Western Standard - Cory Morgan interviews UCP MLA for Cypress Hills Medicine Hat, Drew Barnes

00:00:00.960 Okay, I'm sitting today with Drew Barnes, who's the UCP MLA for Cypress Medicine Hat. He's one of

00:00:07.840 the remaining original Wild Rosers and he's stayed pretty dedicated to those grassroots principles

00:00:14.560 now even while being in big government in a different sort of seat and role. So it's really

00:00:21.200 been appreciated, Drew. You've been outspoken when we really don't hear a heck of a lot from

00:00:26.880 individual caucus members, unfortunately, on a lot of trying issues right now. I guess I might

00:00:33.280 as well start though, you know, well, thanks for joining me and address the big elephant in the

00:00:38.000 room. It's the COVID restrictions, the pandemic restrictions on small business. You're one of

00:00:42.560 the few who has been at least speaking up saying, hey, we've really got to lighten up on these

00:00:46.880 businesses. We're crushing them. Maybe you can expand a bit on where your stance has been on that lately.

00:00:52.720 Yeah, Corey, thanks. Thanks for what you do and thanks for talking to me today.

00:00:57.360 Yeah, it's clear to me that we need more of a regional approach. You know, first of all,

00:01:04.160 let's start in Cypress Medicine Hat in the southeast part of the province. Yesterday, we're down to 24 cases.

00:01:10.240 Unfortunately, in long-term care by far and away the most. Saskatchewan, right next door, gyms are open.

00:01:21.600 You can have in-person dining and restaurants. And the real sad part, maybe to the main part of this,

00:01:31.840 is we've had a mental health and an economic crisis down here, at least as big as the COVID crisis.

00:01:38.880 So sad about our overdoses and our mental health effects. And, you know, it's created a lot of

00:01:47.920 hardship for families and the people down here. And Corey, the other thing is everywhere you go,

00:01:52.720 people are so respectful. You know, masks are worn, even though it's debatable about the effectiveness,

00:01:59.280 social distancing is everywhere. People are following the rules, you know, as best as people

00:02:06.560 can. And we're in a situation where, you know, like one case in Cypress County,

00:02:12.080 none in 40 Mile County, to my knowledge, 24 in Medicine Hat. So in an area of 400 by 300 miles,

00:02:21.120 you know, and there's not a COVID problem, there's a mental health problem. And secondly,

00:02:26.400 our hospital, by all accounts, our hospital is not overwhelmed, our hospital is not overfilling.

00:02:32.400 You know, for goodness sakes, we've got whole floors empty in the hospital, that something

00:02:37.840 could happen if they had to, we've been in this for 11 months. And it's disappointing that Alberta

00:02:42.800 Health Services hasn't come up with more ways to handle in the event that the hospitals get

00:02:49.440 overwhelmed, which seems to be the main fear. Yeah, we need a regional approach, we need an open

00:02:55.360 approach. Corey, if I can continue, I put out yesterday about South Dakota, that has kept their

00:03:01.920 economy open. And now their unemployment rate is 3%. And possibly this focus on the locking

00:03:12.400 everything down hasn't allowed us to focus on things like Florida has done. I understand in

00:03:17.440 Florida, if you're a long term healthcare worker, you take a five minute rapid blood test, which is 94%

00:03:23.920 effective before you go in to work in the long term care centre. You know, of course, we're hearing

00:03:29.520 here that our tests may be 50% ineffective. You know, and it's, you know, it's, let's open up things,

00:03:38.880 let's engage in our economy, let's have a regional approach. Let's focus on long term care. Thank you.

00:03:44.800 Yeah, well, we know the damage that COVID-19 can do, I mean, for to a vulnerable person, a senior, or some

00:03:52.560 of those even young, healthy one in a million people who get taken down by it. I mean, it's tragic.

00:03:57.840 We want to protect and reduce that as much as possible. But I appreciate you bringing up,

00:04:01.680 there is a cost, people keep talking about the cost of COVID. But they're not talking about the cost of

00:04:06.960 these lockdowns. And those costs are growing. And they're really pressuring people, as you said, with

00:04:11.600 mental health, and financially, I went out yesterday, actually, to a restaurant in Bathsha

00:04:17.920 there. And at a great meal of Mexican food. And their point was, if Walmart can do it, we can do

00:04:28.240 it. You know, they had masks set up at the front door, they had hand sanitizers, the tables were

00:04:33.200 spread out, they're doing everything by the rules. They're not, they are taking it seriously. But they

00:04:37.600 say, Look, we've got to pay our bills, we've got to stay solvent, or we're going to go bankrupt. So it's

00:04:43.520 this selective nature of the lockdowns, which is really frustrating. A lot of people, as we said,

00:04:48.240 you know, I can walk into a crowded Costco, and they are crowded. But I can't go into a small local

00:04:53.520 restaurant and sit down six feet from another patron and eat a meal. So is I know there's been

00:04:58.560 some discussion. Is there some discussion in caucus and government about trying to get some

00:05:03.680 consistency? Or as you said, perhaps regional, you know, implementation?

