Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign welcome everyone. Here we have it, the Prime Minister. I'm joined by Mike Wixon. The Prime Minister came out this week with five initiatives, major projects and it looks like he created a major projects office. So I thought that Mike, that was very interesting that he threw on the table five projects which to tell you the truth I actually thought were already happening in some shape or form. But you know, let's watch a few clips I think we have from a couple of the media agencies, Toronto sun and Nick, what's the other one?
[00:00:54] Speaker B: Global News.
[00:00:54] Speaker A: Global News and from global.
[00:00:55] Speaker B: Okay, that's.
[00:00:57] Speaker C: So today, as you know, Canada's new government is announcing the first set of projects that we believe are both in Canada's national interest and are feasible to be built.
The proponents behind the first trash of these projects have already done much of the hard work.
They've undertaken already extensive consultations with indigenous peoples, consultations that meet the standards of existing legislation.
They've worked extensively with provincial and territorial governments and local authorities and already meet many of the necessary regulatory standards. This is the first tranche of projects. We expect the second tranche of projects to be announced by the Grey Cup. First LNG Canada, Phase 2.
[00:01:45] Speaker D: What we have today is Mark Carney after six months has not approved a single national project anywhere in Canada. It's really incredible. He was elected saying that we are in an unprecedented crisis and that we needed to move with unimaginable speed. So what has he done?
He's not permitted a single major mine, pipeline, nuclear plant or anything else. What he's done today is announced that he's going to send an email to an office that isn't even fully staffed up yet, which will one day consider possibly approving five projects.
This is pathetic.
Do you know the federal government is blocking 39 projects that are in the regulatory system?
39.
Scott Moe says there's another hundred projects in Saskatchewan alone that are waiting on federal decisions.
The message to Mark Carney and the Liberals is they need to do one thing.
Get out of the way.
Get out of the way. All these projects need to go ahead is the removal of liberal anti development laws and taxes that make them impossible to build.
We don't need a new bureaucracy in Ottawa or a new dream list.
We need the federal government to get out of the way. And I'm here to help them do it. I'm putting forward the Canadian Sovereignty act which will get the government out of the way, open the country for business, unlock our resources, repeal the industrial carbon tax, the energy cap, the shipping ban, C69, the pipeline ban, repeal all of those liberal laws so that we can become a country that is strong, self reliant and stands on its own two feet. And I would just conclude by looking at the results of Mr. Carney, not his promises, not his latest paper shuffling exercise.
$62 billion of net investment has left Canada since he became Prime Minister. That is the worst five month record of investment in Canadian history.
Mark Carney has lost 86,000 jobs and there is nothing to show for his six months. It's time for him to get out of the way. Let builders build.
[00:04:16] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:04:17] Speaker E: All right.
[00:04:18] Speaker A: So you know, there you have it. You listen to, you know, the Prime.
[00:04:22] Speaker B: Minister and you thought, and I thought Pierre just disappeared into the summer.
[00:04:27] Speaker A: I know. And he's now he's doing the sovereignty bill.
[00:04:29] Speaker B: He's actually thinking about doing something.
[00:04:31] Speaker A: Yeah. So which is a good idea.
[00:04:34] Speaker E: Right.
[00:04:34] Speaker B: I do respect the notion that he points out that there's already a lot of projects that have been given regulatory.
Go ahead. They're already in the system.
[00:04:46] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:04:47] Speaker B: And the Prime Minister is ignoring those.
The first point that I got. Yeah, loud and clear.
[00:04:52] Speaker A: Yeah, I did get that loud clear. You know, and so, you know we went to, and we have it on the screen.
We went to the major projects office site. So this is a new site actually popped up. And we were trying to figure out what it is.
[00:05:08] Speaker E: Right.
[00:05:08] Speaker A: So if Nick, if you scroll down.
So you know, basically, I guess the pillars of this are advancing the advancing nation building projects, partnering with indigenous peoples and supporting proponents.
[00:05:23] Speaker E: Right.
