Western Standard - The Pipeline： Smith says sustainable grid a priority

00:00:00.000 good evening welcome to the pipeline i'm cory morgan this is the western standards

00:00:29.600 weekly news opinion breakdown show with a panel of western standard personalities and folks this

00:00:37.840 week i'm joined i'll start on my immediate right with our opinion editor nigel henneford hey nigel

00:00:43.840 how's it going tonight i always thought i was on your far right cory well you're getting farther

00:00:48.320 all the time yeah i'm doing my best but i'm creeping right after and then further from

00:00:55.360 Nigel is our news editor Dave Naylor. How you doing? Good. I don't think I've ever been called

00:00:59.580 a personality before but yeah I'll take it. I didn't say it was a good personality but it is

00:01:03.940 a personality indeed. Right. It's an appreciated one and yes so the three of us plus another will

00:01:09.120 be talking about things shortly. I'm going to start though by talking about our sponsor which

00:01:13.300 is important as well and that is the Canadian Shooting Sports Association. Guys I mean the name

00:01:20.180 kind of says it all. It's an association of people who enjoy shooting sports whether it's collecting,

00:01:25.020 target shooting, hunting, of course, things like that.

00:01:28.300 We've got a government that is trying to take away your right and ability to enjoy all of those things.

00:01:33.620 And if you don't stand up for yourself, they're going to win.

00:01:36.060 And there's safety in numbers.

00:01:37.440 Join the association.

00:01:38.420 That's how you do it, guys.

00:01:39.520 These guys are fantastic.

00:01:40.760 They do a great job of holding the government to account and standing up for you

00:01:44.460 and keeping you up to date on what's going on out there.

00:01:47.300 Check them out, cssa-cila.org, or Google it, the Canadian Shooting Sports Association,

00:01:53.440 and take out a membership.

00:01:55.420 It's an investment in your own rights

00:01:57.020 and you won't regret it.

00:01:59.320 All right, well, we got a lot to go through today as always.

00:02:02.420 So we'll start out, as I said,

00:02:04.000 we got somebody else joining us today

00:02:05.520 and that is our business and energy reporter,

00:02:08.220 Sean Polzer, expert in all sorts of other things too.

00:02:10.980 But this is where he really shines.

00:02:13.280 And hi, Sean, we've had something

00:02:15.320 we've been waiting a long time for.

00:02:16.660 I guess the moratorium on renewable projects

00:02:18.960 has come to an end

00:02:19.980 And Premier Smith's government has, I guess, concluded to some degree what they're going to do now.

00:02:26.940 Yeah, indeed. I mean, it takes effect on March 1st, which is, you know, barely 24 hours away.

00:02:33.160 So it wasn't exactly a bolt out of the blue, but it came pretty sudden and it comes into effect pretty quick.

00:02:42.220 So were there I mean, I read some of the parts of the release.

00:02:47.120 Do you think that some of the changes they've made now to the process could be called significant?

00:02:51.940 They're going to have a strong impact on projects?

00:02:56.040 I do.

00:02:59.880 The changes are significant, but they're also fairly well balanced, in my opinion.

00:03:05.060 I think there's a lot in it that a lot of people have been asking for.

00:03:09.760 so landowners have been asking about reclamation and not to sterilize class one and two agricultural

00:03:17.680 soils the industry has been looking for some certainty to move ahead on on these kinds of

00:03:23.280 projects even tourism is is factored in so now we have a new regulatory process that's in the

00:03:30.800 lexicon of regulation now which is called a visual impact assessment meaning that these

00:03:38.000 wind turbines specifically will not be allowed to obstruct what the premier called unesco views

00:03:46.240 within a range of about 35 kilometers or build these things in people's backyards or

00:03:51.840 even on nose hill for that matter okay well i mean what do you think guys though i mean from what

00:03:58.720 you've read on that do you think that the right dave that you know the right balance has been

00:04:02.400 struck i mean was there a problem to begin with that's a question a lot of people are asking

00:04:06.000 You know, to me, it seems like a lot of common sense. It's going to be an agriculture first policy, according to Smith. And, you know, we need as much agricultural land as we can get coming in the future. I think what Sean talks about, we don't want our views spoiled, so they're not going to be able to put up a wind farm in front of head smashed in Buffalo Jump.

00:04:27.880 I note this, there was, when she announced the moratorium, there were 13 projects in the waiting list.

00:04:34.760 It's now doubled to 26.

00:04:37.020 So there's a lot of interest, a lot of people want to get going on these projects.

00:04:41.580 And I guess some of them are going to be off and running quickly.

00:04:46.660 But yeah, to me, it just all seems common sense stuff.

00:04:50.780 Very much so.

00:04:51.680 So, you know, the first time that I drove down to Pincher Creek and I saw that long line of windmills stretching right across the horizon, I confess I was interested, I was intrigued.

00:05:01.940 I thought, is this the way of the future?

00:05:04.480 Maybe there is the odd landscape where you can tolerate that because it's interesting.

00:05:10.400 You don't want it everywhere.

00:05:12.280 You just do not want that everywhere.

00:05:14.640 And so having some kind of restriction on where you can put wind generators is, to me, a very sensible thing.

00:05:23.900 But the really big one is making sure that there is a plan to recycle these things after they have lasted their 20 years.

00:05:36.340 I mean, when you think of something that high,

00:05:39.140 I believe the Premier herself used the comparison of the Calgary Tower once.

00:05:45.420 Well, whatever you see above ground, you're going to see a lot below ground if you could.

