Bill C-69 (Historical)

An Act to enact the Impact Assessment Act and the Canadian Energy Regulator Act, to amend the Navigation Protection Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts

Part 1 enacts the Impact Assessment Act and repeals the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012. Among other things, the Impact Assessment Act
(a) names the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada as the authority responsible for impact assessments;
(b) provides for a process for assessing the environmental, health, social and economic effects of designated projects with a view to preventing certain adverse effects and fostering sustainability;
(c) prohibits proponents, subject to certain conditions, from carrying out a designated project if the designated project is likely to cause certain environmental, health, social or economic effects, unless the Minister of the Environment or Governor in Council determines that those effects are in the public interest, taking into account the impacts on the rights of the Indigenous peoples of Canada, all effects that may be caused by the carrying out of the project, the extent to which the project contributes to sustainability and other factors;
(d) establishes a planning phase for a possible impact assessment of a designated project, which includes requirements to cooperate with and consult certain persons and entities and requirements with respect to public participation;
(e) authorizes the Minister to refer an impact assessment of a designated project to a review panel if he or she considers it in the public interest to do so, and requires that an impact assessment be referred to a review panel if the designated project includes physical activities that are regulated under the Nuclear Safety and Control Act, the Canadian Energy Regulator Act, the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Resources Accord Implementation Act and the Canada–Newfoundland and Labrador Atlantic Accord Implementation Act;
(f) establishes time limits with respect to the planning phase, to impact assessments and to certain decisions, in order to ensure that impact assessments are conducted in a timely manner;
(g) provides for public participation and for funding to allow the public to participate in a meaningful manner;
(h) sets out the factors to be taken into account in conducting an impact assessment, including the impacts on the rights of the Indigenous peoples of Canada;
(i) provides for cooperation with certain jurisdictions, including Indigenous governing bodies, through the delegation of any part of an impact assessment, the joint establishment of a review panel or the substitution of another process for the impact assessment;
(j) provides for transparency in decision-making by requiring that the scientific and other information taken into account in an impact assessment, as well as the reasons for decisions, be made available to the public through a registry that is accessible via the Internet;
(k) provides that the Minister may set conditions, including with respect to mitigation measures, that must be implemented by the proponent of a designated project;
(l) provides for the assessment of cumulative effects of existing or future activities in a specific region through regional assessments and of federal policies, plans and programs, and of issues, that are relevant to the impact assessment of designated projects through strategic assessments; and
(m) sets out requirements for an assessment of environmental effects of non-designated projects that are on federal lands or that are to be carried out outside Canada.
Part 2 enacts the Canadian Energy Regulator Act, which establishes the Canadian Energy Regulator and sets out its composition, mandate and powers. The role of the Regulator is to regulate the exploitation, development and transportation of energy within Parliament’s jurisdiction.
The Canadian Energy Regulator Act, among other things,
(a) provides for the establishment of a Commission that is responsible for the adjudicative functions of the Regulator;
(b) ensures the safety and security of persons, energy facilities and abandoned facilities and the protection of property and the environment;
(c) provides for the regulation of pipelines, abandoned pipelines, and traffic, tolls and tariffs relating to the transmission of oil or gas through pipelines;
(d) provides for the regulation of international power lines and certain interprovincial power lines;
(e) provides for the regulation of renewable energy projects and power lines in Canada’s offshore;
(f) provides for the regulation of access to lands;
(g) provides for the regulation of the exportation of oil, gas and electricity and the interprovincial oil and gas trade; and
(h) sets out the process the Commission must follow before making, amending or revoking a declaration of a significant discovery or a commercial discovery under the Canada Oil and Gas Operations Act and the process for appealing a decision made by the Chief Conservation Officer or the Chief Safety Officer under that Act.
Part 2 also repeals the National Energy Board Act.
Part 3 amends the Navigation Protection Act to, among other things,
(a) rename it the Canadian Navigable Waters Act;
(b) provide a comprehensive definition of navigable water;
(c) require that, when making a decision under that Act, the Minister must consider any adverse effects that the decision may have on the rights of the Indigenous peoples of Canada;
(d) require that an owner apply for an approval for a major work in any navigable water if the work may interfere with navigation;
(e)  set out the factors that the Minister must consider when deciding whether to issue an approval;
(f) provide a process for addressing navigation-related concerns when an owner proposes to carry out a work in navigable waters that are not listed in the schedule;
(g) provide the Minister with powers to address obstructions in any navigable water;
(h) amend the criteria and process for adding a reference to a navigable water to the schedule;
(i) require that the Minister establish a registry; and
(j) provide for new measures for the administration and enforcement of the Act.
Part 4 makes consequential amendments to Acts of Parliament and regulations.

Oil and Gas Industry

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Mr. Speaker, that is the type of non-answer that we have become accustomed to from the Liberals. Grand gestures, meetings and press conferences will not things done, even though the Prime Minister seems to believe that is the case.

What would move things forward, of course, is a plan, such as a plan to scrap Bill C-69, the no new pipelines act; a plan to scrap Bill C-48; or a plan to scrap the job-killing oil and gas cap, which exists. On the industrial carbon tax, let us get rid of that as well.

Is the Prime Minister simply turning a blind eye to these things, or does he just not know how to get things done?

Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply

[Pat Kelly, Conservative, Calgary Crowfoot, AB]

Mr. Speaker, although this is not my first intervention in this Parliament, this is the first opportunity I have had to take a moment to thank the voters of Calgary Crowfoot. I am getting used to the riding name change. Many riding names have changed, but I thank the voters of Calgary Crowfoot for sending me to this place for the fourth time in nine and a half years.

I want to thank my opponents in the election for putting their names forward. Without choice and without options for people to vote for, there is no democracy, so I thank all participants in this election.

I would like to thank the volunteers in Calgary Crowfoot, the amazing group of volunteers who helped us get out to 25,000-odd doors, put up thousands of signs and make an argument to voters for a change of government.

I would also like to thank, of course, my loving family: my wife Kim, my daughters Katie, Jessica and Meaghan, and my mum Marnie Kelly. My father Duane Kelly passed away, sadly, only a few months before the election.

I would like to congratulate all members of Parliament on their election, in particular the new MPs. There are many new MPs in this Parliament, and I look forward to meeting them and getting to know who everybody is.

I also congratulate the new cabinet and the new Prime Minister. They have tremendous work to do. It is important to me as a Canadian and to the people who sent me here that Canada prospers and does well and that we have competent, prudent and proper public administration and stewardship of public resources. I wish the government the best in doing so.

I will also say that I am part of a government in waiting, and we are ready to step up and form a government should this government fall. We will demand accountability. We will demand competence and execution. We will be here to scrutinize the laws the Liberals propose and the administration of the government in general. That is what we are here to do. That is what all members of Parliament do. Members do not even need to be in the opposition benches to do that. I challenge the backbenches on the government side to do their jobs as legislators and demand accountability from the government and their own party. That is their job. It is not just their job to cheerlead for the front bench. I hope they will take seriously their role in holding the government to account, as all parliamentarians should.

Here we are in June 2025, and the same government has been in power for nine and a half years. It has added half a trillion dollars to the national debt and brought in a structural deficit. It has no plan for a balanced budget in sight. We are enduring a housing crisis wherein mortgage payments and rent have more than doubled on its watch. We have seen a sense of hopelessness creep in among younger people, who believe that they will never have a path to home ownership other than through inheritance or the sharing of real estate equity from their family. Crime in every category has gone up. We have a drug overdose crisis.

As for the military, the most basic core function of government is national security and protecting Canadians, and tanks are in extremely short supply and falling apart. We have ships rusting out and jets wearing out, with recruitment, retention and housing in crisis. We have gaps in domain awareness in the Arctic and a RADARSAT system that is going to reach its end of life without a replacement. Procurement is in a state of disaster. We cannot even procure, build and supply basics like artillery shells. The recently retired chief of the defence staff has said that there has not been an acute need for military preparedness since the end of the Second World War and we are not there.

We have the threat of Trump to deal with, and the tariffs and all that his administration has said it may do. However, perhaps the most important statistic that I can point to is the per-capita GDP in Canada. Over the last 10 years, its growth was the lowest in the OECD. In fact, it was not growth at all. Canadians are no better off now than they were 10 years ago. This is a lost Liberal decade.

Where were we 10 years ago? When the Liberal government came to power, it inherited a balanced budget, affordable homes that working people could buy, a northern gateway pipeline that was conditionally approved and a Trans Mountain pipeline that was going to be built with private money, not with taxpayers' money. The energy east project was ready to be proposed. The F-35 were ready for contract and ready to be procured. Crime was at the lowest on record. This was the Canada that the government came into power with, and this is where we have been taken over the last 10 years.

It is not something that just randomly happened. There were concrete actions by the government all the way along that brought us here. They brought in the culture of “no”. They brought in new regulations and laws, like Bill C-69 and Bill C-48, that make it impossible to get energy infrastructure projects built. That was by design. This was not even just a mistake on the part of the government.

Furthermore, there is no end in sight. The Liberals have brought in, and we have seen it creeping in, a culture of corporate welfare where connected insiders benefit and where Liberal insiders benefit. We saw over that time period the Liberals cancel the F-35s. They came in and said that they were not going to procure them at all and that they were going to have a separate procurement process. They dithered and wasted time while our need for this aircraft carried on. We would already have the F-35s if they had simply procured them when they took office. These are the things that have happened over the last 10 years.

The Speech from the Throne contains no concrete plan. There is no budget that would signal a plan or even tell Canadians and be honest about where we are financially, what our fiscal plan is and what the deficit will be. The Liberals have said some things that are encouraging to many. They have taken many ideas from the Conservative benches and the Conservative campaign. If someone puts a tax cut in front of me, I will vote for it. If someone proposes to eliminate a regulation that is destroying the job opportunities in my riding, I will support it. However, what I will not support is a Speech from the Throne that gives vague promises without any type of a clear road map, while the Liberals simultaneously table a set of estimates that show ballooning public expenditures for consultants, of all things. This is all while the Liberals have allowed the public service to grow enormously during their time while service to Canadians declines.

