February 19, 2018 – Empty Words for Albertans

Empty Words for Albertans

All talk and no action. When presented with an opportunity to finally take action, the Prime Minister and his government sat on their hands yet again. The Prime Minister claims to support Alberta’s oil and energy sector but his lack of action says otherwise. The most recent example of this was on display when the Liberals voted against our Conservative Party’s Opposition Day motion, calling on the Prime Minister to prioritize the construction of the Trans Mountain Expansion Project and to use all of the tools at his disposal to resolve the current trade dispute.

The government keeps on insisting that Kinder Morgan will get built. So our Conservative opposition introduced a motion to give the Prime Minister an opportunity to show that he supports our important oil and energy sector and supports the creation of thousands of well-paying jobs. Our motion was asking the Prime Minister to show us their action plan. By voting against it, the Prime Minister confirmed that he does not consider the Trans Mountain Expansion Project to be a priority.

Inaction from this Liberal government means that Canada continues to rely on oil imports from other countries, many with questionable environmental and human rights records. I will proudly compare our country’s environmental standards when it comes to oil production to any other country. There is also no comparison when it comes to our record on human rights and those of other oil producing countries.

Thousands of jobs are on the line here. Every day, there are thousands of Albertans who are ready and willing to work, if only the opportunity was available. The Prime Minister should be a champion for Canadian jobs and promoting the benefits that the Trans Mountain pipeline would bring to our communities. Instead, he is piling on new regulations and creating additional obstacles for Canadian energy projects. This is hurting Albertans and damaging the relationship between our provinces.

The Prime Minister’s decision to sit on his hands has led to the dispute between Alberta and British Columbia escalating. Alberta and British Columbia share a great relationship and many Albertans have friends and family across the border and vice versa. Under the direction of this Prime Minister, two provinces are now in a trade dispute with each other, with our province cutting off the import of British Columbia wine. Albertans, make no mistake: our spat is not with the wine makers of B.C. We understand the importance of the wine industry to B.C. But the importance of our oil industry is immense, responsible for tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in our economy.

As the leader of our country, it is the responsibility of the Prime Minister to keep our confederation together. The Trans Mountain pipeline is clearly in our national interest and if the Prime Minister took a leadership role in this, we could end the dispute between Alberta and B.C. This issue needs to be resolved as soon as possible before we pay the price in lost jobs and opportunity.

Sign here if you think the government should do a better job in showing support for our energy sector: http://www.blakerichards.ca/have-your-say-albertas-energy-sector/.