Adjournment Proceedings

An adjournment debate on whether major projects, particularly pipelines and energy development, are getting built in Canada. Pat Kelly of the Conservatives said major projects are not being built under the government, pointing to cancelled pipelines, dropping housing starts, and investment leaving the country, and asked the government to adopt the Conservative plan: repeal what he called antidevelopment laws, remove capital gains taxes on gains reinvested in Canada, and eliminate the industrial carbon tax. Corey Hogan, parliamentary secretary to the minister of natural resources, replied that the government is fixing rules that slowed building for years, noted the Trans Mountain pipeline was built and that oil production and jobs are up while emissions are down, and said several pipeline projects are under construction with another planned for the west coast. Kelly replied that the government should not claim credit for Trans Mountain, saying it drove out the private builder and cost far more than originally expected, and pointed to the cancellation of Northern Gateway; Hogan attributed Trans Mountain’s cost partly to consultation problems under the previous government and defended the pipeline’s profitability.Written by AI from the debate. Updated .

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2 statements

Corey Hogan, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources

Liberal
“Our government is fixing rules that have slowed down building for years, including under the Conservatives. We built the Trans Mountain pipeline, oil production is up, and emissions are down. In Calgary, jobs are up while housing prices and rents are down. Our plan is working, and we should all support this bill.”
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Official Hansard

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague and appreciate his work on natural resources. There are a number of things I want to go through that he discussed. I will take them in the order that he presented them. He discussed a number of different things that occurred over the last 10 years. He failed to mention, however, that the regulatory burden has increased in Canada, yes, but it had increased, in an unbroken sense, through the Harper years as well. What we are doing with Bill C-39 is rationalizing systems that have become burdensome, not just under the Trudeau government but under many governments before. That is work we should all support in the House. The member talked about the northern gateway pipeline and purported to say that it was killed by a Liberal government. I would observe that the approval was actually struck down by the Supreme Court first because of the failure of a Conservative government to follow due processes there. That is a reminder to us that we need to make sure that in this Canadian context, we are doing things prudently and wisely. Running things through is not how things get built in Canada. Things get built in Canada through collaboration between a federal government and the provinces, first nations and those who have come after. Collaboration is the name of the game. The member also mentioned the tanker ban. While the tanker ban was enshrined in law during the Trudeau years, it has existed since the 1980s under the Mulroney, Campbell, Chrétien, Martin and Harper governments, before it was enshrined in law. In fact, it was never tested in that time. There is often misinformation going around that tankers are still running through that area. That is not the case. I have heard it many times, so I will pre-empt that. When the member talked about pipelines not being built, he failed to mention TMX, a pipeline that was built and in fact reduced our reliance on the United States significantly. It is the only reason we are not 100% reliant on the United States for export. I will also say that while I too have my challenges with the approach to energy generation and production in the Trudeau years, we did see oil production increase by 34% in Canada at a time when global oil production increased in the same period by six per cent. We did that while reducing emissions by six per cent, while the population increased 15%. Although the record is mixed, there are many positives in there as well. We are currently seeing record oil and diesel production. If we want to talk about our region of Calgary, as the member and I share a region, we are seeing a lot of positivity. Housing prices are down, rents are down, and there has been an increase of 62,000 jobs since the start of this calendar year. It seems to me that our plan is working.

Corey Hogan, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources

Liberal
“The Trans Mountain pipeline cost a lot because the previous Conservative government mishandled consultations on Northern Gateway. Still, the pipeline is very profitable and good for the economy. We already have about four pipeline projects under construction since this summer, and we plan to start building another one on the west coast by next September.”
Official Hansard

Madam Speaker, I will also mention northern gateway. The Harper government’s failure to properly manage the consultations on that was one of the consequences that led to TMX being such an expensive project. We have learned a lot. We have developed as a nation. Jurisprudence has gone along there. Even though the costs were high, I will also say that TMX is an incredibly profitable pipeline in a real sense and also in the economic lift sense. There is much going on that many Canadians are very excited about. We are seeing development occur. The member talked about shovels in the ground. There are a number of projects with shovels in the ground. We have the sunrise pipeline, for example. We have a number of other pipelines moving. There are about four that have started construction and have had those shovels in the ground the member is looking for since this summer. I think we can anticipate more. As has already been discussed, we are shooting for shovels in the ground on the big pipeline, Pacific link, that west coast pipeline, by September of next year.

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