“This is what being an energy superpower looks like.”Thus, Energy Minister Tim Hodgson commented on the Canadian Energy Regulator’s (CER) approval of Enbridge’s Sunrise Expansion Program.Well, not really.Not to deny Mr. Carney’s government the satisfaction of a good-news moment, but this project was first mooted in 2019, the application went to the CER in 2024, approval has just been granted, and with a bit of luck, it’ll be ready to go in 2028.And so, after four years from application to completion — along an existing route (!) — it will add 300 million cubic feet a day to Alberta’s natural gas export capacity, which typically runs at 11 billion cubic feet/day (BCF).Yes, we'll celebrate that. But let's keep a sense of proportion here.Mr. Hodgson is by no means the worst of this Liberal crew now in power, but given his own industry experience, I’m rather surprised he accepted the line from staff.Because this is not what being an energy superpower looks like, and he knows it. .What being an energy superpower looks like is when the world’s oil tankers switch gulfs and load up at Ingleside (near Corpus Christi) instead of Kharg Island.Could Canada be an energy superpower? Yes. Stephen Harper thought so 20 years ago, and worked tirelessly to make it so. And Canada has the product. But it also has governments that think there’s something dirty about it. That would be BC, holding its nose as it accepts billions in resource revenues, Quebec that won’t accept a pipeline carrying ‘dirty’ Alberta oil, but cheerfully runs on product imported from the US, Trump or no Trump. And of course, the federal government itself has spent ten years doing all it can to restrict the growth of Alberta’s oil and gas industry, and to this day, even as it talks about being an energy superpower, it continues its ban on oil tankers off the West Coast.It has also created circumstances such that even when official Ottawa seems to be giving the wink to a new northern pipeline to Prince Rupert (tanker ban or not), there’s no queue forming at the CER to apply for clearance to build it.Could it be that Canada's policies towards indigenous peoples have planted the idea that they have the final decision? And that acts as a disincentive?So yes, good for Enbridge for sticking with it. And yes, the Sunrise project delivers a shovel-ready, fully contracted, multi-billion-dollar project, albeit with 47 conditions addressing the usual environmental, safety, and consultation requirements, and the project uses electric compression to limit its footprint.And yes, it will generate jobs, taxes, and in a few years make a 2% difference to Canadian export capacity..All good. Better 2% up than 2% down.But leaving aside my flippant comments about oil exports from America’s Gulf refineries, here’s what Canada needs to aspire to, if it wants to say it's an energy superpower. Let me tell you a story.TC Energy — still smarting, I would suppose, from one of Mr. Trudeau’s early ‘successes,’ the federal puck-ragging that led to cancellation of their Energy East project — applied in 2022 to the Mexican government for permission to build its Southeast Gateway Gas Pipeline. This is a 36” pipe running about 450 miles, which was completed in less than three years from the time of application and came in under budget. It has four times the capacity of Sunrise — 1.3 BCF — and is supplying power plants in Yucatán. Operations began in May 2025. Now here's a fact we forget. That Ingleside plant I mentioned?That’s the Enbridge Ingleside Energy Center is actually North America's largest crude oil storage and export terminal. Read that again; the largest oil export facility in America belongs to a Canadian company. Actually, a Calgary headquartered company.Enbridge in the Gulf, TC Energy in Mexico … actually, Canada is an energy superpower.Just not in Canada. That's policy, and it hasn't changed.
