Yesterday (April 5th), the Federal Liberal Party announced that they’re spending $280,000 on a study to find out why the oil and gas sector is falling behind.

Conservative MP for Airdrie Blake Richards said he just shook his head when he heard that news.

“I could easily save the government $280,000 of taxpayers money. The answer is, quit making bad decisions that ruin and harm our industry. One of the first things they did when they came into power, they put in a tanker ban. That essentially killed one pipeline project.”

Richards also pointed to other decisions by the Liberals including the Federal Carbon Tax and the recently introduced Bill C-69.

This new Bill would amend the regulatory process for energy projects in terms of their impact assessment. In other words, a new agency would look at any environmental, health or social effects of a designated project and prohibit any that would have those effects.

It also means that anyone can provide input into the process for a project without being directly associated with them.

Richards believes moves like this can only make things worse for a viable industry in Alberta and Canada.

“We do have some of the most environmentally friendly oil here in Canada. We’re always working to try and do better. It’s important to have processes in place but there has to be some kind of a timeline to the processes, there has to be some kind of a certainty as to when a proponent would get a decision, or there’s just no incentive to want to put investment here when they can put it elsewhere.”

Richards concluded by saying that the solution for the Liberals is a lot closer than they think.

“If they want to save $280,000, they don’t seem to be too concerned about saving money, if they want to save $280,000 I can tell them, look in the mirror, there’s your answer.”

 

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