Poilievre says pipelines should be built even without consensus

By Brian Zinchuk

OTTAWA – Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was asked on June 9 about Prime Minister Mark Carney’s notion that a consensus was needed to build major projects like pipelines to tidewater. This could be a major stumbling block, as both Quebec and in recent days British Columbia have expressed opposition to any new pipelines going through their territories.

Enbridge’s Alberta Clipper project in 2009. Photo by Brian Zinchuk

Here’s the exchange, verbatim:

Reporter:

I’m wondering, what would you do if there’s a situation where Alberta and BC, for example, are butting heads about a project? Do you think, like Mark Carney, there needs to be consensus to go forward with these big nation building projects.

Pierre Poilievre:

No, we’ve got to get it done. We need a pipe. At the end of the day, if you wait until everybody agrees on everything, nothing will happen. You’re never going to get everybody to agree on every single project.

And bottom line is, we’re giving 90 per cent of our oil and 100 per cent of our gas to the Americans at enormous price discounts. This is costing us 10s of billions of dollars every single year to the exclusive benefit of American refineries and commodity traders who are able to take our product, bid up the price by $15, and sell it on the world stage, and do that literally, about a billion times a year, and that is insane.

So we can’t wait any longer. We have to get things done. And it’s going to take some backbone. And so we, as Conservatives, believe in pushing ahead with pipelines, and the most the shortest route is to the Pacific. Any other route is going to be even harder, politically and physically. So we need a pipeline to the Pacific. And if the prime minister says he’s going to wait until everyone agrees, then nothing will get done, which is what has been happening for the last decade.