Western Standard - EXCLUSIVE： Franco Terrazzano of CTF on the Governor General’s flight

00:00:00.000 How's it going, Franco?

00:00:01.380 Hey, Corey, I'm doing pretty good, man.

00:00:03.780 You know, I'm not $80,000 on in-flight catering good, but I'm doing pretty good.

00:00:09.660 Yeah, I saw.

00:00:10.460 That's right, actually.

00:00:11.340 I should have corrected that.

00:00:12.180 They brought it down.

00:00:12.960 They claim now that it was only $80,000 for the catering on the flight rather than $93,000, right?

00:00:19.180 Well, Corey, this is ridiculous.

00:00:20.520 I mean, the government is off by $13,000.

00:00:23.980 So first, let's just start with the tab.

00:00:25.880 I mean, now they're saying it's $80,000 on in-flight catering.

00:00:30.060 I mean, that is a huge tab in and of itself.

00:00:32.880 But hold on a second here.

00:00:34.680 Originally, they said $93,000.

00:00:37.240 Now they're saying $80,000.

00:00:38.860 Corey, I'm saying I don't trust you.

00:00:41.840 Show us the receipts.

00:00:43.120 Let's see exactly what the receipts say.

00:00:45.520 Let's see exactly what was spent.

00:00:47.240 Because, Corey, how in the world is the Governor General and her fellow passengers

00:00:52.380 even managing to spend $80,000 on in-flight catering?

00:00:56.080 And if they're spending that much on in-flight catering,

00:00:59.420 how much are they actually spending once they get to the destinations

00:01:02.300 on things like food, hotel, et cetera, et cetera?

00:01:06.680 Yeah, and this was only just to clarify for people, too.

00:01:09.660 29 people on this flight.

00:01:11.580 We're not talking a big 747 that, well, it probably was a big plane,

00:01:15.360 but it didn't have 400, 500 people on there.

00:01:18.960 Man, you've got to work pretty hard to consume that much on a flight

00:01:23.440 or a couple of flights.

00:01:24.700 You know, we broke down the numbers.

00:01:26.080 You want to know what you could buy for $80,000?

00:01:30.140 22 pounds of beluga caviar or 1,100 orders of filet mignon

00:01:37.520 and lobster tail from the steak.

00:01:39.900 Or get this one, Corey.

00:01:40.920 This one might reminisce a little bit more with you.

00:01:43.280 6,800 Big Mac meals from McDonald's.

00:01:47.020 So you could buy a ton with $80,000.

00:01:51.080 Really, this is why we need to see the receipts.

00:01:53.920 What did you actually spend the money on?

00:01:56.380 We need to see a full, detailed list of the receipts.

00:01:59.140 And as I said earlier, Corey,

00:02:00.600 it's not just about the in-flight catering anymore.

00:02:03.200 I think $80,000 warrants a full shining of the light

00:02:07.120 to see what the total bill for this trip costs.

00:02:10.560 Well, absolutely, yeah.

00:02:11.740 That's just the one portion of it.

00:02:13.400 I mean, what was it?

00:02:14.260 This was something in my earlier rant I brought up with Adrian Clarkson

00:02:17.160 and her $5 million tour of Arctic countries 20 years ago

00:02:21.080 or 15 years ago or so.

00:02:22.500 It got everybody worked up.

00:02:23.540 But it seems we just forget about these things

00:02:25.020 with these governors general.

00:02:26.780 And as Claudette, one of our commenters,

00:02:29.420 is pointing, you know, is that the amount with alcohol?

00:02:30.780 Well, we don't know because they haven't broken it down yet.

00:02:32.760 But I imagine there's some nice single malt scotches

00:02:36.240 mixed among there and some things.

00:02:38.040 Corey, you think there was more stuff spent on than just pretzels?

00:02:42.140 How could that be true, right?

00:02:44.360 But unfortunately, I think you're really hitting the nail on the head.

00:02:48.100 This is just the tip of the iceberg

00:02:50.100 when it comes to Governor General Waste, right?

00:02:53.220 We know that there's this expense program

00:02:55.560 that all former governors general are entitled to

00:02:58.600 that allows them to expense taxpayers

00:03:00.880 for more than $200,000 every single year

00:03:04.620 for the rest of their life.

