Western Standard - The Pipeline： GovGen’s： Why do they all＊ spend royally？

00:00:00.000 Good evening, I'm Derek Fildebrand, publisher of the Western Standard, and you're watching

00:00:16.600 The Pipeline. Today is July 19th, 2023. I'm joined, as usual, by Western Standard opinion

00:00:25.200 editor Nigel Henniford. You have a good good stampede? Excellent one actually, yes. Back in our

00:00:32.000 suits. Back in our suits, yes. Back in a suit. The other stuff is all back to the dry cleaners.

00:00:37.680 Yeah, yeah. We'll put it away in the closet for a while. Well, yeah, that's right. Get all the muck

00:00:43.520 off the bottoms of the jeans and so on here. Yeah. Out of his cowboy kitsch back into a suit

00:00:50.320 is Western Standard Senior Alberta columnist Corey Morgan, who appears to need a haircut

00:00:54.400 pretty bad today. Yeah, one thing at a time. I'm due for one. Yeah, procrastination. We could sit

00:00:59.820 under a hat there for two weeks, I guess. Yeah, I hid it last week under the cowboy hat, but no

00:01:03.800 luck. Were you guys wearing hats on the show last week? I did. Oh, well, good for you guys.

00:01:08.300 You don't watch it? I always watch it if I'm not on it. If I'm not on it, it's not even worth

00:01:13.760 watching, isn't it? I should have been less restrained if I didn't know he wasn't going to

00:01:17.360 What? Joke's on you. Today, we're going to be talking. I don't know what it is about governor generals. You get appointed governor general, and something goes to your brain, and you get the governor general credit card, and you just use it everywhere, and on the most outrageously expensive stuff possible.

00:01:42.680 So the latest Governor General Simons is in trouble.

00:01:49.540 Simons, right?

00:01:50.380 That's how you say it?

00:01:50.880 Simon, Simon.

00:01:51.500 Mary Simon.

00:01:52.500 Mary Simon.

00:01:53.340 Her Excellency.

00:01:54.200 Her Excellency, the Right Honorable, I think they get that, Her Highnessness.

00:02:01.800 Mary Simon spent a hair under $300,000 on an, oh, no, no, it was a trip total, $71,000 on an ice limo in Iceland. 0.86

00:02:18.060 So just kind of the latest spending scandal from Governor General.

00:02:21.880 This is the same governor general that spent $700,000 to receive some kind of award at a book fair, some kind of book fair thingy in Germany just a few years ago, coming on the heels of Julie Payette, who had her own, virtually every governor general ever.

00:02:40.240 The hills were astronomical.

00:02:41.940 Yeah.

00:02:42.980 So just wild stuff. 0.99

00:02:44.020 So we're going to be talking about that and what the hell the problem is with our governor generals, with one possible exception, David Johnson, all falling into the same damn scandal every damn time. 0.99

00:02:55.520 The B.C. port strike, the longshoremen are back on strike again, hugely economically disruptive. 0.97

00:03:03.200 It's necessitated a recalling of parliament now.

00:03:07.500 It could go a couple of different ways.

00:03:09.060 The Federal Liberal Minister, Seamus O'Reagan, has said it's an illegal strike. Tough words coming from a liberal, especially one in an effective coalition with the NDP.

00:03:21.420 So this has been just hugely disruptive economically, and the strike is back on again, and arguably an illegal strike because they did not give 72 hours notice as they're normally supposed to.

00:03:32.420 This went straight back to strike.

00:03:35.100 Federal environment and climate change,

00:03:37.520 and the minister responsible for climate change.

00:03:39.180 See, I told you it was all his fault.

00:03:40.720 Global warming is Stephen Gilbo's fault.

00:03:43.580 He, well, we've got an interesting piece

00:03:45.620 from our business reporter, Sean Polzer,

00:03:48.840 kind of an exclusive scoop,

00:03:50.820 where Gilbo has opened the door, potentially,

00:03:56.180 to allowing Canadian exports of light natural gas

00:04:00.540 to be counted as Canadian emission reductions.

00:04:04.780 And so far, the Liberals have been very much opposed to that.

00:04:07.620 All of a sudden, maybe he's a bit more up.

00:04:09.300 Maybe the Liberals figuring out that there's a 0% chance of Canada meeting its Paris Climate Accord so-called commitments

00:04:17.540 without playing with this Article 6 thingy.

00:04:21.760 So we're going to dive into that with our business reporter, Sean Pulser.

00:04:25.080 Sean was also going to be with us, though, for a story he had.

00:04:28.160 The TD Bank says that Canada's standard of living is falling fast.

00:04:32.660 In fact, we're projected to have the lowest economic growth of every single country in the OECD.

00:04:39.700 Or is it? Yeah, OECD.

00:04:42.060 Yeah, I always mix it up with obsessive compulsive disorder.

00:04:45.600 It's just the OCD.

00:04:46.660 Yeah, I mix it up all the time.

00:04:48.480 We're going to have the bottom of the pack, 36th or 38th, whatever it is, dead last in the next 30 years.

