Lakeland MP Shannon Stubbs calls 2019 a pivotal year for her work as Shadow Minister for Natural Resources and as the MP for the region.
Stubbs called 2019 a “fight year” as shadow minister as she called for the repeal of both Bills C-69 and C-48. Stubbs continues to call for an overhaul of Bill C-69 if it’s not repealed and says they’ve been getting mixed messages from the Prime Minister, Minister of Natural Resources and the special representative for the Prairies, Manitoba MP Jim Carr. Stubbs doesn’t believe they will repeal Bill C-48.
“We will continue to press to the entire country the severe damage being done to every sector and every community in the Canadian economy as a result of their anti-energy anti-business policies.”
As the shadow minister, Stubbs will be pushing the Liberal party on presenting a clear plan on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion in the new year.
“They need to guarantee an in-service date. They need to be transparent to Canadians about the cost. The fact is that it’s already costing taxpayers billions of dollars needlessly and they’re also losing money on the pipeline every day.”
She says a bright spot that came from having a minority federal government is the party won the first vote in Parliament. The motion was to create a special committee to review the relationship between Canada and China.
“There are layers and layers of issues between Canada and China but my focus is on market access for Canadian producers and farmers because we know of the real-life impacts of the Liberals mistakes for Canadian producers.”
She says her advocacy for farmers isn’t brought up often because of her work with the energy sector and will work on rail transportation, labour issues and removing the red tape on agriculture.
A highlight for Stubbs was also one of her biggest disappointments which were the passing of Motion 167 on rural crime in 2018. The final report for the motion came in May 2019 and had no formal recommendations.
“Sometimes I feel dumb for having my hopes up in the first place thinking that they actually going to demonstrate that they cared about rural communities and rural people.”
The year also saw the federal election being called with the MP retaining her seat in the House of Commons. She says she doesn’t take the support lightly and received the most voter support than any other woman in Canadian history with 83.9 per cent and a total of 48,314 votes.
“It’s a bit overwhelming. What I do know for sure is it really has nothing to do with me being a woman in itself. I hope it has to do with getting a stamp of approval from the people of Lakeland for the work that I’ve done. I know in equal parts it’s also the strong message they wanted to show Trudeau and the Liberals.”
Stubbs says there may be changes ahead with a new head of the Conservative Party but will continue representing the interests of Lakeland.