Western Standard - Vive le Québec libre!

00:00:00.000 Good day.

00:00:29.220 welcome to the cory morgan show and good to see somebody checking in from taber i got a couple of

00:00:33.540 new signs of brightening things up down that way on the billboards if you keep your eye open for

00:00:38.340 them you know i couldn't make it to the end of the campaign without sending taber a little more love

00:00:42.420 uh so yeah only a week and a half or so left in this longest referendum campaign imaginable man

00:00:48.980 it's just been a heck of a long stretch but we're getting there and it's going to be interesting

00:00:52.660 quebec just finished their uh election and boy talk about a turnover of a government just

00:00:58.180 annihilated the CAQ who was in power prior who used to have a huge majority

00:01:02.980 changes in the air guys they're interesting political times if nothing

00:01:07.780 else a guest coming up in a little while is an engineer named Greg Wilson he

00:01:11.620 wrote a piece for CTC Journal talking about the ultimate greenwashing the

00:01:16.540 false promise of LEED certification I know it sounds a little dry but actually

00:01:21.280 it's important if you wonder about some of the costs of buying homes or condos

00:01:25.600 or business and just our general productivity actually it's policies like this that slide under

00:01:30.420 the radar that impact you a lot more than you would think so we'll talk to him in a little while

00:01:34.860 all right let me get on to what i want to talk about though and it's getting back to quebec

00:01:38.000 for those of us old enough to remember in the lead up to the 1995 quebec independence referendum i

00:01:42.820 mean the attitude of most albertans at that time was concerned quebec might actually leave the

00:01:47.160 federation i mean we had airlines discounts offered and buses and a delegation of westerners

00:01:53.500 actually attended a unity rally in quebec shortly before the referendum there was canadian flags

00:01:58.220 waving and it was a nice big general love-in while federalists begged quebecers please don't go

00:02:03.500 ah the rally was of limited effect uh if it had any at all and quebec came within a hair of

00:02:08.540 secession now secessionism is heating up again in quebec as the province elected the pq to a

00:02:13.580 majority government again and just obliterated the caq government now the caq was a nationalist

00:02:19.980 government that held a position of supporting a sovereign quebec within a united canada

00:02:23.980 sound familiar well the pq is overtly secessionist now there were other factors aside from unity in

00:02:28.860 play that led to that loss it's undeniable though that quebec just took another step closer

00:02:34.460 to moving a having another referendum on secession alberta's response to quebec's pursuit of

00:02:39.420 independence over the decades has evolved i mean now we're hearing fewer voices begging please stay 0.98

00:02:43.820 and more saying don't let the door hit your ass on the way out the frustration is understandable 0.98

00:02:48.300 Quebec's continually rung concessions out of Ottawa while Albertans have been paying the bill. 0.98

00:02:53.700 Meanwhile, Quebec's governments have actively fought against Alberta's attempts to get oil and gas products to eastern markets and ports.

00:02:59.620 It's time for Alberta's approach to evolve a little further, though.

00:03:02.000 Rather than being confrontational, we should be saying, how can we help you with your quest for independence?

00:03:07.120 Or even better, how can we work together in the pursuit of independence for both provinces?

00:03:11.300 Could you imagine the terror instilled upon the Ottawa establishment if Alberta and Quebec stopped squabbling and actually began working together?

00:03:18.260 The Laurentian elites depend on provincial division in order to maintain centralized power.

00:03:22.580 Quebec and Alberta working in tandem can shatter that formula.

00:03:26.020 Some representatives of Alberta's independence movement felt it would be wise to hold meetings with undisclosed American representatives in Washington.

00:03:32.960 Those efforts backfired and have caused mistrust to the independence movement just as a referendum approaches in Alberta.

00:03:38.680 Albertans have no interest in leaving Canada just to become a small fish in an even bigger pond.

00:03:44.060 Alberta's independence movement should be sending envoys from here to Quebec.

00:03:48.300 Learn from the players who've been in the independence game for generations

00:03:50.880 and explore ways that our two provinces can work together.

00:03:54.620 There's big differences between Quebec and Alberta,

00:03:56.760 but there's a whole lot of common ground when it comes to the central government in Ottawa.

00:04:00.340 And beyond working with Quebec, we can emulate it.

00:04:03.060 Quebec's been incrementally distancing itself from Ottawa for decades.

00:04:06.120 Why doesn't Alberta have its own pension plan?

00:04:08.220 Why does Alberta not have a full provincial police force?

00:04:11.240 Why doesn't Alberta collect its own corporate taxes?

00:04:13.160 I mean, those are policy changes we can do.

00:04:16.100 Another thing we can do, Alberta's government needs to change in attitude.

00:04:19.260 We've got to stop acting deferential.

00:04:21.220 There's no need to beg Ottawa to exert provincial authority.

00:04:23.760 Just do it.

00:04:25.340 There's an author named Benoit Trudeau I attend a lot of meetings with.

00:04:28.680 He's only a very distant relation to the other Trudeaus,

00:04:30.920 and he says it best when he's sharing his experience as a former Quebecerer

00:04:33.940 at gatherings of Alberta independent supporters.

00:04:36.400 He says Alberta should take on their attitude of act first, apologize never.

00:04:42.080 Quebec treated every gained power as the new baseline,

00:04:45.180 and every federal intrusion is something that can be reversed.

00:04:47.880 It didn't wait for a national constitutional conference to take things it already owned,

00:04:52.720 such as language of work laws, civil law, regional development.

00:04:56.800 They just do it.

00:04:58.120 Alberta's equivalents, we've got our resources, we've got labor and mobility.

00:05:03.160 Man, marbles in my mouth.

00:05:04.740 Provincial policing, tax collection, and the stuff I was mentioning. 0.98

00:05:07.480 Alberta's examining changes with how it can deal with temporary immigrants in the coming referendum. 0.60

00:05:12.420 Will the province act if it's given a mandate, or is it just more empty posturing,

00:05:16.260 like Jason Kenney's Fair Deal panel, which sought input from Albertans and then ignored it?

