Western Standard - Make some space in Canada’s hospitals

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00:01:00.000 Transcription by CastingWords

00:01:30.000 good day welcome to the cory morgan show good to see in the comments scroll there paradoxity and

00:01:53.100 the others this is a live show so yeah if you're watching throw your comments in there questions

00:01:58.260 things like that I see them all I don't necessarily read them all out but I appreciate

00:02:01.820 knowing there's really live people interacting on the other side and sometimes it really helps

00:02:05.760 the conversation just stay civil with each other and yeah spend a little less than an hour with us

00:02:11.660 here we'll get some good informative stuff get some ranting in and you know take a break from

00:02:16.640 the smoke and heat good to see you others checking in Kenzie and Jake and the rest of you there I got

00:02:21.720 a good show coming up I like to think they're all good some are better than others but I don't think

00:02:25.300 there's really any bad ones, except that one time we had tech issues. Either way, I got Dr. Sylvain

00:02:29.340 Charlebois coming on in a little while as a guest. He's going to talk about the new grocery

00:02:33.000 code of conduct. People might know him as the food professor. He's an economist. He covers

00:02:39.060 things, all things food, whether it's agricultural producers, grocers, and everything else. It's a

00:02:42.720 specialized area, but it's been a big news area, and he's very outspoken. He's always fun to talk

00:02:47.080 to. He's been on the show before, and he'll kind of break down what that's all about for us there.

00:02:52.080 As well, of course, we'll have our news check-ins and some other things to cover as we get along.

00:02:57.980 So let's get to the subject of what I want to talk about today.

00:03:00.380 And it's funny, it ties in a little more with somebody who has released a recent documentary.

00:03:05.020 And it's a hard subject, but it's one that we're seeing constantly.

00:03:08.800 Headlines saying, you know, the hospitals, they're overwhelmed.

00:03:11.800 Emergency rooms are overwhelmed.

00:03:13.320 People can't get treatment.

00:03:14.380 People can't get in.

00:03:15.220 People are dying in the hallways.

00:03:16.640 It's the same in every province.

00:03:18.640 The hospitals and emergency rooms, they're overwhelmed.

00:03:21.340 and it's across the country. And that's because of Canada's socialized health care monopoly system.

00:03:25.920 Access to care in a timely manner is always going to be a problem until the entire system is reformed.

00:03:32.040 In the meantime, though, there are things that can be done to ease the pressure in the hospitals

00:03:36.360 without digging into and amending the Canada Health Act. Things to do on the way to real reforms.

00:03:42.060 Now, for myself, I've shared a bit of that on here. I've had a pretty rough year as far as the

00:03:46.260 health of my family members go. And it's led to me having spent more time in hospital emergency

00:03:50.480 rooms in one year than I've spent my entire life. Things just seem to happen in waves. That's life.

00:03:55.500 At least it certainly gave me a perspective on things though. And in multiple hospitals,

00:03:59.340 the emergency rooms all look the same. They're overcrowded with suffering people while exhausted,

00:04:04.320 harried staff try to keep up. I was at the Foothills Hospital last month. It's a Calgary one

00:04:08.860 and it's huge because an elderly family member had had a stroke. And I mean, the scene was like

00:04:13.460 something from the movies. The waiting area was packed with people in the emergency area. And

00:04:18.000 once you got into the treatment area there were literally people suffering and lined up on gurneys

00:04:22.480 in the hallways waiting for help. It's what you'd expect to see after a major disaster or something

00:04:27.560 but this was just a typical afternoon and to take some of the pressure from those hospitals we have

00:04:32.840 to start identifying who really needs to be there and who doesn't because Canada's system packs so

00:04:38.380 many services into hospitals they become overwhelmed because they're trying to be everything to

00:04:42.480 everybody rather than the acute care centers they're supposed to be. I want to start with

00:04:46.940 mental health services. They have to be decoupled from general hospitals. I mean, due to decades of

00:04:52.560 the misplaced movement of deinstitutionalization, we have thousands of people who should be receiving

00:04:57.440 long-term mental health care, and they're on the streets quite often. They're in no condition to

00:05:02.100 manage themselves in this naive community living system we've set up, and they either end up in the 0.54

00:05:06.940 streets, in jail, dead, or in hospitals. If somebody needs mental health treatment, I mean, if you

00:05:12.320 haven't had to encounter it, you never really think of it until the time comes. But if you hit

00:05:16.820 a crisis, what happens? Well, hospitals, they're the only entry point for mental health care.

00:05:22.160 So if somebody's had a mental health, you know, a breakdown or an episode, they're forced to head

00:05:25.800 to an emergency room to await help. That's assuming somebody will take them there. Last

00:05:29.460 year, my father had a mental collapse. He was paranoid, delusional, prone to wandering. Couldn't

00:05:35.360 just leave him. He couldn't help himself. He came on suddenly, and for his safety, we needed to get

00:05:40.100 him into care. It took rotating shifts of family members to stay with him in the emergency room

00:05:44.480 for 23 hours before he was admitted. Then he was medicated, placed on a gurney in a hallway for two

00:05:49.860 days before they could get a bed in the psychiatric unit. He spent 40 days in that unit. It's a sparsely

00:05:56.120 equipped wing in the hospital. Staff were excellent and they did what they could with him

00:05:59.480 and with the rest of the challenging patients, of course, within that unit. But it was clear that

00:06:03.100 the space is transitional and couldn't offer long-term care, which most of the people there

00:06:07.340 actually needed. They were committed there. They usually end up getting discharged though within

00:06:11.580 days, and if they don't have family to help, they often end up in the streets. Even if they do have

00:06:16.220 family to help out, sometimes they end up in the streets. Most mentally ill people who go to the

00:06:19.600 hospital, they never even get to the psychiatric ward. They're given a prescription and a brochure 0.68

00:06:24.460 listing community supports and, you know, hope that things work well for you. Good luck. And it's not

00:06:32.120 that the doctors are heartless. They just have nowhere else to put people. It's unfair, expensive,

00:06:36.840 and ineffective pushing psychiatric patients through general hospitals. The doctor who can

00:06:41.400 said a broken arm likely isn't well trained to deal with a schizophrenic, but that's what they're

00:06:45.200 tasked with. For people awaiting care for injuries, it's not pleasant spending hours in a waiting room 0.59

00:06:49.580 with a person who's melting down with a bipolar disorder. An emergency room setting, of course,

00:06:54.240 isn't very comfortable for a person suffering from a mental health issue either. We need mental

00:06:58.400 health facilities separate from general hospitals, both for the intake and the long-term care.

