Latest / Political Capital with Rob Shaw / Political Capital 181 - BC Conservative drama; BC pulls medication from dying girl, BC Ferries fallout continues and natural resources.
Transcript
- 0:02Speaker 1: Check podcasts.
- 0:11Speaker 2: Hey everyone, and welcome to Political Capital, your source for
- 0:15Speaker 2: all the latest and VC politics. I'm your host, Rob Shaw.
- 0:18Speaker 2: The summer continues on and so does BC politics. It
- 0:23Speaker 2: is a very very busy time in the political world.
- 0:26Speaker 2: We have the Conservatives battling internal issues and attacks from
- 0:30Speaker 2: their one BC rivals. We have the NDP government under
- 0:33Speaker 2: fire for allowing BC fairies to contract with the government
- 0:36Speaker 2: of China and cutting off medication to a nine year
- 0:39Speaker 2: old girl with a fatal disease. We will get into
- 0:41Speaker 2: that and we will bring in the panel to walk
- 0:44Speaker 2: us through all of this. Ally Blades, Jillian Oliver and
- 0:48Speaker 2: Jeff Ferryer are here as always each and every week.
- 0:50Speaker 2: Thank you for being here. Let's start with the Conservatives.
- 0:54Speaker 2: Lots of rumors, whispers, grumbles about the leader, John Rustad
- 0:58Speaker 2: and his future heading into big caucus meeting on Wednesday,
- 1:01Speaker 2: he backed away from some blackmail allegations he'd made against
- 1:05Speaker 2: the one BC party and he survived the caucus meeting.
- 1:09Speaker 2: Everyone's standing behind him at the end of that meeting.
- 1:13Speaker 3: Well.
- 1:13Speaker 2: He also undergoes a very long, very long leadership review
- 1:17Speaker 2: process that is going to take several months. Ali, Let's
- 1:21Speaker 2: start with you on this what's going on in the
- 1:25Speaker 2: Conservative Party right now? And how important was this week?
- 1:29Speaker 2: What do we need to know about what happened this week?
- 1:31Speaker 3: Do you think?
- 1:32Speaker 1: I think to understand what happened this week with the
- 1:34Speaker 1: caucus meeting, we have to go back to some things
- 1:37Speaker 1: that have been happening online, and that I believe started
- 1:41Speaker 1: with a jazz Joe Hall tweet kind of explaining a
- 1:45Speaker 1: Ryan Beatty post about how the party is not unified,
- 1:51Speaker 1: that there's potentially some leadership pardon me, some leadership hopefuls
- 1:58Speaker 1: already organizing to take John out. These are the political
- 2:04Speaker 1: gossip and rumors I think that we all kind of
- 2:06Speaker 1: live for, at least like certainly I do. And so
- 2:10Speaker 1: that's kind of what happened. And then we went into
- 2:13Speaker 1: the caucus meeting. And then at the end of the
- 2:16Speaker 1: caucust meeting, John Rustat comes out with all his team
- 2:19Speaker 1: of MLAs behind him saying that everything is okay. But
- 2:24Speaker 1: that's not necessarily the final product of everything is okay.
- 2:30Speaker 1: Let me explain that the Conservatives are in the middle
- 2:33Speaker 1: of a leadership review. Now the MLAs actually don't get
- 2:36Speaker 1: to say that, okay, we're good. This is the guy
- 2:39Speaker 1: who's going to take us into the next election. In fact,
- 2:42Speaker 1: that's the membership. And so what's logistically happening is that
- 2:47Speaker 1: there are regional votes that will come up with a
- 2:50Speaker 1: certain number of writings per regional vote, and that they
- 2:54Speaker 1: will continue on throughout the entire summer. We can debate
- 2:57Speaker 1: whether or not that's a little too long, or whether
- 2:59Speaker 1: or not this should just be a day. In contrast,
- 3:02Speaker 1: for example, the federal Conservatives are kind of in a
- 3:05Speaker 1: similar place right now, where Pierre Paulyeff has to go
- 3:08Speaker 1: through a leadership review that will be done at a
- 3:11Speaker 1: convention in Calgary in January, just one day. And then
- 3:15Speaker 1: when we take a look at like Danielle Smith when
- 3:18Speaker 1: she had her UCP leadership review that was about six
- 3:21Speaker 1: thousand people coming together at one day one convention. It's
- 3:24Speaker 1: actually quite funny because some of the older members from
- 3:29Speaker 1: the Conservative Party provincially called me up and said, well,
- 3:33Speaker 1: when's the AGM I want to go vote. I'm like, sir,
- 3:35Speaker 1: that's actually not what's going to happen this time. You
- 3:38Speaker 1: will get an email, they will come to you with
- 3:40Speaker 1: a ballot box and that's how we're going to vote.
- 3:43Speaker 1: And then in September. In the fall, they will announce
- 3:47Speaker 1: the results of all of these regional meetings. And so
- 3:51Speaker 1: there are a lot of questions even just about that
- 3:53Speaker 1: about the leadership review process. It's all summer long, it's
- 3:57Speaker 1: a tour, it's coming to your backyard. And then what
- 4:03Speaker 1: I dive dove into a little bit this week was
- 4:05Speaker 1: thinking about, Okay, well, I'm going to treat this a
- 4:09Speaker 1: little bit like a campaign. What are the MLAs doing,
- 4:12Speaker 1: what are organizers doing, and what are the potential for
- 4:17Speaker 1: membership drives during this process. You would think then that
- 4:21Speaker 1: the party would enable some more people getting involved in
- 4:26Speaker 1: the process and that we would see the membership count
- 4:28Speaker 1: go up, and so far we're really not seeing that.
- 4:32Speaker 1: If you ask an MLA, well, how are you going
- 4:35Speaker 1: to be involved in this to support that leader that
- 4:37Speaker 1: you stood behind at the caucus meeting, they're not making
- 4:42Speaker 1: phone calls to their membership locally and there's really not
- 4:48Speaker 1: much going around, so you could kind of miss it
- 4:50Speaker 1: if you weren't paying attention to your spam bucks.
- 4:53Speaker 3: That sounds like a mess to me.
- 4:57Speaker 2: Hey, I don't know, like it doesn't sound I don't know.
- 5:00Speaker 2: Jeff in the New Democrat World there's a convention, annual convention,
- 5:04Speaker 2: and they have a vote of the people that are there.
- 5:08Speaker 3: I don't know.
- 5:08Speaker 2: I don't know what to make of this process. But
- 5:10Speaker 2: also the larger pressures.
- 5:12Speaker 3: On John Rasstad that you're seeing the I.
- 5:14Speaker 2: Thought the NDP were quite clever and kind of out
- 5:16Speaker 2: maneuvering him by punting the blackmail issues the RCNP and
- 5:21Speaker 2: kind of putting the onus on Rustad to have to
- 5:23Speaker 2: step up on that issue, which he backpedaled away from
- 5:27Speaker 2: a little bit to what are your thoughts on this?