00:05:49.220 But look, all that's got to come out again in 20 years' time.

00:05:54.300 There needs to be some provision for it.

00:05:58.520 To me, that affects when you take that into account.

00:06:01.420 You have to wonder what the payback and what the true economics of these things really are,

00:06:09.280 especially when they don't do the job for you when you want it most.

00:06:14.480 Yeah. Orphan wells are a huge problem in this province and a very, very expensive problem.

00:06:19.760 And I think... Orphan wells, too.

00:06:21.500 Yeah. I think the government realized that, you know, there's a way to stop that from happening

00:06:26.020 and, you know, put in a plan before these things get built.

00:06:28.920 So, again, common sense.

00:06:30.840 Yeah, well, so, and Sean, you know, you follow these issues, of course, much more directly than I do. Economic feasibility. I mean, there's been quite a rush for these. There's a lot of people wanting to set up new projects, whether it's solar or wind. Is that driven mostly, though, by subsidies? Or is there really some money to be made here? I mean, that's what I get down to with the nuts and bolts. And now has it become less viable due to the regulations?

00:06:53.740 Well, I think that that's a question that still needs to be determined, and it's going

00:07:02.460 to depend on a lot of these federal environment policies with respect to clean energy regulations

00:07:10.060 and the types of credits that they're probably eventually going to have to put on offer.

00:07:15.900 There was some concern that a lot of these projects were being built merely for the credits and

00:07:23.100 not for the actual power that they provide.

00:07:26.000 And I think that this policy addresses some of those issues

00:07:29.840 by requiring the backup,

00:07:33.280 to have the base load backup installed.

00:07:35.340 When the Premier mentioned on January 13th,

00:07:39.600 five o'clock, the sun went down, you had zero solar,

00:07:42.740 you had seven megawatts out of 6,000 megawatts

00:07:46.500 of wind installed that were blowing.

00:07:48.580 So I think that they've really done their homework on this.

00:07:53.100 and that they've really tried to come up with something that would balance the needs of both the developers and the landowners.

00:08:00.540 In terms of the reclamation, Minister Newdorf did make a comment about the basic principle of the reclamation funds,

00:08:12.240 whether it's going to be paid into a bond to the government or whether it's going to be directly negotiated with landowners,

00:08:17.560 is going to be based on oil and gas but he also noted that there's several significant differences

00:08:22.840 between oil and gas projects and some of these renewable projects both in terms of the scope

00:08:28.280 the products that they provide and the impacts that they cause you know one of them being the

00:08:34.120 visual impacts which is you know it's purely subjective but I think they've built in a lot of

00:08:39.560 flexibility around these things where they're going to take a lot of these factors into account

00:08:44.600 on a case by case i you know i would note and and i did ask um because the change is only applied

00:08:52.520 to these new projects that are coming after march 1st you know what happens with the land

00:08:56.760 reclamation and the liabilities on these projects that are already installed and basically the

00:09:02.760 answer that i got there is that that is going to be basically based on a case-by-case basis so it's

00:09:09.000 more this flexibility that's been built into the whole thing

00:09:12.840 Well, I mean, hopefully we see some stability out of this.

00:09:16.940 I mean, it was kind of a, you know, it gave me qualms a little bit as a free market, you know, libertarian sort.

00:09:25.700 I don't like to see, you know, if it's not being subsidized, you know, a moratorium gives me chills.

00:09:30.920 But it also scares away investors quite often when these kinds of things happen, too.

00:09:35.520 Do you think that maybe, though, Nigel, the balance has been hit that the investors can feel comfortable?

00:09:40.340 Oh, they're saying they will. But the investors who we really need, who are still not feeling comfortable, are the ones who are ready to go and put in an actual gas fire generating plant that you can switch on the moment that you need it. That's the people we've got to get back. And they're the ones that have been scared off by the federal plan.

00:10:03.600 Yeah, well, we're never going to get away with that from our needs for on-demand power.

00:10:07.480 I mean, that's just, there's no getting around it.

00:10:11.320 If the sun doesn't shine, the wind doesn't blow, we are out of luck.

00:10:15.320 But we don't want the southern part of the province to be one giant solar farm, do we?

00:10:19.680 No.

00:10:20.360 You know, and there's probably enough companies that would want to do that.

00:10:23.380 So there has to be some sort of regulation.

00:10:25.840 Well, you know, Sean was down in Southern California, and he visited one of these deserts

00:10:31.040 where they had turned it all into a solar farm.

00:10:36.400 What was that like, Sean?

00:10:38.780 It was absolutely ghastly.

00:10:40.920 It was the most horrific thing I think I've ever seen.

00:10:45.220 And I was there in the, you know, Palm Desert in Joshua Tree in December and January.

