Cory Morgan: Calgary Energy Show Was a Key Opportunity for Feds to Demonstrate Commitment to the Sector

Commentary

The Global Energy Show is one of the largest conferences of its kind on Earth and it’s held in Calgary every year. This year’s show broke records with over 30,000 attendees and 500 exhibitors representing energy-related companies worldwide. Diplomats gave presentations and held meetings while countries such as Norway, the United States, and even Ghana had pavilions on the show floor.

Domestically, Alberta had a large pavilion, and Premier Danielle Smith, along with many senior cabinet ministers, gave speeches and attended the show. Saskatchewan and New Brunswick sent their energy ministers to represent their provincial interests and mingle with world energy leaders.

There was one very notable absence from the show, however: Canada.

The federal government had no presence at the show. No booth, no ministers in attendance, no MPs or even senior bureaucrats. There wasn’t even a note of regret sent. Shunning such a major energy event calls into question the federal government’s commitment to expanding Canada’s energy capacity and export capabilities.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has stated that while he intends to turn Canada into an energy superpower, there is no rush to enact legislation to facilitate new pipelines because there are no private proponents to build one, pitching a project right now. This becomes something of a chicken-and-egg game since no major proponent is willing to invest in new pipelines until the federal government repairs the approval process.

If the Carney government is seeking private proponents, what better place could there have been to do so than at the Global Energy Show?

If the government refuses to seek out or meet with prospective energy producers and pipeline companies, it will never find the proponents it claims Canada needs.

Prime Minister Carney has also used the term “decarbonized oil” when referring to possible new pipelines. He implies Canada must do more to reduce the carbon emissions in oil production before social license for a new pipeline can be attained. The best place to find companies pitching the technology to reduce carbon emissions in oil and gas production happens to be the Global Energy Show. Companies among the hundreds exhibiting products are pitching methods to harvest subsurface bitumen without resource-intensive steam injection technology as well as ways to utilize stranded natural gas to power digital currency mining operations.

The show wasn’t just limited to oil and gas-related companies. There were solar and small modular nuclear energy companies in attendance as well.

Again, the question must be asked why the federal government didn’t trouble itself to attend the show?

Carney’s own adviser on climate action was infuriated that the prime minister even acknowledged the possibility of decarbonized oil production. Many within the federal government at the bureaucratic and elected levels hold to the ideology that oil and gas must be phased out and left in the ground. They see carbon capture and other emission reduction efforts on the part of the energy industry as threats to their plan to wind down the sector. If companies pitch viable emission reduction methods directly to federal officials at venues such as they Global Energy Show, it makes it tougher for the government to pretend oil and gas can’t be decarbonized. The easiest solution appears to be to just steer clear of the show.

Canada is sharply, regionally divided. Years of federal government obstructionism have exasperated Westerners in oil and gas producing provinces. The re-election of the Liberals has led to a spike in support for secessionism unlike any seen since the National Energy Program of the 1980s. While around a third of citizens in the Prairie provinces are willing to vote to separate, a majority still wants to remain within the federation. Many are willing to give the new prime minister a chance to see if he does plan to do things differently than Trudeau when it comes to pipelines.

Patience in the West is wearing thin, though. Citizens aren’t willing to let another government rag the puck and delay projects until companies flee, as happened with Kinder Morgan and the Trans Mountain expansion. Westerners want to see projects under construction, and soon. If the feds appear to be disingenuous with plan to fast-track energy development, independence sentiment will grow.

Premier Smith made it clear in her speech at the Global Energy Show that private pipeline proponents exist, but they won’t commit to construction unless the federal government steps up and clears the way.

The federal government would do well to heed that message.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.