00:03:05.960 And up to six months after their death,

00:03:08.900 their estate can still continue to bill taxpayers.

00:03:12.160 Again, this is for former governor general.

00:03:14.100 So after they retire, they're still able to expense taxpayers.

00:03:17.660 And perhaps what is so frustrating about this

00:03:20.460 is that Trudeau knows that this program exists.

00:03:23.220 He spent $20,000 reviewing this program.

00:03:27.360 The review was done in 2019.

00:03:29.520 And since then, he's just sat on his hands.

00:03:31.960 He hasn't done anything about it.

00:03:33.980 Well, I mean, that's a good one to point out.

00:03:37.120 I mean, just how insane this is.

00:03:38.700 They can reach out from the grave

00:03:40.240 and posthumously screw the taxpayers.

00:03:42.720 Or even six months after they stopped drawing breath,

00:03:45.840 they still managed to hoop us for as much as $100,000.

00:03:51.440 Yeah, and I got another one for you.

00:03:53.440 The expense account is bad.

00:03:56.860 This one could be even worse.

00:03:58.300 I don't know.

00:03:58.820 Maybe we'll have to arm wrestle about it.

00:04:00.840 But it's the pensions that these governors general get.

00:04:04.160 We call it the Julie Payette pension problem

00:04:06.960 because a governor general is eligible

00:04:09.860 for the full taxpayer pension,

00:04:12.420 regardless of how long they serve.

00:04:14.600 So you have the example of former governor general,

00:04:17.420 Julie Payette, who served for a little bit more 0.64

00:04:19.520 than three years, but she is still eligible

00:04:22.460 to collect an estimated $4 million through the pension

00:04:26.140 if she continues to collect it to the age of 90.

00:04:29.280 So served for a few years, and she could still be eligible 0.81

00:04:32.220 to collect millions and millions of dollars

00:04:34.280 through her pension.

00:04:35.700 Corey, there are five former governors general

00:04:38.420 that are still living.

00:04:39.400 If they all continue to collect the pension to age 90,

00:04:42.040 for five of them, it'll cost taxpayers over $18 million.

00:04:46.140 Well, I guess maybe in some ways they'll save us some money

00:04:50.100 if they're eating a lot of really, you know,

00:04:51.900 butter-filled, high-fat food and drinking a lot

00:04:54.340 of that high-end scotch and champagne on the flights,

00:04:56.440 and they won't live as long due to the unhealthy living

00:04:59.300 and won't cost us as much.

00:05:01.080 I mean, I know I'm joking, but it's just insane

00:05:03.400 for what's getting paid for ceremonial positions by people.

00:05:07.480 And Justin Trudeau so recently having, I mean,

00:05:10.100 basically embarrassed himself with the Payette catastrophe.

00:05:13.080 I mean, as a governor general, she went out in scandal. 0.91

00:05:16.320 You'd think he'd be more careful,

00:05:17.800 or the next governor general would be more careful

00:05:20.400 to try and avoid this sort of thing,

00:05:22.320 and she hasn't even made it a year yet, and here we go.

00:05:25.420 Yeah, that was a really good point right there

00:05:27.520 that you ended on, right?

00:05:28.800 We just had a very turbulent relationship

00:05:31.620 with the last governor general.

00:05:33.260 We were hoping for maybe perhaps a new relationship

00:05:36.280 with this governor general,

00:05:37.540 but she's off to a bad start 0.65

00:05:38.960 when it comes to disrespecting taxpayers' hard-earned money.

00:05:42.560 You know, there's a few more points

00:05:43.640 that I think we have to talk about,

00:05:45.080 specifically with the $80,000 on in-flight catering.

00:05:49.260 Number one, that happened in March of this year, okay?

00:05:53.360 So that happened while Canadians 0.99

00:05:55.800 were experiencing a three-decade high inflation.

00:05:59.020 So you have Canadians at home 1.00

00:06:00.440 who are having a difficult time

00:06:02.020 fueling up their cars on the way to work,

00:06:03.880 who are having a difficult time

00:06:05.540 and trying to afford to put ground beef in the grocery carts, 0.93

00:06:08.820 all while our apparent head of state,

00:06:10.920 the governor general and her entourage

00:06:12.580 are racking up $80,000 in in-flight catering.

00:06:16.320 But here's the second thing that we have to remember, Corey.

