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For the premiers of major energy-producing provinces, adopting carbon pricing and environmental considerations as a critical element of the national energy strategy only works if it also means other provinces are more welcoming of pipeline construction and energy infrastructure development for distribution across the country and beyond. In this way, McLeod says, the national strategy serves to eliminate a key barrier to realizing the full value of our energy resources. “On the oil side, we sell 99 per cent of our product to the United States, and the United States has found ways to unlock its domestic oil supply. [Even before that] we had a long-standing differential between world prices and the price we get here,” he says. “On the gas side, it’s similar. We’ve got really, really low gas prices. There are very high prices in Asia and prices much higher than here in Europe. We can’t access those right now. So there’s [been] a huge economic hit to Canada.” With a strategy in place, we can move beyond that.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text disable_pattern=”true” align=”left” margin_bottom=”0″]One major challenge to infrastructure development still remains, however: building more effective platforms for working collaboratively with First Peoples as partners in this process. That said, relations with First Peoples are a federal responsibility, so the premiers are limited in their ability to define those relationships on their own.
Yet there is still a lot of room for optimism. The reason? According to Black, it lies in the fact that the national energy strategy is not a fixed, one-time creation, but a flexible, evolving document that can be extended to incorporate the concerns of First Peoples over time and through correct channels. “There needs to be a conversation about how we take the good examples of aboriginal engagement in energy projects — and I think of the Cree in northern Quebec and some of the liquefied natural gas work going on in British Columbia currently — and learn from that.”
On this, it’s a matter of sticking to the same successful path that’s brought the provinces this far. “We have to come to a consensus that this is the right answer and then we’ve got to start chipping away,” Black says. “Just as many, many years ago the national railway was developed or the St. Lawrence Seaway was developed … the challenge is to continue to build Canada.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][mk_image src=”https://energy-exchange.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/GettyImages-155138563.jpg” image_width=”800″ image_height=”350″ crop=”true” lightbox=”true” frame_style=”simple” target=”_self” title=”Albertan leaders are working with their provincial counterparts to streamline approval processes for pipelines to move oil from Alberta’s oilsands (this image) to other parts of the country.” caption_location=”outside-image” align=”left” margin_bottom=”10″ desc=”DAN BARNES / GETTY IMAGES”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][mk_padding_divider size=”40″][vc_column_text disable_pattern=”true” align=”left” margin_bottom=”0″]
by Brian Banks
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READ MORE STORIES FROM THE SUMMER 2015 ISSUE OF ENERGY EXCHANGE MAGAZINE
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