahead of, and we are going
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to continue to press these points going forward. Well, the NDP wants to tax excess profits on the
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oil and gas industry, which will only do what? Increase the price of fuel. One taxpayer at the
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end of the day. It is absolutely unbelievable. Gentlemen, it's been a pleasure. I have so many
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more questions and more conversation, but unfortunately, we only have so much time. So I
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appreciate your being here today. Of course, Michael Barrett, the Member of Parliament for Leeds,
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Grenville, Thousand Island, Arrito Lakes, also the critic for health. Beside him is Greg McLean,
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the Member of Parliament for Calgary Centre, and also the critic for natural resources.
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00:22:55.940
we can push back against that ever-moving Liberal agenda. Again, tell your friends about it because
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with new content for you. Until then, remember, low taxes, less government, more freedom. That's