- 5:30Speaker 4: Yeah, no, it is a mess, and if it's coming
- 5:32Speaker 4: to my backyard, stay out of my yard. Conservatives, get
- 5:35Speaker 4: off my lawn. I don't want to see you there
- 5:38Speaker 4: for months and months and months. Look at here's if
- 5:44Speaker 4: you have to have all your MLA stand behind you
- 5:48Speaker 4: for a photo op, chances are that you don't have
- 5:52Speaker 4: the full support of your party and your members. If
- 5:56Speaker 4: your members are online doing nasty tweets at each other,
- 5:59Speaker 4: chances are your leader who doesn't have the caucus behind him.
- 6:05Speaker 4: Look at I think we're seeing party heavy hitters like
- 6:09Speaker 4: Ryan Beattie, background folks who have a lot of say
- 6:13Speaker 4: over how this party and the center right works coming
- 6:17Speaker 4: out and saying John Russtad, you had an opportunity and
- 6:20Speaker 4: you didn't execute excellently an election campaign. John Rustdad, you
- 6:25Speaker 4: think you're the only leader who is the best there is,
- 6:28Speaker 4: the best there was and the best there there ever
- 6:30Speaker 4: will be. And you're not results say that you haven't.
- 6:33Speaker 4: The Conservatives were at their apex of support in Canada.
- 6:37Speaker 4: You couldn't get the ball across the line. You couldn't
- 6:40Speaker 4: get it done. Your caucus is falling apart. There needs
- 6:44Speaker 4: to be a better, stronger leader and that's what's happening
- 6:47Speaker 4: on the Conservative side, at least with the public sees.
- 6:50Speaker 4: And it's going to be a mess for months and
- 6:52Speaker 4: months and the government couldn't be happier.
- 6:54Speaker 3: Yeah, good references there. I like that one. Don't know
- 6:58Speaker 3: what you're talking about, Jillian.
- 7:01Speaker 2: Parties have all sorts of internal turmoil. It's kind of
- 7:06Speaker 2: how it works, is it. But this seems like, as
- 7:09Speaker 2: I pointed out, kind of a mess.
- 7:12Speaker 3: What's your take on it?
- 7:14Speaker 5: It's really the fuddling why they decided to draw this out,
- 7:18Speaker 5: because what it does is it keeps rest at under
- 7:20Speaker 5: pressure all summer long. It gives the ability for other
- 7:24Speaker 5: you know, hopeful leaders to organize against him, not just
- 7:28Speaker 5: like at one point in time. Normally when you have
- 7:30Speaker 5: a campaign, there's one day to vote, or sometimes, you know,
- 7:32Speaker 5: you might be a leadership election that has like a
- 7:35Speaker 5: short like five day voting period. But this creates so
- 7:38Speaker 5: many opportunities for people who want to think they could
- 7:41Speaker 5: do a better job or want to get some more
- 7:42Speaker 5: power for themselves to maneuver against him, and keeps them
- 7:46Speaker 5: in a constant state of flux and chaos. And that's
- 7:48Speaker 5: what we're really seeing. And then I think, you know,
- 7:50Speaker 5: the other question is it really puts a spotlight on
- 7:54Speaker 5: his leadership. And I think this blackmail letter, you know,
- 7:57Speaker 5: it is just another nail in the coffin and another
- 8:00Speaker 5: test that Rustad has failed to put out a letter.
- 8:05Speaker 5: You know, nobody expects three D chests at this point,
- 8:07Speaker 5: but you need to be able to think at least
- 8:08Speaker 5: one step ahead. And this one was really obvious. And
- 8:11Speaker 5: he really didn't just say blackmail once, he said it
- 8:14Speaker 5: a bunch of times, put it in a letter. There's
- 8:17Speaker 5: clear consequences for those kinds of accusations and him and
- 8:21Speaker 5: his staff should have been aware of that. And now
- 8:22Speaker 5: he's trying to backtrack and it just looks messy. I think,
- 8:26Speaker 5: you know the other side of it is typically it
- 8:29Speaker 5: is very common to see this kind of thing happen
- 8:31Speaker 5: in parties. If you look at you know, the last
- 8:33Speaker 5: time this happened in BC politics with the eb's leadership election,
- 8:36Speaker 5: there was you know, controversy between him and the other contestant,
- 8:40Speaker 5: and the party put a lid on it really quickly
- 8:41Speaker 5: and shut it down. And that creates controversy in the
- 8:44Speaker 5: short term and you know, consternation, but it ends it
- 8:47Speaker 5: quickly so that the leader can then kind of consolidate
- 8:50Speaker 5: power and move on. Instead, they're kind of leaving themselves
- 8:54Speaker 5: in this sort of position of flex for many months
- 8:56Speaker 5: where their opponents can take advantage of it.
- 8:58Speaker 2: Yeah, every single AGM or leadership review in a political
- 9:05Speaker 2: party these days seems to have some undercurrent of controversy
- 9:08Speaker 2: to it, no matter the party. But what seems to
- 9:12Speaker 2: be unique about this one is that one BC has
- 9:14Speaker 2: broken off and spending its entire time just highlighting that
- 9:19Speaker 2: issue to fight back against the Conservatives, whereas Jelian, as
- 9:22Speaker 2: you said, most parties managed to pull it back together
- 9:25Speaker 2: and kind of move on, and that is not what
- 9:27Speaker 2: we were seeing with the Conservatives. I'm sure we'll talk
- 9:30Speaker 2: more about it. I want to move on to another case,
- 9:33Speaker 2: a high profile but heartbreaking case of Charlie Pollock, the
- 9:37Speaker 2: nine year old girl with a rare fatal disease whose
- 9:40Speaker 2: medication to reduce her seizures and prolong her life has
- 9:44Speaker 2: been pulled by the BC government. There were calls for
- 9:47Speaker 2: the Premiere to intervene here on some compassionate grounds. He
- 9:50Speaker 2: said no, said he wants to respect the drug experts
- 9:53Speaker 2: who made this decision and concluded they've concluded that the
- 9:57Speaker 2: drug Brenua, which costs a million dollars year year, won't
- 10:00Speaker 2: make much of a clinical difference to Charlie due to
- 10:03Speaker 2: the progression of her disease. So you have kind of
- 10:05Speaker 2: the family and doctors and one side saying they see
- 10:07Speaker 2: the benefits, the drug experts on the other side. Science, politics, compassion, precedent, rules, principles. Jillian,
- 10:17Speaker 2: let's stay with you on that. This is a very
- 10:19Speaker 2: difficult case. But the discussion about it, what have you
- 10:24Speaker 2: made on that and what do you think about the
- 10:27Speaker 2: pressure that the government is under here to do something.