00:07:03.820 Yes, we need to expand our psychiatric institutions rather than closing them as we have been. And I

00:07:08.660 know we don't like to think of having people confined, but I assure you it's more humane

00:07:13.100 than having them in jail, homeless shelters, or in the general hospitals. And of course,

00:07:17.420 it's going to take pressure away from those emergency rooms. Likewise, we need fast and

00:07:21.580 separate inpatient care for addicts. They're showing up in emergency rooms and they can't

00:07:25.360 be effectively treated there, but they don't know where else to go. Hospitals are often being used

00:07:30.180 as well as nursing homes when seniors without family advocates find themselves in need of care,

00:07:35.060 but hadn't planned for long-term care homes.

00:07:37.360 It's a very expensive and unpleasant way

00:07:39.060 for a senior to spend their final years.

00:07:41.340 And then again, we can look into things,

00:07:42.900 expand options for practical nurses

00:07:44.400 and general practitioners

00:07:45.380 so we can reduce these emergency room loads.

00:07:47.860 Many people with minor ailments

00:07:49.420 head to the emergency rooms

00:07:50.540 when they can be better treated elsewhere,

00:07:52.040 but they don't necessarily know where to go.

00:07:54.100 Creating new facilities and options.

00:07:55.640 It sounds expensive,

00:07:56.460 but let's not pretend we aren't already paying for it.

00:07:58.920 The addicted, the mentally unsound,

00:08:00.360 they're already in our facilities,

00:08:02.000 but they aren't getting the best treatment we could.

00:08:04.120 dedicated long-term facilities can house and treat people with mental health addiction and

00:08:08.240 age-related issues much more effectively and at a lower cost than general hospitals can.

00:08:13.500 We don't need to reinvent the wheel to take the pressure from our emergency rooms.

00:08:17.340 We just need to rethink the centralized model that packs everybody into one place for treatment.

00:08:23.320 It just doesn't work. So, you know, I'm going to go a little further. It ties in. It was coincidental.

00:08:28.840 So this documentary just got released this morning.

00:08:32.880 And Canada's healthcare system, it's broken.

00:08:35.260 Thousands are dying before getting the care they needed.

00:08:37.720 Millions are on waiting lists and it's getting worse.

00:08:39.640 So how do we fix it?

00:08:41.000 SecondStreet.org has a brand new documentary

00:08:44.180 out called Health Reform Now, and it has the answers.

00:08:47.260 Check them out.

00:08:47.860 Head to HealthReformNow.ca

00:08:49.660 and you can watch the entire documentary for free.

00:08:54.020 HealthReformNow.ca.

00:08:55.960 And yeah, they talk in that documentary.

00:08:57.700 I just watched it, as I said, this morning, and it covers a lot more into the whole systematic

00:09:01.820 change that we have to make, as opposed to, you know, the more immediate things I was talking

00:09:05.980 about with changing who goes into the hospitals. It's a very good documentary. We're going to speak

00:09:11.440 to them next week. Actually, they're going to be on as a guest as well. Was this a paradox?

00:09:16.680 You're saying Smith said a revived OD is about 6,000 per OD. I can believe it, you know,

00:09:20.620 with people who are addicted. I noticed another commenter mentioning that, yes,

00:09:27.060 Smith is separating AHS from mental health.

00:09:29.120 That's in the administration.

00:09:30.680 So Alberta Health Services had had everything stuffed together

00:09:33.380 and she's breaking it up into different categories.

00:09:36.760 So it's good.

00:09:38.260 It'll help with reforms and so on.

00:09:39.740 But I'm talking about actually,

00:09:40.780 we've got to split up into separate facilities.

00:09:43.440 When this person's got an addiction issue,

00:09:44.880 there should be a space available for them

00:09:47.700 to get treatment right away outside of a general hospital.

00:09:50.740 Likewise, if they have a mental health issue,

00:09:52.920 they shouldn't be sitting in a general hospital waiting room.

00:09:56.080 they should be at a mental health facility. So, I mean, we're moving in the right direction and

00:09:59.780 hopefully that's where Premier Smith is going to go. All right, well, let's get on. I've already

00:10:03.600 been eating up time a lot and get on to Jen Hodgson. She's going to be checking in with some 0.96

00:10:07.640 news updates on what else is going on out there in the big bad world. How's it going, Jen?

00:10:11.500 Hey, Corey, going pretty good. How are you doing? I'm all right. I like the heat.

00:10:18.480 So what do we got? Okay, so we have the Paris Olympics coming up this week.

00:10:23.680 So we have a couple stories already coming out of there. This morning, in the early hours, it was announced that Canada's female soccer team was actually caught spying on the New Zealand team.

00:10:37.440 So by sending drones over their practice area, the New Zealand team actually reported that they saw these drones from an unauthorized Canadian team representative, filed a formal complaint with the International Olympic Committee, and now there's going to be an investigation.

