THE PIPELINEļ¼ Albertaās push for West Coast pipelines
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Summary
Corey Morgan, Dave Naylor, and Elise Mills join host Nigel Hannaford to discuss the Alberta government's announcement on the Trans Mountain pipeline project, and the reaction from Premier David Eby and Prime Minister John Horgan.
Transcript
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Good day, I'm Corey Morgan, a columnist with the Western Standard,
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and you're watching The Pipeline. I'm sitting in for our publisher, Derek Fildebrandt,
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who usually hosts these things, but I got a great lineup of other folks to fill it in.
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We've got a lot of great stuff to cover today, so I'll kind of start with just introducing the
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folks we've got with me from the far end. Our news editor, Dave Naylor, is in-house.
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Corey, you are not just a columnist. You are the columnist of the year, announced at a gala,
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Western Standard dinner on Friday night, so congratulations. A lot of tough customers to
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beat. Thanks. Yeah, I was very flattered. It wasn't expected. I mean, we've had hundreds of
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columnists all year from dozens of fantastic columnists, so I was pretty lucky to rise to...
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You've done some great work, Corey. I appreciate that.
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Thank you, Elise. Good evening. I'm Nigel Hannaford.
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Yes, Nigel is here on my right, and our former opinion editor, if we could see, but I don't know.
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I'm there, it's just a thing that we're going with.
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All right. And coming in from the wet coast, we've got Elise Mills. Hi, Elise. How's it going?
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Good. So, we've got a bunch of stuff to cover. We'll start again on the end with Dave, though,
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because he's kind of got the news on this. There's been a big announcement from the Alberta
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provincial government on the pipeline front. What's happening?
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Big, big, big announcement. Happy day for Alberta. The Premier Smith has announced they're
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going to start ahead and start pushing for a bitumen pipeline from Alberta to BC.
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She's brought three companies on board, Trans Mountain. They know a thing or two about building
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a pipeline. Enbridge and South Bay Corporation. And they're going to get together and plot
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routes and all the various things you need to plot for a pipeline. And then they're going
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to have it into Prime Minister Carney's major projects office by mid-2026. So, you know,
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that puts the ball in Mark Carney's court and especially puts the ball into Premier Eby's
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court in BC. And he already has had a press conference mocking the idea saying, it's not
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a real thing. And, you know, call me when you've got something concrete.
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Yeah. So, we'll go to Elise. You watched the conference, Elise. Mr. Eby has jumped the gun.
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I guess he got a little while. The Globe kind of leaked a bit of stuff too. And he's not responding
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with much enthusiasm. Well, I think Dave gave a great lead on that. I'd also have to mention
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how uncomfortable Premier Eby looked in that press conference. What David Eby is factoring
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in is that he's lost that green environmental support. That's not a block that he can count
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on anymore. And he's got his NDP diehards. And he's still got a certain level of popularity
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in the province, which John Rustad doesn't have. But I can tell he's factoring this in.
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The problem is David Eby's record on saying no to energy is quite hypocritical. He just seems
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to hate pipelines. But he'll take Carney's money for pretty much any other energy or energy
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facility like his recent agreement with the federal government out at the Richmond airport,
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for example. But he's looking nervous. The one thing I noticed was as he stuttered through
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his press conference, and I don't know if Dave agrees with me, that was not a comfortable
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looking Premier. But it might be because he didn't really understand the details. But he
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chided Premier Smith by saying, when you have something that doesn't require government funding,
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let me know. Problem is, and we all know this, it's guys like David Eby and a decade of Jackson
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Trudeau and the gamesmanship that they played in tearing this country up that has forced government
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to be one of the proponents, one of the groups involved. It should never be this way. And this
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is a larger conversation for the economy of Canada. Every big announcement has to be
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a government announcement. And that is so different in the United States, that's almost a rarity
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down there. So it might spark several different conversations. But I think it's not only a great
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day for Alberta, it's a great day for Canada. Problem is that Mr. Eby may not even be around
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Oh, you can always hope. You made the observation, Elise, that it shouldn't be this way. And you
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know, 10 years ago, it wasn't. Companies got together and they made their pitch. And why is
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that no longer the case? First of all, I'm all for Danielle Smith getting things moving if
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she can. Bless her heart. We need more leaders who are prepared to stick their necks out and go and
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try and get things done. But what Mr. Carney has done is create an atmosphere for investment in the
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energy industry, which totally discourages big companies. The deal now, yeah, he may approve a
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pipeline, but it's got to carry decarbonized oil. Decarbonized oil, you say, what could that possibly
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be? It's the carbon in the oil that gives us any value as a fuel. Well, what they mean is that in
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order to call it decarbonized fuel, you need to take the amount of carbon dioxide that you used in
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producing it and push it underground. Well, that's what there are companies in Alberta who are looking at
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a way to do that. I'm talking about the Pathways Alliance. The technology has been demonstrated in
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Saskatchewan at Weyburn. But there's one thing to do it in Weyburn, and it's another thing to do it on
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the massive scale that would be required to decarbonize a million barrels of oil a day. The
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companies are very well aware of the cost challenges they would have to meet. And Mr. Carney is very well
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aware that that's likely to discourage them. The other thing that might discourage them is the fact
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that as a major project, it would skirt the usual approval processes, end up in that little office
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that he's established within his own government to handle major projects. And who knows by what
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standards it will be judged and by what connivances agreement could ever be caught. So not surprisingly,
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the big players are saying, you know what, let's just see how this plays out. Premier Smith is trying to
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at least clear some of the bureaucratic way ahead for them. Good for her. I hope it works. Every
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old Burton should be hoping it works because there's big money here. But even if it works,
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I don't know how it's going to play out in a long hole when you have to measure the price that you're
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getting for the oil against the tremendous costs of bearing in carbon dioxide. There's a whole nother
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story there. But that's... The other issue is... Go ahead, Elise. Go ahead, Elise. No, sorry. I was just
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going to say, very similar to the EV mandate. The question, it's very fine and dandy to flood the
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market with EVs or flood them or put the requirements of the decarbonized bitumen or carbon or decarbonized
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oil. But the reality is we haven't... We have $92 million missing that went to friends and family
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of the Liberals on apparently green research. We haven't invested in these, what is, I would say,
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commonsensical ideas if you really want to address these issues. There hasn't been a significant,
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a billion-dollar investment in decarbonization. Carbon capture is not the winner-winner chicken dinner
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that everybody thinks it is. The companies are spending more than they're maybe even making
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off of it. It's not demonstrating its real value because it's not hooked into something else.
