MP Jeremy Patzer: Say NO to Justin Trudeau’s reckless regulations

Swift Current —The latest attack on the West from the Liberal Government is its recently released electricity regulations.

Justin Trudeau wants to mandate that our entire electrical grid have net-zero emissions by 2035. This is another attempt to push the radical agenda of Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson. But they ignore the fact that our national grid is already one of the lowest emitting in the world – because hydro or nuclear supplies around 84% of it, along with power produced by other non-emitting sources.

In order to hit this target, Canada’s electrical grid would have to triple its capacity in 12 years. And why would it take all that time and new capacity to cover the last 16% of the grid? Because the same Liberals also plan to replace power generation from fossil fuels with renewables by 2035. These electricity regulations are next in line of a series of anti-energy and anti-Western policies, following the carbon tax, fuel regulations, and a mandate to have all light-duty vehicles in Canada be electric by 2035.

My colleague, Shannon Stubbs, the Shadow Minister for Natural Resources, has done research on this. To triple our capacity, we would either need to build 115 new hydro dams like the Site C hydro dam being built in BC or 19 CANDU nuclear reactors like the one that Bruce Power runs in Ontario. All of that must happen in 12 years. Yet the massive costs of building either technology – on top of the $27 billion already spent just to convince two companies to make EV batteries in Canada – will bankrupt the country entirely or push us to the brink in an effort to try.

What might be some alternatives to meet this target? Perhaps we could try building more wind and solar power plants. While Saskatchewan’s wind power has a capacity of 615 Megawatts, it regularly produces only 15 to 20% of that, which works out to 2 to 4% of our daily power demand. As for solar power, provincial capacity is barely above zero. That means there is no business case for either one.

This leaves us with two options that are proven, cost-effective, and reliable: natural gas or coal. As Canada moves away from coal, we can build more natural gas plants like the Chinook Power Station north of Swift Current. It produces 335 Megawatts, which is enough for 350,000 homes at a fraction of the cost of a hydro dam or nuclear plant. 

Compared to coal, natural gas has proven to greatly reduce the greenhouse gas footprint of an economy. It is relatively cheap to produce because we have an abundance of it across Canada (yes, even in Quebec), and it is easy to export to the world as LNG. Unlike what Justin Trudeau says, there is a global demand for it.

So let’s not go down this dangerous path of driving electricity costs up and reliability down by erasing natural gas from our grid. Instead, let’s say no to Justin Trudeau’s reckless regulations and mandates. We can bring down our energy costs, increase our capacity in Canada, and become a world leader in producing and refining natural gas and LNG. That way, our country can prosper and the world can enjoy the clean, reliable, affordable, and ethically sourced energy that we have to offer.