Western Standard - June 18, 2022


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


Episode Stats

Length

14 minutes

Words per Minute

185.25528

Word Count

2,708

Sentence Count

172

Misogynist Sentences

6

Hate Speech Sentences

3


Summary

Francois and Corey discuss the $80,000 spent by the Canadian government on in-flight catering for a Governor General's visit to the U.S. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the amount of money that Canadian politicians and their entourages spend on their trips.


Transcript

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
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
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.
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
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
00:05:55.800 were experiencing a three-decade high inflation.
00:05:59.020 So you have Canadians at home
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,
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
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.
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.