00:10:54.260 you can only imagine what it would be like when it's 45 degrees but um yeah um and you know just

00:11:02.580 even in terms of uh when we're talking about eyesores when you when you come through that

00:11:06.600 pass through pump springs there's still the wreckage of like there's been wind turbines

00:11:13.280 in that region for decades and the old turbines are still there and they've never been reclaimed

00:11:18.860 and a lot of them have broken blades and they don't turn and in the meantime they've been

00:11:23.400 building up all the way around it in Coachella Valley on both sides of the mountain and it's

00:11:31.560 just it's run amok and after I came back from that trip I was sincerely hoping that something

00:11:39.640 like that would never happen here in Alberta and I think that we tried to strike the right balance

00:11:45.480 I mean we have industry in this province obviously we have coal mines there was talk of whether or

00:11:51.240 not these visual restrictions would apply to you know coal mines that cement plant

00:11:58.840 on the way out to Banff or you know even natural gas and oil refineries and

00:12:05.320 the premier has left the door open to it that yes indeed that this visual impact assessment might

00:12:11.800 become just a standard part of the way that they do environmental impact assessments on

00:12:16.600 any other kind of major projects so i i was quite uh relieved and uh impressed that they would even

00:12:23.800 take the time to think about something like that um another point i would like to add that's um

00:12:29.880 these there's a few things in this policy that haven't been addressed so one of them is a

00:12:35.080 transmission policy that the premier said was a mess that was left over from the former ndp

00:12:40.520 government when they retired the coal fire plants early they didn't come up with a transmission

00:12:47.080 policy to regulate the transmission lines so that's coming um and there's also talk of bringing

00:12:53.880 in policies for rooftop solar in in the urban center so this policy is directed more agriculture

00:13:02.040 but now they're they're basically going back to the drawing board and they're going to draw one

00:13:06.520 up for urban sectors to incentivize solar panels on rooftops in downtown and also to address some

00:13:14.040 of these consumer issues. In California they've got a lot of issues with these long-term contracts

00:13:19.400 on these rooftop solar providers that are putting solar panels on the rooftops of the movie stars

00:13:25.080 homes so that they can charge their electric Lamborghinis and there's a bit of dissatisfaction

00:13:31.720 air so they're they're coming up with a policy on that too and uh minister newdorf made one

00:13:37.000 very interesting comment um because i asked him about putting a wind farm on the top of western

00:13:42.840 tomal which would be one of the you know the biggest solar farms in canada by having the

00:13:50.600 solar in urban areas what you are in effect doing is reducing that demand so when you get these cold

00:13:59.080 temperature spikes like we had in january and you know the system is going on to overload

00:14:04.600 basically in the urban areas they're kind of taking care of the power you know where it's

00:14:09.480 needed most so that you don't have to transmit it over uh hundreds of miles from uh pencher creek or

00:14:16.600 epcor in uh in uh you know uh the lake district or whatever they have up there around edmonton so

00:14:24.520 i i was quite impressed and i think it's very well thought out policy i think it's a fair policy

00:14:29.960 and i also think that it's workable and i think there's enough flexibility in it to

00:14:36.280 adapt for contingencies unforeseen contingencies as they arise the the big question is obviously

00:14:42.600 going to be the federal government uh you know jubel was going around and saying that premier

00:14:47.640 smith you know is basically trying to sabotage renewables and electricity but uh i didn't get

00:14:52.440 the sense that that was what the aim of this was at all. I think it is a very balanced approach,

00:14:59.080 a very reasonable conscience, and I applaud. All right. Well, I appreciate your interpretation

00:15:05.960 of it and the applause that, you know, hey, it's hard to find, you know, policy that's inspiring

00:15:12.200 enough to give applause. Premier Smith will probably appreciate it because, I mean, the way

00:15:16.120 these politics go with the federal government, I mean, she could invent the perpetual motion machine 1.00

00:15:20.200 and gilbo would crap on her because it killed off the killer whales of saskatchewan or something so

00:15:24.680 well and something that's so uh you know it was very emotional like on both sides because the

00:15:29.800 landowners were you know really upset with these things going up but it's also very wonky you know

00:15:35.960 kind of paul you know policy like you know who understands like base load generation and terawatt

00:15:40.840 hours and you know supplying the grid during uh peak periods and stuff and and i really have to

00:15:45.400 to hand it to the premier for doing her homework because uh she very rarely gets caught flat-footed 0.98

00:15:50.920 on on these types of issues and uh um she's done her homework it's absolutely clear to me you know

00:15:58.600 sean she's been doing homework on that file for a very long time before she was ever in politics

00:16:04.600 before she was at the calvary herald before she was even on the school board she was doing property

00:16:09.880 rights in alberta she said as much she said yeah she's got 25 years into this she knows her stuff

00:16:17.800 yep all right well we'll let you go back to uh translating that uh eye glazing energy policy for

00:16:24.520 the for the rest of the readers and viewers i appreciate that sean and uh we will uh talk to

00:16:29.800 you again soon i'd also like to note too that the premier was wearing pink at her press conference

00:16:35.240 in edmonton today so uh she got the memo and i and i think um it it's basically anybody who's

00:16:42.680 ever been bullied probably got that memo so i would suspect that uh she's sensitive to those

00:16:48.520 issues as well well you know what they say sean pink makes the girls wink and sean's wearing pink

00:16:56.120 too he must have been bullied in his youth yeah well i think a lot of us were but uh i didn't

00:17:01.000 think to wear it today myself but uh great well i appreciate it sean and uh we'll try not to you

00:17:07.080 know flick your ears or anything on the way to the launch of it later and see you after the show

00:17:14.280 thanks a lot guys so yeah it's uh whenever prime minister trudeau's antics or actions or things

00:17:20.600 from his government make the news south of the border it's rarely a good thing and in the the

00:17:25.480 the latest Ukraine military initiative. This is no exception to it. Greg Gutfeld, a commentator

00:17:32.760 and comedian down in Fox News, turned his cannons towards our prime minister, and it was quite

00:17:38.620 something to listen to, and it's quite an issue. So I'll let you guys watch that, and then we can

00:17:42.720 talk about this latest brilliance from the Trudeau regime. So how do you know when you've reached

00:17:48.340 peak idiocy when we now need diversity guidelines for clearing landmines. It seems Canada has just 1.00

00:17:56.140 donated four million bucks toward an effort to clear landmines in Ukraine, but in a gender

00:18:01.840 inclusive manner. Because if there's one thing we can agree on concerning the war in Ukraine,

00:18:07.120 there simply isn't enough gender inclusive mine action, right? But let's be clear up front,

00:18:13.760 anyone in charge of clearing landmines is way braver than I am. I can barely clear my driveway.

