I welcome the opportunity to correct Ms. Kohn on the issues she called me on, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Bill C-69 that if passed will literally destroy future industrial development, particularly the oil, gas and mining industries. This bill is a naked environmentalist attack by Trudeau and will leave Canada’s economy in shambles. I’ve read Bill C-69 and I challenge anyone to refute my comments about its potential economic damage. Ms. Kohn’s suggestion of “tweaking” the bill is laughable!. As for her suggestion that the bill is the result of government failure to approve the Trans Mountain pipeline is a blatant “Trudeau sponsored” lie. To suggest that I’m being unreasonably impatient is misleading. Even if this pipeline is approved, it will take at least five years before any more oil flows costing Canada Billions in lost revenue, not to mention the cost of imported oil. Trudeau has no intention of building this pipeline and his actions are close to treason. He bought the pipeline to assuage his B.C. voters and excuse his constitutional responsibility clearly giving the federal government the absolute authority to build the infrastructure necessary to further the country's economic strength.
I will not accept Kohn’s charge that my comments regarding Canada’s political incompetence, both provincially and federally are unsubstantiated. My research is always thorough and comes from unbiased sources including government statistics. The charge that my words are divisive is insulting. The actions of economy destroying thugs Trudeau, Elizabeth May, John Horgan, Quebec’s Legault and B.C.’s Weaver, have already divided the country. Let’s indeed talk about Quebec;. Legault tells us Quebec doesn’t want dirty oil, another political lie. Recently, Mr. Germane Belzile, a Quebec economic development officer, told the Business News Network that in a survey he carried out, fully 40 per cent of Quebecers were in favour of a pipeline through their province, versus truck or rail transport (they remember Lac Megantic), and that 79 per cent wanted Alberta oil to replace imports.
Ms. Kohn got one thing right. She tells us that in 2018, oil and natural gas from Alberta used in Quebec was 53 per cent and 40 per cent respectively. Well bravo. I challenge her (and any of our Liberal/Socialist politicians), to explain why Quebecers aren’t using 100 per cent of these commodities? Another incorrect statement made by Ms. Kohn is that Canada hasn’t imported Saudi oil since 2006. The fact is between January and June 2018, Canada imported $1.6 billion worth of Saudi “blood” oil, a country that kills its own citizens and I suspect might use the armoured personnel carriers (that Trudeau sold to the Saudis), to wage war in Yemen. Canada imports over 80,000 barrels of oil every day from Saudi Arabia.
Regarding Canada’s equalization program, it’s designed to ensure that provinces with sufficient resources share with those with insufficient resources. Sound fair? Again Canada’s “double standard” prevails. Alberta sends its oil wealth to so-called have-not provinces while Quebec’s Hydro Electric revenue is not included in the calculations. Defend that Ms. Kohn? She slyly suggests that Alberta doesn’t make equalization payments to Quebec. Of course the payments aren’t direct, Albertans send their taxes to the feds for distribution and this stipend gives Quebec over $11 billion annually. At the recent meeting of finance ministers, our slow-witted federal finance minister announced an additional $1.4 billion increase to Quebec’s equalization payment while Albertans continue losing jobs, businesses and homes aided by Notley's taxation policies. (Proof of this is the whopping reduction in empty downtown office building value of $12.8 billion resulting in a drop of $192 million in tax revenue in Calgary in 2018). Can Ms. Kohn explain this anomaly?
As for my “scoffing” at the $1.6 billion offered to Alberta energy producers this was a loan as opposed to the handouts that have been given to companies like Bombardier and most recently Algoma Steel. Explain this double standard? Equalization is the primary reason why Canada has low industrial productivity. Productive Westerners subsidize the rest and Eastern Canadian liberal socialists love this re-distribution scam. These people have yet to learn that Canada’s lack of pipelines to tide water will hurt them because as Margaret Thatcher said, “the problem with re-distribution is that you run out of other people’s money." Without Western oil revenue, Eastern Canada will kill the Golden Goose.
If Ms. Kohn or anyone else would like to challenge my “unsubstantiated” research and “divisive,” "inflammatory” comments, I welcome the discussion.
L. Leugner
