PM must protect jobs in all provinces, Eyre says

Saskatchewan’s energy minister says the federal government should work equally hard to protect all Canadians’ jobs, whether they are engineers in Quebec, automotive workers in Ontario — or oilfield employees in Saskatchewan.

“The concern must always be with all sectors, and the impact on all jobs, in all provinces,” Bronwyn Eyre told reporters on a conference call after testifying before the Senate committee on energy, the environment and natural resources. “I would hope that the prime minister would acknowledge that this is a problem in a number of sectors across the country,” added Eyre, who was in Ottawa on Thursday to restate the province’s opposition to Bill C-69.

Introduced last year, Bill C-69 would overhaul the environmental review and approval process for many of those projects. It passed

through the House of Commons in June and is now being considered by the Senate.

Some of the bill’s critics, a group that includes the Saskatchewan government, have referred to it as the “anti-pipeline bill.” Eyre said she went to Ottawa to urge senators to exercise their “sober second thought.”

Eyre’s appearance before the committee — Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and others also testified — comes one day after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reiterated his commitment to stand up for jobs at Snc-lavalin Group Inc.

Trudeau’s remarks came amid a growing scandal involving allegations made by former minister of justice and attorney general Jody Wilson-raybould about the Prime Minister’s Office interfering in a court case involving the Quebec engineering giant.

Many western Canadian critics have accused Ottawa of not doing enough to support the energy sector, particularly its ability to get major infrastructure projects such as pipelines approved and built.

Last week, the C.D. Howe Institute warned of “fundamental problems” in the bill, and said it could “worsen” the “disease” of plummeting business investment in resource projects.