00:05:21.280 Albertans have to start playing the long game, as Quebec has rather than be reactionary.

00:05:28.240 Let's decouple our provincial institutions from federal ones wherever possible.

00:05:32.140 Establish detailed plans and studies laying out how things like currency passports

00:05:35.820 and the share of the debt are going to be dealt with.

00:05:39.160 Rather than scrambling to do so now as the referendum is looming,

00:05:42.340 the election of the PQ in Quebec offers Alberta an opportunity

00:05:45.620 and a potential ally in the pursuit of sovereignty.

00:05:49.560 So let's embrace that, guys.

00:05:52.300 All right, Dave there.

00:05:53.240 You see we celebrate Quebec, something unusual has happened.

00:05:55.400 Yeah, there you go.

00:05:56.060 I still don't like poutine.

00:05:57.200 I'm depressed.

00:05:58.100 How so?

00:05:58.760 Well, snow is coming this weekend.

00:06:00.300 Yeah, I heard about that, but I've...

00:06:01.440 You got your fifth wheel packed up?

00:06:03.780 I've winterized it.

00:06:04.680 I am ready to pull it down to escape the snow, but our bank account says it's still not going to happen for a couple of months.

00:06:11.240 Oh, yes, and don't forget that Canadian dollar.

00:06:13.540 Yeah, that's part of why I park in a desert too, yeah.

00:06:17.640 Anyways, busy news morning today.

00:06:19.460 I don't know if you've seen the video, but a couple of Oilers fans last night were ejected from the game,

00:06:26.160 allegedly for waving an Alberta flag.

00:06:29.880 Now, the video up doesn't show any sign of a flag,

00:06:33.000 but people around them are telling the police that there was a flag.

00:06:38.060 So it remains to be seen.

00:06:40.140 We've got to call into the Oilers and try and find out what's going on.

00:06:45.260 The first quality of life survey is out under the new Farkas era by the Calgary Foundation,

00:06:51.840 and it's not really a pretty picture.

00:06:54.200 The quality of life is dropping significantly in Calgary,

00:06:58.160 And it's based on, it basically goes into two categories.

00:07:02.100 If you're earning under $60,000 a year, life is kind of hard.

00:07:08.120 Rents and food costs, soaring food costs are making life difficult, so they're not happy.

00:07:14.180 Those making over $200,000 are quite happy, and I wonder why.

00:07:18.960 Money can buy happiness, you know.

00:07:20.660 I don't care what other people say.

00:07:22.560 Being broke, you'll buy misery.

00:07:24.000 That's a guarantee.

00:07:24.340 Exactly. 1.00

00:07:25.700 The Liberals are making some adjustments to the maid killing machine. 1.00

00:07:30.600 They're going to not allow mentally ill people to have it now, 1.00

00:07:34.940 but they're going to allow people to sign up in advance.

00:07:38.940 So if you think you're going to get Alzheimer's, 0.89

00:07:41.160 you write a note saying, as soon as I get Alzheimer's, I would like to be whacked, 0.88

00:07:45.760 and apparently that's going to be good. 1.00

00:07:48.280 We've got more details today on the trans guy who was arrested

00:07:51.880 for helping the trans Tumblr Ridge shooter. 1.00

00:07:56.080 Weird, weird people. 0.99

00:07:57.760 Weird people, you know, pictures of him

00:08:00.500 in fishnet stockings and the guns.

00:08:06.520 Just such an awful end.

00:08:07.960 I mean, it's clearly... 1.00

00:08:10.120 They're mentally ill. 1.00

00:08:10.940 Yeah, they're nuts, and dangerously so. 1.00

00:08:13.020 I mean, you know, harmless nuts are fine,

00:08:15.240 but that was the worst possible outcome.

00:08:17.240 I'm still mortified when I see that, 0.93

00:08:19.460 that poor young girl who got shot in the head

00:08:21.180 who thankfully survived, but you're watching that slow, slow recovery,

00:08:25.720 and I get furious all over again every time I see that.

00:08:28.260 Yeah, Maya, she's an inspiration.

00:08:31.840 Turkey dinners this year for Thanksgiving, up 10%.

00:08:35.220 That's mainly the cost of turkey, but other things too, like your vegetables.

00:08:40.900 I heard carrots, actually.

00:08:42.300 Carrots?

00:08:42.440 They've risen up really high for some reason.

00:08:44.620 Yeah, I was listening to the food professor on an interview,

00:08:47.920 and he mentioned carrots were on the rise.

00:08:49.420 You should just do what I do and don't eat vegetables.

00:08:52.180 That's pretty close to it in my household. 1.00

00:08:54.380 I have to try and force-feed Jane vegetables as it is.

00:08:57.540 So being one of those households, I mean, I'm one of those guys, I buy vegetables,

00:09:00.920 but I'm just bringing them home for a place to wither and die in the crisper.

00:09:05.040 I should darn near give up.

00:09:06.500 Yeah, you can always take vitamins, right?

00:09:08.080 Easier and tastes better.

00:09:09.740 Something like that.

00:09:11.140 What else we got?

00:09:12.480 An attack at a Jewish facility in Ontario this morning, the anniversary of October 7th.

