CPAC - Monday, May 27, 2024 - 10:00 a.m. (ET) - Segment #13

>> I would ask my colleague, this seems very typical of the liberal Government. A divide and conquer approach. They say one thing, do another, pit group against group, region against region. So I'm wondering if he could comment further about if that is what Bill C-49 is about. Not about building prosperity, but, rather, playing politics with our federation? If he could comment on that. >> The Speaker: A brief answer from the Honourable Member for Cypress Hills grasslands. >> Yeah, thank you very much for that question. It's absolutely true that we continue to see the divide and conquer approach, and it goes no further than with the Impact assessment Act, right? They continue to hide that and use that as a way to divide people on this bill as well. So, I know the government said oh, we fixed that now in the budget, but, you know, there wasn't really any effort for committees to get involved, for people to come and talk about what these common sense needed to be, so they're just continuing to take a sledgehammer approach to very, very important part of not just the renewable sector, but also for the entire energy system and our nation-wide economy as a whole. They're choosing to divide people over that. >> The Speaker: [ Speaking French ] (Voice of Interpreter): French resuming debate. The Honourable Member for Mission-Matsqui-Fraser Canyon. >> Thank you, Madam Speaker, of a nine years of this Prime Minister, life is unaffordable. Canadians are struggling to afford to meet their homes and keep the lights on. Not only has the carbon tax driven up the cost of energy, but this government has launched a war on Canada's natural resources and energy sectors. Bill C-69, which was deemed largely unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Canada last October, created burdensome red tape, drastically increased approval times and brief I.T. drove away projects. Now the Liberals seek to revive parts of that unconstitutional bill through this attack on both traditional and renewable offshore energy projects in Atlantic Canada. Bill C-49 had will drive away investment true more uncertainty, red tape, and longer timelines. In 2022, the environment minister reluctantedry approved the Bay du Nord offshore oil project, calling it one of the most difficult decisions the government had ever made. This project will create more than 13,000 jobs, 8,900 in Newfoundland and Labrador, 2200 in Ontario, 900 in Quebec, and 700 in Alberta. It will also add about 97 billion and change to our national GDP. But thanks to this government's reckless deficit spending, costs have increased and burdensome red tape has created uncertainty. Thanks to these factors, the project was delayed by three years and it's still inclear whether the project will ever be completed at all. In Nova Scotia, a private company was set to generate electricity from the massive tides in the Bay of Fundy. However, the project was eventually canceled due to the mountainous red tape. That company shut down its operations in Canada entirely, costing jobs for workers and affordable renewable energy for Nova Scotians. Over the last couple of years, multiple countries have pleaded for Canada to provide them LNG to help end their reliables on Russian gas. What did this prime minister say to those countries? He told them that there was no business case for Canada to export LNG from our east coast. Germany went on to sign within LNG deal with Qatar and built a massive receiving port in just a matter of months. What could have been powerful paycheques for Atlantic Canadians turned into more dollars for dictators. That is shameful, Madam Speaker, and of course, as a British Columbian, I would be remiss if I didn't talk about the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion, which Kinder Morgan at the beginning was prepared to complete on its own without taxpayer funding. After this government made the project unfeasible, Kinder Morgan pulled out and the government bought the pipeline. From there, costs exploded and taxpayers have now spent more than $30 billion on a project that was estimated to cost just $7 billion over a few years ago. This is the NDP-liberal government's record on energy and resource projects. Delay, drive up costs, and eventually drive projects away. I've talked a lot about the woeful lack of productivity in Canada's economy recently because it is truly an emergency. Even the Bank of Canada says that. Canada produces just 79% of what the United States does per hour. That ranks us behind all of our G7 peers, maybe save for Italy right now. Adjusted for inflation, Canada's GDP per capita now sits lower than it did in 2014. Meanwhile, businesses are closing at an alarming rate, and the data doesn't even capture

the full story for small businesses. The most recent statistics from the superintendent of banuptcy showed a 66.2% year-over-year increase in business insolvencies for the year ending March 31st, 2024. A recent article in the "Globe and Mail" highlighted that many small businesses insolvencies are not even captured under business insolvency as many small business owners have to take liability on leases and loans. When they go bankrupt, it's considered a consumer bankruptcy of which Canada saw 33.835 in the first quarter of 2024. An increase of 14% year-over-year during the same period. Driving away investment and development of energy and resource projects will only make things worse. In a time when businesses are struggling and Canadians can't afford to pay their bills because their pay checks don't have far enough, this government is chugging ahead with another attack on energy, jobs, economic growth, and even the constitution. Section 19 of Bill C-49 would open the door to more red tape and lengthy delays. It would shift decision-making powers on license approvals to the federal and provincial ministers while tripling the amount of time that decision can take. Section 28 would give the federal minister with the approval of the provincial minister the power to outright ban drilling in certain areas and even halt projects that are already approved and in progress. If this bill were to pass with Section 28 as written, it could put an end to offshore petroleum drilling in Atlantic Canada, killing good-paying jobs for workers and further strengthening eastern Canada's dependence on foreign oil imports from dictatorships lining Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Section 61 and 62 brings the unconstitutional Bill C. Into the review process, allowing the minister to attach any conditions they see fit to approval. I would be remiss if I didn't mention back in 2016, I was a political staffer, and I went over this bill at the environment committee. At the time, it was very career that the intention of the Government with this legislation was to give ministers unilateral power. It was to give the Government more control over the private sector. It was to give the Government the ability to halt projects through delay tactics. We've seen it now, and we're living it now, and the last thing we need to do is to include those measures in this legislation. We've seen how this government treats resource projects in this country. Section 61 and 62 will invariably be abused by this government to attach so many strings to approvals that projects will indeed become unfeasible, as we've witnessed. Canadians simply can't afford any more of this government and its anti-energy, anti-job, and anti-economic growth policies. They have shown time and time again that they are dead set on killing Canada's natural resource sector. If the environment minister had his way, not a single resource would ever be extracted in this country again. He would take away your right to have a gasoline car as well. While this government is focused on killing jobs and increasing our dependence on foreign sources of oil, Conservatives are focused on creating powerful paycheques for Canadians and getting Canada's bountiful resources to market so that our people can prosper. I will be joining my Conservative colleagues in voting against this NDP-Liberal attack on Canada's resource industry. Thank you, Madam Speaker. >> The Speaker: Questions and comments? [ Speaking French ] The Honourable Member for Avalon. >> I thank the member opposite for his speech, and I will say from the onset, because he mentioned the oil industry. I have family members that work in the oil industry in Newfoundland as well, so I support the oil industry wholeheartedly, but one question I have for him is he mentioned the powerful paycheques. Could you please give this House your definition of a powerful paycheque? >> The Speaker: The Honourable Member knows that he's to address questions and comments through the chair and not directly to the member. The Honourable Member for Mission-Matsqui-Fraser Canyon. >> Well, I'd like to thank my colleague from Newfoundland for that answer. What does a powerful paycheque mean? It means that the money you earn -- that more of the money you earn stays in the your pocket and not in the hand of Ottawa. There's not a single Canadian who doesn't agree with that. And that's what the Conservatives are set on doing by winning the next federal election. >> The Speaker: Questions and comments? The Honourable. >> The Honourable Member for Timmins-James Bay. >> Thank you, well, that was a hilarious way to spend my morning in the rabbit hole world of the Conservatives, who have spent weeks trying to shut down

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