OTTAWA – On March 3, Wellington-Halton Hills MP Michael Chong introduced a motion in the House calling on the government to condemn Vladimir Putin, stand with Ukraine and “recognize energy as vital to Canadian and European defence and security” by ensuring natural gas can be piped to Atlantic tidewater, displacing Europe’s reliance on Russia for natural gas.
Although supportive of actions taken by the government, Chong has repeatedly said more needs to be done.
Europe is reliant on Russia for about 40 per cent of its natural gas supply, which Chong says Russia is exploiting to “intimidate and coerce” Europe and Ukraine in threatening to cut off supply.
“If supplies are cut, people will freeze, factories will shutter and Europe’s economy will grind to a halt,” Chong asserted while introducing his motion.
He spoke of Canada’s standing in the world as one of the top natural gas producers and decried the country’s inability to get the gas to Canada’s east coast.
“That inability to get pipelines built is now not only impacting our economy, it is now threatening our security and defence here at home, and the defence and security of Europe,” Chong said, calling on the government to get pipelines approved and built.
“We need to understand … energy is also a foreign policy tool, particularly in major energy producing and transit countries,” he said.
Timmins-James Bay NDP MP Charlie Angus responded to the motion by accusing the Conservatives of crassly exploiting a humanitarian disaster, saying he found it “disturbing and appalling” the party was promoting a “pipe dream of spending billions of taxpayers’ dollars.”
“I expect a lot from many of the Conservative backbenchers, but I expect more from this member,” Angus said.
Calgary Centre Conservative MP Greg McLean seconded Chong’s motion, saying Canada is falling behind in natural gas production and needs to catch up to refineries in the U.S. and Russia.
In a vote conducted electronically and row-by-row in the House on the afternoon of March 21, Chong’s motion was defeated 212-115.
Chong declined to provide responses to questions posed by the Advertiser.