00:04:55.040 uh harrowing harrowing economic news uh before we get going though we got to thank my favorite

00:05:01.680 sponsor the canadian shooting sports association i've been a member of the cssa for more than a

00:05:06.480 decade uh because i trust them as canada's leading firearms rights organization these guys have been

00:05:12.160 fighting for your right to responsibly and safely own purchase and use firearms in canada uh firearms

00:05:18.880 owners need to stand together if we don't stand together uh ottawa's gonna have a much much easier

00:05:24.480 time than it already does in taking away our rightful property. If you're a gun owner in Canada,

00:05:30.160 you don't freeload on the work of others who are paying their weight. You need to join in,

00:05:35.680 become a member of the CSSA. Go to cssa-cila.org right now, or do what I and Corey do,

00:05:42.480 just Google them and become a member and stand together with other firearms owners in Canada.

00:05:47.520 Okay. So why do governor generals spend so royally? Even some governor generals that are remembered somewhat fondly, they've all, with one exception, that's why we have an asterisk on the title of this one, they all fall into this.

00:06:10.040 Now, I think sometimes Canadians are going to get a little nitpicky on spending scandals.

00:06:16.260 You know, we were chatting about this this morning, the Bev Oda orange juice scandal.

00:06:21.380 What was it?

00:06:21.940 Eight, ten or twelve dollars, whatever it was, or eighteen dollars.

00:06:24.780 I don't know.

00:06:25.280 She had this very expensive, wildly expensive glass of orange juice.

00:06:28.620 But she was at a conference at a swanky hotel, and sometimes these hotels just, they milk you.

00:06:36.020 You know, what are you going to do?

00:06:37.320 You're going to tell the minister, you can't have a drink with your breakfast, you're stuck at this hotel.

00:06:41.740 Can even get a little nitpicky about this stuff sometimes.

00:06:45.000 But sometimes it's rightful, and governor generals seem to do this all the time.

00:06:50.680 Again, exception, at least that I can remember in my lifetime, David Johnson didn't seem to have it.

00:06:56.080 But all our governor generals seem to fall into this.

00:07:00.720 I guess, but maybe let's just start with this particular spending, governor general spending scandal,

00:07:05.040 before we get into maybe more historically.

00:07:07.320 $71,000 for the ice limo, she could have bought a BMW and just left it in Iceland and it still would have saved the taxpayers money relative to this, or she could have bought, if she was really insistent on a limo, she could have bought a Dodge or Lincoln limo of 2012 and 2013 models.

00:07:28.320 Are we just being too nitpicky on this one, Nigel? Is this another Bev Oda orange juice thing that we're blown out of proportion? Or does the governor general really have something serious to answer for here?

00:07:41.620 Well, yes, I think she does. And there's two things to it. First of all, is the actual expense on the limousine. She had the thing locked up for three days. So it was available for 72 hours.

00:07:52.400 And she was only 700 meters away. The hotel, the conference center, were 700 meters away.

00:07:56.360 could walk it. I mean, we don't expect, frankly, we don't expect her to walk it. But at the same

00:08:01.460 time, somebody made the decision that that vehicle was to just be there for the whole time. And I can

00:08:07.700 see how they would have come to that conclusion. But sometimes they come to the wrong conclusion.

00:08:12.500 And you know, she's not going to need it at three o'clock in the morning. So send the guy home.

00:08:17.700 I don't know if I'm governor general, and I'm on an all expenses paid trip to Iceland this time of

00:08:22.740 I might need the ice limo at 3 o'clock in the morning.

00:08:26.740 Well, you might, but I don't think Mary Simon, you know, go out and see a geezer at 3 o'clock in the morning. 0.92

00:08:31.740 Now, look, the thing with these, there are those specific expenses.

00:08:36.740 And I've got to say, on behalf of advanced tour directors for the government,

00:08:43.740 that sometimes your choices are very constricted.

00:08:47.740 You know you're going to go to a certain place.

00:08:50.820 Well, the host government wants you to stay in certain designated hotels.

00:08:54.800 There are reasons for that.

00:08:55.880 It's got to do with security and access and all sorts of things.

00:08:58.720 So, you know, if that hotel turns out to be charging $3,000 a night,

00:09:04.420 then that's where you stay.

00:09:05.780 And then you take the heat when you come home.

00:09:08.140 The other question, though, is why she's going there and for what purpose.

00:09:15.020 This was a meeting of the so-called Arctic Council.

00:09:18.680 I think it was Arctic Circle Assembly.

00:09:20.780 Arctic Circle Assembly.

00:09:22.300 So when she got there, what was she talking about?

00:09:25.780 Well, she was talking about general equality, youth engagement, and the revitalization of indigenous knowledges and cultures.

00:09:35.980 I would put it to you that maybe it wasn't worth going to Iceland to drive those messages on behalf of Canada.

00:09:43.220 But then how else is she going to get a free trip to Iceland?

00:09:46.740 Well, she may just have to buy her own.

00:09:49.160 You know what?

00:09:49.780 And then there's the Frankfurt Book Fair.

00:09:51.980 Now, here we were going to receive nationally an award.

00:09:55.260 It turns out we paid for everything.

00:09:56.660 We paid for the trip.

00:09:57.460 We paid for the award.

00:09:58.320 We paid for the banquet.

00:10:00.040 $18 million squandered on a Frankfurt Book Fair.

00:10:04.600 $700,000 for her, though, I think.

00:10:06.680 Well, yeah, but altogether, why are we doing this?

00:10:09.900 Like, what's the payoff?

00:10:10.700 As for her, what did it say here, she went to tell delegates, our story is not just about him or her, it's also about they or them.

00:10:22.080 You can't make this stuff up.

00:10:24.140 You know, like maybe don't go to some of these things or send somebody else who doesn't get the royal treatment and save the money.

