Western Standard - Conservative Party Leader John Rustad on BC's Carbon Tax Elimination ｜ Exclusive Interview

00:00:00.000 I'm joined by John Rustad, the leader of the B.C. Conservative Party.

00:00:05.120 As some of you guys may know, the B.C. provincial government is going to be headed into an election October 19th.

00:00:12.680 And we're really excited to have John here in Calgary.

00:00:16.540 So my first question, big news of the day.

00:00:19.620 Yesterday, the courts ruled that the emergencies of the War Measures Act was invoked unconstitutionally.

00:00:25.120 So yesterday you put out a tweet and you thanked the trucker protesters and the freedom people.

00:00:32.700 Why do you think what they did was important?

00:00:34.980 When you think about our democracy, and first of all, thanks for having me on the show.

00:00:38.180 When you think about our democracy, there is no democracy without freedom.

00:00:43.500 There is no democracy without freedom of speech.

00:00:46.240 And so what the truckers and the freedom movement was really about was fighting for our democracy,

00:00:51.080 fighting for the very values that we have as a society.

00:00:54.900 And without democracy, those values are gone.

00:00:57.660 And so I just, you know, I thought they did something great.

00:01:01.860 And you look what's going on around the world today.

00:01:04.180 Look at the protests in Germany, what went on in the Netherlands,

00:01:07.380 what's going on in France and in Scotland and Ireland and so many other places.

00:01:10.840 It was all founded based on what happened here in Canada with the truckers standing up for democracy 0.99

00:01:17.180 and saying, we think this is wrong.

00:01:20.640 We think measures are on.

00:01:21.860 It's an overstep of government and it needs to change.

00:01:24.640 So I thought that was actually, it was very brave of them.

00:01:27.700 And, you know, I want to thank them.

00:01:28.880 Yeah, and so the protest, as well, definitely all of our viewers will know, it started in BC.

00:01:36.080 And it's kind of funny because the Western Standard broke one story.

00:01:40.480 And there was actually two trucker protests going on in the Vancouver area at the time.

00:01:44.560 One was about working hours, wages, and the other was about freedom.

00:01:49.300 And we kind of watched as that protest started as a few trucks from the West Coast.

00:01:54.560 And it really started to hit steam by the time it hit Calgary.

00:01:57.580 And by about that time, you could see across the country that there was momentum building.

00:02:03.460 But BC actually had a vote to condemn the actions of the truckers.

00:02:10.660 And you were, were you the only MLA or one of the only MLA?

00:02:15.560 The only MLA.

00:02:16.520 Yeah, to vote that you supported the truckers and every other MLA in BC voted to condemn the truckers.

00:02:23.040 So yesterday you called out the leader of the BC United Party and the leader of the NDP.

00:02:27.580 And tell me about that.

00:02:29.540 What do you, what would you like to see them do?

00:02:31.760 So I, when that motion came forward, I mean, it was pretty political and I just thought it's completely wrong.

00:02:36.500 I mean, they're basically voting against our freedoms and democracy.

00:02:40.080 And I thought, this is so wrong.

00:02:41.760 So when the, when the court ruling came out, which vindicated the trucking movement, which vindicated and showed that what government did was a huge overreach and shouldn't have happened.

00:02:50.820 I thought, you know what, it's time for politicians that made a mistake to be able to stand up and own it and just say, look, we're sorry.

00:02:58.440 You know, we apologize for, for condemning the freedom movement.

00:03:02.380 And so that's what I've asked David Eby, the premier of British Columbia, as well as Kevin Falcon, the leader of the United Party and all of their members to do.

00:03:10.920 Just put out a statement, apologize for it.

00:03:12.900 And let's move on because, you know, I thought it was wrong, but it was, it was actually quite amazing to see the United Party and the NDP actually voting against freedom and against the freedom movement.

00:03:26.600 And, but then again, you know, in British Columbia, we're always known for left wing politics.

00:03:31.160 And, you know, that's why I often say three lefts doesn't make it right.

00:03:34.600 No, exactly. It's, it was, it's fascinating to see how, how many politicians, especially to the left on the spectrum, still, even after the ruling came out, they said, you know, the Canada's national security and our economic security was, was a threat.

