Western Standard - The Pipeline： 'It's not eastern bastards,' says Trudeau as he blasts Smith

00:00:00.000 good evening and welcome to the pipeline i am western standard columnist cory morgan

00:00:29.040 This is our weekly panel show where we'll dissect some of the top issues going on in Canada and give you all the answers you need to know about what's going on out there and how to interpret it.

00:00:40.600 Before we dive into all those issues, perhaps I'll start, though, with our sponsor, a very important part of our show as well.

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00:01:25.300 Okay, I'm joined this week.

00:01:26.720 I'll start from the end over there with our news editor, Dave Naylor.

00:01:30.660 How's it going, Dave?

00:01:31.340 It's going great, Corey.

00:01:32.160 Happy to be here with you on your birthday.

00:01:35.580 Thanks.

00:01:36.060 That's the one bit of news I've been really trying to keep discreet lately, but thank you.

00:01:40.600 You're welcome.

00:01:42.620 Nigel Hannaford, our opinion editor, regular on the show.

00:01:47.500 In my opinion, your birthday is a great time to celebrate.

00:01:51.460 Oh, thanks.

00:01:52.260 All right. So we got a lot of stories and issues to cover today. So let's get right to it. We got

00:01:59.060 a big event in Alberta. Premier Daniel Smith has addressed the province. It's kind of unusual

00:02:04.800 actually to have that sort of address out of the blue, though there is a legislative session just

00:02:08.900 about to begin. Dave, what has Premier Smith had to say? Yeah, just finished a few minutes ago,

00:02:13.640 Corey. The big sort of headline out of it is her future plans for the Heritage Savings

00:02:19.040 Trust Fund, currently sitting around $22 billion. She wants to increase it to as much as $450

00:02:27.600 billion by the year 2050. That's the same year that Alberta will hopefully be a net zero

00:02:35.680 province. It's all related, all reliant on energy revenues, oil prices, and all that sort of stuff.

00:02:44.900 But look at some countries in the world, I mean, they're living off their versions of Heritage Savings Trust Fund, like, you know, like Norway and stuff like that.

00:02:52.600 Just billions and billions of dollars in interest and profits coming in every year helps fund their economy.

00:03:01.540 And Smith wants to do the same thing here.

00:03:05.740 I think it's obviously a legacy project for her, Nigel.

00:03:09.100 Well, not only is it a legacy project, but it's also a life dream.

00:03:12.720 I mean, back 20 years ago on the editorial board at the Calgary Herald, that was talked of a lot, how they really needed to grab hold of the Heritage Fund and make something of it.

00:03:23.580 It was a crying shame.

00:03:25.340 What they were doing back in those days was they weren't letting it grow.

00:03:29.220 Every year, the provincial government would scoop the interest off and feed it into general revenue.

00:03:34.880 And so it sat there at $14 billion, $14 billion, $14 billion.

00:03:38.420 And, you know, if that had been allowed to grow, it would be a heck of a lot more than $22 billion today.

00:03:45.620 So, you know, I think it's incredible.

00:03:48.260 First of all, I mean, I just hope she stays the course on this because that's always the problem.

00:03:56.240 In the past, people have always said, oh, yeah, got to build the heritage fund up and then done just the complete opposite, ripped it off.

00:04:05.020 So, you know, I wish her well.

00:04:08.240 And, you know, if it takes her being in office until 2050 to see it through, then there's the first problem.

00:04:15.720 Yeah, well, if there is a pile of money, there's going to be somebody who wants to get their hands on it.

00:04:20.240 You know, this helps get it out of the reach.

00:04:22.640 I've noticed, well, it's nothing unusual.

00:04:24.740 The budget's about a week away for the formal budget to come out.

00:04:27.880 And already I've been watching the press releases.

00:04:30.340 The nurses want more funding. 0.98

00:04:31.680 The teachers want more funding.

00:04:33.080 the cities want more funding, the police want more, you name it, everybody wants more funding.

00:04:38.360 Premier Smith said she's not cutting anything, but she's ensuring, though, that any extra dollars

00:04:42.860 are going into savings. Sorry, guys, but we're going to take that out before it even gets

00:04:48.320 gobbled up. I think it's an interesting tactic. One of the things that people watching this need

00:04:53.160 to understand is how much interest we are paying on the debt that we have at the moment, which is

00:04:59.180 in the order of $70 billion, like $3 billion a year is coming out of our pockets

00:05:05.800 and going to the people who hold the debt.

00:05:10.440 I mean, I'm glad they were prepared to lend it in the first place,

00:05:13.020 but nevertheless, if you can get rid of that debt, then you save that money.

00:05:19.860 And this is the crying shame.

00:05:22.020 In 2010, Alberta was debt-free.

00:05:25.360 Since then, we have received something like $140 billion in resource revenues.

00:05:32.860 And yet, in that same period of time, we have paid $21.5 billion in interest charges.

00:05:42.900 All that money coming in.

00:05:44.900 And yet we still ended up having to borrow some.

00:05:47.200 It's actually almost criminal.

00:05:50.620 It is bad management.

00:05:51.520 I mean, that could have been capital investments and all sorts of things.

00:05:53.880 things people are complaining about today that we're lacking. We could have the hospitals,

00:05:57.400 we could have the overpasses, the schools. $21 billion could go a long way.

00:06:01.800 Oh, that's right. But it was always, give us more now, give us more now. And I guess

00:06:05.640 politicians who wanted to get elected weren't able to make the case that it was better to provide for

00:06:11.160 the future. And unfortunately, it's a drop in the bucket compared to the interest charges the

00:06:16.200 Trudeau government is paying on their massive debt, you know, just tens of billions.

00:06:21.640 You mean, we Canadian citizens are paying?

00:06:23.900 Yes, absolutely, absolutely, but it is all predicated on oil prices, as I said.

00:06:29.780 If they go in the tank, then, you know, it's going to be very difficult budgeting,

00:06:34.880 and some very difficult decisions have to be made, but, you know, as Nigel says,

00:06:39.620 it's time to make them and get them done.

