“What a difference it would have made had the oil sector spoken up, elbows up, for the thousands of energy workers—the way the automotive sector has always done for its own.”

The most noteworthy thing about the “open letter” that 14 top oil and gas CEOs recently sent to federal party leaders is that it should have come ten years ago.

Now, with the winds of change blowing—even the Liberals are claiming to be pro-energy—these corporate leaders finally came out from under a rock. In their March letter, they boldly called for a sweeping reduction of regulatory obstacles and red tape, the reform of Bill C-69, and elimination of the federal oil and gas cap and industrial carbon tax.

The time for boldness, however, was when these existentially harmful policies were rolled out in the first place. For too long, CEOs and their representative body, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), have prevaricated and played both sides, fearful of offending the feds.

Now it’s a “Canadian energy crisis”? Now projects in the “national interest” should be approved within six months? Where have you guys been?

What the CEOs should have called for (and this, years ago) is the immediate restoration and protection of provinces’ exclusive, constitutional jurisdiction over natural resources. Take Bill C-69, the federal Impact Assessment Act (the “No More Pipelines Bill”). Even the Supreme Court of Canada has agreed that it violated provincial jurisdiction.

Bill C-69 shouldn’t be reformed or “streamlined” under a new “Major Federal Project Office” (Mark Carney’s idea) or anything else. It should be scrapped—and the federal government’s regulatory ambit limited, as before, to fish and fowl (fisheries and migratory birds).

Only then will Canada, and individual provinces, be able to take on the world and unleash our collective energy potential—from Ontario’s “Ring of Fire” to BC’s liquid natural gas. Only then will we be able to ditch the selective, politically-motivated patchwork that currently characterizes the federal approvals process. Some examples:

• Northern Gateway pipeline project: cancelled (2016).
• Saguenay, Quebec LNG project: cancelled (2022).
• Bay du Nord offshore drilling project, Newfoundland-Labrador: approved (2022).
• Over 50 projects, including Ring of Fire and Alberta oil sands expansion: in limbo.

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The CCS Conundrum

The last time oil-patch CEOs boldly spoke up was in 2015. That’s when Alberta’s Pathways Alliance (six companies, 95 per cent of oil sands production) stood shoulder-to-shoulder with NDP Premier Rachel Notley and in solidarity with her climate change plan—which would eventually include the rapid expansion of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS).

In their recent letter to federal leaders, however, there’s only passing reference to CCS: “Canada’s oil sands industry has been investing heavily in research and regulatory approvals to develop new CCS projects that have the potential to reduce the sector’s carbon emissions intensity. Thus, an expanding Canadian oil and natural gas sector helps the world’s efforts to tackle the global challenge.” In other words, boilerplate bromides generated by the Corporate Comms unit.

How things change.

For years, oil CEOs steadily lobbied the feds for eye-popping amounts (do I recall $75 billion?!) in CCS “credit-value guarantees”—in other words, iron-clad protection in case federal supports were ever scrapped or watered-down.

What they did get was a 50-per-cent federal tax credit to help cover CCS capital costs, as well as backstop support through the federal Canada Growth Fund. Alberta-based Strathcona Resources, for example, is proceeding with a $2 billion CCS investment, backed by capital-cost financing from that Fund. (Ironically, Strathcona’s CEO signed the open letter).

But it was never going to be enough.

Nowadays, the “common refrain from the sector is that CCS is still a hard sell to shareholders because it has high operational costs once installed, without on its own generating any revenues.” (Globe and Mail).

Talk about a devastating understatement.

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Of course, it’s been a similar story with biofuel. For years, companies waited for their cheque in the mail from the feds to buttress massive investments in anticipation of the federal Clean Fuel Standard (a.k.a. “Carbon Tax #2”).

Federated Co-operatives (FCL) was one. But after reading the post-Trump, post-Trudeau tea leaves, it quietly announced in January that it was pausing its renewable diesel and canola crush projects. This was due to “regulatory and political uncertainty, potential shifts in low-carbon public policy, and escalating costs.”

FCL added that it “it continues to pursue pathways to comply with the federal government’s Clean Fuel regulations.”

I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Transparency for taxpayers

Given their new, outspoken call to green-light energy project approvals, executives should be forthright that a major factor holding them up, after federal policies—or perhaps along with them—is the Indigenous consultation issue.

It is simply a reality that duty-to-consult and international treaty obligations are adding years to the process. The federally-adopted ‘United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples’ (UNDRIP), for example, calls for free and informed prior consent (veto power) before any major project can proceed—and, in effect, resource-sharing once it does. As UNDRIP becomes increasingly engrained in judicial decisions, the energy sector should be pointing out its full implications.

Speaking of implications: in their recent open letter, oil CEOs request that governments extend loan guarantees to Indigenous communities for resource projects. I hope they agree that taxpayers deserve full, transparent information about the financial implications of such agreements each and every time they proceed.

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Turn off the taps

If they were really bold, oil, gas, and pipeline companies would endorse Pierre Poilièvre, who has actually committed to their requests. They would say that during the past, destructive decade, the federal Liberals dealt death blow after death blow to the Canadian energy sector—and that if Carney wins, they will turn off the taps.

That would be bold.

Canada and the world never could do without oil. What did they have to lose?

As far back as the DiCaprio and Neil Young interventions and ‘oily duck’ photo, what a difference it would have made had the oil sector spoken up, elbows up, for the thousands of energy workers—the way the automotive sector has always done for its own. Instead, Big Oil churned out sustainability policies.

By remaining sheepish and shy—and not standing shoulder-to-shoulder with those who were taking on federal policies, oil companies wasted ten good years, as those policies bilked taxpayers of billions.

In the end, the only one who changed their sector’s fate was the great disruptor, Donald Trump.

The CEO’s open letter came better late than never. But boy, was it late.

 

Bronwyn Eyre is Saskatchewan’s former Minister of Energy and Resources and Minister of Justice and Attorney General. She can be reached at Bronwyn.Eyre@sasktel.net.

 

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