Madam Speaker, it is an absolute honour to rise in the people's House yet again and to have the opportunity to speak to this, our motion on eliminating the caps on oil and gas and energy emissions, which have been to the great detriment of Canada's unbelievable and incredible potential that has yet to be fully realized.
Today I could not help, in preparation for these remarks, reflecting upon a film that was somewhat before my time. I was but an infant when it was first released, but it got re-released, I think, in the 1990s, when I was in my teen years in high school. It was a movie entitled When a Stranger Calls. There was one particular line in that movie that seemed to go viral, as it were, before “viral” was even a known word; it went quite far and wide, and it still echoes to today. That phrase was this. A young lady was receiving call after call after call of a threatening nature. She was afraid and paranoid and absolutely terrified. She was on the run and hoping to get help. Of course, the calls kept coming. She managed to get a call through to the police. Finally, the police returned her call and said, “[The call is] coming from inside the house.”
I could not help but think that perhaps the greatest threats we face are not from without; those calls and those threats are coming from within, through bad legislation, misplaced priorities and putting the boot on the proverbial neck of our producers, our workers, our energy and oil and gas sector. I think it is time that we deal with the call that is coming from within the house, and we can do that by passing our motion, which calls for the elimination of the caps on oil and gas emissions and production.
This type of policy has done more to sabotage Canada's future than any threat coming from without. If we only got out of our own way and unleashed our own potential, by allowing our workers to do what they do best, Canada could come out of the economic malaise in far better shape than we could have imagined. We could stand on our own two feet with fortitude and confidence and face any other challenge that comes from without if we got our house in order from within.
There are many, many people in our country who recognize the potential that Canada has to step into the vacuum and the void that is being created internationally. The world wants Canadian energy. It wants Canadian oil. It wants Canadian gas. We have the best regulatory regime for those sectors, and we also have the best workers for those sectors. We can have the best, most reliable and dependable energy supply to give to a vulnerable, energy-hungry world that we could ever imagine, but we have to get out of our own way. The opposition motion is a great first step to doing that, and I hope the government will join us in passing this.
It is time to unleash Canada's potential. Our greatest threats are those that have been self-inflicted, whether they are interprovincial trade barriers or emissions caps. I think that what Canadians are demanding is for us to get our own house in order. It is time for us to realize our potential. We have to get beyond the era of empty promises and grand announcements.
The government has become a master at making great announcements. It is wonderful. I love seeing all the happy talk. It is great. We have meeting after meeting and lots of happy talk, but really, when we bore down through all the noise, there have been no really substantive moves to develop the infrastructure necessary to get our resources to market. There has not been one new pipeline agreed to be built since all of the promises of becoming an energy superpower. There has not been the removal of the tanker ban so that we could export our resources to global markets. There has not been a putting in place of the infrastructure necessary to get liquefied natural gas to the markets.
The frustration of Canadians is getting high. They are wanting to know when the government will deliver on all of these promises that it is making in meeting after meeting. The best way we can deliver on those promises is to make sure we start by passing the opposition motion, to get our resources unleashed so that we can supply a world that wants Canadian energy.
The PBO came out with a report just recently, in March 2025, that talks about these threats. It says that because of the oil and gas production emissions caps, our oil and gas production will fall by nearly 5%, the national GDP will shrink by $20.5 billion every single year and 54,400 full-time jobs will disappear by 2032. These are not abstract figures; they are people's livelihoods.
This is about subsistence for many families living throughout this country, whether in Alberta, Saskatchewan or Newfoundland, and the spinoffs that affect the rest of the country. When we shut down oil and gas production, we also shut down transfer payments. I speak as an Atlantic Canadian in a province that has been the beneficiary of transfer payments that have helped us meet our budgets and keep our schools and hospitals open and our economies going through economically challenging times.
As a New Brunswicker, I am thankful for western energy production, the oil and gas sector in Newfoundland and the oil and gas sector generally. It has kept Canada rolling and kept us, our schools and our services functioning in difficult economic times. If the Liberals want national unity and want to unleash Canada's potential and pull us together as a country, they should stand on the side of Canadian energy, which is responsibly developed and responsibly sourced. It is a good news-story, and we need to stand on the side of Canadian producers.
These types of policies have a devastating impact on rural Canada. Much of our natural resource and energy are based in rural Canada, along with our agriculture. It is these two sectors that have helped build this country, and these two sectors will be key to our country's comeback. It is time we stop the anti-rural Canadian approach to governance and recognize that it was rural Canada that built this country and that rural Canada will be key to our country's comeback. We can do that through unleashing our natural resource and energy sectors, getting off their backs and lifting off the punitive measures that keep our resources in the ground while allowing other countries that do not have the regulation or human rights to advance their economies at our expense. It is time to get our own house in order.
The globe is calling for it. How many missed opportunities have we had as a country? Japan wanted our natural gas. We said there was no business case, so it signed a $550-billion liquefied natural gas contract with the U.S. Europe wanted to do business and buy Canadian energy. We said there was no business case for that and that we were moving beyond the old sources of energy, and guess what. It signed a $750-billion contract with the United States. Germany came here wanting to do business with us and sign contracts, but the previous government, which is the current government, said there was no case for that. I am sorry, but there is a great case for it, and we have watched over 1 trillion dollars' worth of economic productivity and opportunity slip through our fingers because we have been putting the boot on the very sectors that could lead to our prosperity.
I could not help but think of a famous old story as I was preparing for this. It is an ancient story, and I know I am down to one minute, so I have to do this quickly. There was a lady who was in real trouble in ancient times. Her husband had died. She was left with two sons, and the collectors came and said, “We are going to take your two sons and put them in slavery to pay off your debts.” She said, “I do not know what I am going to do. I do not know where I am going to turn.”
She went to a wise elder in the community, and the wise elder said, “What do you have left?” She said, “I have just a little bit of oil, sir.” He said, “Go back, close the door, get your sons to borrow all the vessels they can and use that little bit of oil. Pour it out.” They kept pouring out the oil into the empty vessels, and guess what. They kept filling and filling those vessels. She went back to the wise man and said, “We have filled all the vessels.” He said, “Now go sell that oil to take care of your debts, and it will take care of your family.”
I think there is a truth in that ancient story. It is time we release the oil and allow it to get us out of the economic malaise we are in. The answer is in the house; we just have to release it.