Mr. Speaker, I really appreciate the opportunity to speak to Canada's offshore safety regime.
Natural resources are an important part of Canada's economy. We all know this. The country was enormously blessed not only with huge reserves of energy, but also with massive tracts of forest, as well as an abundance of minerals and metals.
For generations, we have brought opportunity, jobs and growth to every region of the country through this sector. Right now nearly 800,000 Canadians work in the natural resources sectors. Another 800,000 people are employed by industries serving these sectors. Added up, close to 1.6 million Canadians depend on natural resources for their jobs, 10% of all employment in Canada.
Put together, natural resources account for 15% of our gross domestic product and a full 50% of our exports. When we include the spinoff industries that provide goods and services to the sector, natural resources account for nearly 20% of our GDP, or nearly one-fifth of our economy.
The important thing is that natural resources are poised to play an even bigger role in the years and decades ahead. In fact, over the next decade more than 600 major natural resources projects, worth over $650 billion, are expected to come online across Canada. That $650 billion figure represents hundreds of thousands of top-paying jobs in every sector of our economy and in every region of the country.
That is why our government has a plan to unleash Canada's natural resource potential. We call it the responsible resource development approach. This plan is streamlining the reviews of major projects by ensuring fixed timelines, eliminating duplication, strengthening environmental protection and improving aboriginal consultations.
Over the past year, there has been a growing interest in exploration of the offshore resources of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador. Off Nova Scotia's coast, offshore activity is continuing to pick up, with production of natural gas from the Sable offshore energy project and the startup of the Deep Panuke natural gas project. In fact, in the past two years, the Nova Scotia offshore area has seen the largest bids ever for offshore parcels in Atlantic Canada, with more than $2 billion bid for 12 parcels offshore. Shell Canada and BP Exploration clearly see the potential that exists in the Nova Scotia offshore area.
In Newfoundland and Labrador, the offshore oil and gas industry is contributing to a booming economy and a resurgence in the natural resources sector. I was elected to the House 20 years ago. For the first almost 10 years of the time I spent here, the talk was of Newfoundland and Labrador being a have-not province. It seemed there was no hope.
The fisheries sector was dying due to overfishing and especially by international illegal fishing. The tourism industry in Newfoundland and Labrador had not been developed, like it is now. It truly seemed the future for Newfoundland and Labrador was bleak.
Here we are, a short 20 years later, and Newfoundland and Labrador is a have province, contributing to Canada's economy in a substantial way. Not only that, and I guess this is kind of a bad thing for Alberta, and I am a member of Parliament from Alberta, but we are losing the good Newfoundland workers we depended on so much in Alberta in our resource sector to Newfoundland and Labrador. That is as it should be.
The province's GDP has performed at or above the national average in 9 of the past 13 years. Offshore oil and gas accounted for 33% of the GDP in 2011.
The Hibernia south extension could return as much as $13 billion to the province in taxes and royalties.
According to a recent report from the province's department of human resources, the resource sector will be the major contributor, with an 8% boost in employment. That is 2,300 new jobs by 2015. It is substantial, indeed, for that part of the country.
An exciting thing is that there will be 2,300 new jobs in the new development of the Hebron heavy oil project and the Muskrat Falls hydro project as these projects ramp up. Hibernia was the largest project ever undertaken in Newfoundland and Labrador, but as big as Hibernia was and is, Hebron may be even bigger.
Hebron represents a capital investment of as much as $14 billion. It is expected to create more than 3,500 good paying jobs for Canadians during construction alone. Hebron is still on target for its first oil by 2015.
Here is the big picture. In both Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador, resource revenues continue to grow and much of that growth is in the offshore. Exploration and development of the offshore is translating into real, tangible benefits for the people of these provinces, such as more and better jobs, tax cuts for families at all income levels, lower taxes for small businesses and new investments in service and infrastructure that help to attract new investment and build stronger communities. These benefits will continue to grow.
To ensure these offshore activities are ferried out safely, our Conservative government is introducing new legislation to improve Canada's robust offshore regulatory framework. We have been working closely with the Governments of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador to address the gaps found in the current legislation concerning occupational health and safety.
We know that the Senate did a study on this recently and found our regulatory system to be very strong now, but this would improve the process further. We have to ensure that we have the regulatory process that we need to go well into the future, and that is what this would help to do.
After working with the provinces, industry, regulators and labour groups, we are improving our offshore legislation to better protect the safety of Canada's offshore workers. These changes would help protect offshore workers by vesting with the accords act a strong occupational health and safety regime. Both provinces have already given royal assent to their respective bills, but this time, they must wait for the legislation to pass our federal Parliament for the new regime to come into force. Of course, Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia want this legislation passed as quickly as possible.
The health and safety of Canada's offshore workers is a top priority for the government. Under the current regime, all offshore activities are regulated by Canada's offshore boards. Companies that want to explore offshore must provide and have approved by the provinces board a detailed emergency response plan and contingency plan before any drilling can take place. It is rigorous. This means that Canadian regulators will not allow any offshore activity unless they are absolutely convinced that the environment and safety of workers are well protected. Our offshore installations and the equipment and training required to operate them must meet the strictest regulatory standards.
This legislation would just add to the very substantial and well-functioning legislation that is currently in place. It would lead to better things and to the appropriate regulatory regime that protects health and safety in the decade ahead. That is what this is about. This is something good for eastern Canada and, in particular, for Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia.