Western Standard - Alberta’s push for West Coast pipelines

00:00:00.000 Good day, I'm Corey Morgan, a columnist with the Western Standard,

00:00:29.480 and you're watching the pipeline i'm sitting in for our publisher derek phildebrand who usually

00:00:34.600 hosts these things but i got a great lineup of other folks to to fill it in and we got a lot

00:00:39.400 of great stuff to cover today so i'll kind of start with just introducing the folks we got with

00:00:43.800 me uh from the far end our news editor dave naylor is in house corey you are not just a columnist

00:00:49.400 you are the columnist of the year announced at a gala uh western standard dinner on friday night

00:00:55.640 so congratulations a lot of uh a lot of tough customers to beat thanks yeah i was very flattered

00:01:01.560 it wasn't expected i mean we've had hundreds of colonists all year from from dozens of fantastic

00:01:05.800 colonists so uh i was a pretty lucky to rise to i am you've done some great work cory i appreciate

00:01:13.480 that yeah thank you elise good evening i'm not gonna afford yes nigel is here on my right and 0.98

00:01:21.400 And our former opinion editor, if you could see, but I don't know.

00:01:24.620 Opinion editor.

00:01:25.700 Emeritus, I think, that's what we're going with.

00:01:28.220 Very great.

00:01:29.080 And coming in from the wet coast, we've got Elyse Mills. 0.99

00:01:31.860 Hi, Elyse.

00:01:32.240 How's it going?

00:01:33.460 I'm good.

00:01:34.360 Good day, gentlemen.

00:01:36.500 Good.

00:01:36.980 So we've got a bunch of stuff to cover.

00:01:39.140 We'll start again on the end with Dave, though, because he's kind of got the news on this.

00:01:43.880 There's been a big announcement from the Alberta provincial government on the pipeline front.

00:01:47.000 What's happening?

00:01:47.540 Big, big, big announcement.

00:01:48.600 Happy day for Alberta.

00:01:50.380 The Premier Smith has announced they're going to start ahead

00:01:54.480 and start pushing for a bitumen pipeline from Alberta to BC.

00:01:59.980 She's brought three companies on board, Trans Mountain,

00:02:03.220 they know a thing or two about building a pipeline,

00:02:05.920 Enbridge and South Bay Corporation.

00:02:08.480 And they're going to get together and plot routes

00:02:10.880 and all the various things you need to plot for a pipeline.

00:02:16.540 and then they're going to have it into Prime Minister Carney's major projects office by mid-2026.

00:02:25.360 So, you know, that puts the ball in Mark Carney's court

00:02:28.960 and especially puts the ball into Premier Eby's court in BC

00:02:32.940 and he already has had a press conference mocking the idea of saying it's not a real thing

00:02:38.000 and, you know, call me when you've got something concrete.

00:02:41.800 Yeah, so we'll go to Elyse.

00:02:43.160 You watched the conference, Elyse.

00:02:45.060 Mr. Eby has jumped the gun.

00:02:47.420 I guess he got a little while the Globe kind of leaked a bit of stuff too.

00:02:50.460 And he's not responding with much enthusiasm.

00:02:55.320 Well, I think Dave gave a great lead on that.

00:02:58.180 I'd also have to mention how uncomfortable Premier Eby looked in that press conference.

00:03:03.480 What David Eby is factoring in is that he's lost that green environmental support.

00:03:09.800 That's not a block that he can count on anymore.

00:03:13.140 and he's got his NDP diehards and he's still got a certain level of popular popularity in the

00:03:20.320 province um which John Rustad doesn't have um but I can tell he's factoring this in the problem is

00:03:27.240 David Eby's record on saying no to energy is has a is quite hypocritical he just seems to hate

00:03:34.780 pipelines that they'll take uh Carney's money for pretty much any other energy or energy facility 0.77

00:03:41.640 like his recent agreement with the federal government out at the Richmond airport, for

00:03:46.780 example. But he's looking nervous. The one thing I noticed was as he stuttered through

00:03:52.160 his press conference, and I don't know if Dave agrees with me, that was not a comfortable

00:03:55.880 looking premier. But it might be because he didn't really understand the details. But

00:04:00.940 he chided Premier Smith by saying, when you have something that doesn't require government

00:04:05.600 funding, let me know. Problem is, and we all know this, it's guys like David Eby, and

00:04:11.580 decade of juxtun trudeau and the gamesmanship that they played and tearing this country up

00:04:16.860 that has forced government to be one of the proponents one of the uh one of the groups

00:04:22.460 involved it should never be this way and this is a larger conversation for the economy of canada

00:04:28.700 um every big announcement has to be a government announcement and that is so different in the

00:04:33.660 united states that's almost a rarity down there um so it might spark a several different

00:04:39.580 conversations but i think it's not only a great day for alberta it's a great day for canada problem

00:04:45.740 is uh that mr eb may not even be around by the time this lands in mr carney's office

00:04:51.260 oh you can also um the uh yes look the you made the observation at least that uh it shouldn't be

00:05:02.160 this way and you know 10 years ago it wasn't companies got together and they made their pitch

00:05:09.320 And why is that no longer the case?

00:05:12.340 First of all, I'm all for Danielle Smith getting things moving if she can.

00:05:16.620 Bless her heart. 0.87

00:05:18.080 We need more leaders who are prepared to stick their necks out and go and try and get things done.

00:05:25.580 But what Mr. Carney has done is create an atmosphere for investment in the energy industry,

00:05:34.760 which totally discourages big companies.

00:05:39.920 The deal now, yeah, he may approve a pipeline,

00:05:42.820 but it's got to carry decarbonized oil.

00:05:47.260 Decarbonized oil, you say, what could that possibly be?

