Mr. Speaker, like my colleague from Mirabel, I would like to extend my sincere congratulations to the new Premier of Quebec, Paul St‑Pierre Plamondon. I will point out that the Quebec National Assembly now has a majority of separatist members, if we add together the members of the Parti Québécois and Québec solidaire. That may be a good thing for the future.
I would also like to congratulate the candidates elected in my region, in Saguenay. I am thinking in particular of Marie‑Karlynn, with whom I loved working, and my young friend Émile Simard, who has the same name as my son. A few people sent congratulations to my son yesterday after Émile Simard was elected in Dubuc. I am also thinking of my dear friend Jimmy Bouchard in Jonquière. I am really looking forward to working with him. I would also like to recognize the candidates who lost. People make friends in politics. I am particularly thinking of Yannick Gagnon of Coalition Avenir Québec, who lost the election in Jonquière. He is still a dedicated member of the community who cares deeply about making life better for the people in the Saguenay region. My hat goes off to him, and I hope that his future career will be everything he hopes for.
Let us return to the motion. As I often say, it is Groundhog Day: The Conservatives' love affair with the oil and gas sector continues to repeat itself. Everything is an excuse to advance the interests of the oil companies. There is a contradiction here: The Conservatives are using their opposition day to argue that we should provide more support to the oil and gas sector so that it can export more. Even with the rising cost of living, the Conservatives still see this as an opportunity to advance the interests of the oil companies. The crisis in the Strait of Hormuz is driving up the price of diesel right now, and the Conservatives see this as yet another opportunity to advance the interests of the oil companies. Perhaps they have managed to inspire the Liberals. As I will explain in my speech, so far, the world champions at advancing the interests of the oil companies have been the Liberals.
Let us return briefly to the motion. Personally, as my colleague from Mirabel demonstrated very clearly, I do not believe that eliminating these taxes would help people who are being hit by higher diesel prices. Instead, as we know, it is the oil companies that will once again benefit from the handouts bestowed upon them by the government and the Conservative opposition. A number of experts have said so. I am thinking in particular of Luc Godbout, as well as Normand Mousseau from the Trottier Energy Institute. At the end of the day, when we take a closer look, who are the big winners when a tax on gasoline or diesel is eliminated? It is big oil.
To me, it does not make sense to deprive the government of revenue in order to support the profiteers in the oil and gas sector. I do not see the logic in that. As we know, the needs are immense. Think about education and the health transfers, which are often lacking. A balanced federal budget is far from a certainty. The deficit is skyrocketing. I do not think we need to make matters worse by eliminating the diesel tax. Instead, as my colleague from Mirabel said very clearly, we need to find targeted measures to support the people who are hardest hit. Let us be clear: reducing government revenue so that everyone has to pay more, while increasing oil companies' profits, is a very bad idea.
That said, I want to address another issue. Let us talk about the federal government's lavish generosity and shamelessness when it comes to oil and gas. I am going to share some staggering figures. Rest assured, they will evoke some strong feelings. Between 2021 and 2024, oil and gas companies raked in $131 billion in profits. Of that $131 billion in profits, $80 billion was paid out as dividends to oil and gas companies. I would like to point out that 80% of Canada's oil and gas companies are owned by foreign interests. Of that 80%, approximately 60% are American.
We are talking about $80 billion in dividends. That means that every year, $12.5 billion leaves Canada and goes to the United States. We are in a trade war. That is $12.5 billion flowing directly from Canada to the United States, based on the period from 2021 to 2024. In July of this year, Cenovus announced that it would post record profits for its second quarter. It posted a profit of $2.8 billion, four times as much as in 2025.
What are we being told today? The Conservatives are once again proposing handouts for the oil and gas sector. Meanwhile, the government, with the support of the Conservatives, wants to make Canada an energy superpower. The Prime Minister has said so repeatedly.
When we look at the situation, we have to ask where Canada's energy exports are going. Between 70% and 80% of our energy exports go directly to the United States. We are in a tariff war with the U.S. The U.S. is our main customer when it comes to energy exports. One of the only products not subject to tariffs is oil. If we take a closer look at the export figures, we will see that, in 2025, 91% of our oil exports went directly to the United States.
What is the federal government's strategy? Its strategy is to say that we need to build oil and gas infrastructure so our economy can resist pressure from the United States. Who benefits from building this infrastructure, though? This is the outrageous part. New infrastructure benefits the greedy oil and gas companies that do not want to pay for it, and it also directly benefits Americans. The government is using public money to pay for oil and gas infrastructure for the profiteers in the energy sector. Ultimately, that benefits the Americans collecting dividends. I think that is as absurd as it gets.
The economic sectors subject to tariffs are receiving little to no support from the government. We paid $34 billion for the Trans Mountain pipeline. Each and every one of us paid for it. The Leader of the Opposition had the decency to point out that oil and gas companies were corporate welfare recipients. I rarely agree with him, but he was right. These companies are making record profits, yet they do not want to pay for their infrastructure.
What is more, the government is adding insult to injury by saying that it will fund another project, the Pacific link pipeline, which will cost about $43 billion. That is $34 billion spent on the Trans Mountain expansion project and $43 billion spent on the Pacific link pipeline. It is also important to note that, last year, the fossil fuel industry received $10 billion in subsidies. That brings the total up to about $85 billion. I am not talking about the construction of Trans Mountain; I am talking about the financial support provided by the federal government. This support amounts to $85 billion since 2020.
It is clear that the federal government has made its bed. Its main goal in the tariff crisis is to support the only sector that is not subject to tariffs: oil. It is also the only sector that primarily serves Americans, since they are the majority owners of the oil and gas companies. Canada is investing billions of dollars in this industry. What the Conservatives are asking us to do today is to be even more generous and eliminate a tax. Once again, this would mean that taxpayers would end up footing the bill for these greedy companies. It is outrageous.