Did they say that? Yeah.

So this is a thing that exists with BC government labor contracts.

If one union gets a certain percent pay raise, all the other unions are entitled to that same percentage pay raise.

So what happened here is the nurses were offered the same 12% over four-year pay raise that everyone else in the public sector, whether that's teachers or bureaucrats, received.

The nurses said, no, no, no, no, no.

We want more than that 12% over four years.

What that means, if government caves on that specific...

So let's touch on a couple of the areas of extreme stupidity and narrow it down here.

Is that a fair explanation?

Well, I think politicians love to tell tall tales about inflation when their mega projects go massively over budget.

But Mike, that's a story that's so full of holes, it looks like Robin Hood used it for target practice.

Inflation's hovering around one, two, maybe 3% in bad years.

It doesn't cause mega projects budgets to double.

We're not talking about one or 2% cost overruns here.

We're talking about projects doubling in expense.

just deliberately lowball the estimates when they're trying to sell these things to taxpayers when they announce it? Why does it happen every time?

No te puedo decir todo.

Sí, creo que eso es un poco de malarquía de la Ciudad, Mike.

Mira, si la arena es un gran cañón, deberíamos tener socios del sector privado alineados alrededor del bloque, queriendo entrar en esta acción.

No deberíamos estar buscando cientos de millones de dólares de envíos de los financieros solo para que se haga.

Siempre que los políticos o los burocratas piden estos tipos de grandes proyectos, siempre hacen ciertos acuerdos realmente verdaderos sobre los beneficios económicos.

Pero la Universidad de Chicago ha investigado a un montón de economistas alrededor de los Estados Unidos y solo 2% de los economistas a los que han hablado dicen que estos tipos de estadios brindan más beneficio económico que costan.

Solo 2% de los economistas piensan que estos tipos de estadios son buenos para los financieros.

He oído esta historia antes, hombre, como que he oído a la gente, parece que cada proyecto, cada proyecto del sector público va a ser muy over budget en estos días, ¿verdad? ¿Crees que esto se va a ir over budget?

But what do you think of the mathematics on the revenue side of this thing?

Yeah, I think we've seen a lot of magic math, to put it lightly, from the minister when it comes to these World Cup games.

So there's a few really big issues with how the province is calculating the revenue side here, Mike.

The province is including in revenue transfers from the federal government.

That's not revenue.

That is still taxpayer money.

There's only one taxpayer and shuffling it from one government to another doesn't suddenly add it to the revenue column.

but that's picked up we're seeing more hotel bookings here in the last week or so and i think he said it was like up 15 so is it too early to say like you know on the hotel booking side of it is this thing a a boom or a bust like is this turning into is this going to be the big success that they're painting it as or is it going to be less than what they're projecting

But, uh, there's a bit of a blurring of the lines at Hastings Park, especially as they're rushing to finish the $183 million, uh, PNE amphitheater, which my question, which was not answered by Ravi Kahlon, to my satisfaction at least, i- is that a FIFA cost? Because that building is on a schedule, uh, to host the most important, uh, fan event.

Well, Bob, there's been such a shocking lack of transparency and accountability from the province and from the City of Vancouver around questions just like that.What is going into these calculations? Who is covering various aspects of these bills? Um, and I'm glad you brought up the points about hotels.

We've already heard that hotel bookings are down 20% this summer compared to last summer.

That suggests FIFA isn't dragging in tourists from around the world.

Rather, it's pushing away folks who would otherwise be coming to Vancouver in the summer.

And when you look at FIFA's demands, specifically restrictions around other sporting and cultural events, it makes sense that folks aren't booking up hotel rooms in the city this summer.

Things like the Dragon Boat Festival, fireworks, Italian Day on the Drive, these are all events that have been canceled or dramatically pared down largely because of FIFA.

Uh, what does this say about the current NDP government under Premier David Eby that on one day they're taking steps towards secrecy, and the next day they're showing us, uh, information about costs, about expenses with BC taxpayers that should have been shown much sooner?

Hmm.

You don't need to take my word for it.

Look at the BC government's own fiscal data on hosting the World Cup.

Even after all the tax revenue that's coming in, even after all those tourist dollars, the BC government is still projecting this is going to come at a net cost of up to $145 million for Vancouver's seven games alone, not including the big cost to taxpayers for Toronto's games.

So we're seeing it with the tourism numbers.

We're seeing it with the provincial government's own forecasts.

This is coming at a huge cost without that promised economic gain.

It wasn't, "Oh, man, wasn't that a great game? That's it." Like, even the Saudis, it was too rich for them, and they got out of it, but at least they had some sort of a plan to own a valuable asset.

But you don't think so.

Well, I think $30,000 signing bonuses are a lot of money for anyone in the public sector.

And we also know that the signing bonuses that Surrey is offering are above what other departments in the region are offering in those signing bonuses.

