Interview with Joe Oliver – CTV – QUESTION PERIOD
Sun Jan 8 2012, 12:00pm ET
Byline: CRAIG OLIVER AND KEVIN NEWMAN
CRAIG OLIVER: Welcome back. As you heard earlier, public hearings begin on Tuesday into the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline to take Alberta crude across British Columbia to the west coast. Next to the prime minister himself, one of the important players in all of this will be Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver, and he joins us now. Mr. Oliver, Alberta’s premier says this pipeline is crucial to the energy future of her province. Is it also as big a priority to the government of Canada?
JOE OLIVER (Minister of Natural Resources): We, as Canadians, are confronting an historic opportunity, and that is to diversify our markets from the United States, which has been a great trading partner, to the Asia Pacific market where we can attract higher prices and really get a broader market for our immense natural resources. And these are resources which will generate some $3 trillion in economic activity, tens of billion dollars in revenue to governments to support social programs like health and education and create hundreds of thousands of jobs.
OLIVER: Minister, I know you don’t like to take a position on the hearings themselves, but on principle, would you say that First Nations have a veto on any pipeline that is going to cross their territory, because that will be an important part of what we’re going to be hearing from.
JOE OLIVER: No. I don’t think we need to talk about vetoes. That is not entrenched in the law. But I’m very hopeful that Aboriginal peoples will see the benefits of these pipelines, because they have the opportunity to really transform Aboriginal communities. There’s opportunities for employment, there’s opportunities for equity participation, and, as well, major cash funding of their community needs, so we look upon these projects as win-win for all Canadians from coast to coast to coast.
OLIVER: It looks like well funded American environmental lobby backed by Hollywood star power is coming up to Canada and fighting this pipeline. On Friday, the prime minister seemed to suggest that he’s pretty unhappy and he’s not going to let them, in effect, filibuster the hearings. Is there anything the Canadian government can do or plans to do to try to stop the Americans getting involved?
JOE OLIVER: Well, we are concerned that radical environmental groups are taking money from the United States and that people from the US are coming here with very large personal environmental footprints to lecture Canadians on what we should do with our resources. It’s important that the regulatory process be fair, be open, be independent, but also be expeditious. In other words, it should take as long as it needs to but no longer. And some of the dilatory tactics that some of these groups have used in the past are not really helpful and not in the Canadian national interest.
OLIVER: As you know, minister, there’s a loose moratorium on tankers travelling some of the more sensitive areas of the west coast. Where does the federal government stand on ending that tanker moratorium?
JOE OLIVER: Well we obviously want to see the oil which is moved, which can be moved by pipeline from Alberta to British Columbia, to the coast of British Columbia, moved by tankers to Asia, so we’re obviously supportive of tanker traffic moving from the west coast to continue west to the markets, the huge markets that exist. And as you may know, I recently visited China and Japan, and there’s a tremendous complimentarity of interest. We want to diversify and broaden our market. They want to diversify their supply. And so we have an opportunity for both areas to benefit in a very significant way. OLIVER: It sounds to me like Ottawa’s anxious to get this project done, so finally I want to know if the National Energy Board recommended this pipeline not be built, could the federal government step in, veto that decision, and see it proceed nevertheless?
JOE OLIVER: I don’t want to actually deal with that very hypothetical issue. There have been very few pipelines indeed that have ever been rejected by the National Energy Board. I think there have only been two out of, you know, tens of thousands, and so we expect a positive decision ultimately, but, you know, there may be conditions attached and so on. So I don’t think there’s a need to deal with that sort of theoretical prospect at this time. OLIVER: Mr. Oliver, thank you for your time this weekend. We appreciate it.
JOE OLIVER: Sure.