00:10:55.900 the canadian olympic team made an apology and they called their own apology i think heartfelt

00:11:02.860 so i don't know uh you can take that for what it is but um this is what's how we've started off the

00:11:10.420 olympic games uh representing canada so that is pretty disappointing to see now with the torch

00:11:18.920 going around so this year's 2024 Paris Olympics has a big emphasis on diversity of course right

00:11:26.880 so there have actually been three drag queens that have relayed the Olympic torch so these

00:11:33.760 are prominent drag queens in the French media world and also the RuPaul drag queen show so

00:11:42.840 there's a number of these drag queen shows that these performers are part of and so they've been

00:11:49.980 much celebrated by those from the left perspective like the mayor of Paris for example but has really

00:11:59.060 garnered a lot of widespread criticism online. So that's what we have for the Olympics keeping in

00:12:06.820 that continental zone though in the UK top on our website right now is a video of UK police

00:12:14.800 really stomping on the head of some Muslim men kicking them in the head they have and the men

00:12:23.680 were already detained on the floor and so that is also a deeply concerning video that we have up on

00:12:30.960 page right now speaking uh continuing with the international relations theme we have our foreign

00:12:38.400 affairs minister melanie joe lee who went to visit china late last week she was actually summoned

00:12:45.920 by her counterpart in beijing to discuss the relationships between the two countries and

00:12:52.640 when she came back she told the globe and mail that she really was very firm with her chinese

00:12:59.120 counterpart uh however she did admit that no ground was um no inroads were really made they

00:13:06.800 didn't really make any progress now at the same time chinese media reporting on weixin which is

00:13:13.600 wechat qq is actually reporting that uh jolie was severely reprimanded and uh given a stern talking

00:13:23.280 to by Beijing because of what they referred to as dirty Westerner political tricks. So

00:13:34.160 Zhou Li has one story coming back, but then we see more than one story in the Chinese media,

00:13:40.880 and of course we know that the Chinese media is run by the Chinese state. So this is the

00:13:47.920 general perspective that China is wanting to show its citizens of Canada. So it actually makes

00:13:54.100 Canada look pretty weak from that foreign relations perspective. And so I guess time

00:14:01.260 will tell how things will transpire between those two countries, especially as Canada is looking

00:14:08.040 at the whole foreign interference scandal and still in the wake. Let's not forget, it was only

00:14:13.960 last month in june though it might seem like a long time ago now that spies were revealed on

00:14:18.600 parliament hill so there's a lot to that meeting and not too much was disclosed to the public but

00:14:25.480 we do have that perspective from china and finally cory uh it's quite smoky here in calgary so uh up

00:14:32.760 in jasper which isn't too far away uh there have been 25 000 people evacuated and it's a small

00:14:41.240 town a small region there's actually only 10 000 or so residents and 1500 visitors that were all

00:14:48.520 evacuated from that area so i'd want to encourage our listeners and viewers to stay tuned jonathan

00:14:55.640 bradley who is our current edmonton reporter is going to be following that closely and will be

00:15:01.320 giving us an update soon great well i thank you for all those updates yeah let's let's really hope

00:15:06.600 hope for the best for those folks out in Jasper. If for people not familiar with the area, it was

00:15:10.720 pretty terrifying. There's really, it's a mountain town. There's one way, well, two ways in and out,

00:15:15.280 and one of them was blocked by fire. So everybody had to make their way to the west to get around

00:15:21.860 there and then north and south. I can't imagine. It's got to be terrifying leaving your home like

00:15:26.180 that. And I just hope this gets results. Yeah, me too, of course. All right. Well, thanks for the

00:15:32.460 updates, Jen. I'll let you get back to that news and watching those unfortunately terribly

00:15:36.420 violent videos that get posted on the website sometimes. But I guess that drives home just

00:15:40.940 how bad things get sometimes. Yeah, that's right. You never know what's going to come across our

00:15:44.740 desk, Corey. Afraid not. All right. Well, thank you, Jen. And I'll see you after the show. Sounds

00:15:51.320 great. Thank you, Corey. All right. Now, as our reporter, Jen Hodgson, as she was pointing out,

00:15:54.800 yes, Jonathan is working hard up in Edmonton trying to cover the fire and other political

00:15:58.940 goings on and things like that. So I like to remind everybody, the reason we stay independent,

00:16:03.060 we do not take any tax dollars. We won't. And we, you know, we stay independent. We rely on

00:16:08.260 advertisers and subscribers. So if you've subscribed already, thank you very much. We

00:16:12.580 really do appreciate it. And if you haven't yet, get on there to westernstandard.news

00:16:17.020 slash subscription. Take one out. It's only 10 bucks a month, 100 bucks a year. If you take that

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00:16:25.860 those reporters going and keep this show going and all the rest of the resources there so uh yeah

00:16:30.820 get on it guys what are you waiting for all right let's bring our guest in you know what are we

00:16:34.520 waiting for there i've been looking forward to this i haven't he came on a while back he's known

00:16:38.280 as the food professor he's dr sylvain charlebois and uh he's just been covering an issue that's

00:16:44.540 that's really big he's got quite a specialty and uh it's really appreciated so thank you for taking

00:16:48.840 the time to come on to join us today dr charlebois my pleasure cory uh i think last time we

00:16:54.220 chatted was probably a year ago or something so i uh i'm looking forward to this one yeah well i

00:17:00.000 think it was last january not too long but it's been too long i guess in some senses especially

00:17:03.660 as this keeps unfolding i mean it's surprising you know uh this field i guess you could say you

00:17:08.840 are the specialist in it has been in the news so much uh in this last year due to inflation price

00:17:13.820 increases and people feeling pressured so you've been keeping us up to date on on the why and then

00:17:18.640 perhaps what we can do about it yeah absolutely now things have changed dramatically since the

00:17:24.160 last time we spoke, food inflation is way down. It's at around 2.6%, which is really within the

00:17:32.100 sweet spot we all want, 1.5% to 2.5%. I mean, inflation has been so demonized in the news

00:17:40.840 or by politicians, you tend to feel that inflation is a bad thing. It's not necessarily a bad thing.

00:17:46.440 You do want some inflation. The problem is that inflation was actually quite high.

00:17:51.960 And so we're down to what I would believe to be the sweet spot.

00:17:57.440 And, of course, that allows the food industry to do its job to provide us with high-quality, safe foods.

00:18:03.480 And on the other hand, it actually gives a chance to consumers to adapt their budget based on what's going on with the economy.

