In this episode of the Western Standard, I'm joined by Michael Binion, the founder of the Modern Miracle Network, an energy advocacy group, to talk about the government's immigration policies and the impact they are having on the housing shortage and homelessness crisis.
00:00:30.000Good day. Welcome to the Cory Morgan Show. This is my weekly platform with the Western Standard out there on the Cowboy Network and RFDTV and all those good spots.
00:00:42.440We broadcast live for those who are following the live version. Hey, take advantage of that comment scroll there. I see Brandon already jumping into the mix talking about things on the upcoming show. I like hearing the feedback. I like having that communication. It lets me know you're out there.
00:01:00.000Just remember to keep things civil, of course. There's Stuart saying good day, good day to Stuart. And yes, I've got a good show ahead today with a lot of rants, of course, and news items and a good guest coming up.
00:01:13.500So I've got Michael Binion. People may be familiar with him. He's the head of Quest Air Energy and he founded the Modern Miracle Network. I know it sounds almost like an evangelical sort of thing, but actually, no, it's an energy activism group, I guess you could say, in a sense.
00:01:27.560We want to talk about subsidies and oil. Are they really subsidized? Are we really, you know, Gilboa made all that virtue signaling. We're going to cut the oil subsidies. Pardon me. But where are these subsidies? What are these subsidies? So Mr. Binion will certainly have some answers for us as well.
00:01:45.720Of course, we'll be checking in with Dave with the news and doing a whole number of other things. I'm going to remind a couple of times to this show, though.
00:01:53.060Meta has started. They are blocking links to news sites online. And you won't be able to see Western Standard stories and things like that.
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00:02:18.080Thanks to Trudeau's latest idiocy. And I'll rant more on that a little bit later. But I just want to remind people a couple of times because they're forgetting where they first found our news, perhaps need to be reminded.
00:02:27.560So back to what Brandon said. He said, it's getting bad out there, too many immigrants. Okay. Well, I don't think there's too many, but I think we're, well, there's too many for what we have to sustain the level of immigration.
00:02:39.620And that's the problem. So I'm going to start talking about that because I'm pretty, very concerned about what's going on.
00:02:48.200So are you ready to be forced to take strangers into your home? I know that sounds unbelievable.
00:02:53.240But then most of us never would have believed the government would have locked the country down for years over a virus, either, would they?
00:02:58.980Canada's marching towards a national catastrophe as the government's refusing to even consider reducing the immigration numbers while our housing construction lags.
00:03:08.080This isn't a matter of my opinion. This is just simple math.
00:03:11.220The government plans to bring in nearly 1.5 million immigrants into Canada in the next three years.
00:03:16.640While we're expecting to construct about 700,000 new housing units over that period.
00:03:21.080So where on earth does the government think we're going to put all these new Canadians?
00:03:25.540I mean, Canada's a winter country. It's not as if we could set up massive tent camps to hold the immigrants for a few years while we figure out what to do with them.
00:03:33.400People need shelter with solid walls and heat for six months of the year.
00:03:37.440So what's the plan? We're going to house the immigrants in community halls and gymnasiums?
00:03:42.840That won't be sustainable for terribly long.
00:03:45.400I mean, again, the immigrants aren't necessarily coming in destitute.
00:03:48.260Many have funds, and they're going to be finding homes in the existing market.
00:03:52.140But that, of course, will push rents higher and purchase prices for homes higher.
00:03:56.620And Canada's already experiencing a housing affordability crisis.
00:04:00.840Then there's the health care shortage.
00:04:02.600Everybody's already having a hard time finding a family, doctor.
00:04:05.720The lineups for specialty treatments are, you know, people are suffering.
00:04:09.600Well, how is bringing millions of new Canadians in going to impact the health care availability and services in years to come?
00:04:15.400Now, what it's going to lead to, unfortunately, is tensions between current Canadians and new immigrants
00:04:20.740as citizens find themselves pushed into possibly homelessness by the surge in immigration.
00:04:25.960And that's not fair to the immigrants who are just simply seeking a new life or a home.