00:10:35.380 It is, if you're going to go, your hands are tied to a large extent.

00:10:40.700 So maybe make the decision not to attend.

00:10:45.340 Corey, you know, it's the same.

00:10:46.880 Sometimes, I'm not sure if it's uniquely Canadian,

00:10:49.520 but you don't see this kind of thing in the States where, you know,

00:10:52.880 people get upset when, you know, politicians run up a big bill for something.

00:10:58.420 Like, again, I guess I keep coming back to this, the bed of water, orange juice.

00:11:02.640 It took down a cabinet minister, a single glass of orange juice

00:11:07.220 that was somewhere between eight and 18 bucks I can't recall but Canadians I

00:11:12.620 think at least semi uniquely get really upset about this stuff and sometimes

00:11:17.540 it's petty and unfounded but this stuff is just off the real $71,000 for a nice

00:11:25.880 limo her total trip $298,000 essentially 300 cool if they needed a 0.99

00:11:35.120 car in standby, they literally could have bought a pretty nice BMW and just left it and donated it

00:11:43.320 to charity when they left, and it still would have been cheaper. How the hell does something

00:11:47.420 like this happen? I feel like, before you answer, I feel like, you know, it's not likely that the

00:11:54.140 governor general, sitting around Rideau Hall, and she says, get me a nice limo for three days,

00:12:01.260 Keep it outside running. I don't care how much it cost it. I doubt that's what happened. But it did happen. And it seems to happen with our governor generals all the time. How the hell do you think this happened?

00:12:13.840 Well, I think with these governor generals, I mean, they're a position of foe royalty. They're appointed to it, but they're supposed to be representatives of the queen or king now. And the amount, it goes to their head fast. You stay in a separate, you know, Rideau Hall, which is almost a palace.

00:12:31.100 in itself. You've got the servants around you. Even having a lieutenant governor come out to an

00:12:36.820 event in Prittis that Jane was working on actually years ago. The protocol that you get sent to you

00:12:42.200 on how you deal with somebody in that position and even, you know, walking behind, it goes to

00:12:47.600 their head quickly. And I think they start to believe they are royalty. So you guys hosted

00:12:52.340 Representative of the Queen and Prittis? Well, there was a time capsule opening that had been

00:12:56.740 set there by Grant McEwen many years ago, and we actually asked and she came out, which was an

00:13:03.380 honor. It was great to see. Did you let her use the washroom at the bar? Oh, come on, she's not that 1.00

00:13:08.340 royal. So, but I mean, it really was actually quite a list of things that were sent in advance

00:13:15.000 about how you deal with the protocols of having somebody, and that's at the provincial level.

00:13:19.340 So, I believe they lose sight, though, of, you know what, it's, there's limits. You aren't really

00:13:26.340 a queen or king, you are still a government appointed person. And I think some of them like

00:13:32.340 that was worse, I think, but haven't helped the staffer if there wasn't a comfortable enough

00:13:37.460 level when you did get there, or, you know, the the advanced person or planner, if there wasn't

00:13:42.420 a big enough room or a large enough entourage, or as we know, with the flights with this governor

00:13:47.840 general, there'd better be at least $100,000 worth of food for my friends. So, you know, we have,

00:13:53.300 I think a good reason to be upset. And in times like now, when the cost of living is spiking,

00:13:57.560 we get extra upset. If times were good and the economy is booming, people might not pay attention.

00:14:01.260 But when you're starting to pinch nickels and clip coupons and you see somebody, you know,

00:14:06.180 so wantonly spending your tax dollars like that, who's in a position that really doesn't

00:14:10.700 necessarily do a lot, we're going to get mad.

00:14:13.800 Do you mean you never charged $600 for a stake down there when you were...

00:14:17.320 If I'd have thought somebody would buy it, I would have been more than happy to sell it.

00:14:20.440 You should have done it when the Lieutenant Governor came through.

00:14:22.680 Yes, again, I don't think we've had that problem so much on the provincial level, though.

00:14:28.040 Man, I should be the lieutenant governor. It'll be lit.

00:14:30.160 Yeah.

00:14:30.900 At least I'll have good parties and I can come to them.

00:14:34.340 True enough. And, you know, I could cut the state price down to $200 for the visit, you know, reasonable.

00:14:40.060 Yeah.

00:14:41.940 I'm not sure how we fix this.

00:14:44.080 And it's probably more difficult to fix than the average Canadian taxpayer would suppose.

00:14:48.860 because the governor-general is not actually a part of the government as we

00:14:54.720 think about it it's a different branch of government there's the judiciary and

00:15:00.200 there is the legislature and then there is the executive can have a fourth

00:15:05.540 branch in our system more or less and that is the monarchy and the monarchy

00:15:10.240 is paid for at least the governor-general portion not not the queen herself but in

00:15:14.360 Canada, that's paid for by an act of parliament. Parliament authorizes the money to be spent.

00:15:22.280 But I'm not sure how much they can micromanage it. Like, I'm not sure if parliament can,

00:15:27.480 you know, appoint special person to be in charge and check the, you know, the invoice is coming

00:15:35.000 into the governor general's office and say, I don't know about this. I'm going to go tell

00:15:39.560 Trudeau that you're going to get us some crap here. So here's the thing there's one reason to 0.97

00:15:45.560 have the monarchy and have the governor general and that is when there's a constitutional crisis

00:15:52.600 they are the arbiter. They can also do certain other things like hand out

00:15:58.520 medals for valor or for civic performance but that's why we have the office.

