MP Strahl Issues Statement on Trans Mountain Pipeline

CHILLIWACK, BC – Mark Strahl, MP for Chilliwack—Hope, today issued the following statement:

“This is a sad day for Canadian energy and pipeline workers who were counting on the work from the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project to support their families. It is a sad day for Canadian competitiveness and investor confidence, as this is just the latest in the long list of job-creating, tax revenue-generating energy projects that have been cancelled or abandoned by the private sector since Justin Trudeau took office in 2015. It’s a sad day for Canadian taxpayers, who, thanks to Justin Trudeau’s mismanagement, now own a multi-billion dollar pipeline project that can’t even be built. And it’s a sad day for the dozens of indigenous communities who had signed benefit agreements and would have received millions of dollars to support those communities when the pipeline was expanded.”

“Justin Trudeau liked to lecture the House of Commons and tell Canadians how superior the process he had put in place to get pipelines built was. He bragged about how the endless delays and the millions of dollars in additional costs he added for project proponents on top of the already onerous National Energy Board process would not only create the so-called “social licence” to get projects built but would also get buy-in from Indigenous communities. He has failed to deliver what he promised, and this court decision is a crushing blow to his Pan Canadian Climate Plan, which was supposed to get pipelines built-in exchange for a national carbon tax. What makes this failure even more acute is the fact that he put all of his eggs in the Trans Mountain basket when he cancelled the Northern Gateway Pipeline and killed the Energy East pipeline. Now we are left with a situation where Canadian energy is landlocked and we are forced to continue to sell Canadian oil at a massive discount to the United States.”

“Justin Trudeau said repeatedly that the Trans Mountain pipeline will be built. He’s failed to deliver on that promise and unfortunately, it is Canadian taxpayers and Canadian workers who are paying the price for his failure.”

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