Copying our ideas is the most sincere form of flattery, and we would be prepared to accept it as Conservatives, but the government is not a new government. It has a different Prime Minister, but it has the same people in the front benches, who, for the last 10 years, have criticized Conservatives. When I look at Hansard, I can see some of the things that members of the front benches said to me and other members when we proposed important ideas, like axing the tax, which is something they were all too quick to adopt in the election. As such, I have doubts about the ability of the government, with the same group of people in the front benches, to execute on improving life for Canadians.

Natural Resources

[Gérard Deltell, Conservative, Louis-Saint-Laurent—Akiawenhrahk, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the heritage minister must know that Leduc No. 1 is a Parks Canada national historic site. That is the well where oil first gushed out of the ground in Canada and triggered the Canadian oil boom. The heritage minister should be proud of that.

Earlier, the Minister of Finance talked about a hydroelectric project. Is he aware that Bill C-69 gives the federal government veto power over hydroelectric projects?

How can Canada reach its full potential if the federal government does not mind its own business?

[Rosemarie Falk, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster—Meadow Lake, SK]

Mr. Speaker, it is the Liberal government's anti-energy policies that are blocking critical energy projects in this country. Bill C-69, the no new pipelines law; Bill C-48, the shipping ban; the job-killing oil and gas cap; and the industrial carbon tax are all driving away investment and killing Canadian energy development.

If the Prime Minister is serious about his so-called “build, baby, build”, will the Liberal government repeal its anti-energy agenda to get vital energy projects built?

Canadian Energy Sector

[Stephanie Kusie, Conservative, Calgary Midnapore, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister continues to talk out of both sides of his mouth when it comes to Canadian energy. He says he wants Canada to be an energy superpower, but then says it can only be done with national consensus. He says he wants to green-light projects, but then presents an approval process of a minimum of two years. He says he wants provinces to present a list of ready-to-go projects, but then he came out of yesterday's meeting with no list. How sad is it that the premiers were just happy to meet with an adult after 10 years of the last guy, but he is no more serious when it comes to taking the necessary steps to unleash our energy sector?

If the Prime Minister is really committed to national unity and wants to make us the economic engine of the G7, he should start with repealing a decade of anti-energy laws Bill C-69 and Bill C-48, the production cap and the industrial carbon tax. He needs to get rid of them.

Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply

[Rosemarie Falk, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster—Meadow Lake, SK]

Madam Speaker, as this is my first time rising to speak in the 45th Parliament, I want to begin by expressing my deep gratitude to the constituents of the newly redistributed riding of Battlefords—Lloydminster—Meadow Lake. I thank them for placing their trust in me to be their voice in this chamber.

It is truly an honour and a privilege to stand in this place, and I do so with a sense of deep responsibility, one that I do not take lightly. Of course, none of this would have been possible without the support of my family, volunteers and the many dedicated individuals who believe in our vision for a stronger Canada. I want to take a moment to thank them for standing with me. I want to especially thank my husband Adam and my children, Annabelle, William, Victoria and Eloise, for their unconditional love and their unconditional support. I also want to express my steadfast commitment to fighting for the change and hope needed to address the immediate challenges facing our country and to strengthen it for the next generation.

During the recent election, as I spoke with constituents, I heard the same concerns time and time again. The rising cost of living is making it harder for families to make ends meet, and many no longer feel safe in their own communities. While the issue of protecting our sovereignty was at the forefront of political discourse, the overwhelming concern I heard from constituents was about protecting the livelihoods and values that define our communities.

For a decade, the Liberal government has attacked the industries that form the backbone of our economy. The government has also threatened the values and way of life in Saskatchewan. My constituents want to know how we can chart a path forward that ensures our province has every opportunity to succeed. To unite our country and create an environment where every Canadian, regardless of where they live, can work hard and succeed requires a plan. Unfortunately, the only thing that the Liberal government's throne speech makes clear is that it does not have a plan.

While there are some lofty ideas in this speech, there are no details on how the Liberals will accomplish these goals and no specifics to give Canadians the confidence they need in the government's direction. A budget would provide that direction, but right out of the gate, the finance minister announced that the government would not be presenting a budget this year. Rightly, that declaration was met with immense blowback and criticism, not just from Conservatives, but from Canadians, political pundits and people from all sides of the political spectrum. After all that backlash, the government has backtracked just a little, promising a fall budget. However, a fall budget is simply not good enough. Serious leadership requires a plan and a plan that should be presented this spring.

The Prime Minister himself repeatedly said throughout the election that a “plan beats no plan”, yet here we are left wondering where that supposed plan is today. The throne speech offers nothing but vague rhetoric and lofty promises. It talks about wanting to bring down housing costs, which is a very important priority for many Canadians, especially young Canadians who have lost the dream of home ownership. However, instead of presenting a plan to cut the red tape that is driving up the cost of homes, the Liberal throne speech proposes a brand new bureaucracy. We need solutions that make housing more affordable, not more layers of red tape.

This lack of direction might stem from the very fact that the Prime Minister appointed a housing minister who has already publicly stated that, no, housing prices do not need to come down. How can Canadians trust the government to address the housing crisis when even its own minister does not believe in bringing prices down?

The Prime Minister also says that he wants to get big projects built, but his own ministers do not seem to agree. He has appointed many former Trudeau ministers who have actively worked to put up barriers and red tape, making it impossible to get big nation-building projects off the ground.