[00:05:24] Speaker A: So and then if you go down, I guess to how it works, they're looking for proponents share details of major projects through a single point of contact, giving us the information we need to get started. Then they have a team, I guess there's someone in. And there's a. I guess there's a new consultants, major project czar who basically reviews it with the federal departments, the indigenous partners and stakeholders and then streamlines the process. I don't really understand how they streamline the process. I guess they probably get permits and things kind of expedited if they can with the provinces and the parties. And then within that said framework, you receive a clear guidance and decisions on how to move forward with confidence, which is always good. And I assume, I assume right.
There's money, there's money somewhere in the mix here, right. I assume, you know, you put it in. We get funding because there's all these new slush funds, you know, which.
[00:06:30] Speaker B: So. Well, that's the first thing that I kind of thought as well, was okay, so he's got a list of these new projects, some of them, which, by the way, I love that you pointed. I thought they were already underway. The best of which is the LNG Canada Phase two. Phase one's already done. So we're already doing this. We get it.
[00:06:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:48] Speaker B: But what I did notice was, okay, this really.
[00:06:52] Speaker A: Phase one, that was what, eight years.
[00:06:54] Speaker B: Too late and five years late and actually getting completed. Yeah, that one.
But what I noticed was this major projects office. Okay.
I think Pierre Poliev's maybe right on this one.
So now we have another office that isn't fully set up that he's announced that he's going to send emails to.
[00:07:12] Speaker E: Right.
[00:07:13] Speaker B: That haven't been appointed anybody that he didn't tell us. Anybody's been appointed to this office that's now going to do these wonderful projects and take on more. It's the major projects office. It doesn't exist.
[00:07:28] Speaker A: Great acronym.
[00:07:28] Speaker B: I do like the pmo. I like that. Yeah, I wish we thought of pmo, but I don't really like it does sound like a great way to line up a bunch of slush funds under one office.
[00:07:41] Speaker A: Yeah. It seems like, you know, we. We put a fund together, a reserve, and then projects come forward and we allocate monies to them. The interesting. So this is where, you know, back up for a minute because I've been on other shows about this. But, you know, the interesting thing to me is let's get a budget landed first.
A budget should allocate monies to projects. So when the budget comes out and we're trying to work our way back from our $62 billion deficit that we saw in 24, we should be working back to minimize that, to go down the other way and then we can make some decisions on which project. It's interesting that we're. We're now out to major projects before we tackle our budget issue.
[00:08:27] Speaker B: And actually that's should come after we've done sort of an assessment of what we spent previously off the budget and how that did.
[00:08:36] Speaker A: Exactly. Carpet for the horse.
[00:08:38] Speaker E: Right.
[00:08:38] Speaker A: So now we're out. Now we're out trying to figure out products. So we're announcing tranche one of projects.
[00:08:44] Speaker E: Right.
[00:08:45] Speaker A: You know, and we're trying to figure those out. So. And you listen, I'm not trying to be hypercritical on this. I'm trying to be fair and I want to look at this objectively. But, you know, from again, a finance perspective, the first thing would be, is to actually look globally at the budget. Figure out how much I have to spend and how much I have for projects. Right? So think about your own life, your own business, your own personal life.
[00:09:13] Speaker E: Right.
[00:09:13] Speaker A: I figure out what I need to live.
[00:09:16] Speaker E: Right.
[00:09:17] Speaker A: Eat, drive, shelter.
Okay. Then I figure out how much money I have left, how many capital projects I can do, how many vacations I can take, other things.
[00:09:27] Speaker E: Right.
[00:09:28] Speaker A: And I budget them.
[00:09:29] Speaker E: Right.
[00:09:29] Speaker A: So I come up with a budget. Let's back up and do that first.
[00:09:33] Speaker B: Well, it's like, you're right. If I'm going to do some projects around the house, I'm going to put a roof on, you know, I'm going to landscape this year. Okay, how does that fit into the budget with everything else we have already got commitments for.
[00:09:44] Speaker A: Exactly. And that's all I'm doing on this.
