Corey Morgan, the Western Standard's editor-in-chief, sits down with the paper's news editor, Dave Naylor, to discuss the Alberta government's announcement on the proposed Trans Mountain pipeline, and the reaction from Premier David Eby and Environment Minister Danielle Smith.
00:08:20.540We 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.
00:08:46.740We 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.
00:09:05.340but we keep diverting tons of money, millions and billions to these untested, unimaginable
00:09:13.420projects. So yes, we can do, it's like the EV market. We do not have the infrastructure to
00:09:19.040manage decarbonization. We can't, yeah, you can buy an EV, but where are you plugging it in? If
00:09:24.600we all had EVs, we'd break, at least in British Columbia, we would break BC Hydros back. So
00:09:30.380that's my frustration nigel is that there's all this lovely chit chat and i very much want to buy
00:09:36.540into it we all want to be better right but the reality is is the infrastructure is not there
00:09:41.440and then you look at the tremendous amount of i'm not into your electric car fantasy
00:09:46.440i didn't actually get a pipeline going if you want to decarbonize it fine great blah blah blah
00:09:56.120i just need a pipeline however you slice that i want a pipeline if you want decarbonization great
00:10:01.620but then show me that you understand what it takes to do that we have a bunch of uh reactive
00:10:07.680politicians in this country that have gotten away with not demonstrating their skill set
00:10:12.760they there is zero skill set on this file at the federal level at least they know darn well what
00:10:19.000it takes it's not that they haven't been told what is going on here is that they're not that
00:10:25.700keen to see the pipeline or even to see everybody running around in motorcars at all, whether they're
00:10:31.380gas or electricity. The whole idea of the Green Movement is less and less and less, but you'll be
00:10:37.500happy. It might be because they have politicized the Supreme Court of Canada. So is Carney's
00:10:43.320office, this project office, immune to the constant cyclical legal litigation that we see on these
00:10:50.720issues you know one of the issues that we haven't talked about is uh first nations obviously they're
00:10:57.120going to be key to this whole thing uh there was some first nations representation at the press
00:11:01.920conference uh with premier smith so i'm sure she'll be looking for uh you know first nations
00:11:07.360to be part owners of this of this pipeline and then and there will be some first nations scrambling
00:11:12.720to uh to get that part of that pie because it it brings in uh it brings in money where the
00:11:18.560problems come in is when you'll get these hereditary chiefs like we saw over past years and
00:11:25.440coastal gas and you get hereditary chiefs and blockades and trains being blocked and
00:11:32.440and all that sort of stuff so it's it's going to be a bit of a long road but you know i'm
00:11:37.880hopefully optimistic on this and premier smith said indigenous consultations start on day one
00:11:44.200So did Premier Smith mention at all, though, the No More Pipelines bill and the tanker ban?
00:11:50.300Because I noticed she had that big list of demands and the clock's running out on that.
00:13:09.640So I'm just saying her conference perhaps should have come with a reiteration of those demands.
00:13:14.080Like 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.
00:13:30.960I think Premier Smith has to get more hard-line.
00:13:34.660I'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.
00:13:42.660I 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.
00:14:05.260It'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.
00:14:21.700I 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.
00:14:33.600So 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.
00:14:44.460So 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.
00:14:57.700So 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.
00:15:11.940You 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.
00:15:21.020all right well you will pull things a little closer like i said i i do hope it is something
00:15:26.820that's going to lead to getting some resources out it's just ridiculous that we're shutting
00:15:30.020ourselves in like this for so long and i i wish ridiculous to us but if if if you're actually
00:15:36.420of an entirely different mindset and you're the prime minister oh yeah not ridiculous at all this
00:15:40.940is working out of the way it's supposed to work you you keep making the offer you keep making it
00:15:45.840look like you're keen but you set conditions on it that make it virtually impossible for anybody
00:23:13.260But if they don't have any of these wretched radio ads that we keep hearing, I don't know.
00:23:17.740It makes me, where do all those union dues go?
00:23:19.940It makes me question how financially secure the union is if they can't afford strike pay.
00:23:24.640With that said, there is 51,000 of them.
00:23:27.080I would remind you guys, and I would remind the teachers, that it's public knowledge at our fingertips, just a Google search.
00:23:36.180The BCTF and the Alberta teachers and the Quebec teachers and the Ontario teachers, and Ontario is an even bigger mess.
00:23:42.700They have never met a government that they can do business with.
