00:04:39.660Government bureaucracies are bloated, inefficient, and controlled by unions, making reform too difficult for politicians to find the courage to take it on.
00:04:47.120I mean, come on, we're living in the digital age.
00:04:48.500It's hard for somebody to be truly undocumented, even if they're coming from the most underdeveloped of nations.
00:04:52.840It beggars belief they can be so difficult to perform simple background checks in less than a few weeks.
00:04:57.840In fact, when it comes to developed nations, those can be done in minutes.
00:05:01.580Bureaucrats drag their heels and shuffle outdated forms from one desk to another while these backlogs keep growing.
00:05:07.660And when it's finally determined that an applicant will be denied, they're often misplaced.
00:05:12.780At last count, Canada lost track of 34,000 foreign nationals who have been ordered to leave the country.
00:05:18.100one way to reduce that backlog immediately is to turn undocumented people away when they arrive at
00:05:24.660the border nobody has the guts to implement such a common sense and simple policy though for those
00:05:29.780being processed in the system it's time to light a fire under the butts of these bureaucrats before
00:05:32.840it came down the 20 of them are going to be laid off within a few months rest assured they're
00:05:37.060suddenly going to find their way back to work because they're all working from home and fighting
00:05:39.600that currently right now and uh if they want to avoid the axe they'll find some efficiencies the
00:05:44.220ones of ambition and brains will cover their own butts and we'll see some improvement the federal
00:05:48.380government's been you know in a pitched battle with them trying to get them back to work since
00:05:51.200COVID it's time to lay down the bloody law return to work or be fired it doesn't need to be more
00:05:55.600complicated than that it's ridiculous and unacceptable in a country the size of Canada
00:05:59.840with rather easy borders to control and a staff of 30,000 dedicated to immigration can't figure
00:06:04.840out how to process applications in less than a couple years politicians can rail and claim they
00:06:09.440want to address the issue all they like unless they want to take on the incompetence of the
00:06:13.360bureaucracy, though, things won't change, and Canadian cities can look forward to the no-go
00:06:18.340zones that Paris is currently enjoying. Immigration can be a good thing. In fact, it is, and we need
00:06:23.280it, but only if it's controlled and planned, and that's not going to happen until we take
00:06:28.360Canada's civil service and bring it in line. All right, well, let's check in and see what else has
00:06:32.340been happening in the news while I've been hiding out south of the border. They let me across the
00:06:36.060border. They did. You must be miserable. I'm always miserable. It's my nature. Minus 37 with the
00:06:41.480windchill this morning. Oh, I know. And you're used to plus 37. I mean, it must have shriveled
00:06:48.040yourself. Some things were terribly shriveled when I came in, and there wasn't much to begin with.
00:06:52.860No, it's not fun, but at least the snow has stopped, so. Yeah, it's just one blast, I guess.
00:06:57.840We'll always get one every February. I just wish you could have gotten in a week earlier, maybe.
00:07:01.120Exactly. So speaking of your rant, Premier Smith has an address to the province tomorrow night,
00:07:34.960Yeah, well, we know those. I mean, this is the way it works. We can ask for what Quebec has, but when we do, we're jerks.
00:07:40.340When Quebec does it, it's their right. So, carry on, I guess. We'll see what happens.
00:07:44.520See what happens. Yeah, the news didn't stop while you were gone. Tumblr Ridge and all sorts of horrible, horrible stories.
00:07:53.540In fact, that's our lead story at the moment.
00:07:55.680You remember there were some news reports of a young girl, 12 or 14, called Maddie, who spent 45 minutes doing CPR on one of her classmates who was shot.
00:08:06.520And she's written a Facebook post today, or late last night, and gut-wrenching thoughts on what happened to her friends.
00:11:56.960And, you know, you can see the new reporter's always still over my shoulder there, populating that back room.
00:12:02.460Yeah, you know, Matt Jenner, it's just what I don't like out of the whole thing, and I'm a crab, I'm a cynical sort of guy, and those sorts of self-serving moves just deepen that.
00:12:16.880I'm also a political wonk. I want to see people engaged. I want to see people participating in politics. I want to see people thinking they can make a difference through their elected officials.
00:12:25.820And when you look at the saga of General, you could see that he was planning on crossing for his own bloody sake.
00:12:32.080Let's not beat around the bush. He just doesn't want to be in opposition. It's as simple as that.
00:12:36.260And he got caught with it last fall. So he basically shut up, went to ground, lied, said he was going to leave this spring, said he wanted to spend more time with his family.
00:12:45.720Can't they find a new trope? Come on. We've seen that with enough liberals. Most of them don't like their own families.