00:06:19.640 You know, I travel a lot with work,

00:06:22.280 and it is reasonable that when you're on the road

00:06:24.920 that you can expense your employer

00:06:27.200 for reasonable types of meals, right?

00:06:30.960 If you're on the road,

00:06:32.840 you should be able to expense your employer

00:06:34.680 for a reasonable meal,

00:06:36.120 but not $80,000 on in-flight catering

00:06:39.680 for yourself, your entourage,

00:06:41.360 and whoever might be on the flight.

00:06:43.660 I mean, we have to remember, too,

00:06:45.220 is that the governor general,

00:06:46.820 she is making more than $300,000

00:06:49.660 in her annual salary.

00:06:52.220 So if she wants to have a fancy meal,

00:06:54.380 by all means,

00:06:55.060 she should be able to pay for it out of pocket.

00:06:57.700 Yeah, they're not starving.

00:06:59.200 And I mean, I said that kind of earlier in my rant.

00:07:00.740 I understand, okay,

00:07:01.580 they don't necessarily have to endure

00:07:03.080 just going through a whole flight

00:07:04.160 with a pack of peanuts and a water bottle.

00:07:06.500 But I mean, that's just beyond the pale

00:07:08.240 when it's getting to those levels.

00:07:10.460 I don't know what it'll take to fix it,

00:07:12.220 but I'm glad you guys keep exposing it.

00:07:14.780 Getting on to maybe pivoting a bit, though,

00:07:16.680 another big issue this week,

00:07:17.900 and I'm sure you guys have been on,

00:07:18.960 is the inflation effort

00:07:20.760 that Chrystia Freeland is doing.

00:07:24.800 It's just, wow.

00:07:27.220 They don't even know basic economic theory, do they?

00:07:29.620 Or they just not care?

00:07:31.280 Well, that is the $1 trillion question,

00:07:34.300 isn't it, Corey?

00:07:35.180 Now, before I get into the inflation announcement,

00:07:37.100 I just want to just talk about the irony

00:07:39.720 listening to the finance minister

00:07:41.780 talking about so-called fiscal restraint

00:07:44.360 from the government

00:07:45.200 when the governor general is under a scandal

00:07:48.400 for expensing $80,000 on in-flight catering.

00:07:51.860 Do you see the irony there

00:07:53.060 where you have the finance minister

00:07:54.380 talking about fiscal restraint

00:07:55.740 and then the governor general

00:07:57.220 and her entourage milking taxpayers 1.00

00:07:59.700 on in-flight catering?

00:08:01.740 But, Corey, let's talk about the substance.

00:08:03.860 $8.9 billion is this so-called plan

00:08:07.780 to help improve the cost of living.

00:08:11.060 Well, you have Freeland

00:08:12.100 who's talking about affordability,

00:08:14.560 but Canadians are having a tough time

00:08:17.160 fueling up their cars,

00:08:18.380 filling up their grocery carts

00:08:19.860 because this government

00:08:20.900 has been spending like crazy for years

00:08:22.980 and raising taxes.

00:08:24.720 And what is this government doing lately?

00:08:26.760 Well, it just raises carbon tax

00:08:28.360 for the third time during COVID-19.

00:08:30.400 It just raised alcohol taxes

00:08:32.160 for the third time during the pandemic.

00:08:34.020 It's raising payroll taxes again this year.

00:08:37.060 And now we are seeing more and more spending.

00:08:40.480 So what is causing this inflation,

00:08:42.440 the government is just doubling down on.

00:08:44.080 So, Corey, it's almost like Freeland

00:08:45.980 is trying to put out this inflation fire

00:08:47.800 by dumping gasoline all over it.

00:08:50.480 Yeah, and again, as I said,

00:08:52.240 you know, not everybody reads up on economics.

00:08:54.480 It's a bit dry,

00:08:55.320 but some of the most basic principles,

00:08:56.940 I mean, it applies to currencies,

00:08:58.260 even in supply and demand.

00:08:59.840 If you borrow,

00:09:00.600 it means you've got to increase the supply.

00:09:02.820 If government does,

00:09:03.720 I mean, they've got to crank out the currency,

00:09:05.960 flood the market with it.

00:09:07.160 It becomes worth less,

00:09:08.820 and then you get inflation.

00:09:10.560 I mean, this is just the basics of economics.

