Madam Speaker, I am thankful to my hon. colleague from South Okanagan—West Kootenay for being in the House and giving a sensible speech.
I would like to pursue the matter of the market for our products. Why do we persist in thinking the only market for Canadian bitumen is to ship it to other countries? It is baffling, because we import 700,000 barrels of oil a day to eastern Canada.
To correct my hon. colleague on the Conservative benches, if energy east had been built, it would not have taken diluted bitumen to be processed in refineries in Atlantic Canada, because there are no refineries in Atlantic Canada that process bitumen. None of them have upgraders. Irving Oil specifically said it did not intend to build an upgrader. Irving Oil is the only refinery in this country that processes Saudi oil because it is the cheapest. As long as it remains the cheapest, that is what the Irvings will do.
I want to ask my hon. colleague if he does not think there is a market in Canada for upgrading and refining Alberta bitumen, then brand it as “Fort Mac Strong”, sell it across this country, and no one would put Saudi oil in their tank.