00:12:50.360They did that in the last election. There were a couple. They said they were going to spend more time with their family.
00:12:54.120And then the polls change. They say, I don't like my family. And they ran for office again.
00:12:57.920Jenneru is doing the same thing. And that'll lead to people not voting because they're going to say, what's the difference?
00:13:03.720What's the point? Why do we bother? And that doesn't serve us well. It really doesn't.
00:13:09.200So, I mean, yeah, just the partisan self-serving crap out of them.
00:13:14.000I mean, that's annoying enough on its own. But the damage it does to our system, to the faith of people in the hoping that anything can possibly change within this
00:13:22.800is immeasurable. And, you know, I'm going to have my guest on soon. I'd like to hear some
00:13:27.740of those numbers because I suspect that the spectrum that our former opposition member
00:13:32.740of parliament of income he could get if he manages to climb the cabinet scrotum pole to a
00:13:39.560higher position up there will be pretty generous. And of course, they'll say that wasn't the reason
00:13:45.280he crossed. And the same old song and dance from people. Now, I know some people have been talking
00:13:49.660about. And that's where I get some blowback saying we should make it, you know, so that they
00:13:54.160must, absolutely must go into a by-election or resign if they want to cross the floor and all
00:13:59.000that. And I still disagree with that. I don't think they should be forced to do that. I hate
00:14:04.360seeing these crossings and I think it's, it's unprincipled and I think it was self-serving.
00:14:08.500But if you think leaders are powerful now, take away the ability to floor cross. It will become
00:14:13.120even worse. I hate to say it, but it will actually get worse. Actual functional recall legislation
00:14:18.480though. If the local constituents really thought the crossing was that bad, if they had a mechanism
00:14:23.860federally, maybe that's where they'd be thrown out. Rather than Alberta, you know, where you just had
00:14:28.480a bunch of provincial ones which failed because it was just actually a union publicity tantrum
00:14:32.720rather than an actual citizens initiative thing on the ground. Either way, I'm sure we'll be
00:14:36.860talking about Mr. Jenner a lot more in the future. We can't hear from him because he put his ex-account
00:14:41.020on lockdown because he doesn't want to actually hear from his constituents because I suspect
00:14:44.600they're going to give him a bit of an earful if they get the chance. All right, let's bring in
00:14:47.760franco terrizano from the canadian taxpayers federation to add some more uh good news to
00:14:52.540seeing where our dollars spent how's it going franco hey cory i'm doing great man thanks for
00:14:57.480having me on the show hey can i just weigh in because i heard you talking about the the floor
00:15:01.020crossing and you know i think the i don't know if it's a solution but what i think needs to happen
00:15:06.180is we definitely need federal recall legislation right and like i'm in ottawa i'm in this like
00:15:11.660political bubble where you hear all these talking heads go on all the time and you know the one
00:15:16.760thing that they're forgetting about is that this shouldn't be about what the political strategists
00:15:21.820want. It shouldn't be about what the party whips want. Uh, the people whose voice really matters
00:15:27.600is the voters in that riding. Right. And that's why we need this tool, this accountability measure
00:15:34.160like recall legislation to give voters in that riding, um, an ability to either hold their MP
00:15:40.720accountable, right. If they're opposed, what Jenner is doing, hold them accountable, or if
00:15:45.480they support it then uh no need to to go forward with the recall but i agree with you cory that
00:15:50.280it's recall legislation is what canadians desperately need yeah well i would get a
00:15:55.560feeling you know like i said jenner locked down his ex account because he doesn't want to hear
00:15:58.800from people i'd suspect if he was facing a risk of the constituents actually organizing and firing
00:16:03.840him maybe he'd at least have the courage to face them and talk to them about why he crossed and so
00:16:08.840on but he's just kind of hiding and hoping that the the fewer way you know dies down and then he
00:16:13.500can take on i i guess i'll go right into that uh one of the generous raises going to our members
00:16:19.660of parliament i saw that from you guys at the press release just recently uh it's pretty healthy
00:16:23.760level of income there yeah so i mean a backbench member of parliament along with collecting dust
00:16:29.120in the house of commons they're getting about a 210 000 annual paycheck already uh so look you
00:16:35.460you asked what's the difference between an mp pay and a minister's pay well an mp you're getting
00:16:40.300about $210,000. A minister's salary is about $310,000, right? And hey, don't forget, every
00:16:48.220year, and this year looks no different, on April 1, MPs pad their pockets with higher pay. This
00:16:54.600year, the pay raise will be around $8,800, all the way up to an extra $17,600. The news is you
00:17:01.320actually have one MP, one courageous MP from New Brunswick. He's a conservative, Mike Dawson,
00:17:06.700who has publicly rejected the pay raise, you know, just talking about how the struggles facing his
00:17:12.440constituents in good conscience, he can't accept a raise. But, you know, you mentioned about MPs
00:17:17.900sticking their head in the sand or whatever. You know, the reason that these members of Parliament
00:17:22.240get away with these pay raises every single year is because they know if they all stay silent,
00:17:27.620they'll weather the public storm and they'll be able to take more money. But, you know,
00:17:32.580thankfully that has all changed because of this courageous mp who's finally publicly opposing
00:17:38.000the politician pay raise yeah no and it's good to give a thumbs up now and then i mean we should
00:17:43.440you know i'm always there ready to pounce on them when they do something wrong and they give me
00:17:47.100plenty of opportunity to do it but we can't forget to thank them and give a thumbs up some of them do
00:17:51.640have some principles and they put the well our money where his mouth was so that's appreciated
00:17:55.860it'd be nice if if that started a trend yeah why why is it only mike dawson right why is it only
00:18:01.840one MP who's publicly opposing this pay raise, right? Why? Where is the rest of the 300 of them?
