(Ottawa) Conservative MP Michael Chong accuses the Trudeau government of having “lack of transparency” by secretly granting a permit allowing six turbines for a Russian gas pipeline to go back and forth between Canada and Russia for two years .
Posted yesterday at 3:32 p.m.
With his colleagues on the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development, he demanded – and obtained – the holding of an emergency meeting to obtain clarification on the Liberal government’s decision to circumvent its own sanctions against Russia.
“Initially, we wanted to give the impression that we were talking about a single turbine that is in Montreal right now for repairs. But we learned that the decision allows the import of turbines that are currently part of Gazprom’s infrastructure to be repaired and then returned for the next two years,” he said.
“What we urgently need is to get specific details on what the government has chosen to do,” MP Chong added. In his opinion, the decision “with perverse effects” has just condemned Germany to “another two years of dependence on Russian natural gas”, and thus allows Vladimir Putin’s regime to “continue to finance its war machine”.
The parliamentary committee will meet on Friday morning.
The first item on the agenda should be a vote on the members’ wish to hold hearings on the turbine issue. If a majority of the elected members of the committee says yes, which Michael Chong expects, we could then start discussing the witnesses we would like to see appear.
He himself would like to hear the explanations of the Minister of Natural Resources, Jonathan Wilkinson, who granted the permit, but also that of Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, one of the fiercest critics of the Kremlin.
Turbine Wanted Notice
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pleaded Wednesday that the decision to grant the waiver was “very difficult” to make, but that the sanctions regime was there “to punish [Vladimir] Putin and his friends, and not to punish our allies and the people of Europe”.
The same day, the Russian energy company Gazprom sowed doubt in a tweet by claiming to be unable to confirm that it would recover the famous turbine which was being repaired in the Siemens facilities, not far from the airport Montreal- Trudeau.
Where is the turbine? “No comment,” said a spokeswoman for Siemens Energy on Wednesday.
The office of Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, who granted the “revocable and time-limited” permit, declined to answer the question on Thursday. “Any questions about the whereabouts or whereabouts of the turbines should be directed to Siemens,” a spokesperson said.
The permit is valid for two years, can be revoked “at any time”, and has been granted for six turbines in total. The German energy company has permission to receive and deliver them for maintenance, depending on the parts maintenance schedule.
A rally in opposition to the granting of the permit will take place Sunday afternoon in front of the parliament. The protest is being organized by the Canadian-Ukrainian Congress, which says circumventing sanctions is a “dangerous precedent” that will lead to “the weakening of the sanctions regime” against the Kremlin.