00:18:10.160 Now, today we actually learned that the Bank of Canada was actually reducing its benchmark rate by 0.25 points.

00:18:18.420 So now the benchmark is down to 4.5%.

00:18:21.980 Corey, that is really, in my view, the big problem when it comes to food affordability.

00:18:27.660 People just had no money to spend at the grocery store, so they traded down.

00:18:31.340 So this news today will give some relief to a whole lot of people out there carrying a mortgage, debt, people with kids, people who are economically involved quite a bit.

00:18:46.560 uh they've they've been suffering with with these hikes in recent years so so today i think was good

00:18:52.100 news for for for them yeah well it's nice we could use some good news now and then and food is is

00:18:57.580 unlike other consumer items you know we can put off a vacation if times get tight or we can

00:19:03.220 uh get some off-brand clothing or put off some shopping but i mean food is a is a need you can't

00:19:08.880 avoid purchasing it so if the price of food goes up you're going to feel it no matter what you do

00:19:14.160 It's not like you can wait until the prices come down later on.

00:19:17.500 So a lot of where the vitriol is in, the politics, both right and wrong, I guess, have really gone after the grocers a lot.

00:19:24.820 Maybe it's because it's frontline.

00:19:25.880 That's where people see the price increase.

00:19:27.480 That's where most of it comes from.

00:19:44.160 Thank you.

00:20:14.160 Thank you.

00:20:44.160 Thank you.

00:21:14.160 Thank you.

00:21:44.160 Thank you.

00:22:14.160 Thank you.

00:22:44.160 Thank you.

00:23:14.160 Thank you.

00:23:44.160 Thank you.

00:24:14.160 do you hear me at all i can hear you oh thank you yes i was just sending an email

00:24:26.480 oh how embarrassing with tethering our phones it's a challenge with with live shows i'm afraid

00:24:33.600 our our internet and the whole building has collapsed but we're back up and streaming i

00:24:37.580 appreciate you you waiting in there i was just waiting actually we have some tornado warnings

00:24:42.540 here in the east right now, and the weather is not great,

00:24:47.040 so I actually thought it was us.

00:24:48.960 No, I'm afraid it's on our end,

00:24:50.540 but as much as I'd prefer to be able to blame you for it. 0.91

00:24:55.540 Always blame Quebec.

00:24:57.160 Always blame Quebec.

00:24:58.400 That's right. 0.99

00:24:59.080 That's my specialty.

00:25:00.660 Well, maybe if I could, I'll keep you a few more minutes

00:25:02.640 because I sent you an email as I tethered my phone,

00:25:04.920 but I left off, I think the last question was about

00:25:08.340 the grocery code of conduct.

00:25:10.780 Maybe if you could explain why something like that would be needed and how it may help things.

00:25:15.800 Yeah, I know it's a hard sell for a lot of Canadians because they think it's really about government intervention.

00:25:20.540 It's not really yet.

00:25:23.740 So the Code of Conduct basically will give an opportunity to suppliers to actually have a voice, really.

00:25:32.220 And when you actually understand my field of expertise is food distribution,

00:25:35.480 And I have to say, Corey, Loblaws and Walmart are just crushing the industry right now with their own rules, with extra fees.

00:25:45.860 And let's say, for example, you have some new jam to sell to Loblaw.

00:25:49.760 They'll charge you $100,000 for it.

00:25:52.140 And if it's actually popular next year, they'll actually double fees.

00:25:56.100 And you're at the mercy of the oligopoly.

00:25:59.240 So either say yes, you pay extra fees and you increase your own prices.

00:26:04.420 And if you do that, of course, consumers get hit eventually or you walk away from your most important customer.

00:26:11.920 So those are the two choices that most suppliers have right now.

00:26:14.720 The code of conduct will actually give a chance for suppliers to be heard before an arbitrator to settle disputes with banners, particularly Loblaws and Walmart.

00:26:26.460 So in theory, academically, this actually could work to increase competition because it will actually give a chance to suppliers.

00:26:35.440 And I know that there are a lot of them in Alberta really having a hard time with Loblaw and Walmart in particular.

00:26:41.580 It gives them a chance for success really eventually.

00:26:48.020 Now, will it work?

00:26:49.500 We don't know.

00:26:50.220 I mean, I think the easiest part to establish a code was to get all five of them on board.

00:26:59.140 So Costco, Walmart, Loblaw, Sobeys, and Metro are all on board.

00:27:03.800 But will there be compliance?

00:27:06.300 I have no idea.

00:27:07.680 If you actually send a fine to Walmart, will it pay the fine?

00:27:13.060 I don't know.

00:27:14.620 Yeah.

00:27:15.060 Yeah, I mean, typically, though, an industry association would be preferred than having government come in and legislate.

00:27:21.760 I mean, this is, I guess, in a way, if this doesn't work, that's where the government's going to be tempted to come in and try and do that job.

00:27:29.400 Exactly. It avoids legislation.

00:27:31.640 And you do not want government to get involved.

00:27:34.300 You do not want government to get involved or else it's going to be a disaster.

00:27:38.340 And I think that's why Costco and Walmart signed on at the last minute because they felt they hadn't, I mean, it was the next step.

00:27:47.520 Basically, Ottawa was game to go ahead with legislation.

00:27:51.400 And so that's why they're signing on and they're giving industry a chance to get things done and see if this can work.

00:27:59.200 So it's a delicate balance, though.

00:28:01.100 I mean, having an oligopoly is always challenging. 0.99

00:28:03.360 it's only a little bit better than a monopoly, but it's not as good as having a very diverse

00:28:07.920 number of suppliers. But also, though, being a very large supplier does allow some of them to

00:28:13.880 take advantage of economies of scale, and that's part of what keeps prices down. So, you know,

00:28:20.040 achieving the balance of allowing these large operators to kind of move large volumes and keep

00:28:24.920 consumer products low versus swinging their weight around too hard because they're big is going to be

00:28:30.760 difficult. Economies and scales are absolutely critical to keep prices down. You're absolutely

00:28:36.240 right, Corey. Well, when it comes to food, you also need variety to increase competition. And

00:28:41.760 right now, let's face it, we have five companies selling the same stuff at a different price.

