A pro-pipeline convoy with thousands of truckers blared their way through an Alberta town Wednesday with a message for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: āWe donāt need handouts.ā
Two days after Trudeau announced a boost of $1.6 billion for the provinceās struggling energy sector, oil and gas workers asked for action on the halted Trans Mountain pipeline -- not loans.
āThatās posturing by our federal government,ā said Murray Schur, founder and president of Schur Trucking Ltd., which transports drilling rigs. āSimply, what we need is pipelines in the ground to move the oil.ā
The Liberalās $4.5 billion purchase of the Trans Mountain pipeline was announced this year, but hit a major snag when the Federal Court of Appeal decided there had not been enough consultation with Indigenous and environmental groups. Alberta is making less per barrel of oil because of a dearth of pipelines that would allow the province to sell higher priced product to overseas markets. Alberta estimates that it is losing $80 million per day.
āThey need to be able to restore investment back into Canada, because itās the investors that arenāt willing to put their dollars into Canada and theyāre going elsewhere,ā said Schur. His trucks were in the rally to ādemonstrate the sense of urgencyā to Trudeau, whose $1.6 billion in loans is ānot enough,ā he said. Schur has been in the business for 25 years and told Ā鶹“«Ć½ Channel on Wednesday that the current crisis is the worst heās ever seen in the industry.
āAnd thereās no end in sight,ā he said, adding there are āsimply not enoughā oil rigs operating in Canada anymore. āOil companies are shutting down their fields because theyāve got no room to move the oil, which ā¦ puts thousands of people out of work.ā
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer joined the chorus of truck horns Wednesday for a town hall meeting in the town and criticized Trudeauās announcement of the assistance package.
āIn typical Alberta fashion, the message sent back to Ottawa loud and clear: We donāt need handouts, we just want to get back to work,ā he said to applause. āGive a province $1.6 billion you might feed them for a couple of weeks, but let them build a pipeline to get our energy to market and you can feed them for a generation.ā
Scheer encouraged the town hall audience, noting that they have āhad slumps before,ā and characterized Trudeauās government as having āpulled the rug out from underā Albertans.
āThere are politicians across the country that donāt believe in our energy sector, that donāt want to see it developed or expanded,ā he said. āBut conservatives are joining common cause with those across the country that do want to support this sector.ā
