Economic Relationship between Canada and the United States Committee on March 4th, 2021

[Seamus O'Regan, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

We have a hydrogen strategy that we announced only three months ago.

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Could you name a project for refining oil and gas that we take out of the ground here in Canada by doing the upgrading work here in Canada?

[Seamus O'Regan, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

I have great faith that if you set the parameters and if you provide investors certainty, then the marketplace will come to bear. We are seeing that happen right now globally, as the market now looks to lower emissions.

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Can you name a project for increased value-added work right here in Canada today?

[Seamus O'Regan, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

I am looking forward to investors pointing the way and pointing to where their investments should go.

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

You don't have a plan yourself, then, and you're not aware of any projects.

[Seamus O'Regan, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

It's a capitalist country, Mr. Blaikie. We drive investment. We provide the parameters and the certainty in order to drive investment. It will be the marketplace that makes sure this is a sustainable change to a lower emission future.

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Well, that doesn't sound like a government with a plan for value-added jobs in Canada.

[Seamus O'Regan, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

That is absolutely incorrect.

[The Chair, Liberal, Raj Saini]

Thank you, Mr. Blaikie.

We'll go now to five minutes for Mr. Hoback.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Well, thank you, Chair. I get another five minutes. I appreciate that. I'm going to continue along the same lines.

Mr. O'Regan, you talked about our sector, the oil and gas sector in Canada, and how it's the best in the world in regard to its imprint on the environment. If you truly believed that, wouldn't you want to displace oil from other countries? Wouldn't you want to help get our oil and gas into the marketplace versus having gas coming from countries that are very harmful to the environment? If so, what are you doing to make sure that happens?

[Seamus O'Regan, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

Well, I think it's the same answer here, Mr. Hoback. It's incumbent upon the government to set the right standards in order to provide an environment for investor certainty. Then the marketplace will work its way. These are—

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

I think the market's been very clear to this government that what you've set for standards and for certainty is unworkable. If you look at the investment in our sector over the last four years under the Liberal government, you'll see that the money's all gone south. It's all gone into the U.S. It's gone to other areas, because the reality is that they could never find certainty or bankability going through the process you put in place for them to proceed with a project.

What do you see changing to improve that? If the U.S. is going to go down the same path we've had over the last four years, that means Texas won't be developing anything either. What does that mean for North America? Does that mean we're going to allow cheap oil from other countries with no environmental regulations at all into Canada and North America? What are we going to do for supply?

[Seamus O'Regan, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

I think that's utterly incorrect. I think in what we have managed to do over the last few years, we've seen a marked increase in investment. If you look at LNG Canada, which is the single biggest private sector investment in this country—

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

You've got one project to talk about about, but when you look at the oil and gas sector in Alberta, it's gone.

[Seamus O'Regan, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

We have NGTL, NOVA Gas 2021, which we approved. There are thousands of jobs being created through that. Not only that, but through the current process we were able to work with first nations to make sure that the consultations were extended. We worked with the Government of Alberta. NGTL 2021 is being built. It was approved.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

But, Minister, that—

[Seamus O'Regan, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

There's the Line 3 pipeline, which we permitted in 2016. We approved it—

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Those [Inaudible—Editor]

[Seamus O'Regan, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

—and 7,000 jobs were created. With all due respect, these are projects that never seem to get mentioned when I get questions in the House of Commons.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

With all due respect, I think you have to take a bite of reality and take responsibility—

[Seamus O'Regan, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

These are being built. These are very important projects that employ thousands of people in this country.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

—for chasing away millions if not billions of dollars in investment out of western Canada, and loss of jobs.

You say you don't want to leave anybody behind? I don't either. But you have left thousands of Canadians here in Alberta and Saskatchewan behind. You've basically shrugged your shoulders and said fine. But now you see all of a sudden there's a possibility of huge job losses—

[Seamus O'Regan, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

That is utterly false.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

—in Ontario and Quebec, and huge risks for eastern Canada.