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

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

Utterly false.

[The Chair, Liberal, Raj Saini]

Gentlemen—

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

I agree, but you know the point has to be made.

[The Chair, Liberal, Raj Saini]

Gentlemen, you can't talk over each other, because the interpreters are not able to follow. One at a time, please.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

I agree.

The point has to be made—I'm not going to be BS'd here—that the reality is that we've seen what's happened here in Saskatchewan and Alberta with the choices of this government. It's been very clear. It's been clear in the marketplace with just the flow of capital out of western Canada. Yet now he says the U.S. is our best friend and they're actually going to follow us...?

Well, I don't believe that. Either of two things are going to happen. Either they're going to get more expensive, which means we're going to drive more foreign oil into Canada and the U.S., or they're not going to follow us and we're going to have to lower our standards and our regulations to follow them; or we're going to continue to see Alberta's and Saskatchewan's oil and gas sector decline and decline and decline.

Which is it? It's a very simple place in the marketplace. What are you going to do to make sure it's a level playing field? Are you going to bring the U.S. regulations up? Are you going to make sure there's a process in place to keep that un-environmentally friendly oil out of North America? What are you going to do?

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

I can't answer that question without taking umbrage with what you said earlier about we're not doing anything. TMX—

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Then come out west, my friend. Come out west.

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

Please don't over-talk.

[The Chair, Liberal, Raj Saini]

One at a time, please.

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

It's hard on the translators.

TMX: We approved it. We bought it. We're building it, with 7,000 jobs created. Line 3 pipeline: We approved it, with 7,000 jobs created. NGTL 2021: We approved it. We permitted it. Thousands of jobs will be created there. LNG Canada: We're building it, with thousands of jobs there. Orphan and inactive wells during this pandemic: $1.7 billion for energy workers in this country, in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and as well here in Newfoundland and Labrador. That's $1.7 billion, with $400 million for my province here. The wage subsidies helped out more than 500,000 workers keep their jobs, in a pandemic, in Alberta alone.

That's a record I'll stand by and that's a record we'll build on.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

You know what? There's a record that you have and there's the potential that we lost. The opportunity cost that you put in place here, the number of jobs lost under your government, has been phenomenal. What you've done to the economy in western Canada has been untouchable. It's done so much harm to our country nationally.

Now you say that you've done a good job. Well, what did you have to do? You had to buy a pipeline in order to see it finished, because you created such an environment that the private sector would never invest in it to see it through. They didn't have confidence in your process to say they were going to risk the money there. Now we see that happening with Keystone.

So, you know, you—

[The Chair, Liberal, Raj Saini]

Mr. Hoback, you're running out of time. I want to give the minister a short time to answer the question.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

I'm sure you do.

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

I can't do anything about the price of oil. I can do quite a bit with everything else that I am given. I know a couple of things. I will take no advice from a member who sat in the government who thought that saying that our biggest competitor and ally was brain-dead if they didn't go along with what we thought.... That strategy obviously didn't work.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

You know, Minister, that doesn't—

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

[Inaudible—Editor] doesn't work. I am concentrating on the workers and I am concentrating on lower emissions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Raj Saini]

The round is over—

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

It's totally not professional to insult the Premier of Alberta, totally not professional.

[The Chair, Liberal, Raj Saini]

The round is over. We've gone over time.

I want to give the last question to Ms. Bendayan.

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Outremont, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister, for appearing today. Obviously, as you can see, as we discuss the Canada-U.S. relationship, we have around the table here a lot of very passionate folks.

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

And me too.

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Outremont, QC]

I would like to take it back to last week and to the important bilateral the President had with our Prime Minister. It seems to me that there are enormous opportunities going forward, whether, as you say, it's with respect to hydrogen or minerals, as you mentioned in your opening statement. I wonder if you can identify some of the things that make you hopeful about our future relationship with the United States, some of the opportunities that would be presented to our small and medium-sized businesses here in Canada, and how you think we can move forward from here.

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

I think there's a tremendous amount of growth we could see in clean growth, clean energy, for instance in looking at smart grids, and in looking at energy efficiency. We're investing over a billion dollars in energy efficiency alone, and I am a big believer in it.

I grew up in Labrador in a town called Happy Valley-Goose Bay, and it was isolated at the time. When the federal government announced big programs, they never seemed to affect my community. What I love about, for instance, retrofits, which is something my counterpart in the United States is looking at as well, is that they affect where you live; they affect where you work. In other words, the jobs are created in your community. The International Energy Agency, whose meetings I now attend fairly regularly, has identified energy efficiency and home retrofits, for instance, and commercial retrofits, as being the world's hidden fuel. Those could get us anywhere from 30% to 40% towards our Paris targets. These are small things, but done en masse across this country, they can help us meet those targets.

We're willing to look at anything, really, that seems like a good idea to help us lower emissions and protect our workers. We've put $9.4 million towards tidal energy in Nova Scotia. We're putting money towards geothermal energy in Alberta. We have $15-million worth of solar farms in Alberta. We're building solar farms in Prince Edward Island. In the throne speech, we committed to working on the Atlantic Loop, which in effect would get the Maritimes off coal.

All of these things will help us lower emissions. All of these things will create jobs.

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Outremont, QC]

Thank you, Minister.

I'd like to pick up on an earlier conversation about the market economy and the fact that we do want to lower emissions. I am very concerned about the environment. I can't help but think that, given that the demand is still there, should there be a problem and Line 5 not be operational, as you mentioned, we would be moving crude by truck and by rail. In addition to some of the dangers and security issues that are involved with transporting crude in that way, would there not also be increased emissions were we to move by rail and by truck rather than through the pipeline?

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

Absolutely there would be, which is yet another argument in our arsenal. I say that just to emphasize the point that we are looking at absolutely every single thing we could be doing in order to make sure that Line 5 is maintained, that it continues operation. It is integral to the energy security of our country. It is also integral to Alberta for jobs, but also, especially to Ontario and Quebec, it is essential that we get this right. We are determined that we will.

Supply chains may adjust themselves, but they have their limits, and frankly the best way to get this product from point A to point B, to make sure that homes are heated, is through a pipeline.