Western Standard - CMS： In small towns we take care of our own

00:00:00.000 Transcription by CastingWords

00:00:30.000 Western Standard here. I am indeed Corey Morgan. And thank you for joining me for what's going to

00:00:41.340 be a good, better part of an hour covering some news issues, covering a little ranting on my part

00:00:47.100 and some feedback back and forth. I got a great guest coming on, Shane Wenzel of Shane Homes.

00:00:54.300 Yes, his father named the company after him. Shane's sort of the principal there these days,

00:00:58.480 I believe. And we're going to talk about home building. It's not as dull as you might think.

00:01:02.940 Like we've got a real issue going on. We've got a lot of people coming to Canada, settling in, 1.00

00:01:06.880 which can be great, but we are not coming anywhere close to keeping up with building the housing

00:01:11.620 supply to keep all these new Canadians. And a lot of governments are in the way. So Shane can be

00:01:16.640 able to really lend a lot of insight into what is it going to take to speed up construction or get

00:01:21.420 these things done? And what's been in the way, what's making it so hard to get enough housing

00:01:25.640 built in Alberta. So yes, it's good to see you there checking in. Guys, Chris there from North

00:01:32.020 Okanagan and Debbie from Tabor used that comment area. Guys, have discussions with each other,

00:01:37.120 send questions my way, my guests' way. I don't necessarily read them all out, but I do see them

00:01:41.000 all up there and I appreciate it. It reminds me there are people actually viewing this and

00:01:45.400 listening and taking part and participating and I'm not just talking to myself like I tend to do

00:01:49.760 when I'm driving. So keep it going, guys. Again, as I always like to remind folks, though, keep it

00:01:54.680 civil. We can take everything seriously without taking it too personally and getting on each

00:01:59.140 other's cases. So I'm going to start with what's got me wound up and something I'm kind of taking

00:02:03.500 personally. You know, small towns, they've been getting a bad rap lately. They've been

00:02:06.700 demonized by the crazed woke left all over a song. Song. So let me talk about small towns a little

00:02:15.220 bit. I live in Prittis, Alberta. It's a little hamlet in the Rocky Mountain foothills just west

00:02:21.260 of the city of Calgary. I'm near Calgary, but I'm in the bush there. That's why I get those great

00:02:24.540 pictures on my game camera. It's a diverse community. We got people of all sorts of

00:02:28.860 backgrounds and such, gives a lot commute to the nearby city of Calgary, but the prime local

00:02:32.900 industry is ranching. It's a small town. Now with my house, it has a lot of history behind it. Back

00:02:38.700 in 1920, there was actually a sizable tea house built on what's now my property. And when the

00:02:44.000 owner of that tea house retired at the start of the 1960s, he sold the home to a couple who had

00:02:48.860 eight children. They were big families back then, but that big old tea house was ideal for such a

00:02:53.780 big family. Unfortunately, it was also a fire trap. And in 1962, the house burned to the ground

00:02:59.440 and a family of 10 people found itself homeless. So then what happened? Well, the community stepped

00:03:06.060 up. The father and the older children were actually housed in a nearby community hall,

00:03:10.440 and the mother and younger children were sent to Manitoba to live with extended family.

00:03:14.500 Neighbors from our area hitched in and they built a modest log home on what's now my property.

00:03:21.220 The family's period of homelessness was terrible, but relatively short, and that was thanks to the

00:03:25.480 effort of the community. I learned about that part of my home's history when some of those kids

00:03:29.660 now who are older than I am came to visit Jane and I at our house, actually. It was a very emotional

00:03:34.620 reunion for them, seeing the place where they grew up back then. Now, going further, I used to own

00:03:39.720 the local pub in Prentice. I talk about that now and then. If you really want to know everybody in

00:03:43.420 your area, run the local pub. I tell you, everybody comes by at one way at a time or another. Now, in

00:03:49.100 the last year before I sold that pub, we were robbed twice in a matter of weeks. The cost of

00:03:54.140 the theft and the damages caused by them set us back dearly, and it was stressful. It was autumn,

00:03:59.260 our slow season was approaching, and I mean, the pub was profitable, but the profits were pretty

00:04:03.120 modest, and we were in a tight spot. And within hours of the first robbery, a neighbor actually

00:04:07.560 brought over a piece of plywood and cut it for us to secure the door where the glass had been

00:04:11.060 smashed out. And the day after that, local children created a bunch of fantastic notes and pictures

00:04:16.400 that they decorated the door with.

00:04:18.240 Yeah, you see pictures and drawings

00:04:19.960 thanking us for running the local business and everything.

00:04:21.840 Really brightened my morning in a dark time

00:04:23.400 when I was going to open my boarded up door

00:04:25.720 in the pub for the day.

00:04:27.220 The owner of another pub in a nearby town,

00:04:29.140 a competitor, held a surprise fundraiser for us.

00:04:31.500 And our community made a point

00:04:32.540 of patronizing our place more than ever

00:04:34.540 to help us get back on our feet again.

00:04:36.380 It helped us financially and emotionally

00:04:38.720 get through what was a tough winter.

00:04:40.900 Now, we've come together and print us

00:04:42.200 as a community for our neighbors

00:04:43.180 when, well, they've lost children, lost homes,

00:04:45.880 even when they've lost pets unexpectedly.

00:04:48.220 And it's hard to find that kind of local support network in a city.

00:04:52.100 But what does it all come down to?

00:04:53.640 In small towns, we take care of our own.

00:04:56.240 And that's the line, that's the main one,

00:04:58.540 that the woke are losing their minds over

00:05:00.040 in Jason Aldean's hit song, Try That in a Small Town.

00:05:03.320 Somebody dared to say we take care of our own.

00:05:05.500 The insane left is claiming that line has hidden racist undertones. 0.97

00:05:10.240 Not only is that a load of hogwash, 0.93

00:05:12.040 it's insulting to cut down what's actually such a beautiful thing is the protective

00:05:16.580 civic spirit of small towns. It has nothing to do with race. I don't doubt small communities

00:05:21.640 and countries with people of all races are similar in that sense of community and protecting their

00:05:26.040 neighbors. If anything people in cities should be looking at ways to emulate the tight-knit

00:05:30.400 communities of small towns. It feels good to know your neighbors to be able to help your neighbors

00:05:34.920 and to be able to depend on your neighbors and you don't need to be in a small town to try and

00:05:38.620 develop those relationships. Aldine makes a valid point in his song. He mentions things such as

00:05:43.580 people being sucker punched on sidewalks or old ladies being carjacked. These things don't happen

00:05:48.560 often, if ever, in small towns, as the perpetrators don't tend to get away before locals can get their

00:05:53.100 hands on them. In the city, people have been trained to look the other way rather than intervene

00:05:57.580 for their neighbors, and it's a bad trend. Yeah, sure, crime happens. My bar was robbed in a small

00:06:02.320 town. Should be noted, though, when the criminals were caught, it was found they came in actually

00:06:05.740 from the city to rob us. I didn't need a bouncer when I had my pub. The local regulars took care

00:06:11.220 of that in my bar and woe be tied and it happened to visiting folks who might think it's a good

00:06:16.080 idea to start trouble in a small town bar. It's tiresome watching race baiters trying to find 0.72

00:06:22.040 evidence of racism in everything. Why go ballistic over a song celebrating and pointing out one of

00:06:27.920 the benefits of living in a small town? Why are some people so obsessed with division that they

00:06:32.640 have to inject racism into a song where there was none. Look, it might not be for everybody,

00:06:38.480 but small towns are great, folks. I'd recommend to anybody who can work remotely to get out of

00:06:43.040 the city. Cities are crime-ridden, over-governed, and running out of housing. They're crowded.

