Now that the dust has settled, what can Canadians and the energy industry expect to come out of the May 2 election?
First and foremost, regardless of which party won, this majority should be an opportunity for stability. Stability of policies, but even more so stability of dialogue. The issues our politicians tackle on a daily basis are complex and challenging, and energy policy, while it’s close to our hearts, is just one of them. We get that! But could a Parliament with a majority government actually provide a long-term stable environment for a dialogue?
A majority government in Canada’s House of Commons should provide fertile ground for long-range policy debate and decisions about how best to meet our energy challenges. Photo credit: iStockphoto
Long-range public policy debate and decisions are overdue and crucial to ensuring our energy challenges can be successfully managed – from security of supply to questions of sustainability to the right mix of resources to supply our energy needs. Of course, when politicians are in constant election mode, it’s hard for them to take a long-term view. It’s just like a company overly focused on next quarter’s results when really it must make investment decisions on projects that are years or even decades away from start up.
With everyone now more focused on the tasks at hand, this is a unique opportunity to engage all MPs, helping them understand the issues and become part of the national debate about our energy future. And don’t worry that it’s going to get boring: A Conservative government with the NDP as the new official opposition will leave ample room for “full and frank exchanges.”
We’re interested in what this could mean for the oil sands. That’s why we say to MPs of all stripes - come for a visit, we’d love to have you. See the resource first-hand, look at the environmental challenges and see what we are doing about them.
We make this open offer because Canada has the third-largest oil reserves, smaller only than those of Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. As we have said before, it makes sense for our country to have a long-term national energy strategy. We need a strategy that defines what role Canada will play in a world which is expected to consume 50 percent more energy by 2035 (according to the International Energy Agency). What is true for individual companies is true for the nation as a whole. As Rick George, Suncor’s CEO put it: “We don’t think in 10- or 20-year timeframes. We think about steady and reliable energy production spread over a century or more.’’
What we need is not a federally mandated national energy program (been there, done that, still have the T-shirt and bumper sticker), but a comprehensive and coherent strategy that addresses the most urgent topics including our regionally diverse natural resources, the challenges of climate change and how Canadian energy production and consumption can benefit the economy.
