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CALGARY — Canada’s push to become a global resource powerhouse is at risk of failing unless government leaders take action to resolve the many conflicts holding up key projects, the head of the company behind the Keystone pipeline says.
TransCanada Corp. chief executive officer Russ Girling said Wednesday that Canada faces fundamental choices about the future of the country’s economy, including questions around aboriginal relations, resource extraction and pipeline development.
Those issues have pitted industry against opponents, transforming once-staid pipeline hearings into a forum for oil sands critics. Meanwhile, infrastructure projects are shouldering long-standing aboriginal grievances with the federal government, Mr. Girling said in a meeting with The Globe and Mail’s editorial board.
“We’ve got to quit the little bickering that goes on between us and get to the bigger picture and let the institutions that we charge with managing the public good get on with doing their job,” he said.
His comments point to the growing frustration in the energy sector as Alberta’s oil patch braces for an extended slump due to the dramatic plunge in crude prices.
Governments are torn as they weigh resource development against local concerns, involving everything from greenhouse gas emissions to marine life and oil-tanker safety. “They’re responding to public sentiment,” Mr. Girling said, but “at some point, you’ve got to lead.”
The country faces a fundamental question: “As Canadians, I think that we should be screaming right now, saying, just a second, are we a resource-based nation or not,” Mr. Girling said.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has touted Canada as an emerging “energy superpower.” But the rhetoric is now clashing with tumbling oil prices and economic reality: Several large pipeline projects designed to pump crude to overseas markets have ground to a standstill amid legal challenges and deep-seated opposition from environmentalists and some aboriginal groups. Meanwhile, the commodity rout has crimped government revenues and forced some of the world’s largest energy firms to abandon billions of dollars worth of new projects.
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