CONSERVATIVE Party Leader Andrew Scheer on Tuesday said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is forcing Canadian taxpayers to pay for his failure.

He said: “Kinder Morgan never asked for one dollar of taxpayer money. All the company wanted was certainty.”

Scheer said Trudeau has still failed to create certainty in the Canadian energy sector.

He added: “And what’s worse, the Prime Minister is nationalizing a pipeline and he can’t tell Canadians the total cost. He would have Canadians believe that the only way to build the Trans Mountain pipeline is to use billions of taxpayer dollars, but it’s not. Four pipelines were built under the previous Conservative government without a dime of taxpayer money.”

Scheer said: “The long-term, chronic problems stem from the policies Justin Trudeau put in place to, in his own words, ‘phase out’ Canada’s energy sector. Nothing announced today changes any of this. His carbon tax increases the cost of building pipelines and makes future projects less competitive. He has introduced a shipping and drilling ban for energy products, imposed regulations on Canadian oil that do not apply to foreign oil imports, and cancelled Northern Gateway and killed Energy East.”

He added: “Canada’s Conservatives understand that by setting the conditions for success, low taxes and less redundant regulations, projects like Trans Mountain can be built without a burden to the taxpayer. We will continue to stand up for Canada’s resource sector, and most importantly, the men and women whose livelihoods depend on it. They can count on us to give them a voice against a Prime Minister determined to phase out their jobs.”