- 10:30Speaker 5: I think it's a surprising one for me. I think,
- 10:34Speaker 5: you know, I understand you know, especially when it comes
- 10:37Speaker 5: to questions of healthcare, that the government really wants to
- 10:41Speaker 5: lean on its internal experts and the process. But I
- 10:44Speaker 5: think there's a lot of reasons in this case to
- 10:46Speaker 5: make an exception. One obviously at being a child, and
- 10:51Speaker 5: two it being such a rare disease that there really
- 10:53Speaker 5: isn't any precedent for the reporting. Says that she's the
- 10:56Speaker 5: only person known around the world who have been taken
- 11:00Speaker 5: off this drug for against her own doctor's advice. And
- 11:04Speaker 5: there's you know, there's questions around the drug. You know,
- 11:08Speaker 5: some experts, some old data says that it doesn't work
- 11:11Speaker 5: as well as the disease progresses, but other experts and
- 11:15Speaker 5: their data says that it does. So I think that
- 11:18Speaker 5: it's very surprising that the government has decided to double
- 11:20Speaker 5: down on something where it seems like there's some room
- 11:24Speaker 5: for an exception, especially in a time where the Premiere
- 11:26Speaker 5: has been shown that shown that he's willing to make
- 11:29Speaker 5: exceptions to rules when it comes to other issues like
- 11:32Speaker 5: the Bill fifteen and bypassing procedures on resource development projects.
- 11:36Speaker 5: I don't know why they wouldn't make an exception in
- 11:38Speaker 5: this case as well.
- 11:39Speaker 3: Yeah, they're good points.
- 11:41Speaker 2: Jeff, you've worked in the Ministry of health, can you
- 11:44Speaker 2: explain a little bit about maybe what government might be
- 11:46Speaker 2: thinking here. There's principles at play, there's drug review policies,
- 11:51Speaker 2: there's a bunch of things that are going on behind
- 11:53Speaker 2: the scenes.
- 11:54Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 11:54Speaker 4: Sure, this is first of all, to every parent's worst nightmare,
- 11:59Speaker 4: and like full expect for families and patients and doctors
- 12:03Speaker 4: who are caring for them to advocate for them. And
- 12:07Speaker 4: I think it's good that those folks are doing it.
- 12:10Speaker 4: I also think that this is one of those clear
- 12:13Speaker 4: examples of how working in the ministry of Health as
- 12:18Speaker 4: a politician is where you go to have your political
- 12:21Speaker 4: career die. It's this fraud intersection of human desperation and
- 12:27Speaker 4: clinical evidence. Like ministers find themselves in this no man's
- 12:31Speaker 4: land where you have emotional, high profile personal stories meet
- 12:37Speaker 4: the cold logic of therapeutic standards, expert recommendations and limited
- 12:43Speaker 4: public resources. Now, if it were simply about money, the
- 12:46Speaker 4: government would pay the money. This is folks in government
- 12:51Speaker 4: would like nothing more than to have this issue go away.
- 12:56Speaker 4: But there's this issue of precedent and what could happen
- 13:02Speaker 4: to the province's ability to have clear standards for how
- 13:09Speaker 4: drugs are covered financially in the province. Right now, these
- 13:17Speaker 4: coverage is guided by clear standards established through rigorous evidence
- 13:24Speaker 4: based processes, and this insures treatments funded by the public
- 13:28Speaker 4: actually work as determined by independent medical experts, not individual
- 13:34Speaker 4: doctors and advocacy groups who are advocates and play an
- 13:37Speaker 4: important role in these decisions. But they're advocates. And once
- 13:42Speaker 4: politicians start to overrule criterion standards on an ad hoc basis,
- 13:47Speaker 4: on a case by case basis, the door opens to
- 13:50Speaker 4: arbitrary decision making on these issues and to lobbying pressure
- 13:53Speaker 4: from pharmaceutical companies eager to bypass scientific review to sell
- 13:58Speaker 4: their drugs, risk turning the system from you know, one
- 14:03Speaker 4: based on efficacy to one governed by politics. And that's
- 14:07Speaker 4: that's not something that serves the public well. So the
- 14:11Speaker 4: government is not choosing to ignore suffering. It's not heartless,
- 14:14Speaker 4: which has been the claims of everyone around this this issue.
- 14:18Speaker 4: I think it's it's about upholding a principle that public
- 14:21Speaker 4: drug funding should be grounded in science, and that's uh.
- 14:26Speaker 4: And the government is losing on this argument. Folks. Emotions
- 14:30Speaker 4: are running high and they're you know, the point is,
- 14:32Speaker 4: how could government do this to a person and their family?
- 14:36Speaker 4: And it's a fair question, and I think it's just
- 14:38Speaker 4: again that matter of the principle of decisions about public
- 14:42Speaker 4: health dollars where they go being based on science and evidence,
- 14:47Speaker 4: peer reviewed uh.
- 14:50Speaker 3: Information, Yeah, no as a good as a good perspective, Ali,
- 14:54Speaker 3: what do you think.
- 14:56Speaker 1: What both Jeff and Jillian are saying is absolutely right?
- 14:59Speaker 1: And think just to summarize a little bit of what
- 15:01Speaker 1: Jeff is saying, I think what you're trying to say,
- 15:04Speaker 1: Jeff is that there's like this technical side versus the
- 15:07Speaker 1: compassionate side, and that the technical side is really what's
- 15:10Speaker 1: going to ensure that this precedent it doesn't create a monster.
- 15:16Speaker 1: And that's that's a hard place to be and like,
- 15:20Speaker 1: no one can look at this story and not feel something,
- 15:23Speaker 1: and that's that's why we're all talking about it. You know,
- 15:26Speaker 1: certainly opposition is leveraging this in a way so that
- 15:29Speaker 1: they can be seen as the advocate on the on
- 15:33Speaker 1: the other side. Technically unfair though, because really what can
- 15:38Speaker 1: the government do because it's it's exactly this what Jillian
- 15:43Speaker 1: was saying. Once you create that precedent, then who knows
- 15:46Speaker 1: what's going to happen, and that they do this for
- 15:49Speaker 1: a reason. And to to Jeff's point, it's it's a
- 15:53Speaker 1: losing situation for government. There there is how do you
- 15:56Speaker 1: win this? And so you just you just you absolutely can't.
- 15:59Speaker 1: But what it really made me think of is where
- 16:03Speaker 1: is the compassion within government and at what point is
- 16:06Speaker 1: that the tipping point to make these exceptions. And I
- 16:11Speaker 1: don't doubt that government and the people within it don't
- 16:15Speaker 1: feel something while they're making these tough decisions, But there
- 16:18Speaker 1: are rules in place for a reason, and that's the
- 16:20Speaker 1: most heartbreaking part of it.
- 16:23Speaker 3: I think all the perspectives have been accurate on this.
- 16:28Speaker 2: I would say the only thing I as the host
- 16:31Speaker 2: prerogative rant on this, which is not going to be
- 16:33Speaker 2: much of a rant. But I do think that there
- 16:37Speaker 2: is an extraordinary and unique part of this case that
- 16:40Speaker 2: Jillian touched upon a nine year old girl, the only
- 16:42Speaker 2: one in BC with this disease, the first in Canada
- 16:46Speaker 2: perhaps a world, to ever be cut off from this
- 16:49Speaker 2: medication using the criteria. It is such an ultra rare
- 16:52Speaker 2: disease with so few patients, you think that there would
- 16:55Speaker 2: be extra emphasis put on the family doctor who sees
- 16:58Speaker 2: that real world day to day rather than and I've
- 17:02Speaker 2: read the Canada Drug Agency review sometimes incomplete data on
- 17:08Speaker 2: how rare this is, including how to discontinue it.
