Western Standard - CMS： Austerity is inevitable

00:00:00.000 good day and welcome to the cory morgan show i am cory morgan we put a lot of thought into the name

00:00:13.040 for this show it gets to the point though i tend to get to the point throughout the course of this

00:00:17.440 show this is our weekly western standard produce news and opinion show and we always have plenty

00:00:23.520 of news and i have plenty of opinion to share throughout it so to those of you joining us

00:00:28.800 live as we broadcast this please by all means use the comment thread there i love seeing them

00:00:34.480 i love seeing the interaction comment with each other send questions my way send questions towards

00:00:39.360 the guests i really appreciate it i don't necessarily read them all out but i do see

00:00:42.960 them all in it lets me know somebody's out there and i'm not just talking to myself like i do when

00:00:46.480 i'm driving around in my car just keep things civil with each other of course so we don't have

00:00:51.840 to be at each other's throats we got twitter for that or x as it is called these days i should try

00:00:56.400 to keep up with things so uh yeah as always i like to think they're always good shows i got another

00:01:01.840 good one coming up today i'm gonna have as a guest uh dr danny laroise is an associate professor of

00:01:07.680 economics with an agricultural specialty at uh university of lethbridge and we're gonna talk

00:01:13.120 about supply management i know it sounds dull to people but it does impact you every one of you

00:01:17.040 actually and it costs you at the table so we're gonna have a little more discussion on it and i'm

00:01:21.760 I'm sure I'll get all the crabby emails from dairy farmers after we have that discussion,

00:01:27.140 but that's fine. That's part of the discourse, part of the chat. It needs to be talked about.

00:01:32.040 So I'm going to start with what's got me going a bit today. I'm going to put on my

00:01:36.680 prognostication hat and my crystal ball here and try and guess what's coming up in the future.

00:01:41.640 And it's pretty easy because what's going on right now in politics has already happened before. I

00:01:46.060 mean, the parallels are almost chilling. We got a Trudeau as Canada's prime minister right now,

00:01:51.220 Western resource development's under attack.

00:01:53.400 Government spending is out of control.

00:01:55.740 Inflation harming citizens and interest rates are on the rise.

00:01:59.700 It sounds just like the 80s, late 70s.

00:02:02.000 The current economic path now, though, is unsustainable

00:02:04.620 and is going to come to a crashing halt eventually.

00:02:07.920 And, you know, there's lots of blame to throw around.

00:02:09.840 Conservative governments are usually a little better than liberal ones in times like this.

00:02:13.120 I mean, Mulroney continued with spending increases and deficit budgets

00:02:17.120 when Pierre Trudeau exited the scene.

00:02:18.780 In Alberta, the Progressive Conservatives, under Premiers Lougheed and Getty, they borrowed heavily while pouring tax funds into a series of failed corporate welfare schemes.

00:02:28.340 Now, the bubble finally burst in the 1990s for pretty much everybody.

00:02:32.000 Debt servicing costs were taking a massive bite from government budgets, while citizens just weren't ready to accept more tax increases.

00:02:39.360 So governments at all levels, with every political stripe, had to cut spending. There was no getting around it.

00:02:44.400 Federally, the Chrétien government balanced the budget.

00:02:47.460 Well, provincially, we had Ralph Klein and Mike Harris bringing spending under control in Alberta and Ontario.

00:02:53.840 And yeah, in Saskatchewan, even the NDP out there, they had to face economic reality.

00:02:58.080 Roy Romano cut spending by 10% in one budget.

00:03:01.440 He managed to balance the books in 1994.

00:03:04.200 It wasn't easy, though.

00:03:05.560 Unions, lobby groups, individuals, they screamed bloody murder through the 90s as the cuts were applied across the country.

00:03:11.400 But at that time, at least their protests were unheeded.

00:03:13.980 Canadians wanted to see balanced budgets, and they wanted to see governments cutting spending.

00:03:19.860 Eventually, though, the cycle turned.

00:03:21.800 With balanced budgets, times became good again.

00:03:24.480 Economies picked up, and the governments began to open the spending floodgates again.

00:03:28.900 Even in Alberta, under Klein, the spending began to rise quickly at the end of the 90s.

00:03:33.000 Ironically, it was when Klein started increasing expenditures when his provincial support started to flag.

00:03:38.720 You know, citizens are fine with low government spending,

00:03:40.940 but politicians just can't resist increasing the budgets.

00:03:44.500 It's an easier way to manage the government than being fiscally responsible.

00:03:48.280 Just toss more money at it.

00:03:49.980 That administrative sloth, though, does come with a price over time.

00:03:53.560 And in 1999, the federal government returned to deficit budgets,

00:03:56.520 and in Alberta, it took till 2008, but deficit financing has returned here as well,

00:04:01.360 and we haven't managed to produce a balanced budget since.

00:04:03.900 Low interest rates, they allow governments to get away with deficit financing for a time,

00:04:07.760 but as we're seeing today, the rates don't stay low forever. What goes down must come up. Just

00:04:13.400 servicing the federal debt alone is going to cost an estimated $34.7 billion in 2022-2023.

00:04:20.960 That's assuming interest rates stop rising, of course. And every province is flushing money

00:04:25.320 down the toilet on debt servicing, too. It's interest costs, guys. It's money on the credit

00:04:29.060 cards that we could really spend in better places. Now, the Trudeau government, this is what got me

00:04:33.360 going on this, recently called for departments to find $15 billion in savings. I thought,

00:04:37.760 wow, are they finally going to do like Kretchen and be responsible liberals and do some cuts?

00:04:42.480 But no, then they quickly pivoted to say, oh, we're not going to cut $15 billion in spending.

00:04:46.860 We just want to find those savings and we'll shift it to other departments.

00:04:49.580 In other words, they won't even talk about cutting the spending.

00:04:52.320 The hard reality governments and citizens need to face is that governments spend too much.

00:04:56.820 And yes, I'm including citizens in that statement because, hey, we're the ones who keep turning to the government for every service or problem.

00:05:04.060 People want every pet project funded, every foreign cause supported, and every industry subsidized, or they'll take their votes elsewhere. 0.59

00:05:10.660 I know it doesn't apply to everybody. It applies to enough of them.

