Western Standard - Supply management continues to screw Canada

00:00:00.000 Welcome to

00:00:29.980 to the cory morgan show i see the third false spring of the season has passed we're back into

00:00:35.080 winter again it'll warm up eventually i hope i'm sick to death of this but again i like this in a

00:00:40.660 moment about winter i've just got no use for it never will coming near the tail end of it by the

00:00:45.340 way the political season is going full bore lots going on gonna be a packed show today in a little

00:00:50.620 while i'll talk to andrew lamb from gowling wlg it's a large massive law firm but talking on the

00:00:56.380 energy issue and uh well the way the government talks about and as he put out in his press release

00:01:02.400 fast track in quotes on major projects but nothing really seems to be getting done fast

00:01:07.560 and of course lots of news and other things there i see a couple folks on the uh comments there is

00:01:12.800 yes this is live uh send those in there from north run talking about kuzma being impacted by

00:01:17.780 supply management and i'll talk about supply management in a moment i don't even talk about

00:01:20.500 the trade aspects of this particular rant about it but that's another one of them and uh cb fixes

00:01:25.960 all talk about in a free alberta there wouldn't be any supply management i do want to start though

00:01:30.040 by giving a shout out to calgary's counselors and staff at city hall for those who aren't in calgary

00:01:36.920 there's been a blanket rezoning thing that's now in the process of being repealed which means

00:01:48.520 up for the counselors and staff and i wish this was a joke a room full of toys little squeezy things

00:01:54.520 and they have a therapist and there's therapy dogs coming in. In case it all becomes too much

00:01:59.680 for these counselors and staffers to actually have to listen to constituents for a few days.

00:02:04.020 This is the snowflake generation. This is what happened. We started hiring them. 1.00

00:02:08.580 I got a message. You're a bunch of pussies. I'm getting sick of it. You make six figures. 1.00

00:02:14.320 Take it, deal with it, or find a job at a 7-Eleven where you don't have to think so hard. This is

00:02:18.960 getting absurd. It's embarrassing to live in a country where this is where our tax dollars go.

00:02:24.260 this is why you struggle to make the bills to pay clowns like this to have a little safe space 0.93

00:02:28.940 and a cry because they had to listen to you on policy issues. All right, now I'm in the right 0.94

00:02:35.020 mood. I'll talk about supply management. So imagine living in a system of market control so stringent

00:02:40.400 federal police will swarm your home and arrest you if you tried to sell eggs from your own farm.

00:02:46.480 Well, you don't have to imagine in Canada. Southern Alberta chicken farmer Hank Van Essen

00:02:50.200 had multiple RCMP cruisers descend upon his property last year, and he was jailed for the

00:02:54.740 crime of selling eggs without a government-issued quota. Or imagine a cartel that controlled the

00:02:59.480 prices of a commodity so strictly that producers would be forced to destroy any product that they

00:03:04.160 produced above and beyond the limits that the cartel set. Well, that's exactly what Canada's

00:03:08.520 dairy industry does when up to a billion gallons of milk are dumped by farmers every year because

00:03:14.520 they'd be jailed if they tried to sell it. And any other industry such as cartels would be illegal

00:03:19.460 and charged with price fixing. In Canada, we call it supply management. The supply management system

00:03:24.500 works well, too. The industrial milk prices are 30 to 50 percent higher in Canada than other

00:03:29.580 Western countries. Families in Canada are being forced to pay inflated food prices to shore up

00:03:34.000 a shrinking number of increasingly rich dairy farmers, and it's illegal to compete with them.

00:03:39.600 Supply management was ostensibly created to protect the family farm. It's done the opposite.

00:03:43.980 it. Since supply management was created in 72, Canada went from having 45,000 dairy farms to

00:03:49.940 less than 9,000 today. Starting a small operation is impossible because the large farms own all the

00:03:54.840 quotas, and even if they're willing to sell their precious permission slips to produce dairy products,

00:03:59.380 the costs are out of reach for any reasonable operation. Profit margins are generous for those

00:04:03.840 dairy farmers who have quotas, though. They average around 20% compared to the 4% the

00:04:13.980 The margins, of course, when the government will illegalize competition on your behalf.

00:04:21.980 If one really wants to examine an oligopoly that robs consumers, though, they should check out the

00:04:26.380 profit margins that banks enjoy. Citizens remain distracted from how dairy, egg, and poultry

00:04:31.100 producers are robbing them, though, because those supply-managed industries are incredibly

00:04:35.780 effective lobbyists. They spend tens of millions of dollars on misleading information campaigns

00:04:40.640 about their industries and their competitors.

00:04:43.020 They also funneled countless millions into every political party

00:04:46.300 and have paid lobbyists knocking on every elected official's door regularly.

00:04:49.760 It's no secret that Maxime Bernier lost his bid for the CPC leadership

00:04:54.200 because he dared to openly oppose supply management.

00:04:57.360 The cartels quickly shoveled mass support towards the leadership campaign of Andrew Scheer

00:05:02.120 and it gave him a narrow win.

00:05:04.000 And that ended rather poorly for the Conservative Party, wasn't it?

00:05:06.440 But it was a fantastic outcome for the dairy cartels

00:05:09.120 because it reminded politicians of the consequences that face public figures who oppose them.

00:05:14.020 The regional factor comes into play as well.

00:05:15.700 Quebec has acquired a disproportionately large amount of Canada's dairy quotas.

00:05:19.420 That's why the Bloc Québécois pushed legislation to try and make it impossible to tear down the price-fixing system.

00:05:25.160 And the cowardly Conservatives were too terrified to oppose it.

00:05:28.260 Conservative supporters should call out their MPs and party representatives on supply management regularly.

00:05:33.000 It's a Soviet-style system.

00:05:34.780 It goes against every fiscal principle allegedly held by Conservatives.

00:05:37.960 The party is pressuring Canadians and it's only going to get worse as the energy prices

00:05:50.920 climb due to the war in Iran. Meanwhile, job losses are mounting across the country and the

00:05:55.280 GDP per capita continues to decline when compared to other Western countries.

