Western Standard - CMS： Live from the floor of the Global Energy Show

00:00:00.000 Thank you.

00:00:30.000 Good day. Welcome to the Corey Morgan Show.

00:00:38.280 You might notice something a little different in the background, not our usual backdrop of the City of Calgary.

00:00:42.780 We're actually coming live from the floor of the Global Energy Show here in Calgary in the new BMO Center.

00:00:49.360 This is a first for us. We haven't done this show from a live location before, and it's going great so far.

00:00:55.340 Man, this setup is something else. There's 500 exhibitors here. The new BMO Center is massive.

00:01:01.660 This is the first event it's held. Kind of, you know, brings about some of those discussions.

00:01:05.680 I mean, whether subsidized infrastructure is worth it or if it's not worth it.

00:01:10.180 Because when you have a center like this, of course, you can draw big events, you can draw international money, draw discourse even.

00:01:18.980 If you don't have that set up in the first place, you miss out.

00:01:21.320 But again, typically, though, when government gets involved, subsidized things, they can go bad as well.

00:01:27.540 Anyway, I got a good show coming up today. I've got Franco Tarizano is going to talk in a little while.

00:01:32.500 Lots to cover. We've got the capital gains tax is now official. Part of what I wanted to talk about, too, though, was that the Parliamentary Budgetary Office is not allowed to report on what the impacts of the carbon tax are.

00:01:46.220 And I'm really interested in talking to Franco about that because, I mean, they're hiding their own information from us or hiding our information from us.

00:01:53.740 That's the reality of what's going on with that.

00:01:56.460 So Franco is going to lay out a little more of that and we'll check in with Dave and do a few more things.

00:02:00.760 So let's talk about what I want to get on about today, too, though.

00:02:03.540 So for people in the Calgary area that on the morning of June 6th, all of us probably remember, nothing huge and tragic, but an emergency alert came out.

00:02:11.960 You know, that emergency sound comes on your phones. It's on the radio. It's on TV.

00:02:15.880 Everybody. We're talking millions of people in Calgary and area.

00:02:18.460 We're told that water supply levels have hit a critical level and people shouldn't wash dishes or even shower or try to even put off flushing the toilet for fear of running out of water.

00:02:28.760 Yeah, that's what they were warning us in the emergency alert, because there was a water main break in North Calgary.

00:02:33.500 And apparently it was so bad that even outlying towns from the city were placed under emergency water restrictions.

00:02:39.420 Now, questions were quickly asked, of course.

00:02:41.960 I mean, how is it that over one and a half million people are dependent upon a single line for their water supply?

00:02:47.500 What caused the break?

00:02:48.880 How long is it going to be before people could use their water normally again, which they still aren't by now?

00:02:53.080 The city of Calgary didn't have too many details to offer.

00:02:56.480 And then ever wanted to try and expand upon her already massive personal unpopularity among Calgarians,

00:03:02.960 Mayor Jody Gondek came on out and held a press conference that offered few details on what happened.

00:03:08.160 But she took the opportunity to try and blame the mess on Premier Smith.

00:03:11.860 Gondek, of course, was slammed by the local media and other people and citizens on the weekend because, I mean, it was just beyond the pale.

00:03:18.520 But on the weekend, she did something really rare for Gondek.

00:03:21.080 She offered a rare apology for her terrible communications at a time of crisis.

00:03:25.020 Gondek's not much one for apologizing.

00:03:27.240 It really wasn't a time when Calgarians wanted to hear the mayor trying to take cheap shots at the provincial government. 0.98

00:03:33.380 It doesn't help that whenever Gondek does anything, it looks like she's got a mouth full of poop. 0.99

00:03:36.940 She really despises talking to you guys, and it shows. 0.56

00:03:39.900 So either way, whose fault is the water crisis?

00:03:41.960 Well, Mayor Gondek isn't directly and personally responsible.

00:03:45.340 But this mess lands fully in the lap of Calgary City Hall.

00:03:49.420 I mean, it isn't Trudeau's fault.

00:03:50.960 Lots of things are.

00:03:52.260 It isn't Smith's fault.

00:03:53.700 Responsibility lands with the city.

00:03:55.720 And Gondek, for better or worse, usually worse, is at the helm right now.

00:03:59.980 The city of Calgary, I mean, they've had surpluses over $200 million a year.

00:04:04.040 Yeah, they've been overtaxing everybody by that much.

00:04:05.940 They have a contingency fund of over $4 billion.

00:04:08.980 So how is it that a city awash in so much money can't fill the bloody potholes in the streets or maintain a reliable source of water?

00:04:17.900 Well, it's because Calgary, like most other cities, has allowed their politicians and administration to drift way out of their designated lanes.

00:04:24.680 Cities are wasting time and resources on countless projects that aren't within their jurisdiction,

00:04:29.140 while they ignore the obligations that land within municipal jurisdiction.

00:04:32.480 I mean, Calgary's wasted time and money on everything, from, what, failed Olympic bids, subsidizing ridiculous business startups.

00:04:39.020 Remember Rocket Space?

00:04:40.200 Spending $4.8 million for a three-word slogan.

00:04:43.700 Hideous public art installations.

00:04:45.860 Woke social engineering initiatives.

00:04:48.460 Banning paper bags.

00:04:49.580 That was a brilliant one, wasn't it?

00:04:50.900 And, of course, Gondek's $87 billion climate change plan.

00:04:55.220 None of these things should be in the domain of a municipal government.

00:04:58.720 Municipal politicians, though, they're driven by vanity.

00:05:01.080 And every one of them wants to lay claim to a legacy for their time in office.

00:05:04.680 Bridges, roads, water pipes, those are boring.

00:05:06.880 They want to cut the ribbons for exciting new expenditures, whether the city needs them or not.

00:05:11.180 Unfortunately, of course, it means they're ignoring the important stuff.

00:05:14.700 And Calgary's far from alone.

00:05:16.080 It's happening in cities and towns across the province and likely across the country.

00:05:19.920 That's what inspired Premier Daniel Smith and her government to create legislation giving the provincial government more powers to intervene when a municipal government goes off the rails.

00:05:29.700 The province always had those powers, but now they're more clarified.

00:05:33.120 Now, the overreach of municipal governments shouldn't be brought into check for expanding the reach of another level of government, however.

00:05:38.720 I don't like that. 0.93

00:05:39.880 The only way to correct, actually, the bloated, large, inefficient civil governments is for citizens to get off their asses at election time and start firing their mayors and councils. 0.78

00:05:48.520 Part of what created the apathy and cynicism among the electorate has been what they fire one mayor or councillor who misrepresented themselves on the way into the office. 0.84

00:05:57.220 They end up electing another one who misrepresents themselves on the way in.

00:06:00.920 Well, with the political party system coming into place, it's going to be harder for faux conservatives and faux common sense people to slip by the electorate as they used to be because they're going to have to go through a nomination.

00:06:09.280 Nobody in Calgary campaigned on a massive climate change plan, paper bag bans, and spending millions on three-word slogans.

00:06:16.380 Yet that's what the city got when this latest crop of councillors came in with Mayor Gondek.