[00:09:47] Speaker B: It's a fair point, you know, Paul, It's a fair point because this feels like a shopping list. It doesn't really feel like a solutions list. If this was all right, we're going to put more capital into diversifying investment into small business and, you know, following through. But these are all major projects of which Darlington is already a nuclear project.
LNG is already a project.
The forehand copper mine is.
There are. These are. It's like they filled the list with projects that are already underway.
[00:10:24] Speaker A: Well, yeah, and you know, the promise of elbows up big ideas, you know that this didn't cut it, right? No.
[00:10:30] Speaker B: Where are the big ideas here?
[00:10:31] Speaker A: Yeah, the big guys didn't. The big ideas didn't come out. So I wasn't really sure. I'll be truth with you. I'm not sure if it was a little bit of a misstep. So I got to give, you know, a little bit of latitude. Okay. You know, maybe thought it was a good idea. I, you know, a couple things that I'd like to kind of point out, which I.
And this is just my two cents on it. Both. Both leaders of both parties, right.
I would Recommend Stop having 30 people stand behind you that look really puzzled because that looks kind of goofy.
[00:11:03] Speaker B: It's so funny that you say that because I almost laughed as it was up there. People shaking their heads at the wrong moment. Oh, man. Just a real mix of people there.
[00:11:13] Speaker A: That both crews on both sides look really puzzled with. These two leaders, right? Yeah, the ones. It's interesting before we even get to a budget time. The one's talking about a sovereignty bill, the other one's talking about a project, a major projects office. And so I'm like, okay, you guys.
[00:11:31] Speaker B: Are you're not even in the same planet.
[00:11:33] Speaker A: You're not on the same planet. Both of you are talking about two different things, right? So, you know, first things first, right? Housekeeping. Let's do our housekeeping. Get our budget in place. Let's see if both of you can agree. All parties that have standing can agree, quite frankly, on a budget.
[00:11:51] Speaker E: Right.
[00:11:52] Speaker A: Then you can sit down.
[00:11:54] Speaker E: Right.
[00:11:54] Speaker A: And figure out what to do now. Minority government.
[00:11:58] Speaker E: Right.
[00:11:58] Speaker A: Let's all kind of remember, right. Didn't get enough seats. Got close, but didn't get it. Minority government. We still have to do a little work. You know, someone has to come on side. Someone has to say yay or nay. It's not, it's not just, you know, hey, I'm just going to do what I want because you didn't get a majority.
[00:12:16] Speaker E: Right.
[00:12:16] Speaker A: And so. Which, you know, I think it's positive.
[00:12:19] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:12:20] Speaker A: So again, benefit of the doubt right now. The public's, you know, the public polling for the prime minister is good, Right. He's done a really good job at getting the public to stay behind him. He's got all the goodwill in the world right now. So a little bit of a misstep. So that's fine. Let's figure that out. Let's try to go forward. Let's get busy. Let's get a budget done.
Let's, you know, kind of park this one for a minute. It might not been the best idea someone ever had.
[00:12:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:50] Speaker A: And let's get into that. But. Okay, so now I got to get, you know, next week we're going to sit in the House.
I hope, quite frankly, I've said this on previous shows. I hope we're not going to spend a week of both parties just kind of criticizing each other all week long.
Because really, right now we're in a critical time, and one getting up and doing one thing, the other doing another thing is not helpful.
[00:13:17] Speaker B: Not presenting a budget and then presenting a list of here's what's happening in a dictatorial fashion is not going to lead to peace on the first week in Parliament. I'm sorry, it's just not. I mean, am I wrong about this? Can you tell? Can you clear this up for me?
I don't think he can even do this. I don't think Carney can do this. Maybe I'm wrong, but here's what I dug up. New spending commitments. He can't do this without a budget increasing a program from 5 billion to 10 billion in lending authority or promising billions for infrastructure.
It needs Parliament to pass that budget.
The other thing is a binding financial guarantee. Any guarantees that the government gets out there and puts loans behind it needs appropriate approval by legislature. And then finally, permanent structural funding, long term spending must be backed by an appropriation act.
Otherwise it's just an intention, which is everything on this list is just an.