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We have a very fragmented regulatory environment. We have a very fragmented clean energy slash energy
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environment. They're still pretty isolated away from each other. We have the ability... We could be a
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leader in the Western world in how we address these issues, but we keep diverting tons of money, millions
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and billions to these untested, unimaginable projects. So, yes, we can do... It's like the EV market. We do
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not have the infrastructure to manage decarbonization. We can't... Yeah, you can buy an EV, but where are you
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plugging it in? If we all had EVs, we'd break... At least in British Columbia, we would break BC Hydros back.
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So, that's my frustration, Nigel, is that there's all this lovely chitchat. And I very much want to buy
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into it. We all want to be better, right? But the reality is, is the infrastructure is not there.
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And then you look at... Just a second. I'm not into your electric car fantasy. Come on. We drunk V8 up here in
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Alberta. No, I'd be happy to get a pipeline going. If you want to decarbonize it, fine. Great. Blah, blah, blah.
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I just need a pipeline. However you slice that, I want a pipeline. If you want decarbonization,
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great. But then show me that you understand what it takes to do that. And we have a bunch of
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reactive politicians in this country that have gotten away with not demonstrating their skill
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set. There is zero skill set on this file at the federal level.
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At least they know darn well what it takes. It's not that they haven't been told. What is going on
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here is that they're not that keen to see the pipeline or even to see everybody running around
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in motor cars at all, whether they're gas or electricity. The whole idea of the green movement
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is less and less and less. But you'll be happy. It might be because they have politicized the
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Supreme Court of Canada. So is Carney's office, this project office immune to the constant cyclical
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legal litigation that we see on these issues? You know, one of the issues that we haven't talked
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about is First Nations. Obviously, they're going to be key to this whole thing. There was some First
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Nations representation at the press conference with Premier Smith. So I'm sure she'll be looking for,
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you know, First Nations to be part owners of this pipeline. And there will be some First Nations
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scrambling to get that part of that pie, because it brings in money. Where the problems come in is
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when you'll get these hereditary chiefs, like we saw over past years and coastal gas,
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and you get hereditary chiefs and blockades and trains being blocked and all that sort of stuff.
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So, uh, it's, it's going to be a bit of a long road, but you know, I'm hopefully optimistic on this.
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And, uh, Premier Smith said, uh, indigenous consultations start on day one.
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So did Premier Smith mention at all though, the no more pipelines bill and the tanker band,
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because I noticed she had that big list of demands and the clock's running out on that.
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And she suddenly gone quiet. Did she draw a line in the sand? And is she jumping beyond it now and
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kicking a new demand down into mid 2026? Or is she going to finally do something? Because to be honest,
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I'm starting to find Premier Smith to be high on posturing and low on action. We've got a sovereignty
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act. We've got a number of things. She's constantly threatening to use them. Maybe it's time to get a
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little more assertive because the reality is if Carney doesn't stand, he's got the authority,
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he's got the final authority that bill five gives him the ability to cut through a number of the,
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the roadblocks cut through a number of the things. As Nigel has said, he doesn't really want to do
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this. So it's time to start putting some pressure on that man. I wouldn't disagree with that. Uh,
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Corey, I will, I will say that in doing what she announced this morning, she is trying to do
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something. Yeah. Uh, so I'll give her credit for that. Maybe you have to do that first before you
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go back and start lugging. As I said, she's, she's put the ball into Carney's court.
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Yeah. Again, right. Like it was put in with the tanker ban and the no more pipelines. The reality is
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you can cut the pipe, you can trench it. No company is going to put a nickel into that until
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the pipeline ban is gone and the tanker ban is gone. They're not going to touch it. So that I'm just
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saying her conference perhaps should have come with a reiteration of those demands. Like we're
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trying to create the environment to bring in private investment, but we've got those giant
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roadblocks that still he won't touch. Yeah. Well, the pressure is now there, right? We've got a,
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we've got an actual project. We've got work started on it. So, uh, pressure builds on him,
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but I think you're right. I think Premier Smith has to get, uh, uh, more, more hardline.
