00:00:28.560morgan show i see the third false spring of the season has passed we're back into winter again
00:00:34.560it'll warm up eventually i hope i'm sick to death of this but again i like this in a moment about
00:00:39.120winter i've just got no use for it never will coming near the tail end of it by the way the
00:00:43.600political season is going full bore lots going on gonna be a packed show today in a little while
00:00:48.880i'll talk to andrew lamb from uh gowling wlg it's a large massive law firm but talking on the energy
00:00:54.880issue and uh well the way the government talks about and as he put out in his press release fast
00:01:00.880track in quotes on major projects but nothing really seems to be getting done fast and of course
00:01:06.880lots of news and other things there i see a couple folks on the uh comments there is yes this is live
00:01:12.160send those in there from north run talking about kuzma being impacted by supply management and i'll
00:01:16.640talk about supply management in a moment i don't even talk about the trade aspects of this particular
00:01:20.560rant about it but that's another one of them and uh cb fixes all talking about in a free alberta
00:01:25.840there wouldn't be any supply management i do want to start though by giving a shout out to calgary's
00:01:30.240councillors and staff at city hall and for those who aren't in calgary there's been a blanket
00:01:36.000rezoning thing that's now in the process of being repealed which means hearings going on for days
00:01:41.040where hundreds of calgarians are allowed to come in and actually speak their mind to the councillors
00:01:44.880and staff and they have set up for the counselors and staff and i wish this was a joke a room full
00:01:50.720of toys little squeezy things and they have a therapist and there's therapy dogs coming in
00:01:55.840in case it all becomes too much for these counselors and staffers to actually have to
00:01:59.840listen to constituents for a few days this is the snowflake generation this is what happened
00:02:04.960we started hiring them i got a message you're a bunch of pussies i'm getting sick of it you make
00:02:10.480six figures take it deal with it or find a job at a 7-eleven where you don't have to think so hard
00:02:16.800this is getting absurd it's embarrassing to live in a country where this is where our tax dollars
00:02:22.240go this is why you struggle to make the bills to pay clowns like this to have a little safe space
00:02:27.360and a cry because they had to listen to you on policy issues all right now i'm in the right
00:02:33.040mood i'll talk about supply management so imagine living in a system of market control so stringent
00:02:38.960federal police will swarm your home and arrest you if you tried to sell eggs from your own farm
00:02:44.480well you don't have to imagine in canada southern alberta chicken farmer hank vaness and had
00:02:48.880multiple rcmp cruisers descend upon his property last year and he was jailed for the crime of
00:02:53.360selling eggs without a government-issued quota or imagine a cartel that controlled the prices
00:02:57.840of a commodity so strictly that producers would be forced to destroy any product that they produced
00:03:02.640above and beyond the limits that the cartel set well that's exactly what canada's dairy industry
00:03:07.280does when up to a billion gallons of milk are dumped by farmers every year because they'd be
00:03:13.020jailed if they tried to sell it. And any other industry such as cartels would be illegal and
00:03:18.060charged with price fixing. In Canada, we call it supply management. The supply management system
00:03:22.660works well too. The industrial milk prices are 30 to 50% higher in Canada than other Western
00:03:28.040countries. Families in Canada are being forced to pay inflated food prices to shore up a shrinking
00:03:32.880number of increasingly rich dairy farmers and it's illegal to compete with them. Supply management
00:03:38.360was ostensibly created to protect the family farm. It's done the opposite. Since supply management
00:03:43.380was created in 72, Canada went from having 45,000 dairy farms to less than 9,000 today.
00:03:49.880Starting a small operation is impossible because the large farms own all the quotas and even if
00:03:54.000they're willing to sell their precious permission slips to produce dairy products, the costs are out
00:03:58.200of reach for any reasonable operation. Profit margins are generous for those dairy farmers
00:04:02.500who have quotas though, they average around 20% compared to the 4% that grocers operate under or
00:04:08.200the 5% that restaurateurs earn for an idea who's really actually gouging you on food prices. It's
00:04:14.100not hard to maintain high profit margins of course when the government will illegalize competition on
00:04:19.080your behalf. If one really wants to examine an oligopoly that robs consumers though, they should
00:04:24.160check out the profit margins that banks enjoy. Citizens remain distracted from how dairy, egg,
00:04:28.940and poultry producers are robbing them, though, because those supply-managed industries are
00:04:32.740incredibly effective lobbyists. They spend tens of millions of dollars on misleading
00:04:37.720information campaigns about their industries and their competitors. They also funnel countless
00:04:42.200millions into every political party and have paid lobbyists knocking on every elected official's
00:04:47.220door regularly. It's no secret that Maxime Bernier lost his bid for the CPC leadership
00:04:52.380because he dared to openly oppose supply management. The cartels quickly shoveled
00:04:56.840mass support towards the leadership campaign of Andrew Scheer, and it gave him a narrow win.
