Morneau backs energy industry

Ottawa must be ‘demonstrably supportive’ of sector, he says

Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau told a Calgary crowd Tuesday that he and the Liberal government must do more to talk up the importance of Canada’s energy sector in other parts of the country.

Morneau, who spoke to the Chamber of Commerce less than a week after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and whose visit, like Trudeau’s, was met by large crowds of pro-oil demonstrators furious with the steep price discount currently hammering Alberta crude, said he has heard from business leaders that the Canadian government is not “vocally as supportive of the industry” as it should be.

“From my perspective, the decision to purchase Trans Mountain, the expansion, was clearly intended to substitute actions for words,” said Morneau.

“But I committed last night and committed again this morning to being part of trying to make sure we are delivering that message across our country … We need to be thinking about how we can be more demonstrably supportive in ways that make people in this room agree that we are representing them well.”

There was an emergency meeting of Parliament last night over those 2,000 (GM) jobs (in Oshawa, Ont.).

Like the prime minister in his own speech Nov. 22, Morneau expressed deep concern about the differential for Canadian crude, which he acknowledged is causing “acute anxiety ” in Calgary and costing the Canadian economy an estimated $80 million per day.

Also like Trudeau, Morneau did not propose any new solutions for dealing with the problem, saying only that the federal government is working hard to get Trans Mountain built and is listening to industry in an effort to find other ways to help.

“If there were an easy answer, we would have taken it,” Morneau said. “But we don’t see an easy answer.”

Mark Scholz, president of the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors (CAODC), called Morneau’s acknowledgment that the federal government could voice more support for the industry an “incredible step forward.

“This industry, for some time now, has felt that the government has done no service, so to speak, in terms of the language it uses in describing our industry,” Scholz said.

Scholz said the government’s tendency to refer to “Alberta’s” oil and gas sector rather than “Canada’s” oil and gas sector or the fact it has not vocally championed and defended the country ’s regulatory system are sore points for industry.

“Tone at the top matters,” Scholz said. “The little things and the signals and the language that is chosen by our political leaders, they matter a great deal.”

However, Calgary Chamber of Commerce spokesman Mark Cooper said while anything the federal government does to promote the energy industry in other parts of Canada is welcome, it is time for more concrete solutions.

“We need urgent action,” Cooper said. “I think what the business community wants from Ottawa is to really better acknowledge that these market access issues and the investment chill that we’re experiencing are caused in large part by its policies and the constant shifting of the regulatory goalposts.”

Both the municipal and provincial governments Tuesday pointed to the sudden announcement this week of the closure of a General Motors assembly plant in Oshawa, Ont., as an example of the perceived disconnect between the Trudeau government and what is happening in Alberta.

“We lost 21/2 GM plants every month in Alberta since the economic downturn has started,” Mayor Naheed Nenshi said in reference to the job losses in the oilpatch. “There was an emergency meeting of Parliament last night over those 2,000 (GM) jobs.”

“Their (the federal government’s) actions thus far indicate they are tone deaf to the significance of the Canadian energy sector to Canada and its impact,” said provincial Economic Development Minister Deron Bilous.

“We’ve seen the prime minister react very quickly to the news in Oshawa ... We’d like to see the federal government move just as quickly for Alberta’s energy sector.”

However, Explorers and Producers Association of Canada president Tristan Goodman said while he believes the federal government needs to do more to address the differential crisis, he is willing to give Morneau and his counterparts some credit.

“The fact is we have a prime minister who’s been out to Alberta 20 times since he’s been elected. And he has put several billion dollars into the issue (by buying a pipeline),” Goodman said.

“It would be an error to say the federal government has done nothing.”