Thank you, Mr. Chair.
It's wonderful to be here and to be able to defend my home province of Alberta and Alberta's energy industry, which unfortunately is under attack at just about every single opportunity that this federal government—this NDP-Liberal government—has. They choose to wedge, divide, stigmatize and throw Alberta out with the bathwater.
This is my home province and this is your home province, Mr. Chair, yet they must really not like you, bringing forward a motion like this and putting you in a really tough spot, because I know that you have many constituents who work in Alberta's energy industry. I often talk to them when I'm travelling to Ottawa.
I almost always travel through Calgary and actually have an opportunity to consult with many different Albertans who work in Alberta's energy industry and live in places like your riding, Mr. Chair. I don't think they would like a motion that is so overtly anti-Albertan. To many of them, this is very frustrating.
To many Canadians, Alberta has always represented a beacon of hope, prosperity and a fresh start. To the world's leading oil producers we're a tough competitor that refuses to lie down in the face of adversity, but for far too many elected officials across the country, Alberta is simply a cash cow. That's how we're treated.
Unfortunately, to go one further, to the fringe eco-activists we're point-blank the enemy, and to the environment minister, the Liberal-NDP environment minister, who has made no bones about how much he dislikes this industry, we very clearly are the enemy. However, to me—