00:06:41.760 Yeah, well, there's almost a bit of an admission.

00:06:44.220 Oil and gas is still a finite resource.

00:06:46.880 I mean, there's a lot of debate about how long.

00:06:48.520 It seems we've got a federal government that just wants to bring it to an end as soon as possible.

00:06:53.060 I think a lot of other people are saying, well, we've got it.

00:06:55.320 Let's utilize it while we have it.

00:06:57.400 But both can agree at one point or another, it will be gone.

00:07:00.600 And having something socked away for when that time comes is a smart strategy.

00:07:06.320 What did Trudeau call, sorry, what did Smith call Trudeau today in her address?

00:07:10.940 A delusional enemy?

00:07:12.260 A delusional ideologue or something?

00:07:13.400 A delusional enemy or something like that?

00:07:15.200 Now, it's, I mean, what she is saying here is that Alberta has one last shot at getting this right.

00:07:24.540 I thought that was a very powerful line because that's really what it boils down to between the federal government nipping at your heels and the fact that it is a finite resource.

00:07:34.440 There may not be another opportunity to do this.

00:07:37.620 And speaking of shots, it takes a bullet out of the gun that the left is like to use.

00:07:41.840 They love pointing at Norway and saying, look at that fund that Norway had, but conservative governments in Alberta frittered it away.

00:07:47.440 I mean, they've got to keep in mind, Norway never had a Quebec to support.

00:07:50.420 But all the same, we could have done better with our money.

00:07:53.120 There's no getting around that.

00:07:55.600 And at this point, Premier Smith can say, well, that's what I'm doing.

00:07:58.860 I'm putting that away.

00:07:59.720 Or Alaska, I think they get an annual dividend.

00:08:02.720 $1,300 last year.

00:08:04.300 That's nice.

00:08:05.160 $1,312 per person.

00:08:07.360 U.S.

00:08:08.200 U.S., yeah.

00:08:08.780 Real dollars.

00:08:09.560 Yeah, real dollars.

00:08:10.360 Not the Canadian peso.

00:08:11.200 Not the colored money, no. This is the greenback. So it's, yeah. 0.56

00:08:15.420 So I imagine this should be very well received. I mean, I know all the screaming voices out there seeking more money will be upset, but they always are.

00:08:23.560 And I think most of the people will appreciate this saving. So time will tell, I guess.

00:08:29.040 Yeah, I think it's going to go back to the Ralph Klein days of restraint, not throwing money at everybody that asked for it.

00:08:36.560 Sorry, the quote you were looking for, a federal government that acts like a strategic partner rather than a delusional adversary.

00:08:46.240 There you go.

00:08:47.280 Okay, so.

00:08:48.040 Good speech.

00:08:49.320 Excellent speech.

00:08:50.540 If the head of the federal government is a delusional adversary, this morning Prime Minister Trudeau had some choice words for Premier Smith as well.

00:08:59.160 Holy cow, did he ever rip into her?

00:09:01.180 He was in Edmonton for a housing announcement.

00:09:04.080 But before he did, he appeared on the Ryan Jesperson show, your mortal, I wouldn't say enemy, he's a counterpart.

00:09:14.140 Counterpart, yeah, independent media.

00:09:16.740 This is what he said about Alberta and Daniel Smith.

00:09:20.800 Quote, Albertans are being fooled by right-wing politicians.

00:09:25.640 It has ripped off oil sands workers by refusing to embrace his climate change policies.

00:09:32.360 and quote right-wing ideology is getting in the way of alberta's success it's not a plot 0.72

00:09:40.120 by eastern bastards speaking of ralph uh ralph klein uh smith invited uh trudeau to meet with 0.83

00:09:49.280 her while he was in edmonton and uh was snubbed so it was never going to happen no so very very 0.98

00:09:56.740 I think this is the harshest that Trudeau has ever been with Smith,

00:10:02.440 and it just shows the utter state of disrepair that relations between the two are in.

00:10:10.220 Well, I think there's two things to pick up on that, Corey.

00:10:12.360 One is that, first of all, I do believe that Mr. Trudeau is constructing for use in eastern Canada,

00:10:22.260 Central Canada, the image of the Western provinces, certainly Alberta, but also Saskatchewan, 0.98

00:10:32.740 as being Western bastards who, you know, are just sort of so into fooling people and ripping 0.92

00:10:45.040 people off and things like that, that he will be able to say, if you want Mr. Poliev to 0.99

00:10:53.560 be your prime minister, remember he comes from Calgary, he thinks like those people,

00:10:58.100 so vote for me.

00:10:58.980 That's the first thing that's going on.

00:11:00.340 There's a very definite strategy taking shape of demonizing the West in order to gain electoral

00:11:06.380 advantage in the East.

00:11:08.760 Well, and part of what gets insulting too, though, is he talks about how, you know, Westerners

00:11:12.320 have been misled by these

00:11:13.940 leaders, these ideologues, these right wingers

00:11:16.540 but it's also a side 1.00

00:11:18.280 long way of basically saying we're stupid 1.00

00:11:19.800 we aren't seeing the big picture 1.00

00:11:22.200 and we're being led by the nose by

00:11:24.180 these politicians

00:11:24.940 he doesn't care what we think about him out here

00:11:28.140 that's clear

00:11:28.720 so the

00:11:31.200 yeah

00:11:34.000 it's a branding exercise

00:11:36.260 for him, pure and simple

00:11:38.160 but here's the second thing

00:11:40.460 he actually

00:11:41.840 believes what he's saying is true. Now, there is a tendency in pubs and bars around Calgary

00:11:51.740 and in Alberta generally to dismiss him as a blithering idiot. And he certainly does provide 1.00

00:11:58.620 the evidence quite often that that is indeed the case. So I have on the one hand this incredible

00:12:05.720 devotion to things that just plain ain't so, but also can't make the connection between cause and

00:12:12.820 effect in their own policies. Not that they're the only government who's ever done that, but

00:12:16.960 it's frightening. You know, they are the only government in the world currently sticking to

00:12:21.320 their, you know, their wacky green policies, when every other government in the world is making

00:12:27.700 changes and backing down and saying, well, this is not realistic anymore, and that's not realistic

00:12:32.420 anymore. But Trudeau and his cohort, Gilboa, just keep blindly pushing on.