00:06:49.020 Small town living is cost-effective. The air is fresher. It's safer. And most importantly,

00:06:53.660 in small towns, we take care of our own, no matter what color. So I just wanted to get that out,

00:06:59.980 guys. You know, I just had to counter that. I know people have been discussing that song and

00:07:03.880 the pushback and those heritans on the view talking about how evil and racist that song

00:07:09.640 again, no basis, no basis. We just have to inject that division. Guys, I'm here to defend small

00:07:15.980 towns. I love them. And they're good people. And it's just ridiculous to watch the woke come down

00:07:21.720 on them. All right. So normally at this point, I go to our news editor, Dave, to check in and see 0.65

00:07:27.560 what's happening in the news, but he is indisposed today. So you're stuck with me right through till

00:07:31.420 we get our guest. That's all right. We got lots to talk about. So something that happened this

00:07:34.620 week too, which was interesting. I had a package waiting for me. It was actually a picture of it

00:07:39.080 was tweeted out by James. This was on my desk says acid tabs for Corey Morgan. I get a lot of

00:07:47.300 interesting stuff sent here to the Western standard office. And this was a different one.

00:07:51.140 Where the hell does that mean? We've got a bunch of LSD showing up for me. I mean, you know, come

00:07:54.940 on my head's already kind of scurry enough as it is what's what's going on either way uh once I got

00:08:00.100 here and got to realize the other side of the envelope so I guess they understood there was

00:08:03.720 going to be some uh confusion perhaps says don't worry it's for the bees ah yes and the sticker

00:08:08.700 so this came from it's a literal acid treatment for mites um from the guys Mike and Pedro at

00:08:15.860 Freedom Honey it's called and they've got a good sense of humor on them and they've got a good

00:08:20.040 cause. Actually, they raise bees out by Edmonton, and they sell the honey, and it goes towards

00:08:25.720 veteran causes. Check them out, actually, on Twitter, and I think they're in other areas of

00:08:29.640 social media, Facebook and such, Freedom Honey. And they sent me, because I'd had some bee

00:08:34.460 challenges, some acid treatment to try and keep those mites down, because they know I'm a bee 0.99

00:08:38.940 keeper. So yes, it was a nice surprise. Hey, keep sending things to the office, but you know, be

00:08:43.320 careful, guys. I don't want anything that ticks or leaks or any strange stuff like that, but

00:08:49.160 I guess, you know, acid tabs are welcome of the right kind. So yeah, nothing fearful or terrible

00:08:56.060 happened in here, but lots of good things happening. All right. So let's see. I'm going

00:09:03.020 to have a look at the Western Standard website then, and I'll kind of run through what Dave

00:09:06.660 would have told us is topping the news today, because that's what's important with our site.

00:09:10.820 We'd cover news. We have reporters all over the place and we're writing that stuff up.

00:09:14.500 Right now there's the recovery police are hunting a suspect in a deadly hit and run.

00:09:18.980 you can see the headline there. So if you know this guy, you know where he is, you know, have a

00:09:23.300 look at that picture, have a look at the video, call it in. Somebody was run down and killed and

00:09:27.320 he took off, which is always terrible. Another story that always gets to people. Toronto police,

00:09:32.700 I saw this one earlier, a canine officer, Bingo, was shot to death during a search for a gunman.

00:09:38.340 These police dogs, you know, it's true and it's just a human nature thing. We always, I mean,

00:09:45.140 we get upset when anybody, you know, anybody who's not a sociopath gets upset when you hear

00:09:49.600 about a death or a shooting of a person, of course. But when it's helpless or when it's

00:09:53.680 innocent, like a dog, it really gets to us. You know, this dog was just doing what he felt was

00:09:59.340 a good job and running out there and doing it right. And, you know, I imagine the dog gave

00:10:05.120 its life and it saved probably a human officer. But let's, you know, recognize that dog's service

00:10:10.360 and hope that in this country, so prone to weak sentences to criminals and such that there is a

00:10:16.500 very, very strong sentence awaiting the man who killed that unfortunate dog that was doing its

00:10:24.100 job there. I hate reading about stories like that, but well, good work, Bingo. Thanks for your

00:10:29.240 service. In Edmonton, yeah, there's a video of a high-risk homeless camp, a large one in Edmonton's

00:10:37.260 Chinatown that I guess the city is dismantling, so they've had enough. It's one of those difficult

00:10:41.120 areas, and again, Arthur Green covers that sort of stuff all the time up in Edmonton. It's happening

00:10:45.560 in every city. It's a real problem. Homelessness, tent cities, crime, the addiction, and all that

00:10:51.220 goes with it. The difficulty is you can dismantle these large camps, but where do these people go?

00:10:57.180 I mean, they need somewhere to go, and we get frustrated. You can't let them just set up large

00:11:02.900 tent camp encampments and that lead to social disorder and problems indefinitely. But we do

00:11:08.640 have to wonder what's going to happen to these folks. Where are we going to put them? Okay,

00:11:11.540 they're out of that homeless camp in Chinatown. They're just going to scatter and set up in 1.00

00:11:15.120 homeless camps in other areas. And you can keep playing whack-a-mole and chasing them down. 0.99

00:11:20.640 But in the end, we've got to figure out what to do. I mean, the snow is going to fly in a few

00:11:24.040 months. I know nobody likes to hear that right now. But these homeless people are going to need

00:11:27.900 shelter. And the reality too, that not enough people discuss though, when it comes to these

00:11:33.880 particular encampments, look, the vast majority of the people in them are addicts. Let's not beat

00:11:39.360 around that bush. Let's not allow that narrative to go on. Oh, there are people who fell through

00:11:43.660 the cracks or people who just couldn't get enough of a living wage. No guys, they're addicts. They

00:11:48.400 need treatment. They need help. I'm not saying we should dismiss these people because they're

00:11:52.240 addicts. In fact, quite the opposite. We should be going out of our way to find ways to get them

00:11:57.560 into treatment because that's where it all starts and ends. As long as they're addicted, nothing else

00:12:02.960 is going to work. As I've said before, I don't know if it was on the show or if it was on Twitter,

00:12:07.200 but there's truth to it. You just take, so they just need a home. Okay. Put them in a house,

00:12:10.680 a bunch of addicts. What do you think you got? Well, you got a crack house. And they're,

00:12:14.220 unfortunately, it's just reality, guys. They're going to trash the place. They're going to rip

00:12:18.860 the copper wires out of the walls. They're going to sell it and they'll be back out in the streets

00:12:22.520 in another homeless camp. You have to treat the addiction first. Likewise, other people say they

00:12:27.080 just got to get a job. Well, there's a little more than that. I mean, look at these guys. They are

00:12:30.180 not in condition to get a job yet. They are, again, you got to treat the addiction. Until

00:12:36.360 that's treated, they can't work for people. They aren't in their right minds. And that's, I was at

00:12:42.180 a function last night that was, it was given and a presentation by an addiction treatment center.