00:05:08.080 Oh, absolutely. There's there's lots of talk there. There's lots of ideas being looked at.

00:05:13.600 And that's it exactly when Premier Kenney and the government first came out,

00:05:18.960 saying businesses had to be essential versus non essential. He later apologized said safe versus

00:05:24.880 non safe should have been the requirement. And that's exactly where we're at. I can't count the

00:05:30.320 number of people I know, particularly young people, whose lives are totally derailed because of the

00:05:35.520 COVID crisis, who at least we're finding some opportunity to to vent some physical energy or

00:05:42.080 get mental energy in gyms. And now gyms are closed. And as an example, you know,

00:05:48.880 the gym operators I know wipe down consistently keep the social distancing have huge square footage. And

00:05:57.680 and now a lot of these people are meeting on their own and doing their own thing because, you know,

00:06:02.800 physical health is mental health. Social is mental health. And yeah, and then we've seen it too,

00:06:09.760 from, you know, from the traffic's in the malls, to to the big box stores. And again, we're we're in

00:06:16.400 Medicine Hat and Cypress Medicine Hat people are totally respectful everywhere you go. The mask wearing is

00:06:20.960 very, very high. People do everything they can to social distance. And, you know, the again,

00:06:27.440 the yeah, let's make safe the the requirements. I'm seeing what the CFIB put out the other day.

00:06:35.120 40% of businesses in Alberta are closed. I think it was 24% in Saskatchewan are closed.

00:06:41.680 When we look at what governments and utility companies provided for deferrals. Yeah, it was it

00:06:47.440 was something but a short term, you know, 90 day or 180 day deferral on your taxes or your utilities.

00:06:54.480 But at the end of the day, you still have to pay in full. Think of the hardship for for these employers.

00:07:00.080 And Corey, think of the hardship for their employees, people that day in day out show up,

00:07:05.200 work hard, provide us great service, who if there's not revenue there to to pay,

00:07:10.800 this hardship is going to magnify. And yeah, and again, the the economic crisis,

00:07:17.040 the mental health crisis is at least as big as the COVID crisis.

00:07:20.000 Yeah, there's a lot of kicking the can down the road. And as you said, people in retail or gyms or

00:07:27.360 restaurants, these typically aren't high paying positions either. These aren't people who had a

00:07:31.680 lot of savings to fall back on necessarily, they might have been younger people just getting going or,

00:07:36.480 or people who were on fixed incomes, just making some extra money. So this hurts them a heck of a

00:07:40.400 lot more. I think there's a lot of misunderstanding. A lot of people really support the lockdowns are

00:07:44.000 people with stable salaries that aren't directly feeling that don't understand the stress of not

00:07:49.440 knowing how you're going to make your rent or a mortgage payment or just get your kids clothed

00:07:53.520 for school for the year. It's being forgotten. So I appreciate some people bringing it up. And

00:07:59.200 now with the opposition with Rachel Notley though, she's spoken and I kind of agree in a yes or no,

00:08:04.480 yes and no. She's very frustrated with businesses opening, she wants them to remain closed. That's 1.00

00:08:08.960 standard for I guess, that type of ideology. But if the state is going to force a business to stay

00:08:15.440 closed, then that's the one situation where I see the state obligated to at least pad that

00:08:22.320 damage that they've been causing. I'd rather just have the place open because we just can't afford

00:08:26.240 to keep spending like this though. We can't just keep pouring money in and it's just a bandaid solution.

00:08:31.680 So you've spoken recently while you've always been outspoken on getting spending under control,

00:08:36.160 which is a sort of a voice in the wilderness with a massive spending increases on every level of

00:08:41.200 government with this pandemic. How do you feel we can approach getting some spending restraint and

00:08:46.400 control while still dealing with this, this ongoing nightmare?

00:08:49.600 Okay. Well, thanks for that. Yeah, Corey, we absolutely have to, you know, taxes were too high

00:08:55.760 to begin with and governments were running deficits at least as big as the tax revenue they were taking

00:09:02.560 from individuals and individual families. Lots of things we can do. Back up to one of your original

00:09:10.400 points, when the second lockdown hit in Alberta, I know families who husband and wife both got laid

00:09:16.960 off the same day and some of their working and adult children. Can you imagine the hardship of that?

