Collusion and Obstruction, are they just words?

For the past two years the media has been obsessed by the words collusion and obstruction of justice. The focus of the reports has been Trump and the alleged Russian connection during the 2016 presidential election, and his firing of the FBI Director James Comey. However the Canadian media has vastly ignored what was under their noses at home.

Now that the anticipated Mueller report is out, finally the Canadian media can now focus on the SNC Lavalin/Liberal government scandal. Was there collusion and obstruction of justice? Well the recent events seem to clearly point in that direction.  While the Democrats are still fighting the findings of the Mueller report, which found no collusion and no clear evidence of obstruction of justice by the President, perhaps it is time for the Canadian public to understand what is really happening in this country.

SNC Lavalin is a Canadian Company based in Quebec which operates internationally. It is alleged that during their business dealings with foreign governments, officials have used bribery to obtain contracts. The law strictly forbids Canadians and Canadian companies to use bribery in foreign countries. As a result of SNC’s dealings in Libya, the company may be facing criminal charges. But under an agreement which came into law last fall, SNC Lavalin could apply for a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) which would allow the company to pay its way out of lengthy and costly criminal trials. It is further reported that the DPA law may have been passed to allow SNC Lavalin to avoid the trials, because employees of the company had been donors to the Liberal party.

The former Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, was removed from her position in a Cabinet re-shuffle, and caused a tsunami of events that saw the Prime Minister and others defending their actions. It seems that many actors, including the Prime Minister were  involved  in a  systemic cabal to pressure  Wilson –Raybould to grant a DPA to SNC Lavalin. Those who have lost their jobs a s result of testimonies are the PMO chief of Staff  Gerald Butts and the top civil servant, and  Clerk of the Privy Council Michael Wernick, who had become too political in his position .

After disclosures and the release of a recorded conversation between Wilson-Raybould and Wernick, it became quite apparent that it was no longer a whiff of a scandal but in fact a full blown scandal of collusion and obstruction of justice. To further exacerbate the situation The President of the Treasury Board Jane Philpott resigned in solidarity with the former Justice Minister. In response to these resignation and the growing scandal the Prime Minister made the decision to eject the two former High Level Ministers from the Liberal party and said : ““The trust that previously existed between these two individuals and our team has been broken, whether it’s taping conversations without consent, or repeatedly expressing a lack of confidence in our government or me personally as leader,”

What Canadians should be concerned about this whole affair, is this scandal is very reminiscent of the Watergate case. High level resignations and tape recorded conversations. As reported by the Washington Post “In the most traumatic government upheaval of the Watergate crisis, President Nixon yesterday discharged Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox and accepted the resignations of Attorney General Elliot L. Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William D. Ruckelshaus.”..

Perhaps with the Prime Minister suing the Opposition Leader, Andrew Scheer, for defamation, Canadians will possibly get the real truth. However we should not hold our breath, because a court case may not come forward before the elections in October or sooner.

The question is why does the Canadian media focusses so much on United States scandals and yet just gleans  tit-bits on Canadian possible collusion and obstruction of justice. Maybe the Canadian media has different meanings for these infractions.

A BLUEPRINT FOR ALBERTA II

Introduction

In 2006, The Institute for Public Sector Accountability (IPSA) released ‘A Blueprint for Alberta’. This report outlined a number of policies that the government of Alberta could adopt to further the Alberta Advantage, Unfortunately Progressive Conservative governments under Premiers Stelmach, Redford and the late Prentice never had the courage to implement strong economic policies. Instead they adopted progressive policies which cost them the election and hand over the reins of government to the Notley NDP.

The election of the NDP, has seen numerous catastrophic economic decisions being made and implemented. The government being socialist in nature adopted policies which saw massive expenditures, a labor growth in the public sector and the decimation of the oil and gas industry. While the demise of the oil and gas industry was not entirely the fault of the NDP government, their acquiescence of the Trudeau government environment policies dictated their ultimate decision to impose a carbon tax.

In addition a continued mismanagement of the taxation regime coupled with an increase in the minimum wage has contributed to exacerbate the unemployment rate in the Province.

What was once known as the Alberta Advantage has disappeared and it will be a long time before we see it come back. To this affect IPSA has produced “A Blueprint for Alberta II” to express our views and offer some suggestions that a new government may look at and adopt to restore the economic environment that made Alberta great.

In summary we have addressed the following:

·         The Energy Industry

·         The Real Estate Market

·         The Taxation Regime

 

Energy Industry

The time in Alberta has come to address our Economic and Energy Security as a Province within the context of a national energy strategy taking into consideration the viability of the Industry, conservation and protection of the environment and the protection of the rights and duties of our Indigenous Peoples.

