What a pleasure it is to be here again, Madam Chair. It's great to see you, as well as my colleagues, who I tip my hat to. I've been where you are, and I can tell you that it's not an easy job, but it's very rewarding, both before and after.
I would also say that I see the setting is a lot better than what we had to put up with 10 or 20 years ago, with plastered walls, some of them filled with asbestos. It seems that the facilities are a whole lot more amenable, and of course we can meet virtually, which I think is just wonderful.
I will make my comments in English, but I'm also able to answer your questions in French. So it's up to you to choose.
In 2024, total Canadian energy exports reached $208.2 billion, accounting for 29% of all Canadian goods exported. In fact, natural resources is the only sector in which Canada has a trade surplus. Oil and gas exports alone totalled $188 billion in 2024, and 94% of that went to the United States. Indeed, 89% of energy exports by value, roughly $184 billion, goes to the U.S. annually.
Canada supplies about 60% of U.S. crude imports, and nearly 100% of all American natural gas imports—and that's a good thing for both sides. It provides jobs, economic vitality and, by stimulating domestic energy industry, affordable energy on both sides of the border—including, of course, the United States and other players that are important to this role. That doesn't mean we shouldn't be looking for other markets to exploit. The more oil and gas we export, the stronger the economy will be right here in Canada.
However, the major limiting factor here is infrastructure. We have recently seen some positive developments on this score. As you know, in 2025, our first large-scale liquefied natural gas export facility, the LNG plant, went online in Kitimat, B.C., enabling us to begin transporting material volumes of LNG to other markets, especially South Korea, Japan and, of course, China. The Trans Mountain expansion, completed in 2024, has provided some tidewater access from Alberta to the port of Vancouver, in Burnaby.
Still, that's a drop in the bucket, and it's difficult to imagine any major changes to this dynamic with Bill C-48, the Oil Tanker Moratorium Act, and Bill C-69, the “no new pipelines” act, which, of course, is still in force.
This is an important opportunity for growth, since hydrocarbon energy provides the vast majority—more than 80%—of the world's primary energy needs, and global demand for these fuels is increasing, not decreasing. If Canada does not step up and supply the hydrocarbon energy for which the world is desperate, it will be supplied by poorly regulated, undemocratic, authoritarian countries that are less environmentally responsible than we are, not to mention less concerned with human rights.
The war in Ukraine has exposed the dangers of overreliance on one despotic trading partner. Most of the nations of Europe would have happily swapped Canadian oil and gas for the Russian products they had to buy. A nation like India—which of course has been very much in the news these days, both in the United States and in Canada—which imports half of its natural gas and nearly all of its oil, is still trying to wean itself off Russian energy. They would be an ideal customer, I think, for Canada and for Canadians, if we indeed had the capacity and the willingness to step in and fill that void.
There would be environmental benefits, to be sure, in doing all this, as well as economic ones, enabling those nations that are still extremely reliant on coal to reduce emissions and improve air quality by transitioning to our natural gas. The fact of the matter is that, if we were to follow the advice of the net zero-obsessed, anti-fossil fuel activists and the “leave it in the ground” mantra, global emissions would increase, along with energy prices, and the Canadian economy would indeed suffer.
Energy is Canada's leading export sector, and defending and expanding our energy exports are necessary for paying down things like our national debt, for strengthening our dollar and for safeguarding our sovereignty. Of course, increasing our energy exports would also enable us to increase our global influence, as well as the energy security of all our allies and trading partners.
Most importantly, it would enable us to bring down the elevated cost of living, which is making it so difficult for Canadians to heat their homes—on a day like today in eastern Canada—to gas up their cars and to pay for the basic necessities of life.
I'm here for your questions. Thank you very much.