00:09:18.820 they burnt all the israeli flags horrible news on one of alberta's greatest cultural

00:09:25.940 institutions corey the torrington gopher museum has shut down i was bummed i i posted that i see

00:09:32.980 that yeah that's up on the western standard and that's where i saw it for the first time i mean

00:09:37.140 that was a brilliant little thing you know a withering little small town something unique i

00:09:41.540 mean they made world news people would come out there in droves to check it out i hope they find

00:09:46.340 a new venue yeah me too do you go did you ever go and see it no no neither did i maybe that's why

00:09:50.740 it's closing i guess we'll all talk and elon musk has just tweeted that quebec alberta and

00:09:58.580 saskatchewan should all separate from canada he's a pretty smart guy he is you see now as an

00:10:04.820 independent supporter i'm unabashed about that i always have been but when i see more americans

00:10:09.380 speaking up and encouraging us to go i don't think it helps our cause even if i like a lot of the

00:10:13.540 things mr musk has done this is just driving people back into saying oh no we don't want to

00:10:18.900 give ourselves away to another power down south yeah just just in fairness he's not saying come

00:10:23.140 and join us he's just saying you know become independent with that tone happening right now

00:10:27.700 it's i i don't think it's helping yeah either way thank you mr musk i guess and uh premier smith

00:10:32.820 has two big events uh this afternoon uh one on defense spending so our legislature reporter

00:10:38.980 will vassar will be following her around right on yeah that uh rob anderson was dropping hints

00:10:44.260 on that or something too i guess it sounds like some sort of uh well the minister uh david mcginty

00:10:49.620 is going to be here so it should be it should be a good one maybe they'll reopen cfb calgary or

00:10:54.340 they're uh you know they'll establish an alberta army that would be interesting i i think phil

00:11:00.340 de brant would volunteer yeah as the commandant oh boy i don't know if that'd be a good development

00:11:06.020 or not but you know i i see these things and i see the federal attention and i know it infuriated

00:11:11.300 some people when i posted that up on x but holding this referendum sure seems to have gotten a whole

00:11:16.100 lot of ottawa love guys uh whether you like it or not and that the way to do it but yep let's not

00:11:22.100 pretend they were like this five years ago around oh no absolutely not all right well i'll let you

00:11:27.060 back out to cover all those breaking events and thanks for the update dave you bet see you on the

00:11:30.980 pipeline back in yes we'll see you shortly that is our news editor dave naylor yes lots going on

00:11:36.420 everything from gophers to military maybe we could arm the gophers that would be a big military

00:11:42.660 so uh the reason we can do that guys is that reminder is because you guys subscribe and

00:11:47.540 keeps us independent so check it out westernstandard.news subscription the paywall is

00:11:52.340 down right now it will be for another i think 12 days or so 13 days so you can get in you can

00:11:58.180 get past or you could see all of these columns all of these articles without having to shell out

00:12:02.580 a pocket and then make your mind up to continue supporting us after that so check out the site

00:12:07.220 and subscribe if you haven't already and if you've already subscribed thank you very much we do

00:12:12.340 appreciate it so uh yeah as dave mentioned you know it is uh it's the third anniversary of

00:12:19.220 october 7th we're seeing a lot of the the postings on what happened over uh over in israel three

00:12:25.220 years ago now and uh man you know i i look at some of the discourse and things and uh

00:12:35.060 on social media and it's the sort of thing that make me want to put off

00:12:37.940 social media all together uh yeah i shared some pictures i took from from when i was over in

00:12:42.580 israel a while back uh of the the site where 364 kids were slaughtered and raped for the crime of

00:12:53.460 being at a music festival that was a little too close to the ghazan border at the wrong time

00:12:58.260 and uh pictures of houses you know that i saw that had been destroyed while the the terrorists

00:13:04.500 broke in to uh rape and murder people you know and then of course i get the conspiracy kooks 0.70

00:13:10.900 coming at me oh the military was told to stand down oh the jews were behind it 1.00

00:13:15.620 it's the grossest victim blaming crap you could ever imagine you know i i can understand and i 0.99

00:13:20.420 And I get a lot of people saying, oh, it's their problem. 0.99

00:13:22.060 It's over there.

00:13:22.660 We don't care.

00:13:23.580 Fine.

00:13:24.060 Be indifferent.

00:13:24.860 That's fine. 0.98

00:13:26.100 But to come up with that hogwash and just some of the vile crap that people have come up with, it's just too much. 0.91

00:13:33.620 All I can suggest, you know, again, when people do that false claim of genocide in the case of Gaza, you know, look at the numbers. 0.94

00:13:42.140 Look at what genocide is.

00:13:42.900 You can certainly critique Israel and their reaction and how they've done it to a degree.

00:13:48.920 But guys, there's been a tiny percentage of the Gazan population wiped out. 0.57

00:13:54.340 And Israel has the military capability. 0.72

00:13:56.320 They could have wiped out every living person in there within a day if they wanted to.

00:14:01.180 Most of those who died, and it's awful, but most of them were combatants.

00:14:05.600 This is what's called a war, not a genocide.

00:14:08.020 And it wasn't Israel that started it.

00:14:09.960 And if a neighboring country had climbed over a wall and done what Hamas did to those people on October 7th,

00:14:17.640 most of the countries in the world would have reacted a hell of a lot worse than Israel did.

00:14:22.340 So, I mean, hey, we've got the right to be critical,

00:14:24.820 and we can certainly, you know, look at different ways of doing things, 0.95

00:14:29.280 but steer clear of the conspiracy crap.

00:14:31.600 Israel didn't invite it, and they're not committing genocide now. 0.90

00:14:35.500 Either way, today is a sad remembrance, 1.00

00:14:37.940 and even though there's a bunch of lunatics and idiots at McGill and so on celebrating October 7th, 1.00

00:14:42.200 I really think a lot of those kids should be sent over maybe to Gaza 1.00

00:14:46.280 and really to get a close look at what they're actually celebrating. 1.00

00:14:49.860 Go on and meet them, guys, especially the queers for Palestine. 0.99

00:14:53.340 Have a look and see what you're defending. 1.00

00:14:55.560 And by the way, what are we going to do with all the refugees from Tel Aviv, 1.00

00:14:58.940 which is the only place in the entire Middle East that doesn't kill gay people, 0.97

00:15:02.260 if you got your river to the sea wish and Israel disappeared? 0.99

00:15:05.760 All right, that's my bit of ranting there. 0.65

00:15:07.400 Let's get on to something a little less dark but very, very important.

00:15:10.960 And I really enjoyed this article that I read in Sea to Sea Journal.

00:15:16.280 And it's from Greg Wilson, an engineer, and he's talking about it.

00:15:19.880 As I said, it was entitled The Ultimate Greenwashing,

00:15:21.960 The False Promise of LEED Certification.

00:15:24.140 So let's bring Greg in and talk about this a little bit.

