Doug Ford: A pipeline from Alberta to Ontario will make Canada stronger

Energy security is national security. It’s also economic security. At a time when Canada is seized with protecting our national sovereignty, the decisions governments at all levels make about energy policy will determine our future.

Ontario has launched an ambitious new nation-building project called the Northern Shield Energy Corridor: a pipeline that will carry Alberta oil 3,300 kilometres from Hardisty, Alta., to refineries in Sarnia, Ont.

A new Canadian pipeline, made with Canadian steel, by Canadian workers, exclusively within Canada’s borders.

Similar pipelines have been proposed before and the benefits have always been real but never realized. In an increasingly uncertain world, we can no longer afford to overlook the importance of securing Ontario’s energy security and sovereignty.

For too long, governments at all levels have failed to grasp the importance and the critical security provided by an all-Canadian energy corridor. The last federal government went further, actively standing in the way of pipeline projects that would have created tens of thousands of good-paying jobs, while reducing our reliance on foreign oil imports that can be cut off at any time, crippling our economy.

In other words, the last government’s energy policies left Canada less secure, less prosperous and less self-reliant.

Today, things are changing. We’re making up for lost time. As my friend Premier Danielle Smith said earlier this week, “pipelines have gone from impossible to a national imperative.”

The Northern Shield Energy Corridor answers that national imperative. The pipeline would move 500,000 barrels of Canadian oil each day through an all-Canadian route, with the potential to expand to 800,000 barrels per day. With more Alberta oil coming to Sarnia, we could expand refining capacity, creating more, good-paying jobs while fueling our economic growth with fewer potentially unreliable imports.

Ontario is also exploring the feasibility of a strategic petroleum reserve in the Sarnia area that would store critical fuels like diesel, gasoline and jet fuel — fuels that Ontario homes and businesses need to function. The recent events in Iran and the resulting shocks to the price of oil and gas at the pumps prove the benefits of a fuel reserve that would help ease the impacts on drivers, families and businesses.

Canadians cannot stand by and leave our prosperity in the hands of other countries. We need to be in full control of our economic future. We need to do whatever it takes to protect Canada’s sovereignty. This will require government to think about its role in building energy infrastructure differently.

The risk of building in Canada often outweighs the reward. That needs to change. Government’s first job is to streamline and speed up approvals and bring regulatory certainty to major projects to give proponents the confidence they need to invest and build in Canada.

The cost of defending our sovereignty isn’t something that shows up on the private sector’s balance sheet. Government may need to step up with the capital necessary to build the next generation of trade and energy infrastructure that will fuel our growth and safeguard Canada’s economic future. Ontario stands ready.

Energy security is national security. The Northern Shield Energy Corridor and its all-Canadian pipeline will build a safer and more prosperous future that protects a secure and sovereign Canada.

Doug Ford is the Premier of Ontario