00:06:20.540 The mandate for municipalities is pretty basic.

00:06:23.440 They exist to provide road and water infrastructure, some policing, fire services, taking care of the trash, and a small degree of municipal bylaws and zoning to ensure neighbours get along.

00:06:32.840 So far, the city of Calgary is doing a terrible job on all those top priorities, even though they're constantly increasing taxes.

00:06:38.760 The mayor and council, they're constantly distracted with personal vanity projects and virtue signaling while they ignore the basic needs of the city.

00:06:45.840 Meanwhile, the civil service continues to bloat while delivering worse services every year.

00:06:51.400 Sometimes solutions can be simple.

00:06:53.340 Calgary and other municipalities have to replace their mayors and councillors with common sense candidates, and they get the chance in a little more than a year.

00:07:00.560 The contenders need to campaign on going back to the basics.

00:07:04.180 Unlike their predecessors, though, they have to mean it.

00:07:06.680 Citizens have the power to reduce the taxes and reduce the overreach and improve their basic services, but they need to exercise it and effectively.

00:07:13.880 So yeah, with political parties holding candidates to account before they even reach a ballot,

00:07:17.460 I'm tentatively optimistic that municipalities in Alberta are about to experience a mass change, and hopefully for the better.

00:07:23.700 Either way, everybody, you've got to put off washing your privates for at least another week in Calgary, I guess,

00:07:28.980 because they still haven't figured out exactly how long it's going to take to get the water back to normal.

00:07:33.160 And we really need some answers. 0.73

00:07:34.420 I mean, the legacy media is busy with their lips locked on Gondek's tired butt and saying, 0.94

00:07:40.160 oh, look, she's learned now. 0.87

00:07:41.420 She's been communicating excellently.

00:07:43.200 Sure, she has, but she hasn't been saying a bloody thing.

00:07:45.420 We still haven't found out why this happened, how this happened.

00:07:48.580 I mean, again, accidents happen, but we're talking a city of one and a half million people.

00:07:53.380 This is not a minor oversight or minor problem.

00:07:56.520 Either way, I'll stay on her case, and we'll see if we can't make this better.

00:08:00.720 Let's get on to our news editor, Dave Naylor, and see what else is going out there in the big rad world.

00:08:04.900 Hey, Dave, how's it going?

00:08:05.900 It's going well, Corey.

00:08:06.960 I'm quite excited after all these years to finally do a remote broadcast.

00:08:11.760 Yeah, well, I mean, we're doing one from the floor here, and you've got a nice, quiet newsroom to deal with today.

00:08:16.240 Oh, it's just me and Nigel.

00:08:17.440 It's great.

00:08:19.280 Oh, and Jen's hidden around the corner. 1.00

00:08:22.220 But I understand, Corey, that this brand-new, sparkly-new BMO Centre, $500 million, but they forgot one little thing, right?

00:08:31.920 They certainly did.

00:08:33.320 And, yeah, with my morning coffee load, it became almost like the water crisis.

00:08:38.660 So expand.

00:08:39.920 There's no washrooms, right?

00:08:41.000 Expand.

00:08:41.520 There are no washrooms.

00:08:42.920 350,000 square feet is the size of the exhibition area, and it's beautiful.

00:08:47.540 You know, great lighting, tall ceilings, everything's new.

00:08:50.580 And I'm walking in circles wondering where the washroom is.

00:08:52.800 You have to leave the exhibition area, go into the concourse, do whatever you have to do, and then bring out your ID and wait in line and get back into the exhibition area.

00:09:03.340 I mean, for half a billion dollars, I would have thought they would have considered putting a place where somebody could pinch a loaf.

00:09:09.200 Yeah, I guess.

00:09:10.140 Nobody can think of everything, right, Corey?

00:09:11.920 I guess not.

00:09:12.660 Yeah, we got some good stuff on the website this morning.

00:09:16.800 We're leading off with an interesting story.

00:09:19.580 You remember last week, I believe it was, or late this, early this week, excuse me, former Premier Alison Redford was appointed to the board of Invest Alberta.

00:09:30.160 Daniel Smith today said she got the appointment because Alison Smith couldn't find a job, sorry, Alison Redford, I'm sorry, couldn't find a job in Alberta, interestingly enough.

00:09:41.140 And you'll remember her scandal-ridden premiership, what with the Sky Palace and all the government flights she took her daughter on. 1.00

00:09:50.160 It seems to have Albertans have not forgotten.

00:09:52.720 And she's apparently having trouble finding work in the province that she was premier in. 0.72

00:09:58.720 The wacky story of the day, so, you know, something you never thought you'd write a headline for.

00:10:03.000 But we've got a biological male who wants to have a uterus implanted just so she could have an abortion, so she could be the first biological male to have an abortion. 0.99

00:10:14.440 Yeah, why she's not locked up in the loony bin is beyond me.

00:10:19.700 Intrepid Oilers reporter up in Edmonton, Jonathan Bradley, has his latest notebook out there.

00:10:25.460 You remember last week the anti-Israeli graduate at McGill walked across to get a diploma and spit at all the deans because of her anger over Israel.

00:10:39.500 Now a petition started to try and get her charged with assault, which spitting certainly is, and have her booted from McGill. 0.98

00:10:49.000 Speaking of education, our columnist Lucek has got a piece on what he thinks of the education system and what kind of products it's spitting out at the end.

00:11:01.560 Our Linda Slabodian, while battling an abscessed tooth, has come out after the guilty verdict on Hunter Biden.

00:11:09.700 And she says we should not be having any sympathy for this crackhead whatsoever.

00:11:15.600 And one other thing I'll mention is the Kenney-era war room, $30 million.

00:11:22.320 You remember that?

00:11:23.320 Launched a couple of years ago to battle false narratives in the energy industry and started with a bit of a flop because their logo was copyrighted to somebody else.

00:11:35.140 But that's now being disbanded and most of the staff laid off and the war room itself is being absorbed into a regular government of Alberta department.

00:11:44.580 So there you go, Corey.

00:11:47.100 That's what's happening up here in the lonely newsroom while you guys are down there having all the fun.

00:11:53.180 Well, great.

00:11:54.040 Well, I feel for poor Linda.

00:11:56.280 That sounds very uncomfortable.

00:11:57.640 I know she's the second crabbiest columnist at the Standard, so I hope she recovers soon so she can write with a clear mind and less pain.

00:12:04.900 There you go.

00:12:05.740 Emergency surgery hopefully tomorrow.

00:12:07.360 Oh, OK.

00:12:08.640 Well, thanks, Dave.

00:12:09.580 And, well, I'll see you in the newsroom next week, I guess.

00:12:12.300 Yeah, have fun on the pipeline tonight.

00:12:14.100 Right on.

00:12:15.480 All right.

00:12:16.100 So that is our news editor, Dave Naylor.

00:12:17.720 As you see, yeah, there's still a few people running around the newsroom.

00:12:20.100 We've got a whole bunch of them running around here down on the convention floor. 0.81

00:12:23.760 And, yeah, this is where I kind of remind you, though, the reason we're doing this live hit, the reason we've got all those news stories, that unique content.