[00:14:16] Speaker A: Intention, which I don't understand really at this point. Why the strategy on that one is really puzzling. Why would we get out and do this? It doesn't really, it doesn't look great. And, and so. Okay, done.
[00:14:31] Speaker E: Right.
[00:14:31] Speaker A: Park it. Let's move forward. So big ideas, right? So now we need to come up with some big ideas because that's where we came in. That's what we got elected on.
[00:14:38] Speaker E: Right.
[00:14:38] Speaker A: I have the background.
[00:14:39] Speaker E: I have.
[00:14:40] Speaker A: I will create the big ideas. Right, you're going to create the big ideas.
[00:14:43] Speaker B: So I've got one. Let's do ev. Let's really focus on ev. Paul.
[00:14:47] Speaker A: Well, you know, okay, so right. Ev, let's take that, let's just pick that one off for a minute.
[00:14:53] Speaker E: Right?
[00:14:53] Speaker A: You want to do ev, Great.
[00:14:55] Speaker E: Right.
[00:14:56] Speaker A: You need to figure out nuclear, you need to figure out reactors, you need to figure out the power grid. The power grid.
If you're going to use AI to do ev, quite frankly, that takes a ton of power. So you need a strategic plan for electricity across all province and coordination of power.
[00:15:15] Speaker B: Don't you also need a market to sell these vehicles into?
[00:15:18] Speaker A: Well, the funny thing is, didn't we last week say that we're going to relax or defer the requirement for 20, 26 number of EVs into market?
[00:15:28] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:15:28] Speaker A: So kind of the end up a.
[00:15:30] Speaker B: Deal to actually have a plant here making EVs that nothing to do with us. It just didn't make sense because there wasn't enough market for it. Let's focus on EV though.
[00:15:39] Speaker A: No, no, I know, but here's the thing. We're already kind of headlong into it. We're committed to $50 billion between Ontario and Quebec.
So we're in it. So I get it. And maybe we don't all love it, but quite frankly. But then if we're going to figure out large country Canadian projects, right, we have to figure out how we do them. And therefore electricity on a countrywide basis has to be dealt with. So I would have rather kind of waited and come up with a full strategy on how to do it.
[00:16:14] Speaker E: Now.
[00:16:16] Speaker A: Coming back to this major projects group and everything else, the real issue is without both parties or without all parties sitting at the table in some Shape or form, is it a good idea? And probably not, to tell you the truth. So my recommendation in doing this would have been, quite frankly creating a. If you're going to create another committee in Ottawa, would have been creating a committee that had representation from all parties so they could sit and talk about the projects before they come forward and talk about some of the challenges, whether they be political, economic, whether they be viable, bylaws, restrictions, environment, whatever. They are indigenous. Talk about all of them.
[00:17:04] Speaker E: Right.
[00:17:04] Speaker A: So figure out what some of the challenges are for each of the parties and then agree on those ones. They can move forward, actually.
[00:17:11] Speaker B: Move.
[00:17:12] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:12] Speaker B: So that would have been, that would have been an elbows up move. Instead, now they're both talking about different projects.
[00:17:19] Speaker A: You have, you have one guy going down doing the sovereignty bill and the other guy doing the pmo.
[00:17:24] Speaker E: Yeah, right.
[00:17:24] Speaker B: Or it would have been better if they spent their summer at camp working out a list. You're right.
[00:17:29] Speaker A: Yeah, it would have been great. But we didn't do that, so. And not doing that. Number one, we didn't talk about pipelines.
So, you know, right away you saw Pierre Poliev, he gets on and he says, you know what, what happened to pipelines?
Well, it's nowhere to be seen in the liberal agenda, so. And the Prime Minister didn't bring it up. You know, right now we see a lot going on in Alberta with respect to give us a mission, caps, tell us what we can do. All that stuff that's not being addressed at all, that's very quiet right now, and we're having a little bit of, you know, dissent.
There's some challenges out there right now. People are not happy.
[00:18:07] Speaker B: I was going to say that that process is being stunted, I think by probably by dissenting voices that are affected by it. Okay, big time.
