Varcoe: Alberta business leaders welcome PM's shift from past energy policies that 'began to divide us'

On the eve of next week’s referendum, Canada’s prime minister delivered an olive branch to Albertans surrounding the thorny issue of energy development.

But how did it land in Alberta’s business community?

“He was acknowledging this very short-sighted ideological policy and regulation that had been put in under the Trudeau era that further divided us,” said Business Council of Alberta president Adam Legge, who attended Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech on Thursday at a local rally organized by Forever Canadian.

“And then he pivoted to focus on, frankly, there’s a new sheriff in town . . . There may not have been a ton of oil and gas people there, but I can tell you that the message resonated well beyond the walls of the BMO Centre.”

Albertans are set to vote in a provincewide referendum on Monday and hundreds of thousands have already lined up at advance polls or sent in mail-in ballots.

With the prime minister speaking in the province this week, much of the focus has naturally centred on the last of the 10 referendum questions: Should Alberta remain in Canada or conduct a legally binding vote in the future on separation?

At the Thursday evening rally in Calgary, Carney talked about the vote and what’s at stake, while also addressing divisions surrounding past federal Liberal energy policies.

“The frustrations that many Albertans have felt are real. Growing up, I remember — I remember how Ottawa made Albertans feel like our resources weren’t our own,” Carney told the audience.

“More recently, we were made to feel that our energy contributions were running against the tides of history. What should have brought us together began to divide us, contributing to the half-a-century of politics that too often pulled us apart.”

For those who remember former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s remarks in 2017 — “We can’t shut down the oilsands tomorrow. We need to phase them out” — or the policies of the National Energy Program of the 1980s, it’s no surprise many people in the industry remain upset.

Whitecap Resources CEO Grant Fagerheim didn’t attend Thursday’s event, but said the prime minister’s comments indicate there’s been a shift in tone from the federal government.

“I truly believe that people of our country are starting to understand, are having a better appreciation, for what energy means to the country,” said Fagerheim, who leads the fifth-largest oil and gas producer in Canada.

“For sure, we have to be skeptical after 10 years or 11 years of what we lived through under the Trudeau government. We have to be suspicious or skeptical, but the tone has changed.”

During his speech in Calgary, Carney touted his government’s push for co-operative federalism and noted the new Major Projects Office is based in the city.

The federal government is teaming up with Alberta on the proposed Pacific Link project. The two governments aim to build a new bitumen pipeline capable of moving one million barrels per day to the southern B.C. coast for export to growing markets in Asia.

The project will create more than 140,000 jobs — and reduce Canada’s dependency on the U.S. market, the prime minister said.

“It will take a nation to build this pipeline,” Carney added.

There has been a clear recalibration in federal energy policy since the energy memorandum of understanding was signed by the provincial and federal governments late last year.

The trade war with the United States has Ottawa looking to accelerate the development of major projects that can help diversify and grow Canadian exports.

Legge and Fagerheim were both members of the Alberta Next panel assembled by Premier Danielle Smith last year. It held hearings around the province and recommended referendums on Alberta leaving the Canada Pension Plan, assuming more control over immigration and on constitutional amendments.

Through those meetings, Fagerheim said he heard “anger on federal policies because of what had happened over the last 11-year period of time. And I definitely understood that.”

Today, as the federal government promotes Canada being an energy powerhouse and growing the economy, the industry CEO wants to see swift action to expand production and build key export projects.

“The time frame is now for us to rise up to be that energy superpower . . . It’s not going to happen overnight, but start now. Real projects in the ground,” he added.

“It would be very difficult with this sitting prime minister to do a U-turn now and say, ‘Oh, I don’t support energy.’ What we want to continue to do is say there’s a time frame for energy development — and it is now.”

The head of the Business Council of Alberta — the group has warned separation would bring “profound uncertainty and risks,” and that Alberta should remain in Canada — believes the prime minister’s message in Calgary was important.

It was a “recognition, an understanding, of the harms that Ottawa has done,” said Legge.

“I think that, in many ways, is what many Albertans have been hoping to hear. And then he went further, saying, ‘I’ve done a lot in my short period of time, and I’m going to do more.’

“And that’s exactly what the energy sector has been hoping for.”

Chris Varcoe is a Calgary Herald columnist.