Regulatory process sank Frontier: Husky

The shelving of the proposed $20.6-billion Frontier oilsands mine this week stems mostly from the length of time it took for it to win regulatory approval, says the CEO of oilsands producer Husky Energy Inc.

The project application was withdrawn by Teck Resources Ltd. last Sunday, just days before the federal government was to rule on whether it would allow it to proceed.

Teck CEO Don Lindsay said there was “no constructive path forward’’ in a Canadian environment marked by conflict amid Indigenous rights, climate-change issues and resource development.

“What killed Teck, you know, ultimately, was a regulatory process that just went on and on and on and on,” said Husky CEO Rob Peabody on a conference call Thursday to discuss his company’s fourthquarter results.

“Had that process concluded in a sensible timeframe, I’m sure we’d have a Teck project under construction today because there were proponents who were set and keen to move forward with that project.

“If you wait long enough, that sort of coalescence on the idea of spending that sort of money ultimately unravels.”

The Frontier project application was first submitted to the Alberta Energy Regulator in late 2011. In 2016, a joint federal-provincial review panel was appointed and it approved the project last July.

Asked if the outcome suggests large oilsands projects can’t be built in Canada, Peabody said it actually means all large projects will have a difficult time, even if they produce renewable hydroelectric energy.

“Building major highways, building pipelines, building major infrastructure projects around cities, things like that, I think this applies to everything,” he said.

Critics of the mine, designed to produce 260,000 barrels of oil a day, said it wouldn’t have been profitable unless North American oil prices were much higher than they are now, although Teck said new technologies would have been employed to bring down costs.