Trudeau must show leadership
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
170.51291
Summary
Dan Albus, MP for Central Okanagan joins the show to talk about the issues surrounding Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline project and its impact on Alberta and British Columbia, and the challenges that the federal government has created for the project.
Transcript
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You are listening to The Blueprint, Canada's Conservative Podcast.
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Is the Prime Minister actually saying that taxpayers should be on the hook when he breaks the law?
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What is it going to take for the Prime Minister to have any respect for any laws in this country that may curb his out-of-control behaviour?
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All these deficits leading to nothing but burying Canadians in taxes.
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Welcome to The Blueprint, Canada's Conservative Podcast.
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I'm your host, Member of Parliament, Tony Clement.
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And it's great to have you as part of our podcast universe.
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We're going to talk about pipelines right now, specifically Trans Mountain pipelines,
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although the Prime Minister was confused in the House of Commons today.
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He's answering questions about Keystone XL for some reason.
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But we're talking about Trans Mountain and how important it is.
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And our special guest for this segment of the program is Mr. Dan Albus,
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the Member of Parliament for Central Okanagan, Simokamine Nikola.
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And why don't you bring us up to date a little bit on what's going on with this Trans Mountain pipeline issue?
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Well, it really comes down to the nature of a horse, a vacuum.
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So when you have a Prime Minister that is not giving, whether it be the Premier of Alberta,
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confidence that he will stand up to the jurisdictional interference by Premier John Horgan,
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who hails from British Columbia, the challenge is...
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This is why elections are so important, because you get these big swings,
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But getting back to it, the Prime Minister has created a vacuum of leadership.
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Premier Notley obviously wants to win her next election.
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She knows Alberta's fortunes, her political fortunes are tied to the building of Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain,
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which goes through my writing, and I'm very happy to support.
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But she is obviously, you know, slinging at British Columbia by banning BC wine.
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And that's why last night we actually voted on a motion that the Prime Minister needs to present a plan.
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And this was like a Conservative Party motion in the House?
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Yes, Shannon Stubbs sponsored it, great member from Alberta.
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I was glad to support it, because I have vintners in my area that, you know,
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if action isn't taken immediately, it's going to cause some of them to go bankrupt.
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The larger wineries, I'm sure, are going to be fine.
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But, you know, this is a business where, you know, if you can't deliver a product,
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restaurants are going to switch to a different wine.
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And, you know, some have contractual obligations that they've got to get their product to Alberta,
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And that's why last night we asked the Prime Minister to show a plan to get Kinder Morgan started,
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So this is something, Tony, that's in international interest.
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But now it's becoming the question about the rule of law as well.
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Are we going to allow Premiers to basically push into the federal jurisdiction,
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or will the Prime Minister assert that this project will actually get done and not just talk about it?
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So let's unpack this a little bit, because the Liberals are out there saying,
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the Federal Liberals are saying, hey, look, we're for Trans Mountain Pipeline.
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And you've got two provinces duking it out with different visions of what to do with this pipeline.
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And so really, it's not really a priority of the Liberal government except to talk about it a little bit.
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Well, you know, if you look at Energy East, you know,
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you had Liberal members of Parliament saying to their own constituents during the last election
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and up until the point that the project was cancelled that they were fully in support.
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But I will tell you this, is that there are many British Columbia MPs
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who do not want the Prime Minister to mention the name Kinder Morgan or Trans Mountain in their writings.
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But this is one of those things, that the Prime Minister has said it's in the national interest.
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Well, he needs to go to places like Burnaby and convince the people in Burnaby
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and that it is illegal for any other government to subsume and take away from the federal jurisdiction on this.
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Because this lack of leadership, and you alluded to this, it's creating a situation.
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It's not only, obviously, it's affecting oil and gas
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and the future of oil and gas investment in this country,
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So the wineries, the vintners in British Columbia are dragged into this too.
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No, and again, yesterday there was a throne speech in British Columbia
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and the New Democrats, supported by the Greens, have said that they're going to continue in the throne speech.
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They said they're going to continue to raise consultations
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on what kind of oil products can go through British Columbia.
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And again, that's why we're calling the Prime Minister to clearly come out.
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They want opportunity, but they also need certainty.
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And a big part of certainty means they know that when they make an investment
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that they're going to be able to see that investment go through.
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They have to have faith that the regulators and the governments that regulate the regulators,
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and aren't just going to leave them hanging in the wind.
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That's why Premier Notley created this wine ban.
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That's why, you know, B.C. wineries right now, small businesses are hurting.
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And just another note is that when you look at it,
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there's a lot of investment from the oil sands, from people who have done well there,
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who have come to British Columbia and invested in our wineries.
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So I'm talking with Dan Albus, by the way, the British Columbia MP,
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talking a little bit about the issue about the Trans Mountain pipeline,
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which has grown bigger because of the lack of leadership from Mr. Trudeau and the federal liberals.
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and we've been out there as the Conservative Party of Canada saying,
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This is in the national interest that it precedes,
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the economic requirement of how this is going to help Alberta and British Columbia,
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I know that there's Ontario companies that will get some positive benefits
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in terms of jobs and opportunity because of the pipeline.
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So where does this go from here without liberal federal leadership?
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if people don't feel that you're going to follow up with your language with actual walk,
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then eventually they'll just lose confidence and they just won't build it.
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and again, there's different tools at his disposal.
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Again, he could go to court seeking an injunction,
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or he could use the not very much used trade and commerce clause in the Constitution.
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But if people don't even think you will use them, that the will will be there,
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And that is the problem because we lose jobs, we lose opportunity,
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And we'll still see that Alberta oil being trucked through other means,
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whether it be on trucks or whether it be on rail cars, which is far less safe.
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And I think if you talked to most British Columbia and gave them the option,
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they'd want a newer pipeline with better protections assured with that rather than the status quo.
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Many mayors, like the mayor of Merritt, Mayor Menard, has said that this is in the national interest.
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So this is not just where those liberal and New Democrats MPs are nowhere to be seen.
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That's why I'm very proud that Andrew Scheer, our conservative leader,
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I'm happy that Shannon Stubbs, Mark Strahl, both from Alberta and B.C.,
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This is one of those things that we need to keep pushing on.
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It's great to have you as part of the National Caucus.
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And let's hope that we get some sanity when it comes to natural resource development policy in this country
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rather than what is at risk, not only the economy, but really national unity fights again.
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Thank you for joining us, all you listeners out there, for The Blueprint, Canada's Conservative Podcast.
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Thank you for listening to The Blueprint, Canada's Conservative Podcast.
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