Energy Affordability
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
169.23799
Summary
In this episode of The Blueprints, Conservative MP Shannon Stubbs and her shadow minister for rural economic development, Shannon Stokes, discuss the devastating impact the high gas prices are having on Canadian households and businesses, and how to fix it.
Transcript
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Hello and welcome once again to The Blueprints.
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Together we can push back against that ever-moving Liberal agenda.
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Tell your friends about it, that you can download it,
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and listen to it at your convenience on platforms like
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CastBox, iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, you name it, it is out there.
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I think it's something everybody, no matter where you live,
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no matter what you do, you're talking about it.
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That's the high price of energy is absolutely through the roof.
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Some parts of the country are over $2 a litre for regular,
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which is affecting the price all through the board.
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And to talk about that, the expert on the topic,
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we have Shannon Stubbs, the Member of Parliament for Lakeland.
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She's also the Shadow Minister for Rural Economic Development.
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but I am a rural person who's very familiar with hiking costs
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and all the people who are hardly able to keep up.
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So let's, before we get to the NDP motion that we debated last week,
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when we have oil reserves right here in Canada?
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That's the main thing that Canadians should be asking.
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So I think this is obviously a combination of global factors
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But of course, the carbon tax unnecessarily hikes the costs
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every time any Canadian anywhere goes to fill up their tanks.
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And the real key part, I think, is the issue that you've alluded to.
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Being a country with the third largest oil reserves in the world,
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with the fifth largest natural gas reserves in the world,
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but no self-sufficiency, no cross-country infrastructure,
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which forces refineries on the East Coast to import from the U.S.
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I don't know why, but importing from our neighbor
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And then, of course, after that, a whole bunch of countries
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that don't even come close to Canada's environmental responsibility,
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or labor standards, and never mind all of the environmental standards,
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world-leading environmental standards that Canadian producers adhere to in Canada,
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which, by the way, is also a better track record than the U.S.,
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but certainly not to mention the OPEC countries.
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Absolutely. So, COVID hit, kind of the world demand for gasoline went down.
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As we kind of recovered through this, the demand went up.
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We have a conflict in the Ukraine, which we mentioned before.
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So, we have an increasing supply, but demand has kind of, or sorry, the increased demand,
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but supply is starting to take a bit of a hit because of that disruption.
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But at the same time, we have an industry in Canada that has been trying for,
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as long as I can remember, try to expand and supply and disrupt not only the dictator oil,
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but also allow their technology innovation within the domestic supply to rise and shine
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and show that we do have labor standards that are top-notch.
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We do have environmental standards and start producing the energy that the world needs.
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We could have increased capacity, but right now we have handcuffed ourselves,
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so we can't even offset some of this disruption.
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It is really a travesty, and I think if the kind of damage that has happened because of government
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in the energy sector, either, you know, with a different government in place
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or in any other country in the world, it would be considered an economic catastrophe.
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But instead, the liberal and anti-energy left encourage exactly this
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through their policy positions and obviously also through their advocacy.
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To put this in perspective, there are up to 22, I think, major multibillion-dollar energy projects
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in all different areas of the sector that have been cancelled or stalled
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A real travesty for those proponents of reducing emissions
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and making real concrete contributions to environmental stewardship,
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which, of course, yeah, Canada is already the best in the world,
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but internationally would have been the opportunity for LNG export from Canada,
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Jamie, 18 projects, potential LNG export projects,
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have been cancelled under these liberals because of the uncertainty,
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and the unpredictability of the business environment in Canada
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So what's mind-boggling to me is that the people in Canada
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they want to do this ostensibly to protect the environment,
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which is a value that all of us actually share,
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they're doing the exact opposite of what would allow Canada
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to make that role, to play that role to reduce global emissions.
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And by pulling Canada out of the international market,
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by hamstringing primary oil and gas production,
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to get any major infrastructure or export infrastructure built,
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and ceding that market share to oil and gas producers around the world
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who don't come anywhere near the environmental standards
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is that oil and gas production benefits everybody.
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Certainly there are direct benefits to the local communities
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and indigenous workers and businesses operating in the sectors
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But the tax revenue that comes out of that work
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for every single Canadian, every corner, and every community.
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But to, you know, the Prime Minister has always said,
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well, we believe the economy and the environment go hand in hand.
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because the Prime Minister says that on one hand,
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but what he actually does is spout myths about the oil and gas sector
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on which hundreds of thousands of livelihoods depend,
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with Canada and other major oil and gas-producing jurisdictions,
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community consultation, Indigenous consultation.
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And now we are a country because of these Liberals
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and another word that is escaping me at this moment.
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Absolutely, we've been talking about this forever.
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What did Joe Biden do when he wanted excess or more supply?
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Did the Prime Minister pick up the phone and say,
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hey, President Biden, we have an abundance of supply here.
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And I think it was actually back when you and I
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were working primarily on natural resources together,
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legal support and resource to help the proponent
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make the case within the American courts for KXL,
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while at the same time really escalating their diplomatic efforts
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but you have an ideological agenda there at play
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which is fine if the technology innovation drives us there,
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And it's mostly being mined in China right now.