- 17:12Speaker 3: The disease is fatal.
- 17:14Speaker 2: There's only a few years left without this. Potentially there's
- 17:17Speaker 2: experts saying it will be prolonged and painful. I think
- 17:21Speaker 2: there's enough there without undermining the precedent to say that
- 17:28Speaker 2: there's some sort of unique, rare, special compassionate grounds here
- 17:32Speaker 2: without blowing the system up and all of the good
- 17:36Speaker 2: points that have been made about we don't want politicians
- 17:39Speaker 2: picking and choosing who gets drugs. But at the same time,
- 17:42Speaker 2: we don't want a system run by bureaucrats who can't
- 17:47Speaker 2: move any of their decisions ever because of the technical
- 17:52Speaker 2: wording of the rules.
- 17:53Speaker 3: And that's not how government works either.
- 17:55Speaker 2: Every day government finds ways to reapply rules in more
- 17:59Speaker 2: fare and compassionate ways. That's what MLAs do. That's they
- 18:04Speaker 2: help their constituents navigate this.
- 18:06Speaker 3: So those are my thoughts. I think the governor should
- 18:08Speaker 3: reverse it and.
- 18:08Speaker 2: Give Charlie your drugs, and I don't think they should
- 18:11Speaker 2: have I think the real mark on this is against
- 18:14Speaker 2: the health minister for letting this get this far and
- 18:16Speaker 2: not finding a way to do this quietly behind the
- 18:19Speaker 2: scenes and get it done like happens all the time.
- 18:22Speaker 4: But that's yeah, Can I make one point real quick? Yeah,
- 18:25Speaker 4: one I think, and that's I think a well articulated argument,
- 18:28Speaker 4: and I think everyone has really added to this debate,
- 18:32Speaker 4: which is a complex one. I think if there's one
- 18:36Speaker 4: place where the government's argument and the Canada Drug Agency's
- 18:40Speaker 4: argument is weak and where the side could the other
- 18:43Speaker 4: side could make a technical argument, is that the sample
- 18:46Speaker 4: size of the studies would be really, really small, and
- 18:53Speaker 4: making firm decisions on a small sample size. We see
- 18:56Speaker 4: it in political polling. We say like there's two and
- 18:59Speaker 4: it's this, it's a small sample size. I'm also surprised
- 19:02Speaker 4: that there's been no discussion about the pharma company. If
- 19:08Speaker 4: I were the pharma company and I were convinced that
- 19:11Speaker 4: this drug would provide a better quality of life for
- 19:17Speaker 4: the individual, that it would prolong their life, that would
- 19:20Speaker 4: lead to greater dignity, why wouldn't they, on a compassionate ground,
- 19:25Speaker 4: provide the drug to where as a case study that
- 19:28Speaker 4: proves the efficacy of the therapy, and I know that
- 19:31Speaker 4: I'm not trying to get government off the hook here,
- 19:34Speaker 4: so it's fundamentally a question about what government should do.
- 19:37Speaker 4: But you would think that if the company that actually
- 19:40Speaker 4: manufactures and sells the medication really believed in it, they
- 19:44Speaker 4: would use a high profile situation like this to prove it.
- 19:49Speaker 2: Yeah, we have seen that in the past, right, there's
- 19:51Speaker 2: often big pharma companies that do apply compassionate grounds to
- 19:55Speaker 2: cases and wave their fees. This is not a drug
- 19:58Speaker 2: that even if they go fund did a million dollars
- 20:01Speaker 2: a year. It has to be applied through your brain,
- 20:03Speaker 2: through the skull cap into your brain fluid, so it's
- 20:06Speaker 2: not something you can do at home.
- 20:07Speaker 3: But you're right, that's part of it too.
- 20:09Speaker 2: And I think sometimes behind the scenes, government's able to
- 20:13Speaker 2: leverage drug companies to come to better solutions when they're
- 20:16Speaker 2: doing business with the government. Just to close off on
- 20:19Speaker 2: this A Jillian and Ali, do you think the conservatives
- 20:22Speaker 2: in the opposition? I haven't really seen the Greens talk
- 20:24Speaker 2: about this. Do you think they a should continue to
- 20:29Speaker 2: push this subject the way that they have as a
- 20:31Speaker 2: I think the Conservatives called it heartless and evil at
- 20:36Speaker 2: one point. Is that a good use of the discussion
- 20:40Speaker 2: and is that going to accomplish anything?
- 20:42Speaker 3: Do you think, Just to either of you, I.
- 20:45Speaker 5: Think they need to be careful about over politicizing it.
- 20:48Speaker 5: I think that this is one of those issues where
- 20:50Speaker 5: it's not like one that you want to be like
- 20:53Speaker 5: really trying to score political points on. I think, you know,
- 20:56Speaker 5: supporting healthcare advocates and supporting the family is one. But yeah,
- 21:00Speaker 5: I think it's Jeff and Aally both articulated why it's
- 21:06Speaker 5: so challenging for governments to make these decisions, and as opposition,
- 21:09Speaker 5: you want to be seen as the government in waiting,
- 21:11Speaker 5: and I think they have to be careful about the
- 21:13Speaker 5: way that they're going about it, for sure.
- 21:15Speaker 1: Yeah, Alli, final carefulness comes with an expiration date of
- 21:20Speaker 1: how they're advocating for it in the way that they
- 21:23Speaker 1: are right that those comments are being about being heartless
- 21:28Speaker 1: can only stand for so long unless they come up
- 21:32Speaker 1: with other solutions. Maybe you know, some of those listening
- 21:35Speaker 1: can take Jeff's point of that's another way to advocate
- 21:40Speaker 1: for this family, But to just pin it on the
- 21:43Speaker 1: government as a failure isn't really going to help their case,
- 21:48Speaker 1: and so it only can work up until a certain point.
- 21:52Speaker 3: Yeah, well we will see.
- 21:53Speaker 2: I think there's some deadlines coming up on this case
- 21:55Speaker 2: that will cause the Premier and others to get asked
- 21:59Speaker 2: again about it. Very complex, very difficult topic. Thank you
- 22:03Speaker 2: to the panel for walking us through the many angles
- 22:05Speaker 2: and considerations of that. All right, our next subject, let's
- 22:08Speaker 2: go back to BC Ferries. We have discussed before its
- 22:11Speaker 2: decision to buy four new boats from the Chinese government.
- 22:14Speaker 3: It says no shipyards bid. There are unions that.