00:06:00.400 Countries in for some hard times and add insult to injury, Canadian families are being ripped off

00:06:04.840 on essential food purchases to protect a small number of corporate dairy farms raking in huge

00:06:09.180 profits. There are many things that must be done to fix Canada's ailing economy and give consumers

00:06:13.420 a break, but here's an easy one. Get rid of the rotten supply management system once and for all. 0.77

00:06:18.520 Other countries had such systems and they dumped them decades ago. In getting rid of supply

00:06:22.700 management, the dairy, poultry, and egg industries actually got better in those countries thanks to

00:06:26.180 competition and consumers got fair prices and good products. So it's time to end supply management

00:06:30.880 now, guys. Don't let the politicians keep hiding from you on this issue. When you're looking at

00:06:34.720 your grocery basket there's one of the reasons it's so high all right well it's crazy busy day

00:06:39.980 I better turn to our news editor Dave Naylor and see what else is going on hey Dave you know if

00:06:43.740 the CRTC would let us swear on the air I would give it to you with both barrels today oh oh right

00:06:51.160 last week you said spring has arrived and I said don't jinx us and it's absolutely atrocious out

00:06:57.560 there now blizzard conditions icy roads this is my apologies in advance I didn't even take my winter

00:07:01.940 tires off though that's usually the trigger for another snowstorm they're on all right can you

00:07:06.180 leave them on until like summertime probably i'm too lazy and cheap to swim or swatch them around

00:07:10.580 anymore i'm sick of that too so one of the stories we've got up this morning is it's six days to go

00:07:14.980 before the firearms registry ends and only uh uh one-third of canadians have apparently registered

00:07:22.740 their guns two-thirds haven't well have you registered your arsenal yet uh no no no i i

00:07:29.140 I don't have any firearms.

00:07:30.500 Oh, sorry.

00:07:32.800 I thought that day we were shooting out there on your place was.

00:07:35.700 Oh, those were, yeah, they fell in lost in a boating accident or something like that.

00:07:39.940 I bet you're not alone in saying that.

00:07:42.700 Yeah, this is like the registry from before, though.

00:07:46.100 Non-compliance will kill it.

00:07:47.100 The government is barking up the wrong tree, but, boy, they're going to spend a lot of millions of dollars trying.

00:07:52.120 Yeah, well, they've got to make an example of somebody.

00:07:54.800 So I think it's either going to be you or Derek.

00:07:57.500 Well, if the government typically likes us, I don't know why they would want to come after us for anything.

00:08:01.940 No, I know. We always write good things about them, don't we?

00:08:05.680 Anyways, yeah, as you said, lots of news, breaking news.

00:08:09.700 A U.S. jury has come on side with a woman who sued Facebook and Meta because she claims their algorithms addicted her.

00:08:21.040 As a 16-year-old, she was addicted to Facebook and all that sort of good stuff.

00:08:26.860 I see the class actions coming out of this.

00:08:28.680 Oh, can you imagine the lineup now for people trying to sue?

00:08:32.040 The ambulance chasers are smelling a new stream of money.

00:08:33.820 Especially in the States where everybody's litigious.

00:08:38.680 Other breaking news this morning.

00:08:40.880 There's been a deal between Alberta and Ottawa, believe it or not, on methane reduction.

00:08:47.260 And Alberta has...

00:08:48.820 I think that Smith said yesterday was going to be delayed and getting all the everything

00:09:01.420 met but so this is one of those things that that has now been met but you're not you're

00:09:08.200 suspicious still aren't you yes this is one of the areas of Alberta capitulation this

00:09:13.460 is one of the things we've done to please please please let us have another pipeline

00:09:16.860 here's all the other stuff we'll control and do in order to get it i haven't seen any of those

00:09:21.980 benchmarks being met by ottawa i just see alberta meeting them it just feels almost like somebody's

00:09:26.380 being strung along you know what but uh premier smith seems still a happy camper she's seems

00:09:31.820 pretty confident i mean it's her neck on the line i guess isn't it well i mean she put out all the

00:09:37.340 demands after uh the the federal election and then just let that deadline fly by with the carney

00:09:42.060 laughing at her and then she's you know went to the mou and set a bunch more deadlines and the 1.00

00:09:46.540 carnies ignored all those uh she's gonna have to offer albertans more than a smile and show some 1.00

00:09:51.820 dirt moving pretty soon or there's gonna be a problem for her uh politically i mean exactly 1.00

00:09:56.940 show some teeth uh it looks like we just avoided another school shooting by a trans kid uh trans 0.99

00:10:04.620 female in uh uh down east in nova scotia i think um don't quote me on that though was gonna shoot

00:10:12.860 up her school and they arrested her and slash him uh who was planning one online with a kid in 1.00

00:10:20.780 manitoba and they were gonna do joint school shootings and uh you know this was proving

00:10:25.580 more and more that trans kids are well disturbed it's real yeah they're kids that are seeking uh 1.00

00:10:33.340 reaching out for something and i guess the trans part fails them some of them go but most of them

00:10:38.380 don't but i mean i at least for a change they caught it before it happened exactly speaking

00:10:43.340 of things that are failing the um gay pride parades across canada have lost a ton of sponsorship

00:10:50.060 uh calgary gay pride confirmed to us that most of their sponsors have pulled out because of dei

00:10:57.580 backtracking and things like that so so they all went hand in cap to the liberals yesterday and

00:11:02.220 ask for nine million dollars to fund their parades hmm too damn bad appeal to the public guys there

00:11:09.420 you go gals whatever whomever uh you do a lot of driving you will have noticed gas went up again

00:11:14.620 yesterday 25 cents yeah it's kind of hard to miss like a buck 76 in calgary now but it's over two

00:11:19.980 dollars in vancouver uh so the canadian tax uh pairs federation is calling on eb to remove the uh

00:11:26.940 the fuel tax save some people some money uh the same way they did with alberta no government

00:11:32.780 response uh yet and it's being revealed that the liberals spent billions and billions of dollars

