Feds’ Prairie adviser says oil and gas sector to remain part of the future

The federal government’s special adviser to the Prairies is responding to criticism that this week’s throne speech offered little to Western Canada.

Speaking to Gormley guest host Mike Couros on Friday, Winnipeg MP Jim Carr acknowledged that Prairie residents do not always feel heard.

“I know of the frustration. I’m a Westerner, I’ve lived here all my life. I know that there is often a sense that we’re not included the way we ought to be included and our voice is not heard,” Carr said.

“It’s my job to communicate with the people of the Prairies to say, ‘Yes, this is what we have done, this is what we intend to do and we want to work with you on to the next chapter building this economy and our capacity to trade with the world.’ ”

Some of the criticism has been over what many believe has been a lack of support for the oil and gas sector.

Carr affirmed the industry will continue to be an important part of Canada’s economy in the future, particularly in the transition to one beyond fossil fuels.

“What we care about most are the workers within that sector and also the ingenuity of the workers and the entrepreneurs who are responsible for all of that wealth creation in the first place,” Carr said.

However, he said the government will be providing more support for other energy sources.

“There will be increasing investments in other sources of energy but the oil and gas sector will continue to be important as it has been,” Carr said. “The dynamism and the entrepreneurship, the ingenuity of that sector, will help Canada move to the next chapter.”

Couros pressed Carr, saying the government’s support has to be more than paying for the industry’s cleanup of abandoned wells, to which Carr agreed.

“Once the CERB is gone, we are quite concerned about what is going to happen to our workers out here,” Couros said.

Carr said the government has demonstrated its commitment to the industry by purchasing the Trans Mountain pipeline.

“So you bought a pipeline. Is it actually being constructed?” Couros asked.

“Yes, of course it is,” Carr replied.

One of the sharpest critics of the throne speech was Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe.

Carr seemed to take Moe’s comments in stride.

“Premier Moe is there to defend what he believes to be the interests of his province,” Carr said. “That’s his job. The job of the Government of Canada is to look at all of the demands from coast to coast to coast and to come up with policy.”

He said many residents of the Prairies have benefitted from federal programs aimed at helping people get through the COVID-19 pandemic.

“People are anxious, some people have lost jobs, many have lost their freedom to associate with their loved ones,” he said. “They don’t want governments to be squabbling, to be bickering, to be taking partisan shots at each other. No, they want governments to be working on behalf of their people and for the most part, that’s what we’ve been able to do.”