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I'm not saying she's not trying at all. I'm just not sure if how many times can you just keep saying,
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we're going to do this until you realize he's the problem and we're going to have to start calling
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him out. I think the power drive is in the relationship that where you see Quebec starting
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to wane on their hard stance. Now that Alberta has joined forces or is going to support Quebec,
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uh, in their secular bill, which would be the notwithstanding clause and that whole argument
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that we discussed, uh, last week. Um, I think their, their relationship is melting. It's not as
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frosty as it once was. And I think Quebec as the economic storm looms on our shores in Canada,
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I think Quebec who has a very, um, doesn't have a strong sort of free market economy. It's heavily
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rooted in government spending. I think they're recognizing the revenue streams that energy
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could bring and jobs that it could bring, uh, to attract more young people and a more diversified
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investment, uh, into Quebec. So there may be that, or Quebec is also feeling the same heat that we're
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feeling in British Columbia on the U S tariffs, especially around forestry, for example, and
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obviously auto. Um, so I think some of the things that I've been watching coming out of Quebec from
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the premier demonstrates to me as he, and he even said it last week, he is warmer to a, to a pipeline
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from Alberta than he has ever been. So things are moving very quickly. And that recession, I think
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plays a, that's, that's basically here. I know it's here in DC already plays a larger part, uh, than we
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may, we may consider. Um, you know, a lot of politicians are going to fall off of that, uh,
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perch, um, or that, you know, that, that pulpit that they've been standing on with energy, I think.
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All right. Well, it will pull things a little closer. Like I said, I, I do hope it is something
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that's going to lead to getting some resources out. It's just ridiculous that we're shutting
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ourselves in like this for so long. And I, I wish. Well, it's ridiculous to us, but if, if, if, if
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you're actually have an entirely different mindset and you're the prime minister, it's not ridiculous
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at all. This is working out of the way it's supposed to work. You, you keep making the offer. You
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keep making it look like you're keen, but you set conditions on it that make it virtually impossible for
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anybody to finance it or do it. Well, a hundred billion dollar deficit may be looming in the
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future. So I would think that the economic genius of, uh, Mark Carney would realize you do have to
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have some revenue flow somewhere, but, uh, we'll see if that sinks in or not. Uh, he seems to much
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prefer the Keynesian method and we'll just borrow ourselves rich. Um, all right. Well, so locally we've
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got the teachers are, are, uh, revolting, uh, you know, Alberta, it looks like they may be going
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on strike as soon as this Monday and, uh, parents are on the hook. I think we might be in for the
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long haul for a bit. Let me just give you some numbers, uh, to chew over. Uh, uh, they were offered
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a 12% raise over four years. Uh, teachers with, uh, five years education and five years in classroom
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experience would be making well over a hundred thousand dollars for 10 months, uh, work. Uh,
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the deal included, uh, 1500 new educational assistance, 3000 new teachers, uh, to go along
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with, uh, $8.6 billion in new school construction. And Alberta teachers rejected that by, uh, 89.5%.
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Uh, they're angry and they've had enough and, uh, they're going to likely go on strike on Monday
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to help parents. They're going to get $30 a day to pay for, uh, uh, daycare or whatever else they have
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to do with their kids, 150 bucks, uh, a week. And that money is going to come from, uh, the teachers,
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what would have been their salaries, but they're not getting them anymore. Uh, they're not getting
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paid while they're on strike. So that money is going to, uh, families and there's going to be, uh,
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online courses that the parents can get the, uh, the teachers, uh, going on. But if I was a betting
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man, I'd say, uh, it's going to last a while this strike. Yeah. I did. Again, I don't think that,
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I think the premier is laying down a reputation as a hardliner on everything that she touches.
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Um, what we've just been talking about with the pipelines is actually a pretty hard line response
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notwithstanding some of Corey's reservations. Uh, she's taken pretty strong positions on some of
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the fringe areas around the education act with, uh, with the pornographic textbooks and the, uh,
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and in terms of the transgender stuff, she's been very firm. Wait till you're 18, wait till your adult.
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So she is not afraid. Unlike some premiers, she does not just sort of see which way the wind is blowing.
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She's got her ideas. She puts it out there. And my sense is that she's not going to like this
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and she will fight them. You were right. This could go on for a while.
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I'm liking where she's going already. Again, preparing parents, trying to do what she can.
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She's already basically signaling to the teachers too. We're not going to flip and settle overnight,
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guys. You rejected a good offer. We're going to starve you out a little bit here. Uh, Elise,
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I mean, you know, uh, BC and unions, boy, that's certainly an area and few things put chills
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into the spine of a politician more than, than dealing with a teacher strike of all things when
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you have a bunch of upset parents and, and, uh, uh, pressure put on things. But, uh, do you think
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Premier Smith's going to be able to weather this storm? I think so. I, if I could give a little
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advice, I was, uh, I'm a former spinner for the Gordon Campbell government, um, and a little bit of
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the Christie cart government. Um, and I'll say I, there were years where it was just rolling strikes.
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My child was caught in years of strike action from kindergarten all the way through to grade six.