00:12:39.360 By the way, Dave, linking this to what we were talking about just a moment with the Heritage

00:12:43.580 Fund, do you recall in your days at the Sun how concerned quite prominent Albertans were in the

00:12:48.860 first decade of this century that there was no point in building up the Heritage Fund because

00:12:55.160 Ottawa just found a way to steal it? Yep, absolutely. Yeah, just like the National Energy

00:12:59.160 It wouldn't surprise me a bit if that becomes the next thing that Mr. Trudeau chooses to take issue with.

00:13:07.760 That would be interesting.

00:13:09.000 In the ideology side, tactically, I mean, as I said, Premier Smith knew there was never going to be a meeting,

00:13:14.880 even if you asked for one. He's not going to sit down.

00:13:17.460 It serves Premier Smith well and Prime Minister Trudeau well if they're fighting with each other.

00:13:22.240 When a Premier is standing up for Alberta, no matter who it is, against Ottawa,

00:13:26.240 it tends to be good for their numbers locally.

00:13:28.200 Likewise, with the prime minister, if they're keeping those big, bad Albertans in their place, that tends to resonate well in Quebec and Ontario.

00:13:35.400 Well, I mean, they've been at it for a couple of months now at each other's throats and hasn't moved the liberals at all in the polls.

00:13:41.160 It's in fact, they're down 20 points now.

00:13:44.500 So maybe it's a sign of desperation.

00:13:47.560 Maybe it's a Hail Mary type move.

00:13:50.460 Or maybe it's a sign that people back east aren't really paying attention and won't until they actually get into an election cycle.

00:13:56.780 At this point, they will be fed this, and they'll find it very persuasive.

00:14:02.160 We shall see.

00:14:03.480 The shots have been fired, and Premier Smith, I mean, she's got a lot now to deal with at home as the legislature opens next week, and lots on the go there. 0.88

00:14:11.780 And Prime Minister Trudeau certainly has things he wants to distract and deflect from, and the Arrive scam, the Arrive can app, it just, it's not going away.

00:14:23.040 but the Liberals now are starting to seem like they want to just kind of cover this up.

00:14:27.760 Yeah, a $60 billion boondoggle, I'd want to cover it up too.

00:14:32.960 Tudor was asked about it today and basically blamed civil servants.

00:14:40.140 The Auditor General, Karen Hogan, says documents may have been destroyed in the process.

00:14:47.160 And the Liberals, along with their cohorts, the bloc, have blocked a conservative plan to call the companies that made this $60 billion, their executives, to testify in front of a Commons committee.

00:15:01.580 So, yeah, I mean, there's obviously a massive cover-up going on, and steps are being taken to find a scapegoat, and it certainly won't be any of Justin Trudeau's Liberals.

00:15:14.120 And yet it should be, shouldn't it?

00:15:15.380 It should be.

00:15:15.980 I mean, maybe I have an old-fashioned idea of what parliamentary responsibility means,

00:15:22.140 but we have a minister in charge of public safety, Dominic LeBlanc.

00:15:27.940 Public safety has under its umbrella the Canadian Border Services Agency.

00:15:35.240 It's the guys in the CBSA who are being blamed.

00:15:39.660 Now, none of us actually know what they did, what they were instructed,

00:15:44.040 whether they were reckless, dropped the ball,

00:15:47.200 took advantage of things they shouldn't have taken advantage of,

00:15:49.820 all of these things have been floated,

00:15:51.220 so the Auditor General certainly drew attention to the possibility.

00:15:56.080 But who was minding the shop?

00:15:59.660 It would be the minister.

00:16:02.100 And even if the minister was not party to these activities,

00:16:06.400 it is not enough for him to say, oh, well, the boys were having a party.

00:16:11.420 he's responsible

00:16:13.580 so where is

00:16:15.860 the

00:16:16.700 responsibility of the minister

00:16:19.760 to see that his department

00:16:21.880 was running efficiently and according to

00:16:23.960 the rules evidently

00:16:25.740 as he is still in office

00:16:28.020 and in place

00:16:29.300 they're not taking that very seriously

00:16:31.780 there was a time Dave

00:16:33.580 when this would have been enough

00:16:35.260 for the minister to tender his resignation

00:16:37.780 yeah without being

00:16:39.180 uh without being asked when when was the last time a minister took responsibility for anything

00:16:44.140 in canada uh and resigned well i think it was francis fox in about 1997 but uh i mean we're

00:16:51.260 going back more than 25 years now to get to that point we've got some other ministers resigned but

00:16:55.500 it's usually taking responsibility for something prime minister did the finance minister fell on

00:16:59.500 his sword uh you know yeah i remember when maxime bernier resigned when the conservatives were in

00:17:05.420 power because he left secret notes with his girlfriend. So it just, it hasn't happened

00:17:14.500 under liberal leadership, despite scandal after scandal after scandal. Not one single

00:17:22.540 minister has resigned.

00:17:24.520 Setting aside the principle of personal responsibility that's lacking and looking at, again, the 0.93

00:17:29.720 the political covering of the butt. I mean, if they want to try and make senior bureaucrats,

00:17:35.600 the state scapegoats and say, you know, it's not my fault. It happened under my watch, but it's

00:17:38.780 their fault. Fine. If the liberals felt though, that truly all roads are going to lead to senior

00:17:44.020 bureaucrats, why are they showing fear at having the owners of that company showing up before

00:17:48.940 committee? You would think we want to bring these guys out, point the finger at those bureaucrats 0.96

00:17:53.340 and bury them so we can say, see, we caught the culprits. We'll make sure to make procedures so

00:17:57.340 this doesn't happen again. But instead, they don't want those guys speaking publicly. They

00:18:02.800 don't want to have the public see exactly what happened, which starts to make me think

00:18:07.020 there might be something tied in there a little close.

