Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Conservative party. The leader, John Rustad, Sham al Horene. Mister Rustad, a very good morning to you.
[00:00:08] Speaker B: Good morning to you as well. Thank you for having me on.
[00:00:11] Speaker A: How has your weekend been? You've been busy?
[00:00:14] Speaker B: It has been busy. It's been a good launch for the campaign. We've already been campaigning on the island in Richmond and Surrey in Vancouver. So we're very much in full gear here, looking forward to this campaign in front of us.
[00:00:27] Speaker A: Mister Rustad, the leader of the BCNDP, David Eby, was on the show on Friday and Mister Eby said that if you became premier, he said that if Mister Rustad becomes premier, then you would cancel the hospital that's under construction in Cloverdale. Is that what you plan to do?
[00:00:46] Speaker B: No, that's just once again, David Eby making things up and lying. And it's weak leadership, quite frankly, by David E B. To be in a situation where all he's doing is lying to the public like as the conservative party of British Columbia, we need the Cloverdale hospital to be up and running. But more than that, we also need to make sure that we have cardiovascular services, we need to make sure we got pediatric services. The expansion in Surrey Memorial, there's so much that needs to be done in Surrey and quite frankly, David EB has treated Surrey as a second class city for far too long and it's time to get focused on improving the services for healthcare in Surrey.
[00:01:21] Speaker A: So would you be open to expanding the scope of the Cloverdale hospital?
[00:01:26] Speaker B: Well, I don't want to prevent the Cloverdale hospital from continuing going forward. If it meant that we would have to delay or postpone moving forward, then no, I'm not interested in doing that. We need to get the services built. However, I do want to look at how we expand out those services. So if there needs to be a phase two, I'd be happy to look at that. But if we need to do something at Survey memorial, I'm happy to do that as well. This is about making sure that we have the healthcare services in Surrey. But the one thing that's most important is the building doesn't provide services, it's staffing, it's doctors, it's the nurses that provide services. And we need to have a full comprehensive staffing plan in terms of how we're going to be able to attract healthcare professionals, retain those professionals, and make sure as well, when people come in from other jurisdictions, whether it's India or other places, that they can get to work quickly in this province, as opposed to the long delay process that we.
[00:02:20] Speaker A: Have today, mister rusted. Lots of reaction pouring in from about the announcement of what you said about not continuing with the safe injection sites and the safe inhalation sites. The NDP and the Green party are accusing you of a flip flop from your previous statement, where you seem to have been supportive of safe injection and safe inhalation sites. But now you say that you want to close the drug dens. What would you like to say about that?
[00:02:47] Speaker B: Today in British Columbia, there's a display up in Camel river where there's a blue flag on the ground for every boy and man who has died from an overdose. In British Columbia, 12,000 flags on the ground and more are being added every month. This has to come to an end. We need to end David Eby's radical policies of decriminalization, and David Eby and Justin Todos radical policies of safe supply are not safe. We need to be building out comprehensive recovery, everything from doctor prescribed treatment rate through, and we need to even be looking at involuntary compassionate treatment and recovery. And all of that needs to be linked. So when you have these sites in the province, they need to be converted over to recovery intake sites, so that we're linking people to that recovery that's so much needed in British Columbia.
[00:03:44] Speaker A: Is it that simple to convert these sites into recovery intake sites, or is that going to require a lot of changes and some major overhauls?
[00:03:54] Speaker B: It's certainly going to require time to build a build out capacity. David Eby has ignored building out recovery capacity he's calling supportive housing for addicts at recovery. It's not. There's no services associated with it. It's just perpetuating a problem and spreading it throughout neighborhoods right across this province. What we need to do is need to build out that comprehensive recovery that we'll be able to be converting everything else over to be that focus on recovery. We need to desperately to end these lives that have been lost in 12,000 boys and men, plus women, of course, that have died. That's somebody's son, that's somebody's father. This has to come to an end. We can't carry on with these policies that David Eb has put in place.
[00:04:36] Speaker A: Mister Rostad, you were at the UBCM on Friday, and one thing that seems to have gotten a thunderous applause from all the representatives from the local governments was when you said that you would do away with the densification policies of the NDP, and you would rather give more powers to the local governments so that they can decide where they want to densify and where they don't want to do so.
How do you intend to solve the housing crisis? I believe you are slated to make a major housing policy announcement today in Surrey. Can you give us some precursors of that?
[00:05:09] Speaker B: The announcement we'll make today is about affordability. It'll be the most significant tax relief that British Columbia has seen for people renting and people paying mortgages. I look forward to announcing that today. The key in my mind is there has not been a single policy that David Eby has brought forward that has worked. They're chaotic, they're authoritarian, and they're fulfilled. Full of his desire for big government and big government control, that's not the answer. We need to work closely with communities so that densification such as building duplexes and or four plexes on city lots can happen, but done in a way that makes sure we've got the water and sewer lined up, we have the parking, we have the traffic resolved, we've got schools. There's so many things that David Ebe is just ignoring and just doing virtual signaling around policies like this which will fail.
[00:06:07] Speaker A: Do you have a timeline in your mind as to when you would want to balance the budget?
[00:06:14] Speaker B: Yes. So, I mean, we're going to push as hard as we can to be able to get our spending under control. There's a number of things within the government that we want to look at that seem to be the slush funds that David EB has set up and is irresponsible spending. I mean, we're at $9 billion deficit. It's absolutely just unacceptable that the premium would do that at a time when we don't even have a recession.