00:12:31.080 We are the biggest newsroom in Western Canada these days, I guess, is because you guys are subscribed.

00:12:35.940 We don't take government dollars.

00:12:37.960 We rely on you.

00:12:39.640 It's $9.99 a month, guys, $100 a year.

00:12:42.720 Get past that paywall.

00:12:44.420 Help support us.

00:12:45.280 Help support our producers.

00:12:46.400 Help support our reporters so we can keep getting that content out to you guys.

00:12:51.640 So if you haven't subscribed yet, get on there, westernstandard.news slash subscription, if you already have.

00:12:56.960 Thank you very much.

00:12:57.700 We really, really do appreciate it.

00:13:00.500 Between that and private sponsorship, that's how we keep rolling.

00:13:03.320 I see Jordan asking if the pipeline's going to be at the convention, too.

00:13:06.000 It will, indeed.

00:13:08.020 So, you know, you'll watch it this evening, but it will be from the convention floor, as you can see, a really busy spot.

00:13:16.040 So, yeah, it's pretty interesting.

00:13:17.280 Alison Redford, what a headline. 1.00

00:13:19.580 And apparently it was a mercy hire on the part of Premier Smith because Redford couldn't find a job here in Alberta.

00:13:26.660 And, hey, Daniel Smith, the Premier, she's here at this global event here in Calgary.

00:13:32.940 She was speaking yesterday.

00:13:33.860 She's going to be speaking today.

00:13:35.300 I believe we might be streaming some of her press conference a little later today.

00:13:39.460 I love a lot of what Premier Smith does, but I'm not sure about this one.

00:13:42.960 And it's not just spite for Premier Redford, though I kind of admit, you know, the Queen of the Sky Palace, I don't have a lot of use for her as a public figure. 0.52

00:13:51.860 But she made her money already. 0.98

00:13:54.640 Do we really need to give her a token position in the province? 0.99

00:13:58.000 Come on.

00:13:58.900 I mean, I had to bring my own sandwich here today.

00:14:02.200 You know, if you really want, you can buy a bigger advertising contract with the Standard.

00:14:05.360 Maybe Derek will buy me a lunch for one of these broadcasts, but giving Ellis and Redford a job, that's something I never expected or thought I was going to see coming from the Smith government.

00:14:15.140 I guess trying to build a broad coalition, that's one way to do it.

00:14:18.840 I'm just not sure if it's the right broad to do it with. 0.88

00:14:21.340 But that's where we're sitting on that one.

00:14:24.740 Okay, so let's get on to our guests.

00:14:26.660 Looking forward to that.

00:14:27.580 Lots of questions.

00:14:28.600 15 minutes won't be enough.

00:14:29.900 There's so much going on.

00:14:31.400 But we got Franco Tarazano from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

00:14:34.120 Hey, Franco, how's it going?

00:14:36.400 Hey, Corey.

00:14:37.280 Great to be with you.

00:14:38.540 Yeah, I appreciate it.

00:14:40.260 As I said, there's a lot going on.

00:14:41.580 I know you guys are running off in all directions.

00:14:44.360 The one I first, you know, when I contacted you to come on, I want to start with that at least.

00:14:48.460 So the Parliamentary Budget Office came up with a report on what the carbon tax is costing people, but apparently they're not allowed to release it now.

00:14:56.360 Well, so what happened is that, and this was confirmed in the Finance Committee, is that the government, I believe it was the Department of Environment, gave the PBO its own economic analysis of the carbon tax.

00:15:10.140 And the PBO used the government's own analysis to inform its own report.

00:15:15.160 But now what is breaking news in the Finance Committee is that apparently the government has put some sort of gag order on the PBO, saying that the PBO cannot release the Department of Environment's own analysis on the economic cost of the carbon tax.

00:15:29.920 So, I mean, par for the course with the lack of transparency, unfortunately, coming from this government, I think I'll just state the obvious.

00:15:38.340 Taxpayers paid for that analysis to be done within the Department of Environment.

00:15:42.580 We sure have the right to see what those economic costs are.

00:15:47.780 Yeah, I mean, it wasn't supposed to be an internal study, but I guess they just didn't like the outcome.

00:15:51.760 So if they don't like the outcome, they say, well, we'd just rather not let people know.

00:15:55.680 I mean, how much longer can they keep the lid on this bottle?

00:15:58.700 Canadians realized, I mean, the Prime Minister got booed by mayors in Canada when he tried to make that claim that, you know, most people are benefiting from the carbon tax.

00:16:08.400 They're really willing to die on this hill, aren't they?

00:16:11.320 Well, nobody believes them.

00:16:12.800 That's the bright spot here is that Canadians don't believe what the Trudeau government is trying to spin us on the carbon tax.

00:16:19.300 I mean, Corey, come on, man.

00:16:20.240 Like, if you actually think the government can impose a tax, then charge its sales tax on top of the tax, then skim hundreds of millions of dollars off the top to pay for bureaucrats to administer the tax and somehow make you better off with rebates, then I've got some Ocean View property to sell you, Corey, in Lethbridge.

00:16:39.100 Yeah, well, I think we're kind of already buying it, but we're doing it through our taxes and we don't get to enjoy it.

00:16:45.060 So moving on beyond that, though, I mean, there was the capital gains tax.

00:16:50.020 That's been formally entrenched by Parliament yesterday, was it?

00:16:53.240 Well, so what happened is essentially is that Parliament voted on the motion.

00:16:59.100 To their credit, Mr. Polyev and the Conservative Party, they voted against Trudeau's capital gains tax hike.

00:17:06.000 So they decided to stick up for taxpayers and fight the capital gains tax increase.

00:17:10.460 That is the good news.

00:17:11.620 The bad news is that the motion passed because the Liberals, the NDP, and the Bloc supported the capital gains tax hike.

00:17:18.580 Now, folks, this is such a disastrous tax.

00:17:20.720 It's going to impact a lot of Canadians.

00:17:22.220 You've already heard the doctors warning about this, how they're going to be impacted.

00:17:26.460 You have many small businesses that are going to be impacted by this.

00:17:29.620 People preparing for the retirement are going to be impacted by this.

00:17:33.020 And also, too, like this capital gains tax hike, it's going to discourage that young, smart tech entrepreneur who just graduated from a computer science degree.

00:17:42.360 It's going to discourage that young individual from setting up shop in Canada, maybe producing the next Amazon here in Canada.

00:17:48.700 And instead, this capital gains tax hike is going to push entrepreneurs like that to leave Canada and to take their investment dollars and jobs with them.

00:17:57.220 Well, that's it.

00:17:58.720 There's some of the real misinformation coming out of, I would say, you know, Chrystia Freeland the other day speaking and the messaging they're putting out, which I still don't care for with those, the class warfare and the politics of envy.

00:18:09.420 But, hey, we're just taking a little more from the ultra, ultra rich.

00:18:12.180 But the reality is we have over, what, I think, 300,000 incorporated businesses, most of them small and medium sized.

00:18:20.640 They're getting hit by this, every one of them.

00:18:23.140 And that's going to cost us in the end.

00:18:25.120 It always does.