00:05:13.300 Whether we like it or not, people tend to vote for whatever politician blows the most sunshine up their butt at election time,

00:05:19.180 and they tend to shy away from politicians offering a realistic fiscal platform.

00:05:24.760 People won't change their demands of governments until they start directly seeing the cost of spending, but we are starting to see it now.

00:05:30.060 Deficit spending is fostering inflation, while taxes increase to try and keep up with the spending.

00:05:34.720 The rising cost of living is hurting everybody, along with the taxes.

00:05:38.600 Taxes alone right now eat up 45.3% of the average family's income.

00:05:43.280 While food, clothing, and shelter only make up 35.6%.

00:05:46.160 Citizens are loath to admit it, but they can't hide from it forever.

00:05:49.800 When enough people realize the government is the largest expense in their life,

00:05:53.280 and they just can't afford it anymore, they're finally going to start demanding cuts.

00:05:56.760 The question with spending cuts and austerity isn't a matter of if they're going to happen,

00:06:01.380 it's a matter of when. I mean, the laws of economics are as immutable as those of gravity,

00:06:05.480 and the spending will have to be brought back into check eventually. We just can't keep living

00:06:09.700 on the credit cards. The longer we wait to cut spending, though, the harder it's going to be

00:06:13.940 when those cuts come. An increasing segment of the population has become dependent upon government

00:06:18.320 jobs and programs, and that segment's going to suffer when the government's spending starts

00:06:22.440 contracting. It's going to be ugly as they try to adapt. But the sooner the better. We're on a slow

00:06:27.920 motion collision course with an inevitable fiscal reality check. The sooner we can ring the alarm

00:06:33.760 bells, the better. And right now is the time. We've got to start reining and spending and reducing

00:06:38.260 future pain. Right now it feels like the warnings are falling on deaf ears, but hopefully citizens

00:06:42.500 start to get the wax out and start listening soon. Because when the citizens move, the politicians

00:06:46.680 will follow. Eventually they always do. All right, that's what's got me going today. Just some

00:06:52.380 dry economic topics, but it's important stuff. Let's get on to the other news because a bunch

00:06:56.000 of stuff's been breaking and check in with our news editor, Dave Naylor, and see what else is

00:07:01.120 going on out there. Hey, Dave, how's it going? Good day, Corey. I'm well, yourself?

00:07:05.240 Pretty good. Nice day. Oh, it was a beautiful day. I was driving in this morning going down

00:07:10.540 Deerfoot and this, you know, in the back mirror, all I see is this rental car zooming by me like

00:07:16.440 about 140. I took a quick look. I thought it might be Christian Freeland, but I don't think

00:07:21.600 it was. I think she's back in Ottawa. Well, she'll make sure that she's chauffeured again from there

00:07:27.560 on forward. Maybe this is why she doesn't have a car, Corey. She lost it through speeding

00:07:32.840 suspensions and all that sort of good stuff. Well, I wish she would be as ambitious about

00:07:38.220 managing our budget as she is about making it fast on the highways. Indeed. As you say, Corey,

00:07:44.620 really busy last hour. I'll lead off with some international news.

00:07:50.600 Evgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, has been killed after

00:07:57.240 his plane was shot out of the skies in Russia. You remember, Corey, he rebelled against Putin and

00:08:03.920 all his troops were marching towards Moscow when he suddenly decided to stop and go into exile in

00:08:11.200 Belarus. And we all knew his days were numbered, but I certainly didn't have him being killed by

00:08:16.560 a Russian missile. I had him falling out a window in the office, the office bingo. So that's a big 1.00

00:08:23.640 breaking international story. Closer to home, the Liberals, as you know, were having their

00:08:28.680 cabinet retreat in lovely Prince Edward Island. Trudeau today issued some more word salad on the

00:08:36.440 the housing crisis, Pierre Polyev, leader of the opposition, came out afterwards and was very strong

00:08:43.660 and gave some actual possible solutions to the housing crisis. So we've got that up there now.

00:08:50.480 The CRA, which is normally used to suing people, is in fact being sued themselves in a class action

00:08:56.980 lawsuit by people who had their identities stolen during a massive breach of CRA computers a year

00:09:05.760 or so ago. So that is up there now. OPEC, we always knew there were a bunch of slimy people,

00:09:14.620 but the former head of OPEC has been arrested in England and charged with bribery. So that shows

00:09:21.520 you the type of people that they are. And the International Weightlifting Federation has decided

00:09:29.420 that they need to change their rules. This is after a Canadian male weightlifter recently won

00:09:34.980 a championship by entering the female side of the competition, and he won by lifting

00:09:41.000 more than 450 pounds more than his nearest competitor.

00:09:43.700 So the federation said, well, that's enough of that.

00:09:47.020 We're going to change that and change our policy.

00:09:50.040 So it's going to be women versus women and men versus men. 0.94

00:09:54.380 We've got a story up there on Jordan Peterson, everybody's favorite psychologist.

00:09:59.660 Court in Ontario ruled today that the regulator can send him for sensitivity training

00:10:06.120 over some tweets that he sent out a while ago.

00:10:10.820 And our energy expert, Sean Polzer, has got a story that Canadian oil output

00:10:16.300 will be the highest in five years.

00:10:18.000 So drill, baby, drill, oil as well. 0.58

00:10:21.880 And a couple of stories that we're working on will be up shortly.

00:10:24.800 a voice from the past you remember calgary uh catholic bishop fred henry uh cory uh he's

00:10:32.840 retired now but he came out he wrote a letter saying he's demanding the feds uh find out if

00:10:38.240 even one residential school child uh is missing and uh and murdered perhaps uh all those years

00:10:46.200 ago and uh some people around colonna are going to be happy because they've been given the all

00:10:50.620 clear to go back home after the latest wildfire. And I'm sure they're all anxious to get back home

00:10:55.780 and see what damage was caused, Corey. I'm certain they are. I can't imagine. I've never had to be

00:11:00.740 evacuated before, but it's got to be stressful and terrible. I'm glad, you know, with all these

00:11:04.680 fires and these evacuations and everything that's happened, still a surprising amount. I mean,

00:11:08.720 it seems like we're erring on the side of caution because, you know, the fires haven't swept through

00:11:12.820 any really densely populated communities yet anyway. So I'd rather they erred that way myself.

