00:00:29.980and welcome to the Cory Morgan Show. It's December. It's winter out there. It sucks.
00:00:35.680There's snow everywhere. You can't make me like it. I'm never going to like it. I'm counting down
00:00:39.980the days to when I hide out down in Arizona. That's one of the news things that's been
00:00:43.500happening lately, actually. Oh, and our publisher, Derek Fildebrand, as you can see, it's a busy
00:00:48.120news day. He's been pacing and ranting and raving back there in this newsroom behind me. This is
00:00:52.800where it's nice to hide out in the studio while this sort of stuff going on. Like I said, one of
00:00:57.180those things going on is a lot of Canadians the vacation numbers are up in Canada and they're
00:01:01.540down in the states and of course they're saying that's all due to all the elbows up sort of stuff
00:01:05.900well maybe a little bit most of it's due to our crappy dollar I'm afraid but it's not stopping me
00:01:11.860I'm gonna hide out down there especially you gotta see I gotta take a break from that
00:01:14.640raving madman pacing back and forth behind me talking about news items I'm gonna have uh one
00:01:20.060of our news guys from that newsroom Dave Wienick he's gonna come on and talk about a few things
00:01:24.040going on out there. It's a busy, busy day in politics and in general. And I'll kick things
00:01:29.400off starting with, let's talk about that memorandum of understanding, MOU. Now,
00:01:36.980Burtons are rightly skeptical of this MOU signed between Premier Daniel Smith and Prime Minister
00:01:42.700Mark Carney to build a new pipeline to the Pacific Coast. That skepticism morphed into hostile
00:01:48.000cynicism last weekend as Smith found herself booed at her very own AGM in Edmonton at the
00:01:53.140mention of the agreement. Considering the message from Ottawa on the issue though, why on earth should
00:01:57.700Albertans believe for a second that Kearney genuinely wants a pipeline developed? If Kearney
00:02:03.980truly supports what the MOU proposes, he'll come right out and address the misinformation surrounding
00:02:09.020the proposed project. He has to make it abundantly clear that neither the province of BC nor the
00:02:14.500Indigenous bands within it have veto authority over the project. So far he's refused to do so.
00:02:19.540This isn't a matter of opinion. It's a matter of the Canadian constitution. Interprovincial
00:02:23.920infrastructure is federal domain. BC has no more authority to block a pipeline from Alberta
00:02:29.220than Alberta the authority to block a railway line from BC. It's a consideration, isn't it?
00:02:36.080David Eby's blustering opposition has no power behind it constitutionally. He should be reminded
00:02:40.920of that. More importantly, though, Indigenous bands have no veto authority over any projects.
00:02:46.660Canada's constitution obligates the nation to consult, consult with Indigenous bands if any projects are proposed that may impact treaty rights.
00:02:55.500A pipeline doesn't even impact treaty rights unless it crosses treaty land.
00:02:59.220No treaties for a lot of that BC, is there?
00:03:00.900But either way, consult the Indigenous folks is still a nice gesture.
00:03:04.440Particularly those who might live near the right-of-way, that's fine.
00:03:07.360After consultation, though, there's no further obligations.
00:03:09.760whether it's with pipelines or provincial independence, there's been this pervasive
00:03:13.280myth surrounding the veto abilities of native bands. To be blunt, they haven't got them.
