Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is not ruling out the possibility of compensating Canadian companies that suffer from sanctions imposed on Russia.
“Yes, there are going to be industries or people who are going to be affected, we will see what we can do to compensate,” he said Wednesday morning during a brief press scrum at the entrance. of the Liberal caucus.
Mr. Trudeau said he understood that Canada’s punitive measures “obviously have a cost”, since “this is how international trade works”.
According to the Prime Minister, these sanctions will do “a lot more damage to Russia” and, he hopes, will convince President Vladimir Putin to back down.
A few minutes later, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, François-Philippe Champagne, estimated that “the impact will probably be very moderate for Canada”.
Trade with Russia represents “less than 1%” of Canadian imports and exports, he noted, admitting however that an impact is however to be expected on the prices of energy, wheat and foodstuffs .
The price of gasoline is based on the world price, he also explained.
The New Democratic Party (NDP) has indicated that it will encourage the granting of aid to companies affected by the consequences of the sanctions against Russia.
Canadian oil production
Discussions are underway with several Canadian companies to find out if they can adjust their production in order to “balance certain potential shortages”, indicated Minister Champagne.
The Bloc Québécois strongly opposes the idea of Canada increasing its energy production to supply Europe.
“It’s nonsense,” Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet said on Wednesday. No sooner had Russian boots clacked in the streets of Kiev than the conservatives used that as a pretext to want to relaunch the Western oil trade. »
This is a “false argument”, in his opinion, since the necessary infrastructure would take “between five and ten years” to build and the war in Ukraine would then have been over for a long time.
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney tweeted last week that “the choice is clear: Alberta oil is better than dictator’s oil.”
The Conservatives went further in the Commons this week by arguing that Canada should supply the world with energy to protect “global sovereignty, peace and security”.
Alberta MP Blake Richards reiterated Wednesday that Canada should be “the solution to the world’s energy supply,” since Canada’s allies currently have to rely on imported Russian oil.
Mr. Blanchet said he feared that this would serve to “unnecessarily force” the passage of the Energy East pipeline through Quebec, a controversial project which was abandoned by TransCanada and which aimed to transport more than one million barrels of oil daily. bituminous oil from Alberta to refineries in eastern Canada.
According to the Bloc Québécois, the real solution to Europe’s energy security is the transition to an economy that will be less dependent on oil.
Prime Minister Trudeau told the House of Commons on Wednesday that Canada will be “there to support our friends in Europe, our friends in Ukraine with all the different means we have.”
“We know very well that the future of our planet relies on decarbonisation, and less dependence on fossil fuels, but we know very well that at this moment, Europe needs help”, he said. -he adds.
Mr. Blanchet criticized Mr. Trudeau for seeming to “make a conservative out of him” by accepting “the pretext” of the war in Ukraine to support Western oil.
The NDP also says it believes the war in Ukraine has demonstrated the importance of investing in renewable energy.
The New Democrat leader, Jagmeet Singh, believes, however, that “if there is a need, if there are requests from countries that are in a crisis position because of a lack of resources for energy, for their country, we have to think about how we can help”.