Liberals Admit Their Own Laws Block Development
Read what I had to say on the Minister Hodgson's claims on CBC:
Minister Hodgson just said on CBC that there is “no investment certainty” in Canada. But his own Liberals have been in power for 10 years and the Prime Minister advised them for the last half! What the Liberals announced today is a baby step, not a breakthrough, even though the PM himself says Canada is in a crisis. What their bill actually does is invite politicians to give a list of projects to other politicians who will decide which projects skip the queue. Their “national interest” criteria is vague and inherently uncertain because politicians will decide on a case by case basis. This is not a serious or permanent way for a developed country to create competitive fiscal and regulatory framework that will attract private sector investment to build in Canada.
This bill is actually an admission that their own Liberal laws are barriers to development, and this is a short term workaround for a special few. The actual fast track way to unleash Canadian resources is to remove the Liberal anti-development laws that block projects in the first place, like C-69, C-48, the oil and gas cap, and the industrial carbon tax, which the US, Canada’s biggest customer and competitor, does not self-inflict.
Hodgson also just said he wants to “focus on real projects with real proponents” and getting them built. But Canada has 28 nuclear, uranium, mining, oil and gas, hydro, and roads to unlock critical minerals, stuck “in progress” in federal review. THOSE ARE real projects with real proponents. By his own argument, the obvious place to start, which wouldn’t even require legislation, would be to fast track those assessments and approvals.