Official Hansard
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join the debate today on behalf of the people of Lakeland. I hear every day from workers, farmers, families and business owners who know what is at stake when Canada cannot get major projects built. For more than a decade, Liberal laws and red tape have made it harder to build, invest and compete. That costs the people of Lakeland and Canadians everywhere jobs, businesses, higher prices and hope. After imposing layers of antidevelopment laws, taxes and delays, the Liberals seem to have finally discovered Canada must build for our own affordability, security and self-sufficiency. Conservatives, of course, agree. We have always pushed for more competitive regulatory and fiscal frameworks so Canada can have pipelines, mines, LNG, nuclear power and better ports, railways, highways, airports and trade corridors to move Canadian resources and goods across the country and to global markets that want our products. What Canadians do not need is yet another announcement or agreement pretending the last 11 years never happened. There is no doubt the federal government could have implemented real major project fast-tracking measures immediately when it took office and should have listened to economists, industry experts, provincial leaders, us and other countries years ago. Let us be clear. What has not changed? The Liberals have not repealed the unconstitutional Impact Assessment Act, the west coast oil shipping ban or the federal industrial carbon tax. Those are core parts of the Liberal antidevelopment agenda that Conservatives have always fought. They prolong uncertainty, increase dependence on one customer and undermine Canada’s competitiveness, distinctly not what other major producing countries or the U.S. inflict on their businesses or entrepreneurs. I have cautioned the damage that the Liberals would do and pushed for change at every step. In 2017, I fought Bill C-55 and antidevelopment zones that prohibit Canadian opportunities in water, often near regions where those are most important. In 2018, I warned repeatedly that Bill C-69’s so-called concrete timelines were anything but, since assessments could be stopped, extended and restarted at any time, making it totally uncertain for proponents and investors. Eight years later, proponents faced the same problems. The power to consider any other matter the agency decides is relevant obviously makes it impossible for investors to prepare, and removes efficiency and predictability from reviews. In 2018, I fought Bill C-48, the Liberal oil shipping ban, which the most impacted B.C. north coast first nation sued the Liberals over for its own rights and title to pursue its own economic opportunities, and prevented Canada from reaching vast Asian markets to reduce dependence on the U.S. in the most direct, affordable and efficient route. It is still law today. The federal industrial carbon tax remains too, the only one in the world for a major energy producer, which makes everything more expensive for Canadians and businesses. The Liberals have prolonged uncertainty despite the clarity and consistency of Canadian industry in the case for regulatory and fiscal change, and even in the face of challenges from Canada’s biggest customer and trading partner. Nine months ago, with the MP for Long Range Mountains, I moved our Canadian economic sovereignty motion to repeal the Impact Assessment Act, the shipping ban and the federal industrial carbon tax. The Liberals opposed it and every single one is in place today. Therefore, when the Liberals called Bill C-39 a dramatic break from their own past, let us look at what remains. This is the Liberal illusion, new language, new announcements, releases and rhetoric, but the same antidevelopment architecture, barriers and growing bureaucracy. Now the Liberals promise one project, one review, one year, which has been what Conservatives have proposed for years and ran on in 2025. However, the truth is the review clock would not start until proponents completed their comprehensive application, studies and permit information, work that can take years. Once it starts, the minister could add up to 90 days, cabinet could extend it further and timelines could be suspended. What good is a one-year promise if the clock starts years into the process and can stop along the way? That is still a stopwatch the government would control completely and proponents could not count on. I warned about this with Bill C-69 eight years ago. In June last year, I tried again with respect to Bill C-5. I put forward amendments for a 90-day designation decision and a one-year conditions timeline. The Liberals rejected both. More than a year later, Canadians are right to ask: Where are the results and what on earth is taking so long? Conservatives collaborated, helped improve and ultimately supported Bill C-5, because Canada must build urgently. The Liberals said that law and their Major Projects Office would get it done. Conservatives implemented greater transparency, conflict of interest, national security safeguards, indigenous participation and reporting on timelines and outcomes. We worked with the Bloc to protect provincial jurisdiction. That was in June 2025. Where are the results? Since then, at committee, the