Federal Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre says he will end foreign imports of oil within five years if he is elected prime minister.
“Justin Trudeau supports oil — as long as it’s foreign oil. Every time he kills a Canadian energy project, foreign dictators like Putin do a victory dance because they get to dominate the world market,” said Poilievre in a press release.
“Buying overseas oil from polluting dictatorships is terrible for our environment. It exports our jobs, our money and our pollution to countries with poor ecological standards. Instead, let us bring home the jobs, money and business to the most environmentally-responsible energy sector in the world here in Canada.”
In 2020, Canada imported roughly 73,000 barrels per day from Saudi Arabia, said Poilievre.
To end the foreign oil dependency, Poilievre said he would double oil production in Newfoundland and support oil pipelines to be constructed within the country.
“Canada must take back control of its energy and reclaim independence. When I am Prime Minister, we will end imports of overseas oil, and instead use our energy for our people in our country. We will remove government gatekeepers at home and stop paying dictators abroad,” said Poilievre.
“Consumers will know when they fill up their tanks they are providing paycheques for Canadians, not money for despots. Canadians will take back control of their lives in the freest country on earth.”
Poilievre’s announcement comes after federal environment minister Steven Guilbeault said “Let’s be reasonable, we can’t help Europe with oil,” during discussion of potential Canadian oil and LNG imports to Europe to replace Russian fossil fuels.
“Our export capacity is pretty much maxed out. We’re building a pipeline. It’s just going in the wrong direction and the idea that we somehow could start to build a bunch of new infrastructure in Canada and it would magically happen — either for gas or for oil — is not very serious.”
Dave Naylor is News Editor of the Western Standard
Dave Naylor is News Editor & Calgary Bureau Chief of the Western Standard based in the Calgary Headquarters. He served as City Editor of the Calgary Sun & covered Alberta news for nearly 40 years.
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