Natural Resources Committee on March 22nd, 2021

[Jeremy Patzer, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

It's not a “gotcha” question. It's a very simple one.

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

I live and breathe Line 5 every day, working with the provinces—

[Jeremy Patzer, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

Let me tell you something: 500,000 barrels—

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

Mr. Patzer, you asked a question. Allow him to answer, if for no other reason than out of respect for the interpreters.

[Jeremy Patzer, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

He said he wasn't going to answer it.

It's a simple question: Do you know how many barrels a day?

I gave you the answer. Did you hear it?

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

Tell me the point of this again. You've answered your own question.

[Jeremy Patzer, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

You're trying to delay my time. I'm not going to accept that, so the answer is very simple: It's 500,000, and the reason I want you to know that is that it's equivalent to more than nine fully loaded trains with 110 cars, each carrying oil. What do you prefer—a pipeline that carries oil, or nine trains carrying 110 cars per day across this country into Ontario?

Is that what you prefer? It goes back to respecting the environment.

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

I have been extraordinarily clear about how hard we are fighting on Line 5, that it is non-negotiable, and that we will do every—

[Jeremy Patzer, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

How many phone calls have you made personally? You? How many phone calls have you made?

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

I'm on the phone all the time talking to people about the reality of climate change and talking to people about how important Line 5 is to the energy security of this country. I make calls every day of the week and have been doing so ever since this became the, I guess, lightning rod that it has. I have to take these threats seriously, because hundreds of thousands of homes, not only in our country but in the United States, depend on Line 5.

[Jeremy Patzer, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

I'm glad you recognize and realize that, but—

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

Mr. Patzer, that's all your time. Thank you very much.

Mr. Sidhu, we'll go over to you for five minutes, and then the minister will have to leave.

[Maninder Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton East, ON]

Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Minister, for being with us here today.

I'll get right to it. Minister, last year you announced a $750-million emissions reduction fund, with the goal of reducing our GHG emissions and putting our energy sector workers back to work. You know it's a great announcement when both Elizabeth May and Jason Kenney congratulate you for it.

Can you update the committee on the work you've done since you announced it and where the $569 million in the main estimates will be invested this coming fiscal year?

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

Yes, and to be very clear, I'm quite attuned to this because I come from an energy-producing province, and in fact I've been working on the energy file since some 25 years ago anyway, when we were dealing with the generic royalty regime for our offshore here.

Energy and associated projects come under provincial jurisdiction. That was the very clear and firm lesson that I learned from Minister Savage upon my first meeting with her, two days after I was sworn in. You have to work with provinces in order to make sure this occurs.

The reason we chose orphan and inactive wells was to make sure that the workers who we knew were immediately displaced by demand destruction.... As you know, talk about a year ago and you'll recall when the cost of a barrel of oil went to negative $35. I have an app on my phone called “Oil Price Watch”, and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I think anybody else who is involved in the industry and cares about it remembers that day very well.

Our first concern right away was workers: first, because you need to make sure you look after them, and second, because this isn't a charitable endeavour, as I keep saying. These are some of the most experienced people in the country, with the highest level of expertise. We can't afford to lose them as we change tracks and lower emissions.

My challenge to workers in my province and in Alberta, Saskatchewan and B.C.—to Mr. Zimmer's point—is always the same. Within a generation, we figured out how to take oil out of sand to become the fourth-biggest producer of oil and gas in the world. That is a phenomenal feat. We need that same ingenuity and level of expertise to take on our new challenge, which is to lower emissions to ensure that the energy sector of this country continues to thrive. Otherwise, investments will pour out. This requires government having to work with unions. It requires government having to work with provincial governments. It requires government having to work with the oil and gas industry in order to make sure we lower emissions wherever and whenever we can find them.

The orphan and inactive wells program is one that we could see was working in British Columbia, in Alberta and, in a more modest fashion, in Saskatchewan. The thinking was something like this: Why create some new federal program, when you have provincial programs that are up and running and we could fund that capacity on the ground, fund increased capacity and fund more projects?

We did the same here—out here it would be offshore—in finding comparable projects, again respecting the jurisdiction of the province and coming together with a package of some $400 million to lower emissions and to train up workers so they continue to lower emissions. Ultimately, that's the goal.

That is how we build.... That is the new challenge to an energy sector that has faced challenges before and workers who have faced challenges before and have been up to the task, by in a generation becoming the fourth-biggest producer of oil and gas in the world. We can lead the world now in lower emissions in our energy sector. There's no question.

[Maninder Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton East, ON]

Thank you for that, Minister.

Minister, here's my last question for you. Our friends in the Conservative Party had a policy convention this past weekend, at which their party membership voted against saying that climate change is real. They voted against saying that the Conservative Party is willing to act on climate change.

Minister, you know, I know and Canadians know that this is wrong. For the benefit of our Conservative friends, though, why are they wrong and what is your department doing to address climate change?

[Greg McLean, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.

My honourable colleague on the other side of the House obviously did not see the resolutions that were there. Our party is firmly behind climate change and doing what we need to do, as opposed to the virtue signalling that would be represented by this government.

[An hon. member]

This is not a point of order, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

Thank you, Mr. McLean. I understand your point.

Mr. Sidhu, please finish your question, and we can wrap up. Thank you.

[Maninder Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton East, ON]

For the benefit of our Conservative friends, Minister, why are they wrong and what is your department doing to address climate change?

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

It's not for people who understand the reality of climate change to defend that position. That ship has sailed. The question is really for those who don't believe in the facts of climate change. Why don't they?

It's not for me to defend that, but I will say that the signal it sends out to international markets that the second-biggest political party in our House of Commons does not believe in the reality of climate change does nothing for the investment community. It does nothing for increased investment in this country, absolutely nothing.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

Mr. Sidhu, thank you for your questions, and congratulations. I neglected to mention that when I gave you the floor. We're all very happy for you.

Minister, thank you very much for taking the time to be here. Thank you for your candour and your patience, and we look forward to seeing you next time you come before this committee. I understand you have to go, but that your officials are kind enough to stick around for another half-hour for some further questions.

Thank you, Minister.

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

Thank you all for your time and for the excellent questions. I appreciate it.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

We can carry on. We have six departmental officials here. Again, in the interests of time, I'm not going to take time to introduce everybody. We've had the pleasure of dealing with all of you on many occasions before, so we'll just continue on.

Mr. Lloyd, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Dane Lloyd, Conservative, Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB]

Thank you.

The minister is lucky he got away, because I had some good questions for him, too.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

I'm not sure he'd feel the same way.