government has confirmed that roughly 100 people work at the Major Projects Office, with a budget of over $200 million. The head of the MPO said that 275 applications had already come in from all sources, sectors and jurisdictions. The Liberals seem to celebrate this, but really, the fact that there are 275 applications of all kinds and from all over shows chaos not clarity. Today, the MPO acknowledges only 18 projects and eight strategies. Many were already under way before the office existed. Others are concepts with no final investment decision and no shovels in the ground. Which projects actually moved because of the MPO, and what measurable outcomes did taxpayers get? Announcements are not outcomes. Meanwhile, at least 500 projects are waiting on the Prime Minister’s desk before projects at the Canada Energy Regulator, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and the Impact Assessment Agency are even counted. Although the sector remains the biggest investor in Canada’s economy, it is about even more than oil and gas. Manufacturers need reliable rail. Farmers and exporters need ports and trade corridors to work efficiently for lower costs. Communities need highways, water and waste-water infrastructure. The entire economy needs power and transmission lines. For years, Conservatives have said that infrastructure and natural resource development are not obstacles to Canada’s security and sovereignty; they are the foundations. Canada’s competitiveness and productivity problem is not new. A 2024 analysis using the federal major projects inventory found nearly $670 billion in natural resource projects suspended or cancelled since 2015. Finance Canada itself says that Canadian business investment has stagnated while U.S. investment rose and outpaced Canada’s. That matters even more amid U.S. trade uncertainty while the Liberals keep domestic antidevelopment taxes and regulatory barriers in place. Canada cannot control what the U.S. or other countries do, so Canadian governments should resolve to compete and beat them at home. CNRL says it directly. Two Canadian oil sands expansions of 240,000 barrels a day are on hold, waiting for more effective and efficient regulation, and a competitive fiscal framework. Canada could unleash that investment right now, but it is blocked, not building. Meanwhile, competitors proved that projects can move faster. TC Energy’s 700-kilometre southeast gateway pipeline in Mexico began construction eight months after permit application, and it entered service in under three years. Canada should be able to compete. Canada has done it before, under a different government. During the global financial crisis, 23,500 infrastructure projects were completed. They went from concept to completion in under two years. That is why Conservatives call for one and done: one project, one approval and one year, with a real deadline. The west coast pipeline proves the point. On October 1, the government finally listed a west coast oil pipeline as a project of national interest. Conservatives support another pipeline to the Pacific. We have argued for years for diversified export markets and pipelines built by the private sector in all directions, but Canadians should note what is happening here: The Liberal government and the Crown corporation once again have to build a pipeline because private sector proponents will not fully take it on. For years, those proponents faced an uncertain Impact Assessment Act, and Conservatives warned that it would drive away investment. Another pipeline to the Pacific was obviously in Canada’s national interest years ago. Canada needed market diversification years ago. Canadian energy has always been the key for security, sovereignty, affordability and leverage. The Liberals must create conditions for private capital to build, not make governments project owners because their own policies drive investment away. Canadians know the difference between an announcement and an outcome. A designation is not construction. An MOU is not a pipeline. A project on a list is not a project being built. Canadians want shovels in the ground. The federal government must do its own constitutional obligation of indigenous consultation to get to yes. If consultation is one reason a federal clock can stop, the government must deliver its part promptly and consistently, and it cannot use its own duty as an excuse for indefinite delay. Since the Liberals decide which projects receive special treatment, Canadians deserve transparency about conflicts of interest, ownership, foreign-state-owned investment and whether any Brookfield-related conflict screen applies. That is why Conservatives fought for those safeguards in Bill C-5. There is no doubt that Conservatives want Canada to build, not a headline deadline with years hidden before it and pause buttons built in. We want Canadian workers to build Canadian pipelines, ports, railways, highways, mines, nuclear plants, transmission lines and trade corridors with Canadian materials, but Bill C-39 would not get rid of the bad laws that are the problem in the first place. The Liberals cannot say they were not warned. Canada has lost enough time. Stop blocking, stop taxing and stop delaying. Give proponents certainty, and bring private investment back to Canada.