- 22:17Speaker 2: Say, well, they can't compete against the country like China,
- 22:21Speaker 2: and the BC and Automa should have used this opportunity
- 22:24Speaker 2: to revitalize our national shipbuilding sector. We also had the
- 22:28Speaker 2: Transportation Minister federally put a haymaker of a letter out
- 22:32Speaker 2: about being disappointed about this, saying no federal money should
- 22:36Speaker 2: go to China. And then it turns out the Feds
- 22:38Speaker 2: are quietly financing this deal through one of their Crown corporations.
- 22:43Speaker 2: So does that let's go around here, does that change
- 22:47Speaker 2: anything about the BC Ferries dynamic? Jillian, Are we in
- 22:53Speaker 2: any different point than we were when it got announced
- 22:56Speaker 2: and the government said it was an independent private company
- 23:00Speaker 2: and we can't do anything about this, or when the
- 23:02Speaker 2: Premier said, I think people mostly just care about not
- 23:06Speaker 2: being in a line at a ferry terminal, only want
- 23:08Speaker 2: these ships done as quickly as possible. Are we still
- 23:10Speaker 2: in the same spot or does this federal component add
- 23:14Speaker 2: any wrinkles in do you think?
- 23:16Speaker 5: I think what changed is that it lessens the ability
- 23:20Speaker 5: for the federal government to throw the provincial government completely
- 23:24Speaker 5: under the bus for this. And I hope elucidates that
- 23:29Speaker 5: this is more of a complex issue than the federal
- 23:32Speaker 5: government and other opponents of it are trying to make
- 23:36Speaker 5: it into it. You know, the federal government is transitioning
- 23:39Speaker 5: from election mode into governing, and you know, we're kind
- 23:42Speaker 5: of I think we're seeing the sort of gap between
- 23:45Speaker 5: rhetoric and high minded ideals of like, you know, build
- 23:49Speaker 5: everything here, We're going to like totally have this like
- 23:51Speaker 5: totally different approach to manufacturing and trade to the realities
- 23:57Speaker 5: of like why BC Ferries was in this position to
- 24:01Speaker 5: almost have to go with the Chinese shipbuilders because the
- 24:05Speaker 5: reality is trying to build seventy percent of the world ships.
- 24:07Speaker 5: I learned that through this issue, that is an issue
- 24:10Speaker 5: that is like many many decades in the making, and
- 24:13Speaker 5: I think obviously not just the responsibility of the BC
- 24:16Speaker 5: provincial government that China has been able to corner the
- 24:19Speaker 5: global shipbuilding market, and I think, you know, we're sort
- 24:22Speaker 5: of just starting to have this conversation about the implications
- 24:25Speaker 5: of the globalization of trade. We've been benefiting from lower
- 24:29Speaker 5: prices because we've been you know, important things from places
- 24:32Speaker 5: with lower labor standards. Now we're starting to have we're
- 24:35Speaker 5: at the beginning of a conversation about the implications of
- 24:38Speaker 5: that that I think is just getting fleshed out. So
- 24:40Speaker 5: I think it brings a little bit of reality to
- 24:43Speaker 5: the conversation and helps the provincial government a little bit
- 24:47Speaker 5: by showing that they were not the only ones to
- 24:49Speaker 5: sign off on this. I don't think the arguments that
- 24:53Speaker 5: the provincial government has been making that BC Ferries is independent,
- 24:55Speaker 5: like obviously, both levels of government have been briefed on
- 24:58Speaker 5: this and you know, didn't raise the red flags until
- 25:00Speaker 5: there was the public blowback. So I don't think it
- 25:03Speaker 5: changes that, but I think it, you know, I hope
- 25:05Speaker 5: that it brings the conversation back down to earth. It
- 25:07Speaker 5: doesn't mean, you know, we can't have a conversation about
- 25:09Speaker 5: what we need to do better in the future so
- 25:11Speaker 5: that we're not forced into a corner with problematic trading partners.
- 25:15Speaker 5: But you know, hopefully it yeah brings the conversation back
- 25:20Speaker 5: to reality a little bit instead.
- 25:21Speaker 3: Of just yeah.
- 25:23Speaker 2: It does make the federal transportationist or Christoph Freed and
- 25:25Speaker 2: look a little bit weird coming out and hammering EB
- 25:28Speaker 2: so hard in a letter and not and saying no
- 25:33Speaker 2: federal funding should come from this agency in her letter
- 25:36Speaker 2: and it turns out as actually financing the whole thing.
- 25:39Speaker 2: That kind of undercuts her a bit. But it also
- 25:41Speaker 2: puts the government, I think, in a tough position if
- 25:43Speaker 2: it continues to come up in the House of Commons alley,
- 25:46Speaker 2: because Canada has one hundred percent teriff on Chinese electric vehicles,
- 25:50Speaker 2: like we have a precedent in our in our country
- 25:53Speaker 2: of it's not good enough to be cheap and fast
- 25:57Speaker 2: and come from China. If it disrupts into stroys and
- 26:00Speaker 2: prevents us from having our own domestic industry and auto manufacturing,
- 26:05Speaker 2: it almost feels like those two things kind of can
- 26:07Speaker 2: be argued together.
- 26:08Speaker 3: But does it matter at this point?
- 26:11Speaker 2: Do you think it changes the political calculus in any
- 26:13Speaker 2: way on the BC Ferri's decision.
- 26:16Speaker 1: The opportunity that politicians have had on this issue was
- 26:22Speaker 1: truly missed with Christoph Feland in that I think the
- 26:26Speaker 1: letter was created to create that distance between the provincial
- 26:32Speaker 1: BC government and the federal government to make sure that
- 26:37Speaker 1: it seemed like they take no responsibility. What it could
- 26:41Speaker 1: have also included was mention of you to a lot
- 26:45Speaker 1: of what Jillian is saying, that we were kind of
- 26:48Speaker 1: stuck in this position, there's nothing we can really do
- 26:50Speaker 1: about it. David eb when he's taught, when he responds
- 26:52Speaker 1: to this, his argument being that there are a number
- 26:56Speaker 1: of things that this was the most cost effective, and
- 27:00Speaker 1: that there were no Canadian bids on it, and so
- 27:04Speaker 1: all of this is an exercise in saying that we
- 27:08Speaker 1: don't have it right right now, but these are opportunities
- 27:12Speaker 1: to fix it for generations to come. A lot of
- 27:14Speaker 1: what Jillian so eloquently said so missed opportunity for those governments,
- 27:20Speaker 1: but also like this is a moment for opposition to
- 27:23Speaker 1: shine and shine they have because I've been so impressed
- 27:26Speaker 1: by Harman Bangu on his response to this on the
- 27:29Speaker 1: provincial side, where you know, he's saying that the government
- 27:33Speaker 1: should immediately reconsider terms of the loan to protect Canadian
- 27:37Speaker 1: jobs and businesses and security interests. And then my favorite
- 27:41Speaker 1: one is Dan Alvis in the House of Commons said
- 27:44Speaker 1: that the minister needs to grow a spine of Canadian
- 27:46Speaker 1: made steel. I died so and he's just been on
- 27:51Speaker 1: a great media tour on this and on touching on
- 27:56Speaker 1: those exact points of we should be focused on Canadian jobs,
- 28:00Speaker 1: we should be focused on Canadian economic opportunities, but perhaps
- 28:06Speaker 1: we won't be able to fix it right now. There
- 28:09Speaker 1: are some things though, that I'm not convinced that we
- 28:11Speaker 1: can't fix right now, in that if we're so focused
- 28:14Speaker 1: on Canadian jobs, but we don't have the ability to
- 28:17Speaker 1: do that domestically geographically here, what's to say that we
- 28:20Speaker 1: couldn't send apprentices elsewhere beyond our domestic jurisdiction to make
- 28:26Speaker 1: sure that they're bringing back those skills to Canada for
- 28:30Speaker 1: later generations too. So I think there are some small
- 28:34Speaker 1: victories that could come of this for Canadian jobs, but
- 28:37Speaker 1: we are in a situation where it kind of seems
- 28:40Speaker 1: impossible to get them done here in Canada.