00:18:09.720 It's a bad look. They're being obstructionist. Yeah. And as you just said, why don't they want

00:18:14.600 to get to the bottom of it too? I'm just speaking again of the cold political outlook. You know,

00:18:18.600 I just, you know, if I were the prime minister, I'd want to be able to say that those dastardly

00:18:22.700 fellows. They ripped off Canadian taxpayers during an emergency. You know, I wish I'd have caught it

00:18:27.860 at the time, but we were just so busy saving the world that we missed it. But we're going to hold

00:18:31.980 them accountable. But instead, they're like, yeah, there's nothing to see here. We're going to.

00:18:35.320 And in paragraph two, and my minister was negligent in his duty of supervision of the people in his

00:18:41.740 department. And I have his resignation right here. Or you can move that as well. The prime minister

00:18:47.080 can hold the minister in response. It's actually pretty dirty pool. If you're a senior politician

00:18:51.060 and you just say, oh, it all went wrong because I had, you know,

00:18:54.900 dishonest people working for me.

00:18:57.260 And they don't have any opportunity to come back and say,

00:19:00.760 well, just a second, we did this, this, and this.

00:19:03.020 Everything was covered, sir.

00:19:04.920 You know, now what?

00:19:06.000 You know, when we had pictures this week of Agriculture Minister Lawrence McCauley

00:19:10.600 dining on a huge lobster while on a taxpayer-funded trip to Malaysia,

00:19:17.120 they don't resign because they don't want to give up their entitlements

00:19:19.800 that they're entitled to.

00:19:21.060 Well, Dave, it's probably cheaper to eat lobster in Malaysia than it is to eat steak in Alberta.

00:19:25.880 That may be, but you don't, in this day and age, when millions of people are going to food banks and inflation's hitting hard, 1.00

00:19:33.340 how stupid do you have to be to put that on Twitter? 1.00

00:19:37.500 I mean, just absolutely. 1.00

00:19:38.680 It's a lapse of political instinct and optics.

00:19:41.140 I mean, they don't feel, I don't think.

00:19:42.860 Or they don't care.

00:19:43.880 Or they don't care anymore.

00:19:45.160 It could be.

00:19:46.240 They've been in too long.

00:19:47.620 I want to start forgetting.

00:19:48.560 Well, you've got to wonder who that was supposed to impress. I mean, your friends already know that you splash on lobster and expensive food, so they don't need to see it. The only other people who might be interested are those who are going to say, well, it's all right for some, isn't it? Look at that.

00:20:05.680 And they don't understand why people are scandalized. They didn't understand why we were furious about somebody getting a $6,000 a night hotel room in the Queen's funeral. They don't understand why people were upset that the Prime Minister stated a gift to the resort for $84,000.

00:20:24.800 is when people are tightening their belts

00:20:28.000 because of this government's policies

00:20:29.800 and these guys keep, you know,

00:20:31.920 at least give the superficial effort

00:20:33.680 to hide your conspicuous consumption,

00:20:36.240 might make us feel a little better,

00:20:37.460 but they don't even try.

00:20:38.620 We've come a long way since a $16 orange juice.

00:20:41.860 Yeah, I was thinking, geez, I should have eaten better.

00:20:47.700 Well, I have to say that there are some things

00:20:52.700 things that you do when you're traveling on behalf of the government that as a private citizen

00:20:58.240 wouldn't look good. I mean, they don't let you just stay wherever you want. You can only eat in

00:21:02.980 the restaurant and the price is what it is. However, to then lay your lobster out on the plate,

00:21:08.480 okay, just don't take it now, you know, and then stick it on Twitter. It's just...

00:21:13.780 We don't expect them to stay at the Super 8 or eat at McDonald's either, but you just gotta be

00:21:17.760 discreet, I would think. But I mean, back to that, you know, when it comes to cultural and when it

00:21:22.480 comes to attitudes, it wasn't just the liberals that are kind of blocking this looking into the

00:21:26.160 Rivescam incident going on the block were behind it too. There's a different culture in Quebec

00:21:31.920 when it comes to political corruption and inside contract awarding. I mean, it's a little,

00:21:39.040 they're more accepting of that sort of thing over there. It's hard to define.

00:21:42.400 When my family first immigrated from England, we moved to Montreal, and my dad didn't last more than a year because he couldn't handle all the corruption that was going on.

00:21:53.600 I'm not saying every Quebeker is corrupt by any means at all, but there is a different attitude when it comes towards, you know, well, you take that person out for dinner and you help them along with this if you want that contract. 0.94

00:22:05.260 Do you remember the scandal a few years ago when McLean's magazine put Benom on the front page and they called Quebec the most corrupt province in the country and people lost their minds?

00:22:16.500 Well, and they statistically proved it in that article.

00:22:19.240 I mean, they showed that, you know, these sorts of things happen there a great deal more than they do in other parts of the country.

00:22:25.000 Just look at all the bribe SNC-Lavalin were paying.

00:22:28.280 Because the bloc is usually quite eager to rip into Trudeau when they can, but at this point they're kind of like, eh, you know, we don't need to look any deeper here.

00:22:35.260 probably not ready for an election no well there's that too and uh man self-serving you know it is

00:22:43.340 i know it's a dream but you know you think this if we're gonna get ideologues a principled one

00:22:47.580 to be refreshing sometimes the only way to feel better about any of this is to look at countries

00:22:52.060 where it's worse yeah and there are many there are we can do worse we just want to make sure

00:22:56.460 we don't get there yeah that's right moving in the wrong direction well let's move a little

00:23:01.180 into the direction at home here, speaking of getting into our wallets. And it looks like some

00:23:07.080 rates are going up for people visiting ill-loved ones in medical facilities, Dave.

00:23:12.440 Yeah, and it's not just visitors, it's doctors, nurses, physiotherapists. They're all going to be

00:23:17.400 paying more for the pleasure to park at the provincial hospital. Larger facilities, it's

00:23:23.540 going up 75 cents an hour. Smaller ones, 50 cents an hour. And the parking's not cheap already.

