Mr. Speaker, recently, in question period, I called out the Prime Minister for being a flip-flopper. He says one thing about pipelines to Premier Danielle Smith in an MOU and gives quite another story to Premier David Eby of British Columbia, which I represent as a member of Parliament.
He says that even though he was against oil pipelines, he is now for them. He was for a tanker ban, but he is now against it. We just have to scratch our heads because he told a different story to David Eby, who is adamantly opposed to pipelines. It is wink, wink, nudge, nudge; they are for a pipeline but it will not happen anytime soon. How is that happening? It is through debate, regulations, excessive red tape and endless consultations.
Does it seem that he is speaking out of both sides of his mouth and that he is being two-faced? I think so. It is not only oil pipelines. At the end of the summer, the B.C. caucus visited several mills in southern Vancouver Island. We were hearing from the mills that they were happy that, as far as what the Prime Minister was saying, he was going to get things done for them. Guess what. They were also very concerned that this was just words. We just recently, and I believe it was last week, heard that one of the mills that we saw in Crofton is closing permanently, 350 jobs gone in a small community. This is happening throughout Canada. It is catastrophic for a small community.
The Prime Minister won the election in large part because he would be a master negotiator with Donald Trump. What a terrible joke that has become. Tariffs have actually gone up three times. They have tripled under the Prime Minister, let alone on our other industries. Our automobile sector is packing up and leaving.
Can I say it in black and white, plain and simple? I do not trust the Prime Minister and I do not trust the Liberals to get this pipeline project done, despite what they say. Make no mistake. I want the MOU to proceed. Conservatives want it to proceed. Canadians need it to proceed. We are an exporting nation. Our standard of living and our health care are based on our exports.
Millions of Canadians do not have access to a doctor. Food bank lineups have doubled under the Liberals. What is our number one export? The Deputy Speaker is from Alberta. He knows. It is oil. We are being hobbled by the Liberals. We have the fourth-largest reserves in the world after Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Iran, three times more than the U.S.
Guess what. The U.S. is now the biggest producer in the world at 20 million barrels a day. Canada has just one-quarter of that production. Nations have come to us and asked if we would give them our energy and sell them our energy. What do the Liberals do? They yawn. They say that they will see if there is a business case.
My question to the parliamentary secretary is whether he can confirm that the Prime Minister will uphold his constitutional right to get a pipeline built expeditiously and regardless of Premier David Eby's stated opposition or the rejection of it by different first nations.