00:12:47.580 It was very interesting. This one was very family focused. It's such a huge issue. I talk about it

00:12:52.160 a lot. I find it's a personal issue. A lot of us are touched by addiction, whether directly or

00:12:57.500 indirectly through family. I mean, the amount of overdoses is just horrific. The amount of young

00:13:01.180 people we're seeing on the streets with those drugs eating them alive. But what's interesting

00:13:04.800 with the success rate of this particular program, I was looking at the presentation from very

00:13:10.660 family oriented. They don't just treat the addicts, they treat the surrounding family. Because of

00:13:14.960 course, when a person's in the throes of addiction, and it can come from an intact family, a high

00:13:19.420 income family or a low income family. It can happen to everybody. And that's, what's got to be

00:13:23.560 remembered. But having that network of family around them is so important for recovery later,

00:13:29.940 because getting off of the drugs, that's great. Of course, that's where you have to start. But

00:13:34.680 the harder part's the long game. The harder part is staying sober. And if you don't have a network

00:13:39.940 of people around you, you're going to have a very hard time doing it. Unfortunately,

00:13:43.880 the people on the streets often may have lost their family relationships, or maybe they weren't

00:13:48.380 in a good family relationship to begin with. We've got a very complicated issue in trying to help

00:13:53.560 them. I mean, I know people say, well, just get them in and stuff them into treatment. I'm along

00:13:56.900 the lines of compassionate intervention. I agree with that. But remember, this treatment, the place

00:14:01.180 I saw the presentation from the average inpatient time is 277 days. It takes a long time, a lot of

00:14:08.700 resources and a lot of work to take somebody out of that state and get them functional again. So be 0.95

00:14:14.040 prepared to spend a lot. I think it's an investment in our society. I tell you, I curse about a lot

00:14:17.720 of spending on a lot of things the government does, but I do believe we should spend on those

00:14:21.240 who can't take care of themselves. And some people who can't take care of themselves are people who

00:14:25.960 are in the throes of advanced addiction. I think we have a moral obligation to help them however

00:14:31.080 possible. And you know, we do have laws. I've talked about that before with a family member.

00:14:35.660 We had to actually put into a mental health facility for a while and he's out now and settled

00:14:39.900 in and that's great. But there is a means to commit people if they're in a state of mind where

00:14:45.920 they could hurt themselves or others. Well, you know what? I don't see why we can't declare a lot

00:14:50.440 of the people, at least when they're addicted to the point of living on the streets, and just say,

00:14:53.060 face it, they're going to hurt themselves if we leave them where they are. We've got nothing to

00:14:57.000 lose in intervening. I know it infringes on their liberty, but this is the point where you step over

00:15:00.900 that line. Either way, it's an ongoing thing. So yes, Edmonton's dismantled that big, tense city,

00:15:07.820 and well, still, it's just a symptom of a bigger problem. All right, let's talk about another

00:15:12.180 problem housing, homing and housing in general. And that was just an unintentional segue into it

00:15:17.900 because we do have a shortage of housing. The rents are going up. Real estate prices are going

00:15:22.620 up. People are having a hard time getting into a home. But at the same time, the people who want

00:15:27.560 to build those homes are having a hard time getting the ability to build them fast enough

00:15:31.800 to keep up. So I have Shane Wenzel from Shane Homes on. He's been on before and we can perhaps

00:15:36.640 find some of the problems and holdups there. So thanks for joining us today, Shane.

00:15:40.640 Thanks for having me, Corey.

00:15:42.180 I really appreciate it. I can't remember exactly what the tweet was. It was something that got you quite stirred up a little while back with housing because, I mean, people are pointing fingers all over the place, but they won't address the real issues of why we can't get enough housing built to keep up with demand. Can you kind of expand to start this off?

00:16:00.500 Well, yeah, I think what really ticked me off on the original tweet that I'd made was just the housing and affordability task force.

00:16:09.340 And I guess why it frustrated me, Corey, is that, you know, here we had a bunch of city experts and other experts get together.

00:16:16.020 But the only expert missing from around the table was the housing and development industry and what we could do to support the goal.

00:16:24.720 yeah well and i mean it just well again looking we're just going to frustrate ourselves when we

00:16:31.600 try to look for common sense in the realm of government and committees and task forces but

00:16:35.560 all the same we should still call it out when boy you know if it was a medical thing they would have

00:16:39.560 doctors involved in it if it was an energy thing presumably they would have energy producers at 0.80

00:16:44.760 least contributing if you're looking to build more houses why don't you have the developers

00:16:48.840 and home builders giving some input on it well it just seemed to be common sense in my mind and i

00:16:54.300 in yours as well and a lot of people's but you know when i look at the task force i guess where

00:16:58.860 the biggest frustration came in is it uh it was really dress addressing the social issue and and

00:17:04.220 and subsidized housing more than it was you know affordable market housing and uh and trying to

00:17:10.460 get through the boom that we're going through in alberta right now being such a popular province

00:17:14.300 to move to well that's it we've got a great inter-provincial and uh immigration coming into

00:17:20.860 Alberta I mean there's a great future it's a great place to move but we aren't keeping up

00:17:25.180 with that demand and these task forces as you said they talk about subsidized housing things

00:17:29.740 like that but often they dodge the reality is we need supply it doesn't matter how much you

00:17:33.580 subsidize if there are not enough houses you've got a problem yes well and that's what we're

00:17:38.860 experiencing right now I mean not only do we have you know supply chain issues we're still managing

00:17:43.660 a bit of that you know we're dealing with labor issues as well you know the the quick estimate

00:17:49.260 off the top of my head would be that in this province we need about 90 to 100 000 homes built

00:17:55.980 and we have the capacity for about 36 000 in total you know that's uh that's a far cry from where we

00:18:01.900 need to be to uh to handle the onslaught that we're dealing with and you know we're welcome

00:18:05.900 that you know we're obviously happy to have it i should say but you know not at the uh not at the

00:18:11.420 expense of people not being able to take their homes or not being able to afford their homes

00:18:15.420 and that all comes down to supply so there's two hindrances we you know we've talked about that

00:18:21.180 when you've been on the show before uh i'll start with the one that was regulatory now i mean again

00:18:26.140 when you you get discussions with people oh well we gotta regulate to keep homes safe and have a

00:18:30.860 standard or a certain environmental standard but sometimes i mean there's just too much where can

00:18:37.580 we reduce some regulations to make it easier for you guys to keep up and keep building uh well i

00:18:43.740 I mean, obviously, you know, simple economics, supply and demand, I mean, we're quelling the

00:18:48.460 supply based on an ideology that is just kind of foreign to me. And, you know, to drop that red tape

00:18:56.820 associated with that ideology would be the first best place to start. You know, we've taken what I

00:19:03.200 like to say is a relatively simple concept of building a house and building an energy efficient

00:19:07.540 home, and we've turned it into something just completely complex to the point where it takes

00:19:12.840 anywhere, you know, depending on the, depending on the company. I mean, it could take anywhere from

00:19:17.600 60 to 150 days longer just to build. I mean, that just seems ridiculous for, you know,

00:19:24.820 when you're trying to supply housing to people and in an affordable fashion.

00:19:29.100 Well, yeah, and that was something we talked about before. I think it was something along

00:19:32.100 the lines of seven years from concept to construction, assuming every hoop has been

00:19:36.640 jumped through, every license has been found, and every application has been approved anywhere

00:19:41.520 along the way that could get shut down. I mean, there's millions and millions of dollars spent

00:19:45.520 before you're even seeing a foundation starting to be poured. And that all comes down to the cost

00:19:50.120 of the house in the end. Well, sure it does. And, you know, it's the end user that bears the cost.

