Conservatives promise 'Canada First' coast-to-coast energy corridor

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It’s time to keep Canada’s energy within Canada.

That was the message Monday from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre in announcing his party’s plans to establish a “Canada First” energy corridor. The plan allows a path past the endless bureaucracy and red tape of building vital energy infrastructure across the country — including railways, pipelines, and transmission lines.

This transportation corridor, Poilievre said during a morning press conference in Saint John, N.B., is intended to allow seamless transportation of commodities within Canada, and not rely on transportation through the United States.

“With Donald Trump threatening our country with tariffs, we need big projects that link our regions east to west,” Poilievre said.

“We need to be able to get our resources across Canada, bypassing America, so that we can trade more with each other and sell our resources to the world.”

Poilievre compared his plan to Sir John. A. Macdonald’s dream of a transcontinental railway and Louis St. Laurent’s St. Lawrence Seaway, connecting Canada’s inland ports to world commerce.

“These projects boosted our economy, and guaranteed our economic independence,” Poilievre said.

“But I have question — do you think we could get the St. Lawrence Seaway open today? Do you think we could build the Canadian Pacific Railway today?”

Environmental extremists, like the ones who’ve held much sway in government policy over the past decade, would never let that happen, Poilievre said.

“They’d chain themselves to a tree to prevent it from happening,” he noted.

“It would take a decade to go through a bureaucratic process that would never lead anywhere.”

The Liberals, Poilievre said, had a hand in the cancellation of 16 major energy projects during the Trudeau administration — amounting to around $176 billion.

“There were 18 LNG liquefaction plants proposed 10 years ago when the Liberals took office, not one has been completed,” Poilievre said.

“They blocked two energy pipelines — that was Energy East and the Northern Gateway pipeline — (Liberal Leader Mark) Carney testified in committee against the Northern Gateway pipeline, which would have allowed us to move a half-million barrels of oil to Asia every single day, now that oil goes to the Americans at a discount, making us even more dependent on what is now a very aggressive southern neighbour.”

bpassifiume@postmedia.com
X: @bryanpassifiume