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Um, and I regret not pulling my child out and putting her in the public or private system.
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I would say that we've gone through some heavy duty strikes here. Um, and I would say that you must
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hold the line. Um, what I can't understand it. I looked at the offer that the Alberta teachers,
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uh, were, were, was put on the table by the government and I compared it to what BC's last
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offer was. And that in BC, the BCTS contract, um, actually expires next spring. Uh, so we don't have
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that long, but I would say that Alberta teachers are far, far ahead than almost every teaching
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federation or association in the country. I think the sticking point, and I think there's more to this
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as well. They didn't like the book ban. Um, they're, they're, they've got membership and they're
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much like the BCTF and maybe more so at the BCTF that's quite militant in its approach. Um, they
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didn't like being told what type of books they should read, what the, what type of literature and
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conversation they should be having with their students. I think there's some of that at play at
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play as well. And they want to push her and this is a bit of a revenge thing, I think as well. But I
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would say that the, it, I understand some of the parts that the Alberta teachers are complaining
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about, which is really a federal problem. It has a lot to do with class size caps and that was a
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sticking feature and has been for almost 12 years in British Columbia. Each province is seeing almost
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about a 10%, uh, growth in their classrooms. That's a lot for teachers and every child now seems to have
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an issue and without the special needs of special education attached to that or aid workers, uh, the
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deal really isn't going to get done. So my advice to the Alberta government is fixate on that, demonstrate
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to the public that you're coming to the table because there is a lot of parental support. I was
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surprised there's a lot of parental support in Alberta for the teachers, but it's sticking on this
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issue. Um, and I think that you can bring kids back to the classroom the way that we did once we
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finally in the third iteration of these strikes, we relented and we were able to look at class size
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caps and also the addition of more aid workers. I will say Cringer-Smith has almost come to fully to
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the table on that. It's just, there's a few numbers there that need to be worked out, I think.
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It's interesting what you're saying there about parental support for the teachers.
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Cringer- I, yes. Well, I, I have a few people in the, friends in the, in the teaching profession
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who say that there is a hate on in the teaching profession for the Smith government. They don't,
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they just, it doesn't, I'm not sure what a good deal could have looked like, which would have got past
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that. They just don't like the idea that somebody else, not just teachers, somebody else has got some
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firm ideas on how children should be taught and what they should be taught. I mean, you mentioned
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the books just now, and I mentioned them earlier too. When you look at what we've got there, like,
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you would have been put in prison 20 years ago if you'd offered that stuff in a school. So I have to
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say that if parents are supporting that, well, um, my sympathies are somewhat diminished.
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You look on Monday, as of Monday, teachers are without paying, right? There, there is no strike
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fund for, for, to, to pay the strikers. You know, you normally, if you show up on picket line duty,
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you get, you get a daily stipend. There is no money for that for teachers. So Corey, you talked about
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starving them out. As of Monday, if they go on strike, teachers have no income.
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And I mean, they got to, you know, pay for the summer cottage for their two months off somehow.
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Yes. And their Christmas vacations and the November vacation.
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That was family day, long weekend, Arbor day. Yes.
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Is there another month on these wretched radio ads that we keep hearing?
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I don't know it. It makes me, where'd all those union dues go?
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It makes me question how financially secure the, the union is, if they can't afford strike pay.
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I would write, I would remind you guys, and I would remind the teachers that it's caught,
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it's public knowledge at the, at our fingertips, just to Google search.
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The BCTF and the Alberta teachers and the Quebec teachers and the Ontario teachers and
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Ontario is an even bigger mess. They have never met a government that they can do business with.
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And it's been proven with the NDP, the success of governments in British Columbia,
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the NDP governments from the original, you know, Glenn Clark governments,
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all the way to David Eby. It's not just right of center or, um, you know,
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conservative governments, for example, they like to play that narrative as the big meanie,
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you know, they're right wing fascist. They want to crush us.
00:24:09.140
Well, I would look at the comments they made about Rachel Notley, uh, when they were in their
00:24:13.700
negotiations, they were hard liners. Then they didn't like her. Then they didn't, they don't
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like David Eby. They didn't like John Horrigan. Um, so this is more about ideology. It's a militant
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ideology. And unfortunately, I don't think it represents like the postal workers. And I've
00:24:29.540
talked to many BC teachers, for example, it, they're frustrated by these militant union leaders,
00:24:34.820
um, that get ahead and get elected. And what we noticed is that if we gave them enough rope,
00:24:40.980
they would not swing, but you know, they would, the house, the cards would fall down and they
00:24:46.900
eventually do turn on each other. And that's when you have to come back in and say, okay,
00:24:51.380
we're going to come to the table. We understand the capping of class size. And I will say the capping
00:24:56.340
of class size is a pretty antiquated, um, thing to, to stand, you hold your ground on in it's about,
00:25:02.660
it's 10 years old. We've all, all the governments have thought about this. You eventually have to relent
00:25:08.020
because it is an immigration issue. And with immigration has come some serious socioeconomic
00:25:13.060
problems that we are just not prepared. And unfortunately the front line is the classroom
00:25:17.700
and our healthcare system. You know, at least I think we have to remember that there are some
00:25:23.700
really good people in the teaching profession. There are, um, however, only 11% voted in for the deal.