00:28:47.700 I mean, Canada has the seventh most consolidated food distribution industry in the world.

00:28:54.240 in the world. So we have a problem. And both Australia and the UK both recognize that problem.

00:29:03.280 They're in the same boat as we are. And they actually did go ahead with a mandatory code of

00:29:07.260 conduct. And when you look at some of the prices, it's not killing inflation. You don't want to

00:29:13.200 kill inflation, but prices are much more stable. And guess what? Food processing is actually much

00:29:18.140 more, I would say, versatile. And I know that in Alberta in particular, where you are, the food

00:29:24.900 processing industry is becoming more and more vibrant. And if you want to actually give them

00:29:30.720 a chance, talk to any suppliers out there. They'll tell you it's a tough go. It's really tough

00:29:36.660 to make it happen. They have to sell their stuff to the US or elsewhere to actually make it happen.

00:29:42.040 And they can't rely on the Canadian market.

00:29:45.220 And so if you do that, independent grocers like Calgary Co-op, for example, or Co-op, Co-op stores, they're looking for variety.

00:29:55.460 They're looking for different products.

00:29:57.740 Different products you would find at Walmart and Loblaw.

00:30:00.740 And so with the code, I actually think you can actually give a chance to suppliers to develop different markets instead of being at the mercy of the big ones.

00:30:10.520 Well, and that would be a good outcome. Absolutely. I mean, the other outcome we want to see then is more variety of retailers, you know, within an affordable level. Now, the federal government has talked about reaching out and trying to get others to move in. But unfortunately, I think they've sort of salted their own field because they've been so rough on the existing retailers who wants to move into this environment.

00:30:32.860 But maybe if some of the vitriol can be cooled down and some of the pressure, maybe we can draw in some other retailers to help broaden that market a little.

00:30:42.860 Well, I mean, I think you raise a good point, Corey.

00:30:45.380 I mean, that campaign to attract more retailers was a complete disaster.

00:30:51.180 I mean, on the one side, you're calling for grocers to come to Canada and invest, while market conditions just discourage anyone to come to Canada.

00:31:01.680 I mean, GDP per capita is down compared to the U.S.

00:31:05.820 When you look at retail sales, food retail sales score are lower in constant dollars than in 2017 in Canada.

00:31:14.680 Who would want to invest in Canada?

00:31:16.860 Meanwhile, grocers like Save on Foods and TNT are investing in the U.S.

00:31:22.800 Canadian grocers are going to the U.S.

00:31:26.460 Why?

00:31:27.320 Because the U.S. is more interesting.

00:31:29.320 It's a more interesting market to invest.

00:31:31.680 ottawa's role is to make canada an interesting place to invest and i think the code will do that

00:31:39.360 over time not right away but over time so don't call for grocers just make sure you

00:31:45.600 enable conditions to make canada an entrance interesting place to invest well yeah it kind

00:31:51.520 of comes back to that if you build it they will come i mean if it's a place where they can see

00:31:56.000 some growth opportunities for them some returns for their shareholders i mean business will go

00:32:00.720 there it's they'll naturally gravitate to it and don't forget glory what's different between say

00:32:06.160 the oil industry pharmaceuticals and the food industry is that food is all about high volume

00:32:11.920 and extremely low margins which makes the industry a little different than any other

00:32:18.160 so when you when when i hear colleagues say well we need economy scales we need

00:32:22.960 so what if we have an oligopoly it's it's power to the the the strongest and the smartest it's

00:32:29.920 true all that is true and i agree mark capitalism is a great thing but when it comes to food the

00:32:37.280 problem with food is that you got rural canada being really hammered a lot of towns in alberta

00:32:44.880 and elsewhere just don't have more than one grocer and canada is a unique place because of

00:32:51.680 of its topography so you need to kind of be careful with how you support the industry overall

00:32:58.000 But I would say that, I mean, after the Code of Conduct, what you need to settle are interprovincial barriers.

00:33:06.560 That are the worst, and that discourages any investments to come to Canada.

00:33:11.840 Well, that's a whole other show subject on its own.

00:33:15.100 Absolutely.

00:33:15.880 Exactly.

00:33:16.520 I've said that before.

00:33:17.460 People are always talking about free trade with other countries.

00:33:19.460 Well, we don't even have free trade within our provinces right now, which does make it difficult for any industry that spans provincial borders.

00:33:28.000 But a low-hanging fruit for you, Corey, for the CRA, the Canada Revenue Agency, we are taxing right now 4,600 different food products.

00:33:40.180 Why the hell are we taxing food in Canada retail?

00:33:44.320 I have no idea.

00:33:45.880 And so that's a low-hanging fruit.

00:33:48.020 You can overnight change all that and stop taxing food so people can have access to salads and sandwiches at the grocery store.

00:33:55.840 But right now, because of shrinkflation, more and more food is being taxed because they are considered snacks due to a smaller size than before.

00:34:06.920 So just changing that could actually make food more affordable in Canada.

00:34:10.520 All that money is going to Ottawa.

00:34:11.960 It's not going to businesses.

00:34:14.820 Yeah, so you touched on that quickly.

00:34:17.440 Because of the bizarre, well, welcome to tax codes and bureaucracy and rules, they've set their, some could say, arbitrary or realistic.

