Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address Bill C-6, an act to amend the Canada Oil and Gas Operations Act, the Canada Petroleum Resources Act and the National Energy Board Act.
In the interest of reducing the duplication of comments and overlap of debaters I will speak on behalf of the Reform Party which in principle supports Bill C-6 in the spirit has been put forward by the Department of Natural Resources and the National Energy Board.
As the member of Parliament for Calgary Centre, I need only look out the window of my constituency office to see the importance of the oil and gas industry to the people, the city and the province of Alberta.
When the government, especially a Liberal government, begins to change legislation that regulates this industry, people and companies alike get nervous and express their concerns, especially when it involves giving power to a federal board where it may overlap in the future with an area of provincial jurisdiction.
Having consulted with the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers and the National Energy Board our party is confident that Bill C-6 deals primarily with the centralization and the consolidation of technical and regulatory functions to the National Energy Board from the ministerial level of the department of natural resources and in some cases the judicial system.
According to the National Energy Board, this process of streamlining will save the government $5 million. This is a positive step but remains just the tip of the iceberg when one considers the overall amount of government waste that has existed over the years.
When I spoke in this House on Bill C-2, I encouraged the Department of National Revenue to initiate line by line, item by item reviews of the department to find out exactly where money is being spent.
Today, while discussing Bill C-6, I want to ask the Department of Natural Resources to do the same. These results should be made public in their entirety in the form of an annual report which could then be distributed to all parties for review.
My party wants the federal government and all its departments to be fiscally responsible and exercise restraint wherever possible. We believe strongly in the streamlining of government operations like those in Bill C-6 and encourage the federal government to do more of the same.
Less government bureaucracy in the oil and gas industry means quicker decisions so that more time can be spent by businesses exploring for new resources and/or building new pipelines.
Freeing up the marketplace from government intervention creates opportunities, incentives and real jobs, long term meaningful jobs. It generates real revenue and sends a message to investors and to all Canadians that this country wants a future based on prosperity and not on high unemployment and high debt.
The Liberal government must continue to cut red tape and encourage the spending of equity capital from the private sector and not debt capital by the government as is the current situation.
For too long governments have relied on the spending of debt capital versus equity capital in the funding of megaprojects that have wasted billions of taxpayers dollars, Hibernia and the Lloydminster upgrader, for example.
My party supports a free market system, one in which supply and demand regulate the industry, not political agendas. Government should facilitate and not hinder the production and efficient delivery of exports.
We support the fact that Bill C-6 will also provide the National Energy Board with the authority to ease the regulatory burden for small pipeline companies that do not have the resources for drawn out hearings and application processes. It enables them to participate in the process without being hung up in months and months of delays and waiting for hearings.
Small businesses like these play a large role in job creation and need to be free to compete in the marketplace.
These significant changes cannot, however, come at the expense of the environment. Bill C-6 takes some positive steps concerning industry safety and environmental conservation. For example, by increasing the power for National Energy Board inspectors to make immediate decisions in the field on safety and environmental violations, potential disasters can be avoided.
Decisions in the past had to be made by the full board which caused delays and proved to be an inefficient way to ensure companies meet high safety standards.
The NEB plays a large role in the oil and gas industry and is held in high regard. We commend and encourage it to continue its high standards of work.
The consolidation achieved through this act eliminates the need for courts and politicians to be involved in the daily operations of frontier activity. The new power given to the NEB should subsequently encourage continuity, consistency and expediency within the department.
Having said that, there are still certain members of the oil and gas community that have expressed concern with the fact that Bill C-6 will eliminate the oil and gas committee which was an independent appeal board.
With no impartial appeal process the National Energy Board could in effect become judge, jury and sole executioner for companies that may disagree with the decision that it hands down. Therefore, the precedent setting decisions that are made will subsequently be extremely important for politicians to monitor, ensuring there are no destructive precedents set.
I would like to conclude by reminding the House that previous Liberal governments played a significant role in crippling the oil and gas industry in Alberta with their national energy policy. We do not wish to see this happen again.
We encourage this new Liberal government to be different and continue to improve the regulatory environment in Canada, discourage red tape and the size of bureaucracy and promote free and open competition in the private sector and leave the industry alone. With respect to discriminatory grants or subsidies, it does not need them, nor does it want them, with new environmental taxes like a carbon tax and wasteful job creation programs.
That is my submission on Bill C-6.