00:11:39.100 on these electric buses uh that you've talked about before but they did no research on how

00:11:44.060 cold weather affects electric buses we'll find out soon enough oh we have been finding out haven't

00:11:48.700 we all that the edmonton failures yeah calgary still calgary they've spent 150 million on some

00:11:54.300 that they still haven't gotten yet they're gonna they're gonna find out yeah find out quick uh

00:12:00.860 and we've got some interesting intrigue at calgary city hall rcmp are rating people left right and

00:12:06.780 center uh sean chu former old counselor andre chabot former counselor and most interestingly

00:12:13.980 jody kondak our former mayor of course the rcmp not saying anything about it they're just sort of

00:12:19.500 putting the cloud of suspicion over everybody well that's the bar for the course under the

00:12:23.820 rcmp so just poke the ordinance and ask to make everybody speculate and then not let us know

00:12:28.860 yep anything if i was ticked off if anybody would be most ticked off should be these counselors if

00:12:32.780 indeed there's nothing going on i mean look at the paul now yeah exactly everybody thinks andre

00:12:37.260 chabot is corrupt yeah no that's it's it's not good for those people and uh just happening as

00:12:43.740 we speak right now daniel smith holding a press conference on new initiatives to battle crime

00:12:49.500 So I'll get that story up as soon as I'm done with you.

00:12:53.020 All right.

00:12:53.540 Well, looking forward to that story and appreciate the updates.

00:12:56.580 I guess we'll see you later on the pipeline.

00:12:58.460 See you tonight on the pipeline.

00:12:59.960 Yeah.

00:13:00.180 Right on.

00:13:01.020 Thanks, Dave.

00:13:01.700 You bet.

00:13:02.780 So that is our, well, some of the news updates on stuff that's breaking and going crazy.

00:13:06.860 It's been busy, busy around here with news items.

00:13:09.700 And the reason we can continue like this, the reason that newsroom is full of reporters

00:13:15.840 for Dave to chase around and put on these things is because you guys have been subscribing.

00:13:19.220 so this is where i gotta nag and remind you guys it's uh ten dollars a month hundred dollars for a 0.85

00:13:24.740 year get past that paywall skip directly into those articles and uh stories as they break and

00:13:31.380 of course help support independent media keep us rolling if you've already subscribed thank you

00:13:35.620 very much we really do appreciate it and if you haven't yet come on guys get on there you never

00:13:40.900 thought twice about paying for a newspaper to come to your house this is pretty much the same thing

00:13:46.980 This is just a new form of media.

00:13:49.780 All right.

00:13:50.100 Yeah, so the timing of this is interesting.

00:13:54.720 You know, perfect for the guest I have coming up very shortly here, too,

00:13:57.860 because that memorandum of understanding that the Premier Smith signed with Mark Carney,

00:14:02.060 a lot of people were pretty skeptical here in Alberta.

00:14:04.860 And sure enough, the deadlines are about to come and go,

00:14:08.000 and a bunch of those bars have not been met.

00:14:10.900 Is it possible to get large projects done in Canada?

00:14:14.660 is there actually a will on the part of the government to get these done or is the federal

00:14:19.340 government just stringing people along or do they actually have good intentions but they just

00:14:23.840 hamstring themselves with their own regulations and requirements and they're just afraid to take

00:14:28.760 on their own bureaucracy I don't know but Premier Smith is really getting into a precarious position

00:14:35.360 here with conservative voters who are getting very tired with her constantly moving the goalposts to

00:14:40.560 accommodate Carney who continues to make provinces and not follow through. And it's going to catch up

00:14:46.600 with her soon unless we start seeing something substantial. And I don't think a methane reduction

00:14:50.040 project in Alberta is what Albertan voters wanted to see. Either way, there's a lot more to it.

00:14:56.460 And head of oil and gas and partner with Gowling WLG, Andrew Lam is going to come in and speak to

00:15:01.840 us about some of these things and what's going on with that fast track narrative, if it's just a

00:15:07.980 narrative or not so let's bring andrew in and discuss this uh hello thank you very much for

00:15:12.080 joining us today hi cory thanks very much for having me uh so yeah as i was saying i don't

00:15:18.720 know if you caught that prior to when i polled you in but it just kind of landed uh with your

00:15:23.360 your press release that came out last week on this sort of subject uh what's going on like

00:15:30.480 is there really going to be any fast tracking of projects or are we just spinning our wheels

00:15:35.580 Yeah, it's a good question. I think it's too early to tell. I don't think there's

00:15:40.700 been any fast tracking so far on any of the 15 projects that have been referred to the

00:15:47.420 major projects office, one of which is the same. It's the carbon capture and storage project,

00:15:54.700 the formerly known Pathways Alliance is working on. So I think it's unfortunately too early to

00:16:01.100 tell. I think the intent is in the right place, but there hasn't been any, you know, discernible,

00:16:07.960 tangible improvements so far. So what would have to be done then to make this more than an

00:16:14.180 aspirational document or endeavor with all of these projects? And yeah, it's not just oil and

00:16:19.100 gas. There are a lot of other major notions they've come up with, but the clock's ticking

00:16:23.340 and our economy's ailing. What are the roadblocks holding them up? With respect to the MOU?

00:16:28.800 Well, that's one of them, certainly.