- 28:44Speaker 3: Yeah, Jeff, what do you think?
- 28:46Speaker 4: I am confused by the BC government's response to the
- 28:50Speaker 4: fairies issue from day one. It's like they chose to
- 28:57Speaker 4: take it all on themselves and put it all on
- 29:00Speaker 4: cells and defend the issue as though it were their decision,
- 29:07Speaker 4: as though when in fact there are all sorts of people,
- 29:13Speaker 4: including the BC government, to have should be facing some
- 29:18Speaker 4: accountability here BC government for the governance model that's put
- 29:24Speaker 4: in place at BC Ferries which removes all control that
- 29:27Speaker 4: government has over things like procurement, even though they get
- 29:32Speaker 4: hammered for any decision BC Ferries makes the Government of Canada.
- 29:37Speaker 4: The reason Christia Freeland came out with an angry letter
- 29:40Speaker 4: pointing fingers at the BC government and trying to take
- 29:44Speaker 4: a moral high ground because Canada has a Canadian shipbuilding
- 29:47Speaker 4: strategy that was started in twenty ten that was supposed
- 29:50Speaker 4: to have the outcome of making sure that every marine
- 29:54Speaker 4: vessel that Canada needed was built in Canada. Clearly that
- 29:57Speaker 4: didn't happen here. And I think there's also some accountability
- 30:00Speaker 4: that needs to be accepted by the private shipbuilders in
- 30:05Speaker 4: this country, Davy in the East and c Spend here
- 30:08Speaker 4: out west. If you're a business development person working for
- 30:11Speaker 4: either of those companies, you see the business opportunity of
- 30:16Speaker 4: replacing super old BC Ferries coming down like coming down
- 30:21Speaker 4: the pipe years ago. And you have an opportunity to
- 30:24Speaker 4: scale up your operations so that you can make a
- 30:27Speaker 4: bid on it, so that you can be considered and
- 30:31Speaker 4: with a likely outcome of governments wanting to choose Canadian first.
- 30:35Speaker 4: And then you don't do that. You don't do anything,
- 30:38Speaker 4: just keep things the way they've been always. And then
- 30:41Speaker 4: when the RFP comes out for building the new fairies,
- 30:46Speaker 4: you don't even bid. And then kind of behind the scenes,
- 30:48Speaker 4: you're saying, ah, look at the government, they screwed.
- 30:50Speaker 3: This all up.
- 30:51Speaker 4: And federal government's saying, I'll look at the BC government,
- 30:53Speaker 4: they screwed this all up. There's a lot of screw
- 30:56Speaker 4: ups all around on this one. It'd be good if
- 30:59Speaker 4: it would have been smarter if the BC government hadn't
- 31:01Speaker 4: owned it all by itself and had taken responsibility for
- 31:05Speaker 4: its part and while clarifying to the public the complex
- 31:13Speaker 4: nature of this and everyone else who should be held
- 31:15Speaker 4: accountable for.
- 31:17Speaker 2: This, Yeah, let's just get rid of the stupid structure
- 31:23Speaker 2: of BC ferries.
- 31:24Speaker 3: As my takeaway, we.
- 31:25Speaker 2: Should have done it in twenty seventeen when the NDP
- 31:27Speaker 2: took power. They didn't want to do it because of
- 31:30Speaker 2: the financial implications that the minute you take.
- 31:32Speaker 3: It over, the debt goes back on the provincial books.
- 31:35Speaker 2: But good grief, Like the way all the politicians are
- 31:38Speaker 2: contorting themselves into pretzel shapes here to get around decisions
- 31:42Speaker 2: that they knew about and could have stopped if they
- 31:47Speaker 2: wanted is ridiculous because it's not a private company making
- 31:53Speaker 2: private decisions. It's public money from a federal and a
- 31:57Speaker 2: provincial level, with politicians accountable to the federal you know,
- 32:01Speaker 2: loan agency and the provincial ferry Corporation pretending that they
- 32:05Speaker 2: don't have anything to do with anything that's happening. Will
- 32:07Speaker 2: they appoint their boards and sign off on their decisions
- 32:10Speaker 2: and defend them publicly.
- 32:11Speaker 3: It's just it's crazy to me. I don't.
- 32:13Speaker 2: I think the model of BC Fairies is outlived. It's
- 32:16Speaker 2: its usefulness, which was a response to.
- 32:19Speaker 3: The fast ferry fiasco.
- 32:21Speaker 2: Fair enough, but like people want some accountability on fairies now,
- 32:26Speaker 2: and like just bring it back into government, get it,
- 32:30Speaker 2: get it over with it.
- 32:31Speaker 4: That's a good point, Rob, make a good point. Rob.
- 32:33Speaker 4: It's usually your line, but I'm taken it over. I
- 32:36Speaker 4: agree with the the governance piece. I think you're absolutely
- 32:41Speaker 4: right because it was one line in RFP they just
- 32:44Speaker 4: needed to add one line to the RFP state owned
- 32:47Speaker 4: enterprises are ineligible to bid on this RFP one sentence,
- 32:52Speaker 4: and that that the crew over there couldn't do that
- 32:56Speaker 4: or chose not to do that one sentence in RFP.
- 33:00Speaker 4: I think there needs to be direct oversight of of
- 33:05Speaker 4: that operations by the members of the Legislative Assembly of
- 33:10Speaker 4: British Columbia.
- 33:12Speaker 2: Yeah, some others like some maybe we make it a crown,
- 33:14Speaker 2: or maybe we make it a If you made it
- 33:17Speaker 2: a crown, you could put part of the money off
- 33:19Speaker 2: into the kind of different counting pot of the budget.