00:18:20.000 And if it's something you accept as your job, I don't care if you're white, black, gay, trans, 0.83

00:18:23.860 or identify as a cabbage patch kid. But it's, oh, look at that. But 0.80

00:18:28.080 how did anybody like those dolls? Hideous. Anyway, but it's not about the dolls. It's about how DEI

00:18:37.700 insanity has infected everything. It used to corrupt only the places where useless people 0.97

00:18:42.960 were like academia or media but now it's airlines medical school and war even landmines i'm sorry

00:18:51.120 i'm thinking with landmines maybe inclusivity shouldn't be anywhere on the list of priorities

00:18:57.040 the list should be pretty simple competence patience steady hands and balls the size of the

00:19:03.200 las vegas sphere so there we have it woke at its finest you know woke has hit the war 0.59

00:19:10.960 Or kind of as Mr. Gutfield, those cabbage patch gels are horrible too.

00:19:15.880 I have to agree with him on that front as well.

00:19:17.760 For those not old enough to remember that gut awful craze, I'm glad it's behind us.

00:19:21.640 But really, you know, all you're worried about is clearing mines.

00:19:25.780 I mean, this is about as basic of a complicated task as you get.

00:19:29.160 I don't care about the gender or anything else.

00:19:30.980 We want somebody to safely remove an explosive device without killing somebody and leave it to Canada.

00:19:37.380 Imagine attaching such a requirement to a donation for landmines, right? I mean, there's, I don't think there's, there can't be much more dangerous work in any military. And to be worried about this sort of stuff is just ludicrous. The comedy writers for these shows, late night shows in the United States, this is just gold for them. You know, every time Trudeau opens their mouth, they're paying attention.

00:20:06.140 Oh, there's probably a direct feed from Canadian press or something.

00:20:10.940 You know, the one thing you can be sure is that the Ukrainians aren't going to argue about it.

00:20:18.760 They will accept the money, and then they will carry on doing what they've always been doing.

00:20:23.500 And unless there's some special animus that they have for trans people,

00:20:28.440 they won't make this part of the qualification for being on the bomb squad.

00:20:34.080 It's just not going to happen.

00:20:36.140 But what I thought was interesting was a little bit further.

00:20:39.380 We haven't got time to play the whole clip, but they went to where this stuff actually originates from, and that's the United Nations.

00:20:46.100 They're the ones who published the original gender-inclusive for anti-mine operations manual.

00:20:53.100 The one they illustrated on the show is from 2019, but it actually started in 2010.

00:20:58.240 I looked it up on the web, and there it is.

00:21:01.280 So they've been going on about this for 14 years.

00:21:04.380 but trust now i can say you know in the harper years which i can speak to nobody paid any

00:21:12.180 attention whatsoever i never heard of it wasn't discussed wasn't talked about it wasn't even

00:21:16.520 joked about nobody took any heed of it leave it to this prime minister and his fascination with

00:21:25.540 below the belt politics to bring this out and write it into the script so as as they do the

00:21:31.360 money. But this starts with the UN. And the serious question in all of this is, what else

00:21:37.340 starts at the UN and finds its way into Canadian politics? There is actually quite a list.

00:21:42.960 Well, I think a lot of serious leaders, we don't have one, well, serious leaders are starting to

00:21:48.260 dismiss the UN. I mean, the UN, you know, WRA debacle of them basically facilitating terrorists

00:21:55.620 and just you know ongoing one thing after another you know I ran on on human

00:22:00.340 rights panels and it's it's a sad organization I mean it exists and

00:22:06.240 countries take part but it's only well virtue signalers like Trudeau who

00:22:11.340 actually jump on and impose some of that stuff into policy yeah you don't see

00:22:14.700 many of other world leaders if any German on you know diversity and mind

00:22:19.920 clearing I mean the UN started to lose credibility when the head guy is the

00:22:24.440 same first name as his last name, Boutros Boutros. I mean, you know, yeah, the UN is a failed

00:22:32.400 organization and, you know, goes through a lot of money, goes through a lot of budgets,

00:22:38.720 a lot of countries, you know, donations to the UN, for lack of a better word, and

00:22:43.460 we're not getting our money's worth, I don't think. Well, you know, Dave, you call it a failed

00:22:47.760 organization. And in the manner that you mean that, I totally agree. But because of the

00:22:54.640 UN, we nevertheless have UNDRIP, the United Nations Rights of Indigenous People, which

00:23:01.920 has now been adopted by B.C. and is seriously influencing the way that development takes

00:23:09.640 place in that province. It's also adopted by the government of Canada. We have the whole

00:23:17.400 UN climate change apparatus that he is slavishly following. We have umpteen protocols that

00:23:30.000 we have signed on through everything from protecting endangered species, and I'm not

00:23:36.900 against protecting endangered species, but I think we need to pay a lot more attention

00:23:43.200 to how we do it. There is a long list. I won't bore you with the whole thing. The UN is dangerous

00:23:48.440 if you take it seriously. The problem here is that Mr. Trudeau does take it seriously.