00:03:53.560 And that's why they needed to invoke the Emergencies Act.

00:03:56.600 Do you think that our national security was ever a threat?

00:04:00.220 Absolutely not. Absolutely not.

00:04:01.780 This was a freedom. This was peaceful. This was a statement that people were making about an overreach by government.

00:04:08.840 And, you know, the positions I'm taking, which is, I think we need more direct democracy.

00:04:12.900 We need to strengthen our, our democracy.

00:04:16.220 You know, I think there needs to be freedoms and freedoms of choice, particularly when it comes to things like, like our healthcare and over, you know, our own bodies.

00:04:24.380 I'm called a danger to democracy by the leader of the NDP.

00:04:29.060 I'm called, you know, radical and a danger to democracy.

00:04:32.680 And, and I understand why, because it's a danger to their form of democracy.

00:04:37.120 They have a very authoritarian approach in terms of how they want to do things.

00:04:41.360 Their policies have failed.

00:04:42.620 So they're coming in and trying to force things upon people and they have no respect for democracy.

00:04:47.600 In, in British Columbia, we actually have a situation where a sitting municipal government wants to keep the RCMP as their police force and government is coming in and overruling them and saying, no, you will move to a local police force.

00:05:04.300 What happened to democracy here?

00:05:07.560 Yeah.

00:05:08.000 It's got the same government that's coming in and saying, we are going to overrule the official community plans.

00:05:14.660 We're going to say that there's, you know, say that you can have densification in here.

00:05:18.420 There's nothing you can do about it.

00:05:19.840 And, oh, by the way, you're not even allowed to have public consultation.

00:05:23.120 It's not even required.

00:05:24.920 What kind of democracy is that? 0.83

00:05:26.940 And I'm called a threat to democracy.

00:05:28.820 It's really quite funny, actually, to see how the left will really stretch just to try to force their agenda on people.

00:05:35.620 It's it's impressive gaslighting in Alberta, in Saskatchewan.

00:05:42.400 There's been a push from from certain people that they would like to see the RCMP replaced with a provincial police force or more municipal police force.

00:05:49.600 But if Daniel Smith or Scott Moe did what the B.C. government is doing, there would be outrage.

00:05:57.260 It would be they're just disrespecting the municipalities.

00:06:01.960 They're, you know, they're the problem with democracy.

00:06:04.840 And here we have, you know, an actual leader that is pushing through something that the people don't want.

00:06:11.320 But you're the threat to democracy for supporting freedom.

00:06:14.620 I know it's crazy.

00:06:15.360 And this is why I support direct democracy.

00:06:17.200 If we're going to do this, like, for example, British Columbia, if we were to consider to going to a provincial police force and there's some that think that we should go in that direction.

00:06:24.660 Let's get all the information out to the people.

00:06:27.240 Let's show them what the costs are, what it looks like, what the benefits are, what the pros and cons for each option.

00:06:34.220 And then have a referendum.

00:06:35.640 Let the people vote.

00:06:37.360 Why don't we support people in the decision making?

00:06:39.820 People are smart.

00:06:40.580 They're capable.

00:06:41.320 They're capable of being engaged.

00:06:43.020 And they want to be engaged.

00:06:44.620 This is what we should be doing with, you know, big decisions like that.

00:06:49.040 Well, exactly.

00:06:50.380 You can see in Alberta how the United Conservative Party has pushed more direct democracy.

00:06:57.220 So with exiting the Canada pension plan, they've committed that they're actually not going to do anything until there's a referendum on the subject.

00:07:05.360 So under you, as you as the Premier of B.C., would there be more referendum?

00:07:10.220 Would there be more questions put on municipal ballots and stuff like that in the future?

00:07:14.820 I'd like to look at doing that.

00:07:16.000 Now, you don't want to do it for everything, right?

00:07:18.000 I mean, you're elected as a representative.

00:07:20.500 Your representative is to represent the people on the decisions that need to be made.

00:07:24.680 However, when there are big decisions, I think it's important to be able to go to people and have a referendum.

00:07:28.660 So, for example, last spring, I think it was February or in that area, I actually moved forward a motion in the legislature to say that there should be no new taxes or no increased taxes unless it's done by referendum.