- 33:22Speaker 2: And anyways, it's got to be something to do, Like
- 33:24Speaker 2: we can't just limp on through this ridiculous debate about
- 33:29Speaker 2: fairies again and again. But you're on fire, all right,
- 33:36Speaker 2: Let's put ferries aside. Our last topic here. I just
- 33:38Speaker 2: want to talk about natural resource projects. There's a couple
- 33:40Speaker 2: big ones that have kind of crossed the finish line
- 33:43Speaker 2: here at the government, obviously the backdrop being it's embrace
- 33:47Speaker 2: of the natural resource sector. We have the environmental certificate
- 33:52Speaker 2: being issued for tech Resources Highland Valley Copper Mine extension
- 33:56Speaker 2: near Logan Lake, and then I think like a week
- 33:59Speaker 2: later all the permits from the province issued as well
- 34:03Speaker 2: as part of this new kind of one permitting sort
- 34:06Speaker 2: of thing. The Premier talked about making that a priority.
- 34:10Speaker 2: And then that is the largest open pit copper mining Canada,
- 34:14Speaker 2: and this is a billion and a half dollars a
- 34:15Speaker 2: bunch of economic benefit there.
- 34:17Speaker 3: And then also we have the very.
- 34:18Speaker 2: First ellen G produced at ellen G Canada. A thirteen
- 34:24Speaker 2: year journey from when Premier Christy Clark first talked about
- 34:28Speaker 2: llen G way back when, through John Horgan getting it
- 34:31Speaker 2: over the finish line with a deal with the tax breaks,
- 34:35Speaker 2: and then on to David Ebe saying almost nothing I
- 34:40Speaker 2: bought it actually coming into operation, and very little about
- 34:45Speaker 2: Highland Pacific too.
- 34:47Speaker 3: Highland Valley, Highland Valley, having valley is Highland Pacific is
- 34:50Speaker 3: a golf course Highland Valley.
- 34:54Speaker 2: As well, which I this is the question I have
- 34:56Speaker 2: about the government's embrace of these big projects that they're
- 35:02Speaker 2: wanting as well. But Ali, do you see any good
- 35:06Speaker 2: bad disconnect here?
- 35:08Speaker 3: I mean, it's good for the economy, but what do
- 35:11Speaker 3: you make for me?
- 35:13Speaker 1: This is a think on how the political spectrum has
- 35:18Speaker 1: changed in BC. When we talk about the historical umbrella
- 35:25Speaker 1: in which some of these things have achieved certain milestones.
- 35:28Speaker 1: You talk about Christy Clark when she was the Premier
- 35:32Speaker 1: and the leader of the BC Liberals and now this
- 35:35Speaker 1: going through the NDP. Essentially, what I'm starting to think
- 35:40Speaker 1: is that the political spectrum for the NDP has significantly changed.
- 35:47Speaker 1: We've talked about this on the show quite a bit,
- 35:48Speaker 1: where they're moving to the center. They're kind of seen
- 35:51Speaker 1: as a economic party now, which used to totally be
- 35:57Speaker 1: like the center right. I've Joe that even on a
- 36:01Speaker 1: federal level, that Mark Cartney delivered a great conservative throne
- 36:07Speaker 1: speech even and how even just like the Greens are
- 36:11Speaker 1: no longer just on environmental policy, that there are so
- 36:14Speaker 1: much more than that. And so what I think is
- 36:18Speaker 1: very interesting about this topic and where the NDP government
- 36:22Speaker 1: talks about it, it's that they are now bringing in
- 36:27Speaker 1: more people that focus on the economy, the business community,
- 36:30Speaker 1: talking about investment in BC into their party, and that
- 36:35Speaker 1: they have that people generally now have a little bit
- 36:38Speaker 1: more confidence in the NDP government as the economic party.
- 36:42Speaker 1: And where does this leave the Conservatives and the million
- 36:45Speaker 1: other political parties that we have on the center right,
- 36:47Speaker 1: Because they can't monopolize the economic message anymore. So those
- 36:52Speaker 1: are the things that I think about when we talk
- 36:54Speaker 1: about these historic milestones for these projects. And I'm sure
- 36:59Speaker 1: others will talk about how this is great for community
- 37:03Speaker 1: and economy, but we have to also think about, at
- 37:06Speaker 1: least in my mind, that essentially the ndper eating the
- 37:12Speaker 1: center right lunch on.
- 37:13Speaker 2: This, yeah, and where they would where they used to
- 37:17Speaker 2: have been on opposing some of these projects. Although I
- 37:21Speaker 2: don't know if John Horgan, you know, I think he
- 37:24Speaker 2: actually was much more favorable than natural resource sector in general,
- 37:28Speaker 2: even though at his time it was different. But Jillian,
- 37:31Speaker 2: the Greens are the only ones left to raise concerns
- 37:34Speaker 2: about these things. You know that there are two MLAs
- 37:38Speaker 2: in the legislature. Are now the only ones to say.
- 37:41Speaker 3: Way sec.
- 37:42Speaker 2: You know, it's like fifteen hundred hectares of new land
- 37:45Speaker 2: is being disturbed by this new mine extension.
- 37:48Speaker 3: Are we sure about that? Is L and G.
- 37:50Speaker 2: You know, actually it's going to contribute to our fossil
- 37:53Speaker 2: fuels production and we're not going to hit our climates.
- 37:56Speaker 2: It's like the political landscape realigned sod radically. They're they're
- 38:02Speaker 2: all that's left sometimes to criticize some of these projects.
- 38:06Speaker 5: Yeah, well, I think there's a couple of points. I
- 38:07Speaker 5: think one you mentioned Horgan. I think like what Ali
- 38:12Speaker 5: said is super poignant, and I think that this is
- 38:15Speaker 5: really his legacy, Like he really changed what like the
- 38:20Speaker 5: NDP was from when what they were in opposition, and
- 38:24Speaker 5: I think you know, when you're in opposition, they were
- 38:26Speaker 5: in opposition for so long, you kind of just get
- 38:28Speaker 5: into a pattern where you're just criticizing everything government does.
- 38:31Speaker 5: And I think that's kind of where they were at
- 38:33Speaker 5: with a lot of those issues, because we had seen
- 38:34Speaker 5: in previous iterations where they opposed the carbon tax and
- 38:38Speaker 5: that kind of a thing, where dix And and Horgan
- 38:41Speaker 5: had supported the pipelines and things like that before. I
- 38:46Speaker 5: think that a lot of their environmental advocacy was really
- 38:50Speaker 5: sort of like about trying to figure out what was
- 38:53Speaker 5: the winning coalition going to be for them, and in
- 38:55Speaker 5: the end it wasn't because they weren't. They haven't been
- 38:59Speaker 5: able to get rid of the Greens. The Greens have
- 39:01Speaker 5: been able to hold onto their seats for a couple
- 39:03Speaker 5: of cycles, but that also still hasn't threatened the ndypea's
- 39:06Speaker 5: ability to form government. So I think that they're sort
- 39:09Speaker 5: of able to embrace these projects with a little bit
- 39:11Speaker 5: more of political confidence. Right now. We'll see down the road,
- 39:19Speaker 5: you know, if some of these projects, if we have
- 39:20Speaker 5: another Mount Pauli, if we have you know, people's drinking
- 39:23Speaker 5: water threatened, if you know L and G. There's more
- 39:27Speaker 5: studies that come out that show that it's it's worse
- 39:30Speaker 5: than some of its proponents claim. For the for climate,
- 39:36Speaker 5: if that starts to sort of be loom larger in
- 39:39Speaker 5: the public consciousness. But right now, I feel like Allie's right,
- 39:42Speaker 5: it's kind of working for them, and.
