Episode 31 Transcript – Stephane Dion

You’re live with Jessi Johnson and I’m at the Burnaby Board of Trade on September 23. We are going to sit here with Stephane Dion at the big breakfast and ask him a couple questions. Hoping to ask him about the US turmoil and current housing slump. It should be getting underway shortly and hopefully he’ll answer a couple of questions for us. [We must fight the climate change crisis and protect Canada's beautiful natural environment. We need generous green grants and mortgages. We will invest in renewable energy. We will invest in clean air and water. We will protect our national parks and endangered species. Beautiful British Columbia will stay beautiful. By the way, we will invest an additional $250 million in the fight against the pine beetle. We Liberals have the leadership, we have the team and we have the action plan to build a richer Canada. A fair Canada. A greener Canada. Let's get started. Thank you.] {We are going to go a question and answer period so my staff will be circulating. We have time for a few short questions, so if you have a question just raise your hand. We’ll start with a question: Will your government give financial support to the World Police and Fire games that are coming at Summer 2009?} [There is how much? 1 billion? oh million! I think we should. We did that in Quebec City. I think it would be a good partner in British Columbia.] {How do you think the US bailout will affect Canada. The financial crisis right now?} [We have a strong banking system in Canada to compare with United States. I think if we have this plan we will be stronger. We will have a better approach to face the slowdown of the economy. We need to have strong fiscal discipline and once you have strong fiscal discipline we need to invest any surpluses into the economy right now. If Mr. Harper would have thought about that, today we would have 7 billion dollars in the economy. To build infrastructure of tomorrow and creating jobs of today. We have also proposed a 1 billion dollar manufacturing sector. To help the manufacturing sector at a time when they're having difficulties you know. If we have a government who believes in the role of the government and believes in the market economy and how the two must work, I'm very confident Canada will face the slowdown of the economy and at the same time repair the economy of tomorrow. {What is your view on Nuclear power?} [Nuclear power is part of the energy mix in Canada. You have three provinces using it. Ontario, New Brunswick and Quebec just decided to renew. So it's their risk and responsibility. The responsibility of the Federal government is to make sure that the safety is as much as possible. So let's say that the next time that the head of the Nuclear Safety commission will come to see me and say I warned your government about a potential problem, the minister was sleeping on the switch, I will fire the minister.] {Our last question: Will you allow banks to merge?} [They need to make their case clear. If you look at the United States I don't think big means strong. I think the argument is a bit simplistic. We need to be bigger to be strong for the big bank system of the world. Big doesn't mean strong. Some small banks are very competitive in the world. If they come with a ?. But for now they have little interest.]