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[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text disable_pattern=”true” align=”left” margin_bottom=”0″]Doug Black, a Conservative senator, lawyer and founding president of the Calgary-based Energy Policy Institute of Canada, concurs. While there’s nothing a national strategy can do about global oil prices, it has the potential to improve the country’s resilience to setbacks not only within the energy sector itself, but across the entire economic spectrum. “The end result [of having a strategy in place] would be a more co-operative environment in which to operate,” Black says. “We wouldn’t have to spend a lot of time on provinces staking out positions, groups staking out positions — or not — and leaving the development of this industry and the resulting prosperity to chance. That’s what we’ve done [until] now. We’re leaving it to chance.”
Taking chances adds up to a big gamble, Black adds. “The energy industry, directly, is 11 per cent of our GDP. When you tie in all of the related services, such as manufacturing and finance, it comes closer to 30 per cent.” That’s industry-generated revenue which helps to build bridges, roads, schools and maintain healthcare systems. Whenever the cycle goes from boom to bust, all of this is at risk.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text disable_pattern=”true” align=”left” margin_bottom=”0″]Of course, it doesn’t have to be this way. Globally, Norway is seen as the country that’s used a national energy strategy to its greatest advantage, pumping oil revenue into a “sovereign wealth fund” reserve that’s now worth more than $1 trillion — a more than ample cushion that not only covers cyclical shortfalls but allows the country to invest in projects of national economic and social interest.
No one should expect anything like a national reserve fund when the premiers’ release their plan. Instead, it will reflect broad goals of achieving environmentally responsible energy security and greenhouse gas reductions in support of continued economic growth. It will be based on a set of principles that “guide collaborative work under the strategy,” according to the Vision and Principles statement released in 2014. “There will be high-level words about how we’re going to function as a country,” says Trevor McLeod, director of the Centre for Natural Resources Policy at the Canada West Foundation. “It’s not going to get into details and say things like, ‘Quebec needs to cut Newfoundland into its electricity system.’ It’s unlikely to do that.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][mk_image src=”https://energy-exchange.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/MuskratFalls1.jpg” image_width=”800″ image_height=”350″ crop=”false” lightbox=”true” frame_style=”simple” target=”_self” caption_location=”outside-image” align=”left” margin_bottom=”10″ title=”Newfoundland and Labrador, meanwhile, are developing the Muskrat Falls hydro project, part of the lower Churchill River initiative, with Nova Scotia. ” desc=”COURTESY NALCOR ENERGY”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][mk_image src=”https://energy-exchange.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/NalcorForteauPoint1.jpg” image_width=”800″ image_height=”350″ crop=”false” lightbox=”true” frame_style=”simple” target=”_self” caption_location=”outside-image” align=”left” margin_bottom=”10″ title=”Construction of the subsea cables, which will transport the electricity, is underway.” desc=”THE NORTHERN PEN”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text disable_pattern=”true” align=”left” margin_bottom=”0″]McLeod’s reference to potential deals between provinces on electricity is telling when it comes to setting expectations for the premiers’ work. Proponents of a national energy strategy have argued that excessive provincial competition and barriers to trade in energy is undermining our collective growth potential.
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“At the moment, Quebec, for example, is sending surplus electricity to the U.S., subsidizing it at a cost of $1 billion a year,” Mousseau says. With more new supply coming online, the commission he co-chaired recommended last year that the province suspend future power investments and rethink how it produces and sells electricity. Meanwhile, just next door, Newfoundland and Labrador — which has fought for decades with Quebec over the sweet contract the latter enjoys for its share of electricity produced at Churchill Falls in Labrador — is spending $7 billion to develop another hydroelectricity project at Muskrat Falls on the lower Churchill River. That project will serve both Newfoundland customers and those in Nova Scotia — with Nova Scotia’s energy utility, Emera Inc., spending $1.5 billion to build an underwater transmission cable to bring the electricity to the province. “Clearly, it would be more [practical] if this money [Quebec’s $1-billion subsidy to U.S. power buyers] could stay in Canada, say if the electricity was sold to New Brunswick, Nova Scotia or Ontario,” Mousseau says.
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