00:19:39.300That's probably the main obstacle, not so much getting the studies done themselves.
00:19:46.220So if the major projects office, I mean, if it does clear out some of those regulatory hurdles and problems that things have been holding things up.
00:19:53.980Another issue, I don't know if you speak so much to, but the political end of it, Prime Minister Carney has been asked a couple of times, what about the opposition from some Indigenous groups or even from the Premier of British Columbia?
00:20:04.600Now, constitutionally, neither of those entities should have the power to veto a line.
00:20:09.760I mean, their participation and consultation is very important, of course.
00:20:13.860But Prime Minister Carney doesn't feel or doesn't sound like he's willing to exercise the constitutional authority to finally put the foot down and say, look, it's going to have to go ahead.
00:20:23.460That's sort of one of those aspects, I think, that would keep companies, you know, not feeling confident.
00:20:28.080I mean, why start the process if the prime minister won't promise it's going to get done?
00:20:31.160Fair. Yeah. And the federal government's hands are tied a little bit just to the nature of confederation. Even if the major projects office gives a particular project, whether it's the West Coast Pipeline or something else, all the federal approvals that it needs, there's a whole bunch of, just speaking about provincial governments for a second, there's a bunch of ancillary permits and approvals and licenses that are needed
00:20:59.620that are still within the provincial jurisdiction just to support a project going through.
00:21:04.360That can be anything from work camps to other rights to use land.
00:21:11.060And then when you get to the First Nations side, there's always the chance of a challenge being filed at court
00:21:17.720and an injunction or other delay tactics being filed.
00:21:22.900Even if the federal government does everything it can do to push a project through, there is still this risk.
00:21:28.960I'm not sure if it's that much different in other jurisdictions you know the states would be a good
00:21:35.920example I think there's there's sort of two types of risk there's there's structural risk that you
00:21:40.280can't really avoid but then there's also what I call like a ministerial risk which is you know
00:21:45.260just the government of the day whether it's provincial or federal deciding that a project
00:21:49.620is not going to go ahead and we saw that for example in the states with the expansion of the
00:21:54.080Keystone XL, right? It was the Biden government that said, well, this just isn't going ahead.
00:22:01.760Yeah. But I mean, your statement did say that Canada is falling behind some key competitors,
00:22:06.160such as the United States. I mean, we're very similar jurisdictions. So what is it the Americans
00:22:12.480are doing, though, that is still managing to get things done, whereas we can't? Because they do
00:22:16.240have obstacles. I mean, there was North Dakota, of course, there was quite a lot of bad issues
00:22:20.880with the pipeline trying to get rolling over there. There's been a lot of opposition in
00:22:25.600Michigan to some of our existing infrastructure, even trying to keep it rolling out there.
00:22:30.240But still, it appears that their economy is still moving along,
00:22:32.640they can get some major projects done. So what are they doing that we can't?
00:22:37.600I think it's their relationship with oil and gas generally is a little bit different. I'm not an
00:22:43.440expert on the division of powers in the United States. So I can't say when the federal government
00:22:47.920can just play the trump card and force something through that's certainly not the case in canada
00:22:52.640though so i think that goes to what i was saying that's like a structural risk that's very difficult
00:22:58.640to to work around unless you can get all the governments to come to the table
00:23:03.280so getting other governments to the table is that then you know you mentioned of course the
00:23:08.480british columbia for example i mean there's still they can't necessarily veto a line but they can
00:23:12.800throw a heck of a lot of delays into it through existing processes uh is there a way to facilitate
00:23:18.160or is that part of you know the services your firm does things like that i mean to get between
00:23:22.160the governments and and you know mediate if possible i mean it's it's exactly exactly right
00:23:28.800it's it's you have to treat governments as a stakeholder and and you know convince them show
00:23:35.040them that that this is for their benefit whether and there's a lot of different ways you can you
00:23:38.560you can do that. Lobbying is certainly one of them, but bringing them in as a participant to
00:23:44.320some degree as well as is a tried and true method of getting governments on side. First nations as
00:23:50.400well. We've seen that that really works. Yeah, well, everybody has to see a benefit. I mean,
00:23:55.680I can understand that if you're living down from a pipeline right away and they're saying we're
00:23:59.740going to crash this through there and nothing is coming your way from that, you're not seeing
00:24:04.620anything tangible for yourself, then you're probably not going to be thrilled with it. So
00:24:08.300So demonstrating that British Columbia would get some revenue and be able to spread that around or indigenous bands would be able to participate in the construction and on.