00:18:07.900You know, Corey, you know, we always hear these politicians say, we're all in this together.
00:18:12.020I'm starting to think they're talking about the gang of 300 of them up here in Ottawa when they
00:18:16.580say they're all in this together, right? Like where is the rest of the MPs here, right? Prime
00:18:21.380Minister Mark Carney, he told Canadians a couple months ago to brace for sacrifices. What sacrifices
00:18:27.700for me you and your audience Corey what about the sacrifices for Carney as MPs or what about
00:18:32.840the conservatives right the conservatives always talk about you know cutting taxes reducing spending
00:18:37.320finding savings and the right to talk about that but where's the official opposition forcefully
00:18:42.320and publicly opposing the MP pay raise why aren't they standing with their own Mike Dawson or how
00:18:47.240about the NDP right the NDP always talk about sticking up for the little guy well why isn't
00:18:51.920the NDP publicly opposing this massive pay raise for members of parliament who all make over 200
00:18:57.220grand a year yeah the silence is rather deafening i mean just to put things in perspective alberta's
00:19:02.420premier makes about 190 000 a year which is sick that's some pretty healthy compensation
00:19:08.420uh but you could actually be the premier of a province of 5 million people and still make less
00:19:12.340than a back bench member of parliament who never actually does anything for four years uh in their
00:19:17.140elected position that says a lot it's crazy it's crazy and look i hear some mp saying oh you know
00:19:23.860we'll give it to charity here's what i say that's not good enough anymore right you all make more
00:19:28.580than 200 grand a year you can give to charity without billing taxpayers for your pay raise
00:19:34.820also you've had years to fix this right we've been talking about this since what the beginning of the
00:19:38.660pandemic years ago right they've had years to fix this there is no uh there's no uh you know getting
00:19:44.820by this issue anymore they have to do the right thing they have to fix this also i hear some
00:19:48.820people chiming in on social media right saying well it's hard to stop a pay raise and i'm over
00:19:53.620here like what do you mean okay this isn't rocket science we're talking about we're talking about
00:19:58.500politicians not taking more money from canadians who are struggling like come on like if we can
00:20:03.300get somebody on the moon pretty sure we can figure out a way to stop giving politicians
00:20:07.300a pay raise every single year no absolutely well we'll just have to keep pressure and i guess keep
00:20:12.580firing them when we can when we get those elections uh so what i i first contacted you about though
00:20:17.860was something that a lot of people are perhaps already forgetting about but just that ongoing
00:20:21.620canada post saga uh striking not striking settling uh and of course the bailouts i mean the bailouts
00:20:29.780are coming they don't seem to be cutting the size of that corporation uh what are we going to do with
00:20:34.420this franco well we gotta we should be selling the canada post right but i mean at the very i mean
00:20:40.660look why do we need it's 2026 why do we need a state-owned postal service come on right a bunch
00:20:47.140of our peer countries have privatized their government state you know their version of
00:20:51.380canada post there's no reason canada can't do it either but look at the very least if canada post
00:20:56.740is going to be a crown corporation then it needs to figure out a way to operate without you know
00:21:01.860taking a billion dollar bailout from taxpayers every single year because remember folks in 2025
00:21:07.060the government announced a billion dollar bailout right it was supposed to be repayable and then a
00:21:12.340a year later, the government announces another billion dollar bailout for Canada Post. So a
00:21:17.700couple of things come to mind, Corey. Number one, MPs should be demanding in the House of Commons
00:21:23.360when that money is going to get paid back to taxpayers, right? Because the government told
00:21:27.320Canadians there's supposed to be a repayable funding. Okay, so when are we going to get our
00:21:30.840money back? And number two, if Canada Post doesn't pay back that money, then MPs should be asking
00:21:36.860this simple question who's getting fired that's the question that we're demanding right but cory
00:21:42.860i think this goes even deeper than just canada post right like look the government is completely
00:21:48.620broke more than a trillion dollars in debt and taxpayers can't afford and we shouldn't expect
00:21:54.460to have to bail out every crown corporation that goes to ottawa cap in hand begging for more cash
00:22:00.620well yeah and that's one of them and and the numbers that you know i want to get further into
00:22:04.380that that massive deficit that was given to us last fall continues to grow. I saw an updated
00:22:11.460number just recently. Carney is still just pulling out that checkbook. He's making Trudeau
00:22:16.660look like a spendthrift almost with the speed that he's increasing spending. When's the next
00:22:21.980budget update going to come to tell us just how much more they're borrowing on our grandchildren?