The Vancouver Police Department, for example, is offering $10,000 signing bonuses.

The RCMP is offering $26,000 signing bonuses.

So those are all higher than what we're seeing in Surrey.

And the worry is that those high signing bonuses can drive a bidding war for those really limited police resources that we have here in the Lower Mainland right now, leaving taxpayers with a really big bill at the end of the day.

Isn't this a sign, though, that they're having trouble recruiting?

What are your thoughts on that?

Yeah, so throwing in the GST would roughly double the savings that British Columbian motorists would receive at the pumps.

The GST right now is adding about 10 cents a liter to the cost of gasoline in Metro Vancouver.

That works out to about six to seven dollars for a fill-up.

Cutting that GST would mean even bigger savings for families.

And Robin, it's worth noting that it's not just families that see these savings when they fill up.

We know that gas taxes and diesel taxes ripple through the economy.

It really puts our economy out of whack, doesn't it?

Okay, Carson, I want, uh, I want your reaction to that.

Yeah, absolutely.

You don't fix a healthcare shortage with a coffee truck.

No one is moving to BC because government bought them an expensive latte.

The fact is, British Columbian taxpayers and businesses are being smothered by a government that doesn't know how to manage public finances.

We've been hit with five separate credit rating downgrades.

Just last week, S&P Global, one of the big credit rating agencies that matters, warns that our budgetary performance is the weakest of peers both domestically and internationally.

Are you more upset that it took so long to get this information that you had to fight the government, or that it cost what it did?

Can you give us the details about this taxpayer-funded reception for bureaucrats?

Yeah, absolutely.

And thank you so much for having me on the show today.

We uncovered, through Freedom of Information requests, documents that show the BC government budgeted $35,000 for an open bar reception at a fancy Victoria resort last March.

Now, the records say that this reception was to hand out coronation medals to deserving government employees.

But look, bear in mind, the feds handed out about 30,000 of these coronation medals across the country.

Not exactly a great huge deal.

What are your thoughts, Carson? Well, I'm glad you

I, I saw gift cards and I said, "I gotta call up Carson, talk to him a little bit about what you uncovered in Victoria." So walk our audience through what did you uncover?

Well, Jas, it's another day and another spending scandal from our provincial government in Victoria.

We were curious to see whether or not the BC government was using taxpayer money to buy gift cards for provincial bureaucrats, and what we found was a systemic thing across BC government of gift cards being purchased at the taxpayer expense before being handed out to bureaucrats as bonuses and honorariums.

Now, Jas, keep in mind, provincial bureaucrats already earn big salaries, far more than your average BC household.

They also take home gold-plated b- uh, pensions, big benefits packages.

So you're saying $5,000 o- over these seven ministries.

$5,000 over these seven ministries.

Now, Jas, that might not sound like a lot of money right off the bat, but I think most British Columbians, if they're lucky enough to get a bonus from their employer, that happens when times are good.

I, I saw gift cards, and I said, "I gotta call up Carson, talk to him a little bit about what you uncovered in Victoria." So walk our audience through what did you uncover?

Well, Jazz, it's another day and another spending scandal from our provincial government in Victoria.

We were curious to see whether or not the BC government was using taxpayer money to buy gift cards for provincial bureaucrats.

And what we found was a systemic thing across BC government of gift cards being purchased at the taxpayer expense before being handed out to bureaucrats as bonuses and honorariums.

Now, Jazz, keep in mind, provincial bureaucrats already earn big salaries, far more than your average BC household.

Uh, they also take home gold-plated, uh, pensions, big benefits packages.

So you're saying $5,000 o- over these seven ministries.

$5,000 over these seven ministries.

Why do you guys think that the BC government should abandon this idea of banning gas vehicles by 2035, nine years away from now?

There's a whole plethora of reasons why the B.C. government should be backing away from this ban on the sale of new gas and diesel powered cars.

To start with, it would cost an arm and a leg for taxpayers to build the infrastructure needed for all the new electric vehicles if we totally ban the sale of new gas and diesel-powered vehicles by 2035, which the BC government is currently planning.

Beyond the sort of realities that we simply can't afford it as taxpayers, it's also a wildly unpopular piece of legislation.

55% of British Columbians, well over half, according to new polling from Leger, are oppose the ban on the sale of new gas and diesel-powered vehicles by 2035.

As other jurisdictions, the feds in Ottawa and the government of Quebec, start to take another look at this policy, I think it's long past time that B.C. ditches it altogether.

Carson is there a way that we can have both electric cars and gas cars and just let people decide I mean I know we need infrastructure for both how do we get to a point where we can just everybody get along and live peacefully and have electric infrastructure and keep our gas cars

Yeah, so I think what's going to drive those kinds of decisions are consumer sentiments.