The News Rundown
- One of the biggest issues that we at Western Context have always had with deficit spending is that doing so tends to leave governments with less money for when they need it. This has been most apparent with the Liberal federal government's astronomical debt it has racked up in the decade they've been in power.
- For some reason, the David Eby BC NDP looked at what Trudeau had left Canada's finances in, and decided to do the exact same thing over the past few years, with endless deficits now becoming a reality for the provincial government.
- This becomes a problem when you're a government that relies on support from unions to just barely get back into power, as Eby's NDP did this past October.
- The province forecast a $9.4-billion deficit for this fiscal year in an update last month, with the B.C. NDP government promising to be "careful" in reducing the record shortfall "over time" by growing the economy rather than cutting services.
- However, the forecasted figure comes as contracts for up to 400,000 unionized workers in the province, including nurses, hospital workers, post-secondary school instructors and support staff, expire this spring and fall. Those unions, many of which supported the B.C. NDP's election, say they hope the government recognizes the value of their labour as contract talks begin.
- B.C. Finance Minister Brenda Bailey, whose government has ordered a government-wide spending review amid the deficit forecast, said the province has great respect for its public sector workers.
- Mark Thompson, professor emeritus of industrial-business relations at the University of B.C., said the government faces a tough negotiating position with a record deficit forecast and potentially devastating U.S. tariffs on the horizon. Thompson said: "The premier has announced that he's heard that government spending is too high. And, you know, a few months later, he's got 400,000 people expecting a raise. How they're going to balance that, you know, nobody really knows at this point."
- The government's priorities for the coming year are pretty cut and dry, and we now have the proof for it. David Eby has finally given his ministers mandate letters, which you can read in full in the supplementals if you wish, and leftist paper The Narwhal notes that the premier is heavily prioritizing the economy while sidelining the environment.
- The NDP government’s focus on boosting economic growth and easing the permitting process is explicit in Environment and Parks Minister Tamara Davidson’s mandate letter, which directs her to have the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office “develop specific measures that will expedite authorizations and permitting for major projects,” with input from other ministries with permitting authority, including the forestry and mining ministries.
- Davidson’s mandate letter also makes it clear Eby is keen to eliminate environmental assessment requirements for certain projects: it directs Davidson to get rid of assessments in cases where the process “is duplicative, delays projects with environmental advantages or offers only limited value while impeding projects that will benefit the province as a whole.”
- This means we'll hopefully see a more streamlined process for building infrastructure and megaprojects in this province, but time will tell, of course. Perhaps the new and strong Conservative opposition is dragging Eby back towards the center where John Horgan once sat?
- We shall see. But in the meantime, the union deals that are up in 2025 could cause some headaches for the broke BC NDP government. Among them is the Hospital Employees' Union, which represents over 60,000 health-care workers and care aides, as well as the B.C. Nurses' Union representing 50,000 nurses that also has its contract expiring on March 31. The biggest one by far is the B.C. General Employees' Union, representing almost 100,000 workers.
- Now we see the importance of keeping government spending manageable, when inflation hits the wages of the working class, and when economic crises happen. It seems the government is now more willing to focus on the economy, but will they manage their spending better than in the past? One thing is for sure, with a far more organized opposition, they will definitely be scrutinized for their actions in 2025, after having spend most of the last 8 years getting away with whatever they wanted.
- Supplementals:
- It’s the middle of ski season in Jasper and recovery from last summer’s wildfire is still ongoing. The crisis has reached a critical point though as people who have been promised houses haven’t seen them delivered.
- One angle of this is that the UCP has revoked their promise entirely.
- This angle got some traction in the Edmonton Journal.
- An estimated 2,000 people are still homeless and displaced 6 months after the fire.
- Earlier this week 200 people marched through the town and the Alberta federal Conservative caucus visited Jasper as well.
- The plan was that the province would spend $112m to set up 250 modular housing units by the end of January but the funding is paused until the town agrees to build permanent detached homes.
- The province also wants more land set aside for single family homes by expanding Jasper’s boundaries into the national park.
- Though with that being said we need to look into the other side of the story and see what the Alberta government has asked for and what they’ve been told.
- Alberta’s Minister of Seniors, Community and Social Services Jason Nixon issued a statement saying shockingly that the province has been asked to build outside the national park and that upwards of $100m worth of housing should be thrown away once the town is rebuilt.
- Premier Danielle Smith sent a letter to the Prime Minister on this matter and has received no response.
- The province feels as though their hands are tied since it’s out of their jurisdiction and don’t want to go the route of adding upwards of 250 new single family homes.
- To recap, there’s pushback on expanding the towns boundaries and as such the housing situation is left to require temporary dwellings and the province is being asked to spend up to $100m on housing outside of the national park that will later be useless. The province doesn’t want to do this.
- Some Jasper residents want the province to do this.
- Meanwhile Jasper has no ministerial lead since Randy Boissonault caught up in scandals around heritage, business, and the other Randy was terminated from his ministerial position.
