Erin O'Toole: This is how I would get our country working again

An O’Toole government would pass a Freedom of Movement Act that would make it a criminal offence to block a railway, airport, port or major road

Ontario Provincial Police officers make arrests at a rail blockade in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, near Belleville, Ont., on Feb. 24, 2020.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

Erin O'Toole-February 25, 2020

We are at a critical moment in our country’s history.

For nearly three weeks, blockades have crippled our transportation infrastructure. Thousands of Canadians are out of work. Grocery shelves are bare. Supplies of propane to heat homes are running low. Patience is running out.

It’s even worse when you look at the big picture. Investment is leaving our country at a record pace. Billions of dollars of projects have been cancelled — most recently Teck Frontier, a project that would have created 7,000 construction jobs and 2,500 operational jobs in hard-hit Alberta. Every decision to pull investment from Canada is a threat to our social programs. Teck Frontier alone would have provided $70 billion to governments, money that is desperately needed to maintain and strengthen our health system as our population ages.

The question on the lips of Canadians today is: how did we get here? The answer to that is clear.
We face this threat to our country’s future because of a Liberal government that has cancelled pipelines, banned tankers and passed legislation that makes it nearly impossible to build major projects. The illegal blockaders have taken their cues from more than four years of the Trudeau government’s attacks on our resource sector and those who work in it.

Trudeau has turned a blind eye as radicals seized the agenda over the expressed will of Indigenous people who want these projects and prosperity. For more than a decade, the resource industry has been working more closely with First Nations. Today, we see companies like Teck and Coastal GasLink striking deals that make First Nations true partners, bringing jobs, economic development, and hope to communities that have suffered for far too long.

First Nations have become partners, not just participants, yet the Trudeau government still says no.
What do we do going forward?

First, we need a government that says that democracy means that elected representatives be allowed to speak for their constituents and answer to them at the ballot box. When projects go through exhaustive, scientific review processes and then are approved by elected First Nations governments and supported by the majority of members of those First Nations, small groups of opponents cannot be elevated over the majority and their elected representatives.

Second, we need a government that makes it clear that blockades are illegal acts rather than valid protests. An O’Toole government will pass a Freedom of Movement Act that will make it a criminal offence to block a railway, airport, port, or major road, or to block the entrance to a business or household in a way that prevents people from lawfully entering or leaving. I will also declare, through legislation, interprovincial railways, ports, the national highway system, and interprovincial and international bridges as Critical National Infrastructure to make it clear that the federal government takes responsibility for keeping them open.

Third, the police need to know that the government has their back when they risk their lives to uphold the law and keep us safe. This has clearly not been the case over the past three weeks. I will make it clear that, while I will not give direction as to how they handle any specific situation, my government expects police to enforce the law and to do so quickly, before blockades are able to grow and increase the danger of violence.

Supporters of the indigenous Wet’suwet’en Nation’s hereditary chiefs camp at a railway blockade as part of protests against British Columbia’s Coastal GasLink pipeline, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada February 19, 2020. Codie McLachlan/Reuters

In the days ahead, the Liberals may try to argue that adopting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP) is the correct way forward, but nothing could be further from the case. Canada has, entrenched in our Constitution, a world-leading recognition of Indigenous rights. Decades of case law and negotiations have made our Duty to Consult among the best in the world for ensuring Indigenous consultation on resource projects. We still have a ways to go on the path to reconciliation, but projects like Coastal GasLink and Teck Frontier show that Indigenous communities can be true partners in projects that are in the national interest.

Now is not the time to outsource leadership or make symbolic gestures. And we do not need the UN telling us how to run our country.

In a democratic society, nothing will ever receive unanimous support. The way to deal with this is to empower elected governments and ensure that they answer to voters, not to give a veto to those who are the loudest or most willing to protest or break the law. The federal government needs to make it clear that recognition of Indigenous rights means that when Indigenous bands and their leadership approve projects, we listen.

It’s time to get Canada working again.