Pipeline to Saint John would help get Canada out from under Trump's thumb, Poilievre says
Conservative leader focuses on energy during first campaign stop in N.B.
At his first federal election campaign stop in New Brunswick, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said he would revive interest in building a pipeline to Saint John, by reducing the regulatory uncertainty that killed Energy East.
"Today I'm announcing the Canada First National Energy Corridor," Poilievre said.
"A pre-approved corridor that will allow our incredible businesses to build pipelines, transmission lines, rail lines and countless other kinds of infrastructure that we need to break our dependence on the Americans and ship our resources to ourselves and overseas markets."
Poilievre says policies of the Liberals, now led by Mark Carney, have made Canada weak and too dependent on U.S. trade, and that's why the country is under America's thumb.
"If we had a national energy corridor today, Saint John would not be so reliant on the Americans," he said. "We'd be able to transit billions and billions of dollars through this incredible city, without worrying what the Americans think."
The Energy East project was first proposed in 2013 and would have carried more than a million barrels of oil a day from Alberta and Saskatchewan across the country to be refined or exported from plants in New Brunswick and Quebec.
However, the proponent, TransCanada, pulled the plug in 2017. In its regulatory filing with the National Energy Board, the company cited "existing and likely future delays resulting from the regulatory process, the associated cost implications and the increasingly challenging issues and obstacles."
Poilievre said interest in pipelines has surged since the Trump administration introduced trade instability.
He said he's now convinced a private investor would step forward if a Conservative government could pave the way by pre-authorizing a safe route and setting project conditions in advance that would be guaranteed not to change.
"In other words, the government would not have the legal right to reverse course and change its mind. This would remove the uncertainty. I understand why businesses, after the lost Liberal decade, would not want to take the risk of starting an application process that could cost them billions of dollars."
Poilievre said First Nations would still be consulted and environmental research would take place, but the tone of his speech sent the message that environmental concerns would only be taken so far.
"Do you think we could get the St. Lawrence Seaway open today? Do you think we could build the Canadian Pacific Railway today?" Poilievre asked.
"Really, think about it. There would be some environmental extremists like [former environment minister] Stephen Guilbeault or maybe Gregor Robertson, the new Liberal candidate, former Vancouver mayor, who would be chaining themselves to a tree to prevent if from happening. And it would take a decade to go through a bureaucratic process that would never lead anywhere."
Poilievre said a Conservative government would repeal Bill C-69, which became the federal Impact Assessment Act. The act allows federal regulators to consider the potential environmental and social impacts of various resource and infrastructure projects.
"Let's be clear," Poilievre said. "The Liberals' no new pipelines law, law C-69, will make it impossible for any other project to ever get approved in this country."
Monday's event at the Saint John cruise terminal was tightly controlled by Poilievre's handlers, who chose in advance which four reporters would be able to ask one question each. CBC News was not one of the chosen.
The leader was introduced by John Williamson, who represented Saint John–St. Croix in the last Parliament, and he stood for photos with Williamson and Melissa Young, the candidate for Saint John–Kennebecasis.
The crowd was small, mostly Conservative Party insiders and the news media. There was no visible representation from the business community or Irving Oil, which has a refinery in the city.
Poilievre was then expected to travel to Fredericton for a rally, followed by a stop in St. John's on Tuesday and a rally Tuesday in Charlottetown.
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