00:19:55.760 You know, there's this perception that it's the developer, the builder that's absorbing it. Well,

00:20:00.480 you can't absorb it at the end of the day when you're used to, you know, purchasing land and

00:20:04.980 you're in the ground within a couple of years. Seven years is a tremendously long time. And that

00:20:10.060 just seems to be the norm and it's getting longer it seems every day you know so everybody's trying

00:20:15.840 their hardest and you know you just kind of long for the days when you had a strong strong

00:20:20.360 partnership with planning and the city of calgary and that just seems to have imploded over the last

00:20:26.540 12 years so i i see one of the commenters saying when we say homes doing apartments or houses or

00:20:32.640 both i mean i imagine when i say home i mean both i mean it's it's all somewhere where somebody can

00:20:37.920 be housed and then there's demand for each. Are condos facing the same sort of hindrances and

00:20:43.660 trying to get zoned and built as houses are? Sure they are. And I think that's one of the

00:20:49.420 many challenges because of course it takes longer to build, but you can put a tremendous amount of

00:20:54.300 units out there when you look at some of the high rises in downtown Calgary, but when you look at a

00:20:58.960 lot of the four and five story apartment buildings out in New Suburbia, it takes at least a couple

00:21:06.460 of years just to get the approvals in place and by then you may have missed the market but in this

00:21:12.180 case you could probably build it now and people will just generally come but uh you know why such

00:21:17.800 a hold up when you know you've you've taken care of everything that's written in black and white

00:21:23.020 you know why are we dealing with you know a file manager who wants to put their own personal touch

00:21:27.900 on it i'm just kind of baffled by all of that yeah well so that was an interesting comment and then

00:21:33.140 Don Sharp was a commenter as well saying, you know, what's the best way to streamline some of

00:21:36.940 these issues with the paperwork inspection and regulation to, you know, delays. So you're saying

00:21:41.920 sometimes it is a person just kind of wants to make their own little unique footprint, I guess,

00:21:46.600 on a project. And, you know, in some cases, Corey, that's what's happening. In some cases, you need

00:21:51.460 parks to agree with roads, to agree with the fire department on certain things. And you can

00:21:56.720 understand that they, you know, they want to dot their I's and cross their T's rather. But,

00:22:02.340 But, you know, I mean, ultimately what we're trying to do is we're trying to provide housing and the longer it takes, the more expensive it gets because every day costs you more and more and more.

00:22:13.640 That's it. I mean, we could just, you know, flick a switch and bring more labor in overnight or there's a lot of challenges.

00:22:18.800 We still have a long game, but some of these regulatory things we should be able to, if the will was there, be able to change those pretty quickly.

00:22:25.620 But you mentioned ideology as well, and it's not unique to Calgary.

00:22:29.480 There seems to be a lot of municipal governments that have a fixation on urban density

00:22:34.100 and fighting outward growth of the cities, and that makes things problematic as well.

00:22:40.120 I mean, inner-city infills are beautiful, but they aren't cheap,

00:22:42.780 and we need stuff a little faster and a little wider if we're really going to meet that need.

00:22:48.280 And that's really it, Corey.

00:22:49.940 That's the challenge with the ideology is that it maybe works in theory,

00:22:54.640 but this isn't Europe. We're not building up as much as we are building out. And when you take

00:23:01.600 a look at a lot of the new suburban subdivisions, quite honestly, they're more dense than even some

00:23:08.720 of the inner city neighborhoods. So I mean, you've seen a tremendous shift over the last short while

00:23:14.080 driven by the consumer. And I mean, really, isn't that what we're doing it for? We're trying to

00:23:19.120 build homes for people and we're trying to allow them the choice rather than pigeonholing them

00:23:24.240 inside an ideology. Because if they don't build here in Calgary, if a smaller center like Airdrie

00:23:31.060 or Okotoks or Chestermere are prepared to accept that, then they go there. Which actually leads to

00:23:37.800 less density and all those things that they were ideologically opposed to in the first place. I

00:23:42.040 mean, they're trying to save the world and reduce emissions. Well, we have people commuting a longer

00:23:45.640 distance to get to work because they've been ironically driven out of the city environment

00:23:49.880 for affordability reasons.

00:23:51.960 Sure they do.

00:23:52.980 And that's ultimately what you're going to start to see happen, I think,

00:23:56.060 is if the city of Calgary is going to be more of a challenge,

00:24:01.100 a lot of these smaller centers are prepared to take that tax base

00:24:04.160 and they'll still be working in Calgary.

00:24:06.620 And you're not going to see the taxes from them.

00:24:08.940 Well, we're seeing that in Calgary, for example, with the industrial, for sure.

00:24:12.220 If you go north of the city into the Rocky View, holy cow,

00:24:14.760 are they putting up warehouses and light manufacturing and all sorts of things?

00:24:18.100 and it's no coincidence that it's just north of the city line uh city's not winning when they're

00:24:23.940 trying these battles no they're not and they're losing out on about another thousand acres of that

00:24:28.700 too so i mean again it gets back to the the solutions as you said i mean we got multiple

00:24:33.980 levels of government that's part of the problem too and they aren't necessarily getting along

00:24:37.580 i think the federal government i saw some signaling i mean they're trying the carrot

00:24:41.520 approach with some of the municipal governments saying they'd have transfers if if municipal

00:24:45.080 governments could come up with ways to expand their housing supply. But if you're directing

00:24:49.740 that money directly, it could, of course, just fall into that municipal pot and they still could

00:24:54.160 hinder outward growth of housing, I guess. Well, that's exactly what you're seeing

00:24:58.980 happening, Corey. And I think that's, again, kind of circling back to the housing affordability

00:25:03.660 task force. The focus has been on social or subsidized housing because now we've created

00:25:12.520 a problem we've created you know a pricing problem and an affordability problem you know

00:25:18.820 and that that seems to be where a lot of that's getting directed and you know good on them for

00:25:23.220 for taking on that issue but you know the biggest challenge past that is you know we're already

00:25:28.280 constrained with labor so how are you going to build it you've come up with this great plan but

00:25:32.280 how are you going to build it more importantly yeah i mean you subsidize socialized housing and

00:25:38.620 then when you pour money into that, when you have the labor crunch, well, then you're actually just

00:25:43.140 going to put the prices of things up even higher because you're pulling the labor and supplies into

00:25:47.940 another area. It turns into a self-feeding monster. Another issue we've got, and it's not just the

00:25:53.520 people at the level of needing subsidized or socialized housing, but people are in, if they've

00:25:57.960 recently bought into an existing home and they came in tightly on the financing, the interest

00:26:04.220 rates have been going up and suddenly they're finding themselves very, very crunched right now

00:26:07.820 making that mortgage payment and that's the the new the new challenge that we have and we faced

00:26:13.260 that last month where we had 10 homeowners who couldn't take their homes because they no longer

00:26:17.980 qualified with the uh with the increase in the rates and and of course now they're re-qualifying

00:26:23.260 under the uh the cmhc stress test rather and that uh that just had another two and a half two and

00:26:31.260 three quarter points on to what they have to qualify for so they no longer qualify for a home

00:26:35.580 So they were that close to achieving their dream and now that's gone for now.

00:26:41.940 And it's got to be heartbreaking.

00:26:43.400 I mean, we know now it is so hard to get into the housing market and getting going, saving that money, getting the good credit, tightening the belts.

00:26:51.120 And then, as you said, getting that close and suddenly, and I'm sorry, it might take you a couple more years, if ever, because the cost has just shot up yet again.

00:26:59.880 Yes.

00:27:00.420 Yeah.

00:27:00.700 So, I mean, you know, eliminating that stress test would be the first best thing.

00:27:04.140 And I know that I have a number of people who would argue with me on that,

00:27:07.620 but I just don't think that's a qualification that really needs to be in place

00:27:11.260 anymore. I think, you know,

00:27:13.100 if the federal government follows through on their promise that they're,

00:27:15.660 they're not going to continually jack up rates,

00:27:17.540 which they seem to have failed at to this point, you know,

00:27:21.300 then we wouldn't have these same issues. You know, it, it also works both ways.

00:27:25.500 When you continually increase rates, I mean, that just puts fear in people,

00:27:29.620 fear that they're never going to be able to get in.