00:16:32.400 Well, I think one thing to remember, too, is that regulatory hurdles and regulatory uncertainty

00:16:38.240 is a big negative for projects, but no project ever went ahead just because there was regulatory

00:16:42.880 certainty. There needs to be the commercial underpinnings in place, and those can take

00:16:48.320 months and months and years and years, and then your entire understanding of the world changes

00:16:53.600 on a dime so it's not necessarily the major projects officer or anything else to do with

00:16:59.600 with canadian regulations that is impeding these these these projects there needs to be the

00:17:05.920 the commercial commerciality there in the first place we do need to make sure that we're a welcome

00:17:10.640 place a welcoming place for investment and i think that's what the major projects office is

00:17:15.680 is trying signal is trying to send i'm not sure if it's been received or or fully believed yet

00:17:21.600 it would be helpful to get a couple through past the goal line to show that it does make a tangible

00:17:28.060 difference. Well, yeah, and that's part of it. I mean, it's not just your statement before kind

00:17:33.500 of covered a bit of that. Companies understand it's going to take some time and it'll take a

00:17:38.440 while to get through regulatory burdens, but they just they need some degree of guarantee knowing

00:17:41.700 that it'll actually get done. And we've seen a lot of big projects get the rug pulled out of them

00:17:47.240 after companies have made some rather large investments of time and capital to try and get

00:17:51.560 them moving. And I don't think we're seeing those assurances from the government. They're

00:17:55.140 just talking about adding more processes. Well, that's certainly not the signal they're

00:17:59.520 trying to send. They're trying to send that there is going to be more streamlining, less duplication.

00:18:04.620 It may not necessarily be faster, but it is going to be, you know, once you get that approval,

00:18:09.360 you know that there's no other approvals that are necessary, sort of a one-stop shop

00:18:12.820 sort of thing. So I don't think it is going to impose more layers of bureaucracy.

00:18:18.660 I think it's more just a question of showing that it's going to make a difference.

00:18:23.760 So getting back to oil and gas, if it's a pipeline, which is often one of the big

00:18:29.880 hangups we have is getting one, whether it's East or West, a lot of the groundwork's already

00:18:34.340 been done. It seems almost though as if we were starting from scratch. I mean, how much was put

00:18:37.960 into the amount of studies and regulatory issues and things, for example, with the Northern

00:18:42.600 Gateway line or considering the Energy East one. And I understand the proponents of those are now

00:18:47.240 gone and you'd be starting again, but can't some of that be dusted off almost and reused? I mean,

00:18:52.760 you know, geography hasn't changed. A lot of things haven't changed. Why are we making them

00:18:58.640 begin as if this process never began in the first place? That's a fair question. I think it depends

00:19:04.360 a lot on the amount of time that's passed. I do know that applications do stay with various

00:19:12.460 regulatory bodies even after the proponents have asked that they be suspended for a time.

00:19:18.540 So hopefully there are some studies that can be leveraged for sure, but players change

00:19:23.860 and it's more the people that have to be given notice of these applications change and they're

00:19:33.700 given, they're going to be given a new period of time to file statements of concern or other

00:19:38.300 objections.

00:19:39.300 That's probably the main obstacle, not so much getting the studies done themselves.

00:19:46.220 So if the major projects office, I mean, if it does clear out some of those regulatory hurdles and problems that things have been holding things up.

00:19:53.980 Another issue, I don't know if you speak so much to, but the political end of it, Prime Minister Carney has been asked a couple of times, what about the opposition from some Indigenous groups or even from the Premier of British Columbia?

00:20:04.600 Now, constitutionally, neither of those entities should have the power to veto a line.

00:20:09.760 I mean, their participation and consultation is very important, of course.

00:20:13.860 But Prime Minister Carney doesn't feel or doesn't sound like he's willing to exercise the constitutional authority to finally put the foot down and say, look, it's going to have to go ahead.

00:20:23.460 That's sort of one of those aspects, I think, that would keep companies, you know, not feeling confident.

00:20:28.080 I mean, why start the process if the prime minister won't promise it's going to get done?

00:20:31.160 Fair. Yeah. And the federal government's hands are tied a little bit just to the nature of confederation. Even if the major projects office gives a particular project, whether it's the West Coast Pipeline or something else, all the federal approvals that it needs, there's a whole bunch of, just speaking about provincial governments for a second, there's a bunch of ancillary permits and approvals and licenses that are needed

00:20:59.620 that are still within the provincial jurisdiction just to support a project going through.

00:21:04.360 That can be anything from work camps to other rights to use land.

00:21:11.060 And then when you get to the First Nations side, there's always the chance of a challenge being filed at court

00:21:17.720 and an injunction or other delay tactics being filed.

00:21:21.040 So you're right.

00:21:22.900 Even if the federal government does everything it can do to push a project through, there is still this risk.

00:21:28.960 I'm not sure if it's that much different in other jurisdictions you know the states would be a good

00:21:35.920 example I think there's there's sort of two types of risk there's there's structural risk that you

00:21:40.280 can't really avoid but then there's also what I call like a ministerial risk which is you know

00:21:45.260 just the government of the day whether it's provincial or federal deciding that a project

00:21:49.620 is not going to go ahead and we saw that for example in the states with the expansion of the

00:21:54.080 Keystone XL, right? It was the Biden government that said, well, this just isn't going ahead.

00:22:01.760 Yeah. But I mean, your statement did say that Canada is falling behind some key competitors,

00:22:06.160 such as the United States. I mean, we're very similar jurisdictions. So what is it the Americans

00:22:12.480 are doing, though, that is still managing to get things done, whereas we can't? Because they do

00:22:16.240 have obstacles. I mean, there was North Dakota, of course, there was quite a lot of bad issues

00:22:20.880 with the pipeline trying to get rolling over there. There's been a lot of opposition in

00:22:25.600 Michigan to some of our existing infrastructure, even trying to keep it rolling out there.

00:22:30.240 But still, it appears that their economy is still moving along,

00:22:32.640 they can get some major projects done. So what are they doing that we can't?