00:16:05.000 it is not so that they can become an international representative for Canada.

00:16:13.500 Now, that's how it's been chosen to interpret it recently.

00:16:17.500 But the idea that we have a governor general so that we can send them to book fairs in Frankfurt

00:16:21.560 or to gatherings of people in Iceland and some of the other crazy things that Adrian Clarkson used to go to,

00:16:30.120 it's not a job. That's not why we have them.

00:16:32.280 I don't know. I mean, like...

00:16:33.580 We would never invent it.

00:16:34.520 The hollow head of state, you know, Canada, Germany, Israel, countries that, you know, in their cases, it's presidents, but they're not like a president, the American or the French sense they have, they're essentially like a governor general, they're a referee for a constitutional crisis, that's it.

00:16:51.280 Countries with these kind of powerless heads of state, they do tend to utilize them for diplomatic functions.

00:17:01.280 Germany and Israel will send their president somewhere if they feel, ah, we need to show the flag. 0.55

00:17:06.280 But, yeah, we're not sending the prime minister or the chancellor.

00:17:09.280 We're not sending the foreign affairs minister or secretary.

00:17:12.280 This is done. And the queen herself does play a diplomatic role. The queen does travel.

00:17:17.280 Certainly she does, but she was the queen, you know, she wasn't the two-dimensional cardboard cutout queen. 1.00

00:17:25.060 The queen isn't appointed by Parliament, so it's a whole different ballpark.

00:17:29.040 No, no, but she is used beyond her strict constitutional role as a referee. 1.00

00:17:34.400 She does, well, I'm still talking about her like she's alive.

00:17:38.780 I actually was thinking about her like she was alive for a moment.

00:17:41.260 Hard to get out, I mean, just been around.

00:17:43.460 One name linear, yeah, Derek, don't blame yourself.

00:17:46.140 But, I mean, King Charles will certainly be sent out playing a diplomatic function. The whole royal family is sent out playing a diplomatic function. I don't know if it's reasonable to say, you know, we shouldn't have the governor general doing that. But it's just got to be within reason. And this stuff just keeps bloody happening.

00:18:05.220 isn't within reason that's and I don't know is there any way to stop this short of I don't see

00:18:11.700 why a budget can't be set I mean I know the role is constitutionally entrenched but like anything

00:18:16.460 else you can set a budget you can set some broad expectations on what the role of this could still

00:18:22.540 happen within a budget I mean I can see okay Canada is more or less head of state ish representative

00:18:30.120 the head of state goes to Iceland. I can see, okay, fine, $300,000, you know, hotels, food, security,

00:18:36.380 all this stuff. That's the budget. That doesn't stop some person in the entourage of the governor

00:18:42.340 general saying, let's get the ice limo. Well, I mean, if they realize that if it's let's get the

00:18:48.380 ice limo, okay, but now you can't afford the book fair. I'm talking about a hard budget. This is your

00:18:52.240 travel budget for the year. Figure out which things you're going to attend this year, because

00:18:55.980 Once that's out, you're going to have to apply for anything further or something like that.

00:19:01.020 It's not impossible to do to rein them in.

00:19:04.420 And it's also possible to remind the people on the ground who make these actual decisions to commit to something like an ice limo, whose money it is they're spending.

00:19:14.400 Come on, guys.

00:19:15.560 You know, it also might just have something to do with who we're appointing. 0.97

00:19:21.920 David Johnson was Steve Harper was criticized for the appointment of David Johnson because he was a boring old white man.

00:19:28.920 He didn't check any boxes other than accomplishment and credibility.

00:19:34.920 Something even the liberals have recently conceded he did have until he was put in a role he shouldn't have had.

00:19:41.920 But the liberals have, I think, exclusively, at least under Trudeau, only ever, actually, and going back, Paul Martin and Chrétien, they appoint tokens.

00:19:54.340 And I don't mean to take away from these people.

00:19:56.100 They've all accomplished something, more than us in many cases.

00:20:01.180 But, you know, they're checking diversity boxes, not, for the most part, great accomplishments. 0.78

00:20:08.920 And I don't know, maybe that has something to do with it, so that when they get there, they're overwhelmed.

00:20:14.360 Many of them have just never had real responsibility.

00:20:17.320 David Johnson had real responsibility in his career.

00:20:20.920 He got to the governor general's office.

00:20:22.720 Okay, it's more responsibility, but it doesn't necessarily overwhelm him, because it's another rung up on the ladder.

00:20:27.920 where some of these people, like Michel Jean, she was just a CBC Radio Canada reporter,

00:20:38.740 and all of a sudden she's the governor general.

00:20:41.000 How do you expect her not to go crazy?

00:20:42.940 Well, I guess she was recommended by Adrienne Clarkson, who had also been a CBC.

00:20:47.180 Look, there's something in that too, by the way, that the corporate culture within the CBC is not parsimonious.

00:20:54.700 I mean, they have expense accounts, and they use them.

00:20:57.920 So if that's the milieu in which you have worked for decades, and then they make a governor general and say, by the way, is there an expense?

00:21:07.320 Oh, yeah, you won't be short.

00:21:08.900 They just carry on doing what they've always been doing.

00:21:11.520 I think that that was probably not Julie Payette's problem.

