Storytelling is a powerful way for the industry to build trust with the folks who consume its products
Canada’s oil and gas sector needs a new senior executive – a chief story officer or CSO. The creation of this senior position is critical to assertively respond to the industry’s biggest challenge beyond crushing commodity prices: its reputation and, by extension, its future. Never mind fretting about the social licence to operate, external dynamics are rapidly shifting…
Important shifts in production and consumption are underway but any global energy revolution will be considerably slower than many believe
Some Canadian environmental groups claim the world is making a dramatic move toward carbon-free energy sources. The implication is that Canada – one of the world’s largest producers of oil and natural gas – should quickly abandon the fossil fuel economy and embrace renewable energy as the only pathway to a prosperous future. Important shifts…
A handful of heroes are riding selflessly to the rescue of oil and gas folks in distress in downtown Calgary and beyond
They're the handful of heroes riding selflessly to the rescue of oil and gas folks in distress in downtown Calgary and beyond. And while the allusion to a good-deed-doing gang of the Old West may be good-naturedly stretching things a bit, what motivates their efforts is no less commendable. These folks don't tote badges or…
Last weekend, my wife and I flew to Calgary to attend a friend’s wedding. It was my first time back in several years where we had three days to poke about and explore the old hometown. It was a sunny weekend, and it was easy to accept the old cues of prairie summer: puffy white…
Stringent environmental oversight already protects native rights to land and water, negating the need for veto rights
The right of First Nations to question resource development is not the same as a right to veto much-needed projects. Ron Tremblay, Grand Chief of the Wolastoq Grand Council in New Brunswick, said he believes Canada’s adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) gives First Nation communities veto power…
Renewables present a range of challenges that will one day draw the same criticism the oil and gas sector experiences now
We live in interesting, ‘tipping-point’ times when it comes to energy. To the upside, people are talking and thinking about energy like never before. On the downside, people are talking and thinking about energy like never before. But the notion of ‘tipping point’ is a useful lens through which to assess the social, economic and political…
When governments fail to act in conserving resource royalties, families step in to recycle the boom-times cash
It’s common knowledge that neither Alberta nor Newfoundland found the political courage when the oil patch was awash with cash to create substantive heritage funds. While Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed argued persuasively for their need in the 1970s and ’80s, leadership on the issue pretty much ended with his political career. Ever since, Alberta Conservative…
The Energy East pipeline can be the foundation for a new Canadian epic
It was just a simple piece of crude iron that fitted in one hand – but it still stands as an iconic symbol of nation building. The Last Spike was hammered home at 9:22 a.m. on Nov. 7, 1885, at Craigellachie, B.C. and marked, symbolically, the economic and political binding of a young nation. From…
Canada's best and brightest energy industry personnel are at loose ends
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and their respective caucuses should know something about Canada's newest energy company. It has some of the most talented management and staff in Canada's upstream petroleum sector. Its men and women have experience touching virtually every molecule in every formation in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. They've put…
There is no justification for continuing to do business with the Saudis or selling our oil to the Americans for cut rates
What is the relationship between these events? Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion announces the federal government won’t stop the controversial $15-billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia despite what he terms the kingdom’s “terrible” human rights record because “very surely … the equipment would be sold to Saudi Arabia by another country and this would not…
Canada’s oil and gas sector needs a new senior executive – a chief story officer or CSO. The creation of this senior position is critical to assertively respond to the industry’s biggest challenge beyond crushing commodity prices: its reputation and, by extension, its future. Never mind fretting about the social licence to operate, external dynamics are rapidly shifting…