00:22:26.120I mean, look, now that the budgets are in the fall, I'm hoping we get some type of budget update
00:22:30.420in the spring, right? I hope we get some basic transparency from the federal government. But
00:22:35.960you'll remember right after the last election, you even had Finance Minister Francois-Philippe
00:22:40.780Champagne. Remember he was musing about perhaps no budget in 2025? And it wasn't until like
00:22:46.220massive pressure, massive backlash from the Canadian public, including the Canadian Tax
00:22:50.800Federation, that the government backtracked and even provided us with a budget for 2025.
00:22:55.760five. But look, I mean, it's bad news here in Ottawa. I mean, think about it this way, right?
00:23:00.800Because I love Alberta, no provincial sales tax, but you still pay federal sales tax, right? And
00:23:06.460every single dollar you pay in federal sales tax is going to pay interest on the debt, right? This
00:23:11.380is bad. This is not good, right? They're wasting your money on debt interest. They're wasting your
00:23:16.380money left, right, and center. And look, they're sticking your kids, your grandkids with a mighty
00:23:22.200debt bill that they're going to be paying back for the rest of their lives. Yeah. Well, you guys,
00:23:26.840I'm sorry, I'm trying to remember what that was. You put a sign out in front of parliament to help
00:23:30.300remind them a little bit of what's going on with their dollars. Didn't you? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I
00:23:35.300mean, we have a sign up right now actually too. I mean, so we, we, we put up billboards, uh, you
00:23:39.880know, quite frequently. Um, one of them, we talked about how the biggest waste of money is the
00:23:44.560interest charges on the debt more than a billion dollars every week. Poof gone. Right. Because
00:23:49.060that money's going to the bond fund managers on bay street cory you'll like the billboard we just
00:23:53.260put up okay it shows that the cost of the federal bureaucracy has gone up 80 percent in 10 years
00:23:59.680yet most canadians say um services have gotten worse shrink the federal bureaucracy right right
00:24:06.600in downtown ottawa right in front of parliament hill uh right in front of the prime minister's
00:24:10.500office where bureaucrats have to walk by that sign every single day and they'll know that canadians
00:24:14.860are sick and tired of paying higher taxes to fund a bloated and underperforming federal bureaucracy
00:24:19.860yeah well and reminding people of i mean because i mean most people i despise interest payments i
00:24:25.360hate it on my own credit cards if i've you know put off paying too long it's just money burned i
00:24:30.120mean you really are getting nothing of value out of that aside from somebody who extended and lent
00:24:35.820you some money to begin with i mean just some of those analogies to make canadians realize you
00:24:40.840could build a hospital a week in this country for what we're just throwing away on interest i mean
00:24:45.320if healthcare is your number one concern they should get on the members you know in parliament's
00:24:50.000case and say well let's get that down so we can start building hospitals instead of talking about
00:24:53.360it yeah and look you know what i you know what i always say to corey is uh the biggest threat
00:24:58.400to a government bureaucrat's paycheck it's not political ideology it's not even the canadian
00:25:04.160taxpayers federation right there right the number one threat to a government bureaucrat's paycheck
00:25:09.080is the interest charges on the debt. You don't believe me? Ask the Saskatchewan NDP of the 1990s
00:25:15.520what happens when you keep kicking the deficit down the road forever, right? Things got so bad
00:25:20.900in Saskatchewan that what the NDP government in Saskatchewan was forced to close down dozens
00:25:25.200of hospitals across the Prairie Province, right? So look, times are bad. The unfortunate part is
00:25:32.500that it doesn't seem like really any political leader in Ottawa, or I should say within the
00:25:37.280government is taking it serious right you asked me about uh carney versus trudeau comparisons
00:25:43.040i mean over the next handful of years carney is planning to add twice as much to the debt
00:25:49.140as what even trudeau was planning right the banker was supposed to be better with the numbers
00:25:53.780than the drama teacher but the banker is planning on adding up even more debt over the next handful