00:23:30.640 And, you know, we've been talking about this for a couple of days now, and I can understand doctors and nurses and physiotherapists being charged to park at their workplace.

00:23:40.420 We all get charged to park at work, you know, downtown.

00:23:44.380 But to charge patients who are there daily visiting dying family members or supporting somebody with cancer treatment of the Tom Baker, to charge them $15, $16, $17 a day, it's ridiculous in my opinion.

00:23:59.720 And it's absolutely ridiculous in a province this prosperous that visitors have to be charged.

00:24:06.280 And, you know, we were talking about the Heritage Savings Trust Fund,

00:24:10.400 and people always want to get stuff out for their little pet projects.

00:24:13.540 That one would be mine.

00:24:14.900 I would run an election on a campaign, no more parking at, no more paid parking at hospitals.

00:24:19.760 You're allowed one pet project.

00:24:21.640 That's it.

00:24:22.340 That's my legacy.

00:24:23.880 That's the, at least that one would probably not destroy the plan.

00:24:29.720 So large-scale entitlements to wage increases for provincial employees that would ruin that.

00:24:38.600 No, I've been burned down there at the hospital car parks, too,

00:24:44.340 because you don't know how long you're going in there apart from anything else.

00:24:47.200 So you think, well, three hours should be enough.

00:24:49.820 So you feed that in, and then you find that you're not a frequent user of the facility,

00:24:54.860 so you don't know that three hours just gets you a seat.

00:24:59.540 It doesn't necessarily get you to see anybody.

00:25:03.600 Then you're backwards and forwards up until the moment when they've got to go and reload the meter again,

00:25:07.940 and that's when you're in with the medical professionals and you can't do it.

00:25:12.780 You come back and you find you've got a ticket.

00:25:15.400 People are already upset, anxious, possibly grieving, maybe expecting to be grieving,

00:25:25.020 but they're on edge and they have that to deal with as well.

00:25:28.200 So, sure, let's by all means charge people to leave their cars there while they're doing business at the hospital just so that it's not too easy to park there and go to the C train.

00:25:43.100 But keep it cheap.

00:25:45.740 Why does it have to be $15 a day?

00:25:48.140 Well, it could be $5 a day, you know?

00:25:53.620 They'll say, well, we're just charging what it costs.

00:25:58.200 But that smacks of vicious compliance to me.

00:26:02.140 Just something, isn't it interesting that just as the Premier is getting up to make this speech,

00:26:10.960 just as the legislature is set to resume, the Civil Service lobs that grenade into the fire.

00:26:21.120 It's another distraction, and it can tug the heartstrings.

00:26:23.760 You know, the guy visiting his dying mother missed her death by two minutes because he couldn't get his credit card to work in the bloody parking machine.

00:26:31.700 I mean, I'm not opposed to efforts to defray some costs.

00:26:35.840 You know, have the Starbucks in there with a $5 coffee.

00:26:38.920 Have the gift shop with the $80 bunch of flowers.

00:26:42.520 At least those are options.

00:26:43.820 A person can choose whether or not to purchase those things.

00:26:46.940 there's a gentleman who occasionally contacts us named Scott Kellogg who talks about selling

00:26:51.520 advertising on hospital facilities. I'm not even opposed to that. I look at a Coca-Cola label on

00:26:56.660 the way into the ward. Hey, if it's a few more bucks into the system, great, but it's...

00:27:00.520 I've got a great one for you. More doctors smoke camels than any other brand. There we go. It's

00:27:05.440 been tried and tested already. I actually kind of thought the same thing Nigel did when I heard the

00:27:10.120 news was, you know, AHS is under a severe microscope from the Smith government, and this

00:27:14.980 was just a deliberate act to cause them some headaches

00:27:18.860 because it's certainly going to be one of the first questions

00:27:21.760 we ask the Premier at our next press conferences,

00:27:24.520 what she thinks of it.

00:27:25.600 It's the little relatable things that upset people.

00:27:27.780 You mentioned earlier, you know, Bavota's $16 orange juice.

00:27:30.840 The government can waste millions of dollars and people get upset,

00:27:34.560 but they can't register with your common citizen what that is.

00:27:37.660 When you think of a $16 glass of orange juice,

00:27:40.580 though, you can relate to that and realize that that's outrageous.

00:27:44.640 Likewise, even though the AHS bills are through the roof, it's you getting an extra 50 cents on top of the $8 you already had to spend that will really infuriate you versus the monthly tax bill that you're getting a hike on.

00:27:58.720 Public relations-wise, it's a nasty shot if that was the intent.

00:28:01.920 When you go out for dinner tonight with Jane, are you going to be having lobster with orange juice on the side?

00:28:06.320 I work at the standard.

00:28:08.820 I was reading something on the web about your net worth.

00:28:11.400 Oh, back to that.

00:28:13.000 Holy cow. 0.89

00:28:13.800 But I think, you know, there are some unfortunate people that are in the hospital for a long, long time.

00:28:20.340 And it becomes a financial drain on a family.

00:28:23.180 If you've got to go there every day and 20 bucks a day and, you know, for two months, that's a lot of money.

00:28:33.880 Dad's up.

00:28:34.880 And again, or what will happen, some people might, if they're really tight for funds, might choose not to visit.

00:28:39.820 You know, and that's harder on the patients.

00:28:42.740 It's harder on the family.

00:28:43.800 I mean, just over something, we're talking a relatively small amount of money.

00:28:47.800 For people who don't, I don't know about the other city's hospitals,

00:28:49.940 but the thing with Calgary too, at least the Rocky View and the foothills,

00:28:54.860 two large hospitals, the other thing is they're not near anything else.

00:28:57.820 People aren't going to use that parking and then go somewhere else.

00:29:00.920 There is nothing else near those hospitals.

00:29:02.960 So I can understand worries about the parking lots getting filled

00:29:05.400 by people using it for other purposes.

