Poilievre vows to ban oil from ‘polluting dictatorships,’ double production in Newfoundland

Conservative management candidate Pierre Poilievre promised Friday a authorities led by him would take a tough line on what he calls “polluting dictatorships” by dramatically curbing overseas oil imports from nations like Saudi Arabia whereas boosting Canadian manufacturing to make up the shortfall.

Oil imports have moved to the forefront of the political agenda since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine final month. In response to that violent incursion, many Western democracies have signalled they’re going to boycott Russian power merchandise to chop off an important supply of overseas forex for Putin and his regime.

Canada already has enacted a ban on Russian oil and different petroleum merchandise. Poilievre needs to take it a step additional by widening the web to ban oil imports from “dictatorships that fail to satisfy our environmental requirements or abuse human rights” inside 5 years of taking workplace, in response to a backgrounder despatched to CBC Information by his marketing campaign crew.

A spokesperson for Poilievre mentioned the ban would block imports from Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, amongst others, if crucial.

Regardless of sitting on one of many world’s largest confirmed oil reserves, Canada imports billions of {dollars} value of oil from overseas nations every year to gasoline jap refineries — a symptom of the restricted east-west pipeline capability that makes shifting crude oil from Alberta to jap Canada a problem.

Most of that imported oil comes from the U.S., though Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, Nigeria, Norway, Russia and the U.Ok. have additionally been vital suppliers in recent times. In 2020, Saudi Arabia delivered roughly 73,600 barrels of oil a day to this nation.

Proper now, Atlantic Canadian refineries don’t have pipeline entry to crude oil, which makes them reliant on these imports. The Irving-owned refinery in Saint John, N.B. is especially depending on non-U.S. overseas oil, in response to knowledge from the Canada Vitality Regulator.

Early in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s first time period, an try by pipeline large TC Vitality to repurpose an current pure fuel pipeline to maneuver crude oil from Alberta to East Coast refiners was scrapped resulting from regulatory uncertainty and opposition from some Quebec politicians. The undertaking’s failure has been a goal of Conservative criticism ever since.

“Justin Trudeau helps oil — so long as it’s overseas oil. Each time he kills a Canadian power undertaking, overseas dictators like Putin do a victory dance as a result of they get to dominate the world market,” Poilievre mentioned Friday.

“Shopping for abroad oil from polluting dictatorships is horrible for our surroundings. It exports our jobs, our cash and our air pollution to nations with poor ecological requirements. As a substitute, allow us to convey dwelling the roles, cash and enterprise to probably the most environmentally accountable power sector on this planet right here in Canada.”

TC scrapped its plans for Vitality East on Trudeau’s watch. His authorities additionally blocked Enbridge’s Northern Gateway, cancelling a multi-billion undertaking that might have carried oil by way of northern B.C. for export overseas.

However the Liberal authorities additionally allowed Enbridge’s Line 3 substitute undertaking — which strikes oil from Alberta to refineries within the U.S. midwest — to proceed.

It bought the present Trans Mountain pipeline and its enlargement plans after the unique proponent, Kinder Morgan, pulled out after years of delays brought on by a sluggish federal regulatory overview course of and Indigenous opposition. Building on the enlargement, which can triple the quantity of oil that flows from Alberta to B.C., is now effectively underway.

Poilievre mentioned at the moment he’d do all he can to revive that east-west pipeline undertaking, which was known as Vitality East when it was first pitched by TC. He additionally promised to check utilizing new rail strains to transfer western oil to jap markets. Within the absence of latest crude oil pipelines, there’s been explosive development in oil-by-rail shipments in North America within the final decade.

For the final 5 years, Conservative politicians have promised to revive Vitality East or a undertaking prefer it. Until a Conservative-led federal authorities truly builds the pipeline itself, that form of undertaking would rely on a non-public firm coming ahead with the cash and a plan to see it by way of to completion.

Past a push to maneuver extra Alberta oil to the east, Poilievre mentioned he’d again Newfoundland and Labrador’s current plan to churn out far more oil every year.

Provincial leaders there are intent on greater than doubling manufacturing from 244,000 barrels of oil a day to 650,000 by 2030. The Poilievre marketing campaign estimates that the brand new provide would greater than offset the 126,000 barrels of oil that might be displaced by the proposed ban on some overseas, non-U.S. oil imports.

To extend that province’s output, Poilievre mentioned he’d scrap the Liberal authorities’s current environmental evaluation act, Invoice C-69 — which he known as an “anti-energy regulation” — and “take away authorities gatekeepers” to shortly approve “environmentally accountable expansions of Newfoundland’s offshore sector.”

The proposed enhance in Newfoundland and Labrador oil manufacturing depends upon federal authorities approval of the Bay du Nord offshore undertaking, which might produce about 200,000 barrels a day as soon as operational in 2025.

However that offshore undertaking — which is predicated on reserves of practically 300 million barrels of oil — is in limbo. Federal Surroundings Minister Steven Guilbeault has repeatedly pushed off a remaining choice as local weather activists demand the undertaking’s termination over greenhouse fuel emissions considerations.

Guilbeault is now anticipated to launch a call on that undertaking on April 13.