Ottawa, ON – Carol Anstey, Conservative Shadow Minister for Energy and Natural Resources, released the following statement on today’s announcement by the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources:
“No modern economy or military can function without a secure supply of energy and resources. That’s why Conservatives support creating a Strategic Energy and Minerals Reserve and have long called on the Liberals to get out of the way so we can develop our resources.
“Our resources should be used to make Canada strong at home and give us unbreakable leverage abroad. We produce 10 of the 12 NATO-defined defence-critical minerals needed to fuel modern warfare, all of which should be harnessed to create stronger take-home pay for workers and leveraged to secure tariff-free trade with our allies.
“Unfortunately, the Liberals have taken the opposite approach. Carney has said that Canada does not need to maintain a strategic oil reserve and rejected repealing the anti-development laws that have delayed projects and locked our resources in the ground. Instead, he has put in place a process where the government gets to pick winners and losers with a new bureaucracy that has approved zero projects. Canadians have heard plenty of announcements, but they have yet to see results.
“We see the cost of these anti-development policies, as taxpayers are again being forced to subsidize what should instead be a profitable expansion project financed with private capital.
“If Canada wants to supply our allies with the energy and critical minerals they need, the answer isn’t more bureaucracy or government picking winners and losers. The answer is to get government out of the way, let workers work, let builders build.
“Canada should be a natural ally as the producer of more than 60 minerals and metals, along with holding one of the largest deposits of high-grade uranium. Conservatives will deliver results by repealing anti-development laws C-69 and C-48, restoring investor confidence, approving major projects within six months to get shovels in the ground, and getting our resources to market.”