00:18:26.760 Well, and, Corey, it only takes you two seconds to really think about the government's spin to see right through it.

00:18:31.660 I mean, first of all, if the government wants the rich to pay more, how about the government just makes rich multinational corporations pay for their own factories?

00:18:41.380 You know what I mean?

00:18:42.480 Like, how about you stop giving billions of dollars to these multinational corporations like Honda, Volkswagen, Salantis and Northvolt to build these EV battery factories, right?

00:18:52.080 Just end the corporate welfare. 0.98

00:18:53.240 But the second type of spin I see coming from the finance minister and Trudeau, which kind of makes me laugh, is this whole notion that they had to bring in this tax to help the next generation.

00:19:04.460 Excuse me.

00:19:05.680 Like, this government has officially doubled the entire national debt.

00:19:10.880 Who's going to be paying for that?

00:19:12.800 Canadians' kids and grandkids are going to be making payments on the Trudeau government's debt for the rest of their lives, right?

00:19:18.760 So that doesn't add up.

00:19:20.020 Here's another thing that doesn't add up.

00:19:21.600 This isn't about balancing the budget or being fiscally responsible.

00:19:25.720 This government has proven that it couldn't care less about balancing the budget.

00:19:30.760 Corey, even after this massive capital gains tax hike, the government is still running a $40 billion deficit this year.

00:19:39.680 And you know what?

00:19:41.340 With Trudeau spending $535 billion in 2024, he's going to blow through this extra capital gains tax revenue in like five days.

00:19:52.260 Yeah, well, and it's basically caused a run as well.

00:19:56.880 I mean, people with capital gains potentially, they've been encouraged now to do a massive sell-off.

00:20:03.380 And that's part of the shell game that's going on, though.

00:20:05.180 A lot of people are saying, well, I'm getting out right now before that ceiling rises.

00:20:08.680 And it's going to show a short-term influx of a bunch of money coming into the government.

00:20:13.480 But in reality, in the long run, again, it's going to be terribly costly.

00:20:17.740 And, like, let's not pretend that this extra tax revenue is a good thing.

00:20:23.060 It's not.

00:20:24.160 The government doesn't deserve a single penny more from any Canadian, whether it's taking it directly from your pocket or directly from someone else's.

00:20:32.340 Like, all it's going to do is encourage this government to blow even more of our money, right?

00:20:36.140 We don't need to give the government, you know, a single penny more.

00:20:39.420 But even more to the point, like, even if your listeners are saying, well, you know, I'm not going to be impacted directly.

00:20:45.140 Well, here's why you should care about this.

00:20:47.860 If Canadians do not push back, if we let Trudeau and Freeland off the hook on this capital gains tax increase,

00:20:55.100 you can be sure that they will continue to look for more ways to take more money from you, okay?

00:21:01.520 The next scheduled election is October.

00:21:04.160 It's October 2025.

00:21:06.700 Well, they're going to have another budget before then, right?

00:21:09.780 It's a good bet that if they get away with this capital gains tax hike without blowback from Canadians,

00:21:14.520 that there'll be more taxes on more Canadians just around the corner.

00:21:19.460 Well, and getting back to, I guess, you know, the bottom line is they don't need more money.

00:21:24.100 They got to get spending under control.

00:21:25.660 And the next question is always where to cut it.

00:21:27.580 You set that off the bat with corporate welfare.

00:21:30.320 I mean, it's a massive expenditure for Canadians.

00:21:32.480 It never brings the return to us.

00:21:33.840 They promise it will.

00:21:34.840 Well, we give a little credit to the Conservative Party for at least coming out and seeing they're opposed to the capital gains tax increase.

00:21:41.040 But unfortunately, when it comes to corporate welfare, almost every party tends to get guilty of that when they get in office.

00:21:46.920 Have we heard from the opposition saying they would consider rolling back any of the corporate welfare or at least not giving out as much if and when they form government?

00:21:56.700 Well, I interviewed Mr. Paulyev for an interview piece in our magazine, The Taxpayer.

00:22:02.300 And, you know, with a couple of the interviews that we did, he did say that he would cut corporate welfare and use that to reduce taxes, I believe, for small businesses.

00:22:12.160 You can you can check out some of the interviews on the Canadian Taxpayers Federation on YouTube to hear from for yourself.

00:22:17.620 But Mr. Paulyev is on the record saying he would cut corporate welfare, which is good.

00:22:22.660 I mean, a little bit vague.

00:22:23.600 We think that they should completely scrap corporate welfare.

00:22:26.540 One, it's bad, right?

00:22:28.240 Like, first of all, they don't have the economic incentives.

00:22:30.940 It's not their money.

00:22:32.660 Like if these politicians and bureaucrats knew which business was going to be successful, they wouldn't be politicians or bureaucrats, right?

00:22:39.720 They'd be using their own money in the market.

00:22:42.600 But the second thing, too, here is you got to remember these are all about political incentives, right?

00:22:47.120 They have the political incentives.

00:22:48.680 They don't have the economic incentives.

00:22:50.240 And number three is that corporate welfare at best is a shell game.

00:22:54.520 You're not really creating any jobs.

00:22:56.500 At best, you're just taking money from taxpayers and other parts of the economy and giving it to select corporations that have armies of lobbyists.

00:23:06.840 Yeah, I mean, it's sad, but it's coming to the point where effective lobbying is more important than actually effective business practices.

00:23:12.940 Another area, though, where there's certainly a lot of room, I think, to cut and nobody really wants to say those words out loud, though, is that civil service.

00:23:21.180 I mean, it's been massively expanded since the Trudeau government got into power and is costing a lot of money.

00:23:28.680 And they're putting their feet, their heels in because they might have to show up for work three days a week in the office.

00:23:35.860 Again, do you think, though, that's always a touchy area.

00:23:38.340 Do you think the government would have the courage to start shaving that back if they got in?

00:23:43.340 Because, of course, the union terrifies most politicians of every stripe.

00:23:46.660 It's going to come to the point where the government will have no choice, right?

00:23:49.880 Kind of like what happened in the 90s, right, under Ralph Klein to tackle the deficit.

00:23:53.580 He brought in the union bosses and he's like, hey, look, either you take a 5% pay cut or we lay off 5% of people, right?

00:23:59.940 It's your decision.

00:24:00.560 You go back to your members and you tell them what you want to do.

00:24:02.880 But it's going to come to that kind of point here.

00:24:04.760 And the reason I say that is because already, right now, more than half of the government's day-to-day spending is consumed by the bureaucracy.

00:24:13.120 So if you want to tackle a $40 billion deficit, a $1.2 trillion debt, you've got to tackle the big side of the arithmetic here, right?

00:24:21.720 And let's not forget that the federal government has increased the number of bureaucrats by 100,000 people since Trudeau has taken office.

00:24:30.020 Trudeau, or sorry, I should say the government, has handed out $1.5 billion plus in bonuses since 2015.

00:24:37.640 Corey, just over the last four years, Trudeau has rubber stamped more than a million pay raises.