00:25:33.540
And I, I wonder if that gives you some idea of the proportion of the people.
00:25:38.260
You've got to own it when it's a vote. I mean, the rhetoric too, as you're talking about with
00:25:42.980
ideology and so on, as mentioned there with, with, uh, our creepy Senator Wells, uh, calling
00:25:48.100
Premier Smith the dictator, which is kind of ironic considering at least she was elected, he was
00:25:53.940
appointed. So if anybody's more of a dictator, it would be that strange little man, but he's really
00:25:59.940
torquing this sort of thing. I mean, we've got a, a Senator stepping between and getting in the way
00:26:05.620
between a provincial and, uh, uh, you know, a school, a strike going on like this is going to get ugly.
00:26:13.300
Yeah. It's none of his business really. Um, and you're right. He is creepy and, uh, you're right.
00:26:18.740
The rhetoric needs to be toned down. Uh, and it's only going to get worse until Monday.
00:26:23.700
Well, the other aspect too, and we've talked about that a lot, we've had, you know, John Hilton O'Brien
00:26:29.060
speak of it. Uh, if anything's going to help parents start to reconsider keeping their kids
00:26:34.020
in the regular public system, it's when the teachers do things like this. The teachers union despises
00:26:39.620
the thought of more charter schools or private schools or homeschooling, but it's just this sort
00:26:44.100
of thing that makes parents realize that maybe I like those options better.
00:26:46.820
Yep. You can see charter school enrollment booming next year.
00:26:49.700
Yep. Yep. It happened in British Columbia, the public private schools and, uh, what you guys
00:26:55.780
call charter schools completely boomed and it's maintained and it's grown in British Columbia
00:27:02.420
because like Canada posts, BC's education, education system became extremely unreliable.
00:27:08.420
I'm not joking when I say it was six school years of rotating strikes, black armbands as well.
00:27:14.900
Uh, the teachers were wearing black armbands, uh, dressed all in black. They, it horrified the
00:27:21.140
children. It was a horrible time in our province, but private schools, other types of schools have
00:27:27.300
done nothing but extremely well in this province.
00:27:31.460
All right. Well, let's move along to other schools. And, uh, yesterday was the
00:27:36.340
truth and reconciliation day. The holiday Justin Trudeau created, uh, for us, uh, or at least for,
00:27:42.180
for government workers, real workers still had to come into work yesterday, but, uh, the narrative
00:27:46.980
has changed a bit. I mean, they are kind of ramping it down. The governor general's speech, uh, was,
00:27:52.580
it was a little less, uh, inflammatory than it had been in the past ones, I guess you could say.
00:27:56.900
Well, she certainly made no reference to, uh, denialism. And, uh, you know, after the
00:28:02.900
first release of him, of, uh, of the first statement from Kamloops, what is that? Four
00:28:10.100
You know, um, you were, you came in for a lot of criticism and there was threats of
00:28:16.100
legislation even to make it a, an actual crime to deny the whole narrative that-
00:28:23.300
Karina Gould is still trying in the Liberal Party to make it illegal to-
00:28:26.340
Yes. Yeah. Well, she's, she will have supporters in there. I mean, it's actually pretty,
00:28:31.620
pretty serious when your government actually wants to make a particular point of view
00:28:35.380
illegal. It's one thing to say, we don't agree. We're going to kind of trash you if you, uh,
00:28:40.100
put it out there. We might even put you in an Alberta human rights commission if you say it
00:28:44.500
in Alberta, but to actually say it's illegal to say this stuff, uh, is, uh, I don't think we've seen
00:28:51.540
that in this, uh, in this country before. Anyway, the fact that the governor general did not take
00:28:56.900
the opportunity to emphasize that message. The fact that Parks Canada has now, uh, moderated
00:29:05.060
its language in the description of, uh, sites. There are some residential schools which have been
00:29:10.980
identified as institutions of national importance. And for a while there, they had one narrative.
00:29:15.940
Now they have one that's, that's a little less. So it used to me that the establishment is looking for a
00:29:21.460
way to actually walk this back a bit because they put themselves too far out there, uh, to,
00:29:29.620
to be comfortable. Well, they've torqued it up on this story and nobody will pick up a bloody shovel.
00:29:33.940
Yeah. That's the, you, you were one of the first people to call it a hoax.
00:29:37.220
And I think that's what it is. This whole, millions and millions and millions of dollars spent,
00:29:41.860
uh, you know, given to this, uh, Kamloops band that haven't done any digging.
00:29:46.900
The three of us, and we'll bring Elisa Long, uh, could solve this in an afternoon with a,
00:29:52.340
with a digger. Yeah. And it would solve the crisis.
00:29:55.700
And I haven't been kidding. If we sunk a hole six feet and found the remains of a child,
00:30:00.740
absolutely bring the RCMP in. Let's get a forensic investigation. Let's get moving and
00:30:05.140
find out exactly what happened. Cause the claims are that this happened in the sixties. It's not
00:30:08.260
impossible that the perpetrators while getting a little old might still be floating around.
00:30:13.220
But with the fact that they are fighting, I mean, they're actively fighting efforts
00:30:16.740
to excavate there just keeps telling us there's nothing there.
