Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Distinguished members of the Standing Committee on Finance, I thank you for having us today.
I will be sharing my speaking time with my colleague Caroline Brouillette.
The Canadian oil and gas sector has been suffering suffered greatly since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, as a result of the drop in oil prices.
However, the sector had been struggling long before the arrival of COVID-19, not only because of recent decisions made by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, to force the price of a barrel of oil to a historic low, but also because of divestment from the finance and insurance sectors, which has been on the rise for years.
Revenue is dropping, as are profits and jobs. The sector is quite vulnerable, and there is no control over market dynamics. The market never fully recovered from the crash of 2014, and the sector is already heavily subsidized by government.
In spite of the trends we were seeing before the crisis, companies in this important industrial sector asked Ottawa for financial assistance through the emergency pandemic programs.
We believe that public emergency assistance will have an impact on how the sector will evolve post-pandemic and that we must pay particular attention to the recent programs.
On March 24, Équiterre, a group of organizations representing more than 1.3 million Canadians, called on the federal government to ensure that any bailout programs target workers in the sector directly.
A few days later, our colleague at Environmental Defence Canada released a secret memo from the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, which called for a massive rollback in regulatory oversight, a full stop in the development of any new climate policy, and for the industry to be exempted from the requirement to report on lobbying activity.
In light of these ludicrous demands from the industry, we welcomed the government's announcement on April 14. The $1.7 billion allocated to clean up orphan and inactive oil wells in western Canada will support a just transition, through the creation of sustainable jobs.
This reform is welcome, but the government must implement a polluter pays regime to prevent more environmental liabilities, which would also increase the government's bill. Parliament must oversee the agreements with the provinces receiving this money.
Although we have some reservations, these investments show that Canada is headed in the direction we want, which is to create jobs while helping to reduce the environmental impacts.
Speaking of reservations, I do want to point out that we were concerned about one aspect of this announcement in particular: the loan or credit guarantees through Export Development Canada, or EDC, and the Business Development Bank of Canada, or BDC.
On March 25, the mandate of EDC was expanded through Bill C-13, to enable this organization to support Canadian businesses. Furthermore, this bill increased the organization's total indebtedness capacity from $45 billion to $90 billion. The Minister of Finance and the Minister of International Trade may also now approve a wider range of transactions.
In light of EDC's historical lack of transparency, we are worried that Canadians may never be informed of the total economic and environmental cost of these programs.
I also want to point out that, according to a report published yesterday by Oil Change International, Canada provides the most fossil fuel finance per capita of G20 countries and comes second overall, after China.
I will now give the floor over to my colleague, Caroline Brouillette.