00:23:45.320And 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.
00:23:55.420it's not just right of center or um you know conservative governments for example they like
00:24:03.220to play that narrative as the big meanie you know they're right-wing fascist they want to crush us
00:24:08.840well i would look at the comments they made about rachel not late uh when they were in their
00:24:13.740negotiations they were hard liners then they didn't like her then they didn't they don't
00:24:18.180like david eby they didn't like john horrigan um so this is more about ideology it's a militant
00:24:24.800ideology. And unfortunately, I don't think it represents like the postal workers. And I talked
00:24:29.840to many BC teachers, for example, they're frustrated by these militant union leaders
00:24:34.420that get ahead and get elected. And what we noticed is that if we gave them enough rope,
00:24:40.960they would not swing, but you know, they would, the house of cards would fall down. And they
00:24:46.880eventually do turn on each other. And that's when you have to come back in and say, okay,
00:24:51.220we're going to come to the table we understand the capping of class size and i will say the
00:24:56.060capping of class size is a pretty antiquated um thing to to stand you hold your ground on and
00:25:02.120it's about it's 10 years old we've all all the governments have fought about this you eventually
00:25:06.880have to relent because it is an immigration issue and with immigration has come some serious
00:25:12.100socioeconomic problems that we are just not prepared and unfortunately the front line is
00:25:17.100the classroom and our healthcare system you know at least i think we have to remember
00:25:22.140that there are some really good people in the teaching profession there are um however only
00:25:30.46011 voted in for the deal and i i wonder if that gives you some idea of the proportion of
00:25:38.060you've got to own it when it's a vote yeah so the rhetoric too as you're talking about with
00:25:43.020ideology and so on. It was mentioned there
00:27:48.200I mean, they are kind of ramping it down.
00:27:50.220The Governor General's speech was a little less inflammatory
00:27:54.380than it had been in the past, I guess you could say.
00:27:57.040Well, she certainly made no reference to denialism.
00:28:00.500And, you know, after the first release of, after the first statement from Kamloops, what is that,
00:28:08.180four years ago now, 2021, you know, you were, came in for a lot of criticism and there was
00:28:15.540threats of legislation even to make it an actual crime to deny the whole narrative that...
00:28:23.380Karina Gould is still trying in the Liberal Party to make it illegal to...
00:28:26.340Yes. Well, she will have supporters in there. I mean, it's actually pretty serious when your
00:28:32.740government actually wants to make a particular point of view illegal. It's one thing to say we
00:28:36.740don't agree. We're going to kind of trash you if you put it out there. We might even put you in an
00:28:41.700Alberta Human Rights Commission if you say it in Alberta. But to actually say it's illegal to say
00:28:48.100this stuff, I don't think we've seen that in this country before. Anyway, the fact that the
00:28:55.540governor general did not take the opportunity to emphasize that message the fact that parks canada
00:29:02.500has now moderated its language in the description of the sites there are some residential schools
00:29:09.940which have been identified as institutions of national importance and for a while there they
00:29:14.740had one narrative now they have one that's that's a little less so just to me that the establishment
00:29:20.740who's looking for a way to actually walk this back a bit because they put
00:29:25.360themselves too far out there to be comfortable well we've torqued it up on
00:29:31.840this story and nobody will pick up a bloody shovel yeah I see you you are one
00:29:35.500of the first people to call it a hoax and I think that's what it is this whole
00:29:39.220that millions and millions and millions of dollars spent you know given to this
00:29:43.120Kamloops band that haven't done any digging the three of us and we'll bring
00:29:48.520the lease along uh could solve this in an afternoon with a with a digger yeah and it would solve the
00:29:55.340crisis and i haven't been kidding if we sunk a hole six feet and found the remains of a child
00:29:59.840absolutely bring the rcmp in let's get a forensic investigation let's get moving and find out
00:30:05.560exactly what happened because the claims are that this happened in the 60s it's not impossible
00:30:08.880that the perpetrators while getting a little old might still be floating around but with the fact
00:30:13.980that they are fighting i mean they're actively fighting efforts to excavate there just keeps
00:30:18.440telling us there's nothing there yeah and in fact the rcmp was specifically called off the case yes
00:30:24.120back in 2021 so there's a lot of people who don't would rather have the have the narrative out there
00:30:31.140be a little uncertain maybe the rather than actually have it cleared up it sorry nigel
00:30:38.360it's turned into an industry yeah right now everybody's got to have an orange shirt on
00:30:43.160And 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.