00:30:19.700
Yeah. And in fact, the RCMP was specifically called off the case back in 2021. So there's
00:30:26.020
a lot of people who don't, would rather have the, have the narrative out there, be a little uncertain,
00:30:32.820
maybe the, rather than actually have it cleared up.
00:30:36.580
It, sorry, Nigel, it's, it's turned into an industry right now. Everybody's got to have an orange
00:30:42.500
shirt on, on September 30th. Million, you know, and, uh, first nations bands across the country are
00:30:48.420
getting millions and millions of dollars, uh, you know, to investigate these graves. Why would they
00:30:53.460
want it to stop? Why would they want the mystery solved? Answer? They don't know.
00:31:04.420
32.7 million and counting. And meanwhile, in British Columbia, where I am right now,
00:31:07.700
um, on the North coast of British Columbia, um, the outcomes have only steadily nosedived.
00:31:14.660
There's more addiction in first nations. There's more sexual abuse in first nations.
00:31:18.900
Um, the, and yet the upper echelon of first nations is richer than ever.
00:31:25.460
What I would say on all of this, because you've all made really valid points. And I, I do want to
00:31:30.980
give a special shout out to city news in Vancouver, who produced a lie of a story last night.
00:31:39.220
They interviewed chief, uh, Philip Stewart, who might sound familiar to you. He hates high points. He
00:31:45.700
hates energy. He hates Canada. Um, but he was interviewed and they, he was talking about 215, uh,
00:31:54.740
children. He said, quote unquote, little tiny baby bodies that we were denied and city news ran this
00:32:02.340
and ran this over and over and over again. Um, so I just want to give a shout out because it really
00:32:07.060
ticked me off. Um, and I have written a note to the reporter because they need to know that is
00:32:13.220
inflammatory and it is absolutely not true. But the other thing I would say to first nations
00:32:18.900
communities and not the leadership, but first nations people that are on front line of poverty,
00:32:24.020
front line of joblessness, front line of not, there's not a lot of hope. And when you add in
00:32:28.980
what's happening economically in British Columbia, forestry, the tariffs on seafood. I mean, it's the
00:32:34.740
first nation communities are getting hit left, right, and center. I would ask them to ask their
00:32:39.700
leaders. Fine. You continue with the grift, keep with the grift, but I want to know what you've done
00:32:44.900
with the money. I can't fight the grift. The grift has already been paid for, but what have you actually
00:32:49.940
produced for me, my family and future generations? What have you done for British Columbia? How have you
00:32:56.100
integrated or involved or invested, uh, in to the economy so that we're growing the future for our
00:33:04.660
people? Tell me what the grift has actually done for us, or have you just taken the money and run?
00:33:10.740
Because at 32 or 37 point, whatever it is, million dollars and no diggers, nothing else than the
00:33:18.420
speculation that in that, or whatever it is, the shadows or whatever that they're seeing, which most
00:33:23.700
people believe are, is the roots are tree roots and other pieces of debris. Tell me what you've done
00:33:31.060
with the money, because we can't fight the grip. I can't fight the grift anymore. And I don't think
00:33:35.700
fighting the grift is going to help, uh, raise or elevate the voices of the regular average First
00:33:41.700
Nations people that are in all of these communities up and down the North Coast that where I am,
00:33:47.220
and all across Metro Vancouver, because it's, it's ground zero here where I think the most poverty and
00:33:52.340
pain is. You make a great point, Elise. And you know, one of the first things that Stephen Harper did when
00:33:59.700
he became prime minister in 2006 was to introduce legislation to make the Indian leadership accountable to
00:34:09.780
indigenous people, their own indigenous people. That was one of the first things that Mr. Trudeau took
00:34:16.100
away when he became prime minister in 2015. So there, there is something that there is more that could be
00:34:24.500
said about this, but with your permission, I'm just going to float a theory. This is a theory. So don't
00:34:31.220
take me to the human rights commission, or don't pursue me criminally here. But the way this works
00:34:37.780
is that as long as there is a plausible allegation that missionaries abused and killed Indian children,
00:34:50.580
the guilt, the guilt blame falling on us is such that it makes it extremely hard to negotiate fair
00:35:03.220
agreements with native people. Because there's always a thing, well, no, you can't push too hard,
00:35:09.940
and look, they've really suffered, you see? So when you then recognize that our own judiciary
00:35:19.780
is instructed by the federal government, by the Department of Justice, that sent on courses
00:35:27.460
and told to listen up, because this is the way we want you to interpret the law. And you know that
00:35:32.420
they have been told to look at aboriginal indigenous people differently than everybody else, not just white
00:35:41.940
people, differently to, I don't know, the folks from India or Pakistan or anything else. Look at the
00:35:47.940
aboriginal people differently. You say, well, how is that justice? Well, you know, then they fall back
00:35:53.300
on this narrative. So that is my theory, that there are people who want this really badly.