00:05:50.200 It's the carbon in the oil that gives us any value as a fuel.

00:05:53.680 Well, what they mean is that in order to call it decarbonized fuel,

00:05:58.580 you need to take the amount of carbon dioxide that you used in producing it

00:06:03.440 and push it underground. 0.88

00:06:05.540 And that's what there are companies in Alberta

00:06:09.140 who are looking at a way to do that

00:06:11.180 and talking about the Pathways Alliance.

00:06:13.640 The technology has been demonstrated in Saskatchewan at Weyburn.

00:06:18.020 But it's one thing to do it in Weyburn,

00:06:20.660 and it's another thing to do it on the massive scale

00:06:23.240 that would be required to decarbonize

00:06:26.060 a million barrels of oil a day.

00:06:29.440 The companies are very well aware of the cost challenges they would have to meet,

00:06:36.260 and Mr. Carney is very well aware that that's likely to discourage them.

00:06:42.320 The other thing that might discourage them is the fact that as a major project,

00:06:47.480 it would skirt the usual approval processes, end up in that little office that he's established within his own government

00:06:56.200 to handle major projects, and who knows by what standards it will be judged

00:07:01.800 and by what connivances agreement could ever be caught.

00:07:07.480 So not surprisingly, the big players are saying,

00:07:09.960 you know what, let's just see how this plays out.

00:07:13.720 Premier Smith is trying to at least clear some of the bureaucratic way ahead for them.

00:07:21.160 Good for her. I hope it works.

00:07:23.600 every Albertan should be hoping it works

00:07:26.300 because there's big money here

00:07:28.400 but even if it works

00:07:30.240 I don't know how it's going to play out

00:07:32.020 in a long haul

00:07:33.320 when you have to measure

00:07:35.060 the price that you're getting

00:07:37.960 for the oil against the tremendous costs

00:07:40.000 of bearing in carbon dioxide

00:07:41.420 there's a whole other story there

00:07:42.820 but that's

00:07:43.800 the other issue is

00:07:49.780 go ahead Elise

00:07:51.620 Go ahead, Elise.

00:07:52.760 No, sorry.

00:07:53.380 I was just going to say, very similar to the EV mandate.

00:07:57.580 The question, it's very fine and dandy to flood the market with EVs

00:08:01.900 or put the requirements of a decarbonized vitamin or decarbonized oil.

00:08:09.580 But the reality is we have $92 million missing that went to friends and family of the liberals

00:08:18.680 on apparently green research.

00:08:20.540 We haven't invested in these, what is, I would say, commonsensical ideas if you really want to address these issues. There hasn't been a significant billion-dollar investment in decarbonization. Carbon capture is not the winner-winner chicken dinner that everybody thinks it is. The companies are spending more than they're maybe even making off of it. It's not demonstrating its real value because it's not hooked into something else.

00:08:46.740 We have a very fragmented regulatory environment. We have a very fragmented clean energy slash energy environment. They're still pretty isolated away from each other. We have the ability, we could be a leader in the Western world in how we address these issues.

00:09:05.340 but we keep diverting tons of money, millions and billions to these untested, unimaginable

00:09:13.420 projects. So yes, we can do, it's like the EV market. We do not have the infrastructure to

00:09:19.040 manage decarbonization. We can't, yeah, you can buy an EV, but where are you plugging it in? If

00:09:24.600 we all had EVs, we'd break, at least in British Columbia, we would break BC Hydros back. So

00:09:30.380 that's my frustration nigel is that there's all this lovely chit chat and i very much want to buy

00:09:36.540 into it we all want to be better right but the reality is is the infrastructure is not there

00:09:41.440 and then you look at the tremendous amount of i'm not into your electric car fantasy

00:09:46.440 i didn't actually get a pipeline going if you want to decarbonize it fine great blah blah blah

00:09:56.120 i just need a pipeline however you slice that i want a pipeline if you want decarbonization great

00:10:01.620 but then show me that you understand what it takes to do that we have a bunch of uh reactive

00:10:07.680 politicians in this country that have gotten away with not demonstrating their skill set

00:10:12.760 they there is zero skill set on this file at the federal level at least they know darn well what

00:10:19.000 it takes it's not that they haven't been told what is going on here is that they're not that

00:10:25.700 keen to see the pipeline or even to see everybody running around in motorcars at all, whether they're

00:10:31.380 gas or electricity. The whole idea of the Green Movement is less and less and less, but you'll be

00:10:37.500 happy. It might be because they have politicized the Supreme Court of Canada. So is Carney's

00:10:43.320 office, this project office, immune to the constant cyclical legal litigation that we see on these

00:10:50.720 issues you know one of the issues that we haven't talked about is uh first nations obviously they're

00:10:57.120 going to be key to this whole thing uh there was some first nations representation at the press

00:11:01.920 conference uh with premier smith so i'm sure she'll be looking for uh you know first nations

00:11:07.360 to be part owners of this of this pipeline and then and there will be some first nations scrambling

00:11:12.720 to uh to get that part of that pie because it it brings in uh it brings in money where the 0.85

00:11:18.560 problems come in is when you'll get these hereditary chiefs like we saw over past years and

00:11:25.440 coastal gas and you get hereditary chiefs and blockades and trains being blocked and

00:11:32.440 and all that sort of stuff so it's it's going to be a bit of a long road but you know i'm

00:11:37.880 hopefully optimistic on this and premier smith said indigenous consultations start on day one

00:11:44.200 So did Premier Smith mention at all, though, the No More Pipelines bill and the tanker ban?

00:11:50.300 Because I noticed she had that big list of demands and the clock's running out on that. 0.78

00:11:53.620 She's suddenly gone quiet.