00:07:43.200 Why wouldn't we go to people and say, look, make the case if we need more money, we'll make the case and say, you know, are you willing to give more money because this is the benefit?

00:07:52.360 And if people say no, then government's got to live within its means and figure out, you know, how to balance its books and how to deal with the issues that need to be done.

00:07:59.200 And this is the kind of thing that I think people need to be involved in to renew our democracy, because quite frankly, you know, as you see with these more authoritarian approaches, both federally and provincially, certainly in British Columbia, it's an erosion of our democracy and it's erosion of our freedoms.

00:08:15.620 So that actually comes to another thing.

00:08:18.740 Speaking of taxes and a referendum on taxes, BC has, I believe, the first and oldest carbon tax in the country and the cost of living is out of control.

00:08:29.120 Vancouver and the lower mainland is one of the most expensive areas on this planet to live.

00:08:35.840 Real estate, especially for millennials, is completely out of reach.

00:08:39.340 And if you're living or if you're working in Vancouver, in Vancouver Metro, you're living out in the suburbs and you're commuting.

00:08:46.360 If you're lucky.

00:08:47.080 Yeah.

00:08:47.680 So and that also comes to pipelines and home heating.

00:08:52.560 So would you have a referendum then on scrapping the carbon tax?

00:08:57.160 Would you follow Pierre Polyev's lead?

00:09:00.120 And if the national tax was scrapped, would you scrap the BC tax?

00:09:04.540 Or would you take that question to voters?

00:09:06.020 Actually, I wouldn't take that question to voters because, quite frankly, that's going to be a piece of the next upcoming election.

00:09:12.880 If people want to remove the carbon tax in British Columbia, vote for the Conservative Party of BC.

00:09:17.780 We will get rid of it.

00:09:19.480 And so obviously with a federal government in place, we get rid of it before there's a federal election.

00:09:24.420 They could implement their own federal tax.

00:09:26.560 And I wouldn't want to see that happen because getting rid of a federal tax is far harder than getting rid of a provincial tax.

00:09:32.040 But yes, we would.

00:09:33.320 We're committed to getting rid of the carbon tax.

00:09:34.980 It makes no sense.

00:09:36.240 Half the people in British Columbia today are struggling to put food on the table.

00:09:40.080 And taxing people into poverty is not going to change the weather.

00:09:43.500 It makes zero sense whatsoever to be doing this.

00:09:45.840 It's just a tax grab for governments to be spent on their pet projects.

00:09:50.380 So we want to get rid of it.

00:09:51.760 It's going to put $2.8 billion back in the pockets of British Columbians from last year.

00:09:55.980 And the thing is, when you look at the cumulative, by 2030, 2031, the carbon tax and associated taxes will be the equivalent to taking $27,000 out of a family of forest pockets.

00:10:09.780 $27,000.

00:10:10.660 I mean, people are struggling, you know, like you said, to buy houses, to pay the rent for food.

00:10:15.620 They can't afford that kind of taxation.

00:10:17.640 That needs to go.

00:10:18.800 So the taxes, reducing taxes would certainly help.

00:10:22.560 I know the carbon tax, it's compounded.

00:10:25.140 It's tax on tax on tax.

00:10:26.620 But that doesn't necessarily fix the housing crisis.

00:10:31.420 And V.C.'s housing crisis is like no other.

00:10:35.320 I don't even know where to start.

00:10:37.240 Where would you start?

00:10:38.880 Well, you know, since 1991, it's been 32 years, 16 years of NDP and 16 years of V.C. levels.

00:10:45.060 And just about everything you can look at in British Columbia is worse off, including housing.

00:10:49.420 Since 1991, housing has gone up by five or sixfold, while wages have doubled.

00:10:54.740 So wages have fallen way behind the ability for people to be able to pay for housing.

00:10:59.880 So there needs to be some dramatic shifts in terms of how we deal with housing.

00:11:04.680 We haven't crawled out our housing policy quite yet, but there's sort of three prongs that we're looking at on dealing with housing.

00:11:11.020 The first is we've got to figure out how we bring down the development charges by municipalities.

00:11:15.760 Municipalities need to be able to put in new water and sewer and the services they need for housing.

00:11:20.420 So let's figure out how we support municipalities to be able to do that so that it makes it easier for them to be able to move forward with housing projects.