00:36:01.300
And then we're going to back off quickly. But I do find it instructive that at least the governor
00:36:07.220
general didn't step right up to the plate and start talking about this the way that she talked
00:36:15.940
about in the previous years. And that Parks Canada itself, which is, after all, it's the government
00:36:20.900
speaking is kind of backing away from it a little bit. Well, it's an indication maybe a bit of a
00:36:24.980
different attitude coming from her boss. And I know technically the prime minister is not the
00:36:28.260
governor general's boss, but we know in reality, that's where the messaging comes from. So a bit
00:36:33.540
of a change of priorities, I guess. I don't think Mr. Carney's as interested in diving into that as
00:36:37.620
Trudeau had been either. But he certainly seems to be interested in regulating our speech and our
00:36:42.900
ability. C8 is back. And we're looking to control the internet, control speech, control people's
00:36:49.140
talking. But now the government's talking about they could strip internet access from specific
00:36:52.900
people. Yeah. But in their direction, they can order the telecom companies to just like, say,
00:36:58.340
shut down Nigel's internet. Because he said he had a theory. Because he had a theory. He had a theory.
00:37:04.500
He's done it, hasn't he? Yeah. And that's against what the government wants you to say. And they can,
00:37:09.860
you know, they have the sole power to say, shut down Nigel Hannaford or shut down Corey. You know,
00:37:16.740
it's kind of frightening. It's Orwellian. I mean, they justify this, Dave. And I think you have this
00:37:22.500
in your article this morning in the Western Standard, which we encourage everybody to buy a
00:37:27.940
subscription to, don't we? Yes. Of course. Absolutely. In the, okay, in the article this
00:37:33.780
morning, the justification is always like this. Well, we've got to go after the people who are
00:37:38.740
laundering money or running drugs and so forth and so on. And so the ordinary says, yeah, well, I guess,
00:37:44.420
you know, we probably should cut those off. Well, it starts like that. It always ends up coming to
00:37:51.300
rest with people whose opinions they don't like. So Elise, which one of the four of us do you think
00:37:58.020
would be the first one cut off? So we know who to reach out to and try and find through letter mail
00:38:01.780
when the strike's over. Oh, I think it's you, Corey. I think, I think if there's anyone that's first up
00:38:06.980
for to claim first prize, it would be you probably followed by me. Um, although I, I think that
00:38:14.100
there's a few people ahead of me as well. Um, but I'm slowly edging into that, uh, that, that, you know,
00:38:21.380
that the, the, the, sorry, the list of, uh, bad behavior that they would probably cite. Um, do you
00:38:30.500
remember the first iteration of this bill? So just for a little context, this is now a standalone bill
00:38:35.620
outside of bill C 63 and outside of bill C 26. Uh, so it's like a walking, it's like a Russian doll,
00:38:43.780
Nigel. You remember, you guys might remember those. So out of every little doll comes a new,
00:38:49.460
more terribly written piece of legislation. And you have to sort of follow the breadcrumbs on this,
00:38:56.340
but I will say that it was obvious that they, you know, contrary to what, um, Minister Sean Fraser said,
00:39:03.060
it had, it hadn't really addressed the issues it's taken. Um, it says it's put more guardrails
00:39:09.460
in and it's more targeted towards who they think the offenders are. But the problem is it hasn't
00:39:14.900
done any of that. What it has done is it has acknowledged some of the dangers and problems.
00:39:21.460
Um, and there's some good stuff in there. Like you shouldn't, you know, be able to, uh, paint your
00:39:26.260
house as flasticas. That's a pretty good thing. Um, but that's just sort of the window dressing.
00:39:32.100
The rest of it's exactly the same as the first two iterations of the online hate bill, which
00:39:38.020
I guess it's not technically a third iteration. Although there's these standalone breakaway bills
00:39:43.700
that, um, I think are meant to confuse people and not have them see it as part of the larger bill.
00:39:50.100
But I agree with you. All four of us are going to end up having our internet cut off. Um, and
00:39:55.380
you can't help, but look at what's happening in the UK where there has been an Orwellian authoritarian
00:40:02.340
enforcement on free speech. And I would ask, and I think enough groups and enough legitimate groups
00:40:08.820
have pushed back, uh, including Canada's top law firms on bill C8. So I don't think it's going to
00:40:15.540
survive. Um, but it's definitely a lesson and we can never let a bill like that show, uh,
00:40:21.380
show up in the house of commons again. And I highly doubt in our future and our time,
00:40:27.860
that it will come back because it is a scary bill if you really read through it.
00:40:31.540
All right. Well, I suspect it'll get trimmed back in the Senate.
00:40:35.540
Yeah. Of course, it's going to be a nightmare with this one, but we'll move on quickly. Uh,
00:40:40.740
we'll kind of hit this faster. I'll just kind of run through it because we're going to get to our
00:40:44.180
parting shots. The time's going quickly before we get cut off the internet. Uh, the, uh, temperatures
00:40:50.740
are going down. The cost of living is going up. Natural gas prices. Yeah. People are wondering why
00:40:54.980
their, uh, gas prices are going up and just, there was a few tips on, uh, making sure, you know,
00:41:00.820
or finding out whether you're on the regulated rate option. So, uh, they're going to double in
00:41:05.540
October. Yeah. So that's going to be a big hit, especially if the temperatures go down. So just
00:41:10.020
letting people know, check your bill, look for those terms and, uh, uh, check for those rates of
00:41:14.580
last resort and such. Just a reminder to folks, cause it's coming fast. It's sliding under the radar.