00:04:29.680But let's not pretend that this isn't going to happen.
00:04:32.260The ire, of course, should be directed at the legislators who refuse to back down on the ridiculous immigration targets.
00:04:37.420So why is the government so hung up on bringing in millions of people when we clearly don't have the infrastructure and services to handle them?
00:04:44.840Well, the Trudeau government's created a budgetary pyramid scheme or even a Ponzi scheme.
00:04:50.020You see, with the massive increases in deficit spending, the government needs to try and pump the economy through your immigration or it's going to crash.
00:04:57.080It's an artificial way to buy prosperity.
00:04:59.680But like any pyramid scheme, eventually the bottom becomes too wide.
00:05:03.080You can't keep widening it and it won't sustain it and the structure is going to collapse.
00:05:06.120I think most of these top decision makers are hoping and assuming they'll have retreated to their retirement destinations before it all falls apart.
00:05:13.420It's pretty cold comfort for us commoners, however.
00:05:16.400The push, though, when I get back to what I asked to start with, to force citizens to rent out rooms in their homes, it will start.
00:05:22.940And it's going to start as a soft sell.
00:05:26.340In Nova Scotia, their housing minister pointed out that there's 130,000 vacant bedrooms across that province that could be rented out to ease the housing crisis.
00:05:38.580It's troublesome on a couple of fronts.
00:05:40.460I mean, for one, how does he know how many vacant bedrooms the province has?
00:05:43.660Well, remember all those questions that seem so intrusive on the census form and they ask you about how many bathrooms you had and such?
00:05:51.000Well, now you see the sort of thing that information gets used to.
00:05:53.460You can also see why, not just why they wanted to know, but why you probably shouldn't have cooperated with the census.
00:05:59.600The other issue is we have a senior government official looking at those, as for now, spare rooms with an eye to compelling people to rent them out.
00:06:07.920So we know the progression of government when they do these things.
00:06:10.740The next step is going to be shaming people.
00:06:12.760People with large houses or empty nesters with spare bedrooms are going to be called selfish if they don't rent those routes out, rent those rooms out.
00:06:21.140The politics of envy will come into play.
00:06:23.340And the government's going to demand homeowners do their fair share.
00:06:49.320In the UK, there's already what they call an empty bedroom tax.
00:06:52.340And Canadians on social media are already hinting that that might be a good idea here.
00:06:56.440Let's just call it what it is, though.
00:06:57.540It's a fine for those daring not to help the government with the immigration catastrophe it has created.
00:07:03.340So even with the social ostracization and the extratization, though, there's still people aren't going to comply.
00:07:08.440If they wanted to rent their spare rooms to strangers, they already would have.
00:07:12.280So then as tensions escalate across the nation due to growing homelessness, clashes between immigrants and citizens, the government will use its trump card.
00:07:22.720Then they can suspend civil rights, and people can be compelled to open their doors through the threat and seizure of things like their bank accounts or possibly even their property itself.
00:07:32.740It'll be for the public good, though, of course, right?
00:10:15.620You remember all of the fallout from Chinese interference in the election and Chinese police stations being set up in Toronto and Vancouver.
00:10:24.320It turns out since the start of the year, one quarter of the Chinese diplomats in Toronto have quietly left the country.
00:10:32.900You know, things that make you go, hmm.
00:10:35.840Dramatic scenes in Hawaii today, Corey, where wildfires are running amok over Maui.
00:10:42.240You don't think of the Hawaiian Islands being a tinderbox, but apparently Maui is.
00:10:48.040And the Coast Guard is having to rescue people because the flames have forced them into the ocean.
00:10:53.920So there's some dramatic video for you to look at there.
00:10:58.760We had a tragedy in downtown Calgary this morning, Corey, when a woman was killed by the LRT station crossing at Centre Street.
00:11:07.720A young Jonathan Bradley was sent to the scene and his report on what happened and what the police are doing about it is there.
00:11:16.860Downtown Calgary, the LRT is going to be shut for several hours as police investigate.
