Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today. This has been a very interesting debate in many respects, not just with the exchange of information, but I have figured out over the course of this afternoon that Liberals are becoming more like Conservatives every day.
This is a good example, with the Keystone XL pipeline. Conservatives and Liberals have joined together to promote it, despite the fact that it is going to export tens of thousands of Canadian jobs to the United States, along with our raw resources. I hear some guffaws from the other side and I will talk about that in one second.
This is a good day because this opposition motion day is a good opportunity for us to show Canadians that not only are the Liberals and Conservatives working together on this, but that we are the party that is looking out for our resources, for Canadian workers, and for any sort of action on the environment. Even the Minister of Finance admits that the Keystone XL pipeline will ship tens of thousands of quality well-paid Canadian jobs south of the border.
Unlike Conservatives and Liberals, New Democrats do not believe that promoting massive export of our raw and unprocessed resources is a good economic policy for Canada. Conservatives and Liberals think the same on this.
Let me use another example. Someone was speaking earlier about the Canada-European trade agreement. There is a reason that it is not going to be approved for a couple of years, maybe not even before the next election, because there are so many things to work out.
One of the things that needs to be worked out is the shipping of raw logs from Canada to the European Union. That has not been sorted out yet. We know the Conservatives like that idea. We know the Liberals like that idea. It seems to me that the Conservatives and Liberals are quite happy to ship raw logs to the European Union or to the United States and buy back the chairs. They think that is a good idea. They are not interested in secondary processing of our natural resources in this country, or any other tertiary processing. They are happy cut the tree down, pull the minerals out of the ground, whatever the case may be, and ship them outside of the country. That is why we are losing the jobs.
Those secondary tertiary processing jobs should be right here in this country. They are our resources. They are Canadian resources, and Canadian workers ought to be processing those resources.
Contrary to the questions I will probably get when I finish speaking, we do believe in pipeline projects when they are done properly so that they can benefit Canada and Canadian workers, but not when the raw resources are shipped away, and not when our jobs are shipped south of the border. Worse still, it is leaving the environmental risks as liabilities on the shoulders of our children and grandchildren.
New Democrats want development in this country to serve Canada's long-term environmental and economic prosperity, not short-sighted projects that leave Canadians behind.
I am hoping that someone with the Liberals or the Conservatives is going to stand when I am finished and ask me a question. They will ask why I think secondary processing in Canada, with Canadian workers, is a good idea. We have heard all afternoon that neither of the parties believe that is important. In fact, the up-processing that is done with our bitumen now will be reduced considerably, if the pipeline is built.
Even the little bit of processing Canada does now of our raw bitumen before it goes anywhere will be even less. We will be shipping rawer resources out of the country.
Worse still, instead of holding Conservatives to account for shipping these tens of thousands of jobs south of the border by refusing to process our own resources here in our country, the Liberal leader is cheering them on, before he even knows any details. It is like the Canada-European trade agreement. He said that they are with the Conservatives on it. I think that is deplorable. It is particularly deplorable, because the Liberals and their leader know full well that the Conservatives have a very poor record in managing the environmental impact of the oil sands. It is not responsible to cheer on this pipeline.
It turns out that it is the same old Liberal Party. The Liberal leader needs to explain why he is putting the interests of oil lobbyists ahead of Canadian jobs and our environment. Canadians deserve better. They deserve a real choice, not another party telling them that they have to settle for less protection of their jobs and the environment.
Keystone has gone from a no-brainer to a major irritant in Canada's relationship with our closest trading partner. It is all because the Conservatives refuse to address the environmental impact of oil sands development. I can understand why. President Obama is in a very difficult position right now because of the Conservatives' failure to address the environmental issues. There are very serious concerns in the United States, as there are in Canada, about the environmental impact of this pipeline.
I want to say something about TransCanada at this point. TransCanada Pipeline has a number of projects in northwestern Ontario. I know that company, or at least some people who work for that company, to be very diligent. They believe in what they are doing. TransCanada, from what I can see in my riding and in northwestern Ontario, is a pretty good corporate citizen, so I am not talking about TransCanada here. When I talk about the impact of the pipeline, I am really talking about the lack of environmental standards.
In the last couple of minutes I have left I would like to talk about the two aspects I have been talking about. One is jobs and the other is the environment.
Based on an independent study, the export of unprocessed bitumen envisioned by the Keystone XL project could result in the loss of over 40,000 potential jobs in Canada: direct, indirect, and induced. An analysis by the U.S. State Department found that Keystone XL would support 42,100 jobs during the one- to two-year construction period, with total wages of about $2 billion. That would all be in the United States. I do not know exactly when the Minister of Finance was in the United States, but he was actually trying to sell Keystone XL by telling the Americans that they would get 40,000 jobs there. If members opposite want me to find out exactly when it was he said that, I can find it.
I was talking a moment ago about upgrading the bitumen in Alberta. I actually do have the figures here. Traditionally, Alberta upgrades about two-thirds of its bitumen. That will drop to less than half, 47%, by 2017, according to Alberta's Energy Resources Conservation Board.
As for the environment, emissions from the oil sands accounted for 7% of Canada's emissions in 2010. That is forecast to double to 14% by 2020. To not talk about the environmental aspect of the oil sands and shipping raw bitumen is a serious issue.
I look forward to any questions members might have.