00:15:27.640 Hey, thanks for coming on to talk to us today, Greg.

00:15:30.320 Yeah, nice to be with you again.

00:15:32.060 Yeah.

00:15:32.680 So, I mean, I've, and it's funny, I've got to admit,

00:15:37.000 the name sounded familiar.

00:15:37.820 It wasn't until I saw your picture, and that's, you've been on before.

00:15:40.740 Me again, yeah.

00:15:42.520 Cool.

00:15:42.980 Welcome back.

00:15:43.640 Look, I just, you know, with my muddled memory in busy times, so I'm happy to have you back on to talk about this.

00:15:48.640 It's a great article.

00:15:51.100 Just to line it up, explain what LEED certification is and how it applies to Canada,

00:15:56.140 because that was initially an American sort of standard in development, right?

00:15:59.720 Yeah, so it was developed in the late 1990s in the U.S. by the U.S. Green Building Council,

00:16:05.180 and it's the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Standard.

00:16:09.300 And so it came to Canada in 2003. And it really took over the industry completely. I entered the engineering and design industry in 2012. And it was like the thing that everyone was talking about still at that point. And it really gripped the industry for a few decades. And the resultant of it is a lot of ill performing buildings. And that's basically what the article is about is about how the industry in general and society gets really trapped in these kind of woke

00:16:39.140 ideas that don't really have any resulting purpose or longevity to them. And it's really

00:16:46.540 of a moment in time where buildings should be built to last forever. And that's really my

00:16:52.040 passion with the building and engineering industry is building things that can be fixed and last

00:16:58.460 forever. Yeah. And we're seeing some of the things too. I mean, there's the whole nature

00:17:03.640 of greenwashing. You know, it's virtue signaling. You want to look like you're doing the environment

00:17:07.500 some good and the actual outcome doesn't really seem to matter with some people you you referenced

00:17:11.900 a study all the way back from 2008 that found nearly half of those certified buildings actually

00:17:16.620 used more energy than their certification promised like it's gone the other direction how's this

00:17:22.060 happen it's really funny that 2008 study that you mentioned was actually done by the u.s green

00:17:27.100 building council themselves so they themselves admitted in the in the report it's about 22

00:17:32.060 percent of the LEED certified buildings uh perform worse than non-LEED certified buildings and i

00:17:38.380 think it's hilarious that that's the study that they themselves released so what are the real

00:17:42.540 numbers if an independent study were to be done in 2009 a study was sort of redone based on that

00:17:49.580 u.s green building council um study and they they reported 28 to 35 percent of LEED certified

00:17:55.660 buildings perform worse than their non-certified peers and i should mention too like lead

00:18:01.900 certification is extremely expensive to get um the studies show that it ranges from one to 20

00:18:10.380 more than a non-lead built buildings and they cost more to maintain um and more in energy costs as

00:18:17.980 well so really there's no win at the end of the day and yet we spent millions and millions of

00:18:23.660 dollars over decades doing this um to date over 7 000 buildings mostly government buildings have

00:18:29.580 been lead certified in canada so uh when we're at a time where a lot of the discussion these days

00:18:36.860 i mean a big part of the political discussion is cost of living it's a accessible housing

00:18:41.260 it's productivity and these lead certifications actually pressure all three of those categories

00:18:46.860 in the wrong direction i mean canada's having a hard time this would be something relatively easy

00:18:51.900 to i guess take some of the pressure off so we could be more productive 100 and and now lead

00:18:57.420 it's interesting it's sort of shifting to be even more than just greenwashing it's moving more into

00:19:02.940 esg and dei kind of realms which i think is really interesting and hilarious frankly but there's a

00:19:09.900 lot of discourse and conversation about net zero and this ubiquitous term of net zero and i think

00:19:15.100 that is the next really dangerous lead that's coming forward and i think part of my motivation

00:19:21.180 to research and write this article is things i'm seeing in the industry day to day and and how much

00:19:26.700 damage lead has really done to our buildings and to the industry and now we're talking about net

00:19:32.140 zero and everything and i think that's a huge risk factor and i think this goes back to in the

00:19:37.740 article i talk about this very sort of innocuous building in winthrop washington i saw it when i

00:19:42.460 was on vacation there in may and it's this little building and over its 120 plus year life it's been

00:19:49.020 a saloon a school a hospital and now it's the city hall and it wasn't fancy it was built out

00:19:55.420 of local wood but it was built to last and i think that's the piece that we have to really

00:20:00.140 think about in the industry and in society like what are we building and how are we building

00:20:05.020 rather than trying to make it some sort of net zero green monolith um we need to think about

00:20:11.180 longevity well then some of the other problem when you get i guess almost omnibus type of uh

00:20:16.540 regulations and you can just keep packing more stuff in and packing more stuff in you know that

00:20:20.860 some of it starts going well beyond environmental concerns and into social justice concerns that

00:20:27.100 really should have absolutely nothing to do with with environmental design yet yet here we are

00:20:32.700 yeah and in alberta actually last year um the infrastructure minister

00:20:37.340 cancelled all lead requirements on alberta infrastructure projects and they said overnight

00:20:41.980 NATO is a 2% cost savings. And what they really highlighted is what you're saying is we already

00:20:47.760 have regulations and requirements and building codes, both at all levels, federal, provincial

00:20:53.580 and municipal codes. And so this is just layering on top of that. And what the ministry's office

00:21:01.080 in Alberta said was that we already address a lot of the energy concerns and energy consumption

00:21:08.120 and warmth and lighting and all these sorts of considerations in the building code and in the

00:21:14.900 energy code of the building code specifically. So LEED is really redundant. And an architect I

00:21:19.940 interviewed that's based out of Washington said the same thing, that LEED costs about $250,000

00:21:25.340 for a municipal building to attach the necessary paperwork and consultants that you need to get

00:21:31.720 the LEED certification to get that illustrious plaque on the door of a building for really

00:21:37.220 nothing. And so many of the concepts already are included in other regulations and code. So

00:21:44.640 it really is completely redundant. And I really worry that this net zero conversation that's

00:21:49.780 happening that I see in the industry and in our dear governments at the federal level is really

00:21:55.560 concerning for what it means for the cost of construction, which is skyrocketing. It's the

00:21:59.860 highest it's ever been. And we, the consumers and the homeowners and dream homeowners are all

00:22:06.240 suffering because of that sort of top-down pressure well and another area that sort of

00:22:11.520 ironically led to some some bad outcomes you put as an example a roof collapse where they'd put a

00:22:19.240 you know a living roof a green roof on the place fortunately it happened on a weekend but that

00:22:24.840 really could have actually led to deaths and it was just again where they obviously overlooked

00:22:29.200 architectural reality and jumped headfirst into, you know, planting a crop on a roof, basically.