00:24:33.240Well, I was just saying that, I guess, reaching people to be able to demonstrate that there is benefits for them on that end,
00:24:40.300if they have something happening in their area, as opposed to just seeing all the risks.
00:24:44.500Is it a matter of the government's just not been communicating it effectively?
00:24:50.620I think there's a lot of reasons why I think taking the B.C. government, for example,
00:24:54.840I think they have a lot of internal pressures that's probably keeping them from moving things forward as quickly as, you know, example, for example, the Alberta government did with this MOU.
00:25:06.980So I think it's a political reality that we're just unfortunately faced with in Canada.
00:25:12.200We have a very diverse population from coast to coast and not everybody's aligned on oil and gas or, you know, just natural resource development.
00:25:21.240Yeah, well, perhaps, you know, going into some of the other projects in the major projects,
00:25:25.960maybe that would help some of the oil and gas down the road, like there's mining prospects,
00:25:30.360things like that. And in Eastern Canada, they're the ring of fire. Again, there's always opposition,
00:25:35.240there's opposition to everything, if you try something, but, you know, presumably,
00:25:38.440you get it done. Is there a better chance maybe of getting some of those rolling along to sort of,
00:25:43.320I think so, right? The problem with the problem with the pipeline that crosses provincial
00:25:47.000boundaries is that you're dealing with two provinces and one may not see the same level
00:25:52.660of benefit. The Ring of Fire, for example, and, you know, provinces that are purely within British
00:25:57.640Columbia, they're going to see benefit for sure. Construction of a pipeline, even, you know,
00:26:02.840construction of an LNG terminal, that'll create a temporary boost in jobs. But BC wants to see,
00:26:07.980okay, we're taking on a lot of the risk of oil spills, things like that. How are we compensated
00:26:12.200for that risk in the long term. Yeah, well, I mean, right now, perhaps a case could be made
00:26:17.720to some people if we had, well, it takes more and it's easier said done. But if we had a more
00:26:24.020secure domestic supply, there could be ways we could pad ourselves against price shocks from
00:26:28.620international events like we're seeing right now in Iran. But we just don't have the ability to be
00:26:34.880able to do that sort of thing right now. Now is a good time to make that case to a lot of people,
00:26:39.740I think. Yeah. Are you referring to sort of having like a strategic reserve of oil like
00:26:45.740most countries do or? No, I was speaking more along the lines, I guess, of if there was enough
00:26:50.540revenue generated from oil royalties, oil transfers that at a time when prices get high enough,
00:26:56.860that's where you could get programs where things such as carbon tax breaks at the pumps or heating
00:27:01.340bills or things like that, where the government can reduce. So, you know, if we're exporting at
00:27:05.420a very high price, the government's bringing in a higher revenue from that. They can be able to use
00:27:09.100that for local consumers like just showing that what's in it for me sort of aspect to people on
00:27:13.780the ground who aren't thinking of the bigger picture but they do have to wonder how they're
00:27:17.180going to heat their house or fill their car yeah absolutely i agree with you for sure you know and
00:27:21.160i'm not an expert on on um equalization between the provinces but you know maybe that's that's
00:27:27.240something that should be looked at you know when when oil reaches a certain uh a certain threshold
00:27:32.720oil prices then you know maybe the the sharing between the provinces differs a little bit
00:27:37.980And that's certainly what the provincial government does.
00:27:40.880Royalties are they're scaled and they're tied to the price of oil and gas in some situations.
00:27:46.420Yeah, well, and it benefits Alberta strongly whenever the oil prices go high.
00:27:50.860But then the rest of the country tends to suffer a little.
00:27:53.300And that leads to a lot of the regional fracture friction we already have.
00:27:57.240So, I mean, again, if we could just demonstrate that, you know, because those high revenues still lead to more federal taxes that do get to everybody eventually.
00:28:04.260But maybe perhaps not enough Canadians understand that.
00:28:06.700I agree. Yeah, I think, you know, Alberta does its best, I think, to explain, you know, what's good for Alberta is good for Canada. But sometimes I think it's a hard message for the rest of the province to, the rest of the country started to follow when, you know, employment rights, employment rates are differing from province to province and things like that.
00:28:28.060Yeah, well, there are no simple answers, but we're really going to start pursuing some when times are getting tough.
00:28:35.000Before I let you go, then, you know, what is it that your company provides in this end and how can people find out more about this and what you guys do?