00:31:04.300And meanwhile, in British Columbia, where I am right now, on the north coast of British Columbia, the outcomes have only steadily nosedived.
00:31:14.800There's more addiction in First Nations. There's more sexual abuse in First Nations.
00:31:19.720And yet the upper echelon of First Nations is richer than ever.
00:31:24.680What 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.
00:31:39.040They interviewed Chief Phillip Stewart, who might sound familiar to you.
00:31:44.520He hates pipelines. He hates energy. He hates Canada.
00:31:48.940But he was interviewed and he was talking about 215 children.
00:31:55.420He said, quote unquote, little tiny baby bodies that we were denied.
00:32:00.500And City News ran this and ran this over and over and over again.
00:32:05.180So I just want to give a shout out because it really ticked me off.
00:32:07.960um and i i have written a note to the reporter because they need to know that is inflammatory
00:32:14.200and it is absolutely not true but the other thing i would say to first nations communities and not
00:32:20.040the leadership but first nations people that are on front line of poverty front line of joblessness
00:32:25.640front line of not there's not a lot of hope and when you add in what's happening economically
00:32:30.360in british columbia forestry the tariffs on seafood i mean it's the first nation communities
00:32:36.280are getting hit left, right, and center. I would ask them to ask their leaders, fine, you continue
00:32:41.520with the grift, keep with the grift, but I want to know what you've done with the money. I can't
00:32:46.260fight the grift. The grift has already been paid for, but what have you actually produced for me,
00:32:51.040my family, and future generations? What have you done for British Columbia? How have you integrated
00:32:56.760or involved or invested into the economy so that we're growing the future for our people?
00:33:05.080tell me what the grift has actually done for us or have you just taken the money and run
00:33:10.560because at 32 or 37 point whatever it is million dollars and no diggers nothing else than the
00:33:18.520speculation that in that or whatever it is the shadows or whatever that they're seeing which
00:33:23.480most people believe are is the roots are tree roots and other pieces of debris tell me what
00:33:30.140you've done with the money because we can't fight the grip i can't fight the grift anymore
00:33:34.600and i don't think fighting the grip is going to help uh raise or elevate the voices of the
00:33:40.100regular average first nations people that are in all of these communities up and down the north
00:33:45.860coast that where i am and all across metro vancouver because it's it's ground zero here
00:33:50.940where i think the most poverty and pain is you make a great point elise and you know one of the
00:33:57.840first things that Stephen Harper did when he became prime minister in 2006 was to introduce
00:34:03.980legislation to make the Indian leadership accountable to indigenous people, their own
00:34:11.200indigenous people. That was one of the first things that Mr. Trudeau took away when he became
00:34:17.480prime minister in 2015. So there is something, there is more that could be said about this.
00:34:25.400But with your permission, I'm just going to float a theory.
00:34:29.340This is a theory, so don't take me to the Human Rights Commission
00:34:36.040But the way this works is that as long as there is a plausible allegation
00:34:43.500that missionaries abused and killed Indian children,
00:34:50.600And the guilt blame falling on us is such that it makes it extremely hard to negotiate fair agreements with Native people.
00:35:07.100Because there's always a thing, well, you can't push too hard, and look, they've really suffered, you see.
00:35:12.080So 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.
00:35:31.640and you know that they have been told to look at aboriginal indigenous people differently than
00:35:40.540everybody else not just white people differently to i don't know the folks from india or pakistan
00:35:46.700or anything else look at the aboriginal people differently you say well how is that just well
00:35:51.440you know then they fall back on this narrative so that is my theory that um they there are people
00:35:59.720who want this really badly and then we're going to back off quickly but i do find it instructive
00:36:06.040that at least the governor general didn't step right up to the the plate and uh and start
00:36:13.220talking about this the way that they thought she talked about in the previous years and that parks
00:36:18.500canada itself which is after all is the government speaking is kind of backing away from it a little
00:36:23.200bit well it's an indication maybe a bit of a different attitude coming from her boss and i
00:36:26.940No, technically, the prime minister is not the governor and general's boss, but we know in reality that's where the messaging comes from.
00:36:32.560So 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.
00:36:39.580But he certainly seems to be interested in regulating our speech and our ability.
00:36:43.860C8 is back, and we're looking to control the Internet, control speech, control people's talking.
00:36:49.580But now the government's talking about how they could strip Internet access from specific people?
00:37:19.540I 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?