00:29:07.160 Well, in the foothills, the parking lot is within walking distance of the C train.

00:29:11.880 C train?

00:29:12.420 a long walk you wouldn't want to do it in the middle of winter yeah some people would i i guess

00:29:19.740 you know put possibly in that case but it's a pretty good hike but i mean you do want to keep

00:29:25.100 it reduced as you said at least make it a token amount but i'm not not hitting so hard and you

00:29:29.440 you can register your car at the front desk uh that shows you're visiting joe blow so that would

00:29:34.780 i think that would keep out the free parkers that's another way to do it too yeah i mean if

00:29:38.300 They've got to go there and then to the C train.

00:29:41.040 Vote for me in the next election.

00:29:43.260 I will eliminate parking costs.

00:29:44.740 We just kicked off Dave's campaign, the party of Dave.

00:29:48.140 There's the guy.

00:29:48.940 All right.

00:29:49.800 Smith is going to be sweating for now.

00:29:52.400 All right.

00:29:52.880 Well, let's see.

00:29:53.460 Let's talk about inflation.

00:29:55.820 Let's talk some nuts and bolts, some numbers.

00:29:58.040 Apparently, we should be popping the champagne corks and celebrating.

00:30:00.960 Pop the champagne, Corey and Nigel, because inflation across the country is down to 2.9%.

00:30:06.680 Yahoo.

00:30:08.300 In Saskatchewan, they're partying even more because you remember Scott Moe got rid of the carbon tax and specifically getting rid of the carbon tax dropped the inflation rate in Saskatchewan down to 1.9%, a full 1% lower than the rest of the country.

00:30:25.760 So anybody who says the carbon tax is not an inflationary thing has just been proven wrong there.

00:30:33.880 Alberta, bad news.

00:30:35.160 No party here.

00:30:35.880 We're up.

00:30:36.320 We're the only province to go up.

00:30:37.740 We're at 3.4%.

00:30:40.360 It's because our electricity increased by a little bit, 119%.

00:30:45.740 That's a little.

00:30:47.100 That's just a little bit.

00:30:48.700 So that was the main reason Alberta was paying a lot more in inflation.

00:30:55.360 So, you know, allegedly it's coming down, but I'm certainly not seeing it in my shopping,

00:31:00.440 in my everyday life.

00:31:02.460 Prices are still going up.

00:31:04.000 So I was rooting to that point.

00:31:06.440 I was looking for something in the kitchen drawer,

00:31:09.780 and I pulled out a receipt from, well, a major grocery here in Calgary

00:31:15.980 from, I think it was January 2022, so two years ago.

00:31:21.500 Butter.

00:31:22.680 $3.97 a pound.

00:31:24.120 Now, that must have been a deal, because I see I bought about 10 of them.

00:31:27.180 So, you know, maybe it was a few years ago, there were usually four or five.

00:31:30.240 Yeah, but, you know, I think like $4.95 was probably the standard.

00:31:34.720 but now you know everybody who's uh if you see butter at 550 buy 10 of them because you're not

00:31:41.680 going to find it cheaper anywhere else it's more like about 675. so kind of these are foods these

00:31:47.520 are things that people actually buy i mean you can have your you can have your basket

00:31:52.800 with statistics canada and i'm not suggesting that they don't do things in an honest way but

00:31:59.920 it may not actually describe your life.

00:32:04.440 So when you get down to the very basic groceries,

00:32:07.780 it is more than 2.9%.

00:32:09.800 And even if it was only 2.9%,

00:32:14.140 the Bank of Canada is supposed to be keeping inflation to 2%.

00:32:19.520 So there is absolutely no cause for celebration there whatsoever.

00:32:25.040 And by the way, the only reason it was down in January to 2.9%

00:32:29.380 was because gas prices gasoline prices were down well guess what thanks to a

00:32:37.700 refinery closing down in indiana and this is the normal maintenance season gas prices are now up

00:32:48.100 what was a dollar eighteen point nine at my pump became a dollar thirty six point mine overnight

00:32:54.660 That is going to be reflected this time next month when they say, well, inflation was up in February.

00:33:02.860 And that 2% inflation rate target from the Bank of Canada means I don't think interest rates will be going down any time soon.

00:33:12.420 Which leads me to Mr. Trudeau. He has finally discovered monetary policy.

00:33:17.160 Oh, has he?

00:33:17.840 Yeah.

00:33:18.620 Do you remember?

00:33:19.420 Pardon me if I don't think of it.

00:33:20.580 Yeah, I think that was in January 2021.

00:33:23.840 He was sort of dismissing this foolish question from the press.

00:33:28.140 Well, forgive me if I don't think about monetary policy.

00:33:31.180 Well, I can probably see that Stephen Harper thought about nothing else for a lot of the time.

00:33:36.140 But here he does.

00:33:38.700 He says, well, I hope the bank rate comes down soon.

00:33:40.780 Now all of a sudden he's got an opinion.

00:33:44.720 It's a bit rich, actually.

00:33:45.980 I think that, especially given the underlying facts, which are that the things that people actually need to get from one end of the week to the other end of the week are not down.

00:34:01.180 They are up, and they are up more than 2.9%.

00:34:04.880 And let's not forget, we've got another carbon tax hike coming in a short time.

00:34:08.700 It's April 1st.

00:34:09.400 April 1st, along with the alcohol tax increase on April 1st.

00:34:13.440 That's going to kill you.

00:34:14.160 That's going to kill me, but that's also going to hike inflation yet again. 0.94

00:34:18.080 Yeah.

00:34:19.040 Well, you know, it does also expose the economy to centrally manage it is difficult.

00:34:24.680 There's a lot of moving parts.

00:34:25.860 Saskatchewan gets rid of the carbon tax.

00:34:27.840 It reduces theirs.

00:34:28.960 Alberta has higher electricity prices.

00:34:32.500 Ours are coming up.

00:34:33.680 Supply management impacts things like the prices of butter.