00:27:31.180 They're never going to be able to achieve that dream.

00:27:33.020 And that's creating, you know, that mass rush as well.

00:27:36.500 Well, yeah, you might reevaluate your decision as well.

00:27:39.140 I mean, oh, wow, I'm qualified now, but we're here.

00:27:41.260 We're one paycheck away from bankruptcy.

00:27:43.180 If we go, if we dive in right now, maybe we'll wait and they'll hold back.

00:27:47.320 But I mean, it doesn't get easier for waiting, unfortunately.

00:27:51.140 So have you, has your industry or India's industry associations at least been reaching out to the government saying, hey, hey, you know, talk to us.

00:27:59.020 We can work on this.

00:28:00.380 Like, has there been an effort to try and at least get them to realize that they're missing out on an important perspective?

00:28:05.960 There are literally daily and weekly conversations with every level of government possible.

00:28:12.860 You know, the HBAs, the home building associations, rather, across the entire country, even at the federal level,

00:28:18.320 have spent a lot of time with their counterparts in government having these discussions on how to make things more affordable.

00:28:24.880 Now, whether or not they take the recommendations, I mean, that's that's totally up to the minister and their departments.

00:28:31.740 And if they didn't invite your input in the first place, it doesn't sound like they're eager to hear it, unfortunately.

00:28:37.760 But I think they're eager to hear it.

00:28:40.340 But I guess where the challenge comes in, Corey, is that it should have been right up front with the strategy.

00:28:45.880 It shouldn't be, you know, here we've come with a strategy.

00:28:48.640 Now you guys figure out how to make it work.

00:28:50.720 You know, and that's where I really get frustrated is we should have been involved right up front, and it's disappointing that we weren't.

00:28:57.180 So just to kind of finish up, I mean, one of the big hindrances, and I don't know if you have an answer for it, is our labor shortage, though.

00:29:03.320 I mean, if we streamline things, we get them faster, we got some new areas zoned for it, fantastic, ready to go.

00:29:09.660 What can we do, though, to get more boots on the ground to help build these?

00:29:13.400 I mean, that's a real bottleneck, no matter what the regulations are.

00:29:16.940 Well, that's really going to come down to your immigration policies and the kind of people that you're bringing in and the skill set that they have.

00:29:23.700 I mean, we know where we have the gaps, you know, when our industry is prepared to share that information.

00:29:28.440 And they have with their provincial and federal counterparts.

00:29:31.720 But, you know, it's getting the attention of the immigration ministers and ensuring that, you know, we are working towards bringing this skill set into Canada and across the country.

00:29:45.260 Yeah, which is a much bigger and complicated, you know, discussion. But I mean, targeting skilled

00:29:52.620 immigrants, whether from carpenters to even just just labor. But I mean, it's important. I mean,

00:29:57.980 that's one of the things where we can fulfill one of the things we're bringing the immigrants in, 0.99

00:30:00.620 and they're helping build the homes that they're going to need when they get here.

00:30:03.420 Exactly. And I mean, that's, that's an immediate solution. And a long term solution is you do have

00:30:07.500 to get young kids and what have you in the trades. What you're seeing or what you're experiencing

00:30:14.380 now is you are experiencing retirements. You've got trades that are longer in the tooth and they're

00:30:20.620 65, 70 years old and they're saying, that's enough. I'm calling it a day. It's time to enjoy

00:30:25.260 my golden years. So you do need kids in the trades. And to be honest, I couldn't think of

00:30:31.420 any generation that has a greater opportunity for a career than they do now in the trades.

00:30:39.340 Very good point. I mean, it would take a couple to a few years to get those kids through those

00:30:43.340 programs, but boy, it would pay off for them and us when we get that influx of trained people in

00:30:48.480 the market. Well, we'll just have to keep reaching out, keep pressuring government. I mean, there's

00:30:54.740 been a recent cabinet shuffle. Maybe they're receptive to some new ideas in there and listening

00:31:00.640 Because, I mean, it's as frustrated as we get with the Liberal government.

00:31:04.060 I'm sure they would love, though, to have this housing problem off their back.

00:31:07.940 So, I mean, they've got to be somewhat receptive to some good thoughts now and then.

00:31:11.900 With any luck, a hope and a prayer.

00:31:13.980 Hope and a prayer.

00:31:14.880 We'll keep the discussions going.

00:31:16.400 Thanks for calling them out online and coming on the show to discuss that with us, though,

00:31:20.440 because, you know, a lot of people kind of scratch their heads.

00:31:22.640 Well, we need them.

00:31:23.380 Why aren't we getting the houses?

00:31:24.620 Well, you know, there's a lot of reasons and some solutions if the government would start considering them.

00:31:29.880 So I appreciate that. Where can people see you online and where you're speaking and such, Shane?

00:31:35.980 Oh, pretty simple. Just at Shane Wenzel. Just go on any platform. You're going to find me there.

00:31:41.260 All right. Well, thanks again for coming on, Shane. It's always a good conversation when you

00:31:45.860 come on. And one of these days, we'll get it all solved.

00:31:49.400 I can only hope, Corey. Thanks again and take care.

00:31:53.780 You bet. So that was Shane Wenzel of Shane Holmes. And yeah, it's a great Twitter account

00:31:57.640 to follow, some good common sense stuff. He's not as belligerent as I am on Twitter. He likes to

00:32:02.520 stick to the points a little more, but you know, you can follow both, right? You can get me cursing

00:32:06.320 people out and you can get Shane making some good points. And one of those points, see, that's one

00:32:10.240 I hadn't even thought of. That's why I like having these guests on here. I can't think of everything,

00:32:13.460 but the trades, that's something that drove me mad. I finished high school in 88 in Banff and

00:32:18.140 yeah, I spent some time in a private school prior to that. It's understandable from the private

00:32:21.360 school, public school still. I went through school, came out. I didn't know what a trade was. I really

00:32:27.440 didn't. I didn't know what a journeyman was. I didn't know what any of these things were,

00:32:31.640 an apprenticeship. I think in some fantasy novels I'd read, you know, magician's apprentices and

00:32:36.280 things like that. Like we were not taught that. Why? Why are we not taught that in school? Why

00:32:40.720 are we not taught that that path is there? I mean, that's been a long time. I don't know.

00:32:45.380 Maybe some commenters can speak up and let me know. Are the schools allowing a little more of

00:32:50.720 that discussion? Because I mean, some of the discussion when I came out of school was along

00:32:53.600 the lines of, you're either going to get a university degree or you're going to be a janitor

00:32:57.400 and there's nothing in the middle. That was a lot of what the attitude was. And not everybody is

00:33:02.760 geared to the academic path. And there is absolutely nothing wrong at all with these trades. And as I

00:33:08.880 say, we're all paying the price now, as Shane pointed out, for the lack of the trades. I mean,

00:33:13.660 do you see any starving electricians or plumbers or carpenters right now? Millwrights? No, they're

00:33:19.760 busy. They're making good money. They got solid, secure work, and they're providing products for

00:33:25.340 us. We don't need more women's studies graduates, guys. We've got enough gender ideology study 1.00

00:33:30.440 graduates out there. I promise you, we don't need more philosophers, but we could sure use a heck of

00:33:36.740 a lot more plumbers. So yeah, maybe it's time to readjust. And there's no shame whatsoever in going

00:33:43.600 into a trade. That's what it felt like when I graduated. Like it was shameful to go into a

00:33:46.760 it's ridiculous it's absolutely ridiculous and uh what's this a commenter say my daughter just 0.93

00:33:52.440 graduated as a journeyman welder out of fairview after attending public school there we go uh the 0.97

00:33:56.280 comp and grand prairie good yeah welders hey that's good coin and there's a you know again

00:34:01.080 there's always demand for those things we got re-evaluate some of our thinking and a lot of

00:34:04.880 speaking of kids who fall through the cracks on graduation if they don't know that path is there

00:34:09.420 they aren't going to pursue it i i ended up in the survey industry as a helper for a surveyor and

00:34:15.800 climb the, you know, the, the, the pole that way. But I, I didn't have any, I guess, aspirations to 0.91

00:34:23.780 be an electrician or any of those trades. But even if I did, I wouldn't have known where to begin.