00:23:56.260 That UNDRIP is a big one. I mean, it shut down the jade mining in BC, for example,

00:24:00.480 and that is the Declaration on Indigenous Peoples.

00:24:03.980 Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

00:24:05.000 And it shows, I mean, just to throw one last shot, but the hypocrisy of the UN where they

00:24:09.980 start saying that they've got these rights because the indigenous people were there first,

00:24:13.440 and yada, yada, yada, until it comes to Jews and Israel. Then in that case, well, they don't deserve 1.00

00:24:19.080 to be there. There's a big of a double standard. You look at people like Stephen Gilbo, if you're

00:24:25.140 smart enough to realize that hopefully the time in office for him is drawing to a close, he's

00:24:29.860 auditioning for a job at the UN because the pay is pretty good. And profile and travel. I mean,

00:24:35.980 that's what Gilbo read. They love having their conferences. They certainly don't stay at the

00:24:39.200 Motel 6 when they're going out there and fly coach. No, they don't. Well, we're making the

00:24:46.740 news. Getting on to, I guess, as you said, with Ukraine, they're going to take the funds and just

00:24:52.320 use them how they prioritize. They're not going to worry too much, I think, about gender parity.

00:24:57.000 They just want to get the mines out of the ground or not get nailed by an anti-personnel missile

00:25:01.520 while they're trying to do it. Likewise, with Alberta, I guess, to segue in, we got the NDP

00:25:06.940 liberal pharmaceutical plan the province of bird is basically saying leave us out of it give us

00:25:12.660 the money we'll deal with it I don't don't give it to us with those caveats I mean David this is

00:25:20.900 just a deal to cut to keep them in power and save a little exactly this is this is what the NDP

00:25:26.580 wanted along with their dentistry plan and they threatened to pull the pull the plug on the

00:25:32.100 coalition last week, and miraculously, they came up with a deal, you know, it's a boondoggle in

00:25:40.400 the making. It's going to cost billions and billions and billions of dollars every year

00:25:44.780 that, you know, they're still trying to figure it all out. But even Jagmeet Singh came out and

00:25:49.840 said, well, basically, we're talking about covering birth control, you know, contraception

00:25:55.320 and diabetes drugs. And, you know, he says, if we want more universal health care, elect more

00:26:01.340 democrats and more new democrats so you know it's it's all a political game uh uh premier smith

00:26:08.080 within moments of it being uh announced that we want nothing to do with it uh and then jagmeet

00:26:14.540 singh pipes in again well you know quebec wants nothing to do with it that's okay but it's not

00:26:20.260 the same for alberta so uh you know as the premier pointed out once again alberta being treated like

00:26:25.860 second-class citizens compared to Quebec.

00:26:30.720 And I'm sure that was the message.

00:26:32.760 Absolutely.

00:26:33.580 I don't want to be a border on the subject, but back east, they're building this case that there's a sort of a rebel confederacy out west,

00:26:41.980 which they must protect the rest of Canada from.

00:26:45.040 And comments like that just feed into it.

00:26:47.380 Well, and they've set an admirable political trap for Premier Smith, because you can see the optics that can be played.

00:26:54.080 I mean, plain devil's advocate.

00:26:54.880 You show that big, bad, mean Premier Smith, and then you can wheel out the unfortunate young person with juvenile diabetes

00:27:01.720 whose parents apparently can't afford the insulin treatment, and Danielle wants to take that away from them. 0.98

00:27:08.220 Meanwhile, this woman down the road with 27 kids at the age of 40, and it's because she didn't get free contraception. 1.00

00:27:14.660 And again, that's Smith's fault.

00:27:16.720 I mean, it's the game they play.

00:27:19.180 As Nigel wrote in his column, there's lots of other alternatives.

00:27:23.880 There's, you know, the Blue Cross, and the Alberta government does have plans in place to help people with medication.

00:27:32.180 Yeah, something like 5,000 medications covered.

00:27:34.980 Yeah.

00:27:35.280 I mean, I don't know how many you need to cover, but if they're just talking about this is good for diabetes and birth control,

00:27:43.040 by the way, more below-the-belt politics, if that's all that this is intended to cover,

00:27:49.540 I think we're probably streets ahead the way they are.

00:27:52.820 Plus, there are millions of people in Canada who have employer plans.

00:27:59.480 I don't know, it's not been said what the future holds for those plans.

00:28:04.580 But if the idea is, in the interest of equality, equity, to bring those to an end and everybody goes on the massive national pharmacare plan, why is that a good idea financially?

00:28:20.660 that's not a charge to the government at the moment no and make it one I don't want it to be

00:28:28.320 managed by the government they're not overly good on monetary policy I don't know if you've noticed

00:28:32.840 well he doesn't think about it does he no need the budgets balance themselves well in distribution

00:28:38.680 and logistics and deals with the pharmaceutical companies I wouldn't want to be somebody

00:28:43.120 who is literally reliant to stay alive on some drug or another and now has to rely on the

00:28:49.420 government to source that and get them to them so they can have it free. Likewise, you know,

00:28:54.920 you can die on a waiting list waiting for a surgeon. Now you could perhaps get very seriously

00:28:58.640 hard waiting for pharmaceuticals that won't get to you because the government dove into another

00:29:02.660 area they shouldn't have been in. You know, if these, Phoenix pay system, ask a federal civil

00:29:09.800 servant how they feel about having the government manage their drug program as well. Yeah, they can't

