44th Parl. 1st Sess.
March 3, 2022 10:00AM
- Mar/3/22 10:16:35 a.m.
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moved:
That the House:
(a) condemn President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Federation for their unprovoked, illegal attack and invasion of Ukraine;
(b) stand with Ukraine, the people of Ukraine and Canadians in the Ukrainian community; and
(c) call on the Government of Canada to undertake measures to ensure new natural gas pipelines can be approved and built to Atlantic tidewater, recognizing energy as vital to Canadian and European defence and security, allowing Canadian natural gas to displace Russian natural gas in Europe, and being consistent with environmental goals in the transition to non-emitting sources of energy.
He said: Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Calgary Centre.
The attack on Ukraine by the Russian Federation is the first European war between countries since the Second World War and a serious violation of the international order and our collective humanity. This attack threatens not only Ukraine, but Canada. Canada's defence and security has always been inextricably linked to that of Europe. The attack was in Ukraine, but the threat is also among us.
Since Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec in 1608, the outbreak of major wars in Europe has always involved Canada. The Seven Years War, which many consider to be the first global conflict between Great Britain and France, led to the conquest of 1759. What we call the War of 1812 was actually a subsidiary of the Napoleonic Wars. Canadians know well the price that Canada paid in the First World War and the Second World War in Europe, and 100,000 Canadian war dead can attest to that.
The attack represents a second threat to Canada. It came on the heels of an autocratic pact between the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China that threatens the rules-based international order in place since 1945.
Canada contributed to establishing this international order, and it has been the basis for the longest period of peace and prosperity in modern times. The disintegration of this international order will threaten peace and security here in Canada.
We support the actions taken to date by the Government of Canada, but more needs to be done, which is why we have introduced our motion today. One of the most important things we can do is understand that energy is vital not only to our economy, but also to our defence and security and to the defence and security of Europe. Russia understands this. It has used natural gas to intimidate and coerce European democracies. Russia supplies 40% of Europe's natural gas and uses this to intimidate Europe and Ukraine, threatening to cut off supplies. If supplies are cut, people will freeze, factories will shutter and Europe's economy will grind to a halt.
Not only does Russia understand this, and not only does it understand that energy is vital to its defence and security, but so does the European Union. In 2015, the European Commission introduced measures to try to diversify energy away from Russia. The commission said, in reference to Russia's use of energy to intimidate and threaten European democracies, in a document titled, “A Framework Strategy for a Resilient Energy Union with a Forward-Looking Climate Change Policy”:
Energy policy is often used as a foreign policy tool, in particular in major energy producing and transit countries.
The commission said:
As part of a revitalised European energy and climate diplomacy, the EU will use all its foreign policy instruments to establish strategic energy partnerships with increasingly important producing and transit countries or regions....
It also said:
The [European Union] will continue to integrate Norway fully into its internal energy policies. The EU will also develop its partnerships with countries such as the United States and Canada.
We need to understand, as the Russians and the Europeans do, that energy is vital not only to our economy but to our defence and security. We need to understand what others have long understood, which is that energy is also a foreign policy tool, particularly in major energy producing and transit countries.
Since the first week of December, the Biden administration has been trying to rally natural gas-producing allies and partners around the world, such as Norway and Qatar, to ensure that additional natural gas supplies can be brought online in the event that Russia cuts the gas to Europe. While Canada has participated in these conversations, Canada has not been able to provide any assistance.
Canada is the world's fifth-largest natural gas producer, but we are unable to get natural gas to tidewater to provide assistance to European democracies. We cannot get natural gas to tidewater because we cannot get pipelines built. That inability to get pipelines built is now not only impacting our economy. It is now threatening our security and defence here at home, and the defence and security of Europe.
The government must introduce measures to get new pipelines approved and built to transport Canadian natural gas to the Atlantic coast so we can displace Russian natural gas in Europe.
This is an urgent matter affecting the safety and security of Canadians. It is also an important issue for the defence and security of European democracies.
I know that some might say that exporting liquefied natural gas to Europe is inconsistent with our environmental goals. They would be wrong. Exporting liquefied natural gas is consistent with environmental goals in the transition to non-emitting sources of energy. One of the biggest things Canada and the world can do in the next decade to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, in order to meet the Paris accord targets, is to replace coal-fired electrical generation plants with natural gas-fired electrical generation plants. Canada can play a role in that transition if we can build natural gas pipelines to tidewater to export liquefied natural gas.
The government's own data shows that coal-fired electrical generation plants are two times more greenhouse gas intensive than natural gas plants, and Europe and many other countries in the world still rely on coal-fired electrical generation plants. Getting our natural gas to tidewater is not only an economic imperative or a defence and security imperative, but it is also an environmental imperative.
We condemn President Putin and the Russian Federation for their unprovoked, illegal attack and invasion of Ukraine. We stand with Ukraine, we stand with the people of Ukraine, and we stand with Canadians here at home with ties to Ukraine. We must use all of the tools available to us as a country to defend Ukraine and Europe against a vicious authoritarian onslaught.