00:41:20.340
Yeah. I, um, I, I did take a look at that and I guess you basically, you look at your bill and if you
00:41:26.740
got the phrase, uh, R O L R rate of last resort or a DRT, which is default rate, um, you may have a
00:41:36.820
problem. All right. So just check your bills and see what your, your plan is. All right, let's get
00:41:40.340
on to the final shots. We'll start with Elise, uh, quickly, uh, so we don't run over time. And, uh,
00:41:45.860
what do you want to leave people with on the parting shot there, Elise?
00:41:48.420
Well, my final, my parting shot for today is to make sure people understand I'm not denying residential
00:41:54.740
schools. Uh, and I think for a large chunk of, uh, first nations, uh, people that went through
00:42:00.500
residential schools, it was horrifying. And that is not a history that I'm willing or wanting to deny,
00:42:07.300
but what I won't deny, and I won't stop talking about is the grift and the millions and millions
00:42:13.620
and millions of dollars that have gone unaccounted for. And I want first nations leadership to not
00:42:19.940
look at me, but to look in the faces of those who are hurting the most on the reserves, which is
00:42:25.380
traditionally women and young girls and tell them how, how they spent that money and how it's made
00:42:31.300
their lives better because we need to stop the grift. All right. Dave, what do you got?
00:42:36.660
Uh, one of my heroes died today, Corey, uh, the, the chimp lady, Dr. Jane Goodall. She was 91 years old. She
00:42:44.420
passed away in Los Angeles where she was on, uh, on a speaking tour of the United States. Just did, uh,
00:42:51.860
91, uh, in her eighties, she was on the road 300 days a year, giving speeches to school children and
00:42:59.140
groundbreaking worker that she got a lot of stick for. And, uh, at the beginning of it, when she
00:43:03.540
started noticing the similarities between chimps and, uh, and humans and discovered that chimps, uh,
00:43:09.300
uh, uh, were, were capable of using tools. So, uh, definitely a life, well, a life well lived and,
00:43:15.860
uh, rest in peace, Dr. Goodall. Yeah. Well, another life. I was quite sad to, very sad actually, to hear
00:43:22.980
that Nigel Wright, former chief of staff to prime minister Harper had died in the, in London at the
00:43:28.820
age of 62, which is really checking out a bit, a bit too early. Um, take this opportunity to say,
00:43:35.060
he was a wonderful man. He was a great leader in the prime minister's office, a privilege to know him.
00:43:40.980
And, you know, I, I said at the time, and I see other people have been repeating it since that, uh,
00:43:45.940
he was the one who showed you what the difference between a liberal scandal was and a conservative
00:43:50.660
scandal. A liberal scandal is one where you take money out of the till. The conservative scandal is
00:43:56.340
when you put your own into the till to make things good. Yes, it was a, rest in, rest in peace,
00:44:02.740
Nigel Wright. He certainly did his service. A lot of people who did, uh, with me, well,
00:44:07.060
I'm just going to point out and remind folks, actually look on the internet, uh, whilst you can.
00:44:12.260
And, uh, uh, uh, Francis Widowson, who spoke in Winnipeg and was assaulted by a number of First
00:44:18.980
Nations people who were riled up by, it appears to be university staff to come out and confront her.
00:44:23.860
She was assaulted and, uh, will be seeking charges against some of them. It was on video,
00:44:28.660
but again, I'm certain thanks to the Gladney principles, none of them will really face any, uh,
00:44:32.740
consequences. But this is a scary development when we are now physically assaulting people for
00:44:37.060
just showing up on a campus to try and speak. And, uh, yeah, self-promoting plug, Francis will be
00:44:42.900
appearing on my show next week. And we'll discuss that a lot, a little more length and, uh, see just
00:44:48.100
what's going on. Cause that's a really, really ugly development. That video is very, very disturbing,
00:44:52.660
uh, with how she was treated when she arrived there and knowing that university faculty was at least a
00:44:58.500
little bit complacent in this. And, uh, the guy with her, uh, page, he was also a videographer.
00:45:05.460
Yeah. And shaken up. So, uh, you know, we don't want to be going, we're supposed to be moving
00:45:09.380
ahead in the world, not to a place where we fear for our physical wellbeing when we want to speak
00:45:13.860
out on things bad enough with legislative threats to our speech, but physical ones, uh, stirred up.
00:45:19.060
So anyway, I just want to remind folks that I'll be chatting about that. So thank you, Elise,
00:45:23.940
Nigel and Dave for, uh, this episode of the pipeline this week. And, uh, thank all you guys for tuning
00:45:30.900
in. And I just got to put that final nag and reminder and get online. The reason we can do
00:45:34.900
this, the way we pay the bills and keep the lights on and pay that natural gas is through you
00:45:39.460
subscribing. It's $10 a month, a hundred dollars for your take advantage of volume discounts.
00:45:44.900
Keep supporting us. If you've already subscribed, thank you. We really, really do appreciate it. If you
00:45:48.740
haven't come on, get on with it. And I tell you it's Christmas shopping time. If you really want to
00:45:52.660
drive your liberal uncle crazy, buy him a subscription to the Western standard and maybe it'll grow on
00:45:57.780
him. All right. Thank you again for tuning in guys. And we'll see you all next week.