This week a somewhat unusual event occurred in the House of Commons.
On Tuesday the Conservative Official Opposition tabled a motion:

“That, given the Prime Minister has told veterans that they are “asking for more than we are able to give”, the House call on the Minister of Veterans Affairs to revoke the Veterans Affairs Canada benefits that have been extended to Chris Garnier, who is not a veteran, is incarcerated for second-degree murder and for interfering with the dead body of police officer Catherine Campbell, and is currently receiving benefits for a disability he sustained while committing his heinous crimes.”

​The unusual event? 

After the debate on this motion, all opposition parties – the Conservatives, the NDP, the Bloc and the Green Party voted unanimously in support of stopping veterans benefits being provided to this convicted killer of a police officer.

The Trudeau Liberals used their majority to defeat this motion.

It is unusual for all opposition parties to vote together, however this issue crossed all partisan party lines. I have heard outrage from a significant number of people and in particular from members of our law enforcement community. 

The Liberals, in support of their move to defeat the motion, have argued that because the convicted murderer’s father is a veteran, there is justification to provide these benefits to his son.

There is some positive news related to this motion.

On the day this motion was being debated in the House of Commons, CBC reported that that “Veterans Affairs Canada will no longer pay for benefits for incarcerated relatives of veterans in the wake of the Christopher Garnier case.” 

This revised policy is one that I am already hearing strong support for, from many citizens in our region.

Despite this new policy, the Trudeau Liberals have decided it will not be applied retroactively, meaning that this convicted killer will continue to receive treatment for PTSD that he admitted was caused by events that occurred during his brutal act of violence against an off duty-police officer.

My question this week:

Do you agree with the Trudeau Liberals decision to continue to allow Veterans Affairs to pay the cost of PTSD treatment of the man convicted of murdering an off-duty police officer?

I can be reached at Dan.Albas@parl.gc.ca or call toll free 1-800-665-8711.

I was recently honoured to be named as the Opposition Shadow Minister for Innovation, Science, Economic Development and Internal Trade. 

This new role is one I take very seriously and I would like to briefly explain one of the reasons why.

In some ways Canada is at a cross roads. 

We have a Prime Minister who believed that if we had a national carbon tax, it would buy social license to support getting a new pipeline to tidewater.

Today we know that plan is failing for a variety of different reasons. 

The Prime Minister says he remains committed to getting the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion built, despite the fact that a growing number of provinces are rejecting his federally imposed carbon tax.

The important question here is “What are the alternatives?” 

This is where innovation, science, economic development and internal trade come in to the picture.

Recently, I learned of a new high tech refinery being built in Alberta. As refineries go this is a small one producing roughly 500 barrels per day. 

But what is exciting is this refinery is producing ‘clean diesel’.

What is ‘clean diesel’? 

It is a synthetic sulphur-free diesel fuel that is made from a mixture of liquid gas, wood chips and bio solids that has near zero CO2 emissions.

Not only does this fuel meet the low carbon fuel standard target for 2020, the same technology can also be adapted to produce synthetic jet fuel for aviation applications.

Another important consideration is this synthetic fuel is fully compatible with existing engines and requires no costly retro fitting.

Synthetic diesel can also be used as a concentrate. As an example, mixing 20% synthetic diesel with 80% conventional diesel produces a diesel fuel that is well below current European and Californian emission standard levels. 

There is also a local connection to this technology. 

A company located in the South Okanagan is currently manufacturing some of the equipment to be used at the refinery in Alberta.

With some adaptation, the same technology can also be used to generate electricity.

With a fairly robust supply of wood waste in addition to many local governments struggling to find locations to deal with bio solids, there are opportunities to use these materials to generate electricity. 

Currently, there are some exploratory efforts to identify possible locations for such a plant here in the Okanagan.

Synthetic fuels and energy production are obviously only one step in a complex problem but it does clearly illustrate the important role that innovation can play as we look to find lower carbon solutions in our future.

My question this week: 

Should the Federal Government encourage development of innovation projects such as this one to reduce our CO2 emissions, instead of imposing carbon taxes?

I can be reached at Dan.Albas@parl.gc.ca or call toll free a 1-800-665-8711. 

​One of the local concerns I am hearing more about, is the growing frustration from those who are in the queue and waiting for applications to be processed related to citizenship and immigration and in particular, asylum claims. 

Many families in this situation believe that they are being further delayed because those entering Canada illegally (currently over 30,000) are getting priority treatment over those who enter legally and follow all of the proper rules and procedures. 

