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Red Deer MPs stand behind Canadian energy sector

‘We could replace literally every molecule of Russian energy’
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Canada is missing out on the opportunity to replace all of the Russian energy currently being displaced from the international market due to a lack of foresight to build more pipelines, says Red Deer-Lacombe MP Blaine Calkins.

“We have trillions of cubic feet of natural gas under our feet right here, right now, and that’s just the stuff we know about. We’ve got trillions more cubic feet of natural gas under Eastern Canada,” said Calkins after speaking at Thursday’s Breakfast with the MPs hosted by Red Deer & District Chamber of Commerce at River Bend Golf & Country Club.

“We’re an environmentally and socially responsible country. We could replace literally every molecule of Russian energy into Europe and provide a stable, reliable source.”

Instead, European countries have to fire up their coal-fired power plants to generate electricity to replace Russian energy, he said.

“How is that any cleaner than Canadian natural gas? We’re our own worst enemies in this country because we fight each other regionally, and we fight each other along different sectors, and we stop each other from actually being successful. It’s absolutely ridiculous.”

And on the subject of Russia, Canada should be diverting some of its spending to restock the shelves of armories across the country, Calkins said.

“We share a border with Russia as well. That is something we should keep in mind.”

Related:

Federal budget ignores global demand for oil and gas, says Red Deer MP

Red Deer-Mountainview MP Earl Dreeshen said that a real discussion about Canada’s natural resources and its ability to become a world energy leader has been missing.

“It seems it’s always a fight, west and east, one resource type versus another resource type,” Dreeshen said.

He said a fair discussion would include energy alternatives and the role of natural resources to develop those alternatives, for example, the tons of plastic needed to make windmills.

“Whether or not we’re talking about uranium, or potash or oil and gas. People seem to forget the majority of what we use and have comes from hydrocarbons. Well, they have to be dug out of the ground.

“I’m happy to have the discussion on any type of new technology because we have the brainpower to make that happen. But don’t shut down one to try and make the other happen,” Dreeshen said.

Related:

Beef emerging as sticking point in free trade talks between Canada and Britain



szielinski@reddeeradvocate.com

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