Majority of Quebecers Favour Developing New Pipelines: Poll

Pumpjacks draw out oil and gas from well heads near Calgary, Alta., on April 28, 2023. (The Canadian Press/Jeff McIntosh)

The majority of Quebecers are in favour of developing new pipelines for oil and gas to supply Europe and Asia, according to a new poll.

Conducted by Ipsos on behalf of the Montreal Economic Institute (MEI), the poll says that 61 percent of Quebecers are favourable to the development of oil and gas pipelines to ports in Eastern and Western Canada in order to export to Europe and Asia.

Across the country, two in three respondents (67 percent) are in favour of developing the pipelines, with Alberta having the most support at 86 percent and only 6 percent opposing it, the survey noted.

Released on Aug. 11, the poll also indicates that six-in-10 Canadians believe that their province should extract its own natural oil in order to export some to Europe and reduce its dependency on Russian gas. Two in three Quebecers (65 percent) are in favour of doing so.

“Quebecers recognize that each cubic metre of gas we export to Europe is a cubic metre of gas less that Russia exports,” said Renaud Brossard, senior director of communications at the MEI, in a news release.

“The population is much more open to developing our energy resources than are its representatives at the National Assembly.”

The findings are based on an online survey from a sample of 1,163 Canadians aged 18 and over between Aug. 1-4. The results are considered accurate to within +/- 3.3 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Oil Supply

Asked if their province should develop its own supply of oil instead of importing it, more than half of Quebecers (51 percent) chose the former. Although the result is one percentage point down compared to last March, it is still an increase of eight percentage points compared to August 2021, with the preceding two years bouncing between 45 percent and 50 percent.

Meanwhile, 30 percent of Quebecers believe their province should continue to import all of the oil it needs. The remaining 19 percent said they were unsure.

Given a choice, almost eight in 10 Quebecers (78 percent) prefer to have their oil imported from western Canada, while 9 percent chose the United States. Two percent are in favour of importing from “other” places while 12 percent aren’t sure.

In addition, the poll found that 63 percent of Canadians are in favour of increasing incentive measures for carbon sequestration, a process for capturing and storing carbon dioxide. Eighteen percent of the respondents opposed it.

On another note, six in 10 Canadians (61 percent) said they “can’t or don’t want to pay more taxes to fight climate change.”

“Among those who are ready to pay more, the acceptable increase is $100 per year,” researchers wrote.

In the context of the announced end of Hydro-Québec’s surpluses, 62 percent of Quebec respondents support the idea of allowing independent electricity producers to sell their energy directly to companies. Twenty-three percent disagree.

“Quebecers understand that the end of Hydro-Québec’s surpluses is becoming a drag on the development of the province and its regions,” Mr. Brossard said.

“By letting independent producers meet excess demand, we’ll be able to avoid losing job-creating projects due to a lack of energy.”