00:11:28.580 The second thing we need to do is, of course, we need more supply.

00:11:31.140 We need to have that come in.

00:11:32.600 And there were solutions that were done back in the 60s and 70s, which drove a significant amount of rental units to be built.

00:11:39.400 We should be looking at the same type of solutions, right, in terms of creating that environment so that investors can come in and actually build the units that we need.

00:11:47.500 And the third piece, of course, is on affordability, people's ability to be able to buy the houses.

00:11:52.060 And so we're going to have some very interesting policies that are going to come forward to be able to help people to be able to afford their housing in British Columbia.

00:11:59.940 Yeah, I hear that so many times that so many good projects die at city council.

00:12:06.900 And, you know, every council across the country, especially in the major cities, is struggling with housing right now, but they're still raising taxes.

00:12:14.460 I'll give you an example.

00:12:16.400 So in Victoria, there was a major project which was going to have, you know, commercial on the ground floor and housing in the other floors.

00:12:25.840 And they proposed a five-story building.

00:12:29.060 Well, the local residents complained, saying, no, no, that's too tall.

00:12:32.400 And so they cut it back and forced the developers to go to a four-story building.

00:12:36.300 And the developer said, well, if we're going to do that, we can't afford to put in social housing, this affordable housing for people as part of it.

00:12:42.460 And the council said, oh, that's okay.

00:12:44.060 You can remove those.

00:12:45.860 Like, it's crazy.

00:12:46.660 So we've got a housing shortage.

00:12:48.220 And the problem is because the building is going to be five stories instead of four.

00:12:52.340 And then you've got projects in Vancouver, for example, that take five, six, seven years to actually get approved for redevelopment and done.

00:12:59.120 Like, this can't happen.

00:13:00.020 These things need to be able to go through in a very timely way to be able to drive the investment and get these projects going.

00:13:06.340 And so there's big shifts that are needed.

00:13:08.880 Government in British Columbia has come in and said, well, we're just going to force councils to do things a certain way.

00:13:14.220 I'd much rather work with councils and find ways to be able to set the stage so that these decisions become easier and they can get done.

00:13:22.320 Absolutely.

00:13:23.520 Just eliminating red tape in the process would speed things up.

00:13:27.960 But eight years is out of control.

00:13:30.500 We don't need housing eight years from now.

00:13:32.520 We need housing two years in the past.

00:13:35.220 That's right.

00:13:35.580 We need to catch up.

00:13:36.320 Or even ten years in the past when you look at the demand.

00:13:38.500 I mean, especially with our population growth with immigration, it's crazy that we're bringing people in with no place for them to live. 1.00

00:13:45.140 Well, we have no place for them to live.

00:13:46.520 But now we're also bringing in an aggressive amount of foreign students.

00:13:50.820 And I've seen something on your Twitter about this.

00:13:54.640 So you're talking about capping the amount of foreign students that would be admitted into BC schools then.

00:14:02.360 Well, what I'm actually looking at is, you know, Quebec has taken control of its own immigration.

00:14:07.640 I think British Columbia should be doing the same thing.

00:14:10.340 We should be looking at how we control the immigration that comes in to make sure that we're getting the skill sets we need. 0.99

00:14:15.680 We have shortages, of course, in health care, in education.

00:14:19.480 We've got shortages even with truck drivers, right?

00:14:21.820 Let's make sure we're bringing in people with the skill sets that match what we need in our economy.

00:14:26.780 Plus, obviously, room for others to come in.

00:14:28.600 You want to be able to be the land of opportunity, of course.

00:14:31.420 But why don't we take control of that?

00:14:33.760 And if we can't get the same sort of rules as Quebec, maybe we can just do it as 100% through what we call the Provincial Nominee Program.

00:14:39.240 But that also includes students.

00:14:41.620 Many students come into the country to get an education, but also as an opportunity to be able to get a job and maybe have an opportunity to immigrate into Canada.

00:14:53.460 And that's good.

00:14:54.360 I mean, like I say, I'd like us to have that opportunity.

00:14:56.780 But we actually have some facilities that are one-room colleges where students come in, register, and then they go directly into the workforce.

