Can Canada Unite Around The Very Thing That's Dividing Us?

The next few months will help answer that question, and will be among the most critical in decades as we try to find ways to cross the red, blue, orange and green lines we’ve drawn.

As fraught as it seems, this is a historic moment for a global energy power like Canada to transform the way we produce, ship and consume energy in all its forms to not only reduce our carbon footprint but show the world what’s possible.

Critically, we need a concerted effort — call it a national science project — to ensure that we’re leading the next energy revolution by investing aggressively in energy innovation.

That means investing in our oil and gas sector, which accounts for nearly 5% of the world’s output, to help transform the other 95%. As Calgary’s Mac van Wielingen likes to say, we need to ensure the world’s last barrel of oil is its best barrel — and that it’s a Canadian barrel.

On Monday, I shared a stage at the Economic Club of Canada with van Wielingen, who’s the founding partner of ARC Financial, the largest energy-focused private-equity firm in Canada. He’s among the pioneers of 21st century Canadian energy.

What van Wielingen sees happening in Alberta frustrates him: pipeline delays, job losses, international investors exiting the oil sands, and the industry’s image being tainted, which he attributes to a “hostile” approach to the energy file.

He’s not alone in his sense that Canada can, and should, be doing better: a recent Nanos poll showed nearly half of Canadians believe the country is doing a poor or very poor job of developing a shared, long-term vision for energy.

But even at our lowest point, there’s an emerging view of a middle ground.

“There is a positive side,” van Wielingen said. “Our environmental performance has improved significantly in response to the criticism of environmental activists.”

We need our oil and gas sector to be a central part of a cleaner energy future; most of us rely too much on traditional energy sources to pretend otherwise. What’s more, we need to harness those resources to invest in new technologies.

It’s why we need to reframe this conversation as a Canadian project — our moon shot for the 2020s — to develop the innovative technologies that can help us make the transition to a lower carbon economy and export them to the world. That work can take place across the country; indeed it has to, from the AI hubs of Montreal to the tech clusters of Vancouver to the science labs of Calgary, if we’re to develop breakthrough ways to cut carbon emissions from the oil and gas we’re already producing.

That approach helped big oil sands projects like Fort Hills develop innovative technologies to cut their emissions per barrel by roughly 50%.

Canada’s oil and gas sector is the biggest investor in clean tech in Canada. It has long time-frames, a deep balance sheet, and impressive expertise. In 2017, Canada exported more than $12 billion in environmental and clean tech products and services, a 50% increase from a decade earlier.

Over the coming years, we will need to channel billions of dollars of additional R&D to improve the ways we produce oil and gas, and enhance the ways we heat our homes, transport ourselves and grow and ship our food.

Canadians clearly want new ways to fight climate change, and every Canadian will need to be involved.

For more on the challenges and opportunities facing Canada, download our new RBC Economics report: Energy (Still) Matters.

As Senior Vice-President, Office of the CEO, John advises the executive leadership on emerging trends in Canada’s economy, providing insights grounded in his travels across the country and around the world. His work focuses on technological change and innovation, examining how to successfully navigate the new economy so more people can thrive in the age of disruption. Prior to joining RBC, John spent nearly 25 years at the Globe and Mail, where he served as editor-in-chief, editor of Report on Business, and a foreign correspondent in New Delhi, India. Having interviewed a range of prominent world leaders and figures, including Vladimir Putin, Kofi Annan, and Benazir Bhutto, he possesses a deep understanding of national and international affairs. In the community, John serves as a Senior Fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs, C.D. ‎Howe Institute and is a member of the advisory council for both the Wilson Center’s Canada Institute and the Canadian International Council. John is the author of four books: Out of Poverty, Timbit Nation, and Mass Disruption: Thirty Years on the Front Lines of a Media Revolution and Planet Canada: How Our Expats Are Shaping the Future.

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