And that deficit spending is going to, I suspect it's going to expand by the time we get to march. So we do need to work on this. But at the same time, we cannot be cutting healthcare spending. We're not going to be bringing back bridged holes. We're not going to be bringing back MSP. All those are just lies from the NDP. What we need to do is we need to grow our economy and we're going to have to grow our way out of this problem, which is why we're going to be so focused on getting economic activity happening in this province. And quite frankly, that's the only way we're going to solve affordability, is we need to see higher wages through economic growth.
[00:07:12] Speaker A: Mister Rusted. Also at the UBCM, the local representatives, they passed a resolution on Friday that endorses the carbon tax and this is in opposition to what you've been announcing and what David Eb also said in the last few days, that he would take the carbon tax away from consumers. And you say that you're going to cancel the carbon tax outright, whether it's on consumers or on industry. Now, when the local governments are endorsing the carbon tax policy, how do you go about convincing them to tell them that this is something that's going to be good for the economy of the province?
[00:07:48] Speaker B: Well, I don't think I have to worry about convincing them. I think we have to worry about getting votes in the next election if they want to create unaffordable for people in this province. But look, David Eb says he's going to get rid of the carbon tax on consumers. What he's going to do is he's going to more than double the carbon tax on the businesses. That's your trucking industry, that's your farming industry, that's your forest industry. That's everything else that goes on in this province and that will get passed down to the consumer. So he's actually not getting rid of it. All he's doing is hiding it so that consumers don't see it. We're going to get rid of the carbon tax, both carbon taxes we have in this province, it'll mean close to that. People will be able to save when your mom has taken on taking their child to school, when they're going to pick up groceries, when they're going off to work. These are the things that people will be able to save money on on a day to day basis. And that's how you address affordability and help people to put food on the table.
[00:08:41] Speaker A: Mister Rustad, there was a press release that was sent out by the NDP yesterday and where they're touting their plan to deliver 300,000 middle class homes. And then they also go on to say that if John Rustad becomes the premier BC's homes for people plan would be torn up, would be ripped up, and these affordable homes would not be made available to British Columbians. What's your reaction to that?
[00:09:06] Speaker B: David Eb and his government promised to deliver 114,000 homes in ten years and they've done about three or 4000.
They can't be trusted. They lie. And that's just the reality. And so David Ebe is out there promising stuff that he knows he can't keep. He knows that these things will not work in terms of process. The private sector has looked at this and they're leaving British Columbia. They don't even want to build homes here because you can't get things done in this province. He's destroying this province piece by piece. That's why one in three people are looking at leaving this province. That's why one in two youth are looking at leaving this province because of the messes that this guy's created. So, yeah, I'm looking at the plans I look at and I shake my head and I think that's not going to work. What we're going to do is put in our solid housing plan that will actually get the homes built, that will make sure that we build affordable, quality homes for people to be able to move into and buy in this province.
[00:09:57] Speaker A: And are those solid housing plans going to be a part of the announcement that you're making today in survey today.
[00:10:02] Speaker B: Is about more affordability. But the policies and approaches we're going to have on housing will be announced soon, I suspect, like in Surrey.
[00:10:10] Speaker A: Again, I do want to ask you a question on behalf of our listeners in the northern region of the province and especially those who work in the lumber industry.
There have been a lot of challenges that the lumber industry has faced in the last little while, especially with the tariffs from the us side. Us always cites the stumpage fee as an issue. You have promised that you would get rid of the stumpage fee. How would then the lumber industry works in a stabilized manner so that the jobs are protected. And we are not facing this retaliation from the US, which is one of our biggest customers for our lumber.
[00:10:50] Speaker B: The approach that we've seen from David EB and on our resource sector has been absolutely devastating. We've lost two thirds of our forest sector under David Eby and the NDP, two thirds of the jobs, two thirds of the stuff. And clearly we are the highest cost producers and they are ignoring the plight of these workers across this province. We need to reverse this. We need to get to a place where we are competitive again, where people want to invest, where people can build a future and people can work in the industry with pride. We need a government that actually champions our resource sector, which is what we will do now when it comes to the Americans, I can tell you this. I am not going to let America dictate what policies should be in British Columbia. British Columbia needs to set its own path in terms of how we have a healthy, reliable, renewable forest industry. But we will be fighting the Americans hard on these tariffs. They're wrong. They're, in my opinion, they need to be reversed. We need to get rid of this thing. So getting a deal done with the Americans is going to be a top priority and something quite frankly, that David Eb has ignored.
[00:11:57] Speaker A: But doesn't that fall more under the purview of the federal government, the trade relations with the US?
[00:12:03] Speaker B: Well, I understand that EB and Trudeau are two p's in the same pod when it comes to this.
If the federal government cannot get a deal done, we will go it alone, we'll go to the states and we'll cut the deal that we need to do to get done. For British Columbians, it's high time you have a government that actually will stand up and fight for British Columbia as opposed to kowtowing to somebody like Justin Trudeau.
[00:12:26] Speaker A: Mister Rustad, anything else you'd like to add?
[00:12:30] Speaker B: You know, this is going to be a very exciting campaign.
It's quite clear the NDP are coming out with nothing but a lies and attacks because they cannot defend their failed policies. You can ask yourself this simple question. Has anything improved in the last seven years? Is there anything that this government has done that has improved the quality of life, improved affordability for people in this province? And the answer to that question is no. This is why we need change. We need to be able to bring common sense change back to British Columbia that is focused on that hard working, average, everyday person so that they can stay in this province, raise a family, and be proud to be british columbian.
[00:13:07] Speaker A: Mister Rustad, thank you so much for your time today and good luck with the campaign.
[00:13:12] Speaker B: Thanks very much. Take care.
[00:13:13] Speaker A: Thank you. You too. Bye.