00:11:55.400 Did she draw a line in the sand and is she jumping beyond it now and kicking a new demand down into mid-2026? 0.93

00:12:01.120 Or is she going to finally do something? 0.88

00:12:02.700 Because to be honest, I'm starting to find Premier Smith to be high on posturing and low on action.

00:12:07.780 We've got a sovereignty act.

00:12:09.860 We've got a number of things.

00:12:11.000 She's constantly threatening to use them. 1.00

00:12:12.820 maybe it's time to get a little more assertive because the reality is if Carney doesn't stand

00:12:18.360 he's got the authority he's got the final authority that bill five gives him the ability

00:12:22.600 to cut through a number of the the roadblocks cut through a number of the things as Nigel said he

00:12:28.420 doesn't really want to do this so it's time to start putting some pressure on that man

00:12:32.680 wouldn't disagree with that uh Corey I will I will say that in doing what she announced this

00:12:39.920 this morning she is trying to do something yeah so i'll give her credit for that maybe you have

00:12:47.580 to do that first before you go back and start as i said she's she's put the ball into carney's 0.99

00:12:54.180 court yes again right again it was put in with the tanker ban and the no more pipelines the reality

00:12:59.560 is you can cut the pipe you can trench it no company's going to put a nickel into that until

00:13:05.500 So the pipeline ban has gone and the tanker ban is gone.

00:13:08.140 They're not going to touch it.

00:13:09.640 So I'm just saying her conference perhaps should have come with a reiteration of those demands.

00:13:14.080 Like we're trying to create the environment to bring in private investment, but we've got those giant roadblocks that still he won't touch.

00:13:20.780 Yeah.

00:13:21.060 Well, the pressure is now there, right?

00:13:22.420 Yeah.

00:13:22.580 We've got a natural project.

00:13:25.320 We've got work started on it.

00:13:27.440 So pressure builds on him.

00:13:29.700 But I think you're right.

00:13:30.960 I think Premier Smith has to get more hard-line.

00:13:34.660 I'm not saying she's not trying at all. I'm just not sure how many times can you just keep saying, we're going to do this until you realize he's the problem and we're going to have to start calling him out.

00:13:42.660 I think the power drive is in the relationship that where you see Quebec starting to wane on their hard stance. Now that Alberta has joined forces or is going to support Quebec in their secular bill, which would be the notwithstanding clause in that whole argument that we discussed last week, I think the relationship is melting.

00:14:05.260 It's not as frosty as it once was, and I think Quebec, as the economic storm looms on our shores in Canada, I think Quebec, who has a very, doesn't have a strong sort of free market economy, it's heavily rooted in government spending.

00:14:21.700 I think they're recognizing the revenue streams that energy could bring and jobs that it could bring to attract more young people and a more diversified investment into Quebec.

00:14:33.600 So there may be that or Quebec is also feeling the same heat that we're feeling in British Columbia on the U.S. tariffs, especially around forestry, for example, and obviously auto.

00:14:44.460 So I think some of the things that I've been watching coming out of Quebec from the premier demonstrates to me as he and he even said it last week, he is warmer to a to a pipeline from Alberta than he has ever been.

00:14:57.700 So things are moving very quickly. And that recession, I think, plays that's that's basically here. I know it's here in B.C. already plays a larger part than we may we may consider.

00:15:11.940 You know, a lot of politicians are going to fall off of that perch or that, you know, that that pulpit that they've been standing on with energy, I think.

00:15:21.020 all right well you will pull things a little closer like i said i i do hope it is something

00:15:26.820 that's going to lead to getting some resources out it's just ridiculous that we're shutting

00:15:30.020 ourselves in like this for so long and i i wish ridiculous to us but if if if you're actually

00:15:36.420 of an entirely different mindset and you're the prime minister oh yeah not ridiculous at all this

00:15:40.940 is working out of the way it's supposed to work you you keep making the offer you keep making it

00:15:45.840 look like you're keen but you set conditions on it that make it virtually impossible for anybody

00:15:50.780 to finance it or do it.

00:15:52.840 Well, a $100 billion deficit may be looming in the near future.

00:15:56.720 So I would think that the economic genius of Mark Carney

00:16:00.560 would realize you do have to have some revenue flow somewhere.

00:16:04.000 But we'll see if that sinks in or not.

00:16:06.740 He seems to much prefer the Keynesian method.

00:16:08.860 We'll just borrow ourselves rich.

00:16:11.780 All right.

00:16:12.260 Well, so locally, we've got the teachers are revolting.

00:16:17.580 In Alberta, it looks like they may be going on strike

00:16:20.180 as soon as this Monday and parents are on the hook.

00:16:23.660 I think we might be in for the long haul for a bit.

00:16:25.260 Let me just give you some numbers to chew over.

00:16:29.680 They were offered a 12% raise over four years.

00:16:33.540 Teachers with five years education and five years in classroom experience

00:16:38.480 would be making well over $100,000 for 10 months work.

00:16:43.360 The deal included 1,500 new educational assistants, 3,000 new teachers to go along with $8.6 billion in new school construction.

00:16:57.380 And Alberta teachers rejected that by 89.5%.

00:17:02.100 They're angry and they've had enough and they're going to likely go on strike on Monday.

00:17:07.460 Okay, to help parents, they're going to get $30 a day to pay for daycare or whatever else they have to do with their kids, $150 a week.

00:17:18.200 And that money is going to come from the teachers, what would have been their salaries, but they're not getting them anymore.

00:17:24.540 They're not getting paid while they're on strike.

00:17:26.340 So that money is going to families and there's going to be online courses that parents can get the teachers going on.