00:15:04.500 And so that's not only abusing the student in terms of coming in, but it's abusing the process and opening up for immigration sort of through a backdoor without the kind of filter and process that should be done.

00:15:17.840 And so I look at that and think we need to have better control of what's going on with that.

00:15:22.140 Absolutely.

00:15:23.320 So, yeah, speaking of health care, I find this, it's not amusing.

00:15:29.200 It's actually, it's terrifying.

00:15:30.240 But the BC NDP has gone one direction and the Alberta UCP has gone an opposite direction, but they are tackling nearly identical issues, especially in rural areas with rotating hospital closures, ERs being shut down, shortage of family physicians pretty much everywhere.

00:15:48.720 You can take the headlines and you can cross out Alberta and write in BC.

00:15:53.020 But the NDP in BC has decided to double down, spend more money, change nothing, and Alberta's gone a different direction.

00:16:01.640 AHS has basically been split up into four different areas.

00:16:05.460 They've picked four different areas of focus, and they're expanding access to family physicians by allowing nurse practitioners to treat in family general practice settings.

00:16:16.640 And they've put an aggressive amount of money into health care and addictions.

00:16:21.460 BC, on the other hand, has gone the safe supply and free crack pipe route.

00:16:28.540 So where would you change that?

00:16:32.720 What exactly, what direction would you go?

00:16:35.380 Well, have we got an hour to cover this?

00:16:37.120 Because it's a big topic.

00:16:38.620 It is.

00:16:38.940 So I'll just touch on a couple of things.

00:16:41.540 First of all, safe supply and decriminalization has been a complete failure.

00:16:45.200 British Columbia now, according to some experts, has the highest level of, highest number of addicts per capita in North America.

00:16:54.040 So clearly what we are doing is not working.

00:16:56.480 It is failing.

00:16:57.260 We need to take a different approach.

00:16:58.720 I like many of the things that Alberta is doing around that.

00:17:01.760 So we need to be looking at this different approach in terms of how we deal with addictions.

00:17:05.300 But when it comes to health care, there was a court case that went through about a year ago, a year and a half ago, where the government essentially was arguing that the system was more and more important than patient suffering.

00:17:19.280 And the worst part is the judge agreed.

00:17:21.980 Like, patient suffering and patient should be the focus of health care.

00:17:26.640 So what we need to do is actually we need to look at our system and think, how do we improve this?

00:17:30.800 How can we how can we change this?

00:17:32.340 And throwing more money is not the answer.

00:17:34.060 There's only one other country in the world, as far as I know, that even comes close to following the health care system we have.

00:17:39.380 And that's North Korea. 0.64

00:17:40.500 And I'm sorry, that's not a model I want to follow.

00:17:42.880 We need to be looking at what Europe's doing and what places like Australia are doing.

00:17:46.540 We need to have a universal health care system that is delivered by both public and private sources.

00:17:51.840 It's the only way that we're going to see the kind of improvements and actually create a better morale in our health care system so that we can attract professionals.

00:17:58.300 So especially the Scandinavian countries, they have a very interesting mix of public-private delivery.

00:18:07.140 And essentially, if the public system is unable to help you within a reasonable amount of time, your public dollars, you then take them to a private clinic and you can get the treatment.

00:18:17.880 And so, you know, Alberta and BC have this weird relationship where all the Albertans have to go to the Canby Clinic to get treatment and all the BC folks, they got to come to Calgary to the different clinics to get surgery.

00:18:29.840 So would you be working with Saskatchewan, Alberta, probably Manitoba at coming up with a plan that, you know, if somebody in BC needs a hip surgery and they can get it done in BC in a private clinic faster, those public dollars, are they going to follow that patient to that clinic?

00:18:47.160 So that's what we're looking at.

00:18:48.860 We're going to actually put together a proposal as part of our platform going into the 2024 election here.

00:18:56.200 That's going to be talking about how we can change and how we can create that kind of a model.

00:19:01.640 Now, we may run afoul with the Canadian Health Act.

00:19:04.600 And so that's something that we're going to have to deal with.

00:19:06.540 And certainly we're going to be looking at partners, people like, you know, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick, right?

00:19:13.660 Any of those sort of provinces that have these same problems that would like to have this change.

00:19:17.840 But the key in doing this is it has to be universal.