00:22:37.600 I think it's their relationship with oil and gas generally is a little bit different. I'm not an

00:22:43.440 expert on the division of powers in the United States. So I can't say when the federal government

00:22:47.920 can just play the trump card and force something through that's certainly not the case in canada

00:22:52.640 though so i think that goes to what i was saying that's like a structural risk that's very difficult

00:22:58.640 to to work around unless you can get all the governments to come to the table

00:23:03.280 so getting other governments to the table is that then you know you mentioned of course the

00:23:08.480 british columbia for example i mean there's still they can't necessarily veto a line but they can

00:23:12.800 throw a heck of a lot of delays into it through existing processes uh is there a way to facilitate

00:23:18.160 or is that part of you know the services your firm does things like that i mean to get between

00:23:22.160 the governments and and you know mediate if possible i mean it's it's exactly exactly right

00:23:28.800 it's it's you have to treat governments as a stakeholder and and you know convince them show

00:23:35.040 them that that this is for their benefit whether and there's a lot of different ways you can you

00:23:38.560 you can do that. Lobbying is certainly one of them, but bringing them in as a participant to

00:23:44.320 some degree as well as is a tried and true method of getting governments on side. First nations as

00:23:50.400 well. We've seen that that really works. Yeah, well, everybody has to see a benefit. I mean,

00:23:55.680 I can understand that if you're living down from a pipeline right away and they're saying we're 0.58

00:23:59.740 going to crash this through there and nothing is coming your way from that, you're not seeing

00:24:04.620 anything tangible for yourself, then you're probably not going to be thrilled with it. So

00:24:08.300 So demonstrating that British Columbia would get some revenue and be able to spread that around or indigenous bands would be able to participate in the construction and on.

00:24:25.900 Sorry, Corey.

00:24:26.780 Taking on all the risk.

00:24:28.560 Yeah, sorry, you froze there for a second, Corey.

00:24:30.460 Oh, okay.

00:24:31.540 Can you repeat your question?

00:24:33.240 Well, I was just saying that, I guess, reaching people to be able to demonstrate that there is benefits for them on that end,

00:24:40.300 if they have something happening in their area, as opposed to just seeing all the risks.

00:24:44.500 Is it a matter of the government's just not been communicating it effectively?

00:24:50.620 I think there's a lot of reasons why I think taking the B.C. government, for example,

00:24:54.840 I think they have a lot of internal pressures that's probably keeping them from moving things forward as quickly as, you know, example, for example, the Alberta government did with this MOU.

00:25:06.980 So I think it's a political reality that we're just unfortunately faced with in Canada.

00:25:12.200 We have a very diverse population from coast to coast and not everybody's aligned on oil and gas or, you know, just natural resource development.

00:25:21.240 Yeah, well, perhaps, you know, going into some of the other projects in the major projects,

00:25:25.960 maybe that would help some of the oil and gas down the road, like there's mining prospects,

00:25:30.360 things like that. And in Eastern Canada, they're the ring of fire. Again, there's always opposition,

00:25:35.240 there's opposition to everything, if you try something, but, you know, presumably,

00:25:38.440 you get it done. Is there a better chance maybe of getting some of those rolling along to sort of,

00:25:43.320 I think so, right? The problem with the problem with the pipeline that crosses provincial

00:25:47.000 boundaries is that you're dealing with two provinces and one may not see the same level

00:25:52.660 of benefit. The Ring of Fire, for example, and, you know, provinces that are purely within British

00:25:57.640 Columbia, they're going to see benefit for sure. Construction of a pipeline, even, you know,

00:26:02.840 construction of an LNG terminal, that'll create a temporary boost in jobs. But BC wants to see,

00:26:07.980 okay, we're taking on a lot of the risk of oil spills, things like that. How are we compensated

00:26:12.200 for that risk in the long term. Yeah, well, I mean, right now, perhaps a case could be made

00:26:17.720 to some people if we had, well, it takes more and it's easier said done. But if we had a more

00:26:24.020 secure domestic supply, there could be ways we could pad ourselves against price shocks from

00:26:28.620 international events like we're seeing right now in Iran. But we just don't have the ability to be

00:26:34.880 able to do that sort of thing right now. Now is a good time to make that case to a lot of people,

00:26:39.740 I think. Yeah. Are you referring to sort of having like a strategic reserve of oil like

00:26:45.740 most countries do or? No, I was speaking more along the lines, I guess, of if there was enough

00:26:50.540 revenue generated from oil royalties, oil transfers that at a time when prices get high enough,

00:26:56.860 that's where you could get programs where things such as carbon tax breaks at the pumps or heating 0.51

00:27:01.340 bills or things like that, where the government can reduce. So, you know, if we're exporting at

00:27:05.420 a very high price, the government's bringing in a higher revenue from that. They can be able to use

00:27:09.100 that for local consumers like just showing that what's in it for me sort of aspect to people on

00:27:13.780 the ground who aren't thinking of the bigger picture but they do have to wonder how they're

00:27:17.180 going to heat their house or fill their car yeah absolutely i agree with you for sure you know and

00:27:21.160 i'm not an expert on on um equalization between the provinces but you know maybe that's that's

00:27:27.240 something that should be looked at you know when when oil reaches a certain uh a certain threshold

00:27:32.720 oil prices then you know maybe the the sharing between the provinces differs a little bit

00:27:37.980 And that's certainly what the provincial government does.

00:27:40.880 Royalties are they're scaled and they're tied to the price of oil and gas in some situations.

00:27:46.420 Yeah, well, and it benefits Alberta strongly whenever the oil prices go high.

00:27:50.860 But then the rest of the country tends to suffer a little.

00:27:53.300 And that leads to a lot of the regional fracture friction we already have.

00:27:57.240 So, I mean, again, if we could just demonstrate that, you know, because those high revenues still lead to more federal taxes that do get to everybody eventually.

00:28:04.260 But maybe perhaps not enough Canadians understand that.

00:28:06.700 I agree. Yeah, I think, you know, Alberta does its best, I think, to explain, you know, what's good for Alberta is good for Canada. But sometimes I think it's a hard message for the rest of the province to, the rest of the country started to follow when, you know, employment rights, employment rates are differing from province to province and things like that.

00:28:28.060 Yeah, well, there are no simple answers, but we're really going to start pursuing some when times are getting tough.

00:28:35.000 Before I let you go, then, you know, what is it that your company provides in this end and how can people find out more about this and what you guys do?

00:28:43.420 Gowling WLG, my law firm, has excellent relationships both with provincial and the federal government and numerous First Nations in Western Canada.

00:28:51.320 And we also have the industry experience to be able to bring everybody to the table and get deals done.