00:03:18.120Native reserves aren't sovereign nations, no matter what they like to call themselves,
00:03:21.580and their consent's not required to develop land. And this has been affirmed by the Supreme Court
00:03:26.140numerous times. Political cowardice has become so entrenched with this issue,
00:03:30.880liberal government members have been forced to apologize for telling the truth. No way,
00:03:34.740it doesn't happen very often, apologies or them telling the truth. But recently,
00:03:38.020in a rare demonstration of personal principles, Justice Minister Sean Fraser dared to utter the
00:03:43.520truth that Indigenous people have no veto power over the projects. Within 24 hours, Fraser issued
00:03:49.360a groveling apology for telling the truth. Currently, Liberal MP and Parliamentary Secretary
00:03:55.100for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation, I think that's a mouthful to get this name,
00:03:59.980Tlaib Nurul Mohamed, has been saying on social media and in a CBC interview that Indigenous
00:04:05.260his consent is required to get a pipeline constructed, constructed, instructed. So far
00:04:10.660Talib's claims have gone unchallenged by the Prime Minister's office. So is he a rogue MP or is he
00:04:14.760speaking for the party? Liberal disciplines usually tight when their members go off message, yet
00:04:18.880Talib's carrying on without hindrance. Premier Daniel Smith's taking a lot of heat from her
00:04:23.560party membership over signing a deal that attaches many conditions upon Alberta's industries
00:04:27.500and it appears unlikely the pipeline might ever be approved. She must demand the Prime Minister
00:04:33.220clarifies whether he expects consent from Indigenous bands in the province of BC to get
00:04:36.800the job done. No humming and hawing, no weasel words, just a yes or no answer. If the answer is
00:04:41.860that he expects consent from Indigenous bands in the province, Smith might as well use the MOU for
00:04:45.400toilet paper since that's all the value it has. There'll never be consensus and if the Prime
00:04:50.220Minister abdicates his role as the central authority on these issues, we're all just wasting
00:04:54.020each other's time. Respectful and meaningful consultation is important. Indigenous citizens
00:04:58.700must have their concerns heard and addressed when reasonably possible. Having their participation
00:05:03.640in projects is great too, and many will. Not all of them are going to approve though, and rest
00:05:08.360assured environmental activists will elevate them to some fabricated hereditary roles and use them
00:05:13.100as props for the opposition. The federal government must be firm in stating that the project will
00:05:18.260continue despite some opponents, but so far it's been as firm as a piece of overcooked spaghetti
00:05:23.640on the issue. Look, no private investor is going to touch the project without assurances of it
00:05:28.420being completed. No companies are going to expand production in Alberta without expanded ability to
00:05:33.000get their products to market. Then it's going to be truly time for Albertans to ask what the point
00:05:38.120is in remaining in Confederation. Really, what's the point? Let's put it to a referendum. I mean,
00:05:42.280the province can't become any more landlocked than it already is, can it? All right, that's
00:05:46.800what's going to be going. Let's check in with the news editor. Here we go. Lots to talk about this
00:05:49.760week. How's it going, Dave? Good. Thanks for giving me a place to hide. Yes. I think he may have gone
00:05:54.280back in his office now so yeah yeah yeah i see the feet on the desk from here oh excellent excellent
00:05:59.320hey edmonton was a good time it was the stories of you uh as the western standard hospitality
00:06:05.160suite doorman yes will become legendary in this time my my scowling face i took my old bar owner
00:06:10.920skills and applied them to the west i see your bracelet you said f you says the guy one left you
00:06:17.480and the fight was on i didn't hit him no you didn't hit him you chased after him i did i
00:06:22.600kicked a couple people out yeah and it was a long day a long night and then we had to drive all the
00:06:27.160way back and you finally got to sit in your recliner to watch your steelers oh gosh oh man
00:06:32.840yeah i didn't need to rush back to watch that uh garbage yeah yeah and what about the seal oh they
00:06:40.760won they thrashed minnesota vikings making them look like a high school team yes well
00:06:46.760let your sea chickens have a year and then there you go hey i hear a funny story that um
00:06:52.600apparently squirrels have eaten all your security
00:16:46.880Or has somebody as terrible and incompetent as David Eby going to manage to get four more years just because the Conservatives can't get it together?
00:22:28.900So there's other clauses, things that you mentioned in your story, like buy Canadian.
00:22:32.700I mean, some of the materials and everything, it's going to...
00:22:34.640Steel. The whole thing's Canadian steel.
00:22:36.740I mean, you just look what happened here just recently with Algoma just laying off a thousand employees and whatnot.
00:22:41.420And the whole steel industry at the moment, if I remember right.
00:22:44.640I think it was Algoma got $500 million in government cash here recently, so now they're laying off 1,000 people.
00:22:49.960And obviously, I mean, Canada historically is kind of a, how would I put it?
00:22:53.620Basically, we've exported, I think, over half of our output.
00:22:56.660Usually about 90% of that goes to the Americans.
00:22:59.900But at this time as well, I think that if I remember, if I'm reading this correctly,
00:23:03.640I think specialized pipeline steel capacity needs about $6 million to $1 billion in new investment
00:23:08.320at the exact time that a bunch of Canadian mills like Algoma are shutting down and basically getting rid of workers.
00:23:13.940So I don't really know how the whole steel thing by Canadian steel is going to really work because the costs are just going to go up when everything's tightened, supplies tightening.
00:23:21.040So that's another thing that you kind of have to read in between the lines on this MOU, because they do say that they kind of want to promote Canadian steel, but it doesn't specify that they have to.
