While you were working for UNICEF.
Evidence of meeting #62 for Finance in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was work.
A video is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #62 for Finance in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was work.
A video is available from Parliament.
Conservative
As an Individual
I was an employee of the United Nations. I also was a CIDA scholar and a scholar with IDRC, so Canadian taxpayers put me through graduate school actually.
Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
We have the Rockefeller Brothers Fund in the United States. We have the Pew Charitable Trusts. Each has over $3 billion in assets and contributes somewhere around $150 million per year to different endeavours.
The Rockefellers, of course, are the founders of Standard Oil, a huge oil company. The Pew Charitable Trusts is funded by Sun Oil. He was the founder of Sun Oil. I always thought it interesting that they would work against Canadian interests, which is exactly what they're doing in relation to their funding foundations in Canada. Is that correct?
As an Individual
I guess that's one way of looking at it.
The way I look at it is that I think they're doing what they, as Americans, think is best for their country. Canadians, I think most of us, are doing what we think is best for our country. It just so happens that it's not the same.
Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
Are you aware that the United States right now buys 99% of the oil that we produce in this country?
Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
Are you also aware that they often buy that oil at up to a 40% discount?
Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
Why is that? Why do the Americans get such a great discount? Is it because they're such great neighbours?
As an Individual
Well, I think we all know it's because they have us over a barrel. They have a monopoly on our oil.
Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
They have us over an oil barrel, I guess you could say.
What would happen if we put the Northern Gateway pipeline through to British Columbia?
As an Individual
I think we all know. I think we'd get—what's the spread now—$20 or $30 a barrel. We're losing enormously. The Americans are getting our oil essentially at a discount, which is probably why they don't want our oil to go to China, because then they'd have to pay more for it.
Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
It's fair to say that right now they're getting 1.3 million barrels a day, which they expect to be about 4.2 million barrels a day within 12 years. That's a lot of money. I can't add it up in my head, but it's a lot of money. A 40% discount on that would be a substantial sum, would it not?
Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
I had Tides Canada in my office some time ago. They told me that they had taken no position for or against the oil sands. Can you comment on that?
As an Individual
It doesn't ring true for me. I have a blog and posted their information showing half of their budget went to some 20 or 30 groups on the north coast, all of which are opposed. I can't find one single organization that they fund that is in favour of the pipeline. They funded the Dogwood Initiative, which led the campaign for a federal ban on tanker traffic. They've taken off their website their advertising for the Pipe up Against Enbridge campaign. There are many examples, not to mention that they have received nearly $1 million from the Oak Foundation, and $2 million from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The Hewlett Foundation is specifically funding a campaign to reduce fossil fuel development.
I don't know why Hewlett, Oak, and other foundations would be funding Tides Canada if it had no position on the oil sands. It just doesn't make sense.
Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
I think a lot of it does make sense in relation to what they're doing. The Coastal First Nations turning point initiative and West Coast Environmental Law, what are their purposes?
Conservative
Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
Can you tell us what you know of their work and what they're funding?
As an Individual
Actually, I know more of what they've been given money for than I know of what they actually do. West Coast Environmental Law in particular was funded by the Oak Foundation specifically for work against Enbridge.
