Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is proposing tax cuts on diesel, elimination of the industrial carbon tax and Clean Fuel Standard, and measures to expand domestic fuel infrastructure and reserves.
Poilievre said that his party’s plan, which would include emergency pre-permitting for diesel refineries, storage, and transportation; a 100 percent first-year tax deduction for fuel infrastructure investments; and establishment of a strategic refined petroleum reserve, would be aimed at increasing domestic production of diesel and other refined fuels to one million barrels per day.
“Our mission is a Canada that is affordable, safe and independent here at home. We will save you money today and fuel ourselves tomorrow,” Poilievre said.
Current diesel prices make everything expensive and create shortages due to the need for shipping trucks to burn diesel, he said, while attributing prices partially to a reliance on the United States to refine Canada’s oil.
“The goals are simple: eliminate the price premium Canadians pay, boost diesel production to a million barrels a day and ensure Canadians everywhere have access to Canadian-made diesel,” he wrote.
Poilievre cited the average price of diesel on Sept. 21 of $2.74 per litre in Canada, which he said represents a nearly 80 percent year-over-year increase and is 32 cents more than the price in the United States and 41 cents more than the global average.
The current average diesel price means that farmers could pay $15,120 more for fuel for a single combine during this year’s harvest compared to last year, he said, citing an estimate by Grain Growers of Canada.
“When farmers and truckers pay more for diesel, Canadians pay more for groceries,” he said.
While outlining the proposal to reporters at an Ottawa gas station on Sept. 27, Poilievre said a Conservative government would pursue national trucking regulations to facilitate fuel shipments between provinces and use federal constitutional powers to approve interprovincial pipelines should there be provincial opposition.
Asked whether Canada should eventually phase out diesel and other fossil fuels, Poilievre said “the answer is no,” arguing instead for increased Canadian oil and gas production and “at a lower price.”
Poilievre also told reporters that Canada should have 18 liquified natural gas (LNG) terminals and called for completing “a dozen LNG facilities in the next five years.”
This was in response to a reporter who noted that German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, during his visit to Canada on Sept. 24 and 25, had made clear that Germany wants more Canadian LNG. The reporter asked how this fits into the Tory leader’s vision of a fuel future for Canada.
“The Germans have been very clear about that for the last decade. They’ve been begging for our natural gas,” Poilievre said.
“The problem is that we only have one LNG liquefaction and export terminal in all of Canada, and that’s on the West Coast, which means it would take about 27 days to get a tanker all the way down through the Panama Canal and all the way back up through the Atlantic to the North Sea and to Germany.”
“We should have 18 LNG terminals right now,” Poilievre added.
Poilievre said Canada is vulnerable to a restriction of U.S. diesel exports, saying that U.S. President Donald Trump had spoken of this possibility in recent days.
“Even if he’s not serious, here’s the reality: He shouldn’t even be able to make the threat,” he said, noting that the Tories’s plan aims to “immediately reduce prices through lower taxes, and within five years, break our dependence on American diesel to ensure that every single Canadian has access to Canadian-made diesel.”
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