00:05:02.200And that ended rather poorly for the Conservative Party, wasn't it? But it was a fantastic
00:05:05.420outcome for the dairy cartels, as it reminded politicians of the consequences that face public
00:05:10.940figures who oppose them. The regional factor comes into play as well. Quebec has acquired a
00:05:15.080disproportionately large amount of Canada's dairy quotas. That's why the Bloc Québécois
00:05:18.580pushed legislation to try and make it impossible to tear down the price-fixing system, and the
00:05:23.500Cowardly Conservatives were too terrified to oppose it.
00:05:26.380Conservative supporters should call out their MPs and party representatives on supply management regularly.
00:05:31.220It's a Soviet-style system. It goes against every fiscal principle allegedly held by Conservatives.
00:05:36.580The party should be ashamed of itself for supporting such a system that robs Canadians so boldly.
00:05:41.700But they're only going to feel that shame if the members stand up and push those members.
00:05:45.900Inflation is pressuring Canadians and it's only going to get worse as the energy prices climb due to the war in Iran.
00:05:51.140Meanwhile, job losses are mounting across the country and the GDP per capita continues to decline when compared to other Western countries.
00:06:00.420And to add insult to injury, Canadian families are being ripped off on essential food purchases to protect a small number of corporate dairy farms raking in huge profits.
00:06:08.280There are many things that must be done to fix Canada's ailing economy and give consumers a break.
00:18:12.740So I don't think it is going to impose more layers of bureaucracy.
00:18:16.800I think it's more just a question of showing that it's going to make a difference.
00:18:21.940So getting back to oil and gas, if it's a, you know, a pipeline, which is often one of
00:18:27.780the big hangups we have is getting one, whether it's east or west.
00:18:30.560a lot of the groundwork's already been done. It seems almost though as if we were starting from
00:18:34.760scratch. I mean, how much was put into the amount of studies and regulatory issues and things,
00:18:39.700for example, with the Northern Gateway line or considering the Energy East one? And I understand
00:18:44.120the proponents of those are now gone and you'd be starting again, but can't some of that be
00:18:48.460dusted off almost and reused? I mean, you know, geography hasn't changed. A lot of things haven't
00:18:55.220changed. Why are we making them begin as if this process never began in the first place?
00:19:00.560That's a fair question. I think it depends a lot on the amount of time that's passed. I do know that applications do stay with various regulatory bodies, even after the proponents have asked that they be suspended for a time.
00:19:16.160So hopefully there are some studies that can be leveraged for sure, but players change and it's more the people that have to be given notice of these applications change and they're going to be given a new period of time to file statements of concern or other objections.
00:19:37.140That's probably the main obstacle, not so much getting the studies done themselves.
00:19:44.400So if the major projects office, I mean, if it does clear out some of those, you know, regulatory hurdles and problems, things have been holding things up.
00:19:52.160Another issue, I don't know if you speak so much to, but the political end of it, Prime Minister Carney's been asked a couple of times, what about the opposition from some Indigenous groups or even from the Premier of British Columbia?
00:20:02.760Now, constitutionally, neither of those entities should have the power to veto a line.
00:20:07.820I mean, their participation in consultation is very important, of course, but Prime Minister Carney doesn't feel or doesn't sound like he's willing to exercise the constitutional authority to finally put the foot down and say, look, it's going to have to go ahead.
00:20:21.620That's sort of one of those aspects, I think, that would keep companies, you know, not feeling confident.
00:20:26.240I mean, why start the process if the prime minister won't promise it's going to get done?
00:20:30.420Fair. Yeah. And, you know, the federal government's hands are tied a little bit just to the nature of confederation.
