Last week in Calgary, federal Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson said something that everyone in the industry believes — that “energy is the heart of the Canadian economy.”
We know Alberta is blessed with some of the world’s largest reserves of some of the world’s most valuable commodities. And our trading partners know it, too.
Over the past several months, South Korea, India, China, the United Kingdom, Germany and others have been asking the Alberta and federal governments for Canadian energy. The most significant barrier to our ability to answer the call is Canada’s approach to energy regulation.
We need to unwind a problem of our own making.
Major pipeline projects connecting Alberta’s energy to international markets — such as Energy East and Northern Gateway — that could have been in operation now have instead been cancelled. The Trans Mountain Expansion Project took 11 years to get from application to operation.
The idea of an efficient and predictable project approval process is not controversial. In fact, that is how projects used to be approved in Canada.
Thirty years ago, a number of Alberta gas producers created the Alliance Pipeline Project. They proposed an ambitious, 3,800-kilometre gas pipeline from northeast British Columbia across the U.S. border to just outside Chicago. They filed an application to the National Energy Board in June 1997, which was approved in November 1998.
That review took 16 months. Alliance Pipeline began operations in 2001. You may not have heard of the Alliance Pipeline because it is a safe piece of Canadian-built energy infrastructure quietly doing its job.
In the 25 years since the Alliance Pipeline began operations, our pipeline know-how has only gotten better — with technological advancements, construction methodology improvements and increasingly sophisticated mitigation measures.
The pipeline industry’s engagement with Indigenous communities continues to mature and can include not just engagement, but also employment opportunities, contracting with Indigenous businesses, capacity building and now equity ownership.
Unfortunately, over those same 25 years, Canada’s federal regulatory regime has gone in the opposite direction. The federal government has added regulators on top of regulators. Pipelines may require approvals from all sorts of federal entities, such as the Impact Assessment Agency, the Canada Energy Regulator, Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Climate Change Canada, and others.
The federal government’s new commitment of one project/one review is needed now more than ever to advance critical pipeline infrastructure. The Alberta government’s new legislation to undertake project reviews in 120 days is fully aligned with federal commitments to build at a speed not seen in generations.
Regulatory efficiency coexists with Indigenous engagement, and environmental and safety standards. Regulatory efficiency — and the removal of duplicative assessments, sequential permitting and unclear timelines — improves investor confidence. Regulatory efficiency increases the ability of Alberta and other Canadian provinces to unlock their energy superpowers.
We can see a future where Canadian natural gas — on both coasts — can help meet our global partners’ needs and to help end the world’s reliance on coal-fired power supply. We can see a future where Canadian oil improves energy security in Europe and Asia. We hope to see steel mills in Ontario start manufacturing pipe again, as industries work together across the country to rebuild capacity.
We hope jobs are created, careers begin, innovations are advanced and government coffers are buoyed by responsibly produced energy.
We need to seize the day, step up for our international partners and rise to our potential.
Now, more than ever.
Evan Bahry is executive director of Energy Connections Canada.