00:11:23.680The TransCanada Pipeline, it looks like the feds are trying to sell some of it to the local First Nations along the route.
00:11:30.880They're offering them basically free money or risk-free money if they want to try and invest.
00:11:37.980And we've got Dr. Barry Cooper, University of Calgary wizard, pitching in his thoughts on the lawsuit last week,
00:11:47.660which ruled that Deanna Hinshaw's public health orders, emergency orders, were in valid.
00:11:54.880So that's an interesting read from Dr. Cooper.
00:11:57.760Sure. And just to come, Corey, we've got another story on, you know, mind-numbingly, head-shaking local government waste.
00:12:06.740They're spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to set up a goose farm on Hudson's Bay.
00:12:12.860A goose farm. I mean, you go put a fence around Princess Island Park in Calgary and get, you know, thousands of geese trapped there.
00:12:21.760It just boggles the mind. But even I'm looking forward to reading that story, Corey.
00:12:26.840Yeah, it's an interesting one. I had a look at that.
00:12:29.760And they never seem to cease to find ways to spend our money on crazy ventures.
00:12:37.280All right. Well, thanks for the update, Dave.
00:12:39.680I'll let you get back to curating more of that news.
00:12:43.560And, yeah, you know, if that plant blossoms and continues as it does, perhaps I'll bring a bunch by the office for everybody to sample quality down the road.
00:12:51.100Well, we can all go out and do it at your place and stay in your Airbnb.
00:12:55.500There you go. All right. Thanks, Dave.
00:13:06.500And it has just gotten a great deal harder for some people to find us.
00:13:10.760There's a lot of confusion about how that worked, what it was about with Meta, you know, now Facebook and Instagram, blocking news content on their site.
00:13:20.200People saying, who cares? I didn't want to read my stuff on social media anyways, blah, blah, blah.
00:13:44.020If anything, they were doing us a service.
00:13:46.580Now, unfortunately, due to the failed shakedown of those social media giants through C18, Meta is basically teaching the government a lesson and saying, well, we're just not going to share the links.
00:13:57.840You say we were stealing content from media.
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00:14:54.320Hopefully, they will repeal that odious bill soon.
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00:15:23.020So, OK, with that out of the way, and it kind of segues in a nice way, I want to talk about subsidies.
00:15:27.960I want to talk about what I think is a bit of a myth when it comes to subsidies, but perhaps we'll get some more clarity on it.
00:15:33.540Because recently, Minister Stephen Gilboa has said he's going to end all the subsidies going to the oil and gas industry.
00:15:41.320You know, they always make it out to sound like Canadians have been shoring up the oil and gas industry all this time, you know, particularly central Canadians, of course.
00:15:49.720But nobody can exactly explain what those subsidies are.
00:15:52.140Sure. So we've got Michael Binion coming on the show.
00:15:55.060As I said, he's the head of Quest Air Energy and, of course, the Modern Miracle Network.
00:15:59.700And he's worked on these things in the energy sector for a long time.
00:16:03.280And hopefully he can clarify some of these things for us.
00:16:05.900So hi, Michael. Thank you very much for joining us today.
00:16:08.680Hi, Corey. Thanks. I appreciate you inviting me.
00:16:10.580Yeah. So you kind of heard in the intro, like where I want to start with this, at least anyways.
00:16:17.100I mean, if I don't care for corporate welfare, I don't like seeing the tax dollars going out to businesses if they aren't viable.
00:16:25.180You can say, well, look, here's this many millions went to Bombardier or here's this much went over to this agricultural facility over there.
00:16:32.500But I can't find these checks that were going to the oil and gas companies.
00:16:36.880Yeah. Well, when people mention that to me, I always say, well, could you just please tell me where I could apply?
00:16:42.040Because I would love to get one of them if I could, you know.
00:16:44.300And, of course, I don't really mean that because as former head of the Canadian Tax or chair of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation,
00:16:49.540I'm completely against this corporate welfare as well.
00:16:51.900So I'm all for getting rid of these subsidies.
