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By Katarzyna (Kasha) Piquette
Attending the Canada Powered by Women “Powering Prosperity” Summit in Calgary on March 31 made one thing unmistakably clear, the world is moving, and it will not wait for Canada.
This was not just another conference. It was a gathering of leaders willing to confront the hard questions, through policy cards, candid discussions, and practical solutions, about how Canada positions itself in an increasingly competitive and unstable global energy landscape. Organizations like Canada Powered by Women are creating exactly the kind of forum we need: one that bridges policy, industry, and execution.
One idea, shared during the summit by Sue Riddell Rose, President and Chief Executive Officer of Rubellite Energy, stayed with me. See Rubellite Energy Management Team Here
Canada has the potential to be an energy “superhero”— not just a superpower.
A superpower produces. A superhero shows up when the world needs it most.
Right now, the world needs reliable, democratic energy, and Canada should be that country. It should be the country the world needs to build pipelines, LNG facilities and expand existing oilsands facilities and develop offshore oil facilities. Canada needs to show up as a superhero, but it’s nowhere to be found.
But ambition alone is not enough. Canada is chained to the ground by anti-oil and gas development policies and regulations.
Rona Ambrose, former Minister of Environment and Climate Change of Canada, while in conversation with Sue Riddel Rose, added:
Ultimately, we want to attract investment capital to these types of projects. There are investors all over the world that are just waiting. The want to invest in Canadian ports. They want to invest in large Canadian energy infrastructure, whether it’s LNG, pipelines, you name it, but it’s just that Canada does not have the policies or processes in place for them to invest with confidence. And we can’t get there unless we have policy certainty. But also the right kind of policy, not just policy certainty. It’s policy that will unleash free enterprise. So there is actually an interest from private capital. To me, the signal is private capital will pay for things, but you have to have the right policies in place.
Venezuela has a vision Canada can only dream about
At CERAWeek, María Corina Machado https://www.ceraweek.com/en/speakers/maría-corina-machado-1068-29046 spoke about a future where Venezuela could rapidly rebuild its oil industry following a democratic transition, and a government willing to get out of the way and let private capital move. Capital will not hesitate when that moment comes. The questions we must ask ourselves is simple, and uncomfortable:
Will others rebuild faster than we can approve? Can Canada get out of the way and let it’s talented and repsonsible energy industry do what it does best?
Because Canada was not always slow. In 1950, Canada built the Interprovincial Pipe Line—a 1,850 km pipeline—in just 150 days. https://www.enbridge.com/stories/2019/april/enbridge-70th-anniversary-canadas-first-long-haul-crude-pipeline It was a nation-building project, completed in a single construction season and widely recognized as one of the greatest engineering achievements in our history.
Today, we often spend longer than that just in permitting. The contrast is not about capability, it is about policy, process, execution and political will. Right now, Canada is lacking in all of those.
Meanwhile, competitors are not standing still. The United States is accelerating. Emerging markets are positioning. Capital is reallocating in real time.
Energy today is not just economics and geopolitics. It is a social policy. It is security. It is influence.
If Canada does not act, others will fill the gap, and not all of them will share our democratic values or environmental standards.
The conversations at CPW mattered because they moved beyond theory. They asked the right questions: how do we build again? How do we align climate ambition with competitiveness? How do we restore confidence that Canada is a place where projects can actually happen?
Because the truth is – we can.
Canada once built a 1,800 km pipeline in 150 days.
We can dramatically streamline the building process if we choose to. But there must be political will to change.
Katarzyna (Kasha) Piquette, MBA, CFP, FCSI, ICD.D.
Founder and CEO
Transatlantic Energy Ventures (formerly Canadian Energy Ventures)
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