If the world needs oil, why shouldn’t it be Canadian Oil？
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
155.87926
Summary
Learn English with Justin Trudeau. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivers a speech on the importance of Canadian oil and gas production in the 21st century, and why it s time to leave it in the ground, or else.
Transcript
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I grew up in an oilfield family. While most teens' after-school jobs were in fast food or
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working in retail, I spent my days washing winch tractors and cleaning well site trailers.
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By 15, I was a half-decent swamper. I could often be found helping move drilling rigs and
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tank farms on the Suffield block. The industry was good to me and my family. I watched in awe
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as my dad built up several successful companies, not only supporting his own family, but hundreds
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across the province. But our story is hardly unique. There are hundreds of small service
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companies across the West. They move rigs, rent equipment, frack, and drill. And more than that,
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they support their communities. You'd be hard-pressed to walk into a hockey or curling rink and not see
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a sign thanking a local oil and gas entrepreneur for supporting the facility and the teams that
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play within it. Oil and gas is more than just an industry. It's a way of life. It's not for the
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faint of heart to spend weeks and sometimes months at an isolated drilling and mining location,
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away from friends, family, working in the bitter cold in the winter months and trying to stay
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cool in the hot summer sun. This is all too overlooked by the Eastern elite who seek to shut
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down the lifeblood of the Western Canadian economy. When they say, leave it in the ground,
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these aren't shots at Alberta, Saskatchewan's government. No, they're shots at the everyday
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Canadians that work hard to put food on their tables, raise their kids right, and build a
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comfortable retirement. The demand for oil will peak one day, but that day won't be anytime soon.
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There's hardly a facet of our modern lives that doesn't require a petroleum product in some form.
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The environmentalists scream that we're killing the planet, but the truth is Canadian oil and gas
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is the cleanest petroleum industry on Earth. If the world needs oil, why shouldn't it be Canadian oil?
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From emission caps to carbon taxes, no more pipelines and tanker bans, the federal liberal
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government in Ottawa has put roadblocks and barriers in the way of the West's most vital industry.
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But still, the industry thrives, hitting an all-time production high in 2023. And more than that,
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we're doing it cleaner than we ever have. In 2022, the industry cleaned up over 8,000 oil leases,
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busting the myth that Alberta doesn't care about the environment. At the same time, we have reduced
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methane emissions 45% since 2014, three full years ahead of schedule.
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Just like it took Alberta Innovation to get the oil out of the ground, Alberta Innovation is making
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it cleaner and more responsible. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she'd like to take a page out
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of the Americans' book by becoming the world's largest oil and gas producer while simultaneously
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reducing emissions. As the Western Standard Sean's Pulser tells it,
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South of the border, lower 48 production has undergone a miracle transformation,
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nearly tripling from about 4.5 million barrels per day in 2010 to an all-time record of 13 million
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barrels per day in 2023. According to the Energy Information Agency, no country on Earth has ever
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produced that much oil since it was first discovered in 1857. Meanwhile, U.S. CO2 emissions
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in absolute terms have fallen a minimum of 25% since 2007, even as oil and gas production have reached
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new heights. Smith says the American experience can be replicated here in Alberta as well.
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Well, I agree with the Premier. We can and we will do it here. We have all the tools at our disposal.
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Engineers, scientists and geologists working around the clock to extract our resources in the cleanest
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way they can. For now, it's clear the Liberal and NDP coalition aims to shut down the industry.
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We can only hope that a change in Ottawa will get the federal government out of the industry's way