Senator Denise Batters Stands Up for Saskatchewan’s Oil Industry

At the Senate Internal Economy Committee, Senator Denise Batters questions why the Transport committee is not travelling to Estevan, Saskatchewan as part of their study on Bill C-48, the Anti-West Coast Tanker Bill.

Initially, the Trudeau-appointed “Independent” Senators on the Transport committee only wanted to travel to British Columbia for this legislation’s study. After public outcry led by Conservative senators’ pressure about this limited travel, the Committee was forced to reconsider and added travel to Alberta and Saskatchewan – the heart of Canada’s oil industry. Given that the oil that goes on these west-coast tankers comes from Alberta and Saskatchewan, it was absurd that the Independent and Liberal senators thought it was sufficient to only travel to BC. As such, this is a victory — so that the Senate Transport Committee will hear from those people dramatically affected by Bill C-48 in Alberta and Saskatchewan face-to-face.

However, one key Saskatchewan location has been left out of this committee’s travel. Estevan, known as “The Energy City”, is like “Oil Town” in Saskatchewan and is a microcosm of Calgary. Given that the committee will only be a 2 hour drive away in Regina, it should also travel to Estevan to hear from the people who would be so directly impacted by this Bill. As a compromise, the Senate Transport Committee has stated that the committee will add extra time to its Regina committee hearings to accommodate witnesses from Estevan, if sufficient numbers of witnesses mandate this additional time.

If you live and/or work in Estevan/the surrounding oilpatch area, and want to be heard by the Senate Transport committee about Bill C-48, please contact both of these people asap:
Transport Committee Chair: Senator David Tkachuk: david.tkachuk@sen.parl.gc.ca and
Committee Clerk: Joelle Nadeau: joelle.nadeau@sen.parl.gc.ca

Click here to watch.

(April 11, 2019)