[00:18:17] Speaker A: Yeah, big time. But, but, you know, again, if those groups got around the table, they'd say, listen, we need pipelines somewhere in the equation.
[00:18:23] Speaker B: Right.
[00:18:23] Speaker A: So for us to go forward and get behind this, so then they have to give and take.
[00:18:27] Speaker E: Right.
[00:18:27] Speaker A: You know, you want to do so much on the EV side, we want to do so much on the pipel.
You know, let's meet in middle ground. We, you know, we're already, you know, quite frankly, I don't think we can get out of EV now because I think we're headlong into ev, especially with, you know, like I said, Ontario and Quebec. So like it or don't like it, we're into it.
[00:18:47] Speaker B: We're stuck with it.
[00:18:48] Speaker A: Yeah, we're stuck with It, I think it's built, quite frankly.
[00:18:51] Speaker B: I understand. Yeah, it's built out massive, massive facilities.
[00:18:54] Speaker A: Yeah. So we're done. So. And then the next thing, quite frankly, you know, we don't address in any of these conversations right now defense.
[00:19:04] Speaker B: That's a good point. I don't see, I see mining, gas, nuclear and the oddest thing ever to me is, is the terminal container project. But I don't see anything here that talks about major infrastructure of our defense or our power grid or our overall transportation system in Canada. Except for one idea.
[00:19:32] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:19:33] Speaker A: The speed train, which has been an idea, quite frankly, that's. I think this is kids. Yeah. This is like the 100th time we've heard about this. There's been press conferences, you know, it's, it's been kicked around so long that no one really even, they throw it on the table as a, you know, throw away.
[00:19:47] Speaker B: And I do like the idea of super train though. If we could get one. I do like it. But I said to you the other day, that's great. Okay, we'll put this in. But why do I just feel like we'll buy this technology from China. They make great speed trains there. I can imagine. We're not building them here in Canada.
[00:20:05] Speaker A: Well, and you know, quite frankly, if any of the leaders have been on a train lately and they're going from Toronto to Ottawa or Toronto to Montreal, they realize they're pretty empty.
[00:20:14] Speaker E: Right.
[00:20:14] Speaker B: Nobody on those trains.
[00:20:16] Speaker A: Not a lot of people.
[00:20:17] Speaker B: By the way, if you're listening to this on that train, I want you to put your hand up right now and say I'm the only.
[00:20:22] Speaker A: Right.
So and the other one I thought was very interesting. So we talked about copper.
[00:20:28] Speaker E: Right.
[00:20:28] Speaker A: But resource wise, you know, the Ring of Fire didn't make the list. So I thought that was really kind of wild because quite frankly it has huge impacts on our auto industry.
So that one did make the list. So the whole again, if I had to actually change this major projects office list, I would have probably started. If I had to prioritize, I probably would have started off with resources.
[00:20:54] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:20:54] Speaker A: You know, that have been my number one tackle and probably that would have been my first tranche and I would have said, okay, let's just, let's take care of resources in the country first because that'll get the economy going because that's the number one thing we have.
So you know, it's like the low lying fruit in any, you know, negotiation or business plan. Go get it first.
[00:21:14] Speaker E: Right.
[00:21:15] Speaker A: Because you want to be Making enough money. So when you go to the next projects that are a little more riskier, you won't fall on your face.
[00:21:21] Speaker E: Right.
[00:21:22] Speaker B: Makes sense.
[00:21:22] Speaker A: So go to resources first, deal with all those. And then I would have moved on to some other things. You know, I would have tackled defense, I would have tackled transportation.
All with the goals or the guidelines of increasing our gdp. So rather than doing projects that aren't going to increase our GDP and increase our productivity as a country, I would have set some benchmarks. So. And had those projects measured against those benchmarks. So again, we want to be more productive. We've talked about it on previous shows. We are sorely underperforming in our productivity and our GDP metrics.
[00:22:02] Speaker B: Well, I mean, it would do capital. It would do wonders, I would assume, for our GDP to just be building our own stuff and using our resources.