00:34:23.800 okay if it's over this size it means it's a food item if it's below this size it must be a snack

00:34:29.000 thus it's eligible for taxes the reality is though people are sometimes buying smaller commodities

00:34:34.520 and maybe shopping more often just because they feel that you know that's the way they can manage

00:34:38.360 their budget rather than bulk buying it and yeah they're getting punished for it uh it's

00:34:44.520 exactly and a lot of people don't know it like so for example if you if you buy granola bars and

00:34:49.000 there's six granola bars in the box that's not taxable if you go down to five and most of them

00:34:54.920 have gone down to five that's taxable your ice cream jar if it's under 500 mil it's taxable

00:35:02.840 it's the same product it's ridiculous all that money is going to ottawa not at lobla not at the

00:35:09.320 lot going to ottawa but no politicians will want to talk about that no and i hadn't thought about

00:35:14.680 it myself i appreciate that's increasing the cost of food yes and and then there's a lot of the

00:35:22.760 political discussion what's been going on we certainly don't have time to go into the carbon

00:35:26.040 tax but areas where ottawa really could bring down some some food prices to people uh if they

00:35:33.160 backed off but i mean one of the quick responses a person will always give as well if ottawa backed

00:35:37.160 off the grocers just won't drop the prices anyways and they'll pocket the difference but

00:35:41.000 But again, that comes down to if it's a competitive market, that won't happen.

00:35:45.500 Exactly.

00:35:46.240 And the other thing, the reason why I think that argument is weak is that people don't know.

00:35:51.580 They don't look at their receipts.

00:35:53.740 When you actually go to a grocery store, you don't look at your receipt.

00:35:57.460 So that tax is kind of hidden, but you still have to pay for it.

00:36:01.860 So when you go home and you look at the bottom line, that total, you're going to blame Galen Wesson.

00:36:08.780 You're not going to blame Justin Trudeau.

00:36:11.000 No, that's part of the problem when you're on the front line. I used to own a pub and a cafe and it's another narrow margin food related business. And you're the one who hear it from the consumer, though, when the price goes up, whether I had to raise the price of my beer or my coffee or anything, it's just because you're the face that they deal with when they open their wallet. So that's where the retailers have kind of, to a degree, kind of unfairly gotten beaten on over this whole affair.

00:36:35.580 I would say so. Now, I think we're actually close to the end of this ridiculous campaign against grocers. I actually think, are they blameless? No. I mean, they've done some, well, let's face it, they've done some stupid things. And I'm thinking about the bread price fixing scandal, for example, and there are some rumors about other things.

00:36:56.080 And frankly, corporate bonuses, $22 million, I don't know.

00:37:01.940 You may want to work on your PR, Loblaw trying to end their expiring food discount, for example, while food inflation was at 10%.

00:37:14.360 They've done some ridiculous thing, and so they do deserve some criticism.

00:37:21.020 But at the end of the day, food inflation is way more complicated than that.

00:37:25.060 And what I find quite dishonest from some politicians is to point fingers at industry when in reality, a lot of inflation has been policy-driven, really.

00:37:38.880 And so you need to look yourself in the mirror and see what else you can do to make food more affordable instead of blaming and getting CEOs to Ottawa and accusing them of making too much money.

00:37:52.080 Yeah, they certainly haven't done themselves any favors on the public front sometimes with their practice.

00:37:59.760 Their PR strategy has been a disaster for grocers.

00:38:02.660 I mean, it's just been, hasn't been good.

00:38:04.920 I mean, you want to be careful when you, like Loblaw's approach has always been, let's do it, don't tell anyone, people won't notice.

00:38:15.880 Well, with social media, you can't get away with that anymore.

00:38:18.900 I'm sorry.

00:38:19.420 No, well, and I appreciate you coming on and being out there on social media to break that down.

00:38:25.620 As I said, I learned something new yet again.

00:38:27.580 I hadn't really thought of that with the new taxes we're getting out of the strigflation.

00:38:31.360 We've got something breaking here.

00:38:32.400 And I won't charge you tuition, Corey.

00:38:34.880 Don't worry.

00:38:35.620 It's all free.

00:38:38.120 Thanks.

00:38:38.820 Typically, I'm a terrible student.

00:38:42.340 So before I let you go, I'd appreciate, again, your patience with the internet outage.

00:38:46.920 We need more competition and providers there, too.

00:38:48.820 But that's a difference.

00:38:49.320 Yes, bravo.

00:38:51.560 Where can people see your work and keep track of what's going on out there with us, Mr. Charlemagne?

00:38:58.840 Yeah, absolutely.

00:38:59.740 You can either, I mean, on social media, we're pretty active.

00:39:03.440 We have our own account, the Agri-Food Analyst Lab at Dalhousie University.

00:39:08.300 You can follow me at the Food Professor on X and on LinkedIn.

00:39:14.300 And we also, of course, have our own website on the Dalhousie University website.

00:39:20.040 Just Google Agri-Food Analytics Lab, Dalhousie University, and you'll find all of our research.

00:39:25.980 And our research is free, of course, in both English and French.

00:39:30.860 Excellent. Well, thank you very much.

00:39:32.600 And it was good to have some good news, too, with, you know, the price rises getting into a manageable position where they should be right now.

00:39:38.780 And with the grocery code of conduct, hopefully stabilizing things further.

00:39:43.520 So thank you again for coming on.

00:39:46.200 I hope we can have you on again soon.

00:39:47.920 Before I forget, my thoughts are with the people of Jasper.

00:39:52.000 I know it's been tough over the last few days.

00:39:54.380 So all the best to them.

00:39:56.440 Great. Thank you.

00:39:57.240 Yeah, we're all hoping for the best out there.

00:39:59.360 Absolutely.

00:40:00.680 All right. Take care.

00:40:02.000 Bye again soon.

00:40:03.300 So again, he's always great when he comes on.

00:40:05.520 He's on radio all the time.

00:40:07.100 He's very prolific and shares such fantastic information with us.

00:40:10.880 So, again, that's Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, and he's known as the food professor and really, you know, gets to the root of things on an important issue.

00:40:19.040 We all got to buy food. There's no getting away from that one.

00:40:21.840 All right. Well, let's get on to our business and energy fella here in the studio.

00:40:26.700 There shouldn't be any technical issues. I don't have far between you and myself.

00:40:30.120 Sean Polzer, how's it going?

00:40:32.040 It's going well. Thank you.

00:40:33.500 Good. So you just came in from a presser, did you?