Despite the latest approval of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion by the NEB agency, we remain skeptical that it will be built sooner rather than later. The Federal government and the special interest groups have yet accepted the fact that pipelines are the best way to move oil. What is required is to have a predictable regulatory process that has integrity and transparency; employs full consultation with all major stakeholders including Indigenous Peoples and more importantly encourages decisions that balance economic and environmental interests.  The time has come to end the “resources gridlock” (Bill Gallagher, Resource Reckoning A. strategist’s guide from A to Z  Preface page vii).

In addition, Canadians are looking to Alberta as the leader in energy development and the source of energy products for our Nation and beyond our borders. We need the proper infrastructure to see our crude oil and other energy commodities to new and existing markets at the highest prices that the market will allow.  We need pipelines because it is the safest means to deliver oil. The use of rail cars to transport oil is very risky, both economically and environmentally. As we have seen the Lac Megantic and more recently the disaster in Manitoba, do not bode well for oil by train. Furthermore using rail to transport oil will also impede the transportation of other goods such as grain, thus affecting the agriculture industry. We believe that the NDP government’s decision to invest $3.7 billion over three years in crude-by-train is very risky, and should be abolished.

In Alberta, 58 per cent of people say Bill C-69 is a step in the wrong direction. Our priority is to come forth with acceptable policies by which to balance our economic growth with job protection, the means to ensure environmental safety and security, and the means to reduce the effects of climate change. A new Alberta government must open a rigorous debate within the borders of our Province, and the rest of the country to ensure a “quality of life that provides economic security for our Province.   Alberta urgently needs the leadership, political will and vision to build a strategy to manage all of the forms of energy that touch our lives in so many ways, and aggressively position Alberta as a Leader in the global energy market place to ensure our future economic gain. 

The Real Estate Market

Affordable housing is always the talk of politicians when an election approaches. However in many instances it is governments’ interference in the market that is the cause of the problem. Changing rules, such reducing the amortization from 30 years to 25 years, demanding that borrowers have to be able to handle interest rates 2% above the current rate, have curtailed the number of people who can afford to buy a house. Coupled with a downturn in the Alberta economy, the stress of owning a house has increased. The value of real estate in Alberta has dropped, yet property taxes have not. The current Market Value Assessment system of calculating property taxes is a tax based on unrealized values and has become a burden to home owners in older districts.

Having a home is a right, owning a house is a privilege. The answer is to build more affordable housing by bringing back the Multi Unit Residential Building (MURB) that could increase investments in these types of buildings to increase rental units.

 

The Taxation Regime

Alberta lost its advantage because many policies that made our competitive tax regime the envy of the country were gutted by successive Progressive Conservative governments; from the increase in the oil royalty, to the abolition of the flat income tax and the refusal to consider a sales tax, Albertans have seen an erosion of their wealth, coupled with a dwindling real estate downturn, as well as a high unemployment rate. Alberta needs a new tax regime.

1.     The carbon tax should be abolished as it has done nothing to make our oil industry  better. The tax was used by the NDP government to play nice with the Federal government, and yet it has resulted in nothing but grief for the industry. The tax has been used as a tool for wealth redistribution and has done nothing for the environment as it was supposed to do, and no pipelines have been built.

2.     Alberta should go back to a flat rate for income tax. Furthermore we believe that we should establish a sales tax, coupled with an increase of the minimum taxable income to $ 20,000.

3.     The 2018 Alberta corporate tax is currently 12% (general) and 2% (small business). However given the tax reform in the U.S. we have to be more competitive. In light of changes in the U.S which include a dramatic reduction in the headline U.S. federal corporate income tax rate — from 35 per cent to 21 per cent, and the introduction of temporary 100 per cent “bonus depreciation” for certain capital investments. Alberta should revert to the previous rate of 10% (general),  1% ( small business) and accelerate the rate of depreciation for machinery to match the U.S.

4.     There is no correlation between the value of a property and the education cost. The cost of education should be transferred to the income tax.

Remove the Market Value Assessment system for property taxes calculations.

Instead use the value of the purchase price as the base and for future years increase the valuation by the Consumer Price Index not the Municipal Price Index which is a manipulated rate.

5.     Given that major cities in Alberta have recreation and sport facilities that need to be either built or replaced, it is time for governments to allow municipalities to create tax free municipal bonds, which  would be allowed as an investment in TFSAs. Instead of funding these facilities entirely by property taxes, it is time for the taxpayer to have a choice and an opportunity to invest in these facilities. The repayment of these bonds would be done entirely from revenues from these facilities. Given the debacle of the 2026 Olympic Games bid by Calgary, we believe that major expenditures in facilities costing millions of dollars of taxpayers’ should be put to a plebiscite and not left to whims of politician alone.