00:21:15.960 I think she'd just like to spend money, but with the, but those two governors general, 0.95

00:21:22.200 and now Mary Simon, not out of the CBC, not out of a spending culture, but my father had a,

00:21:31.720 had a sort of a word of advice for young men contemplating marriage. You'll never satisfy

00:21:38.360 a woman who is accustomed to nothing. And I think that you know, with the career path 0.97

00:21:45.160 that Mary Simon has followed she's never had it so good getting advice from Nigel all right

00:21:53.880 we're going to turn it to the west we're going to turn it to the west coast here so the longshoremen 0.99

00:22:01.320 working the BC ports on strike tremendous economic cost to this they had I guess kind of

00:22:11.480 Union solidarity stuff where shipments diverted to the states, the long term in there would not

00:22:15.640 unload it. So this was just blocking trade to and from the west coast of Canada. Hugely disruptive.

00:22:22.440 They come to a deal. Strike is over and yesterday evening it's back on. Union rejects the deal and

00:22:31.880 immediately goes back to strike. Federal Labor Minister Seamus O'Regan says it's an illegal

00:22:36.840 strike because they didn't give enough notice. Now they have given notice now, but they've already

00:22:41.560 been out there doing it. Parliament's being recalled. I'm supposed to meet with an MP soon.

00:22:47.640 Can't really happen now because they're all heading back to Ottawa.

00:22:54.520 I guess we'll talk, it's obvious how destructive it is. Maybe we'll talk more about the politics of it.

00:22:59.880 But this is going to really put, I think, some strain on the Liberals quasi coalition agreement with the NDP union dock workers in British Columbia.

00:23:13.840 I mean, if the NDP can't get those guys on side, they're done.

00:23:19.940 You know, that's supposed to be bread and butter.

00:23:21.860 Those kind of voters actually kind of go between conservative and NDP, kind of skip the liberal in the middle there.

00:23:25.680 But the NDP have been adamantly opposed to any back-to-work legislation.

00:23:33.440 This could take a few potential forms.

00:23:36.660 Parliament's coming back.

00:23:37.800 That probably means back-to-work legislation.

00:23:40.860 And the union gave Ottawa, especially the liberals, which, you know, are keenly aware of the politics around this,

00:23:46.800 gave them the excuse by engaging in what they've described, characterized as an illegal strike, wildcat strike.

00:23:55.680 If we get back to work legislation, do you think I'll start with you, Corey, are the Liberals going to be able to kind of square it in a way that they can get the NDP support to support them?

00:24:03.940 Or is this going to be a one time deal where they actually have to cut a deal with the Conservatives?

00:24:08.800 Well, I think in this case, the Conservatives would support back to work legislation so the NDP can vote on principle against it.

00:24:15.980 But it still weakens seeing every time he yaps on the sidelines saying, I'm going to hold Trudeau accountable to this and to this and to this.

00:24:24.140 when he's been the linchpin of that government for quite some time now.

00:24:28.120 He can't keep rolling over for the Liberals.

00:24:31.660 I mean, this would be actually a voting against circumstance,

00:24:34.620 but it won't be a confidence thing and it'll pass.

00:24:36.400 But his own base of support's got to be getting tired of this.

00:24:40.400 I mean, at what point are you actually going to be the Democratic Socialists

00:24:43.560 who claim you are and say that's enough?

00:24:46.260 We have to start voting against this government.

00:24:49.120 So it'll put a lot of pressure on you.

00:24:50.420 Nigel, if you're Justin Trudeau, how are you trying to sell this to the conservatives? Because they're the official opposition, they're leading in the polls, they're the threat to take your job as prime minister.

00:25:05.300 How are you packaging this in a way that can allow the conservative, but both force the conservatives to support it and allow the conservatives to claim a win in their own right?

00:25:18.340 Because they're always beaten up on Jake Meatsingh as being Tweedledum to Trudeau's Tweedledee.

00:25:25.300 Oh, no, maybe the other way around.

00:25:27.140 Yeah, he's Tweedledee to Trudeau's Tweedledum.

00:25:30.920 They don't like to be seen voting with the liberals.

00:25:33.800 and it's normal for an official opposition.

00:25:36.620 How would you sell this, if you're Trudeau,

00:25:38.740 in a way that gets the Conservatives to feel comfortable voting for back-to-work legislation?

00:25:43.800 Well, first of all, they're never going to feel comfortable.

00:25:46.740 All that they can really do is say that they recognize the enormous economic importance

00:25:53.380 of that port and the trade that goes through it to the Canadian economy

00:25:58.660 and that they're above playing party politics with such a matter of national importance.

00:26:04.940 And although Mr. Trudeau is the architect of his own misfortune

00:26:08.620 and deserves to no longer be prime minister in order to get the country moving again,

00:26:14.580 I guess we can hold our nose and do this once.

00:26:18.500 Now, I can't imagine.

00:26:23.060 And the thing is, it goes against the conservative way of looking at life to let the unions win on this.

00:26:32.100 I mean, what would the conservatives do if they were the ones in office right now?

00:26:37.860 Well, you'd bet they'd be fighting this tooth and nail, and they would take every action necessary to bring that port back into operation.

00:26:45.100 So they really don't have much option.

00:26:48.020 And they would then reserve most of their contempt for the NDP.

00:26:52.580 where it would be well-placed, I must say.

00:26:55.900 All right, we're going to switch gears again here.

00:26:58.100 We're going to bring in Western Standard Business reporter Sean Polzer.