00:16:55.960But and I can probably find you a couple of them that do exist, but certainly nothing like what they portray and nothing like getting $16 billion to build a battery factory, for example,
00:17:09.760where there's direct checks and production subsidies being given directly.
00:17:13.140So I think what I what I said about the Stephen Gilboa announcement was it's literally trying to kill a dead horse like we we got rid of the subsidies and we're just going to announce over and over again that we're getting rid of the subsidies.
00:17:27.540And and great, you're successful every time because you got rid of them years ago.
00:17:31.960Right. I think the other thing is that gets missed in that conversation is just the net the net tax and royalty revenues that the industry is giving into governments.
00:17:43.140Which which which as well as well should when you're making money.
00:17:46.300But the you know, that the you know, this idea that somehow it's a subsidized industry when in fact it's it's the the industry is the the main net provider of foreign exchange to the country.
00:17:58.700And we're one of the largest providers of of government revenue.
00:18:04.580I mean, so with these subsidies having vanished, we didn't see a, you know, flood of oil companies suddenly going under or fleeing the country because because they weren't getting them in the first place.
00:18:14.960Yeah. And if you want to get into sort of some details, I mean, I'm sure.
00:18:19.560Well, the worst example is is is one report that said, you know, the having to send out police or security to the site of a of a protest, you know, at a pipeline or whatever.
00:18:34.520Well, that's a subsidy, you know, because the government's having to pay to protect your asset was the was was the line.
00:18:41.160So there's the there's the type of example of where these subsidies come from.
00:18:44.300It's it's really by redefining the word and, you know, and I don't think that the average person would think that, you know, police protection of property would be considered to be a subsidy.
00:18:58.520And by the way, it's not like the police don't protect other people's property, too.
00:19:02.260So it feels like that would be a level playing field.
00:19:06.300I've seen a lot of people talk about that.
00:19:07.860The TMX pipeline is an example of the government subsidizing the industry.
00:19:11.520I mean, I, I personally find that so objectionable because the last thing, most, not all people, but certainly most people in the industry, the last thing we wanted to see was the government take over the management of constructing that pipeline.
00:19:27.420But, you know, their their own policies chased away the private sector proponent.
00:19:32.520And I think the government felt they had no choice but to step in because there was there was nobody, nobody, nobody to run it.
00:19:38.980But, but, but that, that, that, you know, unfair to me to call that a subsidy when nobody wanted it.
00:19:45.400The other one, the other one that I think is that that I would say is that there are growing subsidies and of interest.
00:19:52.640Stephen Gilbo noted that, you know, we continue to support projects that create indigenous involvement.
00:20:01.360Um, so there's a, you know, I think we, we could probably all agree that, um, that first nations poverty is a, is a, is a major social issue in this country and, and the government continues or even adds to programs that would, that would help that.
00:20:17.280Uh, he, they also, he was announcing additional, additional programs to help with decarbonization emissions reduction.
00:20:24.020So the, you know, out of, out of one side of his mouth, he says, we're eliminating subsidies for the oil and gas industry that were already eliminated.
00:20:31.560And then on the other says, oh, by the way, we're going to continue to support, or maybe give a bit more support for things like carbon emissions reduction or in, in indigenous involvement in, in, in jobs and equity in the industry.
00:20:46.620So, um, my, my, my, my, my sense was that to cover, that they were actually giving out some more money to help indigenous people.
00:20:56.260And, and I'm sure, you know, this may, maybe not everybody who's listening knows this, but every, you know, the, the oil and gas industry has been by far the best industry for providing jobs to indigenous people.
00:21:06.720And, and, and also the best at, uh, at gender parity, uh, in, in terms of jobs for women and men.
00:21:13.220And so, um, you know, you, the, our industry getting help to do that, um, as they're announcing that he wanted to say, oh yeah, well, don't forget we're getting rid of those other subsidies.