00:28:57.900 Great. Yeah, because that's, I guess, kind of what we talked around in so many ways. Maybe

00:29:01.180 the federal government, the provincial government, the Indigenous bands are doing very well getting

00:29:04.220 to the table themselves, maybe another party like yourselves that can get in there and facilitate

00:29:09.260 it because, boy, we really need to get something done. I agree. All right. Well, thank you very

00:29:14.300 much for taking the time to speak to us and speaking up on this issue in general. Hopefully,

00:29:18.780 we can get things done because there's just so much potential in Canada and it's just painful to

00:29:22.540 watch how slowly we managed to bring it to market for everybody. Yeah, I agree. Thanks very much,

00:29:26.620 all right thank you so more time folks yeah that is andrew lamb from uh going wlg and uh yeah he

00:29:33.740 just you know the issue is ongoing and frustrating it feels circular at times i mean we know the

00:29:39.740 benefits but we just can't seem to get it over that line we trip over ourselves and maybe that's

00:29:45.500 what it'll take because i mean i know everybody's got their feelings about lawyers necessarily up

00:29:50.380 and down too but we got those feelings about politicians there's different interests and

00:29:54.140 and perhaps a mediation from another party, whether it's law firms and such, can work around

00:30:00.460 the political aspects of what's going on too, because Premier Smith, Carney, they got their

00:30:06.560 other interests, they have other things going on, it makes it difficult for them to come to

00:30:09.940 conclusions with anything. But it just gets maddening, you know, we just keep going and going

00:30:15.820 and nothing just seems to get done. All right, let's just have a look. Yeah, lots of the carbon

00:30:22.560 capture and things in the comments, just so much else going on. As Dave mentioned, you know,

00:30:26.700 let's turn the page over to the gun grab for those not familiar with it. You know, an ever

00:30:32.320 growing list of firearms that the federal government just keeps legalizing and legalizing

00:30:37.480 and legalizing and firearms owners just aren't cooperating. They did their trial project out in 0.56

00:30:44.340 Glaceby, Nova Scotia for people to turn in their guns for the gun buy. And it was like 25 guns came

00:30:49.680 in or something like that. And they called it a success. Either way, it's really starting to come

00:30:56.020 to a head now. And yeah, there's emails coming out to people who do have firearms that were in

00:31:02.000 the restricted list that are now banned. And there's, I believe, like four days left to turn

00:31:06.080 them in or there'll be potentially consequences. It's just so stupid. This isn't where the problem 1.00

00:31:12.880 is. It's not the law buying firearm owners who had registered them. And the other issue is a

00:31:18.820 whole whack of the ones that were illegalized weren't registered because the registry was

00:31:23.480 only for restricted firearms. There's a whole load that have been banned, but they weren't

00:31:27.120 restricted to begin with. And I tell you what, people aren't eager to add theirs to any registry

00:31:33.360 or let the government know they have them as they're coming out. It's just a waste of time

00:31:37.140 and money because it's all people who weren't committing crimes in the first place. I saw a

00:31:41.680 post on X with another release because the government's actually, it was a letter that

00:31:46.720 came to the Western Standard, about the cigarette smuggling issue and that sort of thing going on.

00:31:52.920 And illegal cigarettes. I mean, it's funny, when the government or anybody makes a commodity

00:31:57.540 really expensive, there's going to be a black or gray market. But you don't want to know why 0.55

00:32:02.440 the government can't get the illegal cigarettes under control? Because it's coming through the

00:32:06.840 reserves. Everybody knows that, but the government's terrified, terrified of enforcing the law on

00:32:14.100 reserves. I mean, we can't even dig up these alleged bodies that are buried in Kamloops,

00:32:18.440 can we? But firearms is another aspect of it because police forces, our own statistics,

00:32:24.740 you know, the Canadian Justice Department, they find the same thing. They know it.

00:32:28.100 The majority of firearms crimes committed in Canada are committed by guns that were smuggled

00:32:32.720 into Canada from the United States, not law-abiding firearm owners. But where did they come in? Ah,

00:32:39.460 the Mohawks brought them across the river out east. Well, they don't want to get into that. 1.00

00:32:42.980 So they'd rather chase down duck hunters and sport shooters and people who just like to collect firearms who never committed any crimes because it looks like you're doing something, but you aren't.

00:32:55.000 You're not helping reduce crime whatsoever.

00:32:57.240 What you're doing is stealing people's property who weren't bothering anybody.

00:33:01.060 Firearm owners know this.

00:33:02.680 That's why they're not cooperating.

00:33:04.260 And these deadlines just keep coming.

00:33:07.040 And nobody gets there.

00:33:09.280 It's going to be a mess.

00:33:10.760 We'll see.

00:33:11.080 you know, I worry most of these people who own lots of firearms and things like that collectors,

00:33:19.660 they're never going to harm a fly unless somebody comes to try and take their property. And that

00:33:24.140 might even. And to steal the property or charge law abiding firearm owners, because this government

00:33:39.980 law. If somebody could get really, really hurt, I really hope not. I really hope not. It's why

00:33:44.820 provoke when you didn't have a problem, they're creating a problem. And Jacqueline Littler saying

00:33:50.940 there's the guns are also coming in at ports. And that's true. That's another aspect, speaking of

00:33:54.920 government cowardice. Because if you look at the stats on the West Coast, for example, I think it's

00:33:59.720 only 1% of containers only get actually searched by border services on the West Coast, all those

00:34:05.520 containers coming in. And that's how the fentanyl and many, many other things are coming in.

00:34:10.860 Why won't the government crack down there? Because they're scared out of their wits of

00:34:15.020 the Longshoremen's Union, which is tied in with organized crime on the ports. Everybody knows this,

00:34:20.620 but the government is too cowardly to take on real crime issues, so they crack down on citizens

00:34:27.020 all the time. And this snowballs into other issues. This goes into why we're having trouble

00:34:36.140 with the United States, why President Trump is getting on our case. And I, you know, I've been

00:34:41.700 very critical of Trump on a lot of things, but he's right on a lot of things. I think, you know,

00:34:45.360 Trump exaggerated the amount of fentanyl necessarily that's coming from Canada down to the

00:34:48.620 south, but we're still a threat to American security. And how is that? Well, we see this

00:34:55.280 just with the government's own audit and report on immigration. Look at this, foreign students on 0.99

00:35:01.160 visas, okay? 150,000 of them were flagged by the schools where they were supposed to be attending.