00:17:34.780 But if I was a betting man, I'd say it's going to last a while, this strike.

00:17:40.700 Yeah, again, I think the Premier is laying down a reputation as a hardliner on everything that she touches. 1.00

00:17:51.440 What we've just been talking about with the pipelines is actually a pretty hardline response,

00:17:55.900 understanding some of Corey's reservations.

00:17:58.000 uh she's taken pretty strong positions on some of the fringe areas around the education act with

00:18:05.340 with the pornographic textbooks and the and in terms of the transgender stuff she's been very 1.00

00:18:13.400 firm wait till you're 18 wait till you're adult so she is not afraid unlike some premiers she does

00:18:20.980 not just sort of see which way the wind is blowing she's got her ideas she puts it out there and my

00:18:27.500 sense is that she's not going to like this and she will fight them. You are right. This could

00:18:33.480 go on for a while. I'm liking where she's going already. Again, preparing parents, trying to do

00:18:37.880 what she can. She's already basically signaling to the teachers too. We're not going to flip and

00:18:41.820 settle overnight, guys. You rejected a good offer. We're going to starve you out a little bit here.

00:18:47.180 Elise, I mean, you know, BC and unions, boy, that's certainly an area and few things put chills

00:18:52.140 into the spine of a politician more than dealing with a teacher's strike of all things when you

00:18:56.800 have a bunch of upset parents and pressure put on things, but do you think Premier Smith's

00:19:02.700 going to be able to weather this storm? I think so. If I could give a little advice,

00:19:07.520 I'm a former spinner for the Gordon Campbell government and a little bit of the Christy

00:19:12.660 Clark government, and I'll say there were years where it was just rolling strikes. My child was

00:19:19.540 caught in years of strike action from kindergarten all the way through to grade six, and I regret

00:19:25.580 not pulling my child out and putting her in the public or private system i would say that we've

00:19:30.620 gone through some heavy duty strikes here um and i would say that you must hold the line

00:19:37.740 what i can't understand i looked at the offer that the alberta teachers uh were was put on

00:19:43.980 the table by the government and i compared it to what bc's last offer was and that in bc the bctf

00:19:49.900 contract actually expires next spring. So we don't have that long. But I would say that Alberta

00:19:55.960 teachers are far, far ahead than almost every teaching federation or association in the country.

00:20:02.240 I think the sticking point, and I think there's more to this as well, they didn't like the book

00:20:06.520 ban. They've got membership and they're much like the BCTF and maybe more so at the BCTF. That's

00:20:13.520 quite militant in its approach. They didn't like being told what type of books they should read,

00:20:19.780 what type of literature and conversation they should be having with their students.

00:20:24.200 I think there's some of that at play as well, and they want to push her.

00:20:27.820 And this is a bit of a revenge thing as well.

00:20:30.920 But I would say that I understand some of the parts that the Alberta teachers are complaining

00:20:37.040 about, which is really a federal problem.

00:20:39.640 It has a lot to do with class size caps, and that was a sticking feature and has been for

00:20:45.380 almost 12 years in British Columbia.

00:20:47.180 each province is seeing almost about a 10 percent growth in their classrooms that's a lot for

00:20:53.840 teachers and every child now seems to have an issue and without the special needs or special

00:20:59.440 education attached to that or aid workers the deal really isn't going to get done so my advice to the

00:21:05.660 Alberta government is fixate on that demonstrate to the public that you're coming to the table

00:21:10.520 because there is a lot of parental support I was surprised there's a lot of parental support in

00:21:14.860 Alberta for the teachers, but it's sticking on this issue. And I think that we can bring kids

00:21:20.680 back to the classroom the way that we did once we finally, in the third iteration of these strikes,

00:21:26.360 we relented and we were able to look at class size caps and also the addition of more aid workers.

00:21:31.620 I will say Cringer Smith has almost come fully to the table on that. It's just, there's a few

00:21:37.900 numbers there that need to be worked out, I think. It's interesting what you're saying there about

00:21:42.640 parental support for the

00:21:44.600 teachers.

00:21:46.100 Yes.

00:21:48.720 Well, I have

00:21:50.660 a few people in the

00:21:52.240 teaching profession

00:21:54.160 who say that there is a

00:21:56.740 hate on in

00:21:58.720 the teaching profession

00:22:00.340 for the Smith government.

00:22:03.280 They don't, they just

00:22:04.920 doesn't, I'm not

00:22:06.780 sure what a good deal could have looked like

00:22:08.420 which would have got past that.

00:22:10.480 They just don't like the idea

00:22:12.600 that somebody else not just teachers somebody else has got some firm ideas on how children should be

00:22:19.960 taught and what they should be taught i mean you mentioned the books just now and i mentioned them

00:22:24.520 earlier too when you look at what we've got there like you would have been put in prison 20 years

00:22:29.920 ago if you don't offer that stuff in a school so i have to say that if parents are supporting that

00:22:35.820 Well, my sympathies are somewhat diminished.

00:22:39.660 You look on Monday, as of Monday, teachers are without pay, right?

00:22:45.060 There is no strike fund to pay the strikers.

00:22:48.800 You know, normally if you show up on picket line duty, you get a daily stipend.

00:22:53.280 There is no money for that for teachers.

00:22:54.960 So, Corey, you talked about starving them out.

00:22:57.640 As of Monday, if they go on strike, teachers have no income.

00:23:00.660 I mean, they've got to pay for the summer cottage for their two months off somehow.

00:23:04.240 Yes, and their Christmas vacations.

00:23:06.220 And the November vacation.

00:23:07.540 And his family day, long weekend, Arbor Day.

00:23:10.980 Yes.

00:23:12.540 You name it.

