Roundup: No, LNG sales aren’t being blocked

Posted on by

It seems that Pierre Poilievre, and by extension other members of his caucus like Michael Chong, are trying to sell another false narrative to the Canadian people, and this time, they are claiming that the prime minister is “blocking” LNG sales to Germany. This is patently false, but that’s not surprising considering that this is coming from Poilievre, and he is without any sense of shame when it comes to outright lying at all times. His “proof” is a National Post article with a framing device claiming that Canada “snubbed” Germany on LNG, so they are signing a deal with Qatar.

The federal government has not blocked any LNG projects. We did not “snub” Germany either because they know full well we don’t have the export infrastructure, and by the time we could build it, it would be too late for Europe, hence why they came looking for hydrogen and got it. It wasn’t the government blocking any LNG terminals from being built—it was the market. There is very little supply along the East Coast to try and tap into for supply for export (indeed, there is one import terminal in New Brunswick), so unless you’re piping it all the way from Alberta or the United States, at an increased cost, there has been little sense in constructing it (and no, fracking is not going to happen in New Brunswick). There are terminals being constructed on the West Coast, where there is supply, but they are still being built, because it took a long time for them to secure the export contracts to make construction viable. If Trudeau was really “blocking the sale” then why would these projects still be allowed to proceed? It makes no sense.

There is also the consideration that Canadian LNG is more expensive than that coming from Qatar, which is a large part of why it has been unattractive to the European market (especially when it was coming pretty cheaply from Russia). It’s why most of the proposals aren’t getting off the ground–these projects won’t make their money back for thirty or forty years, by which time we will be deep in decarbonizing and reaching Net Zero targets. Even if we could somehow build an export terminal and a pipeline to supply it, the market for the product is likely to rapidly decrease, which means we’d be stranding those assets and have billions of dollars in these terminals going nowhere. The market doesn’t want to invest for a reason, and it’s not the Canadian government.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 283:

In a rare admission, a top aide to president Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that between 10,000 to 13,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since Russia’s invasion began in February. (The Russian losses have been much higher). The International Atomic Energy Agency says a deal aimed at safeguarding the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant is almost completed. Here is a look at how school children in Kyiv are faring between Russian bombardments and blackouts. Meanwhile, here’s a look at a Canadian-funded work doing de-mining work in Ukraine.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau says that growing number of reports of Veterans Affairs employees offering MAiD is “unacceptable.”
  • Marco Mendicino says the government will be doing public consultations on the merits of a foreign agent registry.
  • Mendicino is also indicating that those gun owners whose weapons are on the amended list should also be eligible for compensation.
  • Sean Fraser says the government will start allowing temporary foreign workers to bring spouses and adult children with them, to help alleviate the labour shortage.
  • Documents from Global Affairs suggest that Canada has known for years that its laws are not effective against combatting foreign interference.
  • CBSA is advising Marco Mendicino on their blacklist of Iranian officials, with a cut-off of those in power since 2019 (which nobody can figure out why).
  • The roundtable portion of the public inquiry wrapped yesterday, as the government agreed to unredact several more documents.
  • A First Nations chief is trying to sue the AFN and the national chief after she levelled corruption allegations against him.
  • The US dropped their last remaining indictment against Meng Wanzhou, after Canada took the brunt of Chinese retaliation over it.
  • A court document indicates that the government is planning to repatriate Canadian 19 women and children currently in Syrian prison camps for participating in ISIS.
  • The Canada-Palestine Parliamentary Friendship Group is pledging to review how invitations are handled given how a Holocaust denier showed up at their event.
  • Doug Ford claims he won’t let houses to be built on floodplains in the greenbelt after the federal government warned that they wouldn’t bail out anyone flooded out.
  • Kevin Carmichael digs into yesterday’s jobs numbers, and looks at how they are showcasing how the Bank of Canada’s actions are playing out.
  • Carmichael also takes note of Canada’s history with the Indo-Pacific as a lens for how to look at the government’s big strategy unveiling last week.
  • My weekend column looks into Danielle Smith’s state of self-delusion that makes her think she needs extraordinary powers to combat.

Odds and ends:

Paul Wells interviews the interim CEO of the National Gallery about the recent firings and the complaints the unions are making to the minister.

Want more Routine Proceedings? Become a patron and get exclusive new content.