00:21:25.720Well, and, and I mean, it's, it's, it gets convoluted as you said, as you start and how you're going to define what's a subsidy then, uh, an area that a lot of people aren't necessarily familiar with, but I think some of those numbers get pulled out of that with claims of subsidies as well as, is like the tax deferral for capital investments in the oil sands.
00:21:41.920Uh, but I mean, I, I, you, if you go on a real stretch, you can say that's a benefit the government's offering, but I wouldn't call it a subsidy.
00:21:50.580Well, I think that's, that's what they, I mean, these international report, there was a report a few years ago that got a lot of play about how many billions of dollars worldwide were given to the industry.
00:22:00.320But, you know, I, I took time to read that report and it was, it, it, it redefined what I think the layman thinks of subsidies.
00:22:07.440I mean, I would say for, for the average person, a subsidy is the government actually writes you a check or the government gives you a, you know, everybody else is paying 40% tax, but you're only, you know, but you're going to get no, you're going to get zero tax for five years.
00:22:23.220I think the average person thinks those are subsidies, things like, uh, I went and bought some equipment and I was allowed to write it off.
00:22:31.700Most people don't think that's a subsidy.
00:22:33.540And by the way, what industry doesn't get to write off its capital investment over time and things like, you know, police protection of your property and, uh, the government, the government having to rescue a pipeline that they themselves torpedoed.
00:22:46.700Most people wouldn't consider those to be subsidies, but, but these reports, um, they consider it subsidy.
00:22:53.040The other, the other thing that reports did was, you know, they, they made their own assessment of what royalty should be.
00:23:02.660And if your royalties weren't at what the UN said they should be, well, that was another subsidy.
00:23:06.680And it didn't really take into account that profit margins on oil sands is less than profit margins on natural gas, which is less than profit margins on light oil.
00:23:15.460And so it, in Alberta, it makes sense that we, we have different royalties for different types of products.
00:23:23.140Uh, but that was another thing they called a subsidy.
00:23:26.400They, they start to really stretch up one area though, that, uh, uh, you know, maybe there's a bit of merit in a sense.
00:23:33.360I think it was perhaps due to some bad policy historically, a number of things that there are a large number of, uh, orphaned and abandoned facilities that need reclamation and tax dollars have been dedicated towards that.
00:23:44.060Now that's not, uh, the, the, the thing is the companies that left that are often gone.
00:23:47.680So it's not like a subsidy is gone to that company, but there are tax dollars going to a remediation that, uh, that, that came from that industry in the first place.
00:23:57.040Well, I would say in, in all honesty, there's the one, one place where I would say that there was a subsidy that, and I, and I disagree with it, uh, was during COVID.
00:24:06.880The Alberta government said, Hey, the industry is in real trouble.
00:24:14.620I mean, there's, there was that one day where oil actually sold for less than zero.
00:24:18.900Um, and so, you know, I, I think every company during the height of the COVID crisis, which was also a energy, you know, an energy crisis and an economic crisis.
00:24:28.900You know, I think there was a sense that I, I know me leading my company, I said, well, I, I, I don't know how I got maybe six to 12 months.
00:24:37.100So, uh, during that time, the government was saying, Hey, like, like every other industry that you're giving all these supports to the airline industry and others, could we have some support for the oil and gas industry?
00:24:49.200And what they were, what we were mainly asking for was just some liquidity support to make sure that our banks didn't call our lines in the middle of the, of the, of the, of the crisis.
00:24:59.080What the government gave instead, and this was, I think, more a federal government decision, not a Alberta government request, said, well, we'll give you some money for well reclamation.
00:25:22.760It didn't help the problem we were looking for.
00:25:24.600And in the end, uh, I, I think for, for, for my, and I, and I won't, not everybody in the industry is going to agree with me on this point, but, but I, I think that it is bad for our, you know, our reputation as an industry, as responsible, as a responsible industry, responsible companies.
00:25:42.920Uh, I, I don't think we should take any subsidies to clean up our wells.
00:25:47.100And to the extent companies go bankrupt, we have a industry funded orphan well program, and I think the industry needs to be responsible to keep it funded.
00:25:55.520So that, that's, that's my, that's my strong view.