00:34:38.460 And overarching, I mean, the Bank of Canada, they only have one tool they can meddle with.

00:34:42.620 and that's interest rates to try and you know raise or lower but I mean if it's outside commodity

00:34:47.920 prices there's there's not much they can necessarily do about those specifics as you said

00:34:52.620 oh yeah maybe the housing will go down and be very affordable but suddenly the price of butter

00:34:56.420 will quadruple it doesn't mean we're doing better but when we see politicians taking credit when it

00:35:02.340 slows down and then you know refusing blame when it when it goes up it's not actually I mean

00:35:09.240 mortgage interest rates, if people are feeling broke,

00:35:12.600 it's probably because they had to renew their mortgage

00:35:17.140 at double the rate.

00:35:19.640 That can take $500 a month out of your disposable income,

00:35:24.480 just like that.

00:35:25.320 Well, that's been a big hit for a lot of people.

00:35:26.740 If they have a lot of principal in their mortgage,

00:35:29.080 they hope they had some buffer in their income

00:35:32.740 to be able to manage that.

00:35:34.280 I hear a lot of sad stories about rentals

00:35:37.320 being more expensive too.

00:35:38.320 of people are losing their homes. A lot of people have huge increases in rent. This is before the

00:35:45.640 million immigrants arrive that we have nowhere to put. Well, that's part of what infuriates a lot 1.00

00:35:49.740 of people too and everything. Again, if you're going to see them dancing, look at this. It's

00:35:52.280 only 2.7, 2.9% increase for the average citizen on the ground when they're looking at their

00:35:58.140 monthly budget. If they do want to realize, I don't care what you guys are talking about. I'm

00:36:02.140 sweating making the basic payments right they don't want to hear it they want to see some hard

00:36:09.180 solid savings in their day-to-day living and that's not happening well this is all fuel for

00:36:13.820 the people who are running against mr trudeau when the time comes uh i mean i honestly think he

00:36:18.860 doesn't uh you know he doesn't feel it personally so he can look at that and say well that's a good

00:36:24.780 message there well no it's not a good message i mean that's part of i think of uh why he doesn't

00:36:31.260 get it he can't get it he he's whatever i won't fault him for that you're born into a wealthy

00:36:35.420 family lucky you that's the way it goes and he's never had to sweat making the rent or all those

00:36:40.380 things that a lot of people had to or have since but uh it hasn't bought groceries for a very long

00:36:46.620 time no it's going through thousands and thousands of dollars with the groceries a month but you know

00:36:52.540 it's that's where their support's going down and they just don't get it i mean a person you know

00:36:58.700 I said that I'll next the other day and it's a person doesn't give a coot about climate change

00:37:03.820 if they can't make the rent. They don't care about gender pronouns if they can't fill the fridge. 0.90

00:37:09.660 They don't care about the social justice and garbage that this government's infatuated with 1.00

00:37:15.340 when you can't get enough clothing for your kid to go to school. And those issues are what are 0.85

00:37:20.700 moving people no matter where this government wants to mess around and they can't recover on it.

00:37:25.580 no question about it and then there's justice we'll wrap up on it that's the best for last

00:37:34.360 yeah let's get on to this one you know a name that we'd almost wish we could just forget but

00:37:39.240 thanks to Canada's system when somebody gets into it their names are just going to keep coming up 0.97

00:37:43.380 periodically over and over again and Robert Pickton is in the news yes the notorious pig

00:37:49.020 farm killer, killed 26 women out of Vancouver's Lower East Side, was finally arrested in 2002,

00:37:57.740 I believe, and went to trial in 2007, pled guilty to six counts of second-degree murder,

00:38:07.580 got the maximum sentence under Canadian law, which is 25 years before you can apply for

00:38:13.260 for a full parole and the other 20 charges were stayed because you couldn't give him any more time

00:38:20.700 than was possible. But tomorrow, Thursday, February 22nd, Robert Pickton becomes eligible for day

00:38:28.680 parole. Obviously, he's not going to get it, I wouldn't think, but it just shows you the

00:38:35.920 laughable Canadian justice system at its finest when he can, you know, probably apply

00:38:42.960 every two years and torment the hell out of those 26 families yeah no it it it's hard to

00:38:50.880 it's hard to come up with uh with anything other than disgust the way the system operates

00:38:57.520 i mean i'll say i'll say by feeling if they do give him day parole i can't imagine why they would

00:39:03.040 but uh that then then you've really got a story on your on your front page day yeah i can't i'll

00:39:08.960 I'll bet you a week's pay they don't.

00:39:11.180 And if they do give it to him, I don't think he'll last very long out on the streets.

00:39:15.720 But it's reminiscent of Corey Clifford Olson, isn't it, Corey?

00:39:18.620 Well, yeah, I was talking a bit about that on my show earlier today, too.

00:39:22.680 How infuriating that was. 0.99

00:39:24.280 I mean, you knew that that piece of trash was never going to come out of prison again. 0.99

00:39:27.660 But he got off on going to those parole hearings and making sure the families of his victims would have to come out. 0.99

00:39:33.460 And he would torment them and get his thrill.

00:39:36.160 and those families would just be victimized over and over and over and over again.

00:39:40.860 I mean, Olson never got out.

00:39:42.080 He died in prison as he should have.

00:39:43.960 But why do we have to put everybody through this when we know these are the irredeemable?

00:39:49.540 Is it impossible to have a mechanism where we can just say that's it?

00:39:54.860 Well, in great burden now, they do have that.

00:39:57.440 They do have sentences that mean full-life sentences,

00:40:00.700 and it's reserved for the most heinous crimes possible.

00:40:04.600 So like you said, we're not sentencing them to death. 0.93

00:40:08.060 We're just sentencing them to die within the prison walls.

00:40:12.360 I don't see anything wrong with real or full-length life terms.

00:40:16.880 But he got the maximum that was available for second degree.

00:40:20.200 Yes.

00:40:20.880 So then the question, I suppose, is did they have some doubts

00:40:24.220 about whether they could get a first-degree conviction at the time?