00:23:13.260 But if they don't have any of these wretched radio ads that we keep hearing, I don't know.

00:23:17.740 It makes me, where do all those union dues go?

00:23:19.940 It makes me question how financially secure the union is if they can't afford strike pay.

00:23:24.640 With that said, there is 51,000 of them.

00:23:27.080 I would remind you guys, and I would remind the teachers, that it's public knowledge at our fingertips, just a Google search.

00:23:36.180 The BCTF and the Alberta teachers and the Quebec teachers and the Ontario teachers, and Ontario is an even bigger mess.

00:23:42.700 They have never met a government that they can do business with.

00:23:45.320 And it's been proven with the NDP, the successive governments in British Columbia, the NDP governments from the original Glenn Clark governments all the way to David Eby.

00:23:55.420 it's not just right of center or um you know conservative governments for example they like

00:24:03.220 to play that narrative as the big meanie you know they're right-wing fascist they want to crush us

00:24:08.840 well i would look at the comments they made about rachel not late uh when they were in their

00:24:13.740 negotiations they were hard liners then they didn't like her then they didn't they don't

00:24:18.180 like david eby they didn't like john horrigan um so this is more about ideology it's a militant

00:24:24.800 ideology. And unfortunately, I don't think it represents like the postal workers. And I talked

00:24:29.840 to many BC teachers, for example, they're frustrated by these militant union leaders

00:24:34.420 that get ahead and get elected. And what we noticed is that if we gave them enough rope,

00:24:40.960 they would not swing, but you know, they would, the house of cards would fall down. And they

00:24:46.880 eventually do turn on each other. And that's when you have to come back in and say, okay,

00:24:51.220 we're going to come to the table we understand the capping of class size and i will say the

00:24:56.060 capping of class size is a pretty antiquated um thing to to stand you hold your ground on and

00:25:02.120 it's about it's 10 years old we've all all the governments have fought about this you eventually

00:25:06.880 have to relent because it is an immigration issue and with immigration has come some serious

00:25:12.100 socioeconomic problems that we are just not prepared and unfortunately the front line is

00:25:17.100 the classroom and our healthcare system you know at least i think we have to remember

00:25:22.140 that there are some really good people in the teaching profession there are um however only

00:25:30.460 11 voted in for the deal and i i wonder if that gives you some idea of the proportion of

00:25:38.060 you've got to own it when it's a vote yeah so the rhetoric too as you're talking about with

00:25:43.020 ideology and so on. It was mentioned there

00:25:44.740 with our creepy Senator Wells

00:25:46.920 calling Premier Smith the

00:25:48.940 dictator,

00:25:50.060 which is kind of ironic considering at least

00:25:52.820 she was elected, he was appointed.

00:25:54.720 So if anybody's more of a dictator,

00:25:56.700 it would be that strange little man.

00:25:58.760 But he's really torquing

00:26:00.560 this sort of thing. I mean, we've got

00:26:02.800 a senator stepping between

00:26:04.880 and getting in the way between a provincial

00:26:06.880 and

00:26:07.840 a school

00:26:10.960 strike going on. Like, this is going to

00:26:12.860 it ugly yeah it's none of his business really um and you're right he is creepy and uh you're right

00:26:18.820 the rhetoric needs to be toned down uh and it's only going to get worse until monday well you

00:26:25.240 have the other aspect too and we've talked about that a lot we've had you know john hilton o'brien

00:26:29.020 speak of it uh if anything's going to help parents start to reconsider keeping their kids in the

00:26:34.260 regular public system it's when the teachers do things like this you know the teachers union

00:26:39.020 despises the thought of more charter schools or private schools or homeschooling, but it's just

00:26:43.840 this sort of thing that makes parents realize that maybe I like those options better. Yep, you can

00:26:47.400 see charter school enrollment booming next year. It happened in British Columbia. The public private

00:26:53.860 schools and what you guys call charter schools completely boomed and it's maintained and it's

00:27:01.020 grown in British Columbia because like Canada Post, BC's education system became extremely

00:27:07.400 unreliable. I'm not joking when I say it was six school years of rotating strikes, black armbands

00:27:14.440 as well. The teachers were wearing black armbands, dressed all in black. It horrified the children.

00:27:21.560 It was a horrible time in our province, but private schools, other types of schools have

00:27:27.180 done nothing but extremely well in this province. All right. Well, let's move along to other schools

00:27:34.280 that yesterday was the Truth and Reconciliation Day,

00:27:38.520 the holiday Justin Trudeau created for us,

00:27:41.720 or at least for government workers.

00:27:43.200 Real workers still had to come into work yesterday.

00:27:45.420 But the narrative has changed a bit.

00:27:48.200 I mean, they are kind of ramping it down.

00:27:50.220 The Governor General's speech was a little less inflammatory

00:27:54.380 than it had been in the past, I guess you could say.

00:27:57.040 Well, she certainly made no reference to denialism.

00:28:00.500 And, you know, after the first release of, after the first statement from Kamloops, what is that,

00:28:08.180 four years ago now, 2021, you know, you were, came in for a lot of criticism and there was

00:28:15.540 threats of legislation even to make it an actual crime to deny the whole narrative that...

