Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / Canada reacts to Trump saying 'pay us' over wildfire smoke

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Canada reacts to Trump saying 'pay us' over wildfire smoke · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: President Trump suggesting our neighbor to the north should pay
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: for the smoky skies across the US caused by Canadian wildfires.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: President Trump said he spoke with the Prime Minister of
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Canada about it at the World Cup last night.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Listen, our heir has been poisoned. Have a good relationship
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: with Mark Karney. But you know, we got to shop
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: the fires up there. We can help them. We'll help them,
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: but maybe they should pay us some damages or something,
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: or we should do some tariffs.
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: But it was terrible.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Doug Ford, the Premier of Ontario, responded, just a short
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: time ago, listen to this.
• 0:37
  Speaker 4: World and criticize and threaten Canada your closest friends. Maybe
• 0:42
  Speaker 4: one day you're going to need our help like it
• 0:44
  Speaker 4: did last year and we deployed the people. I got
• 0:47
  Speaker 4: frustrated just listening these a bunch of rubbish.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Premier Doug Ford of Ontario is with us right now. Premiere,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining us. It sounds like
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: you're feeling frustrated with this situation. I should right now,
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: specifically after what the President said.
• 1:05
  Speaker 4: Well, I'm never frustrated with the American people, and I
• 1:07
  Speaker 4: always differentiate between the American people, which I love and
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: the President. You know, this is beyond politics. Our relationship
• 1:17
  Speaker 4: Wolf and I know when neighbors need help, you go,
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: you go and support them, just like we did in
• 1:23
  Speaker 4: Hurricane Alena. We sent over fifty utility linemen down there, trucks,
• 1:31
  Speaker 4: I should say over one hundred utility linemen to support
• 1:35
  Speaker 4: the people in the Carolinas and Georgia. We had our
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: water bombers ready out west to support the California fires.
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: Right right now, I understand that I had a triple
• 1:48
  Speaker 4: check this figure over forty five hundred and sixty fires
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: since January first of this year in the US and
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: burnt three point nine million acres. And I just find
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: it very frustrating that President Trump wouldn't say, here, we
• 2:06
  Speaker 4: have assets, will bring them up there. Because I can
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: reassure the American people when you have any natural disasters,
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: we will be there within seconds of a phone call.
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: And we love our American neighbors. We're going to be
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: there to support them. But it's unfortunate, you know, the
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: president has to politicize it. And maybe what the President
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: should do is get rid of the tariffs on the
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: softwood lumber lumber because thirty three percent of all the
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: lumber the US uses comes from Canada, and when you
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: put tariffs on it, there's a reason why housing construction
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: costs are going through the roof in the US and
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: not making it affordable because of these tariffs. I want
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: to work with our great friends and allies. And I
• 2:52
  Speaker 4: emphasize great because again I love the American people. I
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: know they love Canadians. But not one asset, not one
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: offer from the President has come through to the Prime
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: Minister or myself. We need support, We need help right now.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: So do you think you would reconsider sending help for
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: US wildfires in the future.
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: Not for a second. I will send whatever it takes
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: when we have the resources down to our friends, and
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: they are our friends, our closest friends and allies. We
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: will do anything, no matter if it's hurricanes or wildfires
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: or tornadoes. Anytime you need help, we will send the
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: Ontario Core down, We'll send our firefighters, We'll send our
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: utility linemen down, which we have in the past. But
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: not one single offer has come the other way.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: You held it update just a little while ago. Other
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: wildfires in Canada. What can you tell us about how
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: the fight is going right now?
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: We have one hundred over one hundred active water bombers
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: and helicopter. We have one hundred and fifty five crews
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: over well over seven eight hundred wildland firefighters, which are
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: different than regular firefighters. We're training up our regular city
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: firefighters to be able to go up to the north
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: to support. We're throwing every resource we possibly can at
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: these wildfires. We're getting support from other provinces.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: Badell, I think we just lost in our audio unfortunately,
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: Premier doug Ford of Ontario as usual, thank you very
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: much and we'll continue this conversation down the road. I
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: don't know if you can hear me. Can you hear me, Premiere?
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: Yes, I get hear you.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: The connection isn't the technical connection is not very good.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: To finish your thought, what you wanted to say, well.
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: I just want to say that we would accept any
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: help we were in desperate need of support, and I
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: would do the exact same thing which we have in
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: the past. I will always more support our closest friends
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: and allies. I love the American people, I love the
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: US I will do whatever it takes in the future
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: to support them, which we have in the past.
• 5:10
  Speaker 5: What's your reaction to President Trump suggesting Canada pay damages.
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: You know, Boris, I think a lot a lot of Americans,
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: a lot of Canadians are just tired of these outbursts
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: from the President. They're just detached from reality. Like if
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: the President announced he was building a big, beautiful wall
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: to keep out the smoke, or if Pete haig Seth
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: declared war on the smoke with space lasers from Elon Musk,
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: I think you just sounded in Canada, you'd hear the
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: sound of a million face palm emojis getting clicked at
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: the same time. But it's not a joke. It's super serious.
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: Canada's been under sustained economic attack by this administration since
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: it came in, so we have to take it seriously.
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: But I mean, it's dismaying to hear this kind of
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: comment from the President. We're breathing the same smoke that
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: Americans are breathing. Entire communities have fled for their lives.