The lack of sincerity in wanting to get projects built is further evidenced by the Prime Minister's refusal to repeal the very laws that are stopping these projects, laws like Bill C-69, Bill C-48, the energy cap and the industrial carbon tax. These policies are suffocating our economy and job creation.

In fact, there is no direct mention of Canada's oil and gas sector in the throne speech, one of Canada's most important industries and the lifeblood of entire provinces. There is no mention of how we can get our energy to new markets and there is certainly no mention of how Canadian energy can displace our dependency on foreign oil from countries with lower environmental and human rights standards. There is no mention of how Canadian energy can help reduce our global energy dependence on those same countries.

This glaring omission in the throne speech speaks volumes about the government's priorities. It is not the bold leadership needed when our sovereignty and our economy are under attack. When outside forces are threatening our industries, we need a federal government that strengthens and protects them, not one that weakens and continues to undermine them.

Despite the talk of spending restraint, the throne speech offers no real numbers, no specific targets and certainly no credibility, especially after a decade of inflationary waste and economic decline. The tabling of the main estimates last week paints a distinctly different picture from the promise of spending restraint that was made in the throne speech. The Liberal government has tabled $486 billion in spending, and yet again, it has done this without the presentation of a budget. This is the first time in decades that this has been done, outside of the pandemic. This is not the change that Canadians wanted. This is a troubling continuation of the pattern we saw under Justin Trudeau: escalating spending with no clear plan on how the money will be spent efficiently or effectively.

The proposal would increase government spending by 8%, with much of that increase funnelled into bureaucracy, consultants and contractors, none of which will directly benefit Canadians who are struggling to make ends meet. The bureaucracy is set to grow by 6%, which is more than double the combined rate of inflation and population growth. What is worse is that spending on consultants is set to increase by 37%, reaching an astonishing $26 billion annually. This means that the average Canadian family will now be paying an extra $1,400 a year just to fund these consultants. In just this short time, the Prime Minister is proving to be even more expensive than Justin Trudeau, whom he advised.

At a time when Canadians are already faced with the highest inflation in decades, this reckless spending will only make life harder for everyday Canadians. The Liberals must stop burdening Canadians with debt and start implementing policies that make life more affordable. With no budget in sight and no clarity in the throne speech on how the government intends to tackle the challenges facing Canadians, it is clear that the repackaged Liberal government is not showing the leadership our country so desperately needs.

While the throne speech fails to offer the leadership Canadians need, Conservatives remain committed to holding the government to account and bringing about changes that will make this country more affordable, safer and self-reliant. We must work together to deliver the hope that Canadians are so desperate for. The Conservatives are committed to fighting for those priorities so that together, we can build a stronger Canada where all Canadians can get ahead and contribute to the success of our great country.

Natural Resources

[Andrew Lawton, Conservative, Elgin—St. Thomas—London South, ON]

Mr. Speaker, last week, I asked the Prime Minister and the government a very simple question about Canada's energy sector. I even did the homework for the government. I pointed out how the industrial carbon tax is making Canada less competitive and less affordable. I pointed out how the oil and gas production cap is keeping our resources in the ground and scaring away investors. I pointed out how Bill C-69 is making it essentially impossible to build pipelines in the country.

I asked the industry minister whether the government would commit to Canada's energy sector, as the Prime Minister occasionally says depending on what room he is in, and repeal these anti-energy laws. She responded without mentioning the words “oil”, “gas” or “resources”. The writer who wrote her response to my question must have been the same writer who wrote the government's throne speech because it did not address oil and gas in the least.

This is not just a western Canada issue. When we do not support Canada's energy sector, we are actually harming the country as a whole. We are making ourselves more dependent on the United States. We are making ourselves less competitive. We are compromising our sovereignty and independence and even our security. It is curious that the government is scared of the word “pipeline” and will not utter it in many of the responses we hear in this chamber and in much of the other communication we get from the government.

My question for the government is incredibly simple. It comes down to the path it wants to chart forward. Does it support a future that invests in Canadian energy or does it support the environmental radicals who want to keep our resources in the ground?

The reason I bring this up is that the facts are abundantly clear. Between 2015 and 2025, the Liberal government killed 16 major energy projects. This resulted in a $176-billion hit to the economy.

When I talk about the competitive advantage of investing in resources, we need not look further than our neighbour to the south, the United States. In the last 10 years or so, between 2010 and 2021, the United States grew its natural gas exports by 485%. What happened in Canada in that same time period? That is a good question. They actually went down by 18%. This is Canada, which has access to an incredible wealth of resources. The only thing standing in the way of embracing them is the “keep it in the ground”, anti-energy, innovation-killing attitude the Liberal government has embodied.

This is where we are right now. The Liberals like to talk about the fact that, in their words, they are not anti-pipeline; they just want there to be a consensus. How can there be a consensus when they do not even have a consensus in their front bench, as evidenced by a speaker in cabinet who just a couple of weeks ago said that he did not know and that we did not need any pipelines? That was the former environment minister, who is now the Minister of Canadian Identity.

We have laid out the facts clearly, so I will ask the government this: Once and for all, will it repeal its anti-energy policies and commit to pipeline development in Canada?