00:40:36.120 Yeah, Calgary's got its first EV firetruck.

00:40:42.360 Well, you know, being a firetruck, I just hope it doesn't fail.

00:40:47.560 I mean, you know, it's just so important.

00:40:50.900 Well, this one is, so basically it's a testing program for the manufacturer,

00:40:56.120 and they're trying to get some data to inform real-world conditions,

00:41:00.760 so that would be like minus 40.

00:41:02.460 So there's no upfront cost to taxpayers on it,

00:41:05.220 And it's just, they're going to gather some data and they're going to share it.

00:41:08.360 It's a five-year thing.

00:41:09.580 They kind of get a loaner.

00:41:11.040 Well, you know, don't get your backup if you're getting a free one for the time being.

00:41:14.940 Well, and if it stalls, I mean.

00:41:16.400 As long as you have a good truck behind it to deal with it.

00:41:19.120 If it doesn't have.

00:41:20.180 It's got diesel backup.

00:41:21.360 But it just kind of struck me that consumers don't get this opportunity to, you know, try before you buy.

00:41:27.960 No.

00:41:28.480 Well, Edmonton tried electric buses.

00:41:29.860 How'd that all go?

00:41:30.640 That was a disaster. 0.79

00:41:32.500 And Toronto did electric ambulances.

00:41:34.660 and that was a disaster vancouver paid straight up front for theirs and i don't know if it's been

00:41:40.820 a disaster but i don't think it's really done much of anything to be honest but well that's

00:41:46.180 that's the rush with those what else is going on in our business world out there well we had

00:41:50.260 an interesting story yesterday about uh harley davidson so i don't know if you know this fellow

00:41:54.660 robbie starbuck he's been going around he targeted uh tractor supply and john deere he's been nailing

00:42:00.180 all those DEI, uh, anyway, so now he's going after Harley Davidson of all people. And there's

00:42:06.600 a very extreme long laundry list of, uh, violations, you know?

00:42:12.300 Well, it's just, I mean, we can see it in a trendy industry fashion or as I said, Starbucks

00:42:17.460 or whatever, but I can't believe the boards thinking with, you know, when you look at

00:42:21.520 the client base, okay, bikers, farmers, Bud Light drinkers, what's the matter with you

00:42:27.360 fools they don't want to look at a bunch of you know woke crap well and it's not what their

00:42:33.280 customers want and that's exactly what he's saying he's saying he's not attacking anybody what he

00:42:37.680 what he wants to do is force his company to be basically accountable to the people that are

00:42:41.900 spending their money right and if they and if they don't like it and they don't buy it then

00:42:45.880 it's so much the worst for them oh it's up to the consumers that's for sure but

00:42:50.560 now that mr starbucks exposing it then i suspect harley might be re-evaluating some of their

00:42:55.760 considerations. It would probably make sense. I don't know how the AJ are going to handle those.

00:43:02.680 I just can't see a drag queen Hell's Angel, but you never know that the world is changing. But 0.98

00:43:08.620 I think we'll let the organizations choose that for themselves rather than Harley Davidson trying

00:43:12.540 to push it down. And one other story that we're following here is about 10% of Alberta's oil

00:43:19.760 production is wildfires. They're within about 10 kilometers of about 10% of Alberta's oil

00:43:27.280 production. So we're talking about 400, 450,000 barrels a day potentially that could be offline.

00:43:34.660 Companies have been evacuating non-essential personnel, but to this point, they haven't

00:43:38.900 really had to shut in anything. Well, that's good. Yeah, the facilities,

00:43:44.160 and people realize too, if they haven't been up north, typically there's going to be some

00:43:48.160 pretty good buffer areas around the lease sites. The pipelines are buried. The risers have

00:43:52.380 some stuff spread out so that the fire doesn't necessarily impact them as people would think it

00:43:57.540 would. Absolutely. So the last major one was in 216 when basically Fort McMurray burned to the

00:44:03.760 ground. So Suncor had to file a disclosure report last year that said if there was a repeat and they

00:44:10.760 had to shut down its main mine, it would cost probably on the order of about $56 million a day.

00:44:15.040 that's some big money and that's just one outfit that's just one yeah right we got anything else

00:44:20.480 while i got you or you're uh i think that's about all i can really think of off the top of my head

00:44:24.940 i just wanted to thank you for all the amylite uh curry likes rocks and stones and i do too and

00:44:31.280 yeah hey i don't give it free to everybody out there but i had some access and somebody else

00:44:36.280 who loves alberta's official gemstone amylite alberta's official gemstone comes from the bear

00:44:40.540 formation which was the fracking formation that they get the oil and gas from near St. Mary's

00:44:46.300 River and it's beautiful stuff and I just want to say thank you very much. Oh no problem hoping to

00:44:51.240 work some good stones out of it. Thank you. All right that is our business and energy writer Sean

00:44:56.060 Polzer covering all that stuff local and afar. You know it brings to mind a funny when we think

00:45:01.840 of Harley and we think of Woke I used to own that pub in Prittis and you get a diverse crowd of

00:45:06.300 clientele. And down the road from Prittis is the Azuridge Hotel, which is a very, very high-end

00:45:12.320 hotel that used to have actually a butler school. And there were butlers who would come. They

00:45:16.800 couldn't drink after work at the hotel. They'd come to our pub to have a drink and some chicken

00:45:20.960 wings or whatever else. And I just remember, because we used to get a really mixed crowd of

00:45:25.380 people, and I got a lot of bikers there. I mean, we're in an area just out in the foothills. We

00:45:29.120 get some, you know, big, scary-looking bikers in their Harleys. They're usually great,

00:45:32.240 good customers. And they'd sit out. But one day on the patio, there were all of our big burly

00:45:37.500 bikers out there. And here was a couple of the butlers from Asuridge, just something else to be

00:45:43.760 said is most of the butlers tended to be gay. That's just the way it was. And one of them was

00:45:48.040 a fantastic young man and very, very flamboyant. And they were all having beer, bikers and these

00:45:55.380 butlers on the patio together, having a good time, laughing, drinking, doing shooters. It was just a

00:46:00.740 surreal scene you wouldn't expect to see now and then. You know, very different cultures just

00:46:06.040 having a good time together. I thought it was fantastic, actually. So yeah, you never know,

00:46:12.600 you know, don't make assumptions with people. There's more tolerance out there than other

00:46:15.740 realize. They were just a bunch of people from different worlds having a drink together and

00:46:19.140 having a good time. But at the same time, yeah, if you're a Harley, if you are Harley Davidson,

00:46:25.020 And you've got to remember, the bulk of your clientele aren't interested in woke stuff.