00:09:13.940 A finance minister should be well aware of this.

00:09:16.980 Yeah.

00:09:17.200 Well, the more dollars

00:09:18.500 the government's Bank of Canada prints,

00:09:21.300 the less that your dollars

00:09:22.680 in your bank account

00:09:23.640 or your savings account will buy.

00:09:25.780 And the Bank of Canada

00:09:26.860 has had its printing press on overdrive

00:09:29.360 during the pandemic.

00:09:30.220 It printed more than $300 billion,

00:09:33.180 Corey, right out of thin air.

00:09:34.560 And what do you think happens

00:09:35.720 when you print $300 new billion out of thin air

00:09:38.500 and drop it right into the economy

00:09:39.800 when you have the government locking people down

00:09:42.340 and paying people not to work?

00:09:44.280 What happens

00:09:44.940 is that you create the perfect storm for inflation

00:09:47.540 where you have too many dollars

00:09:48.900 chasing too few goods.

00:09:50.580 That is exactly what the government of Canada has done,

00:09:53.860 creating the perfect storm for inflation.

00:09:56.040 And now Freeland is really adding more fuel

00:09:58.920 to the inflation fire

00:10:00.080 with more spending,

00:10:01.480 with more debt.

00:10:02.860 Well, how are we going to finance

00:10:04.160 all of this spending?

00:10:05.520 How are we going to pay down all this debt?

00:10:07.720 What we need to see the government do

00:10:09.340 is to stop what it has been doing,

00:10:11.440 which is creating this inflation, right?

00:10:13.700 Reign in the years of overspending.

00:10:15.680 Chip away at the $1 trillion debt.

00:10:17.840 And for heaven's sake,

00:10:19.100 give taxpayers some much needed relief.

00:10:22.140 Well, that's it.

00:10:23.000 I mean, it's, you know,

00:10:23.880 fighting inflation by borrowing

00:10:25.280 almost $9 billion.

00:10:26.460 It's like fighting weight gain

00:10:28.120 by doubling the amount of ice cream

00:10:29.620 you eat every month.

00:10:30.480 You know, it's just not going to work.

00:10:33.000 Your strategy is rather stupid to be honest.

00:10:36.600 But that seems to be all they know how to do.

00:10:40.160 Well, you're right.

00:10:41.800 It seems like this government's only plan

00:10:44.280 is just to spend buckets of taxpayers' cash.

00:10:46.920 When times are tough,

00:10:48.000 they spend a ton of money.

00:10:49.520 When times are good before the pandemic,

00:10:52.440 they spend a ton of money.

00:10:53.660 When the economy is inflating,

00:10:55.260 what do they do?

00:10:55.800 You guessed it.

00:10:56.600 They spend a ton of money.

00:10:58.260 This is the only so-called plan

00:11:00.080 that we have heard from this Trudeau government.

00:11:02.300 But let's just look at the history here, right?

00:11:04.500 We saw Trudeau back in, I think, 2014,

00:11:07.340 the budget would balance itself.

00:11:08.700 Well, I mean, still waiting on that.

00:11:11.800 Just checking my watch.

00:11:13.540 We heard in 2015,

00:11:15.620 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

00:11:16.840 said he would balance the budget by 2019.

00:11:18.940 He missed that target by a country

00:11:20.620 a mile before the pandemic.

00:11:21.980 Now, the books say that

00:11:24.060 we wouldn't get a balanced budget until 2070

00:11:26.220 under the current trajectory.

00:11:27.880 So this spend, spend, spend,

00:11:30.060 deficit, deficit, deficit,

00:11:31.480 it's not working.

00:11:33.140 It's one of the reasons

00:11:33.980 that we're seeing this three decades high inflation.

00:11:37.260 And we really need to see this government

00:11:39.060 reverse its course

00:11:40.280 or Canadians are going to continue to get gouged

00:11:42.500 in just the cost of living going up.

00:11:45.400 Yeah, well, with that latest plan, let's see.

00:11:47.540 So if I manage to make it to the age of 99,

00:11:49.660 I might actually see a balanced budget in Canada,

00:11:52.620 assuming they hold the course

00:11:53.880 where they are right now.

00:11:55.760 Yeah, and assuming you don't double down

00:11:57.440 on those ice creams too, Corey.

