Steven McLelan is the Vice President, Western Canada at Enterprise Canada, a national strategic communications firmBrian Burke, the famously blunt former NHL general manager, once told team ownership in a job interview, “There will be only two hands on the steering wheel, and they’ll both be mine.” It was his way of telling the billionaire owners that he would be calling the shots and taking full responsibility for them.That quote is starting to feel more and more relevant to national pipeline policy under the Carney Liberals. Except in Ottawa, it’s not about one person with two hands. It’s more like a guessing game of whose hands are even on the wheel — and whether anyone in the vehicle has a valid license.Officially, we have a new environment minister— Julie Dabrusin. But you wouldn’t know it from the first two days of headlines on national environmental policy. To be fair, she’s just getting started in a tough portfolio, but it’s clear her boss and colleagues are the ones setting the pace..Steven Guilbeault, the former climate activist turned senior cabinet minister, doesn’t seem to have gotten the memo about the government’s new direction. Asked by the press gallery about pipeline policy, Guilbeault doubled down, rejecting the need for any new projects — even as premiers and industry leaders plead for a shred of regulatory certainty to get critical nation-building infrastructure off the ground.Then there’s Mark Carney himself. One day he’s the Alberta-born pipeline pragmatist trying to clean up the national unity mess his predecessor left behind. The next, he’s appeasing Guilbeault and the activist wing of his party by defending Bill C-69 — the "no more pipelines" bill. He’s trying to please Bay Street, Brussels, and Brooks, Alberta. The result? Vague signals instead of real direction, leaving both investors and provinces wondering where we’re actually going.Liberal strategists might brush this off as a new government finding its footing. But there are real-world consequences to Ottawa’s constant climate confusion. Projects stall. Investment chills. And Albertans’ frustration with the rest of the country only deepens. .As for the new minister — her bio proudly highlights her environmental activism, including her efforts to ban plastic straws. So even if she or the prime minister try to walk back Guilbeault’s remarks, we’re still left wondering: who’s really driving this thing?Right now, it feels less like there’s a serious plan and more like we’re stuck in a game of political bumper cars. Canada isn’t being led — it’s being jostled between competing agendas, activist soundbites, and unclear leadership. At a time when we should be driving full-speed toward energy leadership on the global stage, we’re spinning our wheels — and the rest of the world isn’t waiting for us to catch up.Steven McLelan is the Vice President, Western Canada at Enterprise Canada, a national strategic communications firm. He formerly served as Director of Research and Policy for the UCP Government Caucus.
