The Orca Podcasts

Over the past three decades, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation has grown into a major force in national public policy. One man has been part of it for nearly that entire time.

From the early days with a young, fiery upstart named Jason Kenney leading the way, to its presence today in every province, Troy Lanigan has helped the CTF – and the taxpayers they represent – to several significant policy victories.

This fall, Troy is leaving as president and CEO of the CTF, having spent 27 years with the organization. He joined Rick in studio to talk about the organization’s successes and future.

Maclean and Jordan talk about the municipal election results from a dozen different cities.

Recently, the NDP Government announced that 19 Building Trades construction unions would be given a monopoly on building the Pattullo Bridge and eastern Highway 1 expansion. Any one working on those projects will be forced by the government to join one of those NDP-approved unions – which only represent 15 per cent of the construction workers in the province. But what about the thousands of workers who have chosen to organize themselves differently. The Canada West Construction Union is not one of the NDP’s chosen unions, and its workers will be forced to leave CWU if the NDP doesn’t change its mind. CWU President Ken Baerg joined Rick Cluff to talk about all of it.

It’s the vote hardly anyone is talking about. At the end of this month, B.C. voters will be asked to weigh in on moving provincial elections to a proportional representation system. The polls show the vote will be razor close.

What should voters think about when the ballot arrives in their mailbox? Bill Tieleman leads the No Proportional Representation campaign and joined Rick Cluff from Vancouver.

This month’s announcement that the five LNG Canada partners will invest nearly $40 billion to build a liquefied natural gas plant and pipeline has been welcomed with celebrations across northern B.C. And rightfully so – it is the single largest private investment in Canadian history.

It’s the area in and around the City of Fort St. John that puts the N.G. in LNG. Fort St. John Mayor Lori Ackerman joined Rick Cluff via Skype to tell us what kind of impact this project will have on her community.

Everyone was thrilled in the 2017 election when all three major BC parties - the Liberals, NDP and Greens - announced they would kill the Medical Services Premium tax. Then the NDP took power and surprised everyone - even their own expert panel - when they replaced it with an Employers Health Tax.

Kris Sims, BC Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, sat down with Rick Cluff to explain just how hard businesses - and regular taxpayers - will be hit.

ICBC, British Columbia’s government-owned car insurance monopoly, has been described as a fiscal dumpster fire by the Minister in charge. David Eby is not wrong – ICBC will lose more than $1 billion this year alone.

Kris Sims, B.C. director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, has an idea on how to fix ICBC once and for all. She joined Rick Cluff to talk about it.