00:29:15.440 pay themselves. This is not a good idea. No, no. Along the list of ideas, good ideas, bad ideas,

00:29:24.960 it's going into something, I guess, democratic. We'll see how that unfolds with the pharmaceuticals

00:29:30.560 as it goes. Because part of the, to be fair, one of the things the health minister says,

00:29:34.640 people are jumping on it, but the actual policy hasn't been released yet. Now the government's

00:29:38.240 playing around, playing politics, leaking bits and pieces, but until we actually see what it is,

00:29:43.280 it is difficult to see exactly what they have in mind which is irresponsible way to release it but

00:29:48.080 it's typical so speaking of irresponsible government we've got uh the ever popular

00:29:54.400 mayor jody gondek and the recall initiative is still moving on is it dave it is uh we actually

00:30:01.040 had uh a guy who didn't know we were in our offices he was doing everybody in the building

00:30:07.760 uh come by last week and looking for signatures a friend of mine his wife has broke as a broken foot

00:30:15.680 so she put on the uh on the uh community billboard that she's collecting signatures and

00:30:21.520 there's been a long line of people at her door knocking on her door and and wanting to sign

00:30:26.880 another friend of mine said last friday you couldn't walk through a plus 15 without a 0.99

00:30:31.840 a uh a canvasser there so uh you know i still think like you corey it's an impossible number

00:30:39.520 to uh to to to achieve but i think they're probably going to get a pretty good number

00:30:45.680 a six-figure number wouldn't surprise me uh you know but again it all depends on

00:30:51.920 how organized they can get and who organizes it and uh how uh you know how motivated they are

00:30:59.200 yeah they're springing up everywhere i was just driving with judy the other day

00:31:03.860 down through bowness went across the bridge you know i just swing around to the to the west there

00:31:09.780 there they were about three cars with big signs stop here sign the petition you know it's uh

00:31:15.580 you you mentioned the plus 15 they're going door to door as well uh you know if if they get maybe

00:31:24.580 they don't get 500,000 signatures. If they get 100,000, how much did Gondek win by last time?

00:31:31.780 I think it was just about that amount. Bless my soul. It's almost as if we had a news meeting

00:31:36.340 this morning. We don't rehearse this time. It's not an insignificant feat to get 100,000 people

00:31:42.100 to get up. I mean, we're talking a physical pen to paper witness signature. Plus all that they've

00:31:47.140 got to prove who they are. Yeah, there's a whole lot of work to it to be valid. It has to be

00:31:51.620 witnessed in a number of things, which, again, I mean, the legislation, I've gone on about this

00:31:56.000 many times before, it's just not a good legislation. I guess we have to ask, do we want

00:32:01.980 recall legislation or not? This kind of brought it to the fore. That's another benefit of this

00:32:06.300 that perhaps wasn't the intent of the organizers, but it kind of exposed how unworkable the

00:32:11.680 legislation is. Yeah, you know, this was Jason Kenney's promise to his followers. And obviously

00:32:18.260 the numbers don't work for big cities. So maybe you just need to make the limit, you know, a

00:32:23.560 percentage of voters or a percentage of something. You want a different level in Calgary than you

00:32:30.800 would High River, you know, that sort of thing. But it's got to be a job. I mean, it is impossible

00:32:40.300 really unless, but you know, I think you were talking about it earlier, Corey, what it's going

00:32:45.460 to do is hopefully come up with an organization that will run for City Hall as almost like a

00:32:52.300 slate of the union candidates who all got in this time. And it's resulted in the lowest

00:32:57.320 ranked council and mayor in history. And that's reflected by the interest in the petition.

00:33:03.600 That is the problem, isn't it? Most conservatives just want to be left alone. It's the other people

00:33:10.000 who want to interfere who always run for office and then start interfering but it's going to take

00:33:16.000 something like this for people to say all right maybe it's time i stepped up and did my share

00:33:21.120 exactly they get in because of such low voter turnouts in municipal elections you know in the

00:33:26.480 30 percent area and some who are speaking up which is kind of surprising i've been seeing i've been

00:33:30.880 watching their facebook page for this and they're putting they're posting all the time but places

00:33:34.800 where you can go sign a lot of private businesses bars coffee shops even repair shops you know

00:33:39.840 name it, a person who has a storefront, they're putting it up there. That's a gamble. Like when

00:33:45.580 I owned my pub and coffee shop, I never did political activities within my pub and coffee

00:33:52.060 shop. I would still get enough people annoyed by my writings outside of there that they'd go on to

00:33:56.640 Google and bomb me with negative reviews and things as it was. But for businesses to stand

00:34:00.880 up and get political is a risk. And they've got to be pretty motivated to be saying, you know,

00:34:05.120 I'm going to host this petition in my storefront, in my bar.

00:34:10.500 I haven't seen so much of that, not even with the Olympics referendum

00:34:13.460 or things like that, for example.

00:34:16.160 Even before this recall thing started, wherever you went,

00:34:20.480 whether, you know, talking at the pub with your buddies,

00:34:22.920 it was all about what wackos these people are on city council. 1.00

00:34:26.900 And, you know, why are they doing the plastic bag thing was another fiasco.

00:34:31.240 The $80 billion climate emergency, another fiasco.

00:34:33.900 I think the thing that got a lot of people sitting up and taking notice was when she wouldn't express any solidarity with the people of Israel when they, like in the day after that awful bloody attack.

00:34:48.300 And don't forget the Canada Day fireworks, man.

00:34:50.940 I mean, you know, this is a city council.

