Last week several senior CEOs in the oil and gas industry, including some distribution companies, penned a letter to all national party leaders. The letter was entitled “Build Canada Now” and outlined a strategy to strengthen Canada’s economic sovereignty by the development of Canadian energy resources. Considering the well-documented contributions our oil and gas sector have made to the national economy in the past, it should be unnecessary to remind politicians of this fact, but the reality that the Trudeau government has strangled this sector for almost 10 years – seriously impairing our productivity and degrading our standard of living – led the CEOs to believe a reminder is needed. You can’t blame them.
The 14 signatories to the letter note that together they represent tens of thousands of jobs and the majority of oil and gas production and pipelines in Canada. The letter notes how Canada is currently faced with a valuable opportunity to capitalize on its oil and gas wealth for the benefit not only of Canada but also other countries around the world which can use Canadian energy to replace higher emitting energy sources and help lift less developed economies out of poverty. The CEOs also note how fossil fuels will continue to be the dominant source of energy globally for the foreseeable future, contradicting the climate zealots who erroneously claim that alternate energy such as wind and solar power can replace fossil fuels.
Now that we have had a couple of decades to evaluate the claims about alternate energy sources, it has become clear that, barring some amazing technological breakthrough which is unlikely to happen, if we depend on things like wind and solar for our primary energy sources we will be doomed to freeze in the dark.
The CEOs make a number of practical recommendations in their letter that they consider essential to Canada maximizing our opportunities to benefit from our resource wealth. The first recommendation regards simplifying regulation, notably eliminating the Impact Assessment Act (the so-called “no more pipelines” legislation) and the ban on oil tankers off the West Coast. These two laws were clearly implemented to punish the Western provinces, who have the temerity to not vote Liberal. The Impact Assessment Act contains such absurdities as gender issues having to be considered in a major project consideration. The fact that no ban on tankers on the East Coast was proposed merely showed that the issue was not really oil tankers, but rather the Trudeau government’s animosity toward Western Canada.
Another recommendation concerned requiring the federal government to commit to firm deadlines for project approvals, such that major projects will be approved within a 6-month deadline from application. This is an eminently reasonable request. The Trudeau government was renowned for permitting delay after delay for major projects, to the point that the private sector companies funding the project would finally give up. It is no wonder that Canada has lost hundreds of billions of dollars in investment because of such regulatory uncertainty.
The CEOs also recommend eliminating the proposed federal cap on emissions to ensure production in the oil and gas sector is not curtailed. They also favour eliminating the industrial carbon tax which hamstrings our domestic industry while not applying to foreign competitors. The industrial carbon tax, although less visible than the consumer carbon tax, nevertheless trickles down to consumers, increasing the cost of energy and other products while fueling inflation.
A final CEO recommendation is to provide incentives for indigenous investment opportunities. Various indigenous groups have already benefitted a great deal from resource development, and this should be expanded. The best solution for indigenous prosperity is robust economic development, and resource projects offer an excellent means to achieve this.
Newly named Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Jonathan Wilkinson, responded to the CEO’s letter in an appalling manner. He claimed the CEOs were trying to profit from actions being taken in the United States. He also stated that the CEOs were trying to gut the Liberal environmental assessment process, which has been shown conclusively to be a major impediment to getting anything built in Canada. Wilkinson’s reaction was a gross insult to the well-meaning CEOs that have contributed substantially to Canada’s economic growth and job creation, unlike the Liberal government which has stymied Canada’s growth. The fact that Wilkinson was recently appointed in his current position by new Liberal leader Mark Carney shows that Carney really doesn’t have views very different from the Trudeau administration, despite his claims to the contrary. This does not bode well for Canada’s future should the Liberals win the upcoming federal election.
Carney has already said he will not change the Liberals’ stance with regard to several of the CEOs’ recommendations. Although Carney has reduced the consumer carbon tax to zero for the moment – but not actually cancelled it – he has said he will retain and likely increase the industrial carbon tax. This will further hurt Canada’s competitiveness and trickle down to consumers, fueling inflation. Carney has also been silent on the impact assessment legislation and the ban on West Coast tankers, both of which are very damaging to Canada. Although Carney has claimed to change direction from the Trudeau government, he actually doesn’t seem to have deviated very far from the previous Liberal government’s destructive approach.
It is a welcome development for energy CEOs to take a proactive stand supporting the development of our resources. In the early days of the Trudeau government, some oil and gas CEOs could be found sharing a podium with Trudeau and some of his Ministers at the same time that the Liberals were suffocating their businesses. This was a ridiculous stance for industry representatives whose best interests, and those of Canadians, were being trashed by the Liberals. Oil and gas CEOs should keep up the pressure, as the vast majority of Canadians are in full agreement. As they should be.
She has published numerous articles in journals, magazines & other media on issues such as free trade, finance, entrepreneurship & women business owners. Ms. Swift is a past President of the Empire Club of Canada, a former Director of the CD Howe Institute, the Canadian Youth Business Foundation, SOS Children’s Villages, past President of the International Small Business Congress and current Director of the Fraser Institute. She was cited in 2003 & 2012 as one of the most powerful women in Canada by the Women’s Executive Network & is a recipient of the Queen’s Silver & Gold Jubilee medals.
