Mark Carney Photo: Jarryd Jäger, Western Standard
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WATCH: Carney doubles down on giving Quebec veto status on pipelines to Quebec

The Liberal leader said, however, that he was "a proponent of building big energy infrastructure" in Canada.

Jarryd Jäger

DELTA — Mark Carney has doubled down on giving Quebec veto status on pipelines to Quebec.

The Liberal leader claimed, however, that he was "a proponent of building big energy infrastructure" in Canada.

During a press conference on Tuesday, the Western Standard's Jarryd Jäger brought up a claim Carney made at a rally the night before that Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre's plan was to "divide and be conquered."

"As of now, Canada is reliant on the United States to get our own oil from one side of the country to the other," Jäger said. "By not repealing Bill C-69 and allowing Quebec to veto a pipeline across Canada, are you not yourself setting up Canada to be divided and conquered?"

"Absolutely not," Carney replied. "I am a proponent of building big energy infrastructure in this country, but if we are going to build big energy infrastructure in this country, there is a 'we' in that."

He argued that when it comes to such projects, it's "not imposed by the federal government, it's not imposed by an opposition politician, it's not imposed by a company."

Speaking specifically about the Energy East pipeline, Carney said it "requires the support of ... Quebec, the other provinces that are affected, ... the free, prior, and informed consent of First Nations."

"What I've proposed both at first ministers' level and more broadly," he continued, "is that we as a country use this crisis to identify those projects of national interest, many of which — not all of which — but many of which, are energy infrastructure projects, so that we can get those agreements, so that we can come together, and we can accelerate."

Regarding Bill C-69, Carney said rather than scrap the legislation, he wanted to use it "not as it was, but as it is" and rely on the impact assessments that it allows.

"I reject the question," he concluded, "but I hope I've provided some illumination."

During a rally in Penticton, BC on Saturday, Poilievre slammed the Liberals for making Canada reliant on the Americans on a number of fronts, not least when it comes to energy.

"The Western Canadian oil that goes to Quebec and Ontario has to travel through two American pipelines," he said. "If ever the trade war got serious enough, the Americans could cut us off from our own energy supply."

The Conservative leader accused the Liberals under Justin Trudeau of making Canada “helpless and economically vulnerable” by blocking pipelines, and said Carney is "100% against our energy sector" as well.

Carney has been called out for being a vocal opponent of pipelines in Canada while Brookfield Asset Management — the investment giant he once chaired — closes in on a $9 billion deal to acquire Colonial Pipeline in the United States.