00:12:00.360 So there's just been no discussion whatsoever

00:12:03.660 of cutting anything though, has there?

00:12:05.160 I mean, you know,

00:12:06.180 they talk about everybody else tightening their belts.

00:12:07.960 They talk about how it's tough times,

00:12:09.380 but there's nowhere where they've trimmed, is there?

00:12:12.560 Oh, no.

00:12:13.180 What we've seen from this government

00:12:14.320 is essentially spend more money

00:12:15.820 on everything forever.

00:12:17.080 Now, you know, we hear a lot of people say,

00:12:19.580 well, we just had a pandemic.

00:12:21.560 Didn't the government have to increase

00:12:23.180 spending the way it did?

00:12:24.620 Well, I think we can all arm wrestle on the specifics,

00:12:27.080 but let's take a high level view here.

00:12:29.180 When you have a family,

00:12:30.600 when you have a business

00:12:31.500 that is going through tough times,

00:12:33.760 families and businesses understand that,

00:12:35.440 okay, redirect resources,

00:12:37.340 maybe spend more money on one area of the budget,

00:12:39.940 but cut back on other areas of the budget.

00:12:42.440 That is the approach

00:12:43.500 that the federal government should have taken.

00:12:44.900 That is not what the federal government did.

00:12:47.700 We didn't see any prioritization.

00:12:49.460 We just saw more and more and more spending.

00:12:52.460 Now, fast forward to today,

00:12:54.540 the government wants to spend

00:12:56.000 about $450 billion this year.

00:12:59.740 That's $90 billion more

00:13:01.740 than it was spending pre-pandemic.

00:13:03.820 And here's why that matters.

00:13:05.480 Before the pandemic,

00:13:07.380 the Trudeau government was spending all-time highs,

00:13:10.080 meaning in 2018,

00:13:11.200 the Trudeau government spent more money

00:13:12.800 than the federal government did

00:13:14.860 during any single year during World War II,

00:13:17.220 even after accounting for inflation

00:13:18.900 and population differences.

00:13:20.660 So before the pandemic,

00:13:21.560 you had the government spending all-time highs.

00:13:23.800 Now the government wants to spend

00:13:25.040 $90 billion more than that.

00:13:27.640 And the finance minister somehow has the audacity

00:13:30.700 to tell Canadians

00:13:32.000 that the government is bringing in fiscal restraint.

00:13:34.700 What fiscal restraint?

00:13:36.040 By all measures,

00:13:36.960 we have not seen any fiscal restraint

00:13:39.280 from this government yet.

00:13:42.060 Well, all we can do is keep pushing on them.

00:13:45.340 Hopefully some of the wiser minds,

00:13:46.820 quiet, hiding in the background

00:13:48.060 of the Liberal Party,

00:13:48.900 start speaking up maybe

00:13:49.880 and change some things

00:13:51.300 and I guess keep the pressure on.

00:13:52.700 So, you know, before we close,

00:13:54.660 where can people find more information

00:13:56.140 on what you guys are up to

00:13:57.140 and what you're doing?

00:13:57.720 I mean, maybe you'll finally get the breakdown

00:13:59.340 of what happened on that flight

00:14:00.600 and share it somewhere.

00:14:02.020 Oh, we definitely,

00:14:03.160 we're going to keep snooping around for that.

00:14:05.060 We've already filed in the ATIPS,

00:14:06.520 the Freedom of Information request

00:14:07.820 to get the actual breakdown.

00:14:09.440 But please head over to taxpayer.com,

00:14:11.520 check out our newsroom tab

00:14:13.080 where you can find all of our articles.

00:14:14.720 We've got a bunch of great petitions

00:14:16.000 that you can sign there.

00:14:17.240 Of course, follow us on Facebook, Twitter,

00:14:20.240 just search Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

00:14:23.260 Great.

00:14:23.820 Well, always good to have you on, Franco. 0.78

00:14:26.020 I appreciate the work and sharing that with us

00:14:28.480 and I'm sure we'll talk again soon.

00:14:30.480 Corey, it was my pleasure.

00:14:31.460 Thank you so much.

00:14:35.060 Thank you.

00:14:36.060 Thank you.

Western Standard - June 18, 2022

EXCLUSIVE： Franco Terrazzano of CTF on the Governor General’s flight

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