00:23:29.680Well, it might be a selling point a bit.
00:23:31.100I mean, there's opposition across the country in battles going on.
00:23:59.660And we obviously know what the whole thing is with coal in Canada.
00:24:01.980Just recently, the Coal Association of Canada actually sent a statement to the government because they want metallurgical coal designated as a critical mineral in Canada, just like it is in the United States.
00:24:12.880So we'll have to see how much red tape needs to be waded through before that actually comes about.
00:24:17.680Yeah, lots of complexity going on with it.
00:24:22.340I mean, the metallurgical coal has been a big issue in southern Alberta and whether or not we're going to start mining or not.
00:24:27.760Yeah, on the eastern slopes, yeah, there's still all that going on.
00:24:29.760referendum on that coming up uh soon there's a possibility yeah we'll see i see a question from a
00:24:35.280uh listener there uh jackal and saying why does a rail line strictly in alberta have to go through
00:24:39.600the major projects office but um because it would go into the national park it does yeah it is going
00:24:46.080into another province obviously because well the main route that they want to do is out to prince
00:24:49.760rupert and that so i think yeah i think that's the main reason why i would have to go through
00:24:53.040an actual federal major that's the pipe actually i'm sorry i took i was i'm switching oh you're
00:24:56.880talking to the rail. I told you I was going to throw you for a loop somewhere anyway.
00:25:00.080So the rail line, you know, but it's going through the major projects office. And I'm guessing though,
00:25:05.280again, perhaps the fact that it goes into the building. Yeah, it's the building as well under
00:25:08.800the criteria, I should say, under the Building Canada Act, as well as why it has to go through
00:25:13.120that. So it has to have federal approval because as you said, it goes through the national park.
00:25:16.400Yeah. Okay. So that's part of it. You're talking about the pipeline,
00:25:19.440have pipelines on the mine. Yeah. Well, they're both big projects, potentially going,
00:25:23.200one might have a better chance than the other. That will use a lot of steel as well. I mean,
00:25:26.320absolutely are moving along so uh what else have you got in the cooker right now what are you
00:25:32.020working on oh well there is something that'll be coming out shortly i'll just say that has to deal
00:25:36.440with um the uh recall nicolaitis campaign shall we say that'll be coming out here shortly because
00:25:41.080there's as you know there's a whole bunch i think now it's up to 14 recall campaigns or whatnot for
00:25:46.040um targeting um ucp mlas across the province obviously and now there's one just this morning
00:25:50.400that was um targeting uh premier daniel smith and her writing as well yeah well in my view at least
00:25:54.980with that one it indicates just how they're using this just to to mess with the system i mean anybody
00:25:59.780with common sense knows you've got to get what 60 of those who voted in the last election to sign
00:26:06.020saying they want her out yeah and then you hold another vote and if it's a yes then you have a
00:26:11.680by-election you have a by-election this is brooks medicine hat i mean uh you know you could run a
00:26:17.700tree stump with the ucp banner hanging off of it gonna win so and they know that yeah they're just
00:26:23.840spinning the wheels i mean it's people got to realize too to get a you know the reporting on
00:26:28.120these as if they're done deals for these recalls i mean all a person has to do is fill out a form
00:26:31.600and and put in a deposit and the recalls starts oh absolutely that's the thing and i mean a bunch
00:26:36.820of them if you look at some of the recall the actual petitions a bunch of them it's clearly
00:26:40.400just politically motivated has nothing to do with the actual mla in that riding and what they've
00:26:45.460been doing for the job because some of them are doing a fairly good job for the most part from
00:26:49.260a bunch of the people i've talked to in certain ridings and as well it seems as well that some
00:26:52.740of these the first recall campaigns seem to be targeting ridings where the last race in the last
00:26:57.080election was fairly close so they might have something there as well yeah well the nickel
00:27:00.940ladies one was fairly close and and he was he is the education minister so i mean that is the hot
00:27:08.260button well that was notwithstanding clause was the big thing obviously sending the teachers back
00:27:12.060after the strike and whatnot a lot of people were mad about that there's some people that you could
00:27:16.060say um maybe anti-oil and gas activists shall we say are taking advantage of this that could be one
00:27:22.260little thing that we might be talking about later okay well we'll be watching for that I mean that's
00:27:27.460part of this whole thing I mean the intent of this legislation it was to get you know if you've got
00:27:32.180a an MLA who's had some mental health issues it's happened before things like that or committed a