00:34:28.700 I really wouldn't have. And our schools should be teaching us that. That's some of the basics.

00:34:32.640 That's some of the things. So nobody should get out of school and not know what the potential

00:34:36.620 career paths are. So we're really failing ourselves. We're failing our students. And

00:34:43.480 it's not good for any of us. Yeah, paradox is saying they stopped vocational schools at some

00:34:50.500 point. I think some of that was, again, they made a stigma about it, right? Like they made it sound

00:34:56.100 as if, you know, if you go to a vocational school, it's a lesser thing. Yeah, well, look, the kind of

00:35:02.420 home your average mechanic is living in these days. You know, again, they're making really good

00:35:07.360 money. Those vocational schools weren't where you put the loser kids. There were places to put kids 0.96

00:35:12.820 who were looking at a different educational path.

00:35:15.560 It doesn't mean they were, and that's what I mean.

00:35:17.220 We've got to change that mindset.

00:35:18.980 It's because they're not into reading philosophy

00:35:20.480 or doing high math. 0.99

00:35:21.400 It doesn't mean they're stupid. 0.99

00:35:22.180 It just means they might be hands-on workers 0.96

00:35:24.360 who are important and they should be embraced.

00:35:28.940 You know, they should be trained

00:35:29.860 with what they're showing the aptitude towards.

00:35:32.980 And everybody gets into the things they need to.

00:35:36.360 This is a thorough saying,

00:35:37.100 heavy duty automotive and agricultural technicians.

00:35:39.440 Yeah, all these positions are out there right now.

00:35:42.820 And, you know, how many more people do we need graduating with degrees in interpretive dance, right? 0.80

00:35:49.300 Speaking of schools and how absurd and ridiculous and bad they're getting, 0.72

00:35:55.080 I'm sure a lot of us, you know, have seen that story.

00:35:58.540 And I'm probably pronouncing his name wrong.

00:36:00.500 It's Richard Bilkso.

00:36:03.460 And he was a principal over in Ontario.

00:36:06.900 And he was with the Toronto Regional School Board with them.

00:36:10.840 and he'd taught. He's 60 years old. He's been a career teacher, taught on both sides of the

00:36:19.260 border. He'd worked in upstate New York in inner city schools. He'd taught up in Canada. He'd spent

00:36:25.200 time. He went to a diversity course, a trainer, one of those things, a person whose specialty is

00:36:31.360 basically trying to train us all somehow in diversity. And I guess at this seminar,

00:36:38.000 it was taught by a woman named

00:36:41.680 I guess I could be mispronouncing as well

00:36:44.820 Kiki Ojo Thompson at the Kojo Institute

00:36:47.700 and that's her thing 0.99

00:36:48.360 she charges like $6,000 for a four hour Zoom seminar 1.00

00:36:51.960 on diversity

00:36:52.960 I mean there's quite a racket on this stuff guys

00:36:54.780 but she went on the tirade 1.00

00:36:57.540 we've seen videos of those sorts of things 0.98

00:36:59.200 and she was going on about how awful and racist Canada is 0.95

00:37:03.840 and then she said that Canada was more racist than the United States 0.99

00:37:08.600 I mean, it's a fool's game to talk about who's more or less anyways. 0.95

00:37:11.500 I mean, and again, the discussion comes to, so you're denying there's racism. 0.97

00:37:14.980 Nobody's denying there's racism.

00:37:16.780 Nobody's saying we shouldn't be calling out racism and stopping racism.

00:37:20.960 But when we go to these extremes of everybody should hang their head in shame

00:37:24.320 because we're all somehow inherently racist, it gets tiresome.

00:37:28.080 This man spoke up and said, whoa, wait a second.

00:37:31.300 And he said, along the lines of, look, I have worked both sides.

00:37:34.680 we're not more racist here in Canada

00:37:36.840 than in the States. Well, she was furious.

00:37:39.220 She was furious.

00:37:40.580 And she called him out and she berated him. 0.96

00:37:42.460 She called him a white supremacist.

00:37:44.120 She called him the works. And again, as a progressive,

00:37:46.620 he was a progressive man. There's nothing worse

00:37:48.600 you could be called than that.

00:37:51.000 And I guess at a future

00:37:52.300 seminar

00:37:54.540 she gave, she basically brought 0.99

00:37:56.680 him up in another lecture

00:37:57.840 saying, is it exemplified the forces of

00:38:00.640 white supremacist resistance?

00:38:02.660 Using him as a white supremacist example is what she was doing.

00:38:05.620 She wouldn't lay off this man.

00:38:07.600 And he was bullied.

00:38:08.800 The Toronto District School Board wouldn't stand up for him.

00:38:11.360 It stressed him out.

00:38:12.620 He went on leave.

00:38:14.140 And then he actually sued the Toronto District School Board because of that.

00:38:19.040 And they turned around, sued her, the diversity person.

00:38:22.460 And this went on for a couple of years.

00:38:23.840 But then they started calling him up.

00:38:26.000 They started character assassination on this man.

00:38:28.420 And trying to claim that he's, you know, again, some sort of white nationalist.

00:38:32.780 It got to him, and he committed suicide a few weeks ago. 0.99

00:38:36.660 What a waste, what a waste.

00:38:38.680 The stress of this, this brought down his career for just daring to question some of the rhetoric at one of these seminars.

00:38:46.580 And this is what teachers are expected to embrace with some of this self-loathing, and they get bullied.

00:38:53.040 They get bullied, they get swarmed.

00:38:55.140 Some of the online discussion I've seen, and again, I play on Twitter.

00:38:58.780 Yeah, Twitter's a nasty place, but my, the vulgarity of one, and I can't remember her

00:39:03.980 name, it doesn't matter.

00:39:04.620 If you want to look up my Twitter scroll, you'll see it from the other day.

00:39:07.260 She had a whole thread about this guy, I'm basically calling him a white nationalist,

00:39:11.520 and she called it, he unlived himself.

00:39:14.300 Yeah, she wouldn't even say suicide, he unlived himself.

00:39:16.400 They're making up words to try and sugarcoat this man who was bullied to death, literally

00:39:21.560 bullied to death by this swarm of these woke diversity people. Yeah, I don't doubt. And that's

00:39:31.160 some of the things people call, well, you obviously had existing mental health problems. Probably.

00:39:35.360 A lot of people can take a lot of stress without reaching the point of suicide. But it doesn't

00:39:40.600 matter. You know, Amanda Todd was a young girl who was bullied online and shamed and she committed 0.97

00:39:47.040 suicide too. And are you going to shame her saying she was weak of mind? Because that's kind of what

00:39:52.740 they're saying about this man, you know, because she couldn't take it without leading to that

00:39:57.180 outcome. It's disgusting. It's disgusting. And these are the people who call themselves woke. 0.97

00:40:03.040 These are the people who call themselves the sensitive ones, the ones that are trying to make

00:40:07.240 us all love each other. What a load of crap. It's gone too far to the extreme. And it's so wrong. 1.00

00:40:15.320 These are the kind of folks who say things like Jason Aldean's song was about racism when it's not there.