00:22:37.000 Yeah, and I come from a very practical, I mean, I was raised by very practical parents, thankfully.

00:22:42.920 So I come to the industry and to design from a very practical perspective. And the green roofs

00:22:48.760 were huge as part of LEED because you got so many points. And it really was a system of gamification

00:22:54.080 of design and not practicality or reality. And green roofs, there's another example. The one

00:23:00.000 you mentioned is in Illinois, the Aquascape building, and that collapsed in 2011. And in

00:23:06.060 2011, the John Harper Library in Waterloo built an addition with a green roof, and it's been

00:23:11.740 leaking since. And now, as of even, I think, August, they had a meeting. The underside of the

00:23:18.340 roof is covered in tarps to redirect all the water that's coming through the green roof onto the

00:23:23.700 books and damaging the books in the library. So it just is these kinds of things, concepts

00:23:28.260 that aren't rooted in reality or practicality. And like I mentioned, the architect that I

00:23:33.440 interviewed, his number one thing is get rid of all of these flat roofs. Just put a sloped roof

00:23:37.720 on every building and that fixes everything. Solves the problem. That kind of practicality,

00:23:42.920 that's it. Yeah, there were sloped roofs on medieval buildings. I mean, they knew that then

00:23:48.180 and we seem to have forgotten it since uh you know getting almost again into the realm of the gross

00:23:54.340 but it's not the the massive architecture aspect but it's one of those little things that again

00:23:58.580 becomes costly you mentioned you know that these waterless urinals and i've run across this those

00:24:03.540 in a few places too and everything again the concept sounds sound i guess but when you get

00:24:08.500 into them i just know from using them it tends to stink pretty bad in there those don't mask

00:24:13.460 urinal use odors very effectively but you've also found that they actually are worse for 0.70

00:24:18.500 the environment quite often than than if you just run water through the darn things to begin with 0.99

00:24:23.300 yeah the the waterless urinals i think are like the key sort of stupidity of the lead gamification 0.95

00:24:30.980 system because what better way to get points than to use no water at all and so in a lot of cases

00:24:36.580 they retrofitted these urinals um in place which is i guess fine and dandy because they sell the

00:24:41.460 water hookups for the urinals but it's really dangerous in buildings that were new that they

00:24:46.740 didn't put any of the plumbing attachments for actual use of urinals where you need water flow

00:24:53.220 and so those buildings are in a world of hurt and it's funny because again this gamification and

00:24:57.860 kind of green washing and making everything kind of work even though it doesn't in a lot of cases

00:25:03.140 in these waterless urinals they have to pour hydrochloric acid into the urinals at night often

00:25:09.140 because they don't want to, you know, pretend that it's not working. So under the guise of

00:25:12.600 everything green, they do it at night, and they are pouring hydrochloric acid to break up this

00:25:18.620 Truvite that builds up in the traps and in the piping of these waterless urinals, because there's

00:25:23.080 no flushing action to get rid of the urine. So it is kind of a gross, kind of a hilarious

00:25:28.500 example of how silly all of this LEED certification gets. Well, getting to the positive kind of,

00:25:36.660 I mean, you noted from Alberta's infrastructure minister was talking about reducing some of these things and cutting it back and equated it, say that we could potentially even build a couple more schools if we just got rid of these ridiculous requirements.

00:25:49.500 So do you think some governments are finally at least realizing this reality and backing off on some of this then?

00:25:54.740 I think so. And I think there's people are seeing the practicality.

00:25:58.220 I guess I come from the industry that we as industry professionals need to be speaking out about it, too.

00:26:04.220 and we need to be focusing on practical solutions.

00:26:07.940 And especially with the cost of construction,

00:26:09.720 we need to really be thinking long-term

00:26:11.880 and building things that make sense.

00:26:14.040 Like I said, overnight, the Alberta government

00:26:16.440 with their Alberta infrastructure projects

00:26:18.520 will save 2% on all that.

00:26:20.600 So the minister said that they were able

00:26:22.400 to build additional schools, hopefully in the future,

00:26:24.880 with just that savings alone.

00:26:26.740 The research that I did and the research that's out there

00:26:29.420 says that it's much, much more than a 2% cost savings.

00:26:32.620 It's upwards of 20% cost savings in some instances.

00:26:35.860 So I think when governments and institutions see that, it kind of is a no-brainer,

00:26:41.740 especially with all of this research that's coming out from even the lead group itself,

00:26:46.100 the U.S. Green Building Council, that the buildings don't work.

00:26:48.760 They don't function the way they should.

00:26:51.240 Yeah, and we don't have to return to, you know, Soviet-style brutalist architecture

00:26:55.560 of just having purely functional concrete boxes that'll last forever.

00:26:59.300 But I think if the private market and architects and builders were allowed to just go with things, they could probably build some aesthetically nice places that would last a long time if they didn't have to sweat all these weird lead requirements.

00:27:12.760 And that's the sad part for me is that in often cases and the architect I spoke to, you know, and I see it's in my day to day life in the industry is we're using products because they're green, not because they are long lasting or productive.

00:27:28.080 You know, we used to build buildings that are brick and masonry and steel and concrete that are amazing materials that last forever.

00:27:34.880 And now we're using materials and coatings that are, quote, green or sustainable, but they don't have that same level of longevity.

