Liberal Energy Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said this week that a Pierre Poilievre Conservative government will take the country back to a time when nothing could get built. Read More
It’s false that no projects were built when Stephen Harper was prime minister from 2006 to 2015.
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Liberal Energy Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said this week that a Pierre Poilievre Conservative government will take the country back to a time when nothing could get built.
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The claim
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In a statement posted on the social-media platform X, the Liberal candidate in North Vancouver-Capilano said it was a time when Poilievre was a minister in the Tory government of then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and when the constitutional rights of Indigenous people were ignored.
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“A time when consideration of environmental impacts was simply dismissed,” Wilkinson wrote. “A time when no major projects were built because of the loss of any faith in review processes, endless lawsuits and a resulting lack of certainty in the rules of the game.”
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Sunrise
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Our finding
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Some of these claims are false and another is exaggerated.
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It’s false that no projects were built when Harper was PM from 2006 to 2015.
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Here are some examples.
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B.C. Hydro’s Site C hydroelectric project needed provincial and federal approval, which took place under the Harper government. Construction started in summer 2015 when Harper was still in power. The project eventually cost $16 billion.
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The $725 million Forest Kerr run-of-river power project was completed in 2014. The $746 million Northwest Transmission Line that linked the Forest Kerr project and others to the power grid was also completed in 2014.
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Both needed federal government approval and Ottawa contributed $130 million to the transmission line.
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The first two phases of the new Fairview Terminal container facility, costing $580 million and needing federal government approval, were built in Prince Rupert. Ottawa announced a $30 million contribution to the container terminal early in Harper’s tenure.
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The Mount Milligan gold and copper mine received federal and provincial approval in 2009 and construction on the $1.5 billion project started in 2010. The $669 million Red Chris gold and copper mine also completed construction during Harper’s tenure.
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The $1.26 billion South Fraser Perimeter Road project, a 40-kilometre, four-lane expressway meant to bolster B.C.’s position as a Asia Pacific gateway, was also completed in the middle of Harper’s tenure. The federal government contributed $365 million to the project.
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It’s false that environmental impacts were simply dismissed.
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While the Harper government did bring in changes to reduce the scope of reviews, a process to examine environmental effects and mitigate them remained in place.