The Ben Mulroney Show - Carney! Some good, some bad, more of the same?

Episode Date: September 4, 2025

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to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P.com slash Mulruni. Welcome, welcome, welcome to the Ben Mulroney show on this Thursday, September 4th. Congratulations to the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada for forming government 41 years ago today. Congratulations to Nicholas. Mulroney on 40 years of being my brother, how blessed you must feel. And on and on. We're done with the Mulroney stuff, at least for this hour. Maybe some more love next hour. But thank you so much for joining us today. Lots of news to get to. Look, I promised that when there was something to

celebrate from this federal government that you would hear from me. I am not somebody who is built to only criticize that I'm not my my role is not that of the official opposition my role is to give you information and give you my opinion on that information and so yesterday when the news came out that a massive lNG developer liquid liquidified natural gas developer announced a 15 billion dollar project off the coast of newfoundland and labrador and said the CEO in fact said that this was made possible by mark carney's policy changes I think think it's incumbent upon me to say congratulations to Mark Carney. Congratulations to the Liberal Party.

This is something that most Canadians, most stable Canadians, will stand up and applaud. Now, the devil is obviously in the details. And if you read into this, the shovels are not yet in the ground. This is more, more has to do with the attitudinal shift of this Liberal Party under Mark Carney's stewardship compared to his predecessor. The $15 billion has not been raised yet. They have enough money to move forward through the regulatory process. But this is in anticipation of a relaxing of the rules, build Canada better or whatever that policy is by the feds.

But this CEO is very enthusiastic. And he says, so long as the actions meet the words, this is something that will move ahead. and it will help Canada build the country that they should be building and diversify their clients beyond the United States. So congratulations, well done. Let's make sure that the train stays on the tracks and it leads us to a better place.

And obviously the predictable voices in opposition, those who think that we should leave that liquefied natural gas where it is and instead of focus on solar and move entirely to renewables right now. Yeah, okay. Well, you woke up and you found something, you found a new project to oppose congratulations to you. But sincerely, congratulations to Mark Carney and his government.

And let's just make sure that this becomes a reality. All right. So now now let's talk about the leader of the official opposition. Conservative leader Pierre Poliev is calling for the abolition of the temporary foreign worker program, which has been in the news for years, right? He's citing youth unemployment, which is sitting almost at 15%. That is, that's an awful number. It's got to be dispiriting.

It's got to be demoralizing. And it's not, you don't set people up for success by keeping, you don't set a race horse up for success by keeping them in the paddock. And we have an entire generation that is itching to get into the job market and they can't. And one of the reasons, according to Pierre Poliev, is the temporary foreign worker program. And Pierre is accusing the liberals of letting corporations exploit migrant workers to suppress wages. And the proposed changes are end that program, stop issuing visas, create a separate program for agricultural labor. You'll remember that a lot of the migrant workers that come in from, say, south of the U.S. border who come for seasonal work to help with produce and working on farms across the country, they use the temporary foreign worker program.

but he's suggesting create a siloed approach specific to that sector and phase out the program slower in regions where they have very low unemployment. Now for background, just so, you know, well, let's listen to Pierre Pollyev on foreign workers. Tim Hortons has hired an unimaginable 1,131% more temporary foreign workers in the last four years. In the first half of this year alone, the TFW program has imported 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 74% more low-skilled labor than in all of 2015. TFWs, the number of temporary foreign workers, has now 2% of our overall workforce and a staggering number,

an unprecedented number. All right, so that's how Pierre Pahliav sees the temporary foreign worker program. Let's see what the view is like from the perspective of our prime minister. That program has a role. It has to be focused in terms of its role. and it's part of what we're viewing, as part of what we will be discussing how well the temporary foreign worker program is working

and how our overall immigration system is working. When I talk to businesses around the country, especially, particularly in Quebec, but elsewhere across the country, their number one issue is tariffs, and their number two issue is access to temporary foreign workers. All right, look, both sides, different interpretations. I'm not saying one is right and one is wrong,

but I went, I'm now on the, government of Canada website. You can go to jobbank.g.g.c.c.ca. to see it for yourself. And we just looked at the available jobs under the temporary foreign worker program. Search jobs for Canadian employers who want to recruit temporary foreign workers. Pretty simple, pretty direct. Very clear. Thank you, government of Canada, for putting this information out there. At the top of the list, the very first one that pops up. Psychiatrist. Okay. In Napaean, Ontario, a psychiatrist. The salary. The salary. The salary. $250,000 to $400,000 annually to be negotiated.

Now, this one is going to require drilling down because we've done stories on this show about how there are professionals who come here from other countries and they have the credentials to work as an architect, as a doctor, as a nurse. And they can't because their credentials are not recognized by the analogous professional organization that would authorize them to work. So explain to me how a psychiatrist is being looked for in the temporary foreign worker program. If you come from abroad, chances are you're going to have to go through some sort of harmonization

like a study program to get your credentials up to where Canadians want. That one makes no sense to me if anybody listening can explain to me how a psychiatrist ends up on the temporary foreign worker program site. I'd love to hear it. It has to be a mistake. It's got to be a mistake. It's got to be. But then you got general laborer, farm foreman, dairy farm worker.

I mean, these make sense, right? And these ones, Pierre Poliov says, we should have a separate program for seasonal farm laborers. Construction trades helper. That one is a salary of $26 an hour. I'm pretty sure there's some young people out in Edmonton who would want to apply for a $26 an hour. job home support worker and dairy farm labor administrative assistant then this is for a plumbing company i get $36 an hour there are i bet dollars to donuts that there would be people around the block in edmonton wanting to work for 36 bucks an hour to be an administrative assistant

i don't know what skills somebody from abroad has that a university student in edmonton does not provide already fruit farm laborer farm operation supervisor operating office and an administration like these are a cleaning service manager these I there's nothing special about a foreign worker who can do this that a Canadian citizen can't do I am I please and I mean this sincerely I don't want to go down a path where I am railing against a program and I'm looking at it and it doesn't make sense if somebody understands the logic of this in a way that can make me get on side with it. Please, tell me.

I'm not here to just be upset about stuff. Two more. Okay, well, here we go. Somebody has to explain this one to me. A fast food restaurant manager, subway sandwiches, in Oscewa, Ontario, a salary of $36 an hour. Explain to me how the world is so different today that we require a temporary foreign worker to do this job

when 20 years ago my kids would be applying for that job. My kids would kill to have that job. My son told me he wants to start working next year during the school year. He would want a job like this. I'm not alone. I guarantee you there are hundreds of thousands of families

across this country that would be so proud if their kid was working at Subway and made their way up to restaurant manager while they were still in high school and going through college. Could you imagine? And what that would do to set them up for success in the future in terms of working in a big corporation? So look, lots to get to.

We're going to keep an eye on this. 14 jobs, by the way, open for Tim Hortons on that job site. When I found out my friend got a great deal on a wool coat from winners, I started wondering. Is every fabulous item I see from winners? Like that woman over there with the designer jeans. Are those from winners? Ooh, are those beautiful gold earrings? Did she pay full price?

Or that leather tote? Or that cashmere sweater? Or those knee-high boots? That dress, that jacket, those shoes. Is anyone paying full price for anything? Stop wondering. Start winning. Winners.

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