Conservative Natural Resources Critic on carbon tax, Part 1

Conservative Natural Resources Critic Shannon Stubbs on carbon tax, Clean Fuel Standard and more, Part 1

By Brian Zinchuk

The whirlwind around the federal carbon tax, which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau paused for home heating oil for three years, but no other forms of home heating, has become the focus of the nation. And in the centre of that whirlwind is Shannon Stubbs, Alberta Conservative MP for Lakeland (which includes the Alberta portion of Lloydminster). She’s the Natural Resources Critic whose been deeply involved in the House of Commons Natural Resources Committee consideration of Bills C-49 and C-50. The first is “An Act to amend the Canada—Newfoundland and Labrador Atlantic Accord Implementation Act and the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Resources Accord Implementation Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts. The second is “An Act respecting accountability, transparency and engagement to support the creation of sustainable jobs for workers and economic growth in a net-zero economy.” It’s also know as the Canadian Sustainable Jobs Act.

It’s also been referred to as the “Just Transition Act.”

So in the midst of consideration for an act that wants to do away with the fossil fuel industry, the renewed and amplified furor around the carbon tax has got the Lloydminster MP hopping.

Pipeline Online spoke to Stubbs by phone from Parliament on Tuesday, Nov. 7, while she waited to be recalled to the committee. Here’s the first part of the interview. The second part will cover the Supreme Court of Canada’s ruling against most of the Impact Assessment Act.

Pipeline Online: Premier Scott Moe said that if the federal government doesn’t get rid of the carbon tax on home heating by January 1, SaskEnergy will no longer collect the carbon tax on natural gas. Is this the action that will cause the eventual collapse of the carbon tax?

Shannon Stubbs: Listen, the only ones who can cause the actual collapse of the carbon tax are those who imposed it in the first place, which are the NDP-Liberals. And what is wild is to see them admitting the sham behind their carbon tax, and the sham behind all their rhetoric about the carbon tax as a solution to an emergency, when they offered an exemption that doesn’t apply to 97% of Canadians.

So of course, Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives want to remove the carbon taxes for all Canadians. And that’s what we will do, if Canadians elect us in the next election.

I believe that premier Moe is doing what he must to protect the people that he represents, to respond to his voters in Saskatchewan. And I understand every provincial leader who, now, because of the NDP-Liberals divisive, wedging, dangerous, sham announcement here, I believe that every provincial leader is contemplating and must do their duty to speak out for the people who elect them and to protect them against the escalating cost of living crisis that has been caused by the NDP-Liberals deficit spending and their carbon taxes.

Pipeline Online: So Prime Minister Trudeau said absolutely not with regards to any additional exemptions to the carbon tax. So now we have apparently a federal law, they’ll no longer be applied equally across the country. Could this lead to a national unity issue?

Shannon Stubbs: Personally, on my part, during the last eight years I have cautioned repeatedly that the consequence of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the NDP-Liberal’s anti-energy, anti-private sector, anti-democratic, pro-censorship, unfair treatment of Canadians, depending on what product they come from, what regions they live in. And as we all know, as the Liberal Rural Affairs Minister made it clear to Canadians a couple of weeks ago, now we know also, depending on how Canadians vote, that determines whether or not the NDP-Liberals care about you or respond to you.

So, I’ve often warned that the consequences of their approach is absolutely the dual creation of cost of living crisis, and for all Canadians and jeopardizes national unity. And so again, I think that the provincial premiers can be forgiven and ought to take whatever action they need to respond to their own voters and to protect their citizens. And all of this restlessness and this growing national divide; the divide between Canadians, is all absolutely a consequence of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and completely exemplified by exactly your point here, that went that divisive sham of an announcement that that clearly pits Canadians against each other.

And they’re doubling down on refusing to provide the same exemption to all Canadians to take the tax off Canadians to keep the heat on is more proof than ever before that these NDP-Liberals and that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are not worth the cost to Canadians, and they are absolutely not worth the trust of Canadians either.

Pipeline Online: The shocking announcement by Prime Minister Trudeau on October 26 is the first crack in the wall of his government’s suite of climate change initiatives, from the federal carbon tax, the Clean Fuel Regulations to the Clean Electricity Regulations. What does this mean?

Shannon Stubbs: I would start by saying this: they keep claiming that these are climate change policies. But of course, every single year under these Liberals, emissions have increased except for the year when governments locked Canadians down. Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives have committed, and we will, repeal of carbon taxes carbon tax 1.0 and carbon tax 2.0, the standard that you’ve just talked about, we will repeal them, to cut costs and to get the cost of living crisis that the Liberals have caused, under control. To make essentials more affordable for all Canadians, not just so that Canadians can survive, but so that they can actually have a chance to put some money away, and capture their dreams and have homes that they want to be able to feed their families.