00:28:23.380 Karina Gould is still trying in the Liberal Party to make it illegal to... 1.00

00:28:26.340 Yes. Well, she will have supporters in there. I mean, it's actually pretty serious when your

00:28:32.740 government actually wants to make a particular point of view illegal. It's one thing to say we

00:28:36.740 don't agree. We're going to kind of trash you if you put it out there. We might even put you in an 0.93

00:28:41.700 Alberta Human Rights Commission if you say it in Alberta. But to actually say it's illegal to say

00:28:48.100 this stuff, I don't think we've seen that in this country before. Anyway, the fact that the

00:28:55.540 governor general did not take the opportunity to emphasize that message the fact that parks canada

00:29:02.500 has now moderated its language in the description of the sites there are some residential schools

00:29:09.940 which have been identified as institutions of national importance and for a while there they

00:29:14.740 had one narrative now they have one that's that's a little less so just to me that the establishment

00:29:20.740 who's looking for a way to actually walk this back a bit because they put

00:29:25.360 themselves too far out there to be comfortable well we've torqued it up on

00:29:31.840 this story and nobody will pick up a bloody shovel yeah I see you you are one

00:29:35.500 of the first people to call it a hoax and I think that's what it is this whole

00:29:39.220 that millions and millions and millions of dollars spent you know given to this

00:29:43.120 Kamloops band that haven't done any digging the three of us and we'll bring

00:29:48.520 the lease along uh could solve this in an afternoon with a with a digger yeah and it would solve the

00:29:55.340 crisis and i haven't been kidding if we sunk a hole six feet and found the remains of a child

00:29:59.840 absolutely bring the rcmp in let's get a forensic investigation let's get moving and find out

00:30:05.560 exactly what happened because the claims are that this happened in the 60s it's not impossible

00:30:08.880 that the perpetrators while getting a little old might still be floating around but with the fact

00:30:13.980 that they are fighting i mean they're actively fighting efforts to excavate there just keeps

00:30:18.440 telling us there's nothing there yeah and in fact the rcmp was specifically called off the case yes

00:30:24.120 back in 2021 so there's a lot of people who don't would rather have the have the narrative out there

00:30:31.140 be a little uncertain maybe the rather than actually have it cleared up it sorry nigel 0.85

00:30:38.360 it's turned into an industry yeah right now everybody's got to have an orange shirt on

00:30:43.160 And now on September 30th, you know, First Nations bans across the country are getting millions and millions of dollars, you know, to investigate these graves.

00:30:52.760 Why would they want it to stop?

00:30:54.620 Why would they want the mystery solved?

00:30:56.740 Answer, they don't.

00:30:58.660 $32.7 million and counting.

00:31:04.300 And meanwhile, in British Columbia, where I am right now, on the north coast of British Columbia, the outcomes have only steadily nosedived.

00:31:14.800 There's more addiction in First Nations. There's more sexual abuse in First Nations. 0.89

00:31:19.720 And yet the upper echelon of First Nations is richer than ever.

00:31:24.680 What I would say on all of this, because you've all made really valid points, and I do want to give a special shout out to City News in Vancouver, who produced a lie of a story last night.

00:31:39.040 They interviewed Chief Phillip Stewart, who might sound familiar to you.

00:31:44.520 He hates pipelines. He hates energy. He hates Canada.

00:31:48.940 But he was interviewed and he was talking about 215 children.

00:31:55.420 He said, quote unquote, little tiny baby bodies that we were denied.

00:32:00.500 And City News ran this and ran this over and over and over again.

00:32:05.180 So I just want to give a shout out because it really ticked me off.

00:32:07.960 um and i i have written a note to the reporter because they need to know that is inflammatory

00:32:14.200 and it is absolutely not true but the other thing i would say to first nations communities and not

00:32:20.040 the leadership but first nations people that are on front line of poverty front line of joblessness

00:32:25.640 front line of not there's not a lot of hope and when you add in what's happening economically

00:32:30.360 in british columbia forestry the tariffs on seafood i mean it's the first nation communities

00:32:36.280 are getting hit left, right, and center. I would ask them to ask their leaders, fine, you continue

00:32:41.520 with the grift, keep with the grift, but I want to know what you've done with the money. I can't

00:32:46.260 fight the grift. The grift has already been paid for, but what have you actually produced for me,

00:32:51.040 my family, and future generations? What have you done for British Columbia? How have you integrated

00:32:56.760 or involved or invested into the economy so that we're growing the future for our people?

00:33:05.080 tell me what the grift has actually done for us or have you just taken the money and run

00:33:10.560 because at 32 or 37 point whatever it is million dollars and no diggers nothing else than the

00:33:18.520 speculation that in that or whatever it is the shadows or whatever that they're seeing which

00:33:23.480 most people believe are is the roots are tree roots and other pieces of debris tell me what

00:33:30.140 you've done with the money because we can't fight the grip i can't fight the grift anymore

00:33:34.600 and i don't think fighting the grip is going to help uh raise or elevate the voices of the

00:33:40.100 regular average first nations people that are in all of these communities up and down the north

00:33:45.860 coast that where i am and all across metro vancouver because it's it's ground zero here

00:33:50.940 where i think the most poverty and pain is you make a great point elise and you know one of the

00:33:57.840 first things that Stephen Harper did when he became prime minister in 2006 was to introduce

00:34:03.980 legislation to make the Indian leadership accountable to indigenous people, their own

00:34:11.200 indigenous people. That was one of the first things that Mr. Trudeau took away when he became

00:34:17.480 prime minister in 2015. So there is something, there is more that could be said about this.

00:34:25.400 But with your permission, I'm just going to float a theory.

00:34:29.340 This is a theory, so don't take me to the Human Rights Commission

00:34:32.780 or don't pursue me criminally here.

00:34:36.040 But the way this works is that as long as there is a plausible allegation

00:34:43.500 that missionaries abused and killed Indian children,

00:34:50.600 And the guilt blame falling on us is such that it makes it extremely hard to negotiate fair agreements with Native people.

00:35:07.100 Because there's always a thing, well, you can't push too hard, and look, they've really suffered, you see.

00:35:12.080 So when you then recognize that our own judiciary is instructed by the federal governor, by the Department of Justice, that's sent on courses and told to listen up because this is the way we want you to interpret the law.

