Wrapping up his first full year in the House of Commons, Arnold Viersen has had to tackle quite the learning curve since his election to parliament in October 2015.
“Probably the procedure of the House has been the biggest thing and learning how to manage your time,” he said. “Nearly every week it’s coming back and forth. I have a 4-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son, and my wife is going to have a baby in January. It’s a balance; I take them along as often as I can. My daughter says I work in the castle.”
But it hasn’t all been about parliamentary procedure for the Peace River-Westlock MP.
The backbencher had a “profound” experience earlier this month when his private member’s bill to examine the health effects of online violent and degrading sexually explicit material was approved in the House.
“Mine was (motion) No. 37, so there’s been about 40 other ones that we’ve been discussing in the House of Commons and not too many make it through,” he said. “So it’s been a lot of hard work, but it looks like it’s paid off. Now we have to see what kind of results we get out of the committee.”
The Health Committee, which will be made up of Conservative, Liberal and New Democrat party members, will begin studying the impacts in February.
Despite the progress of his motion, Viersen was disappointed with ballooning deficits and the direction the federal government has been going.
“We’re concerned about the fact that 30,000 full-time jobs have been lost across Canada, particularly in Alberta here. A lot of investment has left the province, so we’re going to the government to turn some things around and focus on the Canadian economy and ensure we can bring some jobs back here, particularly now we have a new administration in the United States.”
Although he was excited that the Trans Mountain Pipeline and Enbridge’s Line 3 were approved, he said the Conservatives will be waiting and pushing to make sure the lines are built, noting that the Conservatives previously approved the Northern Gateway Pipeline under former-PM Stephen Harper, but that was subsequently rejected by the Liberals.
Viersen has also been hearing concerns from the forestry sector about the Alberta government’s rangeland plan for Woodland Caribou, as required by federal legislation under the Species At Risk Act.
“It looks like 1.8 million hectares of forest might be taken out of circulation, so that would cause a lot less trees to be harvested,” he said.
That, coupled with the softwood lumber dispute, the federal carbon tax and job loss, has created more uncertainty in Alberta’s economy.
“This government doesn’t seem to understand that a lot of the world operates on very slim margins, and when you bring in a slight new tax that makes things unprofitable, this new carbon tax the federal government is bringing in, it’s a massive tax that goes on everything and it’s making things unprofitable. All these things in the mix are coming together and it’s really hard on Alberta.”
As a result, the number one priority he is concerned with is ensuring Canada remains competitive, and that means strengthening Canada-US relations.
“The United States is our best ally and our biggest trading partner, and we’re going to have to make sure that the relationship is maintained so that we continue to have a market there,” he said. “I think that’s the largest issue we need to be fixated on. It will translate into jobs; it will translate into the softwood lumber industry. All these kinds of things will come together.”
However, if Canada-US relations cool, then Canada will have to look to other markets for the nation’s natural resources, he said, adding that the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) deal was a big win and looked forward to the ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
