Alberta Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz says Canada’s LNG sector is falling behind on the world stage due to federal policies that actively prevent the sector from flourishing.During a fireside chat at the Global Energy Show in Calgary on Tuesday, Schulz recounted a conversation she had with Japanese delegates in February that she said sums up the problem.Schulz recalled Japanese officials remarking, “We know Alberta and British Columbia have natural gas — but where is Canada?”“That’s a question I think our federal government needs to answer,” she said.“What energy-producing nation would put those types of policies in place to limit production of the critical energy the world needs that would actually help us reduce our emissions goals?”Schulz said she responded by acknowledging that Alberta has not had consistent federal partners on major energy infrastructure.“I just said, you know what? That has been a challenge for us.”.Schulz was asked about how the new federal government under Prime Minister Mark Carney is approaching energy talks, particularly her counterpart Energy Minister Tim Hodgson.Schulz said Hodgson’s tone stood in contrast to the approach the federal government has taken in recent years.“There is definitely a change in tone from this federal government,” she said.“That is very encouraging. But we have also said we need to see those words followed by action.”Schulz pointed to a number of recent or pending federal regulations, including the clean electricity regulations, the emissions cap on oil and gas, and methane regulations, as barriers to investment. While the panel focused on global demand for LNG, Schulz said these federal policies prevent Alberta from delivering.“We could build all the pipelines we want,” Schulz said.“If we continue to have policies that are designed to shut in and shut down our major industries, those pipelines will not be filled with the energy that both Canada and the world needs.”.She said the emissions cap is “arbitrary” and “ideological,” and that the clean electricity rules could lead to jail time for non-compliance.“We have a net-zero electricity regulation that a number of provinces across the country have said is not feasible—not technologically feasible, not doable—and will throw companies in jail,” said Schulz.When Hodgson said Canada needed both a regulatory environment and investment that supports LNG exports, Schulz agreed.“Our premier has been very clear, we need both,” she said.But she also said industry and provinces can’t plan multi-billion dollar energy projects if the federal government is sending mixed signals.“You cannot commit to building projects and then continue to force industry to keep their products in the ground,” she said.Schulz said she welcomes a change in tone from Ottawa, but that follow-through is needed.“We have to give them an opportunity. But … that is my one area of caution and skepticism.”She said Alberta will keep pushing back on policies it believes are unconstitutional or harmful.“We need to support each other. We need to support energy,” Schulz said.“We expect those problematic policies that are also unconstitutional to be abandoned.”She added that the federal government may be responding to mounting pushback from provinces and industry.“People are getting skeptical of those headlines,” she said.“They certainly didn’t have consensus to bring those policies in.”She said time will tell whether Ottawa’s recent signals amount to real change.“We’re still going to need to see action on those other policies as well.”
