Poll: Quebecers are fans of Western Canadian oil

Highlights:

• An overwhelming majority of Quebecers (71%) prefer to import their oil from Western Canada, versus just 8% who prefer American oil and 6% who want oil from another country.
• Half of Quebecers (50%) want the province to develop its own oil resources, while only 26% are opposed, and 24% are undecided.
• When it comes to transporting oil, 49% of Canadians believe that pipelines are the safest means of transporting oil, followed by 13% for rail transport.

“Western oil and developing their own resources are both more popular this year among Quebecers,” says Germain Belzile, Senior Associate Researcher at the MEI. “But while Quebecers are frankly very open to the development of their oil resources, the province’s political parties don’t feel the same enthusiasm. There’s a disconnect.”

“It’s time for Quebec to stop throwing obstacles in the way of companies that want to pursue energy development projects, be they Quebec projects or Canadians ones. Quebecers are ready,” concludes Mr. Belzile.

The web survey was carried out from August 20-23, 2020 with a representative sample of 1,150 Canadians aged 18 years and over. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. Complete results of the survey are available here.