Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I was just hoping that you would have a chance to see things through the eyes of the Conservatives there for a moment.
Nevertheless, the point I was making was that sometimes governments have to pause and look at the realities of the things that are taking place. It doesn't matter if it's in my province of Alberta, in Quebec, in the Maritimes, in Ontario, or in the territories.... I won't name all the provinces, but that's my point.
If you don't have a government that sits back...or you have people who say that they found out we've got some issues here, so we 'd better back off. It's the same sort of thing that's going to happen if there is a mining project set up for my riding, Mr. Falk's riding, Ms. Lapointe's riding or Ms. Jones' riding. You have to deal with not only the community, but the province or territory has to deal with not only the community, but the company and the federal government.
When I talk about what has happened in Alberta, a massive amount of renewable resource development is taking place. Then of course, we got somebody who had the support 170,000 union workers say that this is terrible. They said it was going to take $33 billion out. I think the minister—I can't remember whether it was the natural resources minister or the environment minister; they're interchangeable—said the same thing. It's nonsense, but nevertheless it's the same thing. You have to worry.
The reality is, in my community, as in any other people's communities, when you have groups saying they would like to take 11 quarters of good farmland out of production and put in solar panels, if that doesn't mean you should sit back and take a look at it, I don't know what does.
I know the farmers' advocate from Alberta told these people that they'd better really make sure they know what's taking place. At this point in time, it's the Wild West when it comes to these groups.
It's not like oil and gas, where there's somebody there to say this is how this has to be dealt with once it's gone. This isn't the way it is. The same sort of thing happens whether it be windmill projects and so on. They are only designed for 20 to 30 years. As I've mentioned, I have one where it's been about 15 years since it started. It takes a lot more of the environment to deal with putting them up, getting to them, the roads associated with them, the hydrocarbons that are needed to build them in first place and the hydrocarbons that are needed to keep them running in the second place.
A government basically said that they'd better have a plan for this. Therefore, they are going to have a moratorium on other projects. These things are still on the books. There's never a problem. Although we were told that's going to stop everything, that's not true.
That's what happened there. It should be happening around the whole country.
People should be asking whether this is really the right thing.
When you start digging a pit mine some place, it's not going to be like Fort McMurray. They're not going to turn it back into a forest when they're done. It's going to be a hole in the ground. Those are the things that people have to be aware of. I question whether we are aware, when we follow this ideological bent.
Coming back to what I had mentioned before, we do not have the right information in front of us. We believe certain groups that come at us with passion and commitment to their cause. We never take the time to figure out how that affects us as Canadians.
How does that affect our communities?
That, to me, is where I think we need this sober second thought.
Now, on the just transition part, again, this is going to affect people all over, not just in Alberta. It's going to affect people in the entirety of Canada.
When we take a look at what is taking place there, the union leadership is saying, “Oh, that's great. Here's another chance for us to look at the new jobs that are there. We get a chance to be part of that expansion. We'll be able to have more members,” trying to make people think that most people in this country are unionized. That's not necessarily the case.
The other part is that they're basically saying that the investments that have been made in hydrocarbons were a mistake; therefore, we go back. I was for years on the aboriginal affairs and northern development committee, as it was called back in those days. We are now stranding billions of dollars of indigenous investment with the policies of this government.
I have said it before, and I see other people using the term now. We are eco-colonialists. We believe that this is best for the indigenous people of this country. They would love to have jobs working on windmills, solar panels or other types of things, but we should not be encouraging them to continue to invest in or continue to work in the hydrocarbons in which they have spent decades perfecting their skills. If we continue to do that.... We are so naive.
There's always going to be some group that will say, “Oh yes, I'm....” It's whatever the government says. There's a box to check. There's going to be this happen if we do that, and it will make our lives easier if we've checked off any box that the government has. It doesn't matter what government. If this is their plan, then the best thing to do is find somebody who really knows how to write a proposal, send it to the bureaucrats, and then go from there.