00:28:43.420Gowling WLG, my law firm, has excellent relationships both with provincial and the federal government and numerous First Nations in Western Canada.
00:28:51.320And we also have the industry experience to be able to bring everybody to the table and get deals done.
00:28:57.900Great. Yeah, because that's, I guess, kind of what we talked around in so many ways. Maybe
00:29:01.180the federal government, the provincial government, the Indigenous bands are doing very well getting
00:29:04.220to the table themselves, maybe another party like yourselves that can get in there and facilitate
00:29:09.260it because, boy, we really need to get something done. I agree. All right. Well, thank you very
00:29:14.300much for taking the time to speak to us and speaking up on this issue in general. Hopefully,
00:29:18.780we can get things done because there's just so much potential in Canada and it's just painful to
00:29:22.540watch how slowly we managed to bring it to market for everybody. Yeah, I agree. Thanks very much,
00:29:26.620all right thank you so more time folks yeah that is andrew lamb from uh going wlg and uh yeah he
00:29:33.740just you know the issue is ongoing and frustrating it feels circular at times i mean we know the
00:29:39.740benefits but we just can't seem to get it over that line we trip over ourselves and maybe that's
00:29:45.500what it'll take because i mean i know everybody's got their feelings about lawyers necessarily up
00:29:50.380and down too but we got those feelings about politicians there's different interests and
00:29:54.140and perhaps a mediation from another party, whether it's law firms and such, can work around
00:30:00.460the political aspects of what's going on too, because Premier Smith, Carney, they got their
00:30:06.560other interests, they have other things going on, it makes it difficult for them to come to
00:30:09.940conclusions with anything. But it just gets maddening, you know, we just keep going and going
00:30:15.820and nothing just seems to get done. All right, let's just have a look. Yeah, lots of the carbon
00:30:22.560capture and things in the comments, just so much else going on. As Dave mentioned, you know,
00:30:26.700let's turn the page over to the gun grab for those not familiar with it. You know, an ever
00:30:32.320growing list of firearms that the federal government just keeps legalizing and legalizing
00:30:37.480and legalizing and firearms owners just aren't cooperating. They did their trial project out in
00:30:44.340Glaceby, Nova Scotia for people to turn in their guns for the gun buy. And it was like 25 guns came
00:30:49.680in or something like that. And they called it a success. Either way, it's really starting to come
00:30:56.020to a head now. And yeah, there's emails coming out to people who do have firearms that were in
00:31:02.000the restricted list that are now banned. And there's, I believe, like four days left to turn
00:31:06.080them in or there'll be potentially consequences. It's just so stupid. This isn't where the problem
00:31:12.880is. It's not the law buying firearm owners who had registered them. And the other issue is a
00:31:18.820whole whack of the ones that were illegalized weren't registered because the registry was
00:31:23.480only for restricted firearms. There's a whole load that have been banned, but they weren't
00:31:27.120restricted to begin with. And I tell you what, people aren't eager to add theirs to any registry
00:31:33.360or let the government know they have them as they're coming out. It's just a waste of time
00:31:37.140and money because it's all people who weren't committing crimes in the first place. I saw a
00:31:41.680post on X with another release because the government's actually, it was a letter that
00:31:46.720came to the Western Standard, about the cigarette smuggling issue and that sort of thing going on.
00:31:52.920And illegal cigarettes. I mean, it's funny, when the government or anybody makes a commodity
00:31:57.540really expensive, there's going to be a black or gray market. But you don't want to know why
00:32:02.440the government can't get the illegal cigarettes under control? Because it's coming through the
00:32:06.840reserves. Everybody knows that, but the government's terrified, terrified of enforcing the law on
00:32:14.100reserves. I mean, we can't even dig up these alleged bodies that are buried in Kamloops,
00:32:18.440can we? But firearms is another aspect of it because police forces, our own statistics,
00:32:24.740you know, the Canadian Justice Department, they find the same thing. They know it.
00:32:28.100The majority of firearms crimes committed in Canada are committed by guns that were smuggled
00:32:32.720into Canada from the United States, not law-abiding firearm owners. But where did they come in? Ah,
00:32:39.460the Mohawks brought them across the river out east. Well, they don't want to get into that.
00:32:42.980So they'd rather chase down duck hunters and sport shooters and people who just like to collect firearms who never committed any crimes because it looks like you're doing something, but you aren't.
00:32:55.000You're not helping reduce crime whatsoever.
00:32:57.240What you're doing is stealing people's property who weren't bothering anybody.