00:24:43.340 Okay, so we've paid for hundreds of millions in bonuses, hundreds of thousands of pay raises, tens of thousands of extra bureaucrats, and we're still getting bad services from the feds.

00:24:55.780 Well, and that's another point that's difficult because we tend to rely on anecdotes.

00:25:00.680 But, I mean, pretty much anybody who's dealt with a government service knows you're not dealing with efficient workers and efficient offices.

00:25:09.000 It's very difficult to get anything done.

00:25:10.740 They seem to be overstepped.

00:25:11.860 Try to renew a passport these days or look at the lineup outside of a Service Canada station.

00:25:16.160 You know, people are waiting literally early in the morning to get in to see somebody face-to-face.

00:25:20.800 But how can you measure, that's one of the hard parts, how do you measure productivity with a bureaucrat?

00:25:26.100 I mean, they can kind of obfuscate the whole mess.

00:25:29.120 Well, I mean, that's one of the issues with government, right?

00:25:32.020 It's the fact that there isn't the inherent accountability of profit and loss like there is in the marketplace, right?

00:25:38.640 In the marketplace, in free enterprise, when if you don't consider the bad form of capitalism, which is just corporate welfare,

00:25:45.060 but if you look at the free market, a business is successful when it makes profit.

00:25:49.140 Businesses are punished when they make losses, right?

00:25:53.280 And the free market tends to weed the bad businesses out relatively quickly and encourage the good entrepreneurs to come into the market.

00:26:01.580 But in government, there isn't this mechanism of profit and loss.

00:26:04.860 So some things that the government tries to do to get around this is that they have department performance targets.

00:26:10.780 Well, folks, as you could probably guess, the government barely can meet half of its own performance targets every single year.

00:26:17.780 Most years, they don't even meet half of their own performance targets.

00:26:21.440 Yet 90% of government executives get a bonus every single year for an average bonus of $18,000.

00:26:28.080 Now, Corey, what's so crazy about that is that, you know, if you went to Derek and you said,

00:26:33.300 hey, boss, I didn't even meet half of my own performance targets,

00:26:37.600 Derek wouldn't be giving you an $18,000 bonus check, buddy.

00:26:40.540 He'd be showing you the door.

00:26:41.660 Oh, absolutely.

00:26:43.820 If nothing else, Derek is quite frugal, as he should be.

00:26:48.140 Hey, small business is difficult.

00:26:49.660 You've got to – and that's the difference.

00:26:51.140 You know, you've got to keep those costs in line.

00:26:53.700 But that just doesn't apply with government.

00:26:56.700 With the last few minutes before I let you go then, I mean, we're into a period, you know, the election is sort of looming.

00:27:01.780 This is the time, though, when governments or parties of all stripes are a little more receptive to common sense or making promises.

00:27:10.720 What would you like to see coming into this?

00:27:12.860 Where should this government be pressed besides the carbon tax, I guess, which is sort of obvious on one front?

00:27:18.300 What else would you like to see?

00:27:20.220 Well, I mean, let me be quick on here and let me take another angle.

00:27:23.060 So, first of all, cut taxes, cut wasteful spending, balance the budget.

00:27:26.700 Okay?

00:27:26.960 That's what we want the government to see.

00:27:28.440 But I actually have a bit of an ask and an urgent, you know, update for your supporters.

00:27:33.860 And that's like, hey, folks, if you're watching the Western Standard and if you're upset with what's going on, to Corey's point, right now is the perfect time to take action and to, like, you know, reach out to these parties, reach out to these members of parliament and tell them what you want to see.

00:27:49.680 Now is the perfect time to do it.

00:27:52.000 Don't wait until a new politician may get elected, a new party may get elected.

00:27:56.340 That's too late.

00:27:57.480 You have to get engaged now and push these parties, push these members of parliament, push these political hopefuls to do the right thing.

00:28:07.340 That has to start right now.

00:28:10.000 All right.

00:28:10.840 Well, I appreciate that.

00:28:12.020 And that's certainly what you guys have been doing with the Taxpayers Federation effectively for years.

00:28:15.480 I really do appreciate the work you guys do.

00:28:18.140 You know, you dive into a lot of dry data and put it out into a digestible thing for people who are, they're just busy paying the bills and working.

00:28:26.620 They need that point form thing to understand it.

00:28:28.720 And I like that advice because, again, the day after the election is the time when the politicians are the least receptive to you.

00:28:34.660 So you've got a window of opportunity coming up ahead.

00:28:37.580 And so where I see you get the Taxpayer Magazine and where else can people find out what you guys are up to and what you're doing out there?

00:28:44.860 Taxpayer.com.

00:28:46.020 Folks, check out the newsroom, sign some petitions.

00:28:48.720 You can pretty much follow us on every social media.

00:28:50.900 Just type in Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

00:28:54.020 If you want to follow me on social media, it's just at Franco underscore nomics.

00:28:57.860 But, again, the best place to find all of our resources is at taxpayer.com.

00:29:02.900 Right on.

00:29:03.440 Well, thanks, Franco.

00:29:04.320 It's always great having you on.

00:29:05.780 And I appreciate, as I said, the work you guys do.

00:29:09.220 So I'll let you get back at it.

00:29:10.900 And I hope we'll have you on again sometime soon.

00:29:13.400 Thanks, Corey.

00:29:14.040 Take care, everyone.

00:29:15.060 Right on.

00:29:15.520 Thanks.

00:29:16.280 So, yes, Franco Tarazano from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

00:29:19.240 Like I said, these groups, these organizations are important.

00:29:22.280 You know, I mean, your average citizen, as I said, are tired.

00:29:25.180 We're busy.

00:29:25.700 We're just trying to make the car payment or the mortgage payment or the rent or whatever we got.

00:29:29.900 We still have to pay attention.

00:29:31.900 And they make it easy.

00:29:32.660 They've got petitions.

00:29:33.660 They've got the articles, the things.

00:29:35.820 So you can find out quickly what's going on.

00:29:37.920 And as you said, right now, the politicians are listening, or at least as close to listening as you're going to get them.

00:29:44.220 And now is the time to twist their arm a bit and say, hey, you know, I'd like to see something different going on in the next election.

00:29:50.220 Get those promises down.

00:29:51.320 They don't always follow through with them.

00:29:53.000 But you've got to keep trying, guys.

00:29:54.880 The game never stops.

00:29:56.320 You might not be guaranteed to win if you take part, but you're guaranteed to lose if you don't.

00:30:00.840 So, okay, enough of my nagging for you to get off your list.

00:30:03.200 Let's talk about some of the horrific things going on.

00:30:05.900 This has still got me flabbergasted.

00:30:08.980 Flabbergasted.

00:30:09.340 We have a report from a parliamentary committee, a committee formed by the Liberal government, that has said we have witting actors.

00:30:19.980 We have parliamentarians.

00:30:21.440 That could be members of parliament.

00:30:22.540 That could be senators, actually.

00:30:24.320 But they're actually witting participants in foreign interference.

00:30:27.740 They're beholden to foreign governments, governments that do not have Canada's interest in mind.

00:30:33.660 We know it.

00:30:34.260 It's been clarified.

00:30:34.920 We've known this for a long time.