00:20:35.600Even if the major projects office gives a particular project, whether it's the West Coast Pipeline or something else, all the federal approvals that it needs, there's a whole bunch of, just speaking about provincial governments for a second, there's a bunch of ancillary permits and approvals and licenses that are needed that are still within the provincial jurisdiction just to support a project going through.
00:21:02.500That can be anything from work camps to, you know, other rights to use land.
00:21:09.220And then when you get to the First Nations side, there's always the chance of a challenge being filed at court and an injunction or other delay tactics being filed.
00:21:21.000Even if the government, the federal government does everything it can do to push a project through, there is still this this risk.
00:21:27.220I'm not sure if it's that much different in other jurisdictions.
00:21:32.500You know, the states would be a good example. I think there's sort of two types of risk. There's structural risk that you can't really avoid. But then there's also what I call like ministerial risk, which is, you know, just the government of the day, whether it's provincial or federal, deciding that a project is not going to go ahead. And we saw that, for example, in the states with the expansion of the Keystone XL, right? It was the Biden government that said, well, this just isn't going ahead.
00:21:58.760yeah and but i mean your statement did say that canada is falling behind some key competitors
00:22:04.340such as the united states i mean we're very similar jurisdictions uh so what is it the
00:22:10.320americans are doing though that is still managing to get things done whereas we can't because they
00:22:14.380do have obstacles i mean there was north dakota of course there was quite a a lot of bad issues
00:22:19.140with the pipeline trying to get rolling over there there's been a lot of opposition in michigan to
00:22:24.660some of our existing infrastructure, even trying to keep it rolling out there.
00:22:28.540But still, it appears that their economy is still moving along. They can get some major
00:22:31.720projects done. So what are they doing that we can't? I think it's their relationship with oil
00:22:38.640and gas generally is a little bit different. I'm not an expert on the division of powers in the
00:22:43.740United States. So I can't say when the federal government can just play the trump card and
00:22:48.140force something through. That's certainly not the case in Canada, though. So I think that goes to
00:22:51.820what I was saying, that's like a structural risk that's very difficult to work around unless you
00:22:58.300can get all the governments to come to the table. So getting other governments to the table,
00:23:03.740is that then, you know, you mentioned, of course, British Columbia, for example, I mean, there's
00:23:08.200still, they can't necessarily veto a line, but they can throw a heck of a lot of delays into it
00:23:13.100through existing processes. Is there a way to facilitate or is that part of, you know,
00:23:18.020services your firm does, things like that. I mean, to get between the governments and,
00:23:21.140and, you know, mediate if possible. I mean, it's, it's exactly, exactly. Right. It's,
00:23:27.300it's, you have to treat governments as a stakeholder and, and, you know, convince them,
00:23:32.980show them that, that this is for their benefit, whether, and there's a lot of different ways you
00:23:36.420can, you can do that. Lobbying is certainly one of them, but, you know, bringing them in as a,
00:23:41.380as a participant to some degree, as well as, as a, as a tried and true method of,
00:23:45.780of getting governments on side. First Nations as well. We've seen that that really works.
00:23:51.660Yeah, well, everybody has to see a benefit. I mean, I can understand that if you're living down
00:23:56.080from a pipeline right away and they're saying we're going to crash this through there and
00:23:59.420nothing is coming your way from that, you're not seeing anything tangible for yourself,
00:24:04.700then you're probably not going to be thrilled with it. So demonstrating that British Columbia
00:24:08.500would get some revenue and be able to spread that around or Indigenous bands would be able to
00:24:13.520participate in the construction and ongoing work with it but it just sometimes doesn't seem to be
00:24:20.240quite enough or they're not getting that message out clearly enough to people perhaps a lot of
00:24:23.760people seem to think they're taking on all the risk yeah sorry you froze there for a second
00:24:28.000Cory oh um can you can you repeat your question uh well I was just just saying that uh I guess
00:24:34.000reaching people to be able to demonstrate that there is benefits for them on that end if they
00:24:38.640have something happening in their area as opposed to just seeing all the risks uh is it a matter of
00:24:43.280Or the government's just not been communicating it effectively?
00:24:50.800I think taking the BC government, for example, I think they have a lot of internal pressures.
00:24:56.860That's probably keeping them from moving things forward as quickly as, for example, the Alberta government did with this MOU.
00:25:05.100So I think it's a political reality that we're just unfortunately faced with in Canada.