00:27:42.200 And we used to build buildings to be comfortable for the occupants.

00:27:46.420 You know, we used to build buildings in different shapes so that everyone had a operable window and natural light.

00:27:51.660 And now we build these square monoliths that we put super expensive HVAC systems in and claim that they're green and claim that they're sustainable.

00:28:00.300 And we really need to go back to looking at how humans used to live and building buildings that last forever.

00:28:06.840 The architect that I talked to, he said that public buildings should be designed to last at least 100 years.

00:28:12.060 And I completely agree.

00:28:13.940 Well, and going all the way back, we were taught this less than a long time ago with the story of the three little pigs. 0.89

00:28:18.760 I mean, the straw house just didn't last, and the brick one saved everybody's butts.

00:28:23.360 I mean, there's nothing greener than having a building last for multiple generations,

00:28:27.800 so you don't have to put all the energy and resources into tearing it down and rebuilding it.

00:28:34.100 Well, I hope, as I said, you know, you pointed out a couple things where it's turning around

00:28:37.900 and some authorities are realizing the foolishness of these policies.

00:28:42.600 What else can, you know, people do to hopefully encourage decision makers

00:28:46.900 to start making these things easier?

00:28:48.980 And before I let you go,

00:28:50.060 where else can people find your work

00:28:51.320 and what you're up to?

00:28:52.700 Yeah, I think this comes back to practicality.

00:28:55.080 I think I want to write these articles

00:28:57.500 and speak to people like you

00:28:59.280 to just sort of preach the practicality gossip

00:29:02.760 or gospel, sorry,

00:29:04.680 and to inform people

00:29:06.640 that we just need to think of things more practically

00:29:09.680 and look to the past

00:29:11.120 and see how we can maybe live more effective.

00:29:13.900 And I think this is really front of mind

00:29:15.460 because the cost of construction is very omnipresent in people's lives with cost of

00:29:21.800 homeownership and renovations and everything like that. So I think people just looking at how we

00:29:26.060 used to do things and sort of pairing that with modern ideas. So I think that's really my goal

00:29:33.180 here is to educate and to sort of open people's minds to a different perspective. I think that

00:29:38.520 then you may be being force-fed.

00:29:41.380 As far as where people can find me,

00:29:43.720 I'm at Libertas Talks on Substack and X and on YouTube.

00:29:49.960 And I hope to continue writing too

00:29:51.860 for various publications as well

00:29:53.640 in this realm of engineering and design.

00:29:57.320 Excellent.

00:29:57.980 Well, I appreciate your contribution.

00:30:00.120 It was a great read.

00:30:01.080 And I thank you for your time to come in

00:30:03.760 and lay out a little bit more of it for us.

00:30:05.820 Hopefully we can talk again soon

00:30:07.280 as you continue to write on these things thank you all right thanks so one more time guys that

00:30:13.440 that is greg wilson and the piece was called the ultimate greenwashing the false promise of lead

00:30:18.700 certification it is a really good read it's a c2c journal it's spelled you know letter c number two

00:30:24.200 letter c if you're looking it up and that's just a really good site to get some of these longer

00:30:29.240 more in-depth types of pieces and things to read you know not just those uh short rant style

00:30:35.320 editorials like you get out of me what i'm writing on the western standard so please by all means

00:30:40.120 check it out and uh check out greg on his other spots we need more just rational intelligent

00:30:44.840 discussion that's that's where you know i i just had to use that analogy at the end to compare it

00:30:49.160 to the three little pigs because i mean in in uh you know a couple thousand words he put it

00:30:53.560 excellently and on the bigger scale and what's more important but that that really kind of what

00:30:56.760 it comes down to just go to using common sense build things solid make them last but we get hung

00:31:03.800 up on ideology you get hung up on on uh you know political goals rather than uh practical goals

00:31:10.440 and we start building things based on greenwashing rather than actual need or which should tick off

00:31:17.400 hardcore environmentalists is it's not actually making things greener i mean if that's your goal

00:31:23.960 then just accept that talk about things then how you can have less impact on the environment let's

00:31:29.720 do that but there's one sure mark of an ideologue you know who's been too driven by what they're at

00:31:36.440 and that's never backing down they just can't once they start moving in one direction they can't

00:31:41.240 bring themselves to move back if they found out that they're incorrect that's that's not a good

00:31:48.280 state of mind you can still maintain your ideals and admit you were wrong sometimes you know it's

00:31:54.520 allowed but some people have difficulty with that and uh it's uh uh good to see this being called

00:32:02.040 out i you know as i said we've got challenges the top challenges lately have been cost of living

00:32:07.720 you know when we see polls global warming is is so far down on the list for what people's top

00:32:13.640 concerns are it it doesn't even register but paying the bills right now is huge yet we seem

00:32:20.440 to have more and more policies that do nothing but cost us more and more money and it's really

00:32:25.400 unfortunate there i'm going to segue that into another thing like i said with with alberta i'm

00:32:29.400 still bummed about and dave had to yeah because i didn't get off my butt and go visit it that

00:32:33.640 torrington gopher museum and in a small town in alberta for those unfamiliar with it i'm just

00:32:39.960 segueing in and how being using your local resources and being efficient torrington is a

00:32:46.120 little town so many little towns on the prairies are dying you know the green elevators are gone

00:32:49.560 the demand is gone people aren't moving there somebody said you know what what have we got

00:32:53.800 around here gophers we've got millions of gophers and they started through taxidermy stuffing a

00:32:59.640 bunch of gophers and putting them together in little displays and dioramas and things all over

00:33:04.280 and they started a whole gopher museum gopher whole museum and it made it just it caught on i

00:33:10.120 mean this was they started this in the 90s and it made international news just because it was so

00:33:14.920 interesting and unique but hey it's not just that you're dealing with a problem you're turning it

00:33:19.080 it into a plus. So they dealt with gophers that are typically a problem and made it into an asset

00:33:24.400 for themselves. Think harder. You know, I think the animal rights kooks probably would have stopped

00:33:28.880 that in the past, even though not that we don't stop. Well, actually, there was a different battle

00:33:32.520 about using strictly to control gophers, but that's down a different rabbit hole or gopher

00:33:37.340 hole if you must. But if governments can get out of the way, if the environmentalists, if the

00:33:43.120 activists can get out of the way, people can get a lot of things done. They can make things better.