00:30:36.520 Sam Cooper has been doing fantastic work in exposing this for years.

00:30:40.340 And it just keeps coming out and coming out.

00:30:42.580 And the Trudeau government just keeps kicking the can down the road.

00:30:44.720 You know, he got his little Uncle Johnston to come out and try and cover it up.

00:30:47.400 That failed.

00:30:48.160 And then he had this baloney inquiry where they just spent time spinning their wheels.

00:30:52.380 That's not going to conclude anything.

00:30:54.140 But even with the Liberal government forming this committee, and that committee couldn't avoid this.

00:30:59.260 And, yeah, we've gotten people are speculating up to 10, maybe 11 that are compromised.

00:31:03.520 And the government refuses to do anything about it.

00:31:07.600 They refuse.

00:31:08.700 We've got spies in parliament.

00:31:11.440 That's how serious this is.

00:31:13.040 A security expert, I believe his name is Wark.

00:31:15.420 Is it Wesley Wark?

00:31:16.600 I'm not sure.

00:31:17.800 He was blunt about reading this thing.

00:31:19.620 It was nauseating, he said.

00:31:21.540 And textbook treason.

00:31:23.420 We have a government covering up for treason.

00:31:26.020 But are you seeing it really on the top of the headlines right now?

00:31:29.240 No.

00:31:30.060 Why not?

00:31:30.460 Because legacy media has their lips locked on the starfish of Prime Minister Trudeau.

00:31:35.280 Because they're all going broke.

00:31:36.920 Look at Corus Entertainment these days.

00:31:38.580 I've been watching their stock with morbid curiosity.

00:31:41.740 They're down to 28 cents a share.

00:31:44.240 That's over 95% down.

00:31:46.220 That's all global media, a bunch of channels, a bunch of radio stations.

00:31:50.000 So what are they doing?

00:31:51.120 They're begging for bailouts.

00:31:52.780 They're sniveling to the federal government.

00:31:54.680 Please, please, we're too big to fail.

00:31:56.420 We're too important.

00:31:57.300 Give us money.

00:31:57.840 Give us money.

00:31:58.260 Well, what happens when you give them money?

00:31:59.620 Well, again, they're scared to tick off the government.

00:32:02.160 So when we've got a story that should be one of the biggest stories of a generation, up to 10, 11 spies in our parliament, it's not making headline news.

00:32:10.660 It's not the front of the line.

00:32:11.700 In fact, they have been quoting that crackpot Elizabeth May, who went and got the security clearance and read the report.

00:32:18.600 And somehow, good old crazy Liz managed to conclude saying, no, there's not a problem here.

00:32:24.260 In fact, there's no names.

00:32:25.480 What?

00:32:26.260 Even the Bloc Québécois said there's names in there.

00:32:28.940 You see, they've seen it.

00:32:29.860 This is part of the game.

00:32:30.920 This is part of the shell game that's going on.

00:32:32.500 A number of our people in parliament have seen it.

00:32:35.380 And that's where people keep trying to play gotcha with Pierre Paulievsky.

00:32:38.040 Why won't he get his security clearance?

00:32:39.900 What's he hiding that he won't go in?

00:32:41.080 The thing is, when you want to look at that report in full, if you want to see the non-redacted copy, you know, where it's all hidden.

00:32:48.280 I mean, we've got the copy, which basically said, yes, we're lousy with spies from other nations, probably India, probably China.

00:32:54.740 But we won't tell you any of the names.

00:32:57.760 The names are in there, but they've all been redacted.

00:33:00.080 Those members can see it, but they basically sign.

00:33:02.360 They lose parliamentary privilege.

00:33:04.040 They are not allowed to disclose what they've seen in the redacted sections once they do that.

00:33:09.200 If Pauliev signs that, he will not be allowed to speak later about what's in it.

00:33:14.100 It's an ironic trap set for him there.

00:33:17.400 So Lizzie May went and read it and said there's no problem.

00:33:20.720 And the liberals are actually trumpeting, see, see, there's nothing to be seen there.

00:33:24.380 There's not a problem.

00:33:25.180 If that's the case, why are you hiding it?

00:33:27.120 If that's the case, why are you afraid of the names coming out?

00:33:29.240 Liz said there are no names.

00:33:30.180 Then don't worry about it.

00:33:31.080 Take the redacted issue away.

00:33:33.200 Even Trudeau hasn't said there aren't any names back there, and he's not afraid of lying to our faces.

00:33:37.420 Of course there's names in that thing.

00:33:39.780 And it's important what other country would put up with compromised people at the highest levels of power.

00:33:47.580 Apparently us. 0.87

00:33:48.600 What a bloody embarrassment.

00:33:50.520 And then, again, to see the embarrassment of legacy media outright saying that, you know, Elizabeth May is credible.

00:34:00.640 Elizabeth May, the one who said Omar Khadr has more class than the federal cabinet.

00:34:05.300 Yeah, that's a Lizzie May quote.

00:34:07.080 And I'm not going to try and do her version of drunken singing she did at another press event.

00:34:12.580 I mean, whatever.

00:34:13.780 She's elected.

00:34:14.580 She can say whatever she pleases.

00:34:15.960 But come on, if that's the best you've got is to have Elizabeth May say nothing to see here, I think we've got to go a little farther. 0.99

00:34:22.440 Let's go a little deeper into government stupidity, though. 0.99

00:34:25.460 CRA, this is another beauty. 0.99

00:34:27.260 This is where the world of information, you see this government focused on control, focused on misinformation, focused on misdirecting you from everything.

00:34:35.300 Yeah, from, you know, their bad tax policies to spies in the government, literal spies.

00:34:40.460 They are paying, or CRA, the Canadian Revenue Agency, everybody's favorite, paid employees up to $1,000 an article.

00:34:48.160 Yeah, they're employees to produce fake news stories published by Canadian newsrooms.

00:34:52.520 Yes, they paid $233,000 to BlackRock's reporter report on this.

00:34:59.940 By the way, independent media, these guys are fantastic.

00:35:02.660 They paid News Canada, which is like a press service.

00:35:06.140 They put stories up.

00:35:07.480 Other newspapers pick them up and basically just reheat them, stick them out for lazy content.

00:35:11.480 They don't have reporters on the ground like we do at the Western Standard.

00:35:14.260 But we found out $233,000 was paid to CRA employees to write puff pieces and baloney and stick it in there.

00:35:21.340 And then newspapers picked it up.

00:35:22.660 Either the Lethbridge Herald was one of them and a few others.

00:35:26.100 Really, this is where your tax dollars are going.

00:35:28.340 Hundreds of thousands of dollars to have the people who steal your taxes through the CRA, who are overpaid, who don't want to come in more than two days a week, to give fake news to you.

00:35:38.960 It's so hard to get real news.

00:35:40.800 It's not surprising people are so bloody cynical, right?

00:35:45.240 I mean, how?

00:35:46.220 How do you get the truth to people out there?

00:35:48.660 But this, this is what our government is about.

00:35:52.680 And again, they're hiding spies.

00:35:54.340 What do you expect?

00:35:54.920 You know, one of the things I said earlier, I'm just going to throw that out there, too.