00:27:02.520 Sean, you had a very, very interesting story.

00:27:07.520 I think it was yesterday, correct me if I'm wrong.

00:27:10.640 Federal Environment Minister Stephen Gilbeau, his office, well, they told you something interesting.

00:27:18.440 Maybe he's seeing the light, if you get my bad pun here.

00:27:25.000 So far, Gilbo has been sort of the arch enemy of the oil and gas industry, probably more

00:27:29.960 or less still is, but he is probably keenly aware that his legacy as a green activist

00:27:35.280 rests on Canada meeting its greenhouse gas emission targets, and Canada's liquid LNG

00:27:45.100 industry might be a part of it.

00:27:46.260 Tell us about what their office told you.

00:27:49.680 Well, he had a press conference via Zoom from Belgium last week,

00:27:56.140 ostensibly to lay the groundwork for the COP28 conference that's coming up in November.

00:28:02.760 And one of the issues that's going to be on it is this Article 6 from the Paris Accord.

00:28:08.980 And so I got cut off on the press release.

00:28:14.380 didn't take my question and i did i wasn't exactly sure why so i followed up uh by email and basically

00:28:19.820 just asked uh you know do you support the notion of uh using lng to reduce emissions in other

00:28:28.300 countries uh abroad you know that burn coal for electricity um the way that premier danielle snett 0.99

00:28:34.940 has been suggesting all along and you know we had a little bit of back and forth and you know they

00:28:40.540 They promised me that they were going to give me a substantial response and on Tuesday they

00:28:47.640 did and it was pleasantly surprising.

00:28:52.840 You know, the government said that yes, there is a role for, not LNG specifically, but for

00:28:58.800 Article 6 to help other countries reduce emissions and while doing so reduce our own.

00:29:06.140 So, you know, progress is measured in small steps.

00:29:10.840 So, you know, I thought that that was fairly somewhat positive.

00:29:17.160 Let's start with you, Corey.

00:29:19.640 I mean, it's a very small step, and it's still just words in an email from his office.

00:29:25.400 We haven't heard it come from his lips yet.

00:29:26.880 I'm sure he would be gritting his teeth while speaking it that Canada's LNG industry might have some role.

00:29:35.560 We've got to expand the industries to export because it actually will reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

00:29:41.620 This is something that the hardcore green activists just refuse to admit, but it is factually established.

00:29:48.300 There's no way around it.

00:29:49.980 It's better from a greenhouse gas emissions perspective if Canada, Alberta exports LNG to another country that was burning coal.

00:29:58.280 We get them, then burn in LNG, which is, you know, much, much less in emissions.

00:30:06.560 But to hear them admit it now, this is something that Daniel Smith has been talking about, Scott Moe has been talking about, Pierre Polyev has been talking about.

00:30:15.420 And hearing it come from Stephen Gilbeau's office, that surprises the hell out of me.

00:30:21.740 Is, what do you think, is this just that they're like, eh, no matter how much we strangle the industry, it's still not going to be enough to meet our targets.

00:30:27.840 And I want to be remembered as the environment minister that got us to meet the targets.

00:30:32.020 So whatever we have to do to meet the targets, even if it grudgingly helps Alberta and LNG, we're going to do.

00:30:39.340 What do you think might account for this change?

00:30:41.940 Maybe it gives them room to frame it and still being the environmental crusaders, because the pragmatists in the liberal government, the economists, the business people, when they're there, they do have to realize some of the benefits of liquid natural gas exports.

00:30:55.000 I mean, this is a government that's got some serious budgetary shortcomings and some widening deficits, and this provides opportunity to bring that in.

00:31:03.160 So if they can frame that in that way, spin it that way, again, maybe not out of an ideologue like Gilboa, but his own office, at least they're realizing, let's make an out here and, you know, try to walk that fine line between saving the world from emissions and still managing to bring in some revenue.

00:31:18.560 You'll probably remember, famously recall when, you'll recall when Trudeau famously told the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, that there was no business case for Canada to export LNG to Germany, because Trudeau apparently understands business.

00:31:37.940 This happened with another country, too, that came here asking. Japan. Yeah, Japan came asking for LNG. We told them to take a hike as well, and, well, they got it from somewhere from the United States that time.

00:31:49.940 they've not understood that LNG is a remarkably clean fossil fuel, but it is a change. Do you think this is just merely, I don't know, because they're talking to the business support or the Western standard, they spruce something up, or do you think there's actually something here?

00:32:11.440 Because this would cause a major change in policy.

00:32:14.400 I think it's very interesting the way they roll it out. Right now, the minister himself is not committed to anything.

00:32:19.940 his office can say that and it is very carefully parsed as well but you know if he decides that

00:32:28.340 no not going to do that all he has to say was well there was a briefing paper that was

00:32:34.180 inappropriately put out and this doesn't mean a thing and our position remains what it always has

00:32:40.740 been it did make me wonder whether there was something in this in terms of the relationship

00:32:47.700 between Ottawa and the government of Alberta because this was a big thing Smith was on about

00:32:53.460 while uh while he was here yeah exactly so the the hint that they may give a little on that

00:33:01.220 strikes me as a possibly a negotiating tactic but one as I say that they can easily walk away from

00:33:06.820 oh well I was just a lower level official who said that doesn't commit the government but um

00:33:11.620 And, you know, the case for actually allowing this country to claim the credits

00:33:19.060 that it gets from exporting natural gas to a country that is presently burning coal

00:33:26.920 and thereby saving carbon emissions, I mean, the logic is supreme.