00:09:23.360 You know, what a problem that is. So one of the reasons that I decided a short time ago,

00:09:30.080 excuse me for a sec, to, during the pandemic, I'm donating 20% of my MLA wage to charities. My first

00:09:40.240 one was to the Salvation Army. My second one is going to be the United Way. And one of the reasons for

00:09:45.760 that is exactly what you said. The, the rift between public and private has grown considerably

00:09:52.720 during this. It's a lot of private employees have lost everything, uh, from their businesses to their

00:10:00.560 jobs. Uh, a lot of loss significantly. And, and when, when, you know, all levels of government

00:10:07.680 we're spending too much to begin with, uh, it removes our freedom. It removes our competitiveness

00:10:13.200 and it removes our opportunity to be productive. Uh, Corey, I've said to lots of people in the last

00:10:17.920 while, three of my good friends who have been, been successful here in Southern Alberta have all told me

00:10:24.240 in, in the last two or three months, they are moving their money out of Alberta, out of Canada.

00:10:29.440 And it's because of too much regulation and the fear of, of high taxes. Of course, you know, today

00:10:36.480 we're, we're social media, media, the fact that our CPP premiums are up substantially. Um, and of course,

00:10:44.560 Trudeau announced that about six months ago, Alberta was already sending 3 billion more and collecting

00:10:50.480 less to the rest of Canada. Now this is more money out of Alberta. This is more money out of families

00:10:55.520 and free enterprises pockets, uh, to a CPP fund that I understand if you start investing today, your

00:11:01.680 return might be 2.1%, uh, you know, 20 or 40 years from now. Uh, Corey, we, we lose a lot when money is

00:11:10.480 taken out of families, when money is taken out of free enterprise, when money is taken out of communities.

00:11:15.760 Um, and, and so that's one of the reasons we have to get it, get it in line, but you know, in Alberta,

00:11:22.080 the, the most often talked about thing is the fact that per capita, we spend 20% more per capita than,

00:11:28.720 than other big provinces like British Columbia and Ontario. Um, do we get value for that 20%? Uh,

00:11:35.680 a lot of the studies show we don't. And as a conservative, I believe in choice, let families

00:11:41.040 and communities keep more of their own money so they can decide where it goes.

00:11:44.320 Not so much appreciated. And that plays into something that is difficult. Your government

00:11:50.080 can't do much about, uh, in, in one sense is the Ottawa, that there's our big, uh, a problem and,

00:11:56.080 and hindrance. And now some of it's mixed. I've been very critical. I got to admit, I'm not too

00:12:00.240 thrilled. And I wasn't, and I did actually speak with premier Kenny on that a couple of months ago in

00:12:04.240 an interview with our tax dollars going into the Keystone line. Uh, I don't like seeing tax investment

00:12:10.240 in businesses. And unfortunately, as we see it, it tends to seem to blow up no matter what. It's

00:12:14.800 almost like it curses it. But I mean, part of our problem too. And a part of, uh, of premier

00:12:19.600 Kenny's response was that, well, Canada is so, uh, uneconomical right now, we can't get private

00:12:25.120 investment to get these projects done. Thus the government's forced to. So this is a huge problem,

00:12:30.000 though. I don't want government to keep getting into it. We've got to get government out of things.

00:12:34.160 And Ottawa has no interest in getting out of things. So we've struck the fair deal panel,

00:12:38.160 and there's been a number of recommendations. Uh, we're all getting kind of frustrated on

00:12:42.080 waiting to see some action on these. It seems that we talked to talk to come with a conclusion

00:12:45.360 to talk about some more and we're getting sick of talking. Uh, where do you think things are going

00:12:49.040 with, uh, some of that with, uh, the police force and such? Yeah. Thanks Corey. Uh, yeah. Like

00:12:54.640 corporate welfare government using your tax dollars, uh, the $1.5 billion that, uh, premier Kenny put into

00:13:02.000 the TC pipeline. Keystone is in great jeopardy now. Let's not forget that, uh, Rachel Notley and her

00:13:08.800 oil by rail, um, was another $2 billion loss that, uh, the NDP had just put us in. Let's not forget

00:13:16.000 that the progressive conservative started the sturgeon red water upgrader, which I think was

00:13:21.120 just a $5 billion right down on, on last year's budget. Uh, and some economists are estimating this

00:13:27.440 could be a $26 billion loss to Alberta families before it said and done. Corey, it doesn't work.

00:13:33.520 You're, you're, you're so right. Um, and then the fair deal panel, um, you know, like I was so

00:13:40.320 pleased that I had the opportunity to listen to hundreds of Albertans say what they said. And 80%

00:13:46.640 said we're not getting a fair deal and they want to take the risk. They have the courage to push Ottawa

00:13:53.120 for a fair deal. And, and I said, there has to be consequences and that consequences includes that

00:13:58.640 if Ottawa doesn't give us a fair deal someday, we have to have, have a referendum on independence.