00:25:58.640Not everybody agrees with me, as you can imagine, but so I guess I would say from my perspective, I think there was a subsidy there.
00:26:07.480It wasn't what I asked for my company and it didn't come in time to help me.
00:26:11.040Um, yeah, and, and again, it's certainly, if you're gonna look at the scale of subsidies or what's going on, I mean, it doesn't equate a $15 billion battery plant or, or something like that, that, that, that subsidy, I'm just saying it could fairly be called such, I guess, was still pretty minor in the, in the scheme of things.
00:26:26.000It was one, yeah, it was one, it was $1.5 million, I think, relative to the industry size and the economy, the industry got less than, um, less than, you know, proportionately less than a lot, if not most industries got during the COVID crisis.
00:26:41.680Um, and as I said, it didn't even come, it didn't even come in time to help us with the COVID crisis.
00:26:46.340Well, with a lot of, I mean, the, the issues of the energy sector, it's not a matter of needing capital or needing subsidies.
00:26:51.720They just need a government to get out of the darn way.
00:26:53.620But, but that's something this government doesn't seem to be interested in.
00:26:57.560I mean, that's the catastrophe with the Trans Mountain.
00:26:59.580That, that could have been completed, I think, by private dollars if the government had just lightened up on, on regulation.
00:27:05.940But they would rather, at this point, it looks like getting up to $30 billion and climbing, um, turn it into a compounding mess than, uh, admit that maybe some deregulation was in order.
00:27:17.640And I, and I do feel that there's a little bit of a misdirection going on here.
00:27:20.620I mean, if you want to look, step back and look, I mean, all the way back to the McKenzie Delta pipeline, where, uh, private sector was willing to put up, uh, billions of dollars, $8 billion in those dollars.
00:27:31.020So that's going to be 20, 30 billion in today's dollars to open up, uh, like America has opened up.
00:27:37.040Alaska would have opened up our Canadian North to, to oil and gas, uh, all financed by private sector.
00:27:43.880The Northern gateway private sector was killed.
00:27:46.460The energy East private sector, that was a $16 billion offer.
00:27:50.800Uh, you know, these are all high paid jobs.
00:27:53.420They they're there and they're all private sector funded jobs.
00:27:57.500And so we have this strange LNG plants that have been turned down, all private sector money, wanting to create, wanting to create jobs in the LNG sector that will reduce global emissions by replacing dirty or fuels internationally.
00:28:22.280So, I mean, uh, getting to the, you know, as we kind of wrap up, I mean, a lot of it, you could tell that, I mean, Gilboa, whatever he is, it isn't stupid.
00:28:28.720It's a public relations battle going on.
00:28:31.200He wants to keep the myth alive that the average taxpayer is actually holding, uh, you know, shoring up the energy sector and the energy sector is a net loser for the country.
00:28:40.340Uh, that's part of why you've named your, your, your organization, Modern Miracle Network.
00:28:44.020I mean, you know, celebrating the benefits that, uh, the hydrocarbon industry has brought to us.
00:28:50.280And I guess it's that back and forth, you know, I appreciate your defending an industry that's done us this much good as we have an ideological government that's trying so hard to mischaracterize it.
00:28:59.820And I don't, I don't discount for a moment that there are been negative environmental impacts from our industry.
00:29:06.160The, the, our organization, Modern Miracle Network is to remind people, but it's also literally had, you know, created the miracle of modern society, you know, and, and so let's not, let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
00:29:20.140Uh, we can, we can reduce the impacts of our industry with new technology and we are.
00:29:26.540So why, why give away these benefits that have had been such enormous, enormous impacts on life expectancy and infant mortality and education and equality and all the, all the, and, you know, leisure time, all the things that we just take for granted today.
00:29:42.020Let's keep those benefits, but, but, but work on the impacts.
00:29:46.040And, and, and, and by the way, I'm a, I'm a big proponent, wind, solar alternatives.
00:29:49.700We, we need all of our energy choices.