- 39:45Speaker 3: Are they embracing it?
- 39:46Speaker 2: Jillian, Like, like I kind of wonder, Like you know,
- 39:49Speaker 2: the Highland Valley thing happens. Government times it so that
- 39:53Speaker 2: it that the premiere is up before it's announced, so
- 39:57Speaker 2: he never even gets to speak to celebrating the environmental
- 40:01Speaker 2: certificate being put out, which I thought was interesting. There's
- 40:06Speaker 2: no events, there's no ribbon cuttings, there's no handshakes, there's
- 40:10Speaker 2: no ground turnings. I have attended press conferences where government
- 40:15Speaker 2: ministers gather everyone together to just like unveil a new
- 40:19Speaker 2: slide on a playground.
- 40:21Speaker 3: For God's sake.
- 40:21Speaker 2: The costs like you know, a few hundred dollars. Here's
- 40:24Speaker 2: a grant for a cheese festival in Comas. Like here
- 40:27Speaker 2: we are at one point five billion dollar mining a
- 40:30Speaker 2: you know, expansion, and a forty billion dollar LNG facility
- 40:34Speaker 2: with the largest private project in the country's history, and
- 40:39Speaker 2: the government there's where is it? Where is the leading
- 40:42Speaker 2: into it? I guess is my question about it. I
- 40:44Speaker 2: don't know if you see any Jillian display.
- 40:46Speaker 5: Well, I thought that Premier's comments seemed the most excited
- 40:50Speaker 5: about LNG that he ever has this week.
- 40:54Speaker 1: So we'll see.
- 40:54Speaker 6: And I wonder if the the the attempts from Alberta
- 41:01Speaker 6: Premier Smith to put the lack of another oil pipeline
- 41:06Speaker 6: on eb might.
- 41:07Speaker 5: Give him more impetus to more openly and publicly embrace
- 41:11Speaker 5: some of these projects that aren't an oil pipeline. I
- 41:14Speaker 5: think that might help kind of like muddy the narrative
- 41:17Speaker 5: a little bit and get him out of the corner
- 41:19Speaker 5: that she's trying to pain him in.
- 41:21Speaker 6: So we'll see.
- 41:22Speaker 5: But yeah, he's I think Dix is going up there,
- 41:24Speaker 5: but the Premiere is not, although he does kind of
- 41:26Speaker 5: look like he needs a break, like we were talking
- 41:27Speaker 5: about before, Jeff.
- 41:30Speaker 4: What do you think, well, before I talked about these issues.
- 41:33Speaker 4: I just checking out a news feed here because I
- 41:35Speaker 4: thought Premier eb was at the launch of L and
- 41:40Speaker 4: G Canada the first shipment or first production and interior
- 41:44Speaker 4: Health CEO steps down after closure of the Colonna Pediatric Unit, so.
- 41:50Speaker 2: Found early as was being called for because he was
- 41:54Speaker 2: about to retire.
- 41:55Speaker 3: Anyways, Yeah, it's interesting.
- 41:56Speaker 4: Yeah, we talked about healthcare early in the show and
- 41:58Speaker 4: government struggle on that front, and here's another sign that
- 42:02Speaker 4: it continues to struggle on the issue of the economic
- 42:08Speaker 4: development projects moving forward. Look, Canada is facing hard times.
- 42:13Speaker 4: Hard times is when the economy shrinks, and there's the
- 42:18Speaker 4: latest figures out of the Government of Canada today is
- 42:22Speaker 4: that the economy is shrinking. And here you have the
- 42:27Speaker 4: and that's healthcare and education. When economy is shrink that's jobs,
- 42:32Speaker 4: that's all the things, that's housing, that's all the things
- 42:36Speaker 4: that we say is important. And so I hear you
- 42:38Speaker 4: have a government in British Columbia that's saying we're going
- 42:42Speaker 4: to lean into economic development and LNG. That's l G
- 42:47Speaker 4: Canada's point four point increase to Canada's GDP, which doesn't
- 42:51Speaker 4: sound like much, but it's immense CEE listens is coming in.
- 42:55Speaker 4: We wood fiber is coming in. Those will add to
- 42:59Speaker 4: be economic strength and HVC Highland Valley Copper full disclosure
- 43:04Speaker 4: to the listeners. I do some consulting work with Tech Resources,
- 43:08Speaker 4: who are the proponent of the MIND but that was many,
- 43:12Speaker 4: many years of consultation, going through a full environmental assessment process,
- 43:16Speaker 4: first nations largely on site or at least not opposed.
- 43:21Speaker 4: And Robbie raised the question of Island Valley Copper and
- 43:24Speaker 4: why wouldn't the Premier get out and celebrate it. It's
- 43:27Speaker 4: because the company, now that it has permits and authorizations
- 43:31Speaker 4: and is through the EA approval, needs to go to
- 43:33Speaker 4: its board and make a final investment decision where they
- 43:36Speaker 4: agree on whether to go forward or not. And I
- 43:39Speaker 4: would expect that if they make that decision, that you
- 43:43Speaker 4: will see the Premier out in front and celebrating with
- 43:47Speaker 4: the company because critical minerals is going to be a
- 43:49Speaker 4: big part of BC's economy for a long time to come.
- 43:54Speaker 4: And so you know this is at the end of
- 43:57Speaker 4: the day politically, this is the Premier being able to
- 43:59Speaker 4: go out and say the talk of expediting economic development
- 44:06Speaker 4: projects or getting behind them, we're making progress and it's
- 44:11Speaker 4: not just talk. We're starting to build, build, build, as
- 44:14Speaker 4: our Prime Minister likes to say.
- 44:17Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll be interesting to see what's next. And many
- 44:21Speaker 2: other projects on that list that the Premier put out
- 44:24Speaker 2: in February. I think this was pretty far down the track,
- 44:29Speaker 2: as you mentioned, but some of the other ones we'll
- 44:33Speaker 2: see if they get fast tracked, and we'll see Bill
- 44:35Speaker 2: fifteen comes into play at any point and moving projects along.
- 44:38Speaker 2: There's a lot of different ways the government could lean
- 44:41Speaker 2: into this.
- 44:41Speaker 3: If they wanted.
- 44:42Speaker 2: All right, thank you Panel for walking us through so
- 44:45Speaker 2: many interesting topics this week, and thank you for listening.
- 44:48Speaker 3: Make sure you.
- 44:49Speaker 2: Subscribe to the podcast and to our show on YouTube
- 44:53Speaker 2: and various other ways you can get the show, and
- 44:56Speaker 2: we'll be back next week with all the latest NBC politics.
- 44:59Speaker 3: Here uh Political Capital