Mr. Speaker, last week, I asked the Prime Minister and the government a very simple question about Canada's energy sector. I even did the homework for the government. I pointed out how the industrial carbon tax is making Canada less competitive and less affordable. I pointed out how the oil and gas production cap is keeping our resources in the ground and scaring away investors. I pointed out how Bill C-69 is making it essentially impossible to build pipelines in the country.
I asked the industry minister whether the government would commit to Canada's energy sector, as the Prime Minister occasionally says depending on what room he is in, and repeal these anti-energy laws. She responded without mentioning the words “oil”, “gas” or “resources”. The writer who wrote her response to my question must have been the same writer who wrote the government's throne speech because it did not address oil and gas in the least.
This is not just a western Canada issue. When we do not support Canada's energy sector, we are actually harming the country as a whole. We are making ourselves more dependent on the United States. We are making ourselves less competitive. We are compromising our sovereignty and independence and even our security. It is curious that the government is scared of the word “pipeline” and will not utter it in many of the responses we hear in this chamber and in much of the other communication we get from the government.
My question for the government is incredibly simple. It comes down to the path it wants to chart forward. Does it support a future that invests in Canadian energy or does it support the environmental radicals who want to keep our resources in the ground?
The reason I bring this up is that the facts are abundantly clear. Between 2015 and 2025, the Liberal government killed 16 major energy projects. This resulted in a $176-billion hit to the economy.
When I talk about the competitive advantage of investing in resources, we need not look further than our neighbour to the south, the United States. In the last 10 years or so, between 2010 and 2021, the United States grew its natural gas exports by 485%. What happened in Canada in that same time period? That is a good question. They actually went down by 18%. This is Canada, which has access to an incredible wealth of resources. The only thing standing in the way of embracing them is the “keep it in the ground”, anti-energy, innovation-killing attitude the Liberal government has embodied.
This is where we are right now. The Liberals like to talk about the fact that, in their words, they are not anti-pipeline; they just want there to be a consensus. How can there be a consensus when they do not even have a consensus in their front bench, as evidenced by a speaker in cabinet who just a couple of weeks ago said that he did not know and that we did not need any pipelines? That was the former environment minister, who is now the Minister of Canadian Identity.
We have laid out the facts clearly, so I will ask the government this: Once and for all, will it repeal its anti-energy policies and commit to pipeline development in Canada?