00:33:32.340 It's a wonderful idea.

00:33:33.560 It's recognized as such in the Paris Agreement.

00:33:36.180 That's why there's an article in it dealing with it.

00:33:38.560 So, is this a softening in the federal position?

00:33:43.000 Time will tell, I guess, but it certainly opens the possibility.

00:33:47.180 They're not committed to anything yet.

00:33:48.960 This is an official, this is just a civil servant saying this.

00:33:52.120 Sean, how big a deal is this to you?

00:33:54.560 Do you think this is just a peon in the government, you know, trying to be nice to you, or do

00:34:01.280 you think this signals a potential shift in policy?

00:34:04.120 Well, I don't think it signals a potential shift in policy in the sense that it's something that they can't really walk away from because a lot of Jabal's work, Minister Jabal, is on the international front.

00:34:19.160 So dealing with the COP conferences and dealing with the UN and doing those kinds of, you know,

00:34:28.200 he's almost got a diplomatic role. And Article 6 was a major part of, I believe it was COP26 in

00:34:35.080 Scotland. It was agreed to by a lot of countries, like 80 or 90 countries. A lot of them were

00:34:43.800 countries that would have had no way of reducing emissions to the levels that they would require

00:34:48.840 on their own. And this has always been kind of a policy plank of Mr. Jubolles. So even though they

00:34:57.240 parsed it pretty carefully, I got the sense that it was something that they just could not say no to.

00:35:05.220 But they, you know, they qualified it with a lot of kickers, which is that the country that would 0.99

00:35:10.780 be receiving the LNG would have to agree to essentially hand over those emissions credits

00:35:16.380 that they would generate from burning the lng to canada so that they don't get double car double

00:35:22.860 counted and these are going to be issues that are coming up at cop 28 basically on how this

00:35:30.220 implementation of uh there's like nine paragraphs in the clause so uh the question of how the

00:35:36.300 implementation of these particular clauses would work how they would be accounted for how the

00:35:41.580 credits would be transferred to what standard are they you know there has to be like engineering

00:35:47.740 standards and and technical kind of standards and all that as well so and he was also careful

00:35:54.780 to say that they are not specific to any one technology so you know the government of Canada

00:36:02.460 supports it broadly in general but they didn't go so far as to say that they actually support the

00:36:07.740 export of LNG specifically. Okay, well, we're gonna have to, well, I guess we're gonna have to wait

00:36:14.780 for that. I don't have my hopes up terribly high, but who knows? Governments have changed their

00:36:20.140 minds before. Sean, we're gonna keep you around. You have another story. Of course, it's you,

00:36:27.580 because you're, you know, as our business reporter here. TD Bank saying that Canada's standard of

00:36:33.420 living is falling fast, projected to be dead last in the OECD by 2060. No, I don't think that was

00:36:46.060 the lowest standard of living in the OECD if I'm reading it correctly. That was lowest growth in

00:36:51.900 GDP per capita relating to standard of living. Am I getting that right?

00:36:59.420 Yeah. Yeah, you are. So basically the gist of the report was is that GDP growth is growing

00:37:10.540 and Canada has recovered remarkably well since the end of the pandemic. But a lot of that is due to

00:37:19.180 high levels of immigration. So what's happening is that even though the economy is growing,

00:37:23.580 it's actually kind of growing at a slower pace when you factor in the head count. So they come

00:37:29.420 up with this number GDP per capita. And on that basis, Canada is trailing pretty much everybody

00:37:36.700 in the G7, the G20, and especially the United States. And yeah, the bottom line conclusion was

00:37:43.980 is that GDP per capita is going to be the lowest in the OECD, which I believe is about 37 nations.

00:37:51.740 And those, those would basically be the developed economies in the world.

00:37:57.260 You know, I think it was, I'm not sure if it was just the Wall Street Journal, if the Wall Street Journal was quoting someone, but they said, you know, Canada's utter lack of commitment to military spending and defense in NATO should get us kicked out of the G7 be replaced by Poland, because Poland plays a bigger role. 0.85

00:38:15.980 They spend more than twice as much as us on a per capita level on defense.

00:38:19.820 And now even with standard of living falling, God, can you imagine a world where Poland is a wealthier, more prosperous place?

00:38:28.240 Poland, for God's sakes, they eat beets. 1.00

00:38:33.140 Where Poland is leading Canada in standard of living.

00:38:39.180 It's hard to fathom, but I suppose this is where the numbers are pointing and a lot of things can happen in the meantime.

00:38:45.980 events

00:38:48.540 always seem to be. Let's

00:38:50.420 not pick on the Poles.

00:38:52.620 The Poles have had a tough

00:38:54.360 life and they fought

00:38:56.400 valiantly for as long as

00:38:58.360 they could during the Second World War and then

00:39:00.320 they resisted communism and finally

00:39:02.520 kicked the communists out in the late 80s.

00:39:05.440 If they are doing

00:39:06.580 well, they deserve to.

00:39:07.980 If a former communist state

00:39:10.280 that was poor even before communism

00:39:11.880 could potentially overtake us, then

00:39:13.680 And, I mean, like, we're doing something wrong.

00:39:15.400 We are doing something wrong.

00:39:16.800 And the first thing that's wrong is that the government that we have now doesn't value the military.

00:39:24.180 It does not, at least for any military capabilities that it has or ought to have.

