The new Carney administration can act decisively and without hesitation when it wants to. Carney repealed the consumer carbon tax and did a complete about-face with his retaliatory tariffs against the United States in short order. Those were both good moves and they prove that even policy changes with wide economic impacts can be made quickly when the government has the will to do it. Carney even likes showing off his new-found unilateral powers through performative signings of executive orders that don’t actually exist in the Canadian system.If Mark Carney truly wanted to facilitate the development of cross-country infrastructure to deliver Canadian energy products worldwide, he would be on it like a pit bull. He would hold conferences on the issue and show maps of a proposed energy corridor. He would declare pipelines to be in the national interest, and his government would tell Canadians of the benefits all citizens could enjoy with increased sales of energy products around the world. .Mark Carney is doing none of those things because Mark Carney has no interest in allowing any new pipelines to be constructed in Canada. He paid lip service to the issue during the election and now will allow Canada’s energy industry to continue to atrophy under a ridiculous regulatory process.The world wants Canada’s oil and gas. Leaders from Germany and Japan came to Canada cap-in-hand, almost begging for Canada to sell them petroleum products. Those leaders were told there is no business case to be made and they left disappointed. They then cut deals worth billions of dollars to purchase oil and gas from Middle Eastern sources. Qatar understands there is a business case for selling oil and gas products. Due to that, it is the richest nation on earth while Canada follows a plan of economic self-castration..Carney plans to continue Trudeau’s ideological and idiotic crusade against Western Canadian oil and gas production. He is maintaining the very policies imposed by Trudeau which have stunted the development of the resource and won’t be budging on it.Carney is hinting that no businesses have been expressing interest in investing in a new Energy East project.Of course they haven’t!All the regulatory roadblocks that killed Energy East the first time remain in place today. Why on earth would any energy company commit more funds toward a project the government won’t guarantee? .Lucy has ripped the ball away from Charlie Brown enough times on this issue now. Energy companies won’t fall for it again.The business case for exporting more oil and gas from Canada is solid. World demand for fossil fuels is expected to rise for fossil for decades, and Canada has some of the most abundant deposits on earth. The nation could benefit by trillions over decades through employment income, along with taxes and royalties (within reason) on the industry. It could support some of the most generous social program bases on the planet while drawing professionals to immigrate from overseas to contribute to the economy through associated industries. We can and should have all that. But Mark Carney doesn’t want us to..Carney’s lieutenant Steven Guilbeault, has already been telling Canadians we don’t need more pipelines and I don’t recall Carney correcting him. Guilbeault is an environmental extremist with a tenuous grasp upon reality. Carney is no less extreme with his net-zero ideology but he is taking a more subtle and dangerous approach than Guilbeault in shutting in the resources. Carney wants to let Canada’s natural resources die on the vine rather than allow for increased development and exportation of them.Carney loves wrapping himself in the flag and trying to portray himself as a hero who will protect the nation from the dastardly USA, yet he refuses to address Canada’s largest vulnerability to American economic bullying. In being virtually the sole customer for Canada’s oil and gas exports, the USA has enjoyed discounted Canadian products for decades. There are some serious financial heavy hitters with a strong interest in maintaining Canada’s energy status quo. One must wonder how many of those interests have Carney’s ear, and investments.The only way to regain investor confidence in Canada’s oil and gas industry would have been to hit the ground running and declare utility corridors in the national interest. Carney would have to say these pipelines must be constructed. Instead, he has said they might get constructed which is another way to say they will never be constructed. In offering mealy-mouthed commitments to energy infrastructure while offering Quebec a veto on the matter and keeping the no-more-pipelines bill in force, Mark Carney is signalling he wants to phase out Canada’s oil and gas industry. That leaves only one tool left in the West’s toolbox in order to achieve its potential for prosperity.Full and complete independence for Alberta.