00:34:53.880 Have they done anything good?

00:34:56.220 Can either of you name a single good thing they've done?

00:34:59.620 And they've been terribly dysfunctional, too.

00:35:01.720 I thought, you know, the fighting and everything going on had peaked with Mayor Ninchy,

00:35:06.300 but no, Mayor Gondek's an overachiever.

00:35:08.600 She's outdone him.

00:35:09.960 They're at each other's throats, which, again, I kind of like to watch.

00:35:14.300 What's that guy's name?

00:35:16.420 Landon Johnston.

00:35:18.360 Landon Johnston.

00:35:19.940 Johnston for Mayor.

00:35:22.120 Well.

00:35:22.760 No, he's bad in our books today because he didn't show up for Corey Shaw.

00:35:27.080 He irked me and stood me up for my show.

00:35:29.120 but yeah well he's he's not a pro politico and uh you know perhaps didn't set his scheduler

00:35:34.880 correctly or what that but it's a challenge when i do a live show so i can reschedule but i still

00:35:39.280 wish him the best and appreciate his initiative and effort and trying to get it going he's not

00:35:44.440 getting a christmas card from me now and uh oh well last 10 months away you'll change your mind

00:35:49.500 yeah it gave me 15 more minutes to rant about other stuff i've got enough hot air into me to

00:35:53.420 fill the void if i guess no shows still irksome all the same i wish him the best and as you said

00:35:58.520 It's showing some initiative, showing some pushback, and maybe we'll turn into a little bit of who's going to stand up in the next election and hold these people to account because, man, they're crazy.

00:36:09.100 And, you know, hopefully what it'll do is get more people interested in running for council who are more common sense, you know, the business owner and, you know, who have experience in the real world.

00:36:22.360 Seriously, Dave, I think that's the one really big, important takeaway.

00:36:26.060 If you don't like it, you can do something about it.

00:36:30.060 You can run.

00:36:31.060 Outside of the recall, it's our own fault with these terrible, terrible low turnouts

00:36:35.060 that at least people stay in.

00:36:37.060 So, gotta look in the mirror a little.

00:36:39.060 People hate hearing that statement, but it's true. 1.00

00:36:41.060 The rules are made by the people who show up.

00:36:43.060 And that's what people who don't like this have got to do.

00:36:46.060 Show up.

00:36:47.060 Show up to run.

00:36:48.060 Show up to vote.

00:36:49.060 So something we couldn't show up to.

00:36:51.060 There was a big social event happened for certain media outlets,

00:36:56.380 and I don't think we got an invitation, Dave.

00:36:58.340 What happened?

00:36:58.820 Unless it's stuck in the mail, Corey.

00:37:00.420 You know, these things tend to get lost in the mail sometimes.

00:37:03.380 But this was a really good exclusive we had on Monday,

00:37:07.300 and it's been our top story for a couple days now.

00:37:10.120 Prime Minister and top ministers like Stephen Gilbo

00:37:13.360 held a lavish garden party for mainstream media.

00:37:17.280 There was craft beer, there was wine, there was ice cream of flavors I've never even heard of before, munchies, all sorts of good stuff.

00:37:28.380 And they billed taxpayers $11,600 for this.

00:37:34.340 So you had journalists from the CBC and Global and the Toronto Star, all of whom are the major benefits of these $600 million media buyout from the Liberals.

00:37:45.960 So this is just another reminder. Hey, you know, don't forget, we're the guys signing your paycheck and come on down for a free beer and have a chat with off the record with the Prime Minister. And hey, you know what? Build taxpayers. So thanks to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and the ever watchful Franco Teresano, he got us those documents and we were able to blow the lid off it. But it would just be nice to get an invitation. Just be nice.

00:38:15.280 Just so you could decline it.

00:38:16.900 Just so we could decline it, and I think we'll guarantee we would.

00:38:22.040 So here's the thing, Dave.

00:38:23.260 I'm just thinking about this.

00:38:24.340 $11,000, right?

00:38:26.120 So how many people actually got invites and went?

00:38:29.860 Now, it's a fair-sized press score in Ottawa, but it's not enormous.

00:38:34.520 So what do you think, 100 people, 50 people?

00:38:37.660 I'm guessing maybe 50 max.

00:38:39.960 Hard to say.

00:38:40.540 well in that case divide your 11 000 by your 50 and you're getting close to 200 bucks

00:38:47.420 can a person reasonably put away 200 worth of uh liquor and and food and still remain

00:38:56.460 a functional journalist at the end of two hours i would some are pretty good pretty good years of

00:39:04.460 experience one thing i found interesting was that they build four thousand dollars for sanitation

00:39:10.540 don't you need just like a big trash container and you need recyclables here, trash here,

00:39:16.780 you throw, how's that $4,000? I mean, yeah, and then the suppliers know they can inflate

00:39:23.680 the prices hundreds of times because government doesn't ask and the government just pays.