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: Moments I have this terrifying wall of fire rushing in,
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: and instead of an offer for for help, we get
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: threats and insults. I mean, we're not blaming the United
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: States for the fact that British Columbia has air quality
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: warnings in effect right now from smoke from fires in
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: Washington State and Oregon. Whenever the US has struggled with
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: big wildfires, Canada's been there to lend a hand. We
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: sent hundreds of firefighters and planes and other assistants to
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: help California that those monster fires last year. Just last week,
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: we lost a Canadian pilot who died fighting one of
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: the huge wildfires on the Colorado Utah border. His name
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: was Nicholas Dale, and his wife and two sons are
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: mourning his loss today. So the President's comments are especially
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: insulting to firefighters, whether the Canadians helping out in the
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: States or or over five thousand firefighters putting their lives
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: on the line to put these fires out right now.
• 6:50
  Speaker 5: And notably, President Trump isn't the only lawmaker who's been
• 6:52
  Speaker 5: critical of the way that fires these fires have been handled.
• 6:56
  Speaker 5: There were members of Michigan's congressional delegation that wrote letter
• 7:00
  Speaker 5: to Prime Minister Carney lamenting what they describe as quote,
• 7:03
  Speaker 5: the third consecutive year we've had to write Canadian officials
• 7:06
  Speaker 5: about a crisis that Canada has the tools to prevent
• 7:09
  Speaker 5: and has chosen not to. Could more have been done
• 7:12
  Speaker 5: to prevent this. What is your message to them?
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: I mean, again, pretty detached from the scientific reality. Only
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: about twenty We're talking about an area of like more
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: than a million square miles for US, and only less
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: than twenty percent of it has ever been under management.
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: This is the far northeast are forest largely untouched, and
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: you can't have better force management and a force that
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: you've never managed. But I think it's important to get
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: back to the basics because apparently we have to remind
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: every one of these facts. Wildfires are getting more and
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: more devastating because they're being turbocharged by global warming. Global
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: warming is being caused primarily by the burning of fossil fuels.
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: If carbon dioxide was visible like smoke, you'd see the
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: biggest single cloud in history that's drifted out of the
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: United States. And that's the responsibility of big oil headquartered
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: in the United States and elsewhere. According to the Carbon
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: Majors database, Exon and Chevron are both in the top
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: five greenhouse gasimeters of all time. Trump doesn't talk about that.
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: After all, the fossil fuel industry contributed almost one hundred
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: million dollars to his re election campaign. Half a billion
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: dollars spent by big oil in the last election cycle alone.
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: If President Trump wants compensation for the harms that these
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: fires are causing, how about an excess profit tax on
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: big oil that made thirty million dollars an hour in
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: excess profits in the first month of the illegal war
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: on Iran. I would like to express my condolences to
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: the American people today. Your president is like an old
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: man shaking his fist and screaming up at smoke from
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: a fire that he is responsible for lighting, or at
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: least pouring gasoline onto.
• 8:53
  Speaker 5: You believe that the president of the United States has
• 8:55
  Speaker 5: some responsibility over the situation that's unfolding now in Canada.
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: There's no question. Uh, it's not just doubling down on
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: oil and gas, which unfortunately we're also doing in Canada
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: under Mark Carney and driving the climate emergency even further.
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: The President has has gone all in, as our Prime
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: Minister has on AI and the and the data center revolution.
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: And I want to make the connection to AI here
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: because Trump has unleashed an AI arms race among the
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: big tech companies, and he did it calling famously calling
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: AI an electricity eating monster, which he meant as a compliment,
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: and the link between AI data centers the need for
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: massive amounts of new oil and gas is very very
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: clear here. I think the president has trouble on his
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: hands because his electoral base hates AI data centers. Their
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: electricity bills are going up. Uh They're they're literally paying
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: money to the companies. Uh They're they're they're watching their
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: electricity bills shoot up as they pay more money to
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: the companies that are destroying their children's job prospects. Uh
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: and and and Americans are turning again data centers, as
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: Canadians are. Of course, the President wants to deflect from that.
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: We are a convenient distraction and someone to blame from
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: a president that I think is panicking about the midterm elections.
• 10:11
  Speaker 5: So just to put a pin on it, your position
• 10:13
  Speaker 5: is that there was nothing that the Canadian government or
• 10:16
  Speaker 5: Canadian firefighting teams could do to prevent, you know, to
• 10:22
  Speaker 5: limit fuel, to create fuel reduction, in other words, to
• 10:25
  Speaker 5: limit the capacity for these fires to spread, and to
• 10:30
  Speaker 5: prevent this from getting as large as it has.
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: Boris, we could talk about forest management techniques. These forests
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: where these fires are are in the far North. The
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: first nation is the indigenous tribal communities that are fleeing
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: in boats ahead of this wall of monster fire coming
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: down in their communities. Entire communities burnt to the ground.
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: These communities are so far north that there aren't roads there.
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: They're accessible by rail, by plane, I boat. All right,
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: These are not forests which are being logged. These are
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: massive fires in the far north which are not largely
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: under management, and that blame is completely misplaced. Look, we've
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: had three of the biggest heat waves in European history,
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: with something like twenty five thousand exs deaths in Europe
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: so far this summer. We're still in midsummer. This is
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: a global phenomenon, it's called global warming, which is turbocharging
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: these devastating fires. And the way to deal with it
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: is to reduce our dependence on oil and gas, which
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: the President does not want to talk about it because
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: he soaked in it.