00:27:38.220crime but hasn't been convicted or something really beyond the pale or if it turns out it's
00:27:42.280like a senator you know way back in the day we had uh what was his name Andy Thompson I think it was
00:27:47.500he was hiding in mexico for his whole time in the senate oh there was a video he wouldn't even come
00:27:52.960to canada you know just to show up and and even vote and yeah no way to get rid of him as a senate
00:27:59.520but those are the things that recall was supposed to be for you know when you just can't handle
00:28:02.920them anymore i don't see anybody in the legislature right now that we couldn't survive two years
00:28:07.400without the chance to vote again yeah no exactly i agree 100 but no i just think it's like you said
00:28:12.180like it's the intentions are well and good but i think a lot of people will just take advantage of
00:28:16.480and use it for their own personal gain yeah which sucks because i mean what might happen then is the
00:28:20.400government is going to repeal or dramatically tweak it back to where it was where it makes it
00:28:23.600fully impossible to have a you know recall and oh exactly like that old saying goes you know this
00:28:27.600is why we can't have nice things that's exactly it well i don't know i'm mixed on it i hope they
00:28:32.800don't succeed and get rid of the legislation i think they should let it go and let a bunch of
00:28:36.400them fail i mean it's a lot of resources and effort people don't understand how hard it is
00:29:06.780Yeah, well, I haven't been liking where they've been there lately.
00:29:08.420I was just curious how many do you think any of these will actually succeed any of these recall petitions if they allow the outside union and let's not beat around the bush their union people if they allow it to happen for them to get on the ground and pound the pavement that hard maybe you know a couple of them could happen if it really is as the intent is supposed to be the people who live in that constituency doing it themselves volunteering
00:29:32.600themselves getting out and getting those signatures i think it's really unlikely because i don't think
00:29:36.760any of those mlas have done anything that yeah maybe one in the urban area but none of the ones
00:29:40.520in rural areas like grand prairie or something i find it hard to believe that that would actually
00:29:44.440go through and it depends on how informed the person is like with this kind of campaign you
00:29:48.520know part of it with fabio or also known as casick uh and his you know let's uh have a status quo
00:29:55.160referendum but what they did was set up an urban center so they could pack people in from all
00:30:00.040directions to work on it and and everything else uh and they had nice weather that's a big thing
00:30:05.880because they set up a lot of farmers markets and sporting events and anywhere you can get a large
00:30:10.440gathering of people with a recall one you can't do that you say even if you could set up at a
00:30:15.480farmer's market well you don't know who's from in your constituency or not you got to be really
00:30:18.920careful with that uh otherwise you don't have those you've got to go door to door yeah and
00:30:24.280that's a lot of work that's tough yeah yeah gotta have a lot of volunteers for that too i'm not the
00:30:28.360the one sweating it in the government offices, you know, with one or two of these might happen
00:30:32.580and embarrass them or whatnot, but I don't think you should just let it go and let it fail. But
00:30:36.380watch like a hawk. As soon as you see that bus full of union maggots coming in,
00:30:40.360well, sorry, done, not happening. I 100% agree with you. Here's the process. Well,
00:30:44.600geez, well, that's no fun. Better when people disagree. We'll have opportunity enough that
00:30:49.680you've shaken off your hangover from the AGM. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I think me and the rest of the
00:30:54.840staff had a pretty good uh party there yeah it was fun the second night with sipping my diet coke
00:31:00.100watching you guys uh your conversation getting deeper and deeper as you went along yeah no i
00:31:06.000think it was a fairly successful agm for the most part a bit of controversy obviously with the whole
00:31:09.340alberta independence thing and jeff rath causing a bit of a stir with the alberta prosperity project
00:31:14.120guys and whatnot but on the whole i think it went fairly well and i think by the end of it after um
00:31:18.280the premier did her uh keynote address i think she had a lot of people on her side still i think so
00:31:23.060So I think maybe a bit of the independence movement's numbers might be a little out of whack, I think, in terms of people that are 100% for it.
00:33:23.980She doesn't have enough popular support.
00:33:26.120But I think she's got a good case to make and say, well, look, on the left, Lukasik wants one on independence.
00:33:32.000On the right, APB wants one on independence.
00:33:35.020It would be remiss, you know, not to say let's have one in late June.
00:33:39.380I think, just my own speculation for what little it's worth, a lot of those things in the MOU has hard deadlines in them, which is kind of a good point.