Released by market research firm Leger on Oct. 12, the poll found that 72 percent of Canadians indicated their support for producing and exporting more domestic oil and gas resources.
The poll was conducted with 1,535 Canadian residents aged 18 and over from Sept. 30 to Oct. 3, via the firm’s online panel.
The respondents were asked if they support or oppose Canada developing and exporting more oil resources internationally given that “one way [Russian President] Vladimir Putin has paid for his invasion of Ukraine is through selling Russia’s oil and gas resources to Europe, the United States, Canada and other countries.”
Among those who expressed their support, 49 percent indicated they “strongly support” the move, and 23 percent said they “somewhat support.” Thirteen percent would either “somewhat oppose” or “strongly oppose” increasing oil exports while 15 percent said they “don’t know.”
Business Case
In March, federal Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said Canada has the capacity to increase oil and gas exports by up to 300,000 barrels per day by the end of 2022, in order to reduce global dependence on Russian energy exports.A day after Trudeau played down the economic viability of the investments, Scholz said he hopes Canada can play a “major role” in helping to ease its shift from Russian gas imports.
“For now, this means increasing our LNG imports. We hope that Canadian LNG will play a major role in this,” Scholz said at the time.
According to the Leger poll, 54 percent of respondents agreed with a statement that said Canada can help its European allies only if government roadblocks that prevent the production of these resources, and the building of new pipelines, are removed.
Sixteen percent say there is no business case for increasing oil exports as it’s “too costly for companies to develop and export the resources to Europe” while 30 percent said they “don’t know.”