00:46:31.260 Come on.

00:46:31.800 I mean, look at the picture there on it. 0.99

00:46:33.360 Yes, it's, you know, this is bikers. 1.00

00:46:37.520 It's just not their thing. 1.00

00:46:39.760 But this DEI, and people have pointed out, you know, the ones who are going, it gets

00:46:45.220 into how woke and foolish our post-secondary is getting.

00:46:48.480 And that's why we're seeing it in the oil field.

00:46:49.680 That's where we're seeing it in Harley-Davidson.

00:46:51.520 That's why we saw it with Bud Light.

00:46:52.460 the ones who went through the school with the woke professors and the fools and so on indoctrinated

00:46:57.620 with all that crap graduated managed to move up the corporate scrotum pole and get themselves

00:47:02.720 into those positions of marketing and communications and so on with these major companies

00:47:07.900 and they don't really know what the hell they're talking about they're from a cloistered world they

00:47:12.840 didn't come up through the ranks of reality on who they're marketing to and what they're doing

00:47:17.720 and they feel that their junk marketing that they were taught will apply to the products they're

00:47:25.180 selling. And they're learning very much the hard way right now that no, it doesn't work. We've

00:47:31.420 seen that with other funds and retirement things and so on. The bottom line, when it comes to a

00:47:36.920 company, there's only one role. One. Make money. That's it. Make a profit for your investors.

00:47:45.900 That's their role.

00:47:47.340 It doesn't mean you have to be a bad citizen.

00:47:50.420 It doesn't mean you have to be cutthroat.

00:47:52.240 It doesn't mean you have to be nasty.

00:47:53.240 In fact, lots of companies market themselves just on being generally good citizens,

00:47:58.840 but still focus on making money because that's what they're supposed to do.

00:48:03.860 We're in this stupid world, stupid world, it really is,

00:48:07.740 where companies are expected to apologize for making profits,

00:48:10.820 when they're pulled to the carpet for having made money.

00:48:14.400 That gets back to what Dr. Charlebois was talking about.

00:48:16.140 They actually pulled the grocers in to explain themselves because they made, get this, 4% profit.

00:48:21.840 And they got pulled in front of a parliamentary committee and treated like garbage because they made 4%.

00:48:27.100 If anything, they should be pulled before the investor saying, why didn't you make more?

00:48:32.260 That's their job.

00:48:33.180 Their job isn't to take part in woke things.

00:48:35.680 Their job isn't to facilitate social engineering.

00:48:38.460 It isn't to change public hearts and minds on social issues.

00:48:42.500 It doesn't mean you can't take part in charities and things like that and everything else.

00:48:45.740 But in the end of it all, the job is to make money for your shareholders and never apologize for it.

00:48:51.860 So these clowns in these DEI departments, it was beautiful to see Microsoft got rid of the entire department of these DEI,

00:48:58.960 and that's Diversion, Equity, Inclusion, because they realized this is stupid.

00:49:02.980 We're burning money. It's garbage. It's not doing us any favors.

00:49:07.560 So they got rid of it.

00:49:08.600 Somebody, you know, the buck eventually does stop because you just can't pay these clowns forever.

00:49:13.500 Twitter, X, you know, when Musk bought it, he did fantastic in that he just laid off, what, 75% of the staff.

00:49:20.980 Most of them were in that sort of crap category.

00:49:23.580 The garbage had built like a pipe that hasn't been snaked in too long, and it needed to be flushed out.

00:49:29.380 You know, these hires that aren't actually doing anything functional, they just fit trying to push for these ridiculous categories and ideas and notions.

00:49:36.320 So that's a good news story, seeing that, you know, Starbucks going after and exposing these companies, and then leave it to them, leave it to the customers, leave it to the shareholders to decide what they want to do.

00:49:44.700 But in the end, the saying of go woke, go broke tends to apply, and a lot of companies are finally starting to learn it.

00:49:52.220 So let's see, you know, Wildrose saying not profits, excessive profit while food banks are overwhelmed.

00:49:59.180 Well, Wildrose, 4% is an excessive profit.

00:50:02.560 It's not.

00:50:03.020 It's not even close.

00:50:04.420 Food banks are overwhelmed.

00:50:05.640 that's a whole separate issue. That's a whole separate issue altogether, but has nothing to

00:50:10.140 do with the grocers. Nothing. They can't go lower. That's the reality. Either way, thank you all for

00:50:16.920 tuning in and hanging in there through that little bit of a hiccup we had with our streaming service.

00:50:21.260 We really appreciate it. Make sure again, guys, westernstandard.news slash subscription to get on

00:50:26.620 there, get the stuff as it's breaking, get past the paywall and help support us and our reporters

00:50:31.880 to keep things rolling.

00:50:33.320 Tune into the pipeline tonight.

00:50:34.980 It'll be on with a whole much more issues

00:50:36.540 for us to break down

00:50:37.600 and come back next week.

00:50:39.440 We'll have our internet backups up

00:50:41.020 and we'll do another full show all over again.

00:50:43.460 And I appreciate you all.

00:50:45.580 So see you all then.

00:50:47.160 And hey, let's all pull for Jasper, guys.

00:50:50.420 Thanks.

00:51:01.880 We'll see you next time.

00:51:31.880 You

Western Standard - July 25, 2024

Make some space in Canada’s hospitals

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