The Liberal Government has consistently denied this is occurring, stating that “asylum seekers are processed under a separate category neither ahead or behind applicants for immigration, permanent residence or citizenship.”

The Liberals have also stated that for unsuccessful applicants “there are no guarantees that you will be able to stay in Canada”.

This week the Globe & Mail published a report that indicates that the wait time for a refugee claim hearing in Canada has increased more than a third over the past two years and that the “the resulting backlog has created a growing queue for any and all asylum seekers.”

The Globe & Mail report is consistent with the growing concern and frustration that I am hearing locally.

Another troubling statistic from the Globe & Mail, and I quote directly, “a separate data set from the Canada Border Services Agency shows that only a handful of those who have been denied refugee status have been deported.”

The report states that of the 32,173 people who crossed into Canada illegally since April, 2017, only 398  have been deported. 

Of those, 146 were sent back to the United States.

The remainder  to 53 other countries including Haiti (53), Colombia (24), Turkey (19) and Iraq (15).

As the National Post has reported, under the previous Conservative Government in 2012/13, the number of failed claimants that were returned to their country of origin was 14,490. 

In 2016/17, under the Liberal Government, that number has declined to just 3,892.

The Liberals like to suggest that pointing out this growing problem is “stoking fears on immigration,” an accusation I will continue to categorically reject.

As I have stated in the past - supporting legal immigration to Canada is how we ensure fairness for those citizens who are making every effort to fully comply with Canadian law. 

My question this week:

Do you believe that those who make every effort to legally comply with our immigration system are being treated fairly as their application wait times continue to grow?

I can be reached at Dan.Albas@parl.gc.ca or call toll free 1-800-665-8711. 

Early last week the federal Minister of Natural Resources went on the record to state that his Liberal government had “done extensive consultation” and had  “went beyond what the NEB (National Energy Board) has done. We took six months extra to consult with Indigenous communities and affected communities on the route.” - all in order to get the Trans-Mountain pipeline project approved.

In other words, the Trudeau Liberals were so confident that they spent $4.5 Billion of tax payer money to buy the existing pipeline from USA based Kinder Morgan, to be followed by the much more expensive expansion project (estimated cost to be between $7-9 Billion) 

Late last week we heard the Federal Court of Appeal disagree with the Liberal Government by ruling that consultation had not been adequate. 

This ruling, at least for now, has brought the Trans-Mountain project to a standstill and layoff notices for many crews working on different aspects of the project are expected shortly. 

As a result of this Trudeau Government failure, the Alberta NDP government announced it would be withdrawing from the Liberal national carbon tax plan until such time that the Trans-Mountain pipeline project is completed.

These negative developments, along with ongoing NAFTA negotiations challenges that resulted in Mexico reaching its own agreement with the USA and Canada sitting on the sidelines, resulted in many media referring to this as “Trudeau’s horrible, no good, very bad week”.

So this week, during an emergency meeting of the Natural Resources Committee in Ottawa, a simple request was made to have the Finance Minister and Minister of Natural Resources appear before the committee and explain what the Liberal plan was to build the Trans Mountain pipeline, in light of the court ruling.

That request was blocked by the Liberal members of the committee. 

To recap, the Liberal have spent $4.5 Billion buying a pipeline that requires a further $7 to 9 billion for an expansion and they refuse to disclose how they will actually complete it.

Many experts are suggesting that the Liberals have created a regulatory environment that not even they can successfully navigate. 

From my perspective, whether you support the pipeline or not, a democratically elected government should be able to see projects deemed to be in the national interest completed. 

Instead we have a situation where it appears that activists, some of whom are foreign funded, may usurp the will of a democratically elected government. 

While some may view the prospect of foreign interference in our elections with skepticism, this is now a mainstream issue with the Liberal Government suggesting current federal election laws do not fully take these activities into account and suggesting some legislative fixes are warranted.

I suspect the reason why Mr. Trudeau refuses to disclose how he will break this self-created regulatory quagmire is due to the fact that an election is approaching and it is politically more convenient to “rag the puck” when it comes to a controversial subject such as building pipelines. 

I hope that I am mistaken on that point and that the Prime Minister will reveal a concrete plan that supports a project he has defined as being in our national interest. 

My question this week:

Given that the Trudeau Liberals define the Trans Mountain project as in Canada’s national interest, do you believe they will complete it?

I can be reached at Dan.Albas@parl.gc.ca or call toll free 1-800-665-8711.