Red Deer’s Conservative MPs say a solution to move the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project forward can’t come quick enough.
“This is about as serious as it gets,” said Red Deer-Lacombe MP Blaine Calkins after speaking at the Red Deer & District Chamber of Commerce’s Breakfast with the MPs Thursday.
“If we can’t do something as simple as build a pipeline in this country East and West in Canada than we’ve got some serious issues in the confederation. We’d better find a way forward peacefully on this before it gets out of hand.”
He said British Columbia’s provincial government is delaying a completely safe project that involves the twinning of a pipeline that has existed for many years.
The pipeline will create construction jobs and then jobs at either end of the pipeline after its complete, he said.
“When we’re not supporting or encouraging those good paying jobs we can’t balance budgets federally, we can’t balance budgets provincially, and it’s costing us all a lot of money having our oil and gas trapped in the North American market place,” Calkins said.
Red Deer-Mountain View MP Earl Dreeshen said failure to construct the Enbridge Northern Gateway and the TransCanada Energy East pipelines, and now the delay of the Trans Mountain pipeline, all happened because of “outside interests and philosophical issues rather than practical business issues.”
He said activists from outside Canada are spurring people on, meanwhile Canada has some of the best environmental regulations in the world.
“We should be championing that rather than sitting back and letting outside forces reduce our opportunities for ourselves and our families.
“If we can’t get the proper amount of volume to tidewater then we are trapped into a U.S. market where they buy our oil at a discount and they can then produce and sell and transfer to different places. They’re the ones making the money on this. Eventually we have to find a way of connecting the dots to recognize who it is that is gaining as Canadians are losing,” Dreeshen said.
The MPs said the Liberal’s legalization of marijuana is another economic concern for Canadians.
Dreeshen said the costs of legalization, like the cost of training police, are being downloaded onto municipalities.
“We’re not looking at the human costs associated with it – the mental health issues.
“We have to look after those who are most vulnerable, and you don’t do that by normalizing a drug that can cause serious damage to young people,” Dreeshen said.
Calkins said there are more questions then answers.
“The problems are all going to be local, and the money is all going to go federal. That’s the disconnect.”
szielinski@reddeeradvocate.com
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