Ottawa, ON – Shannon Stubbs, Conservative Shadow Minister for Infrastructure (with Responsibility for the Alberta MOU, Pipeline and Pathways Project), and Carol Anstey, Conservative, Shadow Minister for Energy and Natural Resources, released the following statement on the designation of the Pacific Link pipeline as a project of national interest:

“Conservatives have always been champions of Canadian oil and gas, and of an energy sector that brings jobs and prosperity at home and leverage abroad. We thank Premier Smith and the Government of Alberta for continuing to fight to get our natural resources out of the ground so we can save Canadians money, create jobs and fuel ourselves here at home.

“It has taken Mark Carney a year and a half since taking office to put a proposed pipeline on a list. Meanwhile, at least 500 projects are sitting on the Prime Minister’s desk waiting for his approval. Canada needs pipelines in the ground.

“The Liberals have killed two private sector pipeline proposals in the last eleven years and, as recently as June, rejected a committee motion saying a Pacific pipeline was in the national interest. It took the better part of a year to even add this pipeline to a list from the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding last November.

“Most importantly, the Liberals have kept nearly every growth-killing anti-energy policy on the books, making it more difficult, more costly and more time-consuming to build major energy infrastructure, and forcing the Government of Alberta to fight tooth and nail for this project instead of creating the regulatory certainty to attract private sector investment.

“This pipeline should be privately funded and should not require billions of tax dollars. Massively profitable pipelines get built faster and without tax dollars around the world. Here, government taxes and bureaucracy block them, forcing delays and taxpayer subsidies to get them going. A project of this importance should not have to wait nearly another year for final approval, with construction potentially starting as late as spring 2028.

“Canadians cannot afford to wait. If the Prime Minister truly believes this pipeline is in the national interest, then he should act like it. The federal government needs to get out of the way and let builders build, investors invest and workers work.

“His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition will work relentlessly for this project to be completed rapidly and efficiently, and will bring this issue before the Special Joint Committee on the Exercise of Powers Under the Building Canada Act to push for faster construction. Canadians deserve a clear timeline, transparent cost estimates and accountability.

“The Conservative plan would scrap anti-development laws and taxes, offer rapid permits, end the federal industrial carbon tax and make Canada the fastest, most affordable place for private investors to build big things that generate big paycheques and a strong dollar for us all.

“That is how we save Canadians money and jobs, make our country affordable and independent, and build a Canada that lives up to its full potential.”