[00:22:08] Speaker A: Exactly right. So make sure you do it at home. So really, that's what we're.
[00:22:12] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:22:12] Speaker A: We keep saying.
And then I would have tackled, you know, easy one. I would have put together a reduction of regulatory framework Committee and a real one that would have went across and worked with the provinces to keep producing.
[00:22:29] Speaker B: Red tape or at least standardize something where in one province it's one way and you know, the other side of the country, it's completely different. That makes having national builders or national industry sector industry leaders.
It's preventative from them doing business.
[00:22:45] Speaker A: Yeah, I agree. You know, and all these things, while doing them, you ask yourself, why not?
So why aren't we doing them? So. And I'm sitting there thinking to myself, okay, if I'm in his shoes, because you gotta. You have to sympathize. You know, there's a lot going on. It's a big.
He's tackling a big challenge, the prime minister, which I appreciate. He's got a lot going on, you know, but again, he's got all this public goodwill.
His caucus, quite frankly, what can they say? Without him, they wouldn't have been anywhere. So it's not like they're all speaking.
[00:23:22] Speaker B: They're just as surprised as anybody that they're sitting there with jobs, actually, many of them.
[00:23:26] Speaker A: Exactly. And they should be grateful. And quite frankly, he should be telling them that, that, you know, for now you need to ride my coattails because I got you here, I got you to the party.
So relax, let me dance for a while. And I need to get this back in order. So, yes, they should all kind of sit down. And he shouldn't be having to negotiate. It really feels like we're kind of negotiating our own party internally now for some reason. So this seems like we're not really dealing with the public and we're not dealing with the Conservatives or any other party. We're dealing with our own internal issues right now. So it looks like they're at a cabinet table and someone's saying, you know, I want electric vehicles and I want carbon mandates back. And I, you know, it looks like all this is coming back.
I really don't think he should be, not that he shouldn't be listening, but quite frankly, should he be entertaining them at this point? No, I don't think so. I, I think you have to say, listen, guys, I, I have to get the country back.
[00:24:23] Speaker B: I only have a plan that I have to, Yeah, I have to focus on. I, I do think that it would have been interesting to see, and there's no reason for the, for the PM to do this, but it would have been interesting to see him as a leader of a party and the country and Pierre Poliev actually have an accord for the moment that says, okay, can we create a justified list together that works? You know. Yeah, but the problem is, once they do that, you've got one side screaming for a budget that the other one doesn't have prepared, that is based on spending the, the year before that doesn't, or the term before that still hasn't been delivered.
So there's never, there's no basis, there's no level playing field for us to work on.
[00:25:08] Speaker A: Yeah, there's some catch up.
[00:25:10] Speaker E: Right.
[00:25:10] Speaker A: We have a, we have some big catch up to do, but quite frankly, we should be doing that now before we move forward. And then once we get that out of the way, then we can sit down and figure out the projects, but report on what's happened, sit down, figure it out, forget all these, you know, single new committees, and then move forward and get some consensus on what the project should be.
[00:25:33] Speaker B: Well, I remain confused about what the Canadian Sovereignty act will be, and I remain confused about what the Major Projects Office will do, but it's nice to hear that there's an office involved in that. These will not be bureaucrats working from home. I'm assuming they're going to have to go to the office.
[00:25:54] Speaker A: I hope so. And you know what, Mike, for all of you listening today, I hope you get a chance to watch. I did a few shows on the budgets, the 20, 24 budgets, before they sit next week. I hope you get some time. Please listen to them, you know, and.
[00:26:13] Speaker B: I'll vouch for this. It's a great primer. You'll understand much better how our spending has worked. It may enrage you to know the truth, but at least you'll know going into this new term with a new prime minister and this session where we stand. It's very good. I really loved it.
[00:26:32] Speaker A: Let's figure out the set point of where we're at and then move forward. But please watch and subscribe. And we look forward to catching up next week when we see the new development.
[00:26:42] Speaker B: Gosh, Paul, you're good with the numbers, huh?
[00:26:45] Speaker A: Not bad.
[00:26:46] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:26:47] Speaker A: Thank you.
