BY BOB ZIMMER
Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies
After years of unnecessary delays, construction on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion has officially begun.
It is finally some good news for our energy sector that has had far too few victories thanks to the failures of this Liberal government and its anti-energy policies and legislation.
While I’m happy to see this important pipeline project move forward, it should never have taken this long to get started and Canadians should never have had to pay for it.
Unfortunately, the Trans Mountain Expansion still faces legal challenges that could derail the project and let’s not forget that the Liberals failed to show up to defend the project in court over the summer.
Rest assured, we will be pushing the Liberal government to provide Canadians with detailed plans for this project that include construction timelines, how it will address legal challenges, and how much the project will ultimately cost taxpayers.
My Conservative colleagues and I understand that pipeline projects like the Trans Mountain Expansion are in Canada’s national interest and are good for Canadians across the country.
Sadly, continued delays on important energy projects are leaving Canada behind while other nations push forward on massive pipeline projects.
For example, Russia and China recently launched the Power of Siberia, a natural gas pipeline ten times the size of our own Coastal GasLink pipeline, after the project only took five years to build.
It is taking far too long to get Canada’s energy infrastructure projects built.
That is why we will continue to champion natural resource sectors by uniting the country with a plan for energy independence by 2030.