00:35:31.640 and you know that they have been told to look at aboriginal indigenous people differently than

00:35:40.540 everybody else not just white people differently to i don't know the folks from india or pakistan

00:35:46.700 or anything else look at the aboriginal people differently you say well how is that just well 0.89

00:35:51.440 you know then they fall back on this narrative so that is my theory that um they there are people

00:35:59.720 who want this really badly and then we're going to back off quickly but i do find it instructive

00:36:06.040 that at least the governor general didn't step right up to the the plate and uh and start 0.98

00:36:13.220 talking about this the way that they thought she talked about in the previous years and that parks

00:36:18.500 canada itself which is after all is the government speaking is kind of backing away from it a little

00:36:23.200 bit well it's an indication maybe a bit of a different attitude coming from her boss and i

00:36:26.940 No, technically, the prime minister is not the governor and general's boss, but we know in reality that's where the messaging comes from.

00:36:32.560 So a bit of a change of priorities, I guess, but I don't think Mr. Carney's as interested in diving into that as Trudeau had been either.

00:36:39.580 But he certainly seems to be interested in regulating our speech and our ability.

00:36:43.860 C8 is back, and we're looking to control the Internet, control speech, control people's talking.

00:36:49.580 But now the government's talking about how they could strip Internet access from specific people?

00:36:53.620 Yeah.

00:36:53.920 Under their direction, they can order the telecom companies to, like, say, shut down Nigel's Internet.

00:37:00.700 Yeah.

00:37:01.040 Because he said he had a theory.

00:37:02.960 He had a theory.

00:37:03.880 He had a theory.

00:37:04.760 He's done it, haven't I?

00:37:05.580 Yeah.

00:37:05.880 And that's against what the government wants you to say.

00:37:09.120 And they can, you know, they have the sole power to say, shut down Nigel Hannaford or shut down Corey.

00:37:16.320 You know, it's kind of frightening.

00:37:18.600 It's Orwellian.

00:37:19.540 I mean, I justify this, Dave, and I think you had this in your article this morning in the Western Standard, which we encourage everybody to buy a subscription to, don't we?

00:37:29.160 Of course.

00:37:29.840 Absolutely.

00:37:30.460 Mr. Standard.

00:37:31.760 Okay, in the article this morning, the justification is always like this.

00:37:36.300 Well, we've got to go after the people who are laundering money or running drugs and so forth and so on.

00:37:42.520 And so the order, he says, yeah, well, I guess, you know, we probably should cut those off.

00:37:47.780 Well, it starts like that.

00:37:49.540 it always ends up coming to rest with people whose opinions they don't like.

00:37:55.140 So Elise, which one of the four of us do you think would be the first one cut off so we know

00:37:59.700 who to reach out to and try and find through letter mail when the strike's over?

00:38:02.580 Oh, I think it's you, Corey. I think if there's anyone that's first up to claim first prize,

00:38:08.180 it would be you, probably followed by me. Although I think that there's a few people ahead of me as

00:38:16.020 well um but i'm slowly edging into that uh that that you know that the the the sorry the list of

00:38:26.500 uh bad behavior that they would probably cite um do you remember the first iteration of this bill

00:38:32.260 so just for a little context this is now a standalone bill outside of bill c63 and outside

00:38:38.260 of bill c26 uh so it's like a watching it's like a russian doll nigel you remember you guys might 0.84

00:38:45.540 remember those so out of every little doll comes a new more terribly written piece of legislation

00:38:52.660 and you have to sort of follow the breadcrumbs on this but i will say that it was obvious that they

00:38:59.620 you know contrary to what um minister sean fraser said it had it hadn't really addressed the issues

00:39:05.940 it's taken um it says it's put more guard rails in and it's more targeted towards who they think

00:39:12.260 the offenders are but the problem is it hasn't done any of that what it has done is it has

00:39:18.180 acknowledged some of the dangers and problems um and there's some good stuff in there like you

00:39:23.300 shouldn't you know be able to uh paint your house as swastikas that's a pretty good thing 1.00

00:39:28.820 um but that's just sort of the window dressing the rest of it's exactly the same as the first

00:39:34.900 two iterations of the online hate film which i guess is not technically a third iteration

00:39:40.900 although there's these standalone breakaway bills that I think are meant to confuse people and not

00:39:47.540 have them see it as part of the larger bill. But I agree with you, all four of us are going to end

00:39:52.660 up having our internet cut off. And you can't help but look at what's happening in the UK,

00:39:58.660 where there has been an Orwellian authoritarian enforcement on free speech. And I would ask,

00:40:06.260 And I think enough groups and enough legitimate groups have pushed back, including Karen's top law firms, on Bill C-8.

00:40:14.040 So I don't think it's going to survive, but it's definitely a lesson.

00:40:18.660 And we can never let a bill like that show up in the House of Commons again.

00:40:23.360 And I highly doubt in our future and our time that it will come back because it is a scary bill if you really read through it.

00:40:33.020 I suspect it will get Trenbach in the Senate.

00:40:35.600 internet. Enforceability is going to be a nightmare with this one.

00:40:39.160 All right, we'll move on quickly. We'll kind of hit this

00:40:41.580 fast or I'll just kind of run through it because we're going to get to our parting

00:40:44.600 shots. The time's going quickly before we get cut off the

00:40:47.600 internet. The temperatures

00:40:50.660 are going down. The cost of living is going up. Natural gas

00:40:53.760 prices. Yeah, people are wondering why their gas

00:40:56.680 prices are going up. But just there was a few tips on

00:40:59.000 making sure, you know, or finding out whether you're on the

00:41:02.340 regulated rate option so they're going to double in october yeah so that that's going to be a big

00:41:07.840 hit especially if the temperatures go down so just letting people know check your bill look

00:41:11.620 for those terms and uh check for those rates of last resort and such just a reminder to folks

00:41:17.380 because it's coming fast it's sliding under the radar yeah i um i i did take a look at that and

00:41:23.460 i guess you basically you look at your bill and if you got the phrase r-o-l-r rate of last resort

00:41:30.920 or DRT, which is default rate, you may have a problem.

