Cathy McLeod, Member of Parliament for Kamloops – Thompson – Cariboo says the Apr. 18, 2019, announcement by the Liberal government to extend the deadline to June 18 to make a final decision on the Trans Mountain Expansion, proves they never planned to meet the original deadline.
“The fact that the Liberals announced this extension only a month before the original decision deadline, and two days after the Alberta election, proves they never planned to get this project underway in a timely manner,” said McLeod. “This means that the Trans Mountain Expansion will miss another summer construction season, adding significant delays to the completion of this project.”
McLeods says, “The mistakes the Liberals have made on the Trans Mountain Expansion, with 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.”
She also commented on Justin Trudeau making Canadians pay for his mistakes by spending $4.5 billion of taxpayer’s money to purchase the existing pipeline – and that he overpaid for the pipeline by over a billion dollars.
“The fact is that the Liberals have no plan to actually get the Expansion built. Every year of delay kills additional tens of thousands of Canadian jobs as upstream oil and gas projects are scaled back and expansions are cancelled due to a lack of pipeline capacity”, said McLeod. “Further, there will be increased construction costs by hundreds of millions of dollars as confirmed by the independent Parliamentary Budget Officer.”
“I believe that we need an Andrew Scheer Conservative government that has promised to cancel the Carbon Tax, scrap the ‘no more pipelines’ Bill C-69 and stand up for Canada’s energy sector with the leadership needed to help energy workers and their families get ahead,” concluded McLeod.