00:35:57.060 I threw that out on X.

00:35:57.980 If you want to really get a scrapping with me or commenting or whatever, my favorite place is X, formerly Twitter.

00:36:04.220 Well, you know, because right now what I've been hitting the politicians with all the time, whenever I see a liberal pop up there and say something on Twitter, I respond with, what nation are you beholden to?

00:36:14.220 Because, you know what, until they release the names of who these compromised MPs are, we have to suspect all of them.

00:36:21.060 They're all suspects.

00:36:22.920 Any one of them could be Ed, any one of those liberals.

00:36:25.220 And I'm going to remind them, you might be a spy because you refuse to tell us who they are.

00:36:29.960 And the only way they can clear their names is to release the bloody list.

00:36:33.760 Open it up.

00:36:34.400 It's ours.

00:36:35.100 It's ours.

00:36:35.620 They forget who they are supposed to serve.

00:36:37.960 They're supposed to serve us.

00:36:39.920 The data should be ours by default, and they have to make the reason why they would not let us know that.

00:36:45.440 And something I kind of floated out there, just saying, you know, if some, because I got a feeling eventually it's going to leak.

00:36:50.880 It's going to leak.

00:36:51.500 Somebody with principles can say, that's enough.

00:36:53.000 I can't take this anymore.

00:36:54.200 We've got spies in our House of Commons.

00:36:56.400 I'm going to leak that list because a lot of members have seen it now.

00:36:58.940 They know who it is.

00:36:59.820 Boy, it must be fun in caucus meetings.

00:37:01.860 They're going to leak it.

00:37:03.320 But, you know, even if a fake document leaked out there and a bunch of MPs or senators were named,

00:37:08.500 just if it happened, how would they be able to clear their name, right?

00:37:12.720 Well, there's only one way to clear the name.

00:37:14.540 Release the list.

00:37:15.680 I don't know.

00:37:16.180 So if somebody happened to be bored and released a list of names like that,

00:37:19.400 it just would be interesting to see if maybe that prompted the government to open up and tell us who the spies in our government are.

00:37:26.720 People should be marching in the streets over this.

00:37:28.600 Instead, they're busy marching in the streets, as Dave pointed out, or the others, you know, lunatics,

00:37:33.000 terrorizing Toronto neighborhoods with impunity, masks, intimidating people. 0.86

00:37:38.540 And why? 0.91

00:37:39.020 Because the neighborhood's Jewish. 0.97

00:37:41.280 That's not a priority for this government.

00:37:43.640 No, no.

00:37:44.580 They're busy covering up spies, right?

00:37:47.700 Speaking of fake news, let's get on to another big, beautiful part of it.

00:37:52.060 CBC, yes, Mother Corp, the home of Canada's worst broadcast.

00:37:57.360 They're terrible. 0.99

00:37:58.060 And, of course, they get $1.4 billion a year, your tax dollars, straight towards them to put out that junk. 0.98

00:38:05.300 And then on top of that, they take hundreds of millions out of the advertising market while they're at it.

00:38:10.000 And they've been pouring it in to the online world, you know, online news and so on,

00:38:16.640 because that's the way things are morphing, fair enough.

00:38:19.400 But it's not working.

00:38:21.120 Again, it shows how efficient government corporations are versus private.

00:38:24.640 The Western Standard on a shoestring budget, we've been growing and growing.

00:38:28.060 Yeah, I know I love patting our own backs.

00:38:29.400 I'll do it when I can.

00:38:30.160 Hey, we've screwed up now and then, too, and I've talked about that.

00:38:31.940 But I won't talk about that right now.

00:38:32.980 Let's talk about CBC screw-ups.

00:38:34.500 Guess how much of the national social and media engagement this $1.4 billion behemoth has managed to buy over the years with all that money?

00:38:43.900 11%.

00:38:44.300 11%.

00:38:45.940 The biggest media organization in the country.

00:38:49.040 The one that gets $1.4 billion a year cannot manage to put out content good enough to capture more than 11% of what's going on.

00:38:59.340 In fact, as far as the news goes, we're still farther down there with the standard.

00:39:02.700 But the top one right now is CTV, and yeah, they're terrible.

00:39:07.160 They're at 25%.

00:39:08.440 Global, which, as I mentioned, is probably going to go broke pretty soon by the looks of their shares, is at 12%.

00:39:14.540 Even Rebel Media, I think, is at 7% or 8% or something.

00:39:18.060 But here, here's your tax dollars at work, right, to get propaganda from the CBC.

00:39:23.400 I didn't mention that when Franco was on, and I should have, you know.

00:39:26.880 We're talking about an area that could have used cuts.

00:39:29.480 One of the areas that we could certainly cut is, as Jordan's pointing out with Tate, yes, the head of CBC, cut the CBC.

00:39:36.280 Instant $1.4 billion a year in savings.

00:39:39.380 You know, we talk about corporate welfare.

00:39:41.140 We talk about subsidies.

00:39:42.620 Sometimes the numbers are too big, and your average person just doesn't really wrap their head around what it is.

00:39:47.520 Think about that.

00:39:48.480 $1.4 billion.

00:39:50.080 That's $1,400 million.

00:39:55.460 If you were going to give a million-dollar grant per year to little media outlets, just think, a little media outlet, for a million a year, you could do pretty good local coverage.

00:40:06.560 You could build quite a good little outfit.

00:40:08.960 We could build 1,400 independent media outlets with a base budget of a million a year for what we give the CBC.

00:40:20.500 Even if half of those outlets went broke after a year, which I don't know how they could with a million-dollar budget like that, you'd still have 700 independent media outlets reporting on things on the ground, doing things, covering the news.

00:40:33.440 It's for the price that we're giving the CBC that only 11% is even engaged with.

00:40:39.380 What a waste of money.

00:40:40.960 So speaking of areas to be cut.

00:40:42.460 And again, Pierre Pauly has promised to defund the CBC.

00:40:46.180 I'll tell you what.

00:40:46.780 If and when he becomes the prime minister, he's going to have a lot of pressure not to do that.

00:40:52.660 It's going to be tough to follow through with it.

00:40:54.680 This is where we're talking about engagement, too, guys.

00:40:56.380 Stay on them.

00:40:57.360 Stay on their case. 0.93

00:40:58.400 Get rid of that big, rotten dinosaur, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, because it's ruining media. 0.82

00:41:06.540 It's ruining information. 0.97

00:41:08.060 It's not accountable to you.

00:41:09.520 It's not accountable to viewers. 0.97

00:41:11.500 It's just a big, bloated, pocket-padding government organization that Catherine Tate is terrible, and they've been taking massive bonuses for this junk, and nobody's watching. 1.00

00:41:22.540 I still don't believe in a subsidized federal media. 0.84

00:41:24.760 And I don't believe, by the way, I don't want to see 1,400 subsidized outlets out there.

00:41:28.520 I just want to see taxes cut and get them out of the advertising market so that the other independent media outlets can compete for that advertising.

00:41:36.320 But it would be more comfortable if at least they had a viewership.

00:41:39.180 But they don't even have that.

