Madam Speaker, I will withdraw my words.
It is important that the House understand that Canadians are rightly concerned about the actions of the Prime Minister and that they are altogether unhelpful, not only to the current state of the country and drawing investment across the border but they are altogether unhelpful for future generations about which every member in the House should care.
We are making decisions today, but more so, we are making decisions for the sake of our future. We are making decisions for 20 to 100, I dare say, several hundred years down the road. If members of the House are not considering that, if we are not able to see with visionary focus toward our future, then we have no business in this place. We have been entrusted with some seats that are very limited, 338 of us making decisions on behalf of a country, each of us common people representing other common people who duly elected us to be here speaking out on their behalf.
With all due respect, I am here today speaking out on behalf of the people of my province of Alberta, who desire to work more so than receive a welfare cheque from the government.
I am here today speaking on behalf of every Canadian who would benefit from energy projects moving forward rather than being handcuffed by the current government.
I am here today speaking on behalf of the generations that will come after me that would like to inherit a country that is vibrant, that is prosperous, that offers them a future.
Bear with me if I become a little passionate defending my country and those who will come after me.
We have a government that has handcuffed this country, that has refused its future from being vibrant. We look at Teck. It was shut out. We look at northern gateway. It was shut out. We look at energy east. It was shut out. We look at Trans Mountain. It was shut out. Project after project has been turned down because of the climate that has been created within the economic sector of the country, and it is wrong and it is being done in the name of so-called environmentalism.
Let us look at that more closely. Let us look at the facts. By developing our own energy sector right here in this country, we are advancing the environmental state of the entire globe. If we develop our own energy sector, we bring greenhouse gas emissions down, because we are investing in technology that is leading us toward net-zero emissions. We are creating technology that is much better for the planet than when we support places like Saudi Arabia in its oil development. To say that we care about the environment is to responsibly develop our energy sector.
The matter at hand is with regard to Teck.
On February 3, Teck publicly pledged to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. This is not something it had to do. This is something it chose to do. It has met every condition that it was asked to meet. It has done everything it was asked to do, yet the goal posts continuously move. Of course it was put in a situation where it withdrew.
It was hearing rumours of the party opposite, the party in power, preparing an aid package for the province of Alberta. It is laughable and yet incredibly sad, incredibly disheartening, incredibly hurtful to a province that again just wants to work.
It is not just about the province of Alberta; it is about a whole country being unified. If the Prime Minister cannot get that right, then what can he get right?
The Prime Minister's primary responsibility is the unity of a country. His second responsibility is the safety and security of its citizens. His third responsibility is the economic prosperity of this nation. His fourth responsibility is to work with other countries around the world to advance our country. On all four fronts, energy development would advance each of them.
The lack of energy development or the refusal to develop that industry and draw development into our country is actually a refusal to take his place as the Prime Minister and lead the country well. It is an abdication of the role that is Prime Minister, and it is wrong. It is leaving us in this place where we are leaderless. It is leaving us in this place where we are setting up a future that lacks hope, a future that lacks vibrancy. Why are we making those decisions? Better yet, why is our Prime Minister making those decisions?
It is creating an environment of chaos. It is creating an environment where investment does not just have a closed door, but it is being altogether repelled.
Investors are not wanting to come into our country. They see that the current federal government is not in support of developing our nation in any way that would be economically advantageous. This is extremely problematic. What gets me even more and what upsets Albertans, and I believe many other Canadians, is the hypocrisy.
The Prime Minister says that he is about the environment, but yet he will not develop the industry in Canada, which would bring down greenhouse gas emissions around the world and would allow us to invest in green tech.
The Prime Minister says that he is all about the environment, but he will go to Senegal, sit down with its government and offer to develop its energy industry, which is not at all environmentally friendly, does not have the same strict regulations that Canada has and certainly does not have the human rights record that Canada does.
In addition to that, I recently had the pleasure of going to Bangladesh and seeing the incredible work that our country was doing, thanks to the generosity of Canadians, with regard to the Rohingya, which is a refugee group that is finding refuge in Cox's Bazar. In that area, there is a million of them. They would take out four football fields worth of forest every day in order to cook their food. How dd we respond? Very generously. We decided to put an LNG project in place. Where are we getting the LNG to support this refugee group? Definitely not from Canada. It is from Saudi Arabia.
We are paying to bring LNG from Saudi Arabia in order to support a project that is saving the environment, but we are not actually supporting our own industry. We are supporting Saudi Arabia's industry, which is killing the environment and has absolutely no respect for human rights.
My point is this. The government is more concerned about creating some fictitious image of caring for the environment and the Canadian people, but it is doing absolutely nothing to advance our nation, whether it be the economy or the environment, which, yes, go hand in hand. It is time that the government takes action.