Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address one of the issues that have been dogging this country for years, a cap on emissions in our oil and gas industry. A cap on emissions is of course a cap on production. To pretend otherwise is to be talking out of two sides of one's mouth; that is something the government is becoming better and better at, but eventually it has to land on some real solutions.
The government talks about an energy superpower, which are old words that it chose from a previous government. Let us recognize what that means. An energy superpower is one whose economy contributes to energy around the world so that we actually influence security outcomes around the world and not just the price of oil and gas, although that is part of it.
We think about our supply to the world. We think about what we do for oil and gas around the world. We think about what we do for the environment. All these things are connected, but the most important thing in the unveiling world context right now is our energy supply as a strategic resource for the world as it faces a more and more conflict-based and more and more risky future. I analyze what we are talking about regarding getting an emissions cap cancelled, which is frankly a production cap on the oil and gas industry, by design or by consequence.
The government has, for the past 10 years, tried to punish the most productive part of the Canadian economy. When I say productive, I mean the most value per job and the highest export value of any industry in Canada. We have to get back to the point where we are adding some value to make sure we contribute to the world.
Before I proceed any further, I want to make sure the House understands that I am splitting my time today with my hon. colleague from Skeena—Bulkley Valley.
In order for us to contribute to the world from a security perspective, an energy perspective and an environmental perspective, we need to make sure the world is doing better with the outcomes we have. One of the consequences around the world is the economic and strategic messaging that we have in this country versus what we have to deliver to the world. The world is begging for energy. Let us think about how many countries in the last five years have said, “Please give us natural gas. We need LNG delivered here.” Russia then started a war in Europe that caused the disruption of the energy industry all the way across Europe and, as a result, around the world.
Suddenly it became obvious to many countries, the United States in particular, that they could export their resources to Europe, which was desperate for those resources. Who else needs those resources? Everybody in the world is demanding clean resources because where the world goes for energy right now is increasingly toward coal. Most people who are not in Parliament do not realize this, but the consumption of coal around the world has increased significantly over the past 10 years, primarily because most developing nations want power more than they want something green. Members of the House know that coal is a higher-emitting energy source than natural gas or oil, so the fact that coal consumption is increasing around the world is an indication that the world is going toward the energy solutions that it can find first and foremost, because we cannot supply our liquefied natural gas.
We have liquefied natural gas in abundance here in Canada. We are the fifth-largest producer in the world and could be much higher if we actually took advantage of the opportunities of providing this much cleaner fuel to our allies, to our friends and to the developing nations around the world that do not have that option right now. That option would increase their standard of living and their environmental outcomes.
I beseech members to recognize that there is one atmosphere, and when we emit CO2 around the world, we are emitting CO2 for everybody around the world. Therefore any type of reduction that we can benefit from here in Canada with respect to the production of Canadian resources, to abate emissions around the world, is one we should take advantage of. We have ignored that for far too long because of prejudicial policies that have been put upon our oil and gas industry by the government for 10 years. We need to make sure they are repealed in order for us to contribute to the world, to contribute to solutions for the environment, to contribute to our economy and to contribute in the way we can to security around the world.
A lot goes on with liquefied natural gas, and I noted the Prime Minister's statement on the first five fast-tracks of his major projects office, which he announced from Calgary, the city I am from. He announced a major projects office, and then he announced the first five projects he is going to fast-track. One of those projects, of course, is LNG Canada, the only liquefied natural gas export facility built in Canada over the last 15 years. Why has this taken so long to do in Canada, when at the same time as we built one in Canada, the United States built 14 and is exporting natural gas around the world? As a result, higher-cost, higher CO2-intensity natural gas is being distributed from the United States to allies in developing countries around the world, while we in Canada have sat on our hands because we are trying to limit our potential and limit our contribution to the world from an energy, environmental and security perspective. This has to change.
The first way to make that change is to undo the cap on emissions, because the cap on emissions is a cap on production. There is no other formula that equates to how we reduce emissions. However, let us talk about what we have succeeded at in emissions in Canada.
Many organizations have looked at the emissions reductions we have in our oil and gas industry across Canada. We had have a 32% reduction in the CO2 associated with our oil sands production over the last 16 years in Alberta. That is a significant contribution to the emissions reductions in this country as a whole. In fact, it is the largest contribution. The tough part is the industry is actually measuring it.
We can take a look at the environment commissioner hearing in Canada. Canada's emissions reductions are largely determined by Environment Canada, which keeps changing the formula year by year, very opaquely. The environment commissioner has condemned Environment Canada for the opacity in not showing the real numbers to Canadians and in how it calculates the reductions in CO2 emissions. The oil and gas industry in Canada knows those numbers and has done a great job in reducing the CO2 impacts associated with oil and gas production in Canada.
Coal, as I said, has gone up. It has record production around the world. Let us also look at oil and what is happening in the oil markets right now. For years, we have been hearing that oil has peaked. Right away, I will say that this year will be another peak, and there will be another. The peak that should have happened 20 years ago, according to some of my colleagues on the other side in their reading of partial and prejudicial information, has not happened.
There will be over 102 million barrels a day of production this year. That tells us that we will continue to consume oil around the world. Why are we not contributing more to that? It is because we have a cap on production. What is the point of exporting energy if we cannot produce it? We have to make sure we produce energy with better environmental standards than anybody else around the world.
OPEC just increased its target for production by 137,000 barrels per day. That is a significant increase, and of course, people think it will have an impact on the price of oil around the world. They are probably right, but the fact of the matter is, OPEC would not be increasing oil production if it did not see that there is a demand for oil, which we do not seem to recognize in Canada.
We have to get out of our own way to make this work for Canadians, work for the environment and work for our partners in security around the world. It is eminently important that we get this cap off. This cap on emissions is a cap on production.
Why bother with the LNG expansion the Prime Minister reported when we cannot do that without increasing our emissions? It is the cart before the horse. We have to make sure that we have the ability to produce and get products to the world market, which is demanding product from Canada. We must get clean, dependable, safe, environmentally friendly energy to the world so we can develop better, develop our country, develop the environment around the world and make sure we are a security partner for all our partners around the world. Step one is that we have to remove the emissions cap.