There were days through the spring and summer when thousands of people poured into Calgary’s streets to demonstrate support for Canada's upstream oil and gas sector. There were placards, posters and T-shirts with slogans. There were chants and speeches. There was undeniable passion. They rallied to support the integrity of Canadian oil and gas –…
Weaken the regulatory framework at your peril. Sloppy regulation begets sloppy industrial operation. And that drives investment away
Grant Sprague and Bev Yee, Alberta deputy ministers of energy and environment respectively, are very capable senior bureaucrats. Here’s hoping they bring to bear all their skills for the review of the Alberta Energy Regulator. They should keep in mind that the review ought not to be the witch hunt the current political framing suggests…
The recent open letter to Canadians penned and signed by three oilsands sector executives missed a bull’s-eye opportunity. How? The executives addressed their letter to Canadians as … well …Canadians, rather than as energy resource owners and shareholders. The fact is, in the end, that is what Canadians are. The energy sector does not “own”…
Group’s focus is on what LNG means to the Canadian economy and to the overarching national interest
It may seem like an impossible challenge to crowdsource a narrative about building a better future for Canadians and their energy sector. A diverse group has set out to create a compelling and co-ordinated narrative around Canada’s global liquefied natural gas (LNG) opportunities. At a recent Calgary meeting, a diverse group of stakeholders agreed it’s critical to…
The group is hosting a session on Jan. 15 in Calgary to gauge interest. So far, nearly two dozen organizations plan to attend
Canada's oil and gas industry long ago lost control over the narratives that shaped the worldview of its oil sands sector. Sadly, that perspective includes much of Canada. The sector is constantly reacting to competing narratives expertly controlled by outside forces much more proficient at storytelling than we’ve been. As a result, Canada's global reputation as…
Consumers – including tourists visiting Whistler – and petroleum producers are co-conspirators in the emissions game
A common T-shirt reads: “It seemed like a good idea at the time.” Whistler, B.C., Mayor Jack Crompton is wearing a neon version these days. Recently, Crompton infamously asked leading energy companies, including Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., to ante up a chunk of change to help mitigate impact that Whistler is ostensibly experiencing as a…
If the rest of Canada won’t listen to other forms of conversation about the importance of the energy sector, how about a song?
Things have devolved into such a state of ridiculous zaniness on Canada's energy scape that perhaps it's time to express our travails through that time-proven panacea for all forms of hurt: the country and western song. Such songs can timelessly and eloquently express a range of sentiments and emotions. They’re anthems to spirit, grittiness and…
Federal inaction on the petroleum file damages corporate balance sheets, which in turn stalls investments in tech
Someone is planning to slowly kill Silicon Valley – to scrub from existence the companies and their employees making so much difference in the tech space. Who in their right mind would countenance such a thing? Who would even suggest killing initiatives like artificial intelligence and machine learning, and blockchain innovations. We know those cool buzzwords…
National No-Hydrocarbon Days would hit both anti-energy and complacent Canadians where it hurts: their energy-entitled lives
Maybe the oil and gas sector should take a page from the postal workers’ playbook and implement rotating strikes. Look how fast Ottawa jumped to the pump on the postal file. Screw with timely arrival of Canadian gifts at Christmas? No sir. But Canadians’ gas tanks? A whole other matter entirely. That's why the sector…
Turning the natural-gas-fired Eternal Flame on Parliament Hill into an LED version belittles our past and misunderstands our future
As there’s a spectrum in politics, so too is there one in moronics. Moronics is, of course, the parallel dimension of politics – except that on the moronics spectrum, position is not measured by degrees of left or right perspectives but rather from thinking that ranges from benignly foolish to flabbergastingly stupid. Politicians and bureaucracy…