00:33:48.780 unfortunately they tend to get worse and uh it's a just a grievous thing good to see some of the

00:33:55.500 folks checking in in the comments by the way yes for those watching this live uh by all means use

00:34:00.320 that comment scroll interact with each other send questions i don't necessarily read them all out we

00:34:04.160 got so many to go through but i see them and it does uh help shape discussion uh let's see you

00:34:11.800 know some of the big one in the stories right now is this this maid you know medical assistance and

00:34:16.640 dying. Talk about difficult policy areas. And the Liberals now are amending the 1.00

00:34:24.240 made legislation, I guess, to take out mental illness as a sole reason for it. It's 0.63

00:34:32.940 nuts that it took this long for them to do it. And no, I didn't mean to be in a pun in that one.

00:34:37.960 This is too serious for that. Like, I remember hearing an interview a while back with a Liberal

00:34:42.400 member of Parliament. It might have been a cabinet minister. This was a couple of years ago. But

00:34:45.920 when he assured the interviewer we won't let anybody suicidal choose made what that's literally

00:34:53.900 what this person said because of course being suicidal is showing mental illness but if you're

00:34:58.100 choosing made it literally suicide it's just not a nice way to say it that's all but it's a blunt

00:35:04.940 way to say it and let me be clear i believe in full bodily autonomy and sovereignty that means

00:35:14.440 that i do believe people should have the right to make the choice if they want to to terminate

00:35:21.480 their their own life i mean i i i feel it should be an absolute last resort

00:35:27.480 i feel it should uh you know if there's going to be medical insistence involved it should only be

00:35:31.800 in cases where it's you know you've got a terminal diagnosis when the standard of living for the

00:35:37.800 final period is not looking good i can't put myself in the shoes of other people who might

00:35:43.720 want to make a choice of you know lasting a few more months in misery and agony or dysfunction

00:35:50.280 or perhaps choosing to go early i don't know that's their decision but when a person is

00:35:56.200 not in their right state of mind they can't make that choice that should again just be be common

00:36:04.360 sense and yet the liberals have to figure out how to legislate around that it's not good and we hear

00:36:12.760 about some of the overuse of it this is not something that should be taken lightly done

00:36:17.960 easily or offered unless again it's a last resort the most recent one we heard was a woman who i

00:36:23.640 guess her claim was she was no longer able to cook for her family she'd gotten too old

00:36:28.760 to do the cooking and decided that's it i want to end it all at this point and they said yeah you

00:36:33.400 know what that's a good enough reason we'll help you out here let me get you the needle really

00:36:39.720 guys we're going a little too far there's the underlying thing that nobody likes to talk about

00:36:44.580 and they'll never admit but you know what it saves them a hell of a lot of money when people take

00:36:47.800 themselves out faster that's part of the incentive for encouraging people to go early

00:36:52.460 that's not the right reason either everybody else has to decide their own correct reason if they're

00:36:59.060 going to have one but you got it government having the power over life and death life and

00:37:06.500 death. It's one of the scariest things. When we talk about, and I'll segue that into another

00:37:11.040 issue that just happened. I mean, I've always opposed capital punishment. Not because some of

00:37:16.920 the people who get executed aren't worthy of executing. There's horrific people that are

00:37:21.260 wasting the earth's oxygen, that did god-awful things that really should not be here any longer.

00:37:25.960 But the problem is, I don't trust the government. I don't trust the courts. I don't trust the police.

00:37:32.760 I don't trust the judges. I'm not saying they're all corrupt or bad on all levels, but there's

00:37:36.600 enough examples of them being wrong and being corrupt that I don't want to give them the power

00:37:42.240 to do something as irreversible as kill somebody. People say, oh, but only in cases where there's no

00:37:46.900 doubt. They always say there's no doubt. Well, what about with DNA? DNA can be doctored, and it has

00:37:52.420 been. There's been cases of that. There were cases in the northeastern United States where

00:37:55.820 the medical lab had been messed up and they'd screwed up the DNA testing on people.

00:38:00.120 so yeah i'd rather i'd rather just see people truly locked away for life forever die of old age

00:38:08.220 than to let the government execute them and the americans with that recent case in tennessee

00:38:14.040 showed how the government can't even get the most simple aspect of capital punishment right

00:38:22.320 which is actually the part where you kill somebody they couldn't do it right they screwed it up so 0.97

00:38:28.640 krista pike a horrible woman her and her boyfriend way back you know what 20 30 years ago 0.95

00:38:36.160 lured a young lady into the woods and then tortured and and horribly just just killed her

00:38:42.960 over apparently she'd shown interest in her boyfriend or something she'd gotten herself

00:38:47.360 capital punishment for it that shows some of the dysfunction of capital punishment too though if

00:38:51.520 you're gonna do it for good lord why does it take you three decades to get around it doing it just

00:38:56.400 do it but i mean i just don't want to do it at all so they gave her the lethal injection

00:39:01.920 and screwed it up it didn't kill her they gave her two doses of whatever the drugs are

00:39:08.720 and it didn't kill her now she's alive in intensive care in the hospital i saw a recent

00:39:13.840 report apparently she's awakened and talking she might be brain damaged i don't know how can you not

00:39:20.960 just last two and a half weeks ago jane and i had to take a dog in to get her put down 0.52

00:39:26.400 something that comes with dog ownership. I hate it. Hate that part of it. We've been through a

00:39:32.480 lot of dogs. We foster dogs, older dogs, bulldogs. They tend to eventually die, and we have to

00:39:38.740 usually get them put down because they're suffering. We want them to die in a controlled

00:39:45.920 environment rather than letting them wait it out. Never have I gone to a vet where they had

00:39:50.080 difficulty putting the dog down. Why was this so damn complicated to kill a person? How is it that 0.56

