Elizabeth May, Saanich—Gulf Islands
“We should refine our own oil instead of sending it out raw. Shipping out raw oil sends Canadian jobs to other countries and forces us to buy it back later.”
“Madam Speaker, I was an intervener in the National Energy Board hearings around Kinder Morgan, and it was a little-known reality that the largest union in northern Alberta, in the oil sands, opposed the Kinder Morgan pipeline because the union saw it exporting not just bitumen but jobs. Unifor intervened in the NEB hearings to say we should refine bitumen within Canada, not ship it out. To my hon. colleague also from British Columbia, that is why we see Canada buying back bitumen that was sold into the U.S. It comes back to us, because the refining capacity did not get the investments and the National Energy Board refused to accept Unifor’s evidence. That was a missed opportunity. I wonder if the hon. member for Calgary Heritage would agree with me that shipping out raw bitumen, like shipping out raw logs, is shipping out Canadian jobs.”
Madam Speaker, I was an intervener in the National Energy Board hearings around Kinder Morgan, and it was a little-known reality that the largest union in northern Alberta, in the oil sands, opposed the Kinder Morgan pipeline because the union saw it exporting not just bitumen but jobs. Unifor intervened in the NEB hearings to say we should refine bitumen within Canada, not ship it out. To my hon. colleague also from British Columbia, that is why we see Canada buying back bitumen that was sold into the U.S. It comes back to us, because the refining capacity did not get the investments and the National Energy Board refused to accept Unifor’s evidence. That was a missed opportunity. I wonder if the hon. member for Calgary Heritage would agree with me that shipping out raw bitumen, like shipping out raw logs, is shipping out Canadian jobs.