CAAM Committee Report

Supplementary Opinion of the Conservative Party of Canada

The overwhelming evidence presented to the Special Committee on the Economic Relationship between Canada and the United States (the Special Committee) made it clear to Conservatives that the continued operation of Line 5 is of national importance, and the fact that its continued operation is under threat is of great national concern. The construction, 68-year operation, and shared access to valuable resources this pipeline has provided lies at the heart of the trading relationship Canadians and Americans rely upon, for our joint benefit in an energy insecure world.

Line 5 provides over 50% of the crude oil that is used in Ontario and Quebec. The Special Committee heard that, “Line 5 is not just a pipeline. It's an economic lifeline for both Canada and the U.S. A disruption would impede access to the energy that's needed to run our economies. It would cause energy shortages and significantly impact the price of gasoline, diesel, propane, jet fuel, plastics and chemicals.”[1]

Line 5 provides important feedstock for the petrochemical industry in both Sarnia and Montreal. The MP for Sarnia Lambton, Marilyn Gladu, has been fighting for the workers and industries in her riding who would be devastated by a Line 5 shutdown or interruption. She noted that in her riding alone a shutdown of the pipeline would cost more than 20,000 jobs. It is an important source of propane in Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada. At peak demand it provides Ontario with 16 million litres of propane, 25 per cent of which is used by hospitals, schools and businesses. [2]

There is no immediate way to replace the 540,000 barrels a day of crude oil and natural gas liquids moved by Line 5. The Special Committee was told that to do so would require 15,000 dedicated trucks per day and could require an additional 800 rail cars per day. The resulting increase of truck and rail traffic would be extremely disruptive to existing supply chains and would cause unprecedented congestion at some of our busiest international border crossings.

The continued operation of Line 5 to the security and economic well being of Canada should not be left to foreign courts to resolve. Nor should the Government of Canada give up the fight and declare that this is a decision that rests solely in the hands of American politicians as was the case with the Keystone XL extension. The Prime Minister’s failure to facilitate the continued construction of the Keystone XL pipeline has had a devastating impact on construction workers and our world class energy sector and the men and women who depend on it to provide for their families. Conservatives are concerned that the Prime Minister and his government are using the same failed tactics they used in their failed effort to protect Keystone XL jobs with Line 5 and are somehow expecting to achieve a different result.

Line 5 demands a political response at the highest levels. This cannot be delegated to Canadian Ministers, U.S. State Officials or bureaucrats on either side of our shared border. Conservatives are calling on the Prime Minister himself to champion the continued operation of Line 5 directly with President Biden and his Administration to resolve this dispute diplomatically as soon as possible. This view was supported by Scott Archer UA Local 663 who said “I'd like to issue a challenge to Prime Minister Trudeau and the federal government. This is a call to action. As Canadians, this is non-negotiable. You need to take a stand to protect Canadian families, businesses and industry.”

At the outbreak of COVID-19 Canadians learned the hard lesson of relying on foreign countries for critical supply chains and manufacturing capacity, even with close trading partners and allies. We saw how a failure to plan for worst case scenarios threatened the lives and livelihoods of our citizens. Conservatives support the Committee’s recommendation calling on the government to use the lesson that the threat to Line 5 has taught us and evaluate other possible vulnerabilities to Canada’s critical energy infrastructure and supply chains.

The only reason that the continued operation of Line 5 is threatened is because of the uniliteral actions of a subnational foreign government. With this in mind, Conservatives believe that the evidence heard during this study should compel the Government of Canada to do better when it comes to protecting Canadian jobs and Canadian energy sovereignty and security. While we demand that the Government of Canada do more to stand up for international pipelines like Line 5 and insist that the treaties designed to prevent political interference in their operation be enforced in the immediate term, we are also calling on the Government of Canada to foster an environment that will encourage the private sector to invest in pipeline projects and routes that will deliver Canadian oil and gas to Canadian refineries and industries through a Canadian pipeline. We believe that the government should consider the positive economic and national energy security benefits of such projects when evaluating them.

Unfortunately, the Special Committee learned that “…in Canada pipelines are a challenge and building a brand new pipeline across Canada would be as big a challenge as keeping this existing [Line 5] pipeline operating. In fact, it might actually be an even bigger challenge to get unanimity from Canadians to do that. We've seen multiple occasions where we can't, as a country, get behind building pipelines. It's important to keep the existing ones up and running.”[3]

The Liberal government has over a number of years soured private sector investors on the development of pipelines in Canada. It had to purchase and nationalize the Trans Mountain Pipeline project and introduced uncertainty into the private sector proponent’s timelines and outcome. It effectively cancelled the Northern Gateway Pipeline after it received regulatory approval. TC Energy cited the burdensome regulatory process imposed by the Government of Canada as one of the main reasons for halting their application to bring western Canadian oil to central and eastern Canadian refineries along an entirely Canadian pipeline route. The Canadian Energy Pipeline Association has said the Liberals' Bill C-69 would result in no new pipelines being built in Canada again.

Conservatives believe that if we are to secure the future for Canada, we must do a better job of securing our critical supply chains and protecting our energy infrastructure from threats, foreign and domestic. We must stand up for Canadian workers when their jobs are threatened and stand up to foreign governments that threaten our economic well-being and national energy security. The Government of Canada must restore our competitiveness and investor confidence in Canada so that more of the things that we rely on are made in Canada, by Canadians and will be there for Canadians when we need them the most.