(Bloomberg) — Canada’s new energy minister said it’s critical to build carbon-capture systems for the oil sands and identified crude and natural gas exports as a major priority for Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government.
“Energy is Canada’s power,” Tim Hodgson, who was first elected to Parliament last month after a career in finance, said in a speech to the Calgary Chamber of Commerce on Friday.
“It gives us an opportunity to build the strongest economy in the G-7, guide the world in the right direction, and be strong when we show up at a negotiation table,” he said, according to his prepared remarks.
Hodgson’s speech sought to present a new approach to Canada’s energy industry, which often complained of being unfairly targeted by excessive regulation under the Trudeau government. The resentment has shaken Canada’s national unity and opened the door for a long-shot secession referendum in oil-rich Alberta.
Hodgson emphasized the need to get major projects built quickly and stressed the importance of a range of sectors, including critical minerals, electricity transmission, nuclear, biofuels and forestry. But in a departure from how Canadian ministers often spoke during Justin Trudeau’s time as prime minister, Hodgson put oil and gas at the top of his list.
“The real challenge is not whether we produce, but whether we can get the best products to market before someone else does,” Hodgson said. “We need infrastructure that gets our energy to tidewater and to trusted allies — diversifying beyond the U.S.” But to be competitive, Canada’s oil has to be “produced responsibly,” he said.
Carbon capture is crucial to getting this accomplished, Hodgson said, highlighting the Pathways Alliance project that would see oil sands companies partner on a carbon-capture system. Hodgson formerly served on the board of one of those companies, MEG Energy Corp.
He called on both industry and the Alberta provincial government to work with him to get the project built.
“We need to demonstrate to our customers outside the U.S., and to our fellow Canadians, that we are a responsible industry – and this government believes Pathways is critical to that reality,” he said.
Pathways has spent months locked in talks over public funding for the carbon capture system. Trudeau’s government created the Canada Growth Fund and gave it a mandate to negotiate contracts to guarantee the value of carbon credits, with the goal of providing investment certainty for the private sector.
Although the Canada Growth Fund has signed some deals for carbon-capture systems, it has been unable to secure an agreement with Pathways.