00:11:18.400 well after what happened on maui a couple weeks ago it's obviously better safe than sorry

00:11:24.160 that's right all right dave well thanks for the check-in i'll let you get back at it and

00:11:29.180 i'll talk to you after the show thanks gory that is our news editor dave naylor and this is when

00:11:34.640 i like to remind you look at all those stories dave is busy he's got stuff constantly coming

00:11:38.460 up there it's coming up as it breaks lots of opinion and all sorts of content on there guys

00:11:43.060 the reason we stay independent is where i nag you this way shake the cup and ask for the money 0.95

00:11:47.280 is because of subscribers. $9.99 a month, $100 for a year. It's just, again, we never thought

00:11:53.040 twice about subscribing for a newspaper in the past. Well, that helps us keep going. We don't

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00:12:02.620 and some of those other sites now. The battle is going on, and you guys have been great. To those

00:12:06.080 who have already subscribed, thank you very much. We really appreciate it. And if you haven't already,

00:12:11.240 come on, guys, get on there and share us. That's part of the other thing, too. This ridiculous C-18, 0.62

00:12:16.000 this stopping of links for news sites. The problem is it's harder to reach out and get to new people.

00:12:21.900 It's harder for them to find us in the first place. After that, they can come directly to

00:12:25.400 the site, which is westernstandard.news. But share on Facebook. You can share it. You can share it on

00:12:32.320 X, formerly Twitter, and all those sites. And this is how we can beat the government regulation

00:12:36.800 and allow independent media to keep going and keep those stories rolling out there. And there's a lot

00:12:41.440 going on. So yeah, that's interesting in Russia. It was almost an office pool. I mean, this was a

00:12:47.600 guy who stood up to Putin with that Wagner group, the mercenary. And the only question was when he 0.72

00:12:55.380 was going to die and how. It sounds like they didn't even bother trying to sugarcoat this.

00:13:00.060 They just shot him out of the sky. Usually they try for an accidental death of poisoning or maybe

00:13:04.940 choking at a fancy Russian restaurant, but no, this time they just blew him down. There's not a

00:13:09.360 good retirement plan, working for Russian oligarchies and other such places like that.

00:13:17.540 Let's see. So yeah, you know, the talk, the talk, the starting monologue, the things that are going

00:13:23.700 on, it's cost of living. You know, we're all hurting right now. As we said, Polyev is coming

00:13:28.540 out. He's talking about the housing. I mean, people are having a heck of a time finding a home. I can't

00:13:32.940 imagine how, what it takes for a young person to get that down payment together, you know, get your

00:13:37.220 credit up to speed. The whole works. I mean, getting in on a house right now, way out of

00:13:41.760 control or renting, of course, the rents are going through the roof. Everything is going up. And again,

00:13:46.840 there's a lot to be discussed. It's a lot of it comes down to oversized government. That's what

00:13:50.460 I started the monologue with. A lot of it comes to bad policy, over-regulation. I mean, that's

00:13:56.200 a lot of it, whether it's home construction, like Polyev has been talking about, or whether

00:14:02.140 it's in food production. And I'm, you know, sort of segueing into my guest here, because this is an

00:14:06.460 area. I've talked about it on the show before, but we don't talk about it enough. And we've got

00:14:10.680 a supply managed system in Canada. And I'll kind of lead and save him some of the explanation.

00:14:16.360 You know that the bottom line is dairy, poultry, eggs, they are all tightly, tightly controlled.

00:14:23.020 You can't produce over a certain amount or even start producing in some cases, unless you have

00:14:27.720 a government issued quota. Those quotas have become a commodity in themselves. But what they

00:14:31.940 do is artificially, I mean, some would say keep the price stable, but they also keep the price

00:14:36.100 high. We pay some of the highest prices when compared to comparable countries for those sorts

00:14:40.280 of food items than anywhere else. And those are going up. This isn't protecting us when times get

00:14:45.380 tough. And it's one area I think, we'll see, we'll talk to my guest about that, where maybe some

00:14:51.120 quick changes can help make some things affordable for Canadians from the government right away. So

00:14:55.820 let's bring them in. As I said earlier at the start of the show, it's Danny Leroy, he's an

00:15:01.020 associate professor of economics. Boy, that's a tongue twister at University of Lethbridge

00:15:05.680 and specializing in agricultural economics. So thank you very much, doctor, for joining us today.

00:15:13.260 Oh, you're welcome, Corey. I'm very glad to be here.

00:15:16.620 So you kind of heard me starting out in there. Maybe if you could expand a little. I mean,

00:15:20.980 what is Canada's supply management policy and maybe a little bit of why? Why was it brought

00:15:26.060 in i like to think the intention was good very good intentions uh supply management was uh

00:15:33.820 first introduced in canada uh in the uh in the dairy industry in the late 1960s the early 1970s

00:15:43.420 and the aim of the uh of the program was to enhance and stabilize the returns to raw milk

00:15:50.620 producers. At the time, there was a lot of price variability in raw milk, and people who

00:15:59.020 produce milk tended to be in parts of the country where alternatives weren't very good in terms of

00:16:06.060 production of other commodities. So it was a way of providing assistance to individuals engaged

00:16:14.780 in agricultural activities in challenging areas.

00:16:21.040 The idea behind how it works is that prices for producers are determined based on cost

00:16:31.140 of production formulas so that producers have, most of them, have an opportunity to

00:16:37.920 earn a living and a return on their enterprise.

00:16:42.720 I said this was first introduced in dairy in the late 1960s early 70s. Eggs became supply managed

00:16:50.240 in Canada in 1972, turkeys in 1974, chickens in 1978 and broiler hatching eggs in 1986. So there's

00:17:01.920 five commodities in this country that are strictly controlled in terms of their production and the

00:17:07.840 the prices that producers receive. Okay. So, I mean, at this point though,

00:17:13.380 do we need these policies? I mean, I have seen some papers put out and studies

00:17:18.100 showing that we're paying quite a premium for those products in Canada when perhaps,

00:17:23.640 you know, if those policies were lifted, we could see some reductions in some of our food costs.