Conclusions

As reported in the 2018 provincial budget, the spending plan forecasts debt ballooning from $54 billion this year to $96 billion by 2023.  Given the increasing Alberta debt load, it will be imperative for any future government to curtail its expenditures while managing its dwindling revenues due to the inability to get our oil to market and any needed reduction in taxation to stimulate the economy.

Having had the honor of serving on two Committees of the Results-based Budgeting task force, we can confirm that there were many ideas that could still be used to move forward, if the results can still be found and not destroyed by the current government. Using some of the conclusions of the taskforce will cut future research costs and also speed up the implementation. More importantly we also  suggest that a true Zero-base budget system be implemented to supplement any reform of the financial quandary that the province faces in coming years.

We respectfully submit our suggestions:

Marcel Latouche - President  & CEO,      James Maxim - Director            

The Institute for Public Sector Accountability

Communism, Collusion or Conspiracy?

The fall of communism coincided with the fall of the Soviet Union and the Iron Curtain, but with the ascent of populism it seems that this scourge is raising its ugly head once again.  While it is not openly discussed the Democrats in the U.S are all campaigning on polices that verges on extreme socialism.  Why is the media staying silent?

Obama was elected based on the false pretext of ‘hope and change’, but what really happened is that the world enamoured by his charismatic personality moved to the left without even being aware of what they were doing. Policies of appeasement and political correctness resulted in identity politics and more division between ideologies. When Hillary Clinton ran for the Presidency, it was widely assumed that she would win, and more importantly that the trend to the left would continue to grow.

While Hillary was faced by an opponent in the DNC primary, what were never discussed were her opponent’s socialist positions. Sen Sanders, who still sits as an independent, came to the fore with a clearly socialist agenda. No surprise there, since this is a man who had his honeymoon in Russia. Sanders created a following of millennials who were promised many free things, including free healthcare and education among other services. Today the same millennials have become the entitled demographic.

On the other side of the political spectrum came Trump, who once was a Democrat, but campaigned as a Republican embracing populism. He won because he tapped into the forgotten citizens who fell by the way side under the ‘hope and change’ Obama era. His success in becoming President caused not a ripple but a Tsunami off antagonism from the left supported by a Liberal mass media. For the first two years of his presidency he has battled accusations of collusion with Russia and legal actions against many of his supporters.

The Mueller investigation about collusion with Russia has so far been devoid of any evidence of the President’s alleged treasonous actions. What has happened is a series of indictments of his supporters for acts either committed before his election or even before his campaign. After two and a half years the Special Counsel has yet to release a report on collusion with Russia.

All the while the Democrats regained the House with a number of candidates who espouse far left polices verging on communism. The latest darling of the left is Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, now known as ACO, as if she was JFK or LBJ. Despite the catastrophic evidence of the economic disintegration of Venezuela through socialism, ACO wants to increase taxes and ’abolish’ billionaires, and the U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, she supports open borders, and the use of environmental policies for wealth redistribution.  Her stance seems to be straight from Karl Marx and her sudden, yet misguided influence has caused many of the Democrats seeking the 2020 nomination to move, not to the left but to the far left. Given the proclivity of the media to support any opposition to Trump, there has been no clear reporting of this radical move to the left, just like the real collusion in the U.S that has never been made public on a wide scale.

Collusion is defined as “secret or illegal cooperation or conspiracy, especially in order to cheat or deceive others.” and is supposedly the crime that Trump is accused of. However true collusion happened a long time ago, and perpetrated by the man who gave us Obama- Senator Ted Kennedy. In the 1980’s Sen. Ted Kennedy seeking to unseat President Ronald Reagan committed real collusion. Through the connection with the KGB, as reported by the London Times : “In a letter addressed to then-Soviet General Secretary Yuri Andropov, dated May 14, 1983, KGB head Viktor Chebrikov explained that Kennedy was eager to “counter the militaristic policies” of Reagan, who defeated Carter as the Republican nominee, and to undermine his prospects for re-election in 1984.” Collusion in itself is not a crime , but Kennedy’s actions could easily have contravene ‘the Logan Act (1 Stat. 613, 18 U.S.C. § 953, enacted January 30, 1799) which  is a United States federal law that criminalizes negotiation by unauthorized persons with foreign governments having a dispute with the United States.’ In contrast to today’s endless investigation of Trump, Kennedy was never challenged or investigated.