This is what it is supposed to mean to be Canadian, that you can prepare yourself, that you can work hard, that you can get some education, or you can develop your skills. You can develop trades and you can work in the sectors that are primarily underpinned by natural resources development in this country to this day, despite the anti-resource development, anti-private sector, anti-development agenda that the NDP-Liberals have been imposing relentlessly for the past eight years.

That’s supposed to be what being Canadian is all about.

So what Conservatives are asking on each one of these initiatives is for the Liberals to prove the outcomes. They say on one hand, all these policies are to help protect the environment, to help reduce emissions. Well, the proof is there, that that’s not actually happening. But what is happening is what Conservatives always warned is that this is skyrocketing cost of living, the cost of essentials, for all Canadians. And gas, groceries and heating your home are not luxuries in our big northern expensive country. Not luxuries for anyone. So that’s why Conservatives will repeal the carbon taxes.

And as far as the Clean Electricity Standard, what I’ve been doing and what we Conservatives have been doing here is urging the Liberals to actually answer the questions that Canadians rightly have about their targets, about their ever-escalating and changing targets for decarbonisation of Canada’s grid, which by the way, 87 per cent is already what they consider clean.

But their target on the timeline that they’ve set is, they can’t answer how much that’s all going to cost. Who’s gonna pay for it? And this suite of the decisions that they’re making, like banning internal combustion engines before any other option is actually affordable, or available, or accessible for Canadians, in all sectors, and all communities, and all parts of this country. Or their targets on Canada’s grid, when they haven’t even been able to get interties done between provinces and between the north and south in this country.

These are the questions that Canadians are asking, that Conservatives are asking and that the NDP-Liberals must answer. And what my concern is, is that they are, as they’ve always done, acting off of their radical ideological agenda, without any focus on what the actual outcomes and deliverables are, and what it will take to get there.

A very consequential aspect of meeting their stated targets and goals, that so far we know will cost Canadians dearly, is actually the recovery of critical minerals and metals. And in Saskatchewan, and in Alberta, and right across the country, there are there are lots of potential for those kinds of things, including in Saskatchewan and Alberta, of course. The recovery of lithium as byproducts of oil and gas development, and all sorts of options.

But the reality is right now that very, very few mining proposals have actually ever gotten the way through the red tape gatekeeping mess that these guys have created. And Canada, because of the NDP-Liberals, doesn’t produce those key components that will help serve the end goal of electrification that they say they want, in any kind of significant quantities whatsoever.

And in fact, so far what’s happening is many of the projects that are under development, of course, their supply chains come from hostile regimes. And in some cases, for example, lithium is a byproduct, so far, will actually be sent to those hostile regimes. So all the these are all the bits and pieces and the real concrete issues that have to be established, that the NDP-Liberals must answer for how they’re going to get to their goals.

Again, they keep talking about reducing permitting timelines, or reducing regulatory timelines. Again, I would note they’re the ones that created endless timelines and the red tape bureaucratic mess the private sector proponents can’t get through. And so, the real solution here is that the next election, Canadians have to elect the Conservative government so that we can fix this mess. But in the meantime, we’ll keep holding them to account to answer the questions.

Pipeline Online: You were talking about getting rid of the carbon tax. Does that also include Clean Fuel Standard, because the Clean Fuel Standard is what is directly driving the development of massive investment in canola crush plants throughout Saskatchewan, and hydrogenated renewable diesel, including a proposed plant right on the edge of Lloydminster. I’ll be talking to Federated Co-op later today, hopefully. If the Clean Fuel Standard is eliminated by Conservatives, what happens to the economics or viability of those canola projects?

 Shannon Stubbs: This is what we’ll have to determine with proponents who have made decisions on the NDP-Liberals’ policies, as they must, because they’re dealing with the government at hand.

So we are on record for a long time being opposed to the Clean Fuel Standard, and being opposed to the carbon tax. I should call it the Liberal Fuel Standard. It has gone through multiple iterations, and it is continuing, of course, to be worked on by the NDP-Liberals. So, it still is baked in with uncertainty and the lack of clarity, just as it was over the years that they’ve been working on it. So Conservatives oppose a clean fuel standard as the Liberals have imposed it to date.

Conservatives will repeal the carbon tax. And I would really encourage proponents to contact my office about these very issues, and about our policy solutions, because the laser focus of Conservatives will be to reduce costs on all Canadians, on all workers, on all private sector proponents, for all sectors, so that the Canadian economy can thrive.

Pipeline Online: So if the carbon tax on fuel oil is unaffordable at $65 a tonne, how can anyone in Canada handle it at $110 a tonne in three years, and as well on other fuels?

Shannon Stubbs: They can’t. No one in Canada can. It’s not affordable. That’s what Conservatives have been saying. After eight years, this is what we’ve consistently been telling the NDP-Liberals. No one can afford it. And it is, in the very worst possible ways, the harshest and most terrible consequences in Canadians’ everyday lives. The proof is never more clear, that these NDP-Liberals and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are not worth the cost.