00:19:20.820 So it has to be available regardless of where that source is.

00:19:23.980 And we should be using whatever source is available to be able to reduce the wait times for patients.

00:19:30.000 Last year, I think it was the last number I saw, about 17,000 people in Canada died waiting for diagnostic services and surgeries.

00:19:37.720 I'm sorry.

00:19:38.780 That's completely unacceptable.

00:19:41.060 At that rate, just on a population base, and we can't get the numbers in BC because they won't publish them,

00:19:46.180 we're seeing about the same number of people die, if not even more, waiting for diagnostic services and surgeries as are dying from the opioid crisis.

00:19:53.980 And nobody is even talking about it.

00:19:56.160 It's completely unacceptable.

00:19:57.600 Our system's broken.

00:19:58.840 It's in a crisis.

00:19:59.780 We need to be able to be brave enough to have a conversation to say, let's do it differently.

00:20:03.760 Let's improve it.

00:20:04.760 Absolutely.

00:20:05.760 AHS Alberta actually doesn't publish those numbers either.

00:20:08.340 We don't know how many people are actually dying on the waiting list, waiting for treatment.

00:20:13.160 We are just about out of time, but I have one last question.

00:20:15.920 And we've actually seen a party come from third place and win before.

00:20:21.920 Alberta, the NDP did it.

00:20:23.980 Nenshi, when he won as mayor here in Calgary.

00:20:27.620 Right now, I think the last poll I've seen, you guys are sitting in second place.

00:20:32.240 And, you know, how do you carry that momentum into October?

00:20:38.340 Well, obviously, there's a lot of strategy that has to go in around carrying that forward.

00:20:42.640 But people in British Columbia are hungry for change.

00:20:45.020 And what we say is it's not about being conservative or liberal or NDP or green.

00:20:48.700 It's just standing for what's right, fighting for the average everyday person and just being straight up with people.

00:20:53.960 People from across the political spectrum are interested in what we're doing.

00:20:57.580 And we saw a poll before Christmas that showed the Conservative Party in B.C. is actually there's 56 percent of the people in B.C. are considering voting for us, which is a stretch because the last time the Conservative Party in British Columbia formed government was 1927, where the oldest party in B.C.'s history.

00:21:14.760 The last time we even elected anybody was in the 1970s.

00:21:17.720 And so we're coming really completely out of the wilderness on taking the stage here in British Columbia.

00:21:23.040 But we're putting forward a great team.

00:21:24.920 We're going to have a very good strategy and lots of very interesting platform pieces to try to attract that vote in British Columbia.

00:21:32.320 And I think, quite frankly, we have a path to be able to win government in 2024.

00:21:36.340 It's going to be a very interesting year.

00:21:38.080 Yeah, I'm excited for sure.

00:21:39.500 We're definitely going to be paying attention to it at the Western Standard.

00:21:42.080 I know our members are going to be paying attention to it.

00:21:44.180 So where can they find some more information on you, the party, and get your platform before the election?

00:21:50.020 So the best place to go right now is to conservativebc.ca.

00:21:54.980 That is where our candidates are being placed and we're fleshing things out.

00:21:59.240 We've got a lot of ideas on there, but we are obviously holding back exactly what's going to be in the platform.

00:22:04.520 So we can use that for the tools we need to do to attract the attention that we're hoping to be able to have in British Columbia.

00:22:10.300 But it's a good place to come as a starting point to follow and get engaged.

00:22:14.760 For anybody that's in British Columbia that would like to be part of it, please sign up and become a member.

00:22:19.020 Obviously, we're looking for donations, building up the party and that side of things.

00:22:23.300 But I really encourage people to get involved and volunteer.

00:22:26.160 Democracy is made by those who show up.

00:22:28.660 So if people want change, get engaged, get involved, help us bring the kind of change that you want to see in British Columbia.

00:22:35.440 Absolutely.

00:22:36.080 Well, thank you very much for joining us today.

00:22:37.940 I appreciate it.

00:22:38.780 Thank you very much for having me on.

00:22:40.160 Thanks.

Western Standard - January 29, 2024

Conservative Party Leader John Rustad on BC's Carbon Tax Elimination ｜ Exclusive Interview

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