00:40:23.100 And, you know, let's go back to some old, old words of wisdom, okay?

00:40:27.900 And that would be with old fairy tales, myths, things such as that.

00:40:36.260 But the boy who cried wolf, you know, you keep calling something out, calling something out, calling something out.

00:40:41.400 Eventually, people stop believing you when the real issue happens.

00:40:45.020 because again, there is real racism out there.

00:40:47.580 There really are some white nationalists out there. 1.00

00:40:49.440 I tell you, they're a minority of a minority, those losers. 1.00

00:40:52.340 It's not even like the days. 0.96

00:40:53.220 I remember being young in Calgary

00:40:54.940 in the late 80s, early 90s when I moved here

00:40:57.260 and there were literal skinheads

00:40:59.520 who would show their faces on the street.

00:41:01.140 They'd walk around. 0.95

00:41:01.940 These guys embraced their gross white nationalist ideology. 0.86

00:41:06.120 Times have changed. 0.80

00:41:07.020 You don't see guys walking around

00:41:08.280 with swastikas tattooed on their foreheads

00:41:10.820 and shaving heads and their boots on like that anymore 1.00

00:41:13.920 because the public won't put up with these idiots and they still exist. They're just, again, a small, 1.00

00:41:20.160 small amount of clowns and they should be taken seriously. Some of these nutcases actually hurt 0.99

00:41:23.820 people sometimes. But when you're busy going after progressive high school principals for fake cases

00:41:31.940 of white nationalism, or if you're going after country songs for where apparently the root of

00:41:37.340 racism is, you're going to overlook the real racists who are out there. We're wandering around

00:41:42.700 who perhaps really do want to cause problem, who really do want to victimize people, who really do

00:41:47.500 want to divide people more based on their religion or their race or other such things.

00:41:53.160 We've overshot the target, guys, badly, badly. And it's got to come back. Either way, this man's

00:42:01.380 life was lost. And to see these guys ripping into this man, his body's barely cooled,

00:42:09.640 and trying to rip his character down to protect basically what they think is a good idea

00:42:14.940 with these diversity seminars where you call people out and rip them apart like that. 0.64

00:42:19.840 It's repugnant to behold.

00:42:22.320 And call them out back, guys.

00:42:24.120 That's what's got to happen.

00:42:25.720 You've got to stand up like this man did.

00:42:27.580 Unfortunately, it led to his death.

00:42:29.560 But at least he stood up in that room and said,

00:42:31.400 Hey, you're spreading BS.

00:42:35.060 And let's talk about it.

00:42:35.980 And again, he wasn't belligerent about it.

00:42:37.820 He was just saying, No, I don't agree with you.

00:42:39.180 You're not allowed to disagree. You're not allowed to disagree. You disagree, we will swarm you. We will shatter your character. We will cancel you. We will take away your career. And in the end, it took away this man's life.

00:42:51.880 these extremists that manage some of this diversity have to be put off to the side.

00:43:02.220 They're beyond the pale. They've gone too far. Let's see. We'll get into the, check into the

00:43:08.180 agricultural world pretty quickly here. But first, I'll hit quickly on, as we mentioned earlier,

00:43:13.040 there's been a cabinet shuffle. This is what I see as Justin Trudeau desperate, desperate. I mean,

00:43:19.400 over and over the polls are showing they're slowly but surely declining. I mean, at best right now,

00:43:24.120 if an election was held tomorrow, you'd have a conservative minority government. And I don't see

00:43:27.600 who they could form an agreement with to last a long time. The NDP certainly wouldn't partner with

00:43:32.500 them, but the liberals would not get the most seats in the house if another election was held.

00:43:35.820 And that trend keeps going down and down and down. There's only two things a government can do in

00:43:40.860 that case is change leaders or really shuffle the cabinet and hope you've refreshed things enough

00:43:46.700 that people will look at you with a new eye and change things.

00:43:53.380 I think it's too little, too late.

00:43:55.160 We'll see.

00:43:56.140 But yeah, Mandicino's out, the Minister of Lies.

00:43:58.460 I mean, that was a given. 1.00

00:44:00.220 That guy's a clown. 0.99

00:44:01.880 He probably, even Trudeau realized he'd had to get rid of that guy 0.99

00:44:05.060 months and months ago, but he had to wait for the opportunity

00:44:07.600 of the next shuffle.

00:44:08.460 So he's finished.

00:44:10.180 Al Heg, Omar, Al Hebra, I'm so terrible with names.

00:44:13.500 But he's out.

00:44:14.140 He was in transportation.

00:44:15.040 of course, the mess with the airlines, the strike on the dock, Carolyn Bennett. She's been there

00:44:21.520 for over 25 years. And yeah, she's out. Like we're not talking about, you know, moving from

00:44:27.900 spot to spot. They're out of cabinet altogether. So yeah, she's not going to run again. She was

00:44:33.420 behind, you know, she was the health or addictions and mental health minister. So she was behind the

00:44:38.300 big safe supply disaster that's unfolding in Vancouver right now as overdoses, you know,

00:44:43.480 hit record numbers and addicts just buy the safer supply pills and sell them to other addicts. It's

00:44:50.460 a failed policy. So Trudeau threw her out of cabinet, a few other lateral things and seven

00:44:55.880 rookie cabinet ministers. We'll see. But what I see and I think of the method and way that

00:45:01.660 Pierre Polyev works is he's rubbing his hands together because he's going to have a cabinet

00:45:05.560 full of rookies hitting. And part of the reason is because Justin wants to keep his balance of

00:45:10.260 women in there. So he really has narrowed his pool on who he can pick for cabinet or not. Not to say

00:45:15.300 there were no qualified women, but maybe not enough to make that 50-50 he wanted and so on. 1.00

00:45:19.880 And Polyev is going to rip into those rookie cabinet ministers like they've never felt before

00:45:25.320 when that next session hits. And they better be well established because if that new cabinet

00:45:30.440 can't fix things up, the liberals are going to continue to decline. All right. Well, let's check

00:45:35.260 in quickly with Jim Buzicom of Marketplace Commodities and see what's happening out there

00:45:40.060 in the agricultural commodity world. Hey, Jim, how are you doing? Great, Corey. How are you doing?

00:45:44.520 Good, good. Thanks. So what's making headlines for the ag people these days?

00:45:51.160 Okay. So on the ag side, it's probably somewhat, obviously, much less serious issues than what

00:45:59.060 you're talking about today. So harvest is starting in Western Canada. We're looking at

00:46:03.560 some of the first yields coming off showing the effects of the drought southern alberta

00:46:08.520 they're starting to harvest some peas 25 to 35 bushels per acre some of the barley harvest it's

00:46:15.800 very very poor we don't expect much different than that to start the first harvest would be the worst

00:46:22.260 but as they get into it further we'll start getting some better you know some more results

00:46:27.560 that we can share potentially next week.

00:46:31.280 As far as markets go,

00:46:35.340 it's a pretty unique situation.

00:46:37.480 Canadian prices are extremely high.

00:46:40.900 We are, to just give you some comparisons,

00:46:45.500 here in Canada, we're trading a lot of feed commodities,

00:46:49.980 even export commodities, somewhere around $400 Canadian per metric 10.