00:17:28.800 Well, it's an interesting way you phrase that. You use the royal we, do we need this?

00:17:33.800 Well, there are some producers that do. Right. Over the course of the last 50 or more years, many intergenerational farms in the supply managed area, they've become quite dependent on the continuation of this program.

00:17:52.000 right uh it enables supply management enables them to sell uh a product into uh into a protected

00:18:00.900 market privileged market at a price that they know that they're going to receive if they meet

00:18:06.000 the specifications in terms of quality and quantity right there's so there's um they don't

00:18:11.880 have to worry about some of the risks that other producers face in terms of marketing their

00:18:18.000 commodity right they don't face the same price risk for example that raw milk producers or egg

00:18:25.240 producers or poultry producers they don't face the same price risks as a as a producer of cattle

00:18:30.440 or or grains or oil seeds do in in Canada now there would be some advantages right if these

00:18:39.980 policies were were removed or were changed one of the things that is a pretty clear

00:18:51.340 fact about economic science is that whenever there is free trade between individuals each

00:18:57.260 counterparty to the transaction wins right so if it were possible to remove the impediments

00:19:03.420 between willing buyers and willing sellers there could be more wealth created in markets for raw

00:19:08.780 milk, eggs, turkey, chicken, and so on. So, I mean, if we moved away from it, I mean,

00:19:15.620 it was a bit of a trend. A lot of nations brought in supply management policies during that time as

00:19:19.740 well. New Zealand, Australia are examples we hear about a lot. I mean, you can't just flick a light

00:19:24.520 switch and say, okay, we've stopped the policies. It would disrupt the producers terribly. I mean,

00:19:29.640 quotas became a commodity, even an artificial one. So they would need to be bought out or

00:19:34.340 eased out of the system that's also that's also a political question right uh so the choice of

00:19:40.020 subsidizing somebody to to help them exit the industry is is also a form of a subsidy but this

00:19:46.980 was used and you're correct it was used in places like australia where the supply managed system

00:19:53.460 that once existed was phased out over a period of time and consumers helped to finance that

00:20:00.740 So in view of helping farmers transition to a more open market, there is a surcharge levied

00:20:09.540 on consumers at retail level that helped finance the transition for primary producers of raw milk

00:20:17.540 in Australia. So this enabled them to move with, I guess, less financial pain for the producers

00:20:26.900 than would otherwise be the case.

00:20:30.640 But it's a great example of Mansur Olson's, you know, the logic of collective action.

00:20:36.320 In these circumstances, there's a small number of beneficiaries who have a very concentrated self-interest

00:20:42.080 in maintaining the status quo, where the costs are dispersed, on the other hand, over a large number of people.

00:20:49.320 So you were mentioning in the introduction, you know, we pay higher prices.

00:20:52.980 Canadians, depending on where you're located, pay higher prices for for supply managed products in the grocery store, like butter, for example.

00:21:02.180 That's one that's been in the headlines a lot and fluid milk and so on.

00:21:06.860 Yeah, we we do. We do pay some higher prices for that. 0.90

00:21:11.040 But most people are more concerned about their mortgage payments.

00:21:16.540 So, yeah, maybe I'm paying 50 cents, 75 cents more for a gallon of milk at the grocery store.

00:21:23.960 I'm not going to get too much in a twist about that.

00:21:26.360 Whereas a dairy producer, a raw milk producer would if supply management was terminated, right?

00:21:32.100 There's a big impact on their enterprise compared to a few dollars a week for a family of four consuming groceries.

00:21:43.240 Yeah, well, it's always though that case gets made.

00:21:45.400 it's just a cup of coffee a day it's just a little bit here a little bit there but that's

00:21:49.560 suddenly we find that we're but but that adds up it adds up right um and it also adds up for the

00:21:57.000 for producers themselves right so when you're insulated from from international competition

00:22:03.080 uh you don't fit you don't have the same incentives in terms of changing your business and

00:22:08.360 in terms of processors in Canada, producing the products that consumers want, right?

00:22:16.640 If you're selling into a protected market, you don't face the same incentives as others

00:22:21.000 who compete not with just their next door neighbors and other processors or producers

00:22:29.720 domestically, but it's international competition.

00:22:33.080 So one takeaway is that while people often say, well, supply management has been put in place to help support and protect the farmer in Canada against foreign competition.

00:22:48.140 In fact, these barriers to trade protect farmers in Canada from their fellow Canadians and the decisions that they would make in terms of the goods that they would produce if they were left free to do so.

00:23:01.920 if there weren't impediments to international trade.

00:23:04.820 Well, right back to the beginning statements you said,

00:23:07.140 you know, in a true free market,

00:23:08.420 both the buyer and the seller are going to benefit

00:23:10.220 if they're just allowed to deal directly with each other.

00:23:13.500 I think of back an example with the wheat board.

00:23:16.320 There was a group in Saskatchewan

00:23:17.900 when we still had the wheat board going

00:23:19.100 and they wanted to start actually a pasta company

00:23:22.060 in their small little town.

00:23:23.220 They were going to use their own wheat.

00:23:24.280 They were going to manufacture the pasta.

00:23:25.560 If we bypass all these middlemen,

00:23:27.400 we can come up with a really good product

00:23:28.960 and employ some local people.

00:23:30.420 and, you know, diversify what we do.

00:23:33.620 But it turns out they would have had to sell their wheat

00:23:35.540 to the wheat board, buy it back from the wheat board

00:23:38.260 at an inflated price, and they would have lost all advantage.

00:23:41.180 So they threw the plan out the window.

00:23:43.080 But, I mean, talking about with, I guess,

00:23:45.340 supply-managed industries, it stifles creativity.

00:23:48.400 I mean, there's a lot of producers probably have some good ideas

00:23:50.840 or areas where they can broaden what they do,

00:23:53.180 but they're pretty constrained with where they're sitting.

00:23:55.800 They are.

00:23:56.160 In fact, the only – and raw milk is the most stringent of all of them, all of these supply managed commodities.

00:24:04.220 The only legal buyer of raw milk in every province is the Provincial Milk Marketing Board.