00:35:09.080 They got student visas to come to Canada. 150,000 of them flagged over a couple of years. It was

00:35:14.760 basically the schools doing their due diligence, contacting the government, saying, hey, these guys

00:35:19.560 with these student visas didn't show up for school. Oh, so then the government investigates.

00:35:26.400 They checked 4,000 of the 150,000 that seemed to have skipped out.

00:35:34.540 1,600 of those they wrote off right off the bat because, well, I said the student never returned a call. 0.98

00:35:38.540 No crap. 0.95

00:35:40.280 Gee. 0.97

00:35:41.660 And then there were 600 out of all of that, you know, once they started getting down to what was left,

00:35:46.580 and they managed to reject those visas, but then they ended up still staying here,

00:35:50.460 and some reapplied to get a new visa.

00:35:52.200 They're abusing the visa system.

00:35:54.060 It's right in our face.

00:35:55.120 Now, what is the motivation of the student who pretended to be a student to get here on a visa and not go to school?

00:36:03.020 I would imagine a lot of maybe it's just economic.

00:36:05.320 They just snuck off and went to work somewhere and they're just trying to be in a country that's nicer to wherever they came from.

00:36:10.000 And that was a path.

00:36:12.580 But how many came from Iran?

00:36:15.920 How many came from Gaza before everything hit the fan there?

00:36:19.180 How many came from terrorist hotspots?

00:36:21.240 and they're smart enough to know it's tough to get it in the United States, but Canadians are 1.00

00:36:25.700 stupid. I can just pretend to be a student. They'll let me in. I'll ignore the student visa 1.00

00:36:31.880 requirements because the country doesn't follow through on things. And then I'll sneak across

00:36:36.500 into the United States and do my dastardly terrorist sort of things down there. That

00:36:42.340 is why we start getting crap from our Southern neighbors is whereas we can't get on a high 0.88

00:36:49.860 horse with a lot of stuff if we can't protect our own borders because the borders of the United 0.85

00:36:53.520 States are very porous. I worked surveying down on the Alberta, you know, Montana border years ago.

00:37:01.520 You know what's on the border down there? A broken down barbed wire fence. That's it.

00:37:05.500 If somebody really wants to get from Canada into the United States, it's not that hard if you were

00:37:11.120 sneaking. I mean, I know there's patrols. I know there's drones. I know there's things trying to

00:37:16.400 keep track. But guys, that border is massive and that area is vast. I'm always surprised when

00:37:21.520 somebody gets caught doing something and they cross to the conventional border crossing. They

00:37:25.060 obviously were just not terribly bright. But this is where we start getting tensions with the USA.

00:37:34.000 And it's only going to get worse. We can't keep track of our own immigration. Now, 0.99

00:37:39.040 those 150,000 flagged student visas, you got to remember that they're saying that they didn't have

00:37:43.960 the resources to keep track of them. That's what these bureaucrats, these lazy bums in office, 1.00

00:37:48.080 these snowflakes, the same sort of bums that we're talking about in the city of Calgary, 0.97

00:37:50.780 who need, you know, little squeeze toys and therapy dogs to do their job.

00:37:54.560 They have 11,000 people in that department to keep track of this. 11,000 of them.

00:37:59.860 What are they doing? Not a hell of a lot, are they? Fire them. Fire them. Fire 5,000 of them.

00:38:08.760 What do we got to lose? They aren't doing a damn thing. They're worth crap. 0.99

00:38:11.520 fired them for incompetence and you watch how fast the remaining 6,000 suddenly rediscover how 0.99

00:38:17.980 to do their job because what's the government fighting with them for right now with federal

00:38:21.940 civil servants because they want them to come back into the offices for three days a week they've 0.85

00:38:25.880 been working and I'll put that in their quotes from home and you wonder why 150,000 and that's

00:38:33.100 just student visa guys that's that's just one element of the mass immigration problem we've had 0.74

00:38:40.060 And again, it turns into other things of people saying, you know, it's, you know, you can't

00:38:47.120 criticize immigration, not just criticizing immigration. We need immigration. I understand

00:38:51.220 that it's mass immigration. It's problem. It's uncontrolled immigration. That's a problem.

00:38:55.260 It's irresponsible immigration. That's the problem. And having 150,000 flagged accounts, 0.99

00:39:02.460 yet you apparently don't have a competent enough immigration department to follow through on those

00:39:07.900 and deal with it and you know what if you started grabbing finding arresting and deporting these

00:39:13.420 bloody guys gals they would probably stop keep coming over because it's not getting them what 1.00

00:39:20.140 they want is it everybody's crapping on the u.s with the ice we need ice in canada too we got a

00:39:26.000 whole lot of people here we don't need here we have over 700 i mean this is from the incompetent

00:39:31.280 intelligence and immigration people we have we still know we have over 700 irgc agents these

00:39:37.020 are Iranian Republican Guard agents in Canada. We know they're here. Why the hell are they here? 1.00

00:39:43.920 Why have we not gotten them the hell out of our country? Well, we know they're here. We probably 0.98

00:39:48.840 can't find them. Maybe they've gone south of the border. And this is where you think we got border

00:39:54.080 problems now? Wait until if and when, and I hope it doesn't happen. One of these people who came

00:39:59.160 from Canada goes down there and commits an atrocity. And it'd be because we didn't do our 0.84

00:40:05.620 due diligence up here. Do you think Trump's going to respond well to that? You think that's going

00:40:12.220 to make things better for us? All right. Well, speaking of loony left, yeah, that's something

00:40:18.660 the NDP leadership's racing for anybody who knows or cares. The Western Standard recently put a

