NDP Wants to Criminalize Oil and Gas Promotion

Plus Trudeau-appointed Senators target farmers, ArriveCan scandal heats up, costly Canadian delegation parties in Europe, and presenting your petitions.

In this week’s edition of Resuming Debate, we will look at the NDP’s radical bill proposing to criminalize the promotion of Canadian oil and gas, Trudeau-appointed Senators taking away carbon tax exemptions for Canadian farmers, the ArriveCan scandal, lavish Canadian bureaucrat parties in Europe, and more.

Radical NDP legislation

Veteran NDP MP Charlie Angus tabled Bill C-372 last week, Bill C-372 last week, proposing to make it a crime “for a person to promote a fossil fuel, a fossil fuel-related brand element or the production of a fossil fuel,” according to the text of the legislation. The penalty for saying burning natural gas is better than coal or buying a roadside I love the Oilsands billboard would be a fine of up to $1 million, a prison sentence of up to two years, or both.

Moreover, if you are found to promote the oil and gas sector “in a manner that states or suggests that the fossil fuel, its production or its emissions are less harmful than other fossil fuels, their production or their emissions,” you could be fined up to $500,000, imprisoned for up to two years, or both. 

The NDP no longer supports the working class and those who rely on jobs and incomes from the energy sector. For years they have been targeting energy workers and the lifeblood of Alberta’s prosperity. But this latest proposal is radical. It’s an attack on promoting cleaner burning fuels, making science-based statements and also criminalizes much of what is covered by your constitutional right to free speech. It’s a disgraceful bit from the NDP.

Another concerning aspect of this proposed NDP law is the seeming endorsement coming from government benches where Trudeau’s environment minister told the media that he “welcome[s] the NDP’s bill to the House.” That’s right, the environment minister who famously said Canada will stop building roads, who once scaled the house of Premier Ralph Klein and has been arrested multiple times prior to politics for his ideological anti-energy worker proselytizing endorses the content of this NDP law.

Attacks like this on Alberta’s oil and gas workers are malicious because our province has the world's cleanest and most ethical energy sector. MPs should be working together to support Canadian energy workers to help make this country more prosperous, something the NDP-Liberal coalition does not seem to care about.

I will be voting against this radical piece of NDP legislation. It is anti-energy workers. It infringes on our constitutional rights to promote and debate freely the merits of different energy sources. It would also likely mean a great deal of harm to the charitable sector in Calgary that relies greatly from the energy sector for sponsorships and generous giving. 

Trudeau-Appointed Senators Gut Law To Provide Carbon Tax Relief 

We thought we had a consensus.

Last year, MPs voted to pass Bill C-234, introduced by Conservative MP Ben Lobb, that would exempt farmers from paying the carbon tax on barns and greenhouse heating with a sunset clause of eight years. The bill would have saved Canadian farmers $910 million in operating costs, according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer. These operating cost savings would be passed on to consumers. Many Canadian farmers are reporting difficulty competing against foreign produce and farm products from states without a carbon tax.

If you tax the farmer that grows the food, tax the trucker that ships the food, tax the packager and plant processor and then tax the grocery store that sells you the food - it will be more expensive. And none of the above receive any of the so-called carbon tax rebate that Trudeau Liberals cling to as a false way of conveying that “things aren’t so bad”.

So-called independent Senators appointed by the prime minister passed senate amendments that would remove the barn and greenhouse heating exemptions as well as reduce the sunset clause to three years. These senators are trying to put $1 billion on farmers' backs and force them to pass it on to consumers. 

We had a consensus vote among all parties when the law was sent to the Senate, but that was not good enough for Trudeau, despite his party voting in favour of the original Bill C-234. Media reports in the lead up to the senate amendments passing indicated that the prime minister and cabinet ministers made personal calls to senators to sway their votes. Every effort was made and the senate amendments passed by a handful of votes.

As MPs now consider the Senate amendments, I rose to speak in defence of Canadian farmers and residents of Calgary Shepard to call on the NDP-Liberal coalition to join the Conservatives and reject the senate changes. Farmers and grocery shoppers need relief from the carbon tax.

You can read the full text here. Watch my speech against the carbon tax in the House of Commons:

ArriveCan Scam

The Office of the Auditor General of Canada (OAG) revealed Monday that the ArriveCan app cost taxpayers almost $60 million despite being originally budgeted for $80,000. What was more shocking is the OAG said the exact cost of the app could not be determined due to poor record keeping by the Canadian Border Service Agency (CBSA), which was in charge of developing and managing the app.

One of the reasons why the cost of the app exploded was because of the CBSA’s reliance on external resources to develop the app, such as GC Strategies, an IT firm contracted to develop it. The firm was rewarded a non-competitive contract to develop the app despite no record of a request or proposal to the government. GC Strategies was later allowed to create the requirements for a competitive contract.

In total, GC Strategies has been given a total of $19 million in contracts, up from the original $9 million. The OAG reported that there is also missing documentation from these GC Strategies contracts, indicating the cost of ArriveCan could be higher than originally thought.

This begs the question of how many other overpriced projects are taxpayers on the hook for because of shady Liberal government contracts rewarded to external parties? Thankfully, we may have an answer soon as Conservatives passed a motion in committee Wednesday that requires the OAG to audit all GC Strategies contracts from the Government of Canada.

As Canadians struggle to afford basic necessities, it is irresponsible for this Liberal government to be wasting money on mismanaged projects that do not function properly. If you recall, this is the same app that, after a single update, sent 10,000 Canadians into quarantine despite doing everything right.

Myself and Conservatives will keep fighting to expose the truth of this scandal and hold the Trudeau Liberals and their bureaucrats accountable for their negligence. We have called for the RCMP to be brought in and two parliamentary committees continue investigating, obtaining and releasing documents, and calling witnesses to appear and explain what happened.

For more information on the ArriveCan scandal, you can read the report here and watch the response of Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre here (English comments begin at 6:40):

Canadian Delegation to European Union Spends Lavishly 

As Canadians were struggling to afford basic necessities during the COVID pandemic, federal bureaucrats in the Liberal government had no problem splurging taxpayers' dollars on themselves overseas.

During the pandemic, the Canadian delegation to the European Union spent $40,000 on attending lavish parties and hospitality expenses. Some of these costs include over $10,00 spent on wine, $1,072 on chocolates, and $427 for “climate lunch.” My office obtained this information after we sent an Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) request to the government.

Reckless and lavish spending habits come directly from the top of the Liberal government. When a prime minister can accept lavish gifts and spend extraordinary taxpayer dollars on his accommodations then that trickles down into the bureaucracy. Without an ethic of stewardship when handling taxpayer dollars it becomes easy to spend and forget. A Conservative government led by Pierre Poilievre will reign in on this reckless spending and restore accountability across the government.

Click here to see full content of the ATIP.

Presenting Another Petition in Parliament Calling for a Non-Confidence Vote

I present petitions on a regular basis from residents. This latest one is asking for a non-confidence vote against the NDP-Liberal government and should they lose it, a federal election within 45 days. Petitions are a good way to get involved in the civic process and raise important local viewpoints. Petitions that garner hundreds of thousands of signatures get media attention and headlines. Smaller petitions are still productive and sometimes lead to new information being released when the government response is made public.

Since the start of the latest Parliament, the 44th Canadian Parliament in November 2021, I have presented or tabled 40 petitions. Among the 338 Members of Parliament, I rank 11th in terms of the number of petitions tabled.

Should you wish to have a petition presented in Parliament, I encourage you to reach out to me with your idea at Tom.Kmiec@parl.gc.ca.