00:24:10.880 It's – while a farmer can consume raw milk that he or she has produced on their own enterprise,

00:24:18.600 they're precluded legally from selling that raw milk to anybody else other than the Provincial Milk Marketing Board.

00:24:25.340 and that's not true for the other supply managed commodities which is why when you go to a farmer's

00:24:34.220 market or you might see some some very small producers that have small flocks of chicken

00:24:40.920 they can sell directly to consumers or eggs right you can have a roadside stand sell sell farm fresh

00:24:47.140 eggs as long as you're not of commercial scale and every province specifies what that threshold is

00:24:55.860 in some provinces it's it's it's actually quite a big number in other places it's small but

00:25:00.980 raw milk is the only one where that opportunity for a primary producer doesn't exist to sell

00:25:08.340 something that they have produced themselves that they cannot legally sell that to anybody

00:25:13.300 else except the government agency. Well, and that's led to cases of dumping. I've talked on

00:25:18.740 this show about before my wife grew up on a small dairy farm, but her father only had a quota for

00:25:22.920 cream. And so he would skim the cream. He would sell that the household would drink as much milk

00:25:28.080 as they could feed some to the pigs, but the rest would get dumped because it was illegal to sell

00:25:32.020 the milk. And that was, it's illegal to sell the milk, but we want to be careful, right? So with

00:25:39.060 With respect to that high-profile case that fell in Ontario who video recorded himself

00:25:44.120 of dumping milk, there probably isn't a single producer in Canada that hasn't done that

00:25:50.020 at one time or another.

00:25:52.220 There's a quality issue where the milk has to be dumped, or it's the less expensive alternative.

00:25:58.980 If producers supply more than their quota allotment, they're penalized, and sometimes

00:26:06.680 that penalty is quite expensive.

00:26:08.800 So the best course of action is to to dump a little bit.

00:26:12.720 Now, in this particular case, the timing, I suppose, was very bad because, you know, just coming through the pandemic and prices for commodities or prices for groceries were quite high.

00:26:29.460 And this poor fellow has to dump his milk because he's produced too much of it.

00:26:34.300 So it was the optics weren't very good, but he was making a point.

00:26:38.800 You certainly, and I mean, you know, social media gives a new way to make a point rather than

00:26:43.020 just say, or transferring the oral stories like I did with my wife, for example.

00:26:47.620 So, I mean, getting a little into the political side, though, and that, you know, that's the dairy

00:26:51.760 cartels, if you want to call them such, are very, very effective political lobbyists. They influence

00:26:57.460 parties of all stripes. They protect that supply management system very jealously. Do you think

00:27:05.040 there's ever going to be a political will to start easing out of it. I interviewed all of the

00:27:10.260 conservative leadership candidates back when they were running for the leadership, and only one of

00:27:14.120 them said he would challenge the supply management system, not another. The others were all terrified

00:27:17.900 as soon as it came up. They'd rather not touch it. No, one of the things that we do know in this

00:27:22.120 country is that, to their credit, they have one of the most effective lobbying organizations around,

00:27:29.120 right uh and that this is manifest itself in in some of the subsidies that the producers are now

00:27:36.880 receiving because of uh trade agreements the federal government has signed with the european

00:27:43.440 union with the trans-pacific partnership and more recently the canadian u.s uh free trade agreement

00:27:51.200 NAFTA 2.0 right producers of supply managed commodities are are receiving subsidies for lost

00:27:59.040 market share uh as a consequence of of signing these agreements when in fact there's very little

00:28:06.080 evidence to suggest that uh that there has been market share that that they've lost

00:28:12.400 new zealand and the us are currently uh they've got a case that uh the amount of access that's

00:28:19.200 that's that has been set aside isn't being filled right so raw milk production this past may was set

00:28:29.840 record level so that you know we're producing as much as as we have ever have in this country of

00:28:37.200 supply managed commodities uh there's never been fewer primary producers of supply managed

00:28:42.640 commodities there's fewer than ten thousand raw milk producers now in this country there's fewer

00:28:48.080 than 500 dairy farms in the province of Alberta. And there's about a couple of thousand primary

00:28:56.880 producers of the other supply managed commodities. So in terms of the politics, getting back to your

00:29:01.520 point, there's maybe 12,000, 13,000 producers of supply managed commodities that wield enormous

00:29:10.480 political influence. Well, and that's another aspect. I mean, some people, defenders of the

00:29:15.520 supply management policy said it helps protect the family farm now i wouldn't necessarily blame

00:29:19.360 supply management but at least evolution and economies of scale i mean it used to be over

00:29:23.840 a hundred thousand producers i believe a couple decades ago and now it's contracted down to

00:29:28.000 as you said about 12 000 so they are becoming just of necessity larger corporate enterprises

00:29:34.400 the romanticized family farms is long gone yeah i agree with you well we'll see if we can start

00:29:41.600 solving you like i said a lot of people when you you talk about supply management though the eyes

00:29:44.960 glaze and then they tire and as there's not a lot of will on the ground necessarily from the public

00:29:49.680 but it is something that's costing it is and i i think it's important to remember all the people

00:29:55.680 involved right uh there there are beneficiaries of the continuation of this policy and there are

00:30:02.560 people that do stand to lose at least in the short term uh so um one of the things that's really

00:30:09.280 important in economics is that there isn't this royal we there's you and i and each of us make

00:30:15.200 our own decisions with respect to what we produce what we consume and whom we we interact with

00:30:20.960 i'll have to avoid triggering you with that uh we term

00:30:25.760 appreciate the correction and it's a good very valid point so uh before i let you go where can

00:30:31.840 people find your stuff i know you've done some work with the fraser institute and you're at the

00:30:35.440 university of lethbridge uh do you write for other publications or anything like that i do on

00:30:40.240 occasion if you do uh if you want to find me online go to the university of lethbridge department of

00:30:46.240 economics um i coordinate the agricultural studies program here and uh as you mentioned at the outset

00:30:54.000 one of the my areas of interest is uh agricultural production marketing and trade and that's

00:31:00.720 That's certainly, it's very important in Canada with supply managed commodities.