00:41:37.480 All right, so just check your bills and see what your plan is.

00:41:40.020 All right, let's get on to the final shots. 0.98

00:41:41.140 We'll start with Elise quickly so we don't run over time.

00:41:45.440 And what do you want to leave people with on the parting shot there, Elise?

00:41:49.360 My final, my parting shot for today is to make sure people understand

00:41:53.020 I'm not denying residential schools.

00:41:56.080 And I think for a large chunk of First Nations people

00:42:00.000 that went through residency schools, it was horrifying.

00:42:03.080 And that is not a history that I'm willing or wanting to deny.

00:42:07.380 But what I won't deny, and I won't stop talking about, is the grift and the millions and millions

00:42:13.500 and millions of dollars that have gone unaccounted for.

00:42:17.020 And I want First Nations leadership to not look at me, but to look in the faces of those

00:42:23.440 who are hurting the most on the resource, which is traditionally women and young girls,

00:42:27.500 and tell them how they spent that money

00:42:30.560 and how it's made their lives better

00:42:32.180 because we need to stop the grift.

00:42:34.940 All right.

00:42:35.720 Dave, what do you got?

00:42:37.360 One of my heroes died today, Corey,

00:42:39.880 the chimp lady, Dr. Jane Goodall.

00:42:42.240 She was 91 years old.

00:42:43.800 She passed away in Los Angeles

00:42:45.860 where she was on a speaking tour of the United States.

00:42:49.660 Just did a speech.

00:42:51.840 91.

00:42:52.680 In her 80s, she was on the road 300 days a year

00:42:56.260 giving speeches to school children and groundbreaking work

00:43:00.140 that she got a lot of stick for at the beginning of it 0.98

00:43:02.940 when she started noticing the similarities between chimps and humans

00:43:07.780 and discovered that chimps were capable of using tools.

00:43:12.780 So definitely a life well lived and rest in peace, Dr. Goodall.

00:43:18.120 Yeah, well, I was quite sad, very sad actually,

00:43:22.560 to hear that nigel wright former chief of staff to prime minister harper had died in london at

00:43:28.560 the age of 62 which is really checking out a bit bit too early um take this up you know say he was

00:43:35.200 a wonderful man he was a great leader in the prime minister's office a privilege to know him and you

00:43:41.280 know i i said at the time and i see other people have been repeating it since that uh he was the

00:43:46.400 one who showed you what the difference between a liberal scandal was and a conservative scandal

00:43:51.520 A liberal scandal is one where you take money out of the till.

00:43:55.140 The conservative scandal is when you put your own end to the till to make things good.

00:43:59.640 Yes, it was.

00:44:01.580 Rest in peace, neither right.

00:44:03.700 He certainly did his service.

00:44:05.160 By the people who did.

00:44:06.540 With me, I'm just going to point out and remind folks, actually, look on the Internet whilst you can.

00:44:11.860 and uh francis widdowson who spoke in winnipeg and was assaulted by a number of first nations

00:44:19.340 people who were riled up by it appears to be university staff to come out and confront her

00:44:23.640 she was assaulted and uh will be seeking charges against some of them it was on video but again i'm

00:44:29.320 certain thanks to the glad new principles none of them will really face any uh consequences but this

00:44:33.700 is a scary development when we are now physically assaulting people for just showing up on a campus

00:44:38.280 to try and speak and uh yeah self-promoting plug Francis will be appearing on my show next week

00:44:44.260 and we'll discuss that in a lot a little more length and see just what's going on because

00:44:48.940 that's a really really ugly development that video is very very disturbing uh with how she 1.00

00:44:53.440 was treated when she arrived there and knowing that university faculty was at least a little

00:44:58.740 bit complacent in this and uh the guy with her up to a page he was also uh the videographer

00:45:04.540 yeah and shaken up so uh you know we don't want to be going we're supposed to be moving ahead in

00:45:09.760 the world not to a place where we fear for our physical well-being when we want to speak out

00:45:14.120 on things bad enough with legislative threats to our speech but physical ones uh stirred up so

00:45:19.380 anyway i just want to remind folks that i'll be chatting about that so thank you at least nigel

00:45:24.460 and dave for uh this episode of the pipeline this week and uh thank all you guys for tuning in and

00:45:31.320 And I just got to put that final nagging reminder and get online.

00:45:34.360 The reason we can do this, the way we pay the bills and keep the lights on and pay that

00:45:37.380 natural gas is through you subscribing.

00:45:40.420 It's $10 a month, $100 for a year.

00:45:42.460 Take advantage of volume discounts.

00:45:45.040 Keep supporting us.

00:45:45.840 If you've already subscribed, thank you.

00:45:47.060 We really, really do appreciate it.

00:45:48.620 If you haven't, come on, get on with it.

00:45:49.880 And I tell you, it's Christmas shopping time.

00:45:51.680 If you really want to drive your liberal uncle crazy, buy him a subscription to the

00:45:55.800 Western Standard and maybe it'll grow on him.

00:45:58.420 All right.

00:45:58.680 Thank you again for tuning in, guys, and we'll see you all next week.

Western Standard - October 02, 2025

Alberta’s push for West Coast pipelines

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