Poilievre commits to Canada's oil and gas sector at campaign stop in St. John's
Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre made commitments to boosting Canada's oil and gas sector during a visit to St. John's on Tuesday morning as part of his Atlantic swing on the campaign trail.
Poilievre began his visit with a stop at Olympic Construction where he focused his support on Newfoundland and Labrador's offshore.
"I support Newfoundland and Labrador's plan to double production of oil and gas," he said, adding he will grant rapid permits to Placentia Bay's liquefied natural gas facility to ship more oil to Europe and "break European dependence on [Vladimir] Putin."
Poilievre he'll remove the energy cap that, "will prevent our industry from growing and even force it to shrink in size."
In Newfoundland and Labrador, this includes boosting offshore oil drilling, which he claims Liberal Leader Mark Carney will prevent.
"He wants to keep it in the ground and that includes under the ocean floor," said Poilievre. "[Carney] will not allow any offshore development here in in Newfoundland. To keep it in the ground, he would have to block any further projects from going ahead."
Energy sector CEOs called on Ottawa in March to use emergency powers to speed up key projects. In a letter to the political leaders, the CEOs of 10 of the largest oil and natural gas companies and the four largest pipeline companies outlined their plan to strengthen Canadian economic sovereignty.
The letter included a commitment to create firmer deadlines for project approvals, asking that projects be approved within six months of application.
If elected, Poilievre said that's exactly what he'll do, calling it the "build Canada demand."
He also said he will make a more drastic cut to the federal carbon tax, pointing at the industrial side of the tax rather than just the consumer portion, which was dropped on Tuesday and decreased gas and diesel prices in Newfoundland and Labrador by over 20 cents per litre.
"If you tax the industrial backbone of the country, you tax every single person who lives in a modern economy," said Poilievre.
Lastly, he committed to "unlocking the power of First Nations workers" with Indigenous loan guarantees, and establishing the Canadian Indigenous Opportunities Corporation (CIOC).
"I want Indigenous people to be the richest people in the world, but that means allowing them the loan guarantees to get their investments into these projects." Poilievre said.
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