00:31:06.400 And of course, in southern Alberta, where we are, it's particularly important for beef and for grains and oilseeds and crops grown under irrigation.

00:31:16.200 Lots of issues in agriculture and agri-food and lots of opportunity.

00:31:20.200 Absolutely.

00:31:21.000 Now, there's much more than we could cover in 15 minutes.

00:31:23.460 That's for sure.

00:31:23.960 I hope we can have you on again to talk about these kind of things down the road then.

00:31:27.920 That would be my pleasure.

00:31:29.060 I look forward to it, Corey.

00:31:30.360 Enjoy the rest of your day.

00:31:31.800 Excellent.

00:31:32.260 Thanks for taking some time with us, Danny.

00:31:34.380 You're welcome.

00:31:36.040 All right.

00:31:36.340 So that was Dr. Danny Leroy, yes, from the University of Lethbridge.

00:31:39.420 So you've gotten my torqued and wound up rants about supply management and things like that,

00:31:44.160 but I'm bringing in a reasoned and educated individual to talk about those policies.

00:31:48.960 And they do impact everybody, whether we want to talk about them or not.

00:31:53.280 And it's not necessarily that dry.

00:31:54.800 It's interesting to see, as we said, it started with good intentions, but again, so many bad

00:31:59.220 policies always do start with, I think, noble intentions. And it was good to have some balance

00:32:05.880 pointing out there's going to be beneficiaries. And I guess you could say, you know, people who

00:32:10.800 certainly don't benefit if it changes. It's good to see a free market person speaking from a

00:32:17.080 university, though, and coming out of those spots and, you know, breaking a bit of that mold of what

00:32:20.900 we're seeing from academia these days. I guess when you're in economics and agriculture, I mean,

00:32:25.220 You've got to be a common-sense, grounded sort of person to maintain what you're doing.

00:32:30.000 Now, something that came down today, Dave mentioned that with the news check-in earlier,

00:32:34.140 you know, and it kind of ties into that.

00:32:35.540 Dr. Jordan Peterson, the Ontario court has upheld, I guess, you know, the,

00:32:43.720 I don't know if you'd call it a ruling, but you see, what has happened is the cancel mob 1.00

00:32:47.040 has been trying to get Peterson for years.

00:32:49.300 You know, they hate him.

00:32:50.120 They hate him.

00:32:50.600 I mean, they're frothing, raging people.

00:32:53.880 They want to cancel him.

00:32:55.720 He dared.

00:32:56.480 This was just back when he was a professor.

00:32:58.200 All he did, University of Toronto, though, as a psychologist, a professor was dared.

00:33:02.260 When he was mandated, people were saying, you've got to start referring to individuals as Z and Zer.

00:33:07.140 And this was back in 2016.

00:33:08.640 I guess they're ahead of their time.

00:33:09.600 I think it was 2016. 0.98

00:33:10.980 And he said, no, no, it's ridiculous. 1.00

00:33:13.620 It's stupid. 1.00

00:33:14.140 I won't do it. 1.00

00:33:15.340 And they went bananas.

00:33:16.400 They went bananas.

00:33:17.440 They were crazy on them.

00:33:18.240 How dare you?

00:33:18.860 How dare you?

00:33:19.420 and they screamed and they threatened and other professors sanctioned him and wrote up things and

00:33:24.500 demanded and he's still the thing that drives them so mad with Peterson is that he won't apologize

00:33:30.600 he won't back down too many do too many people just cave and cower and he won't and the other

00:33:39.540 part is ironically and I know uh you know Dr. Peterson was already a successful professor

00:33:44.140 But boy, it took him and turned him into an international celebrity

00:33:47.220 because people found it refreshing.

00:33:49.800 They found an academic speaking out about political correctness

00:33:53.200 and speaking out against identity politics 0.99

00:33:55.120 and speaking out about how stupid it is to call somebody Z or Xer, 0.99

00:33:59.100 much less to mandate somebody to call them Z or Xer. 1.00

00:34:04.240 It's stupid. It's stupid. 1.00

00:34:06.240 Hey, if you want to be called Z, Xer, 1.00

00:34:08.020 if you ask me politely, I'll say so.

00:34:09.800 I'll call you that. Fine. I don't care.

00:34:11.260 call you an artichoke if that's your preference, but don't tell me what I have to refer to you.

00:34:17.580 That's the big difference. Either way, Dr. Peterson did great. His books were selling

00:34:22.480 like crazy. He was speaking to sold out functions all over North America, around the world. But you

00:34:28.340 see, the mob couldn't relent. They couldn't let off him. So how can we punish this man? How can

00:34:33.280 we get this man who dared to break orthodoxy? Then they realized we can go after a professional

00:34:39.480 association. You see, he is a psychologist. He had patients. He did do still see patients. He's a,

00:34:47.280 you know, a licensed registered psychologist. So they went after the association. They pressured,

00:34:52.940 they demanded, they threatened, they scared. And of course, you'll get these professional

00:34:56.400 associations. They get scared fast and they get scared easily. So they ruled. They said, you,

00:35:04.380 Dr. Peterson must take this course on social media behavior and sensitivity and garbage like that. 0.99

00:35:12.740 That stinks. 0.99

00:35:14.160 It rings of re-education camps.

00:35:15.920 It's thought crime.

00:35:17.500 You don't have to like what Dr. Peterson said.

00:35:19.940 But, I mean, the association, the only time they should be sanctioning is if he was truly doing something unprofessional.

00:35:25.200 If he was being a pervert online.

00:35:27.460 If he was breaking laws.

00:35:29.380 If he was abusing people.

00:35:31.940 But what he was doing was speaking out with a view they didn't agree with.

00:35:35.540 That's all.

00:35:37.020 You got to remember, these associations are populated and managed by the nutless.

00:35:41.820 I tell you, I know this from working in the oil field.

