Oil imports have been at the forefront of the political agenda since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine last month. In response to this violent invasion, many Western democracies have signaled that they will boycott Russian energy products to cut off a critical source of foreign exchange for Putin and his regime.
Canada has already imposed a ban on Russian oil and other petroleum products. Poilievre wants to go one step further by widening the net to ban oil imports from “dictatorships that do not meet our environmental standards or violate human rights” within five years of taking office, according to a background sent by on CBC News his campaign team. .
A Poilievre spokesman said the ban would block imports from Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, among others, if needed.
Located in one of the largest proven oil reserves in the world, Canada imports billions of dollars worth of oil from foreign countries each year to power the Eastern refineries – a symptom of the limited capacity of the East-West pipeline that transports oil supply from Alberta to eastern Canada a challenge.
Most of this imported oil comes from the US, although Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, Nigeria, Norway, Russia and the United Kingdom have also been major suppliers in recent years. In 2020, Saudi Arabia delivered about 73,600 barrels of oil per day to this country.
At present, refineries in Atlantic Canada do not have access to crude oil pipelines, which makes them dependent on these imports. The Irving refinery in Saint John, NB is heavily dependent on foreign oil outside the US, according to data from the Canadian Energy Regulatory Authority.
In the early days of Prime Minister Justin Trindade’s first term, an attempt by pipeline giant TC Energy to reuse an existing pipeline to transport crude oil from Alberta to the East Coast refineries was scrapped due to regulatory uncertainty. The project’s failure has since become the target of Conservative criticism.
“Justin Trinto advocates for oil – as long as it is foreign oil. Every time he kills a Canadian energy project, foreign dictators like Putin do a dance of victory because they dominate the world market,” Poilievre said on Friday.
“The purchase of oil abroad by polluting dictatorships is terrible for our environment. It exports our jobs, our money and our pollution to countries with poor ecological standards. people here in Canada. “
TC canceled plans for Energy East on Trudeau’s watch. His government also blocked the North Gate of Enbridge, canceling a multibillion-dollar project to transport oil through the north in BC. for export abroad.
But the Liberal government has also allowed Enbridge to replace Line 3 – which carries oil from Alberta to refineries in the Midwest.
He bought the existing Trans Mountain pipeline and its expansion plans after the original supporter, Kinder Morgan, withdrew after years of delays caused by a slow federal process of regulatory review and indigenous opposition. Construction of the extension, which will triple the amount of oil flowing from Alberta in BC, is now well under way.
Pierre Poilievre speaks at a press conference at Brandt Tractor Ltd. in Regina, Sask. in March 2022. Poilievre said a government under his leadership would repeal Bill C-69, the 2019 revision of federal environmental law. (Michael Bell / Canadian Press)
Poilievre said today that he would do everything he could to revive this East-West pipeline project, called Energy East, when it was first introduced by TC. He also promised to study using new railways to transport western oil to eastern markets. In the absence of new crude oil pipelines, there has been an explosive growth in oil shipments to North America over the past decade.
For the past five years, conservative politicians have promised to revive Energy East or something like that. If a Conservative-led federal government does not actually build the pipeline, this kind of project will depend on a private company presenting the money and a plan to complete it.
In addition to pushing for more oil to be transported from Alberta to the east, Poilievre said he would support Newfoundland and Labrador’s existing plan to produce much more oil each year.
Provincial leaders there plan to more than double production from 244,000 barrels a day to 650,000 by 2030. The Poilievre campaign estimates that the new offer would offset more than the 126,000 barrels of oil displaced by the proposed ban, outside the US.
The Irving Oil Refinery in Saint John, NB The refinery produces over 320,000 barrels of finished product every day – and is heavily dependent on foreign oil sources. (Andrew Vaughan / Canadian Press)
To increase the province’s output, Poilievre said he would repeal the Liberal government’s existing environmental assessment bill, Bill C-69 – which he called an “anti-energy law” – and “remove government guards” to quickly approve “environmental responsible extensions The offshore sector of the New Earth “.
The proposed increase in Newfoundland and Labrador oil production depends on the federal government approving the Bay du Nord offshore project, which will produce about 200,000 barrels per day once commissioned in 2025.
But this offshore project – which builds on nearly 300 million barrels of oil reserves – is at an impasse. Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault has repeatedly pushed for a final decision as climate activists called for the project to end due to concerns about greenhouse gas emissions.
Guilbeault is now expected to issue a decision on this project on April 13.
