To the Editor:
Thomas Mulcair is yet again attempting to divide Canadians with his stance against Alberta and Saskatchewan's oil sands. What Mr. Mulcair fails to realize is that responsible resource development benefits the entire country.
Mr. Mulcair wrongly blames the western Canadian oil sands for the rising dollar and challenges in Canada's manufacturing sector. The NDP would prefer imposing a carbon tax that would decimate our agriculture and resource sectors. Responsible resource development is vital to our national economy during the global financial storm. The oil sands create billions of dollars in economic growth and hundreds of thousands of high quality jobs throughout the country.
A recent Canadian Energy Research Institute study showed that the oilsands will create $63 billion in economic spinoff's and 65,000 jobs in Ontario alone over 25 years.While the NDP would rather pit the West against the East, our government is working on behalf of all Canadians. While the NDP continues a war on the oilsands and our economy, our government will continue to focus on jobs and economic growth.
It's obvious that the NDP doesn't understand the needs of Western Canadians. After all, how could they? They were widely rejected in the last election when Western Canadians sent a strong, stable, national, majority Conservative government to represent them in Ottawa. Saskatchewanians can be assured that, unlike the NDP, their Conservative Members of Parliament will remain focused on creating jobs, driving economic growth and long term prosperity.
Gerry Ritz, Agriculture Minister and Senior Minister for Saskatchewan.