00:41:41.560 Get rid of this thing.

00:41:43.220 I mean, it ties in with other government things, too.

00:41:45.140 The Canada Post is now bleeding hundreds and hundreds of millions every year.

00:41:49.040 It's getting up into the billions.

00:41:50.280 Let's face reality.

00:41:51.300 Guess why?

00:41:52.000 Because there's still home delivery going on in a massive amount of the country.

00:41:54.960 Yes.

00:41:55.300 Why is that happening?

00:41:56.300 Well, because when the super boxes were coming along, efficiency, trying to streamline things, Prime Minister Ding Dong didn't want to get in trouble with the Postal Union because we have all those mail monkeys out there making a hell of a lot of money to work four days a week.

00:42:08.900 Because, come on, let's face it.

00:42:09.720 You never really get that mail on Fridays.

00:42:11.900 And said, no, no, I'll protect those jobs.

00:42:14.280 Don't worry.

00:42:14.680 We'll stop that transition to super boxes and we'll keep home delivery.

00:42:17.900 And even now, nobody's got the nuts to say, let's just do it.

00:42:21.460 Cut, cut, cut.

00:42:22.340 We don't need it.

00:42:23.200 But Amazon does a better job of delivering the packages.

00:42:26.200 That's the growth area anyways.

00:42:28.160 We don't need your electric bill coming in the mail anymore.

00:42:31.320 We barely need mail anymore.

00:42:34.660 Move on with it.

00:42:36.040 So, you know, when we're talking about where to cut, where to cut, because that's one of the responses people come up with when we talk about cutting taxes.

00:42:42.080 There's lots of room to cut, guys.

00:42:43.860 Lots and lots and lots of room to cut.

00:42:45.720 But we've got to have those discussions.

00:42:47.420 And those discussions frighten even conservative politicians because they don't want to be the one having the union freak out on them.

00:42:54.980 Well, don't give them the choice, guys.

00:42:56.520 You freak out on them.

00:42:57.600 You get louder in the union.

00:42:59.100 You get on their case.

00:43:01.300 Here's, you know, another one.

00:43:02.520 Environmental benefits.

00:43:03.500 This is, you know, $8 billion.

00:43:06.100 A subsidy program for industries that are supposed to be greening things.

00:43:08.960 It's $8 billion.

00:43:10.480 And it was asked in committee, the managers of this environmental department, with $8 billion, how much have you reduced reductions?

00:43:18.340 How much impact have you had?

00:43:19.600 The outright just said, we don't know.

00:43:21.480 We don't know.

00:43:22.280 So they've dumped $8 billion, $8 billion of your dollars, the money you're working for while you struggle to pay the bills, into these companies, which we know are a cesspool of patronage, probably corruption like the ARRIVE scam and other things like that.

00:43:34.280 And they can't even tell you what kind of results they were.

00:43:37.820 Again, if it was a private company, you're putting massive amounts of money in your shareholders to say, let's see the output.

00:43:42.820 What do I get for it?

00:43:43.940 You have to give an answer.

00:43:45.180 Not when it's government, though.

00:43:46.920 No, no, not when it's government.

00:43:49.420 Speaking of which, and this comes down to the level of provincial governments, too.

00:43:53.160 We saw a positive change, in a sense, with the, yes, the Canadian Energy Center, known as the War Room.

00:43:59.460 It was a creation of Jason Kenney.

00:44:00.980 They had $30 million a year to basically speak up.

00:44:04.940 They're supposed to defend the energy industry and things like that.

00:44:07.320 And it really hasn't been very good.

00:44:09.300 They ran into one disaster after another.

00:44:11.440 They sort of lost credibility.

00:44:13.100 And finally, Smith has formally pulled the plug on this thing.

00:44:16.920 And some of it's going to be absorbed into government because it's all turned into as a government comms branch anyways.

00:44:21.560 It was too expensive and inefficient.

00:44:22.860 Look, the role for defending the energy industry should be the energy industry.

00:44:27.420 And here's, again, back to the federal government making it illegal or trying to make it illegal for energy companies to defend themselves.

00:44:33.900 500 companies are displayed on the floor here at the Global Energy Show in Calgary.

00:44:38.120 These are the people to defend this industry.

00:44:39.960 These are the people looking forward.

00:44:41.060 The technology here is amazing.

00:44:42.800 The stuff that's going ahead.

00:44:44.260 As well, the communications.

00:44:46.000 We should get better communications from industry organizations.

00:44:49.400 They should be speaking up, not the government, because the government's incompetent.

00:44:51.980 And unfortunately, when industry gets big enough, it often becomes incompetent, too.

00:44:56.200 So that's why we've seen such a limp-wristed approach coming from a lot of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers and other industry associations.

00:45:03.460 When they should be speaking up on behalf of this industry a heck of a lot more vehemently.

00:45:08.000 Hopefully, there's networking happening at events like this.

00:45:10.540 So this is where the heavyweights are.

00:45:12.240 This is where they're at.

00:45:13.040 There's groups like Michael Binion and the Modern Miracle Network who defend the industry.

00:45:16.740 We need more private.

00:45:17.780 You guys have got to defend yourselves.

00:45:19.060 That's a little bit of what Paulyev said as well when he talked to industry and companies.

00:45:22.800 He said, enough.

00:45:23.760 You guys have got to start telling your shareholders, your people, your employees, that you need to be defended.

00:45:29.020 The government needs to be smaller.

00:45:30.220 It shouldn't always be on them.

00:45:32.240 So hopefully, we're seeing that here.

00:45:34.460 We're seeing Suncor speaking up, saying, hey, we're going to be an oil company.

00:45:36.800 I don't care what you think.

00:45:37.600 Yes.

00:45:38.480 You know, you'd think that wouldn't be controversial, an oil company saying it's an oil company.

00:45:41.840 But he got dragged before a parliamentary committee for daring to say so.

00:45:45.000 Absurd.

00:45:45.820 All right.

00:45:46.380 Well, I've rambled it all out, guys.

00:45:48.120 Thank you for joining me on our very first live hit from a remote location like this.

00:45:53.120 It's done really well.

00:45:54.300 I really appreciate you tuning in.

00:45:55.620 I'm going to be taking in the rest of the displays here.

00:45:57.360 We're coming from the Global Energy Show.

00:45:59.660 It used to be the Petroleum Show.

00:46:00.640 Now they call it energy.

00:46:02.080 So make sure if you haven't subscribed, westernstandards.news slash subscription, guys.

00:46:06.440 We really appreciate it if you have already.

00:46:08.140 And if you haven't, spread the word.

00:46:09.340 Nag other people. 1.00

00:46:10.000 Get them on for us.

00:46:11.020 We can beat the control of the information.

00:46:13.220 Thanks again for tuning in.

00:46:14.160 We'll see you all again next week.

00:46:15.500 Probably coming from the regular studio again.

00:46:17.140 See you then.

00:46:17.500 Yeah.

00:46:18.500 Yeah.

00:46:19.020 We'll see you then.

00:46:49.020 Bye.

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Western Standard - June 12, 2024

CMS： Live from the floor of the Global Energy Show

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