Oil and Gas Industry

[Billy Morin, Conservative, Edmonton Northwest, AB]

Mr. Speaker, we hear a lot of rhetoric from the Liberal government about making Canada an energy superpower, but its commitment to job-killing anti-Canadian energy legislation holds back our potential as a nation. The actions needed today are to repeal the no new pipeline bill, Bill C-69; repeal the shipping ban bill, Bill C-48; repeal the job-killing oil and gas production cap; and repeal the industrial carbon tax.

Will the Liberal government take action today, the action needed, to repeal its anti-energy agenda?

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister may be meeting, but he sure is not listening. While he dawdles, the opportunities to unleash Canadian energy pass us by because of the Liberals' anti-energy legislation, which blocks infrastructure and blocks investment. The provinces want to build and Canadian workers want to work. Canadians want energy independence, but Bill C-69 blocks pipelines and Bill C-48 blocks shipping. The job-killing carbon tax and the industrial carbon tax are punishing our energy sector.

Will the Prime Minister end his attacks on Canadian oil and gas and repeal his anti-energy legislation today?

Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply

[Aaron Gunn, Conservative, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to be standing here today to give my first-ever speech as a member of Parliament. Let me first start off by thanking the incredible people of my riding of North Island—Powell River. I am here first and foremost because of the trust they have placed in me to be their voice and their elected representative in this esteemed chamber. This is something for which I will always be grateful and which I will never forget.

It has been almost two years now since I first decided to seek the Conservative Party nomination and run in the last election. It was a decision I made because I believed then, as I do now, that this country was headed in the wrong direction, that it was failing to live up to its true potential and that it was sleepwalking toward a fiscal and cultural cliff. I think there is no better example of that than the fiscal mismanagement we have seen of our country.

When I worked at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, I used to tour a debt clock right across the country. It showed how much the federal government had borrowed and how much debt it was leaving to future generations to pay for. It was a great tool to help people visualize just how much we were leaving the next generation to pay for. That particular debt clock no longer exists, because under the Liberals and the NDP, we have managed to borrow more money in the last 10 years than all other governments in the history of this country combined, and we literally ran out of digits on the clock.

Of course, all this spending, borrowing and printing of money has other consequences as well. We have seen the highest inflation in more than 30 years, as everything, especially homes, has become less affordable. There used to be a promise here in Canada: If people worked hard, paid their taxes and followed the law, they could afford a place to live.

When my grandfather, who is now 94 years old, first came to Canada in 1957 as a refugee, he, like most new Canadians, started off with a minimum-wage job working on the railway. On that minimum-wage job, he was able to afford a home and a nice piece of property right on Vancouver Island and have it paid off in less than 10 years. Does anyone think one could afford a home and have it paid off in less than 10 years while earning minimum wage anywhere in Canada today? I do not think so.

This is the result of too much government, too much regulation and too much bureaucracy. It is time to remove the gatekeepers and start building things in this country again. This also means supporting our incredible resource sector and resource sector workers, who have been under constant attack from the Liberals and the NDP.

On the North Island, where I live, forestry is down by a third; aquaculture has been cut in half; fishermen have had their access barred to areas they have fished sustainably for more than a hundred years; and the last mine on Vancouver Island closed as well. On energy, the Liberal record is even worse: axing the northern gateway pipeline, telling our allies in Korea, Germany and Greece that there is no business case for Canadian LNG, and introducing legislation like Bill C-69, which killed dozens of massive energy and resource projects and led to tens of billions of dollars in investment fleeing to the United States, and for what? Was it just so these jobs can leave our country, for China, for India, for the U.S., for countries with lower environmental standards than our own? These are Canadian workers who have had their livelihoods, their ability to put food on the table to feed their families, sacrificed by the Liberals and the NDP on the altar of this green ideology. Here is the truth: No one does safety and environmental stewardship better than Canada or better than Canadians, and as long as the world needs lumber, minerals, or oil and natural gas, as much of it as possible should come from right here in Canada.

We also have to rebuild our military. We have our amazing men and women in uniform flying combat aircraft that are more than 40 years old, to say nothing of the state of our submarines. Our men and women in uniform, as amazing as they are, find a way to make it work; they really do. However, it should not be up to them to become the world's experts in using old, rusted-out equipment. They deserve better than that.

There is maybe no issue where the Liberals and the NDP have done more damage, from a human perspective, than their mismanagement of the addictions crisis. First, they decriminalized hard drugs, including fentanyl, crystal meth and crack cocaine, and then they used taxpayer money to flood the streets with a highly addictive and deadly opioid called hydromorphone, or Dilaudid, while marketing it to our young people as safe supply. This is all part of their plan known as harm reduction.

As a result, since 2015, more than 50,000 Canadians have died from drug overdoses. That is more Canadians dead than those who died in the entire Second World War. That does not sound much like harm reduction to me. They say the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing while expecting a different result, so how about instead of handing out free drugs, we get our fellow Canadians into treatment, get them into recovery and return them to being healthy, productive members of our society again?

At the same time, we need to repeal the soft-on-crime Liberal legislation, like Bill C-75 and Bill C-5, that has reduced jail time for serious offenders and granted near automatic bail for career criminals. In fact, it seems the only people who are ever punished for anything anymore under the Liberals and the NDP are those who actually work for a living and follow the law, whether it is our law-abiding firearms owners, who have been targeted and demonized by their own government; small business owners, who have been taxed and regulated to the point of insolvency; or resource workers, who have had their jobs threatened, their careers denigrated and, in some cases, their livelihoods destroyed.