00:40:28.120 And I asked the question.

00:40:29.020 I don't have the answer to it.

00:40:30.500 I don't either.

00:40:31.360 That would be the, if you can convict somebody for second degree.

00:40:36.040 I think they probably offered him a plea deal.

00:40:39.260 You know, we can go for this six-month trial and just to get it out of the courts.

00:40:43.760 Okay, we'll give you second degree in 25 years.

00:40:48.040 Because then he could start tormenting his families again in a few years, right?

00:40:52.180 That's probably what he was thinking.

00:40:53.720 Even if he doesn't have that intent, you know, 1.00

00:40:56.720 he's just going to show up at the stupid hearing and walk away and bother the families like Olson 1.00

00:41:02.020 did. I mean, they're sadistic. They both are. I mean, look at the, again, this is a government 1.00

00:41:07.040 that doesn't get it with justice. This wasn't that long ago. Bernardo got moved to a medium

00:41:12.140 security prison. This was again, a high, high profile. And you know what? There's probably

00:41:17.180 people more dangerous than Bernardo in the prison system. We just haven't heard of them. There's,

00:41:22.260 you know, all sorts of dangerous people lurking in those cells.

00:41:26.960 But they've got to understand, there's some names that are going to trigger the public

00:41:30.700 the moment you get any amount of benefit of the doubt to these guys.

00:41:35.780 And they did that with Bernardo, and that took a heavy hit to the justice minister at that time.

00:41:40.920 And another guy who can apply for parole.

00:41:42.880 You know, you're right about that there are some people

00:41:49.580 who come to represent something more than themselves.

00:41:52.580 Because you're right, there are more dangerous people

00:41:54.400 than either of these fellows.

00:41:56.820 Victor and I imagine are these days a shadow of his former self,

00:42:00.280 and he wasn't exactly a, you know, a Hulk back in 2002.

00:42:06.540 too. But it's got something to do with our basic desire to see justice done, that we

00:42:15.540 don't want people who've done terrible things to get any advantage.

00:42:21.540 In those particularly heinous and notorious cases like that, it certainly falls under

00:42:26.540 that category.

00:42:27.540 As you mentioned on your show this morning, that all those women murdered in Alberta last

00:42:33.540 last year or the year before, all murdered by convicts who have been let out, let loose again.

00:42:40.760 And it's, I can't imagine how these families feel about the Canadian justice system. They just must

00:42:47.140 feel utterly let down. And yeah, I mean, you see, these are ones that are offensive, but we know

00:42:52.860 that Bernardo is not going to get out. We know that Picton is not going to get out. But yeah,

00:42:57.020 as I said, some do. The most horrific of those cases I was talking about was a gentleman who

00:43:02.840 murdered a mother and child and hidden and he'd been released and he was one of those ones too 0.78

00:43:07.340 they warned us he'd already been in jail for very violent crimes they said he's going to re-offend

00:43:12.480 against women and probably children they predicted this and he did one of the most again the news

00:43:20.400 didn't cover much because of how bad it was but what he did was just brutal and the public doesn't

00:43:24.700 hear those and unfortunately they too managed to squeak out i don't think this guy is going to get

00:43:29.720 out now again, but look at the damage he's done. Just our system has big gaping holes, large things

00:43:36.980 to deal with, whether it's the redeemable ones and reformation and things. But if we could at least

00:43:42.900 keep the most barbaric in, but we seem to have trouble with that. Well, yeah, it's the most

00:43:50.420 unforgivable. And when we've had, it's one thing that some guys flips his lid, goes out, we didn't

00:43:55.740 know you know the neighbors said boy you seem like a nice guy or whatever but when we've had them in

00:44:00.500 and out they get out yeah so in fact all those murdered all the women murdered in alberta

00:44:06.820 have been murdered by people who were not all of them we just went through a string there were

00:44:11.800 four mothers uh in alberta one was actually a niece of one of my exes actually a cousin of my 0.58

00:44:20.620 son. She was murdered by a domestic partner of hers. And again, he had a record as long

00:44:28.100 as you were armed. There was no reason that guy shouldn't have been out on the streets

00:44:31.640 as it was. And there was another case of a woman who was, yeah, she was a mother of four

00:44:36.200 run down by a gangster in Forest Lawn, and he'd just been released, and he was a multiple

00:44:40.620 violent offender. And then, of course, the gentleman, the person who killed that woman

00:44:47.780 and a child.

00:44:48.620 And that was all in a year

00:44:49.480 and they were all people who had been in custody

00:44:52.360 and there was really no good reason

00:44:53.740 why they should have been loose

00:44:54.580 and it cost the lives of a three-wheeler.

00:44:57.220 Can you imagine the frustration of the police?

00:44:59.300 Oh yeah.

00:45:00.140 You know, they get to clean up the mess and investigate it

00:45:03.020 and they see the record

00:45:04.540 and they're shaking their heads as much as we are.

00:45:07.000 Yeah.

00:45:08.520 Well, all we can do is keep pressuring, keep pushing

00:45:11.060 and hope we can fix things as well as we can.

00:45:15.080 No easy answers, I'm afraid.

00:45:16.940 So thank you, Nigel.

00:45:18.300 Thank you, Dave, for another show.

00:45:20.840 We covered a lot of ground today.

00:45:22.300 There was a lot to cover.

00:45:23.340 Boy, it's a busy news scroll.

00:45:26.340 Great time to be buying a subscription, I would think.

00:45:28.980 Absolutely.

00:45:29.740 I'm going to wrap up with that.

00:45:31.140 The reason we can do this, the reason we have these reporters and columnists

00:45:34.420 and personalities and people working behind the scenes,

00:45:37.160 because you guys subscribed.

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00:45:50.540 Nag your friends and family to take out subscriptions, too. 0.94

00:45:52.840 It's well worth it.

00:45:53.880 So thanks for tuning in tonight, and we will see you all again next week.

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Western Standard - February 22, 2024

The Pipeline： 'It's not eastern bastards,' says Trudeau as he blasts Smith

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