Madam Speaker, I found it very interesting that in the last round, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Natural Resources was talking about the important role that oil and gas producers play in renewable energy. One thing I want to talk about is that, in my riding, some of the biggest investors we have in renewable energy are actually companies that were oil and gas producers long before they were renewable energy producers.
In particular, by the town of Gull Lake, there is a wind farm by Suncor Energy and Enbridge, which is named the SunBridge Wind Farm. The point I want to make is that our oil and gas companies realized, long before the government did, the need to invest in renewables and to diversify energy companies. When we are talking about going forward while reducing our emissions and trying to wean our way off fossils fuels, the important thing we have to keep in mind is exactly who the biggest contributors to renewable energy are. They are the energy-producing companies that we already have, which just happen to also be involved in oil and gas.
I am here to follow up on the question I had for the Minister of Natural Resources about the Keystone XL pipeline. I was hoping to hear more from him tonight about the importance of Keystone XL. The parliamentary secretary alluded to that here. I found it interesting that the member who was asking questions before me was also talking about Keystone XL.
The important thing we have to talk about when we speak of Keystone XL is the jobs it will create here in Canada and the amount of work it will provide for Canadians, especially as we are trying to find our way out of a global pandemic. People are looking for a way to get back to work, particularly in Saskatchewan and Alberta. People find their value in their jobs and in their ability to work. When we have a regulatory environment, such as we do right now, that is really stripping that ability for people to go back to work, it is eliminating their jobs and their livelihoods.
People feel the government does not have their backs and is not supporting them. It is really important we allow people to do what they do so well, which is to work to provide energy security for our country but also for the world. As the demand for energy continues to rise, Canadian energy needs to be the solution and needs to be what we focus on as we go forward.
One of the other aspects and benefits of a project like Keystone XL will be the revenue it brings into the communities and areas of the country it runs through. The royalties it produces are so important to the municipalities and communities around there, and particularly the companies that are oil and gas companies. They are the ones sponsoring a lot of what goes on in our communities, whether it be minor league baseball or hockey, recreation facilities or arts facilities. A lot of these oil companies are the ones really driving the sponsorships for these buildings and the economic growth in our communities, much beyond just purely building pipelines.
When we look at the entire economic snapshot, we need to focus on what exactly these companies are doing. They are providing jobs and opportunities, and the benefits go far beyond simply that of building a pipeline.