00:39:30.020 They don't respect the history.

00:39:31.880 They just regard it as a place where they can experiment with social engineering.

00:39:35.400 I mean, they're letting people come to work without the regulation haircut.

00:39:40.800 and if you want to dress in a strange way, well, that's all right, too.

00:39:45.040 This is not, under the liberals, the military is not serious about being soldiers.

00:39:50.420 Although we're serious about something else.

00:39:52.380 But we're going to focus back on Senator of Living now.

00:39:54.980 Well, okay, let's, then, so therefore, a country that has had the difficulties of Poland

00:39:59.880 gets very realistic about what matters and what doesn't.

00:40:03.440 And this country has had it so easy for so long that apparently we find it easy to major on the

00:40:13.840 miners and we don't pay attention to the stuff that really matters. And that's why there's lots

00:40:20.400 of countries who like Poland are doing a lot better than Canada because they pay attention

00:40:24.800 to the real thing. Corey, there's a lot of hard evidence now pointing towards unsustainable levels

00:40:35.280 of immigration contributing towards this. Canadians are broadly pretty pro-immigration,

00:40:40.560 but there are stress levels that accompany it. We've seen what happens in Europe where you just

00:40:47.760 have trouble assimilating people. If it constitutes too high a percentage of the population coming in, 0.85

00:40:53.760 you have to have a percentage that can be assimilated in a reasonable amount of time.

00:40:57.680 There's also the economic constraints, strains on your welfare, strains on your health care,

00:41:03.120 because often it, you know, some immigrants get successful pretty quickly, but often it's the

00:41:06.960 second or third generation before they're a net contributor to the tax base. But then there's

00:41:12.880 housing, and that is an immediate crisis. We've, you know, the housing crisis in Canada is,

00:41:18.080 Well, there's a lot of reasons for it, but one is these massive record levels of immigration now that's creating a housing crisis even in midsize cities in Canada, which is contributing now, I think, towards in a very real way towards the standard of living issues that we're facing.

00:41:38.320 do you think there's a political appetite for reducing immigration in Canada because

00:41:45.240 Canadians in polls are pretty consistently pro-immigration not everybody obviously but

00:41:48.920 majorities clear majorities are and there's multi-party consensus there could be some

00:41:54.540 appetite to reduce it a bit because the economic case is looking that way but due to the pyramid

00:41:58.520 scheme nature of Canada and our social programs we got to keep hauling them in to pay for our

00:42:03.180 older generations that are in. What we're doing, though, is everything wrong. We're so resource

00:42:08.400 rich. We are loaded with an abundance of raw resources, and we're shutting them in. We've

00:42:13.120 got a government obsessed with shutting down our most productive industries, whether it's forestry,

00:42:18.160 oil, gas, mining, agriculture, and dumping money into battery plants that nobody bloody wants.

00:42:23.740 This sounds like the media. Yes, exactly. They're going to dump money into the guys 0.72

00:42:28.820 losing and they're going to do their best to kill the guys winning. So sustainability, you know, 0.75

00:42:32.400 a term they love using, they won't apply it to economics. And we are going down a terribly bad

00:42:37.300 road. As Nigel says, Poland understands what's important. They aren't going to shut down their

00:42:41.660 prime industries and go into some woke garbage. And that's what we're doing here. And yeah,

00:42:47.020 we've got a time bomb economically right now. And it's showing we're starting to see the warnings

00:42:51.100 right now. It's just whether people are going to pay heed to it. Last word to you, Sean.

00:42:54.800 Well, the report was pretty clear that economic growth doesn't necessarily translate

00:43:00.800 into standard of living. And as far as immigration goes, I think it comes back into that integration

00:43:09.200 question, not so much socially but economically. You have a lot of overqualified people working

00:43:15.680 in underqualified jobs, and it's just not generating the value that should be there

00:43:23.520 you know per head in terms of productivity and and how best to take advantage of this resource

00:43:32.320 all right thank you sean well we're gonna wrap it up there uh before we go though i want to make a

00:43:37.760 special appeal to you uh you probably heard us ranting about bill c18 this is the latest attempt

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00:44:59.860 cheaper in the long run than having to rely on the cbc thank you very much for joining me god bless

00:45:07.460 the current lethbridge feed grain prices are as follows cash barley is steady at 435 feed wheat

00:45:13.220 is also steady at $4.20, and corn is up $5 at $401 per tonne.

00:45:19.380 In the milling wheat markets, September Minneapolis futures jumped $0.59 at $7.30, with local

00:45:25.400 hard red spring bid for July movement at $10.50 per bushel.

00:45:30.260 In the oilseeds nearby canola futures increased $18 at $851.40 per tonne, with delivered values

00:45:37.500 for August movement at $19.53 per bushel.

00:45:42.160 In the pulse markets, nearby red lentil prices are trading at $0.34 per pound and yellow peas remain at $11.50 per bushel.

00:45:50.540 In the cattle markets, August live cattle are lower $0.57 at $180.70 per hundredweight.

00:45:58.320 I'm David Lee at Marketplace Commodities, accurate real-time marketing information and pricing options.

00:46:05.160 Canadian Shooting Sports Association, without the CSSA, our gun rights would have been taken long, long ago.

00:46:11.740 these guys are on the front lines helping to draft smart and intelligent firearms regulations and

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Western Standard - July 20, 2023

The Pipeline： GovGen’s： Why do they all＊ spend royally？

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