- Steven Guilbuealt’s office since he is environment minister had no new news on who a new ministerial lead would be.
- Jasper mayor Richard Ireland said that “strong federal leadership is critical to addressing our community’s ongoing challenges, and we look forward to the appointment of a new ministerial lead to continue this vital work.” And he hopes that a new ministerial lead will be appointed soon.
- Mike Day owner of Evil Dave’s Grill said that losing Boissonault was a critical blow and it seems as though with the Prime Minister leaving that people in Ottawa have other things on their mind.
- Steven Guilbeault hasn’t been out to visit recently, Mark Carney made no mention of it, and it’s certainly not the top of mind in the Ottawa sphere.
- Marc de La Bruyere who owns the Tekarra Lodge said that “it’s not just a matter of a couple of things going sideways. I think there are real structural problems, and I don’t see a lot of real will right now to resolve those structural problems. And we have to, or we’re going to lose Jasper.”
- De La Bruyere on the other hand gives the provincial government lots of credit and said he agrees with 95% of what they’re doing but sees the biggest problem as one where Parks Canada takes direction from the federal environment ministry.
- Factoring in the local government and Parks Canada, there are 4 layers of government at work here and de La Bruyere sees Guilbeault as one of the issues, he said, “I don’t think that a hotel owner in Banff or Jasper is at the top of Guilbeault’s friends’ list.”
- He and others have been told that they need to rebuild exactly as it was, exactly as it was built in the 40s, 50s, and 60s. Marc understands the need for maintaining history but also feels there’s critical modernization that could be done.
- He also is very worried because as he said the trees will grow back but the real problem is bringing the people back which culminates in his actual fear: “unless the government gets active … we’re going to lose Jasper Park. The heart of it. Because the people will go.”
- The UCP for their part is one cog in the Jasper machinery ensuring the province provides what they can where they can. Media pieces that solely blame the UCP are doing a disservice by not looking at the federal red tape business owners have been dealing with since the fire.
- Supplementals:
- This next story is an example of the Canadian government making short sighted decisions with Canadian taxpayer dollars, which is clearly still going on in 2025.
- Shortly after President Trump's election in November, Canada promised to strengthen border security with helicopters, infrared sensors, and drones. Soon after, Sources within the RCMP told Radio-Canada that they rushed to buy DJI drones shortly after President-elect Donald Trump's election. DJI is widely known in the drone world as being the market leader and generally has the most reliable drones, but it's also a Chinese company, and the U.S. does not approve of Chinese drones monitoring the border because of fears about espionage.
- The U.S. government recently opened an investigation aimed at banning Chinese-made drones altogether. A bill was also presented to Congress, which states that DJI-brands pose "an unacceptable risk to United States national security".
- An RCMP officer, who is not authorized to speak publicly, confirmed the purchase to Radio-Canada. This officer said: "DJI drones are great, but we can't use them because the real reason is that [the US authorities] don't want to see Chinese drones on the border."
- As a result, the drones are only able to be used for search and rescue, instead of their original intended purpose at the border. The other issue is the other drones currently in use by the RCMP are old, outdated and have limited range and battery life.
- Tensions on the US-Canada border have been tense, especially since Trump's inauguration earlier this week. A shootout near the Canadian border in Vermont left a border patrol agent dead, while other stories of migrants illegally crossing the border in both directions have flared up again.
- Quebec Premier François Legault says his government will be “very, very careful” with the border because it does not want to “end up with a new Roxham” after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to expel migrants.
- Things are tense these days, but the problems on the border have always been there. While the Canadian government was quick to say that things would improve, they have clearly been slow on the uptake, and buying Chinese drones in the name of national security is definitely a classic government blunder.
- Supplementals:
Firing Line
- The ongoing Liberal leadership race to replace Justin Trudeau is moving quickly. The candidate deadline was last week and prospective Liberal supporters have until January 27 to sign up.
- Mark Carney has been quiet in the race so far but what he said should given everyone pause.
- Mark Carney has said that he’s started at the top many times in his career.
- This aspect of Mark Carney’s life is being brought up because very soon there’s a chance he will be Prime Minister without being ever elected to public office or facing voters.
- He’s started at the top at the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the United Nations, and with his various climate change initiatives.
- Why is this an issue? We don’t really know what his policy will look like. There have been no policy announcements.
- We had his campaign announcement in Edmonton and an event in Ottawa earlier this week. This leads to the question, where is Mark Carney?
- Carney has said that he is not in favour of maintaining the current administration’s capital gains tax changes. He’s also said that he will scrap the consumer carbon tax but address climate change “in a way that works for everyone.”
- But even given that, this week he said, “it’s helping us do our bit on climate change. It’s also making sure that Canadians come out ahead right now and in the future.”
- So it begs the question: what is the plan that works for everyone?
- Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner was dispatched to the event to try to ask questions and she spoke to media and said, “this man… could, quite possibly, become prime minister in about six weeks… And yet, a week after launching his campaign… we have heard absolutely nothing, zero, crickets from this man about what he would do as Prime Minister.”
- As of recording there are less than 48 hours for anyone to sign up to the Liberal party if they want to vote. Typically we like to do a leadership showcase with the candidates, bring their policy together, and present an opportunity for you, our listeners, to join the party and vote if the party resonates with you.
- We can’t do that this time. There’s no policy and there’s no time.
- Even Chrystia Freeland has been vague and is this race’s flip flopper as she is flagrantly dropping policies she enabled as Finance Minister.
- With that we’re left to look to Carney’s cabinet endorsements.
- Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly, Minister of Emergency Preparedness Harjit Sajjan, Transport Minister Anita Anand, MP Sean Fraser, Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon, Industry Minister Francois Philippe Champagne, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson and Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault have all endorsed Mark Carney.
- These MPs and ministers are abandoning policy that they voted for in the last session and in some cases abandoning legislation their ministry even brought in.
- With a lack of policy we must assume that endorsements = policy for Carney.
- Unless Mark Carney says otherwise it’s not a far leap to think that those endorsing him are comfortable enough to do so because they’ve either been given assurances in private that certain policy would be brought forward or they’ve been given license to influence policy.
- Why would Steven Guilbeault, the minister who invaded Ralph Klein’s home, scaled the CN tower, pushed for climate justice, and sought to shut down the oil sands support Carney if Carney’s climate and environment aspirations were too far a departure from his own?
- The answer is in Mark Carney’s climate history.
- They say they’ll get rid of the carbon tax and Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives call him Carbon Tax Carney but is there a kernel of truth at play?
- Mark Carney has a history of climate activism.
- In 2021 he published a book called “Values” that devotes chapters to climate change and details a world economy and of course Canada’s now, that needs to be transformed to avert the collapse of civilization due to climate change.
- His wife is also an ardent climate activist.
- Quoting from the book: “A credible, time-consistent and committed government policy framework can pull forward sustainable investment and shut down unsustainable activity that is no longer viable in a net-zero world.”
- Another passage reads: “The core will be to electrify everything and simultaneously develop green electricity. Achieving net zero will require moving away from fossil fuels to renewables, decarbonizing transport and reducing emissions from industrial processes. Meaningful carbon prices are a cornerstone of any effective policy framework. To meet the 1.5 C target, more than 80 per cent of current fossil fuel reserves (including three-quarters of coal, half of gas, one-third of oil) would need to stay in the ground, stranding these assets.”
- We now know why the likes of Steven Guilbeault and Jonathan Wilkinson support Carney.
- Put simply Mark Carney is the elite’s elite that supports climate activism through state sanctioned capitalism.
- He also recently sided with Industry Minister Francois Philippe Champagne saying that Amazon’s decision to pull out of Quebec “is not how we do business in Canada” given Amazon’s decision to leave over unionization.
- We opened this story talking about Carney starting at the top. If he wins the Liberal leadership he becomes Prime Minister and then runs in the election to become an MP.
- But given that he has always started at the top, will he stick around? Will he stick around if he loses the Liberal leadership? Will he stick around to be opposition leader (or otherwise if he does not form government?)
- We don’t know for sure. He says he will commit to run in the next election regardless of the outcome of the race. And he says he will stay on as leader to build the party for the long term.
- The vagueness coming out of the campaign and lack of policy is certainly suspicious.
- It is likely the case that Carney is being quiet because the campaign is the campaign of the present regime with a face change.
- The caucus and cabinet endorsements speak to that. But also that Gerald Butts Trudeau’s former chief advisor is on the campaign team and Trudeau’s chief of staff Katie Telford made calls for Carney.
- It’s more of the same and even though Carney has the opposite resumé of Trudeau it’s a case of the more things change… the more they stay the same.
- Supplementals:
Quote of the Week
“The core will be to electrify everything and simultaneously develop green electricity. Achieving net zero will require moving away from fossil fuels to renewables, decarbonizing transport and reducing emissions from industrial processes. Meaningful carbon prices are a cornerstone of any effective policy framework. To meet the 1.5 C target, more than 80 per cent of current fossil fuel reserves (including three-quarters of coal, half of gas, one-third of oil) would need to stay in the ground, stranding these assets.” - Mark Carney’s book “Values” on carbon pricing.
Word of the Week
Top - highest in position, rank, or degree
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Show Data
- Episode Title: Policy Not Found
- Teaser: BC forecasts a huge deficit while renegotiating union contracts, Jasper’s rebuild runs into federal red tape, and the RCMP buys unusable Chinese drones for the border. Also, Mark Carney’s climate history may show us his future plans.
- Production Code: WC-404-2025-01-25
- Recorded Date: January 25, 2025
- Release Date: January 26, 2025
- Duration: 54:57
- Edit Notes: Mark Carney pause x3
Podcast Summary Notes
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