Industry Committee on Oct. 6th, 2022

[The Chair, Liberal, Joël Lightbound]

Thank you very much, Mr. Sohi and Mr. Cannings.

Ms. Stubbs now has the floor for five minutes.

[Shannon Stubbs, Conservative, Lakeland, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would note for the committee that when Mr. Carr—I respect him greatly and believe in his aspirations—was asked directly by an NDP colleague here, when he testified, whether or not he had consulted with any provincial or municipal representatives in the prairie provinces about this bill, which is about consulting prairie provinces, he said he had not, in the development of that legislation.

I would also note for committee members, talking about the investment in clean tech, that 75% of clean-tech investment in Canada comes from oil and gas companies, which is why we are cautioning about shutting down the industry. This is already happening, in the last seven years of this Liberal government: like the 18 LNG projects that have been cancelled while the U.S. is constructing them; like the four pipelines that have been lost; like the hundreds of thousands of jobs that have been lost, and the hundreds of millions of dollars of projects from the energy companies that are investing and leading the entire Canadian economy in exactly the things that proponents say they care about, like clean and green tech and innovation. It makes no sense whatsoever to cut that industry off at the knees when, in fact, it is the leader in the investment we say we value.

Mr. Bewick, you got into a bit of a debate with my independent-minded Liberal colleague Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, whom I also respect and enjoy. I would note perhaps that it epitomized what happens to prairie representatives when they're trying to have a conversation with this Liberal government, which tells you what you ought to think and what you do or don't know about your own expertise.

I would invite you to use some time to address the question I had asked you about any other clauses or aspects of the bill that you wanted to discuss, or if there was an answer that you wanted to give to our colleague and expand on that round of questioning.

[Bill Bewick]

No, that's fine.

I will note one more fun fact. There were 25 million trees planted by the major energy producers over their eight years there.

I think you were asking about some of the other clauses in the bill, and one of them specifically talks about tree planting. I feel like the industry minister must have many files that are very urgent and important and take up the ministry's attention. I don't think tree planting should be one of them, because—good news—Alberta is planting a whole lot of trees all on its own, without a new department needed to track how many trees are being planted from the industry ministry. I'm sure there's another one in the environment ministry as well.

But there are a few good clauses in here. Paragraph 3(3)(f) talks about “preparing infrastructure projects that facilitate adaptation to climate change and mitigation”. I think that's something the government should focus more on. It's like maintaining infrastructure; it's not very fun. I guess in this one you would get to cut a ribbon, but it's something that tends to go by the wayside, and it costs us all in the long term. Those are, again, things that should be happening all over the country, I would hope.

The other one is integrating clean energy into agriculture, forestry, transportation and manufacturing. This is worth doing, and it is happening at a considerable rate. Some of the concern I have with the bill, generally, is.... If we needed the government to pay attention to these things, this might be worth the added red tape and forcing the minister and all of his department to come up with reports on progress. But I feel like integrating clean energy into agriculture, forestry, transportation and the energy sector is one of the biggest concerns that this government has, so I really feel like it is redundant to add more and more reports on things that are already happening, sometimes quite aggressively.

I mentioned the tree planting. When it comes to management of the boreal forest.... The boreal forest is one of the world's largest carbon sinks. The oil sands cover.... It's a fairly big operation, obviously, but it's 0.02% of the boreal forest, and all the companies that are working there have strict legal requirements to reclaim that land. I don't know, again, what more reports on how we're managing the boreal forest from the industry ministry, on top of all the other ministries that are surely tracking that, as well as all the companies and the Province of Alberta, which is legally binding them to reclaim those forests....

Paragraph 3(3)(a) is concerned about the “non-existent transportation options in small cities and communities”. The reason there aren't lots of transportation options in small communities is that there isn't much demand for them. I really worry about big federal government plans to somehow develop transportation options in small towns. I'm quite confident that things like autonomous vehicles, or even Uber, are already starting to fill that void in lots of communities. I really would prefer the private sector to meet the demands there, instead of large, expensive programs that take away from other priorities.

The biggest concern, which I focused on earlier, is paragraph 3(3)(b), which is talking about retraining in traditional energy industries. Someone earlier talked about the transition causing a demand for things like rare minerals. Yes, everybody wants to have some more electric batteries for all kinds of purposes. They are very intensive on minerals and, of course, it's an energy-intensive operation to do mining. The Prairies and Ontario are great places where that should be a new industry, a new source of energy. It's more about energy diversification and supporting all the kinds of energy that Canada can produce for the world, and not doing it at the expense of, and with an eye to shutting down, the one that makes us the most money and the one the world needs the most right now.

[The Chair, Liberal, Joël Lightbound]

On those words, Mr. Bewick, we'll have to end this committee meeting.

I want to thank all of our witnesses for taking the time today. It's much appreciated.

Colleagues, have a great constituency week, and safe travels.

Thank you to the analysts, the clerk, and the translators.

Thank you, everyone. We're adjourned.