Poilievre to pitch natural gas development plan to Germany's foreign minister

BERLIN — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre will make his pitch for more Canadian natural gas exports to Germany to the country’s foreign minister while in Berlin on Thursday.

In his first and only full day in Berlin, Poilievre is expected to attend a session of the Bundestag, Germany’s federal parliament, and meet with various MPs and business leaders. Among them is Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul.

As has been the practice since beginning of his week-long trip, the Conservative leader’s team did not release a full list of the individuals he would be meeting beforehand.

Speaking briefly to National Post Thursday morning, Poilievre said his focus during his meetings was pitching his plan for developing Canada’s natural gas sector and exporting it to Germany.

Poilievre argued his idea would be “massively profitable” for Canada and significantly reduce the cost of natural gas in Germany.

“The Germans want our gas. They’ve asked for it. They have built import terminals that can receive it, and I’m here to talk about my idea of a natural gas supply agreement that would require us to rapidly approve LNG export terminals and pipelines,” Poilievre said.

Before entering the Bundestag building, Poilievre stopped by a nearby memorial commemorating some of the Germans killed while trying to flee East Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Poilievre is currently on his first ever foreign mission since becoming Conservative leader in 2022, with stops in London, Berlin and Hamburg.

His trip comes as the Conservative leader tries to build up his image as statesman who is able to promote Canadian industry and interests to foreign allies.

The Conservative Party of Canada is paying for Poilievre’s trip. The leader is accompanied by a handful of senior aides, photographers and his wife Anaida Poilievre (who is celebrating her 39th birthday on Thursday).

On Wednesday evening, Poilievre delivered a speech in which he promised a Conservative government would sign binding supply agreements with allies such as Germany to supply them with natural gas while “overriding bureaucracies and other levels of government” to speed up building pipelines and LNG terminals.

During a subsequent panel discussion with Poilievre, German government MP Jürgen Hardt argued that Canada and Germany had fallen into a “friendship trap” that had slowed the development of bilateral trade up until a few years ago.

“Because there were no problems with Canada on the table, the contact between government and also members of parliament was very few, and also probably the contact between business people was was too few,” said Hardt, who was the German government’s co-coordinator of transatlantic cooperation from 2014 to 2018.

In August last year, Carney and Energy Minister Tim Hodgson promised to generate new gas exports to Germany and other European nations during a visit to Berlin. Those plans include an effort to build a new export facility in Churchill, Man., seemingly as a way to sidestep Quebec.

National Post

cnardi@postmedia.com

• Poilievre promises binding LNG supply deals with Europe and to 'override' governments blocking energy projects
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