Right now, in Canada in so many ways, it feels as if right side up is upside down and common sense no longer exists. That brings me to the cultural erosion that we have seen, the tearing down of statues, the erasing of our history.

I was in Victoria the day this corrosive ideology all began, when they toppled the monument to the man who built this country, without whom Canada would not even exist. The truth is that this country has so much to celebrate and so much to be proud of. We owe an infinite debt of gratitude to all those who came before us, like the prime ministers, both Liberal and Conservative, whose portraits are hanging just outside these chamber walls. They laid the foundation for what would become and for what still is the greatest country in the world. They laid the foundation by being bold, by being daring and by getting things done.

In the late 1800s, Canada was a small country divided by language and religion and surrounded by a larger and much more powerful neighbour to the south, yet in that historical context, we completed what many consider to be this country's greatest engineering and political feat: the Canadian Pacific Railway. Championed by Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald, most do not know that the bulk of the work took just four years to complete through some of the most difficult and expansive terrain in the world, across the Canadian Shield and through the Canadian Rockies. It was the key to bringing my province, British Columbia, into Confederation.

Can members imagine, in the current political, regulatory and cultural climate of today, if we tried as a nation to undertake a similar feat? Instead of championing these kinds of nation-building projects, the government today seems to be actively plotting against them, but it does not have to be this way. Macdonald dreamed big, Sir Wilfrid Laurier dreamed big as well and we can dream big once again.

The truth is that the silver lining to this problem lies in its solution. We do not need the government to step up in any particular way. We just need the government to get out of the way and give this country back to those who built it, the people. That begins where this country draws its greatest sources of strength: the wealth of its resources and the ingenuity of its citizens. I intend to do my part to always be a voice for the hard-working citizens of my riding in this incredible country, to always be unapologetically proud to be Canadian and to always be guided, no matter what, by what is true and what is right, not by what is politically correct.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to stand in this place and speak to the Speech from the Throne. As this is the first time I am rising in this Parliament, I would like to take a moment to express my gratitude to the voters in Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek for once again putting their faith in me to be their representative here in Ottawa. It is truly an honour, one that I take very seriously.

No one gets here on their own, and I want to thank my team and the volunteers who showed up day after day during the campaign. Lastly, I want to thank my husband, Milton, and my entire family, who have stood by me and behind me every step of the way.

I also want to acknowledge all those individuals displaced as a result of the fires in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, as well as all those fighting hard to ensure those communities remain safe.

The people in my riding and, indeed, Saskatchewan, overwhelmingly voted for hope and change. They understood that our country would not thrive under more of the same failed Liberal policies. While the Prime Minister promised change, a different Liberal government and a more serious approach, we are not off to a good start. As it turns out, things are not so different after all, starting with the Prime Minister naming Trudeau's foremost ministers to the most senior roles in his cabinet.

Immediately after their swearing-in, his ministers made statements refuting the various policies he had run on. For example, the Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture claimed that no pipelines will be built, and the housing minister stated that he intends to make sure housing prices do not come down. It is not a good sign that while Canadians are struggling with affordability and businesses face uncertainty, Liberal ministers want to suppress the country's largest industry and keep young Canadians priced out of the housing market.

Members will remember when the Prime Minister said during the election campaign, “a plan beats no plan.” Canadians were rightly expecting to see that plan put forward in the Speech from the Throne, followed by a budget. However, with the campaign behind him, the Prime Minister announced he is waiting until the fall, pushing off the plan, as well as the accountability that comes through the scrutiny of a government's budget. Instead we are left with a throne speech full of half measures, no budget and main estimates that include more spending than under Trudeau, with an 8% increase.

During the election, the Prime Minister said that despite being an economic adviser to Trudeau, he would be different; he would reorient the government to be more fiscally responsible. The throne speech stated, “In all of its actions, the Government will be guided by a new fiscal discipline: spend less so Canadians can [save] more.” However, no sooner did the promise of fiscal responsibility pass his lips than it is already being broken. Now we see that the spending of the Trudeau years will carry on under the current Prime Minister.

The main estimates were released last week, with the government asking to spend nearly half a trillion dollars in its first spending bill. How can the Liberals keep a straight face in claiming to be fiscally responsible while supporting a spending bill that even outstrips Trudeau’s spending from last year? Within this half-trillion dollar ask, the government has earmarked $26 billion in spending on consultants. That is an 11% increase in spending on those consultants.

In the last Parliament, Conservatives uncovered what the Liberals paid for: consultants who had padded their pockets through double-dipping, fraudulent billing and, at the end of it all, subpar work that could have been done in-house by the public service. Perhaps the additional billions in spending is due to the new list of Liberal insiders that the new Prime Minister brings with him from his previous career.

In the arrive scam scandal, a consulting firm billed tens of millions of dollars to build a simple app but did none of the work, work that some programmers were able to replicate over a weekend. Roughly $60 million is known to have been spent on this app; the number may be even higher, but, because shoddy documentation was kept, the Auditor General could not confirm it, so we will never know.