It seems that the media has conveniently forgotten about Ted Kennedy, and the so-called ‘vast right-wing conspiracy’ claimed by Bill Clinton when he was being indicted. Today we have a vast ‘left-wing conspiracy’ which has already been proven to have involved certain members of the FBI and the DOJ. Much if not all of the Trump investigation originated from a Dossier produced by Fusion GPS and paid for by the Clinton campaign and the DNC

In my view any interference by a foreign nation in a democratic election should be investigated, but to have nothing on the man accused of colluding in this act is a vast conspiracy. More importantly, a real conspiracy exists today among the left to bring socialism into the United States, and the Western world. The plan involves the indoctrination of our youth by a liberal education system, the use of the environment as a tool for wealth redistribution, and open borders immigration policies for gerrymandering purposes.

We do not have to go very far to see collusion, conspiracy and the path towards communism, the facts are right under our noses, and they are not the facts presented by the left and their acolytes in the media.

Canada at a Crossroad

During 2018 Canadians have witnessed few ups and more downs across the country. While we can argue who or what is to blame, we must acknowledge that the country is facing many obstacles, if not all created by bad policies and egocentric politicians.

The continued blind and ideological Prime Minister Trudeau has successfully thrown the country into another crisis laden by calls of separation by a Province-Alberta. The current federal government has continuously believed that lining up its agenda with the rest of the world, namely the United Nations, would make Canadians better. Despite the rosy claims made by the PM, dissention and loathing of some of his polices abound.

His blind support of the Paris Agreement on the environment and his polices of consultation with virtually every interest group against pipelines has caused a crisis in oil and gas producing provinces. Alberta has seen a recession and a collapse of its main source of revenue. But the catastrophe also rests with an Alberta government who agreed to impose a carbon tax in the hope of getting a pipeline built. In addition the Notley NDP government has destroyed the Alberta advantage through massive expenditures and socialist fiscal policies. The British Columbia government which only exists because it is supported by the Green Party has decided that Alberta oil is no longer part of the national economy and has helped the federal government to come to the conclusion that it should nationalize the Kinder Morgan pipeline. Furthermore the Quebec government does not support an Eastern pipeline, while the Eastern part of Canada buys its oil from foreign countries. Yet Quebec will receive Billions of dollars under the Equalization system while Alberta gets nothing. The Liberal government does not have a national energy strategy, what it has is an environmental strategy that will destroy the Canadian economy and divide the country.

The other issue that will burden the country for years to come is another globalist agenda. PM Trudeau believes in open borders and has allowed close to 40,000 of illegal immigrants into the country. In fact in a social media communication he invited illegal immigrants into the country. Millions of dollars are being spent in housing and supporting illegal immigrants while many Canadians, including veterans, live in poverty. He also recently signed a UN declaration on immigration, which although non-binding, may well be used to further increase immigration and be used as tool for gerrymandering. A culmination of his spending excesses that includes expenditures around the world to secure a seat at the United Nations has left the Finance Department to tell us that Canada will not see a balanced budget until 2040

While many blame the rise of Donald Trump and populism for the problems we see today, we should not ignore that it is the leftist and globalist policies of many governments that are causing the real problems. We can only see what is happening in Europe to understand that Canadians should follow suit and start confronting the current government, in non-violent protests, and stop us down the slippery slope of economic, immigration and terrorism problems seen in Europe. The result of globalist governments has seen the rise of populism in the Brexit decision, the Yellow vest uprising against taxes in France, and protest closer to home in Alberta.

The supporters of globalism are falling by the wayside. Angela Merkel is out of the German leadership. Macron is being asked to resign. Theresa May who started her rise as England’s Conservative party leader is fast becoming irrelevant due to her inability to negotiate the country’s exit from the European Union. Trudeau’s latest favorable poll numbers are even less than Trump’s. Does that say something about the state of the country? Well in my view all the above mentioned issues are a harbinger of things to come if the citizenry does not stand up and be counted. People around the world should really look at what is happening around them – a bunch of elitist politicians are attempting to rule the world with more international regulations and policies. The result, if they succeed, will be a loss of sovereignty and the death of nations as they blow down international borders.

With all this doom and gloom in sight Canadians should heed the words of rookie Tory premier of New Brunswick Blaine Higgs, who declared: “the Canadian federation fractured — with Ottawa and other provinces seemingly unconcerned about Alberta’s slump, and Quebec actively blocking economic development... Here’s a province that has fed many of our kids for years and we’ve all been happy to be recipients of that transfer payment. I’m not proud of that fact, and I would like to develop the very industry that they have,”

 It is said that charity begins at home. In politics I believe that it starts at the civic level. Alberta should vote out the current NDP government, followed by Canadians getting rid of a feckless and vacuous Prime Minister and his government. 2019 will be a watershed year for the country. If we do not vote for governments that are prepared to bring back free market policies and who refuse to pander to special interest groups we shall be doomed.