Some of the things that the Canadian government can do to support democracies in Europe are recognize that Canada has immense energy resources, recognize that energy is vital to Canadian and European defence and security, recognize that natural gas is consistent with environmental goals in the transition to non-emitting sources of energy, and undertake new measures that ensure natural gas pipelines can be approved and built to Atlantic tidewater. If we can build pipelines to get Canadian natural gas to tidewater, we can displace Russian gas in Europe, thereby countering the threat from the Russian Federation and President Vladimir Putin and strengthening democracy in Europe and here at home in Canada.
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- Mar/3/22 10:41:44 a.m.
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I remind members that, when somebody is asking a question, there is no sense in trying to answer for the hon. member who has the floor and will be answering. I am sure the hon. member for Calgary Centre is able to respond to the question.
The hon. member for Calgary Centre has the floor.
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- Mar/3/22 11:58:34 a.m.
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We have a point of order from the hon. member for Calgary Rocky Ridge.
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- Mar/3/22 11:59:33 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would tell my hon. colleague that if the truth hurts, too bad, so sad, because the Conservatives have taken the crisis in Ukraine, the humanitarian suffering, the deaths, the murder of innocent people, turned it around and said this is a great opportunity for them to take billions in taxpayers' money to promote the interests of oil and gas. If they do not like the mathematics of how bad that is, then they should not be in the chamber. Too bad, so sad, because this is their motion. We could have been debating anything of substance. Instead, we are debating Conservative mythologies.
As I was saying, over the last few years, 60 financial institutions, including Deutsche Bank, HSBC Holdings plc, Hartford Financial, the Japan Petroleum Exploration, have all pulled out of Canada. Why? It is because of the lack of a plan to deal with the climate crisis.
Not only are the Conservatives misrepresenting the facts in terms of the horrific humanitarian crisis, but they are misrepresenting the facts to workers because the transition is here. We see the potential. Calgary Economic Development and Edmonton Global are saying that if we start to invest now in clean energy, we are looking at an additional $61 billion for the provincial Alberta economy. If they continue with business as usual, there will be only $4 billion. Year in, year out, we see drops in employment in the oil sector and that is not because people are being mean to them. It is because industry is cutting jobs and making more profits. That is the thing.
That leads me back to the Forbes comparison. Forbes says that having lost the debate in Canada on the climate crisis, oil and gas have shifted, like big tobacco, to the global south, where the number one plan is to make some claims about greenwashing, shift massive exports to the global south where it does not count and then only invest enough in clean tech so it looks like they are doing something. Meanwhile, the market has moved beyond, and it has moved beyond in a substantial way. What we have been given, time and time again, by the Conservative Party is a fake, failed mythology when, year in, year out, jobs in the oil patch have gone down and the opportunity for a clean-tech economy is staring us in the face. There is a huge potential, but if we do not meet that, then we are consigning our children to no future.
To get back to the motion at hand in a very clear way, I have seen a lot of ways the Conservatives and the Liberals will bend over backwards to give taxpayers' money to big oil, to excuse all manner of abuses of accountability and to go along with all manner of fake claims about dealing with the crisis, but emissions have continued to rise, year in, year out. We are talking about the future of our planet, but we are talking about it now, within the context of a global crisis, a humanitarian crisis where people are dying. They expect more from us than this gaudy attempt to claim that our best response to Ukraine is to spend billions of dollars on an unproven, unplanned, unidentified pipeline, when the Europeans are already moving toward clean energy alternatives. This is exploitative and crass.
I have enormous respect for my colleague from Wellington—Halton Hills, so I will offer an amendment in order for us to come together and show a higher standard. I move that the motion be amended in paragraph (c) by deleting all the words after “Government of Canada to” and substituting the following, “greatly increase humanitarian aid for Ukraine and for countries bordering Ukraine that have already accepted hundreds of thousands of refugees and provide targeted supports to ethnic minorities who have faced discrimination in their attempt to flee Putin's war in Ukraine.”
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- Mar/3/22 1:18:44 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Calgary Midnapore today.
Before I begin my remarks, I want to thank the MPs in this chamber for coming together this past week as we all stand firmly behind Ukrainians and their valiant defence of their country. I want to thank the Ukrainian Canadian Congress and the other organizations that are doing all they can to raise money and to provide support to those in need.
I also want to specifically highlight Volodymyr Palagniuk and his wife Iiulia, who have been instrumental in organizing and rallying support here in Ottawa. Volodymyr works for the member for Brantford—Brant, and just this past year he and his wife became Canadian citizens. I am privileged to call him a friend. I know how difficult this past week has been for him as his parents and in-laws are currently in Ukraine. He is not alone. There are countless people whose loved ones are currently under attack and whose lives are at risk.
Vladimir Putin's unprovoked war is a clear violation of international law, the UN Charter and the rights of Ukraine to its sovereignty and its territorial integrity. I applaud the Government of Canada's efforts in organizing and supplying everything from military equipment to humanitarian supplies.
We are working in concert with our allies around the world that have done the same. That military equipment is helping stop the Russian tanks, the armoured carriers and the helicopters and is giving the Ukrainian army and citizens the ability to defend their own country. Canada and other countries have also implemented sanctions against the Putin regime. They are designed to cripple the money supply and the movement of those closely tied to the president and the Russian military. Canada is restricting exports to Russia by halting new export permit applications and cancelling valid export permits.
The government has announced it will ban crude oil, which will also include the import of refined petroleum products, which should include jet fuel and gasoline. Just this Monday at the Standing Committee on Natural Resources, I moved a motion for the Department of Natural Resources to provide us with solid numbers on how much energy, minerals and other products we imported from Russia and Belarus over the last 10 years. We need a full understanding of what Canada imports from these two countries to get a better grasp on the size and scope of the natural resources that have come into our country.
As other countries start to take similar steps to ban Russian energy, we must take note of the role Canadian natural gas can have in neutering potential threats. Not only can we support Ukraine in its time of need, but we must also ensure Russia does not have the financial means to terrorize sovereign nations.
That takes me to the third clause of our opposition motion, which calls on the government to ensure Canadian natural gas can get to tidewater and displace Russian natural gas in Europe. Russian natural gas is flowing through the veins of Putin's war machine as we stand in the House today. As long as it continues to flow to Europe and the world, he will continue to build bombs, missiles and rockets destined to kill innocent Ukrainians. Let us never forget that.
Every year, billions and billions of dollars flow into the Russian government's coffers from natural gas exports. Seventy-two per cent of Russia's natural gas exports go to the European Union. Canada has the capacity to reduce that number to zero.
Since elected, I have supported ideas to grow the industry as we have the highest environmental and labour standards anywhere in the world. I have advocated for ways to get western Canada's energy to tidewater on both our coasts, and I have stood up for the sector because Canadian energy workers provide the natural gas that heats our homes. They provide the fuel that keeps our vehicles on the roads. They ensure we have the electricity to keep our economy moving. We must never forget the jobs the energy sector creates and the billions in taxes governments rely on to pay for our schools, health care and social services.
The one argument I have never made in support of the industry is for defence and security reasons. On numerous occasions I have stated that Canadian natural gas should be exported to replace harmful and carbon-intensive products such as coal. I have also made the point that Canadian green technology should also be exported to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. That could include advances in nuclear technology, carbon capture and other processes our great Canadian innovators have developed.
The one thing I have never stated before, until today, is the necessity to get new natural gas pipelines built to permanently displace Russian natural gas in Europe. I am not saying this solely for domestic economic reasons, but to ensure that Europe can never be held hostage to the whims and intimidation tactics of the Putin regime. Displacing Russian natural gas would curb the dollars that have been used to pay for the very weapons currently being used against Ukrainian families and children. No one knows how long this horrible war will prolong. We also do not know how long Putin and his acolytes will remain in power. What we do know is that Europe must permanently make this energy pivot.
The question we must ask ourselves is this. Do we wait to see what happens in the months or years ahead or do we take a decision now? I want to lay out my argument for why Parliament should send a clear signal to the government to make this a priority.
First and foremost, the Putin regime must be isolated. This is already happening, but we should expedite this process in every way we can. There are always reports of Russian energy companies not being able to sell their products, even at discounted prices. As more countries start to implement similar bans, it will be more difficult for them to find customers. I would argue some of their existing customers, such as those in Europe, are in a very precarious position.
Second, it will take time for new natural gas pipelines and projects to be planned, consulted on, approved and built. However, if we prioritize these projects, we can implement an assessment process that upholds best-in-class environmental standards and sets clear expectations and timelines for environmental reviews. We can set clear timelines so investors get a yes or no. We can create high-paying jobs across the provinces and work with indigenous communities to ensure they are partners in prosperity.
We must harness the same level of co-operation we have shown in supporting the people of Ukraine. We can work together to severely and permanently impede the Putin regime's potential to wage war. If the government directed the necessary resources and immediately began to work with all levels of government, the private sector and indigenous communities, I believe it can be done. While in this place we may have many disagreements, I know if we work together we can create a plan to free our European allies from their reliance on Russia for their energy needs. If we agree on that end goal, then let us figure out a way to get there.
Third, we know other governments are already talking about ramping up their own domestic natural gas production. For example, the Biden administration has been talking with countries in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia about stepping up natural gas production to Europe.
My question for my hon. colleagues is this. Would it not be better to trust our Canadian environmental and labour standards rather than those of other countries filling that void? If we can expand Canadian natural gas exports, all MPs will be intimately involved and have direct oversight.
In closing, I would like to appeal to my colleagues to support this motion. It is clear in its intent and I believe we all recognize the importance of freeing the EU from its reliance on Russian natural gas.
I also recognize there is much more we can do above and beyond just expanding natural gas exports. I want to have those conversations in the coming days. However, let us seize this moment not only to help Ukraine but to put in motion a plan to deal a financial blow to limit the Putin regime's ability to wage war and threaten other nations.
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- Mar/3/22 1:33:13 p.m.
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Resuming debate, the hon. member for Calgary Midnapore.
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