Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says the approval and construction of major projects, such as a new pipeline, should be able to move ahead without consensus from stakeholders and premiers.
“We’ve got to get it done,” Poilievre told reporters on Parliament on Monday. “We need a pipe.”
“At the end of the day, if you wait until everybody agrees on everything, nothing will happen,” he added.
On Friday, Prime Minister Mark Carney introduced legislation aimed at spurring interprovincial free trade, easing labour mobility, and speeding up the approval of a select but unspecified number of big projects in the national interest.
While the bill doesn’t include a specific list of projects — nor did such a list come out of the first ministers’ meeting between Carney and the premiers last week — a potential oil pipeline to tidewater has been cited by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith as a so-called nation-building project.
Speaking to reporters on Parliament Hill after the bill was tabled last week, however, Carney said his government would not impose any project on a province that wasn’t in favour of it, and that all projects will require consensus to go ahead.
That caveat prompted Smith to say in an interview on CTV’s Question Period this week that she’s ready to “convince” her counterpart in British Columbia to support building such a pipeline.
B.C. Premier David Eby said last week he won’t support a new pipeline, arguing the Trans Mountain Expansion Project is already in place.
Asked at a press conference on Parliament Hill on Monday whether he believes major projects should require consensus if two premiers are at odds, Poilievre said: “No.”
“You’re never going to get everybody to agree on every single project,” Poilievre said, pointing to the percentage of Canadian oil being sold to the U.S. and the need to diversify trading partners.
In 2023, according to data from the Canadian government, nearly 100 per cent of Canada’s crude oil was exported to the United States.
“We can’t wait any longer,” he said. “We have to get things done, and it’s going to take some backbone. So, we as Conservatives believe in pushing ahead with pipelines, and the shortest route is to the Pacific.”
Should the federal government have veto powers?
Speaking together at The Globe and Mail’s Intersect 25 event in Toronto on Monday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston were asked about Smith’s comments to CTV Question Period and the challenge of getting provinces on the same page.
“Our biggest mistake is we haven’t built pipelines for the last 20 years. We were beholden to one country. Now we need to build them,” Ford said, adding that he will be travelling to Alberta next week to promote pipelines.
Houston also acknowledged “there’ll be politics,” but emphasized “everyone wants something good for Canada.”
Asked directly if the federal government should be able to veto a province’s objection on a potential project, Ford said “I wouldn’t say so,” adding he’d “rather work collaboratively and work in cooperation.”
Houston agreed, saying “I don’t think it’s necessary that they would have to, and certainly not as a first step (to) just issue an edict.”
But he also said the federal government should listen to the vast majority.
“If we get to a point where the vast majority of the country wants something and knows it has to happen, then we can’t let something stop that,” Houston said. ‘And I would expect that the Government of Canada would step up and step in, but I don’t think we’re there yet, but I think that we can’t lose sight of where we’re trying to get and where we need to get to as a country.”
With files from CTV News’ Rachel Aiello