00:25:58.500of years well then getting down i mean there's only one taxpayer but we get hit with all those
00:26:03.400levels i see your provincial directors are busy enough alberta's got a budget coming out next week
00:26:08.140that sounds like it's going to be pretty ugly we like to get on our high horse but we're not
00:26:11.780balancing budgets here either and uh in bc uh i just saw that release come out from your british
00:26:17.640director they got a crazy uh uh deficit coming ahead of them i mean this debt is just swamping
00:26:24.020us on every level well let me just talk about the bc budget for a second we can get in alberta but
00:26:29.440look, the BC budget is almost impressive in how bad it is. Okay. Like the government is increasing
00:26:35.600the debt out there in BC by like $30 billion this year. That's how much the debt is going up
00:26:40.560according to the BC budget. And like the government is massively increasing debt
00:26:45.240while it hikes income taxes, while it puts through that sneaky backdoor income tax hike
00:26:50.900known as bracket creep. Corey, you remember the bracket creep fight in Alberta not too long ago,
00:26:55.680right um also uh the the bc government's essentially hiking pst on some types of services
00:27:02.080so it's it's absolutely startling that the debt is going up so fast in british columbia
00:27:07.820all while the government under eb is hiking taxes like what's going on here well not to mention eb
00:27:14.180hasn't shown himself to be terribly friendly to resource development or some of the things that
00:27:17.820would generate the economic activity to pay for some of this spending they they burn us on both
00:27:23.420front oh that's right and look like um you know it was years ago when i was the alberta director
00:27:28.920for the canadian taxpayers federation but you know one of the big reports i think it came out
00:27:33.120in 2019 cory correct me if i'm wrong but was that blue ribbon panel right on spending and it showed
00:27:38.860that like the alberta government back then was was spending per person like what 10 billion dollars
00:27:44.500overcharging taxpayers compared to uh similar provinces so i mean alberta does have a long
00:27:49.920history of spending way too much money you know i'd have to go through the books and see uh what
00:27:55.040premier smith is doing but uh for years we were pushing the alberta government um to drastically
00:28:01.360cut spending because it was just spending too much right after the pcs after klein held up that paid
00:28:06.240in full sign then the ndp and then even the ucp under under kenny right spending uh spending way
00:28:13.360too much absolutely and i mean klein you know as much as he is a saint essentially in alberta in
00:28:19.200history but he loved that bracket creep you were talking about that was the nice sneaky tax tool
00:28:23.760to keep raising taxes without appearing to be raising taxes on folks and i mean i i for the
00:28:29.040most part like a lot of what premier smith's doing but boy i'm not seeing the fiscal conservatism
00:28:34.720out of this government that that you would expect out of the ucp uh i'm kind of worried
00:28:39.120about this upcoming budget yeah i'm worried too and like uh i know uh chris sims our our mutual
00:28:45.760friend cory uh will be covering the alberta budget for the canadian taxpayers federation so uh you
00:28:51.160know uh i'm not really looking forward to seeing what's in that budget maybe we'll be surprised
00:28:55.440uh but i know chris is gonna is gonna really make a stink if there's anything bad in there
00:29:00.080oh i know she'll she won't hold back uh well i'm looking forward to that budget hopefully there's
00:29:05.420some nice surprises somewhere hiding in there or i mean premier smith's warning that the you know
00:29:10.460signaling that it might be a little rough maybe there's actually going to be some spending cuts
00:29:13.560coming uh not that people necessarily enjoy them but we need them uh before i let you go then uh
00:29:19.400you know where can folks find uh the work you're doing work chris is doing the stuff in bc and all
00:29:23.800that good stuff well the best to find a best place to find all our stuff is on taxpayer.com
00:29:28.920that's our website taxpayer.com uh you can also follow us all over social media best way to do
00:29:33.880that just type in canadian taxpayers federation right on well thanks for joining us again franco
00:29:39.560and giving us an update on the fiscal scene.
00:29:41.280It seems to be kind of the same story over and over again,