00:46:53.900 if you compare that to what some of the other competing countries some of the export prices from

00:47:00.940 elsewhere i'd say we're 100 bucks a 10 too high in western canada on much of our commodities so

00:47:07.940 we're competing with russian wheat russian peas going into china going into southeast asia

00:47:15.800 everyone talks about the issues that are on the go out there those are serious issues we get that

00:47:20.580 but you know what they're shipping ukraine is shipping those commodities they get to the end

00:47:26.240 user they really don't care who the origin is they just want the best price best quality just

00:47:32.300 like we all do so it's an interesting situation coming back here because you know we we hear

00:47:39.520 quite often that while shipping slowing down or it's going to be hard to move from those areas

00:47:43.940 well you know what they're actually offering lower week over week and we're having a harder time

00:47:48.820 exporting into similar markets that they are so the markets are uh are showing that product is

00:47:55.360 still moving well and then getting the the getting the product grown and harvested is one thing and

00:48:00.760 getting it to market is another so with the strike looking like it's going to come to an end in the

00:48:05.520 docks do you think that they'll have a limited impact then on exports at this point then so on

00:48:11.900 on egg commodities it has affected some people significantly probably for sure like some of the

00:48:18.480 hay exporters that I know have been significantly affected by it. A lot of the grain and oil seed

00:48:23.900 commodities, it's a slow time of the year to be exporting. It's the end of a crop year. Crop year

00:48:28.360 is August through July. So if things open up, things will probably return to some level of

00:48:36.300 normal. Of course, a huge negative because it's not just that they open up. It's the fact that

00:48:42.440 they can shut down exports from a country like Canada for such a significant period of time.

00:48:48.480 that keeps buyers wary about buying too much too far out from even a first world country like

00:48:55.560 Canada. Can you believe it? Yeah, well, it's similar to the issues we have with our energy

00:49:00.440 market as well. I mean, when we can't seem to get multiple pipelines to get to Tidewater to export

00:49:05.620 our products, it reduces capital investment in the energy market. I don't see why it wouldn't

00:49:10.800 be the same with agriculture then. If you can't get it out, there's not much point in growing it.

00:49:15.800 It's absolutely that it's all of that right back to here, just investment back

00:49:19.980 into this industry when it's hard to, to move it out.

00:49:23.840 And it seems like you're always fighting another red tape battle to make it happen.

00:49:29.180 Well, let's hope that the ports remain open and maybe that, that shakeup and

00:49:33.440 the reality of how vulnerable we are might, uh, uh, inspire some of our

00:49:37.940 regulators to, to try and secure our export ability a little more in the future.

00:49:42.040 You bet.

00:49:42.680 Thanks, Corey.

00:49:43.220 All right. Thanks, Jim. I'll talk to you down the road.

00:49:45.840 All right. See ya.

00:49:47.240 So that was Jim Buzicom of Marketplace Commodities.

00:49:50.160 And yeah, it's just an ever-floating, like commodities in general, oil, gas.

00:49:54.380 I mean, if you're trying to invest in a long game,

00:49:55.940 but you get so many variables that get in the way,

00:49:59.060 whether it's port strikes or, as you say,

00:50:01.680 things happening in the Ukraine and Ukraine.

00:50:04.700 I'm still of the old school where you call it the Ukraine.

00:50:07.340 And, you know, weather patterns around the world.

00:50:10.120 But it's an area of specialty.

00:50:12.120 I can't imagine the amount of reading that Jim and his co-workers over there have to do to keep

00:50:17.000 up with the commodities in general. So check them out, guys, if you're an ag producer or looking

00:50:22.220 into those ag markets, marketplace commodities, and you can get a picture of what's happening

00:50:27.320 out there in those markets. All right. Speaking, I'm going to close out with, I kind of touched

00:50:33.340 on that, the Trans Mountain Pipeline. There's some news came out that we're supposed to basically,

00:50:39.940 don't worry about this extra $31 million that was spent on it and the records. Again, government

00:50:45.220 ineptness, the government's screwing up. Kinder Morgan, and I loathe that, whenever some clown 0.99

00:50:50.840 says to you, oh, but the government built you a pipeline, bought you a pipeline, guess my butt. 0.99

00:50:55.060 Nobody wanted you to buy the Trans Mountain pipeline. You guys drove Kinder Morgan away 0.66

00:51:00.660 from it. They were going to build it for private dollars, not a penny out of a taxpayer's dollar

00:51:05.860 pocket and it would lead to the employment of thousands of people downstream and the government

00:51:11.240 screwed with them so badly with the regulation and messing around they said you know what

00:51:15.480 we're out we're out we're done and it was a disaster for the government so they panicked 1.00

00:51:19.780 and they went and they bought the pipeline but if you want to know the height of stupidity it's a 0.99

00:51:23.940 government-run project so here we are years and years later still nothing going through that pipe 0.99

00:51:29.340 they've been working on it and puttering around with it and pissing around with it and shutting

00:51:33.040 it down and opening it up. The costs now, the current estimate is $30.9 billion from seven and

00:51:42.520 some billion dollars only a few years ago when the private market was going to build it. 30.9 and you

00:51:47.260 know it's going to keep going up under these idiots and their management of it. If it ever 1.00

00:51:52.280 bloody well gets to the coast, I'm sure they're doing it on purpose. It helps to the case of the 0.51

00:51:57.680 people saying, see, energy is not viable. It's not worth it. It's too expensive. You know, I'm going

00:52:02.140 to say energy, oil and gas. Only because of the bloody government. Because the government makes 0.96

00:52:07.680 it so inefficient to get it to the coast. They're dragging their feet on purpose, which is almost

00:52:12.640 criminal. And let's just hope that darn thing gets finished at one point or another. About 30.9 0.99

00:52:20.020 billion. And they said, we're not going to use any more public money in that thing. They have to,

00:52:23.120 they have to get the bloody thing done. So they're pouring it in. So now they're trying to hide it,

00:52:26.840 you know, 10 million here, 31 million there. It's terrible. All right. Well, that's the show this

00:52:32.040 week, guys. Thank you very much for tuning in. We covered a lot of ground, talked about a lot of

00:52:37.160 stuff. Be sure to subscribe if you haven't already, westernstandard.news slash membership.

00:52:43.000 That's how we can stay independent. That's how we keep things rolling, guys. And thank you to you

00:52:47.580 who have subscribed already. Share our stuff out there. Subscribe to the newsletter because you

00:52:50.980 never know when we might not be able to get found on Google and Facebook and all those things.

00:52:54.800 again, thanks to our rather inept federal government. And yeah, I will see you all here

00:53:00.400 again at this time next week. So thanks again. The current Lethbridge feed grain prices are as

00:53:08.680 follows. Cash barley is down $9 at $4.26. Feed wheat is down $14 at $4.22. And corn is down $10

00:53:17.180 at $406 per ton. In the milling wheat markets, September Minneapolis futures lost 34.5 cents at

00:53:24.520 at $8.97, with local hardwood spring bid for August movement at $10.40 per bushel.

00:53:30.960 In the oilseeds, nearby canola futures are up $8.30 at $832.30 per ton, with delivered

00:53:38.320 values for August movement at $19 per bushel.

00:53:41.920 In the pulse markets, nearby red lundle prices are trading at $0.34 per pound, and yellow

00:53:47.080 peas remain at $11.50 per bushel.

00:53:50.580 In the cattle markets, August Live Cattle added $0.60 at $178.90 per hundredweight.

00:53:57.140 I'm David Lee at Marketplace Commodities, accurate real-time marketing information and pricing options.

00:54:03.300 Canadian Shooting Sports Association, without the CSSA, our gun rights would have been taken long, long ago.

00:54:09.620 These guys are on the front lines helping to draft smart and intelligent firearms regulations and legislation in Canada.

00:54:17.040 and more importantly, educating the public about how we keep guns out of the hands of the wrong

00:54:22.200 people. To become a member, it's absolutely worth every penny.

00:54:47.040 You

Western Standard - July 27, 2023

CMS： In small towns we take care of our own

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