Northern Beat’s Rob Shaw sat down with newly-elected Conservative Peace River South MLA Larry Neufeld early into his first B.C. legislative session to discuss his natural gas and LNG critic portfolio.
NB: What’s it been like, coming to this building and being here?
Neufeld: It truly is an honour. I know, when we did the practice speaking in the house, that was the first comment that I made, is that it is an honour to be speaking in this place to the members of this chamber. It’s an honor to represent my constituents. It really is. It’s not something that I necessarily saw in my future, but I felt strongly enough about the situation in the province and with grandchildren on their way, I was motivated to make whatever change I could make and contribute in any way that I could.
Drinking from the firehose
NB: You’re a new MLA, and you’re thrown into a session now where you’re going to have to debate a bunch of bills on fast-tracking natural resource projects, you’ve got budget estimates, have you wrapped your head around all the work that this is?
Neufeld: Oh, they talk of it like drinking from a fire hose. I would liken it more to drinking from three fire hoses. That being said, I’m ready 100 per cent. I’m ready to learn. That’s how I’ve lived my life. I went to high school full time, worked at a gas station full time, went off to university, and I’ve been a consultant working 60 to 80 hours a week for 30 years. Yeah, I’m ready.
Actions louder than words
NB: So you have natural gas and LNG as your critic portfolio. That is a fascinating portfolio. It feels like this government is changing to more of an embrace towards natural gas and LNG. How do you view what they’re doing?
Neufeld: They are saying some positive things. Proof will be in the actions, and that’s my role, is to hold them to account for what they are saying and what they’re promising. I’m hesitant to endorse what they’re saying at this point, until I do see the actions follow the words.
NB: This government in the past hasn’t seemed to like pipelines, fracking, natural gas development, or LNG. To hear the premier start talking about it now, and given it is your critic portfolio, is kind of a fascinating dynamic for you to be in.
Neufeld: It certainly is. And honestly, I’m reluctant to dive straight in on the belief train.
Fast-tracking energy projects a local concern
NB: So what are you going to be watching for? The energy minister has talked about legislation that’s going to fast track the development of some projects, including a couple natural gas pipelines. Where do you want to see from the government in the months ahead to understand if they’re serious about this?
Neufeld: First of all, what they are proposing in the way of fast-tracking is creating a great deal of concern with local governments. Because essentially, it is downloading the approval process from the provincial to more local governments, at least from the perspective of the First Nations groups.
That is a concern that I’m hearing back from local governments. What will be really the litmus test, from my perspective, is whether they do continue to push through. So the 18 projects that have been mentioned, very few of those are actually new projects.
So that’s politics. They are taking credit for things that were done in the past, which is politics.
The reality is though to see where this goes in the future. Site C is finished. LNG Canada is finished. All the major job-creating massive influx of private dollars, certainly not Site C in that statement, but we need a replacement for those. We need work for our workforce. We need the massive investments that natural gas and LNG can bring to this province.
Inter-provincial trade barriers ‘costing us’
NB: Do you think there’s more development of pipelines, and LNG terminals this government could foster and is this the right moment to do it with US President Donald Trump?
Neufeld: Absolutely. We do need to diversify. And again, the government is saying positive things around disassembling interior barriers to trade within Canada. I’m a very strong supporter in that. I did attend a conference in Vancouver, the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, and one of those comments that were made by a senior analyst from Scotia Bank was actually that it was costing us 27 per cent of the cost of trade due to internal barriers across provincial boundaries. Why on earth are we allowing that to happen?
NB: Premiers have been talking about removing provincial trade barriers for years.
Neufeld: It is a significant challenge, because a lot of it was protectionist in the way that it was developed. And it happened over a very long period of time. But I think it is an opportunity. This is a perfect opportunity for us as a country to come together and to have that driver to knock those barriers down.
Note: This interview was edited for space and clarity