Poilievre Commits to all 5 Energy Sector Asks to End Dependence on US
Tories demand that Carney say whether he supports all 5 asks or if he still wants to “keep it in the ground.”
April 1, 2025
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
St. John’s, NL — Today, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre committed to meeting all of the policy recommendations from Canada’s energy sector to end dependence on the U.S. market and unleash Canada’s economy. Poilievre challenged Mark Carney to do the same and to repudiate his radical commitment to “keep it in the ground”—the same policy that gave us the Lost Liberal Decade.
“We need to get out from under America’s thumb and start building the infrastructure that is essential to sell our natural resources to new markets, bring home jobs and dollars, and make us sovereign and self-reliant to stand up to Trump from a position of strength,” said Poilievre. “Canada’s energy sector, the experts on energy growth, have told us what we need to do. Today I am committing to meeting all of their urgent recommendations. Meanwhile, Mark Carney has spent the last five years advising Trudeau on killing energy projects and said that ‘maybe as much as half of oil reserves, proven oil reserves need to stay in the ground.’”
Mark Carney’s radical anti-Canadian energy agenda would plunge Canada into a permanent recession. It is the wrong plan for a country like ours, blessed with vast and valuable natural resources. Mark Carney has made his choice. Now Canadians have a real choice between a fourth Liberal term that continues to make our country weaker and poorer and a new Conservative government that builds a stronger Canada.
As a result of the Lost Liberal Decade, Canada now ranks 23rd in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index for 2024, a seven-place drop since 2015. Between 2015 and 2020, Canada cancelled 16 major energy projects, resulting in a $176 billion hit to our economy. It now takes almost 18 years to open a mine—23% longer than Australia and 38% longer than the US.
Canada exports 98% of its crude oil to the United States, and oil moving from Canada’s West to Ontario, Quebec, and Eastern Canada must travel through the United States, leaving us at the mercy of Donald Trump and the Americans.
Mark Carney has made it clear that nothing will change if the Liberals get a fourth term. If Mark Carney is serious about restoring Canada’s economic independence, he would commit to the energy industry’s own solutions–solutions he has already rejected:
- Repeal the “No-New-Pipelines” Law and the Tanker Ban. Conservatives will repeal the Liberal “No-New-Pipelines” Law C-69, which makes it impossible to build the pipelines and energy infrastructure Canada needs. Conservatives will also end the Liberals’ West Coast tanker ban (Bill C-48) so we can build new pipelines and LNG terminals to export our energy overseas, ending our economic dependence on the United States.
- Six-Month Approvals. Liberal red tape has left resource projects snarled in costly processes and uncertainty and chased away investors, dollars, and jobs. Conservatives will set a target for decisions on applications in six months.
- Scrap the Energy Cap. Conservatives will scrap the job-killing energy cap on Canadian growth, and approve and build major new projects fast. Mark Carney has promised to keep the Canadian energy cap, which the PBO reports will kill 54,400 full-time jobs and cost Canada $21 billion in GDP.
- Axe the Industrial Carbon tax. Poilievre will axe the entire Liberal carbon tax law, including the federal law that requires the provinces to impose an industrial carbon tax. This will take the tax off Canadian steel, aluminum, natural gas, food production, concrete and all other major industries, lowering prices and bringing home powerful paycheques for Canadians. Mark Carney wants to bring in an even bigger carbon tax, making everything more expensive for Canadians at the worst possible time.
- Indigenous Loan Guarantees. A Conservative Government will establish the Canadian Indigenous Opportunities Corporation (CIOC), led by Indigenous people, to offer loan guarantees for Indigenous communities. It will operate under the First Nations Financial Management Act, similar to other Indigenous financial institutions. Carney wants to keep the paternalistic, “Ottawa-knows-best” approach that has prevented Indigenous Peoples from taking back control of their lives, resources, and money.
“Under my leadership, a new Conservative government will listen to our energy producers, the men and women who build the infrastructure and sell the oil and gas that drives our economy, and immediately repeal Liberal anti-growth laws and slash costly red tape so we can approve resource projects and quickly build the energy infrastructure we need to unleash our economy and make Canada strong and free again,” said Poilievre.
A new Conservative government will approve new pipelines to the Atlantic and the Pacific, and green light and expedite LNG projects, in alignment with Indigenous peoples, including Phase 2 of the LNG Canada project, to significantly increase Canada’s oil and gas exports, bringing tens of billions of dollars of new federal revenue.
