Madam Speaker, I would perhaps like to begin by saying that I really feel for Alberta's workers. I really feel for them because we went through basically the same thing in the forestry sector that they are going through right now.
The pulp and paper industry completely fell apart in the 1990s. In the forestry sector, trade wars wiped out nearly half the harvesting community's major players. The crisis caused a great deal of distress among the workers in Quebec.
When I was young, my father taught me that it is always best to tell the truth. However, since being elected to the House in October 2019, I have been under the impression, considering the Liberal and Conservative one-upmanship, that no one wants to tell Albertans the truth. It is a hard truth, but simple to understand. Because of climate change, most large investment funds are moving away from fossil fuels. Many countries are turning away from fossil fuels, seeking a more carbon-neutral economy and new green energy technologies. I think we need to be honest with Albertans and tell them frankly that this industry is, in the medium to short term, doomed to failure.
I have seen many such failures since coming to the House. I saw it with Teck Frontier, when the Liberals and Conservatives engaged in mutual finger pointing. One blamed the other for not taking action. The Liberals said that the Conservatives had done no better when they were in power. Each blamed the other instead of accepting reality and responding in the best way possible: planning the transition for Albertans.
The same thing happened with Keystone XL. In 2015, the Obama administration said it would not go ahead with the project. Donald Trump, the epitome of the irrational political actor, came to power, and he wanted to see the project through. Albertans ignored signals from an irrational political leader and decided it was a good idea to go ahead. It was $1.5 billion, and I think that decision was very—