We also found out that McKinsey, a favourite consulting firm of the Liberals, was given preferential treatment, leading to $100 million in government contracts. The Liberals used a contract vehicle called a national master standing offer, which is usually reserved for vendors who offer a specialized service that government departments need access to. When the Auditor General reviewed these contracts, she found that McKinsey should not have been given special access to the government contracts.

In the throne speech, the Prime Minister also promised to work with indigenous peoples to identify and catalyze projects of national significance. Given the Liberal government's track record on indigenous procurement, I believe this will be another empty promise.

While studying the procurement strategy for indigenous businesses, the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates found that the government was not verifying the indigeneity of businesses. During testimony, indigenous groups and businesses suggested that most of the funding through this program was going to non-indigenous businesses that were posing as indigenous. The Liberals allowed this abuse by ignoring the rules and a lack of indigenous leadership and/or ownership while handing out millions of dollars in contracts. The government was unable to offer any explanation for its failure to ensure that programs meant to benefit indigenous peoples and businesses did so.

Although this study was cut short when the election was called, the issues persist and must be addressed, especially if the government intends to fast-track major projects across the country. This leads us to the promise in the speech to create a “new Major Federal Project Office”.

Imitation is truly the best form of flattery. In 2007, the Harper government created the Major Projects Management Office. The goal of the office at that time was to improve coordination within Canada's regulatory system by providing industry with a single, efficient point of entry into the federal process. It also provided for the integration of Crown consultation requirements with indigenous communities at the beginning of the process. This further demonstrated the Harper government's commitment to consulting with and listening to Canadians, especially those most directly affected by resource development projects, all while upholding Canada's world-class environmental standards. Does this sound familiar?

However, the last 10 years of an antidevelopment Liberal government has made Canada dependent on and vulnerable to the U.S. Without a commitment to scrap the production cap on Canadians, to repeal Bill C-69 and Bill C-48, and to axe the federal industrial carbon tax, this proposal is just another empty promise.

In closing, the promises made in the Speech from the Throne do not line up with Liberals' actions. While promising to enact more fiscal discipline, they are increasing spending. While promising to define a new relationship with the United States, they are dropping retaliatory tariffs and allowing the U.S. to take jobs out of Canada. While promising to make Canada an energy superpower, Liberal ministers insist that pipelines should not be built and that Canada's oil and gas should stay in the ground. While the Prime Minister promised to bring housing costs down, his housing minister intends to keep house prices up, at record highs.

The Liberals are already going back on their word within the first days of this session. Unfortunately for Canadians, the so-called new Liberal government looks a lot like the old one. After 10 years of high spending leading to inflation and an affordability crisis, Canadians want fiscal restraint and a government that will be responsible with their tax dollars.

Canadians can count on Conservatives to fulfill our duty every day to stand up for them, fight for change and restore hope once again.

[Michael Kram, Conservative, Regina—Wascana, SK]

Mr. Speaker, let me say congratulations on your new role in the Speaker's chair. I know that is something you have been wanting to do for quite some time, and I am very confident that you will do very well in your new role.

As this is my first speech in the 45th Parliament, I would like to take a minute to thank the voters of Regina—Wascana for electing me for a third time to represent their interests here in the House of Commons. They have my solemn promise that I will do my very best to fulfill this role each and every day.

Of course, I would like to thank the many campaign volunteers who worked so tirelessly on the election campaign by knocking on doors, putting up lawn signs and giving people rides to the polls on election day.

Certainly, I would like to thank my family for supporting me throughout every step of this long journey, including all the way to Parliament Hill for my swearing-in ceremony last week.

Speaking of long journeys, it was certainly a pleasure to welcome King Charles to Ottawa for the Speech from the Throne. Given that this is a new Parliament and Canadians have said that they want politicians to work together, I will start by highlighting some of the positive things in the throne speech.

The income tax cut and the GST cut on new homes are initiatives that Conservatives have been calling for for quite some time. The Liberals did not go quite as far as we would have liked, but if they want to steal Conservative ideas, we are certainly not going to complain.

For the most part, while the King's speech contained many positive words, it was certainly lacking in details in terms of how its goals would be achieved. This is concerning, especially since Parliament has not sat since Christmas and will not sit again until the fall.

Nevertheless, there was one brief reference in the throne speech about making Canada “the world's leading energy superpower”. Given such a passing reference, I do not think the current government fully appreciates just how important the natural resource sector is to our future prosperity, especially for Saskatchewan. In any given year, between 10% and 15% of the provincial government's budget comes from natural resource royalties. That means that 10% to 15% of the budget of every hospital, school and provincial social service comes from getting Saskatchewan resources to market, and 10% to 15% of the salary of every doctor, nurse, teacher and social worker depends on the natural resource sector. However, if we cannot get Saskatchewan resources to market, if we cannot get oil, gas, potash and uranium to their customers, then it becomes that much more difficult to build hospitals and schools, and to hire more nurses and teachers. As a result, government services and quality of life deteriorate.

This raises an obvious question: What is the best way for a landlocked province like Saskatchewan to get its resources to markets, both in Canada and around the world? For oil and gas, the obvious answer is pipelines. We need to get pipelines built in order for the quality of life of Canadians to improve, so it is certainly concerning that the throne speech contained so little about developing our natural resource sector.

There was the mention of creating a new major federal project office, which one would hope would approve and speed up pipeline projects. Unfortunately, in his first question period on Wednesday, the Prime Minister refused to answer whether new pipelines would be approved. He left it to his Minister of Energy and Natural Resources to clarify: “we will support new pipelines if there is consensus in Canada for them.” The Prime Minister cannot even come to a consensus within his own cabinet about getting pipelines built, so how is he going to come to a consensus all across the country? I would suggest that as long as the former minister of the environment, the orange jumpsuit-wearing, CN Tower-climbing member for Laurier—Sainte-Marie, is still sitting around the cabinet table, new pipeline projects will never see the light of day in this country.

During the election campaign, when I was doing door-to-door canvassing in Regina—Wascana, just about every day someone on the doorstep shared with me a story about long waiting lists to see a medical specialist, long nights in a hospital waiting room just to see a doctor, overcrowded classrooms, and overworked and underpaid nurses and teachers. These are the direct results of a provincial budget stretched too thin, because for the past 10 years, the Liberal government has refused to let us build pipelines in this country.

However, the benefits of the resource sector to the Saskatchewan economy are not limited to provincial government coffers. Let us not forget about the actual workers who work in the mines and on the oil rigs. There used to be plenty of jobs in this sector so that people could earn a decent living and raise a family. Unfortunately, the resource sector in southern Saskatchewan has shed thousands of jobs over the last 10 years because of the policies of the Liberal government to keep resources in the ground.

Let us not forget one of Regina's largest employers, Evraz North America, which makes pipelines. The members of United Steelworkers 5890, the union that represents Evraz employees, used to have stable, predictable employment as long as pipelines were being built and as long as there were new pipeline projects on the horizon. However, they too have suffered from hundreds of layoffs because of the Liberal government's opposition to pipelines. Many other people in Regina directly benefit from the development of the natural resource sector, including the numerous oil and gas service companies and, of course, the workers at Regina's co-op refinery.

In order to get more pipelines built, the Liberals must repeal Bill C-69, the “no more pipelines” law. This law, which was passed by the Liberals in 2019, has made it impossible for the private sector to build pipelines in this country. Once Bill C-69 is finally repealed and we can once again build pipelines across Canadian soil, the next step is to ship Canadian oil and gas across the ocean to other countries. This means the Liberals must also repeal Bill C-48, the west coast oil tanker ban. Take, for example, the northern gateway pipeline project. This pipeline, which was applied for and approved under the previous Conservative government, would have piped Canadian oil and gas to the coast of northern B.C. and then on to customers in Asia. Unfortunately, this pipeline project was stopped dead in its tracks when the Liberals announced that they would not allow oil tankers to transport the oil from the end of the pipeline to customers in Asia and around the world.

The Liberal government can no longer overlook the contributions that our natural resource sector can make to international trade and to international peace and security. Our allies should not be buying oil and gas from dictators in Russia or the Middle East. They should be buying from Canada. This is exactly what has been asked of Canada by the Japanese Prime Minister, the German Chancellor, the Greek Prime Minister and many other countries as well.

The House is scheduled to rise for the summer break on June 20. That means that, due to the Liberals' decision to prorogue Parliament and then call an early election, when the House returns in the fall, we will have sat for only 20 days since Christmas. Twenty days is apparently not enough time for the Liberals to table a budget, so I am not going to get my hopes up too high that they will enact legislation to repeal Bill C-69 and Bill C-48, or to fix the many other problems they have created over the last 10 years. If the Liberals do want to work together and steal even more Conservative ideas, especially ones related to pipelines and the natural resource sector, we are happy to co-operate.

Oil and Gas Industry

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

Mr. Speaker, Canada's energy sector and economy continue to be held back by Liberal anti-energy laws, like the industrial carbon tax and Bill C-69, which blocks all new energy infrastructure. This is compounded by Justin Trudeau's energy production cap, which will kill 54,000 jobs and gut $20 billion from the Canadian economy.

The new Prime Minister likes to market himself as the anti-Trudeau. Well, it is time for him to prove it. Will the Prime Minister repeal the industrial carbon tax, repeal Bill C-69 and repeal the oil and gas production cap, or is he just another Trudeau clone willing to let our energy sector die?

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Leduc—Wetaskiwin, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister went on to say, “we've got this resource. At a minimum, we should be using it all the time ourselves, because we're going to use what I call conventional oil and gas for the rest of my life and beyond.” He said that in Edmonton when he was trying to get elected, but he has a history of saying that we should leave oil and gas in the ground.

When will the government finally repeal Bill C-69 to create the conditions that will actually allow us to take advantage of this massive opportunity so it is realized?

Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Sturgeon River, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I want to welcome the hon. member to this House.

We have seen mixed messages from the Prime Minister and from the government when it comes to getting resource projects and pipelines built. During the election campaign, the Prime Minister's mantra was “build, baby, build”. He even invoked using emergency powers to get pipelines built, but then backtracked by endorsing the “no pipelines” bill, Bill C-69, as well as the production cap.

We have seen the Minister of Natural Resources repeatedly say that the government would now support getting pipelines built only where there is a so-called consensus. Could the hon. member elaborate on what that might look like?