00:39:56.800 we have it right down? All you do, you put the catheter into the vein and you inject a lethal

00:40:03.420 amount of something and it kills them. Yet, leave it to government that they couldn't figure that

00:40:10.040 out. That that was too complicated for them. Now, they've got a death row inmate who might or might

00:40:17.480 not have brain damage, who there's no way they're going to manage to get her into the 0.96

00:40:21.740 death chamber again. The lawsuits are already starting. The court challenges are already 0.97

00:40:25.660 starting. This monster who murdered a young woman might end up getting millions of dollars

00:40:34.440 in settlement out of it. I don't know what she'd do with it. Either way, this just gets 0.97

00:40:38.620 back down to the total ineptitude of government and how our lives are better when we reduce

00:40:46.760 the amount of government involved in it as much as humanly possible whether it's building buildings

00:40:53.560 whether it's executing people or whether it's made and again like i said i i i i'm not opposed to 1.00

00:41:02.280 made fully but i don't want the government micromanaging it because they're too damn stupid 0.99

00:41:08.040 we can't seem to get common sense to apply to even something like that i don't know what it takes 0.98

00:41:12.120 here's an interesting one speaking of government getting involved now this is this is an example of 0.92

00:41:18.140 activists being dumb so as i was talking earlier you know i support the part of quebec why i support 0.82

00:41:22.400 quebec moving towards independence even though it isn't a minority position still there but this is 0.99

00:41:27.140 one of the areas that will help independence move into majority territory a constitutional lawyer

00:41:32.900 has filed an emergency injunction because the pq refuses to swear allegiance to king charles

00:41:38.740 They're trying to distance themselves and get out from the presence of the lieutenant governor

00:41:43.760 because it's an aspect of the monarchy that's still built into the Canadian Constitution,

00:41:47.560 and they don't want to swear allegiance to the king.

00:41:52.420 And this lawyer wants an injunction and wants to force the incoming MLAs,

00:42:00.660 or they call it a national assembly, MNAs then, I guess,

00:42:03.880 force them to swear allegiance to the king.

00:42:06.180 do you think this is going to reduce the sovereignist movement in quebec

00:42:11.040 by legally essentially putting a legislative gun to the head of elected officials and forcing them

00:42:16.720 to swear allegiance to somebody who is doddering over on the other side of the pond do you think 0.83

00:42:22.260 that's going to help do you think that's going to make quebecers in general feel more loyal 0.99

00:42:26.740 you pecker heads we'll go ahead go ahead try and force it run it through the courts have the courts 0.99

00:42:33.020 run over the rights of the people that were just elected by quebecers and what would you do would 1.00

00:42:39.800 you kick them out of the legislature if they didn't swear allegiance to the king would you 1.00

00:42:45.260 actually have it where they you know compelled speech saying it do you think that's a genuine 0.99

00:42:49.760 oath of allegiance in that case what are you going to do this is canada and this is how dumb 0.97

00:42:57.060 it has gotten on so many so many levels uh speaking of insanity and politics of course 0.88

00:43:05.180 we're into uh yes day 16 of uh the bc provincial election our alex zolton man he's got so much

00:43:13.600 stuff to cover over there and he's been doing such an incredible job of it be sure to go to

00:43:17.740 the western standard look at the stories as he's covering it day to day and the headline he had for

00:43:22.160 day 16 was eb shifts to running against his own government's record that's pretty much where it's

00:43:27.600 gone this this strangeness of a conservative party and movement that sort of imploded upon itself

00:43:33.120 an ndp government that's run by a completely inept premier that was sinking in the polls

00:43:38.800 called the last minute election to take care of it now it looks like the tides have turned

00:43:42.760 against himself so now he's basically running against his own record you can't can't make this

00:43:50.060 stuff up but what else is he going to do he can't stand up and point to all his victories he's been

00:43:54.640 completely inept so uh yeah keep watching that one guys uh it's it's it's something else it really is

00:44:03.700 uh another one with uh you know we're going to hear about this in the in the last end of this 0.51

00:44:10.480 uh referendum as it gets going and they're really playing the foreign interference the paranoia they 0.68

00:44:16.160 want to scare voters you know the big bad orange man's going to come get them if they vote for 0.86

00:44:19.560 option two just remember option two is just a vote to send a message no matter how much is it 0.81

00:44:24.140 infuriates the federalist when that's said but that's the truth of it and now we've got the

00:44:28.100 story the king's foreign influence commissioner says his office contacted more than 60 organizations

00:44:33.280 and individuals involved in alberta's referendum debate to warn them about registration requirements

00:44:38.160 including the alberta prosperity project you know i heard from a couple other people who have

00:44:41.720 third-party advertising groups saying hey court did you get this email i got that i didn't get

00:44:46.100 one i feel kind of left out so of the 60 i wasn't contacted i mean again i don't have any foreign

00:44:51.700 interference going on so i wouldn't have much to report to them and i wouldn't register they 0.78

00:44:55.120 could kiss my butt on that one anyways but uh these stories they're writing about nothing 0.90

00:45:00.100 to instill fear to keep people voting for the status quo that's what we're at that's legacy 0.98

00:45:07.340 media look at the onslaught of legacy media this last few days as the referendums developed

00:45:11.020 and just how they all move lockstep in the same direction the way they do really says a whole

00:45:15.280 heck of a lot all right well that's the time i've got today guys uh good to see you there in the

00:45:20.440 comments scroll just julie carmella all the bunch of you there i appreciate you tuning in lots

00:45:26.400 happening keep uh watching the western standard we got the news as it breaks it's a fantastic

00:45:30.820 source for all your news needs guys and the pipeline will be on tonight with a few of us

00:45:34.740 are going to break down some more items and issues and details so uh be sure to tune into that and be

00:45:39.960 sure to tune in here next week at this time i'll have a whole fresh set of issues that we can go

00:45:43.860 over at that time. Thanks.

00:46:13.860 You

Western Standard - October 08, 2026

Vive le Québec libre!

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