00:29:51.940It doesn't make any sense at all as a society to put all our energy, like, why would you ever put everything in one basket?
00:29:59.500You can, you, you know, you can be at risk, you put your society at risk doing that.
00:30:04.140Um, but let's not forget that these other energy, uh, sources, well, you know, they have enormous impacts and, you know, I say that, uh, wind and solar have had better work on their problems with land, you know, too much land use, too much materials use, and they better fix those problems too.
00:30:20.560Cause we're going to need those energy sources in the future.
00:30:24.220Well, and again, I mean, it's unfortunately turned a lot into an either or discussion when it comes to those energy sources and it really shouldn't be.
00:30:30.380I mean, they can compliment each other.
00:30:32.660But we need all of our energy sources and we should be applying, like, we just got to get away from these 20th century ideas that, you know, moratoriums and taxes and subsidies are, you know, with big government central planning is going to fix anything.
00:30:47.380We need to do what United States is doing, turn your climate, uh, you know, carbon pricing into a, into carrots, more carrots and not so many sticks, turn carbon into a business opportunity and let the private, unleash the private sector.
00:31:02.440To solve these problems and I, I think you can, I think you're going to see dramatic improvements in America as they've rolled out this, this policy that, that turns carbon into a business opportunity with carrots.
00:31:14.100And Canada, as long as we stick with, um, um, centrally planned solutions.
00:31:19.760And by the way, Stephen Gilboa is a very smart guy.
00:31:21.860I mean, he's very knowledgeable, but he's, but he's got a point of view and he's got an ideology and he wants to impose his smart solution on all of us.
00:31:30.180Uh, whereas in America, they've gone and said, well, let's, let's let the market, uh, find the best solutions and let the best solutions win as opposed to pick them.
00:32:06.580And yes, the, uh, his group is a, the modern miracle network and he's with quest air energy and it's just so much, you know, mythology.
00:32:13.480I mean, that those checks aren't going out like that.
00:32:16.540I, I, you know, part of the problem with that, uh, modern miracle network, like I said before, is people mistake it for some sort of evangelical thing.
00:32:22.980It's not, it has that sort of sound or something like that.
00:32:25.600The reason he named it such as he said on there as well, is that it's, it's kind of a modern miracle.
00:32:31.580We wouldn't be sitting as comfortably today, not even close without hydrocarbons.
00:32:36.460I mean, look at the evolution of technology and where it's gone.
00:32:39.820Every medicine, computers, it's all is completely dependent on energy.
00:32:44.900And I mean, it went all the way back to, you know, hand driven and animal driven machinery was coming about for hundreds and hundreds of years.
00:32:52.880That was evolving even through the middle ages, things like that.
00:32:56.100The steam engine changed all that around, right?
00:32:57.900The industrial revolution, holy cow, we can generate energy with something other than people or animals.
00:33:04.060This is a big turning point, something bigger than a water wheel.
00:33:07.360And then of course, the leap into hydrocarbons.
00:33:11.140I mean, that was a massive leap that brought us the ability for everything from settling the North to, to medicine, to transportation.
00:33:20.520There is no way without hydrocarbons we would be doing as well as we are around the entire world today.
00:34:06.100And that's part of why I think it's hard to ration on that one.
00:34:10.620But when the Smith government in Alberta tapped the brakes on approvals for renewable energy projects.
00:34:15.940Now, again, the left has gone bananas, but guess what?
00:34:19.100The left is going to go bananas on Premier Smith, no matter what she does, ever.
00:34:25.200And that includes the legacy media, the same parasites who support things like stealing money from Facebook and other areas to try and subsidize their industry.
00:36:55.540But what we need also, though, is reliable energy.
00:36:58.700We need a grid that you can have even if the weather isn't cooperating.
00:37:01.660And solar and wind don't contribute when the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow.
00:37:06.920So we still need, and that's what Premier Smith was talking about, basically for every bit that we bring on stream, that solar and wind, it still has to be backed up or matched by something reliable, whether it's nuclear, natural gas, or even coal.
00:38:00.000You were born in the period of human history when oil and gas were providing you all of this prosperity and comfort and extended lifespans and modern medicine.
00:38:09.020So let's hope these battles keep up because the thing is, again, with all of Gilbo's talk, if the energy industry was so dependent on subsidies, well, they would have bailed out as soon as he said he was ending them.
00:39:37.240Two in Edmonton alone, Arthur is always on top of that stuff up there, two violent sexual offenders have been released among the public who are both considered high risks to re-offend.
00:39:50.240And the police are warning us basically one of them again was released four years ago, and they warned us then, saying he's a high risk to re-offend.
00:40:14.040And, you know, you see, the problem is when you get a government that takes a policy and screws it up dramatically, you can ruin a good policy because you implemented it wrong.
00:40:22.960I believe it was California that did that, and they love screwing up policy down there.
00:40:25.740They brought in a three strikes law, but the problem is they let it encompass everything.
00:40:29.320So somebody who gets three convictions for shoplifting is suddenly getting a 20-year sentence, and then they overcrowded their prisons.
00:41:37.580They're in and out of the courts chronically.
00:41:39.040Don't try to tell me it's cheaper to release those chronic, violent, nasty people into the public, the innocent public, and then keep re-arresting them.
00:41:48.380Don't try and tell me that's cheaper than just taking them and saying, you know what?
00:41:51.260You have raped the third person in your life.
00:41:53.140You're going to go away until you die of old age in prison.
00:42:01.360Likewise, armed robbers, people who assault people.
00:42:05.080Again, there's one more commonality you see with these.
00:42:07.960I'm not going to go into the whole side rant, but if anybody's interested, look up the GLADU principles, guys, because that is the bottom line when you look at most of these offenders who keep getting released and keep getting light sentences for very, very serious crimes.
00:42:22.660Tracy, too, saying, weirdo, crime's gone up since Trudeau's reign in mass immigration policy.
00:42:26.380Yeah, you see, some of the crime is from new Canadians, but a whole lot, actually, in fact, are disproportionately high, and that's a much bigger discussion, is coming from our Indigenous Canadians.
00:42:37.760If you look at the cities with the highest crime rates in Canada, violent crime rates, they're always the cities with the highest percentage of Indigenous people.
00:42:46.500Now, it's not saying Indigenous, don't misinterpret this.
00:42:49.220It's not saying that they're naturally criminals by any means.
00:42:52.420What it's saying, obviously, is that the system is not treating Indigenous Canadians well at all.
00:42:57.180They are not doing well, and we need to change how we're approaching our entire Indigenous policy.
00:43:02.800But as it is, they're the highest victims and perpetrators of most crimes in Canada right now.
00:43:08.680And, yes, they do disproportionately fill up the bulk of our prison spaces right now.
00:43:12.660In fact, those GLADU principles I referenced earlier, that's a policy that's talking about how to keep First Nations people out of our prisons because they've had different challenges and things in their backgrounds.
00:43:24.200Well, those policies have been in place for, what, over 20 years now, and Indigenous people are making up still a higher percentage in prisons than they ever did.
00:43:30.800So let's just face it, that policy failed.
00:44:03.620Try and prevent that as much as we can.
00:44:04.980But once it's done, once they're committing the crimes, once they're reoffending, once they're harming citizens, once they're putting citizens at risk, we have to quit worrying about what got them there and just worry about stopping them from continuing with what they've been doing.
00:44:18.020And meanwhile, releasing stabbers and armed robbers and these things.
00:44:23.220And a lot of it's tied to the opioid addiction epidemic as well.
00:45:54.080That's how you can keep up with things as social media giants start cutting us off and being able to share links up there thanks to the Trudeau government's policies.
00:46:02.820So thank you for tuning in today, guys.
00:46:05.620And thank you to the subscribers who have already been supporting us.
00:46:08.700There will be lots more to discuss next week at this time.
00:46:11.500And I'm looking forward to seeing you all then.
00:46:15.320Here's an update on commodity prices in Lethbridge for today.