00:25:10.240We have a very diverse population from coast to coast and not everybody's aligned on oil and gas or, you know, just natural resource development.
00:25:19.580Yeah, well, perhaps, you know, going into some of the other projects in the major projects, maybe that would help some of the oil and gas down the road.
00:25:27.340Like there's mining prospects, things like that in eastern Canada, the ring of fire.
00:26:04.240But BC wants to see, okay, we're taking on a lot of the risk of oil spills, things like that.
00:26:09.140How are we compensated for that risk in the long term?
00:26:12.720Yeah, well, I mean, right now, perhaps a case could be made to some people if we had, well, it takes more and it's easier said than done.
00:26:20.800But if we had a more secure domestic supply, there could be ways we could pad ourselves against price shocks from international events like we're seeing right now in Iran.
00:26:29.660But we just don't have the ability to be able to do that sort of thing right now.
00:26:35.820Now's a good time to make that case to a lot of people, I think.
00:27:18.860You know, and I'm not an expert on equalization between the provinces, but, you know, maybe that's something that should be looked at.
00:27:26.620You know, when oil reaches a certain threshold, oil prices, then, you know, maybe the sharing between the provinces differs a little bit.
00:27:36.580That's certainly what the, you know, the provincial government does.
00:27:39.020Royalties are, they're scaled and they're tied to the price of oil and gas in some situations.
00:27:43.660Yeah, well, and it benefits Alberta strongly whenever the oil prices go high, but then the rest of the country tends to suffer a little and that leads to a lot of the regional friction we already have.
00:27:55.300So, I mean, again, if we could just demonstrate that, you know, because those high revenues still lead to more federal taxes that do get to everybody eventually, but maybe perhaps not enough Canadians understand that.
00:28:05.440I agree. Yeah, I think, you know, Alberta does its best, I think, to explain, you know, what's good for Alberta is good for Canada.
00:28:13.660But sometimes I think it's a hard message for the rest of the country to follow when employment rates are differing from province to province and things like that.
00:28:26.520Yeah, well, there are no simple answers, but we really just are pursuing some when times are getting tough.
00:28:33.180Before I let you go, then, you know, what is it that your company provides in this end and how can people find out more about this and what you guys do?
00:28:40.080Gowling WLG, my law firm, has excellent relationships both with provincial and the federal government and numerous First Nations in Western Canada. And we also have the industry experience to be able to bring everybody to the table and get deals done.
00:28:56.020Great. Yeah, because that's, I guess, kind of what we talked around in so many ways. Maybe the federal government, the provincial government, the Indigenous bands aren't doing very well getting to the table themselves. Maybe another party like yourselves can get in there and facilitate it because, boy, we really need to get something done.
00:29:11.500Well, thank you very much for taking the time to speak to us and speaking up on this issue in general.
00:29:16.700Hopefully, we can get things done because there's just so much potential in Canada, and it's just painful to watch how slowly we managed to bring it to market for everybody.
00:41:32.540it looks like under the nutcase is running for their leadership now uh just to show an analogy
00:41:36.420for anybody who's a trekkie out there uh star trek starfleet academy one of their spin-offs
00:41:42.520just a abomination i'm sure gene roddenberry wasn't dreaming of this you know it it had a
00:41:48.780gay klingon and and all sorts of stuff going on it was just woke from end to end and people say
00:41:54.420well no star trek was always on the edge of things yeah sure it it showed diversity it showed you
00:42:00.500know, the original Star Trek, I mean, it had the first interracial kiss on TV, things like that,
00:42:04.600that were controversial at the time. But these were things that happened and were aspects of
00:42:10.420the show within the show, which would we consider woke at the time, but still 95% of the show was
00:42:16.060dealing with everything else. But these guys just push and push and push until eventually now it's
00:42:20.820just 95% woke crap that they're shoving in and 5% show. And guess what? Nobody watched it.
00:42:28.120It got canceled because it was crap. Go woke, go broke. The NDP is doing it as well. There is a backlash when they finally go too far. And that's what happened to with the pride parades. I've talked about that before. I, you know, I got dragged, you know, and that's how it was back in the early nineties. I was a guy in my twenties. I was insecure. Didn't know about these things too. We had to learn a lot. Dragged to pride parades by a girlfriend back then.
00:42:54.100And actually there were great events, got to interact.