00:14:04.640 Um, and at this point, you know, it's been a year since the fair deal. It's been 20 years since,

00:14:11.120 uh, Tom Flanagan, Ken Buzigal, Andy Crooks, uh, Steven Harper first penned the fair deal,

00:14:19.040 the firewall letter rather saying that we should have Alberta should build its own,

00:14:23.360 its own infrastructure, its own pension plan, its plan, its own police force,

00:14:27.520 its own tax collection, its own more, more control over immigration. And it just hasn't been done.

00:14:33.120 And, and it's time to push back. Um, I think Premier Kenny at this point has, has put out, uh,

00:14:39.280 applications for a chief firearms officer. That's a start. Corey, I think we should go one

00:14:44.800 further and let permit holders elect their chief firearms officer, somebody who will be directly

00:14:49.840 accountable to the needs and the wants and the ideas of Albertans. Um, we have a $2 million study

00:14:57.040 going on right now to look at our own police force. Uh, again, I, I understand that, uh, the cost of

00:15:03.120 policing, uh, through union negotiations and that kind of thing is about to rise substantially for the

00:15:09.760 RCMP. Uh, so if that's the case, that's going to make any subsidy we get from Ottawa and jeopardy.

00:15:16.000 Anyway, you know, my goodness, Corey, Ottawa's $430 billion deficit this year is going to put

00:15:21.760 everything in jeopardy. So, so, so let's Alberti be strong and rural crime. We could talk forever

00:15:27.440 about the problems of rural crime. Uh, I was in a community, uh, a year ago during the fair deal

00:15:33.280 and that night, 17 pickups were stolen, 17 pickups. Like, like, are you kidding me? Um, and anyway,

00:15:40.720 so, so that needs addressing that needs more accountability and more responsiveness to the

00:15:45.360 people of Alberta, which means the premier and the cabinet of Alberta. Um, yeah. So,

00:15:50.720 so we absolutely have to put Ottawa on notice that we need resource movement. Uh, and that includes

00:15:56.000 energy East that includes Northern gateway, uh, probably Eagle spirit. Uh, so, so we can be

00:16:02.720 productive and we can grow. Um, we need, uh, we need Ottawa to understand clearly that, uh, 25 billion a

00:16:10.000 year in transfers out of Alberta is not going to continue. We also need some constitutional changes.

00:16:15.360 Uh, the number of people that went to the mic during the fair deal, Corey, that are so frustrated

00:16:19.760 that we don't have a Senate that, that can counterbalance so frustrated that the elections

00:16:24.160 are decided long before Albertan votes are even counted. And, uh, we see it every day where the

00:16:30.080 liberals and the conservative party of Canada play to the, the bigger population bases in, in,

00:16:36.080 in Eastern Canada. And, and that's not how you protect individual rights. That's not how you

00:16:40.640 protect families and free enterprise. Yeah. Well, it's, it's a whole lot to unpack. And again,

00:16:47.120 I mean, we're, we're in agreement on it. So, I mean, I think, and I think most Albertans are in

00:16:50.880 agreement on it. What we're looking for now is we just want to see some actual movement on it.

00:16:55.600 Uh, I, I hope to see it. I, you've been an active voice, uh, inside and outside of caucus,

00:17:00.000 uh, trying to get the gears turning on this. I appreciate that and, and, uh, hope you, you carry on

00:17:06.000 with it. So, uh, where can people, uh, keep an eye on you and your activities outside of, you know,

00:17:10.400 just, uh, the direct channels of media there? Okay. Well, yeah, absolutely. Um, through,

00:17:15.600 through the social media, uh, through Facebook and Twitter, uh, through Instagram, uh, or you can

00:17:21.440 email me at any time at drew.barns at assembly.ab.ca. I I'd love to, to converse. I'd love to hear your

00:17:29.280 ideas to make Alberta the freest, most prosperous place in the whole world. We have the people,

00:17:35.120 we have the resources, you know, we're risk takers. We're, we're creative. Uh, we, we,

00:17:40.640 we can get that job done. Uh, there's a lot of work ahead, Corey, but, but as you're alluding to,

00:17:45.360 Albertans have been woken up like never before. Uh, Albertans know that nothing's going to change

00:17:50.400 unless it's pushed. And, um, every day I hear it in Alberta in Cyprus medicine hat that, uh, they're

00:17:57.040 more frustrated, but they're, they've risen to the challenge and, and they want change.

00:18:01.840 Great. Well, thank you very much, Drew. I hope we can, uh, check in again down the road here and

00:18:07.040 have another talk and, uh, maybe we'll have some, uh, progress updates to report at that time and see

00:18:12.240 how things are going. Sounds great, Corey. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thanks.

Western Standard - January 28, 2021

Cory Morgan interviews UCP MLA for Cypress Hills Medicine Hat, Drew Barnes

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