00:39:28.840 You know, one thing about Harper is he doesn't like the media much, so nobody ever suggested

00:39:32.780 having an $11,000 card party in 24 Sussex. No, I don't think if Paulie becomes the next

00:39:39.940 Prime Minister. They're not going to come watch him eat an apple while he's got him hosted in

00:39:45.180 the garden party out there. I mean, aside from the laughs and everything, I mean, it's really

00:39:50.220 harms public trust in the media. I mean, there's still some very good legacy media

00:39:57.280 individuals out there. There's still some that are digging in. But as the trust keeps getting

00:40:02.320 lost, as what's cozier and cozier and cozier with the government in power,

00:40:06.440 it's people are tuning out and it's not good for anybody that the legacy media outlets or

00:40:12.700 citizens. Trust is at an all-time low. All the polls show that and this can do nothing but be

00:40:20.720 more damaging to the reputation of the media. I mean you are right that there are still some

00:40:25.500 good journalists out there. I could name two. But it doesn't alter the fact that this was

00:40:37.740 not uncovered by journalists. This was the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. And if it wasn't

00:40:44.320 the CTF, it could very easily have been Blacklocks, which is a service that we have a good deal

00:40:51.060 of respect for, who actually go and get stuff

00:40:54.800 that that great Ottawa press gallery

00:40:58.240 doesn't care about, doesn't think of.

00:41:01.200 None of the journalists at the party wrote about it, did they?

00:41:05.320 I wonder if they had to sign a non-disclosure agreement

00:41:08.020 before they got a beer.

00:41:09.260 Maybe that was it, but oh man, it's a sad set.

00:41:14.220 I saw an exchange on X between the founder of Black Locks

00:41:17.700 and CBC, or at least she quote tweeted,

00:41:21.060 a CBC story saying exclusive, and it was a breakdown of the stuff found in committee with

00:41:25.840 the, I believe the RCMP finding things. And she's saying, yeah, it was exclusive three days ago when

00:41:31.600 we broke it, wasn't it? You know, Blacklock's got that. CBC goes and reheats it and sticks it out

00:41:37.060 and plays it up as if they'd done it themselves. But with the resources they have, you're getting

00:41:42.080 scooped by a two-person outlet. And shout out to Blacklock's and Holly and Tom. They do a great

00:41:49.260 job and they're definitely worth subscribing to. Tom Corsi and Holly Doan, you bet. Yeah. Tom worked

00:41:54.780 for me many years ago when he's, as a ledge reporter and he was, he was one of the best we've

00:41:59.600 ever had. They find the stuff that, as I said, I mean, if the media weren't hanging around at

00:42:03.780 cocktail parties and garden parties with the government in power, they would be finding this

00:42:08.260 stuff too. And they used to, it is a trend I've seen though. They seem frantic to hold the leader

00:42:15.460 the opposition to account. I've never seen such a swarm on the leader of the opposition while

00:42:21.360 the prime minister just seems to get a pass at these conferences. Where's the shouting? Where's

00:42:27.680 the questioning his answers? Where's the not taking prime minister Trudeau's answer at face

00:42:32.240 value? You don't see that, but boy, they probably realize that their jobs could be at stake.

00:42:37.500 And if Polyev cuts that $600 million giveaway, you know, that's going to be tough times for the industry as a whole.

00:42:48.760 And they don't like Polyev.

00:42:51.380 So, yeah, they go after him mercilessly.

00:42:54.840 There's no doubt about it.

00:42:56.020 Yeah, you know, I think it is personal.

00:42:58.540 I sometimes doubt that it's actually a sense that my job is on the line.

00:43:03.540 I've got to take this guy down.

00:43:04.880 it's just that polyef stands for a whole bunch of values that aren't very common in the newsrooms

00:43:12.160 of the nation you see some of these uh juvenile reporters kids under 30 they got a degree in

00:43:20.660 sociology in a one-year journalism program and they think they're activist journalists who have

00:43:27.440 to lead the rest of us to uh to the right answer and they honestly just don't get it no

00:43:34.700 Not a clue.

00:43:36.820 Oh, well, at least we're here to offer our balance.

00:43:40.140 Us old guys.

00:43:41.100 Even if we don't get invited to all the real good events.

00:43:44.020 We'll hold our own parties.

00:43:45.280 That's right.

00:43:46.140 Every Friday afternoon.

00:43:47.520 We've had some good ones around here.

00:43:49.640 All right.

00:43:50.420 Well, I better let you back to the newsroom to earn your keep for the beer for this Friday's party. 0.68

00:43:55.320 So thank you very much, guys, for joining today, Nigel.

00:43:58.920 Dave.

00:43:59.800 That's a pleasure.

00:44:00.820 That's a pleasure.

00:44:01.280 That's a pleasure.

00:44:02.060 And yes, thank you all, you listeners and viewers.

00:44:05.480 Be sure to subscribe.

00:44:06.400 We're independent.

00:44:06.980 We don't get garden party invitations or government subsidies.

00:44:10.280 We rely on subscribers.

00:44:11.940 And you guys have been fantastic.

00:44:13.220 Thank you very much to you who have already subscribed to us.

00:44:16.160 And if you haven't already, get on there, guys.

00:44:18.080 Westernstandard.news slash membership.

00:44:20.460 Take one out, $10 a month, or I'll use that god-awful statement.

00:44:23.560 It's less than a cup of coffee a day, and it's well worth it.

00:44:25.860 It keeps us rolling.

00:44:26.760 So thanks for tuning in this week, and we will see you all again next week at this time.

00:44:30.080 Canadian Shooting Sports Association, without the CSSA, our gun rights would have been taken long, long ago.

00:44:37.320 These guys are on the front lines, helping to draft smart and intelligent firearms regulations and legislation in Canada.

00:44:45.300 And more importantly, educating the public about how we keep guns out of the hands of the wrong people.

00:44:50.480 To become a member, it's absolutely worth every penny.

00:44:55.320 You can become a Western Standard member for just $10 a month or $9.

Western Standard - February 29, 2024

The Pipeline： Smith says sustainable grid a priority

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript