TWO HILLS, AB, April 18, 2019 – Shannon Stubbs, Conservative Shadow Minister for Natural Resources, issued the following statement on the Liberal government’s decision to extend the deadline to make a final decision on the Trans Mountain Expansion until June 18th:
“Today’s announcement, two days after the Alberta election, and the day before the Easter long-weekend, confirms that the Liberals have no plan to get the Trans Mountain Expansion built. The Liberals never had a plan to meet the 90-day deadline to make a decision. Despite the fact that the majority of Canadians and impacted Indigenous communities support the completion of this important project, the Liberals continue to drag their feet.
“The Trans Mountain Expansion was originally expected to be completed and in service by December 2019. However, the Liberals’ ongoing delays will result in another missed summer construction season, significantly delaying the completion timeline. There is also still a very real risk that the Liberals will cancel this project for political reasons.
“The Liberals failed to exert federal jurisdiction to ensure the Trans Mountain Expansion could be built by the private sector. They delayed approval for six months in 2016. Their mistakes in consulting indigenous peoples added eight months of delay – and the Liberals still refuse to set a deadline for these consultations.
“The mistakes the Liberals have made on the Trans Mountain Expansion, their ‘no more pipelines’ Bill C-69 and other anti-energy policies and legislation have destroyed Canada’s reputation as a stable, fair, predictable destination for energy investment. The Prime Minister personally gave the order to cancel the Northern Gateway pipeline instead of getting the consultation right, and the Liberals’ meddling killed the Energy East pipeline with rule changes and standards not applied to other pipelines. More than 115,000 oil and gas jobs have already been lost under these Liberals, and another 12,500 are expected to be lost this year. Canadians can’t afford four more years of Liberal failure.
“Within a week of the court ruling, Conservatives put forward a rescue plan for the Trans Mountain Expansion. An Andrew Scheer Conservative government will cancel the Carbon Tax, scrap the ‘no more pipelines’ Bill C-69, repeal the shipping bans C-48 and C-86, and stand up for Canada’s energy sector by providing the leadership needed to help energy workers and their families get back to work.”
