QUESTION PERIOD — Natural Resources
Trans Mountain Pipeline
October 2, 2024
NDP-Liberal government leader, the NDP-Liberal government failed to give Kinder Morgan the regulatory certainty it needed to build the Trans Mountain pipeline. The company walked away, and the Prime Minister forced taxpayers to pay for his utter incompetence.
Yesterday, I received the answer to a question I put on our Order Paper a year and a half ago regarding costs associated with the Trans Mountain Corporation. The response shows that between January 2018 and March 2023 this Crown corporation spent $363 million on compensation, and — get this — of this total, just over $75 million was paid out in — guess what — bonuses.
Leader, isn’t this yet another example — please answer this truthfully — of the horrific mismanagement of this NDP-Liberal government? Isn’t this one more reason why Canadians should get rid of this incompetent, anti-energy government?
Senator Plett, I guess it is the role of the opposition to substitute responsible engagement to improve situations with whatever seems to serve your partisan political priorities.
This government made the important decision for the benefit of all Canadians and for our resource centre to step in at some political cost early on in its mandate to secure the construction of this pipeline. It did so for the benefit of all Canadians, and it will continue to defend that decision. It was the right decision.
A different answer that I received recently claimed as follows:
There were 17 investors that expressed interest in exploring the possibility of purchasing Trans Mountain in June 2018.
Yet, taxpayers are still on the hook, Senator Gold. Didn’t your anti-energy policies scare these investors away? How much of this $369 million would have been spent if we had had a competent government? It’s zero, isn’t it?
I suppose the answer to your question, if you were in the position of the government, would be to disregard the interests of the provinces, disregard the interests of Indigenous stakeholders whose rights were affected and to simply bulldoze your way through them.
The fact is that this government has acted responsibly and honourably with regard to this particular project and will continue to seek ways to recover its investment.