00:35:45.360 Because, you know, when you get these professional associations, even in the energy sector, private market,

00:35:49.940 and they get these industry associations and they got to hold a conference once a month or do this and do that,

00:35:57.160 you don't send your best and brightest to sit on the boards of these associations. 0.99

00:36:00.460 You send the brother-in-law you were forced to hire because, you know, get him out of my hair, he's a moron, and he'll put him to work doing something else. 1.00

00:36:07.660 Unfortunately, when the oil companies are sending their dead weight all to these associations, then these associations, of course, tend to be dominated and populated by morons and cowards and things such as that. 1.00

00:36:19.440 Get the woke guy out of your boardroom and stick him out, you know, spending some time with your professional association. 0.99

00:36:24.500 That's great until that association turns on you.

00:36:27.120 And that's what happened with Peterson.

00:36:29.000 You don't have to like what he said.

00:36:30.460 He dared to point out with an overweight woman and say it doesn't look attractive. 1.00

00:36:36.360 Hey, some guys love the chunkier gals. Good for them, too. 1.00

00:36:40.580 But that's his opinion. He's allowed to have it.

00:36:43.680 And yes, he's questioned some of the trans-orthodoxy.

00:36:47.480 Either way, that led down to now the courts.

00:36:50.500 The Ontario court ruled today and said, no, they are allowed to basically say,

00:36:55.840 either we're going to pull your license, you will no longer be a practicing psychologist,

00:36:59.320 or you go to this re-education course, re-education, we will drill it into you. We will make you look

00:37:06.200 at your shoes in shame. We will tell you what you're supposed to think and most certainly what

00:37:10.840 you're supposed to say. And it sounds already like Peterson said, get stuff not happening.

00:37:16.260 He's going to be pushing back, but they will take away that part. He'll be fine. His books are

00:37:22.000 selling fine. His lectures, it's a point of principle at this point, but it's a big point

00:37:25.860 of principle. And not everybody can afford to stand up to the cancel mob when they turn their

00:37:30.980 head towards you as Dr. Peterson could. Some people can and do get bankrupted once that mob

00:37:37.380 gets swirling around them, those unrelenting hornets of self-righteous. I got to watch for

00:37:44.540 the swearing. You know, being on the Cowboy Network and everything, we are still under the

00:37:49.360 CRTC, so I got to behave myself. But the court held it up, said, yes, you can take away this

00:37:55.920 man's career because he was politically incorrect online. It's a scary precedent. And you know,

00:38:01.900 those frothing, self-important jerks who feel they should control the speech and thought of others 0.99

00:38:06.600 are just tickled pink right now. They're going to go after others. They're going to find others, 1.00

00:38:12.460 and they're going to ruin people. They're bullies of the worst sort. And as I said, 0.99

00:38:18.480 they have no remorse. They don't care who they crush. So this was a big, big deal with that

00:38:25.300 court ruling today. Basically, it wasn't even court ruling. They didn't even hear it. I think

00:38:28.820 they threw it out as he was challenging against it. So yeah, we got a big problem. And look at

00:38:33.780 some of the stuff that we won't be allowed to, well, I don't say we, Danny corrected me on that.

00:38:38.460 None of that we stuff, but people won't be able to speak out without a punishment on a lot of

00:38:44.400 issues when common sense should prevail. And that case Dave

00:38:48.880 mentioned with the power lifter. So this was in Canada. I'm

00:38:52.800 not going to beat around the bush. It was a man. It was a

00:38:55.860 insecure, pathetic man, who suddenly said, I'm going to 0.99

00:38:59.880 identify as a woman and enter a sport that is clearly purely, 0.99

00:39:05.700 you know, gender wise, there's a huge advantage to being male.

00:39:10.080 When you go into that powerlifting, there's no beating

00:39:12.720 around the bush. It's not a matter of opinion. God, the loony left likes to tell us to follow

00:39:17.820 the science. Well, let's talk about science. Men tend to be stronger than women. That's why we 0.99

00:39:24.040 broke up athletic events on gender. So this man came in and he didn't just beat the women who'd

00:39:31.960 spent all that time, did all that work, all that dedication, training for this event. He didn't

00:39:37.100 just beat her a little. So he lifted, and I guess it's something where you squat and deadlift. I

00:39:42.700 I don't know. I don't do all that stuff. You could tell by my build. Uh, I'm sure most of the women 1.00

00:39:45.960 in that event, the real women would still outlift and beat the snot out of me. That's fine. But when 1.00

00:39:50.740 you're getting to the high levels of these things, you know, men who do that similar training will

00:39:55.660 outperform the women. He outperformed it. So by 200 pounds over the next closest woman, 200 pounds, 0.96

00:40:02.420 like it just completely removed the element of competition whatsoever. So that's just absurd.

00:40:09.380 Yeah, 597 pounds versus the next person's 387.

00:40:13.480 What an insult.

00:40:15.400 What an insult.

00:40:16.260 And that we even have to discuss it.

00:40:18.600 That we even have to say, this is absurd.

00:40:21.680 This is unfair.

00:40:22.960 This is an actual assault against women. 0.97

00:40:25.740 This is getting towards the end game of the woke. 1.00

00:40:29.280 This is how dumb they are. 1.00

00:40:30.620 This really is. 1.00

00:40:31.260 I mean, the woke began with women back in the 60s and 70s 0.95

00:40:35.780 when they weren't getting rights that they should have,

00:40:38.160 when they were being underpaid for the same job that men were doing and things like that,

00:40:42.440 there were rights that were being abused. Women were being left to hang if a husband took off on 0.98

00:40:48.220 them, things like that. But now it's come all the way around, all the way around, and the woman 0.98

00:40:54.540 loses her rights as long as a man says, you know what, I think today I'm going to identify as a 0.64

00:40:58.260 woman. We're not even talking about somebody who's dedicated a life to being trans. We're not talking

00:41:03.180 about somebody who's had, of course, some of the surgical or drug transitioning or any of those

00:41:09.480 things changed their lifestyle. They just have to say, sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you

00:41:14.360 don't. That's nuts. Yeah, I'm going to lay off the nut thing for a bit here. But you know,

00:41:20.820 self-identifying? No. No. It's crazy. And at least some of these sporting associations are saying

00:41:28.360 that's enough. But there's going to be pushback. I'm forgetting some of the names, but you know,

00:41:32.740 the case in the States with that man who's down there swimming and blowing all the women out of 0.90

00:41:37.840 the water as far as the races go. You know, defeating them all over the place down there.