00:40:24.860 story up. You can check that on there that I think it's over half of the NDP members or supporters,

00:40:32.500 known supporters of the ndp don't even know who's running for the leadership of that party

00:40:37.380 probably dead in the water and uh it cuts both ways i love seeing socialists just go down

00:40:44.660 you know they deserve it but when we look at the political dynamic of canada

00:40:51.140 the nd this is a gift to the liberals because nobody's going to go from supporting the ndp

00:40:56.100 and leap over to the conservatives very few some from the labor uh you know the real labor trade

00:41:00.980 unions not the teachers lounges but the trade unionists moved over to the conservatives because

00:41:05.460 they they understand a bit about the economy but public sector union members and so on

00:41:09.940 they are abandoning the ndp but they're just going to the liberals the liberals

00:41:13.940 benefit from a dead ndp and this ndp is dead uh they've gone too far left they've overshot and

00:41:21.860 they don't understand it and you know i was kind of laughing a bit about it online but it shows

00:41:27.540 something go woke go broke i mean the ndp just went so far that barely anybody can handle these

00:41:32.580 guys anymore and it's not changing it looks like under the nutcase is running for their leadership

00:41:36.340 now uh just to show an analogy for anybody who's a trekkie out there star trek starfleet academy

00:41:43.380 one of their spin-offs just a abomination i'm sure gene roddenberry wasn't dreaming of this you know

00:41:50.020 it had a a gay klingon and and all sorts of stuff going on it was just woke from end to end and 0.87

00:41:55.860 And people say, well, no, Star Trek was always on the edge of things.

00:41:58.900 Yeah, sure.

00:41:59.440 It showed diversity.

00:42:01.700 It showed, you know, the original Star Trek, I mean, it had the first interracial kiss on TV,

00:42:05.940 things like that that were controversial at the time.

00:42:08.440 But these were things that happened and were aspects of the show within the show,

00:42:13.540 which we considered woke at the time, but still 95% of the show was dealing with everything else. 0.76

00:42:19.860 But these guys just push and push and push until eventually now it's just 95% woke crap

00:42:24.800 that they're shoving in and five percent show and guess what nobody watched it it got canceled 0.99

00:42:31.220 because it was crap go woke go broke the ndp's doing it as well there is a backlash when they 0.95

00:42:38.820 finally go too far and that's what happened too with the pride parades i've talked about that 0.96

00:42:45.420 before i you know i got dragged you know and that's how it was back in the early 90s i was a

00:42:49.780 guy in my 20s i was insecure didn't know about these things too we had to learn a lot dragged

00:42:53.440 to bride parades by a girlfriend back then and actually there were great events got to interact

00:42:59.100 that's what the point of it was it was almost like a community outreach I mean there were still

00:43:02.620 bath houses getting raided by police in those days there was still a lot of work to be done

00:43:06.520 people weren't able to get married to each other in those days there was there was stuff to be done

00:43:10.720 and part of it was getting out in the community and say look we're just other community members

00:43:14.440 it's just that we have you know same-sex preferences so you get out there to you meet

00:43:18.240 them and you realize that and it's a good time people had fun there's choirs there's outfits

00:43:22.260 but the activists get hold of things and they push it farther and farther. And then you get

00:43:27.020 the nutcases. Then it's not just a fun family thing where you're interacting with other community

00:43:31.640 members. Then it's perverts walking around in leather G-strings and waggling themselves in 0.94

00:43:35.420 front of kids. And we see that at every bloody pride parade every year. And the pride organizers 0.99

00:43:42.440 didn't have the courage to shut down those nutcases who are actually embarrassing their 0.99

00:43:46.560 movement and making it worse. So corporate sponsors who used to line up to be able to

00:43:52.000 help and get these events going have backed out. They said, we're done. We don't want a part of

00:43:57.420 this anymore. Go woke, go broke. You're not saying that you're normal members of the community

00:44:03.200 anymore. These events are making it look like you're fringe perverts. And I know most of the 0.96

00:44:07.320 LGBTQ community aren't fringe perverts, but these pride events sure don't make it look that way,

00:44:11.940 do they? So they've lost the focus and the purpose of what the whole bloody thing was in the first 0.92

00:44:16.260 place. They should let it go broke. The government shouldn't give them a nickel on any level.

00:44:24.660 Raise money from the community, LGBTQ community, or people outside of that community who want to

00:44:31.400 kick in on it. Start it again, go back to the grassroots, put things out that people want

00:44:36.840 to participate in, put out a benefit, what your goal actually is rather than waggling your privates

00:44:42.100 in front of kids. And I bet you these events will grow again. But you got to get back to where you

00:44:49.820 started because they lost the narrative a long time ago. Moderate, you know, LGBTQ people don't 1.00

00:44:55.980 take part in that crap anymore. And it's not, you know what, we're allowed to criticize it again 0.99

00:45:01.440 because yeah, it became too politically incorrect for anybody to call it out for what it is in the

00:45:05.860 past, but they overshot. One more shot on just a lunatic before I go, you probably heard about it,

00:45:10.800 Jessica Yaniv, the man who was taking people to human rights commissions because they wouldn't 0.98

00:45:15.500 wax his balls, is taking the Western Standard to the Human Rights Commission because we 0.96

00:45:20.500 misgendered him. He's a man. He had balls. Sue us, Jessica. But these human rights commissions 1.00

00:45:26.580 are a joke. The standard isn't bowing down to it. And, you know, I really don't care what you think,

00:45:34.720 Ms. Yanov. All right, that's enough for today. Be sure to tune into the pipeline tonight. We got

00:45:41.780 Marty up north doing shows. Nigel's doing stuff. Leah's been doing great stuff. Subscribe to the

00:45:46.980 channel, share all that stuff. We're breaking the news. We can beat the legacy media guys and keep

00:45:52.120 you informed. This is the way it's going to get done. Thank you very much. We'll see you next week

00:45:56.020 at this time.

00:46:04.720 We'll be right back.

Western Standard - March 26, 2026

Supply management continues to screw Canada

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