Ex-Encana CEO puts blame on PM

Encana Corp.’s founder and former CEO Gwyn Morgan said he’s disappointed by the driller’s $5.5-billion purchase of Newfield Exploration Co ., which moves focus to the U.S. and dashes his hopes the company would represent Canada on the world stage. Morgan, who named the oil and gas producer Encana to evoke “Energy Canada,” blames the move on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s environmental policies, which he has said are making the country irrelevant in the global energy industry. The New field deal extends Encana’s reach into the shale fields of Oklahoma. It also moves the company toward what current CEO Doug Suttles called a “headquarter-less model,” with operations controlled from offices near Houston, Suttles’ home city of Denver and in the company’s official base of Calgary. Encana declined to respond to Morgan’s comments. Canada’s Department of Natural Resources responded that Trudeau’s administration has done more to support the energy industry and get its resources to market in his three years in power than the rival Conservatives did in a decade.