00:41:44.020 And one of the competing women dared to speak out. She said, this is nuts. I can't compete with this

00:41:49.780 guy. And plus he's standing around in the change room. I turn around and there's male parts behind

00:41:56.060 my head, because this is a fully intact man. I'm not going to call him a her. Somebody who identifies

00:42:03.620 as a her, who's truly trans, wants to live that way? Absolutely. But this clown? No, this is an 1.00

00:42:08.540 insecure, pathetic wretch who couldn't make it in his own gender competitions. He has a girlfriend, 1.00

00:42:14.220 by the way. So he thought, I'll just go beat the women. It is almost a form of beating women, isn't 0.83

00:42:21.680 it? We saw that case that I guess it did turn out there was some truth. There's a guy joining a

00:42:25.660 women's rugby team. And we're supposed to deny reality. We're supposed to say there isn't an 1.00

00:42:31.480 inherent advantage. Of course there is. The best of all was that purple haired soccer beast from

00:42:38.840 the United States. Again, I'm terrible with names. I can't remember her name, but she was the woke of

00:42:42.900 the woke and heading the American team and the works. Yeah. And saying, you know, on these

00:42:49.480 trans issues and all the rest of it. But her team, her top women's team in all of the United States,

00:42:54.680 I believe they were at the top in the world at one point, got beaten by a high school team of boys.

00:43:01.080 They did. Check it out. Look it up.

00:43:04.480 These were highly trained women, fantastic players, but they can't step over that physiological reality 1.00

00:43:11.080 that male bodies, physiques in those kinds of sports have an advantage.

00:43:17.880 And it's ruining it. And it's going to ruin it all around.

00:43:21.280 I mean, somebody else was talking about going into the WNBA, you know, the basketball.

00:43:25.880 Again, look at the tallest man ever and the tallest woman. 0.99

00:43:28.460 There's going to be height advantages.

00:43:30.080 It's got to come to a stop.

00:43:30.920 Now, getting back on a side rant about this whole thing, this is what the cancel crowd comes after.

00:43:36.760 We won't be allowed to have this conversation.

00:43:39.900 Somebody saying that man shouldn't be competing against women in a sport might suddenly get the cancel mob.

00:43:45.720 They might get phone calls to their professional association saying,

00:43:48.460 sanction this person, put this person out of work, bankrupt this person, this person doesn't

00:43:53.680 deserve to earn a living, because they hurt my feelings by stating physiological realities.

00:44:00.520 And the courts by the precedent that Ontario says, set, say, yeah, that's perfectly fine.

00:44:05.720 Go on welfare, I guess, or, or find a new or of course, or of course, go for reeducation. 0.95

00:44:12.760 Go in, hang your head in shame, do like the Chinese did with the shaming, hang the card 1.00

00:44:16.900 off your chest. You had wrong think. You were bad, naughty. Change your thoughts. You're not 1.00

00:44:24.020 allowed to independently think. You have to think with the wall. Guys, this is important.

00:44:27.820 This is really, really important. You don't have to like Peterson. Not everybody does.

00:44:32.720 You don't have to agree with him. Lots of people don't. But protect that right for not just

00:44:39.280 academics, but it's pretty important with the academics, but for everybody to speak out on

00:44:44.160 these things. You don't understand. This mob will turn on you. They'll turn on you. They will eat

00:44:49.040 their own. They will eat the woke. It doesn't matter if you try to pander to them. It doesn't

00:44:53.360 matter if you try to, you know, stay woke. You slip even once. They will eat you alive. They're

00:44:59.560 parasites. They're hyenas. And the courts are affirming these hyenas. And it's disgusting. 1.00

00:45:06.840 We've got to speak up, guys, because they will come for you. They will come for you. So we can't

00:45:12.200 it quietly on these things. Well, that kind of eats up a lot of the time today, guys. So yes,

00:45:19.740 it went fast. Thank you very much for joining me. Look, I got to remind you one more time,

00:45:23.460 get on there, westernstandard.news slash membership, take out a subscription, share it on X,

00:45:29.320 share however you can on Facebook, things like that meta, get the word out. Independent media

00:45:35.500 can still shine through.

00:45:37.780 We don't have to lose

00:45:39.040 to the subsidized media

00:45:41.740 and we can keep talking about things

00:45:44.380 that the other outlets

00:45:45.640 are just too cowardly to address

00:45:47.860 and we can have these kinds of conversations.

00:45:49.720 So thanks for supporting us, guys.

00:45:51.360 Thanks for joining me today

00:45:52.760 and I will see you all again

00:45:54.240 next week at this time.

00:45:56.440 Here's an update on commodity prices

00:45:58.040 in Lethbridge where we've had

00:45:58.920 about an inch rain over the past few days.

00:46:01.140 Cash barley is down $5 at $3.65.

00:46:03.260 feed wheat is steady at $3.79 and corn is down $5 at $3.76 per metric ton. In the milling wheat

00:46:10.840 market, September Minneapolis futures added $9.5 at $7.83 per bushel, with local hard red spring

00:46:17.180 bid for August movement at $10 per bushel. Looking at canola, November futures are higher at $6.40

00:46:22.980 at $8.0240 per ton, with delivered vice for September movement at $17.85 per bushel.

00:46:29.000 In the Pulse markets, nearby red lentil prices remain at $0.33 per pound and yellow peas are

00:46:34.920 trading at $10.20 per bushel. And looking at cattle, October live cattle are up $0.35 at $1.78.30

00:46:41.820 per 100 weight. For more information on pricing or picked up options, give me a call at 403-394-1711.

00:46:50.320 I'm Matt Busiekum at Marketplace Commodities. Accurate real-time marketing information and

00:46:54.780 pricing options canadian shooting sports association without the cssa our gun rights 0.97

00:47:00.700 would have been taken long long ago these guys are on the front lines helping to draft smart

00:47:06.780 and intelligent firearms regulations and legislation in canada and more importantly

00:47:12.140 educating the public about how we keep guns out of the hands of the wrong people

00:47:16.220 If you become a member, it's absolutely worth every penny.

00:47:46.220 Thank you.

Western Standard - August 24, 2023

CMS： Austerity is inevitable

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