Job No. 1: getting Canadian energy to Asia

After years of conflict over proposed energy projects — particularly oil pipelines — Western Canadian eyes in 2016 will be on James Carr, the federal natural resources minister, to deliver approvals.

First up is the $6.8-billion expansion of the TransMountain oil pipeline between Edmonton and Burnaby, B.C., which after two years of controversial review is due for a National Energy Board recommendation to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet in May. The cabinet, in turn, will be expected to rule around August whether the Kinder Morgan project can move forward.

Another major project long overdue for startup is the $ 11.4- billion Pacific North West LNG, led by Malaysia’s Petronas, which is also waiting for federal environmental approval in early 2016 after a string of delays.

Both have been paralyzed by confrontations with First Nations, NIMBYs, environmentalists.

Both would open the door to the export of Canadian oil and gas to Asia, giving a boost to Western Canada’s energy sector at a time of depressed commodity prices and making the country less beholden to the oversupplied American market.

Carr’s job will be complicated by Trudeau’s fixes to appease opponents, such as upping climate-change commitments, promising to reform the NEB sidelining the approved Northern Gateway oil pipeline by formalizing a ban on oil tankers on Canada’s northern coast.

Carr will quickly find out opponents of energy projects will continue to oppose, regardless of what’s offered to appease them, while the country’s energy economy is facing long- term stagnation without infrastructure and new markets.