Energy & Resources

This paper reflects a strong consensus within the Energy Future Forum that any achievable pathway to national climate and economic objectives must include a significant contribution from carbon capture technologies and from utilization and storage. In any post-COVID, “green stimulus” planning, support for CCUS expansion is even more pivotal than before.

Canada desperately needs to matter more in the United States. After a run-up in the decade after NAFTA, our share of U.S. imports has fallen from roughly 16 per cent to 12 per cent since the Great Recession, leaving us behind both China and Mexico. Auto production, which for decades held fast well above the level guaranteed in the 1965 Auto Pact, was part of the descent.

There is a broadly based consensus in Canada that includes governments, Indigenous peoples, environmental groups, industry and other stakeholders that nature-based solutions will play a crucial role as Canada works to meet its climate change objectives. The Energy Future Forum (EFF) believes the agreement presents a rare and unique opportunity – one that Canada must seize as part of its climate change suite of policies.

COVID-19 has made it clear that Canada needs a strong domestic manufacturing sector to produce what it needs. Industrial production has been stagnant in the country for two decades and it’s a must for Canada to create and sustain a resilient manufacturing economy that will also be more competitive in a globalized economy and that will create good jobs while minimizing environmental impacts.

Six months after the release of New North Star II, the case for a mission-driven economic strategy is even more relevant. The pandemic has highlighted the need for a new industrial strategy to cultivate domestic innovations and technologies in Canada's national interests and authors Robert Asselin and Sean Speer revisit their analysis and recommendations and find a compelling model in the US’s DARPA model.

Canada must come to grips not just with a massive fiscal shortfall but also consecutive deficits in our current account, a broad measure of our trading and investment relationship with the rest of the world. A government plan must be growth oriented if we are to get the twin deficits under control without resorting to the drastic measures of 25 years ago.

Past Event

Carbon capture has a powerful allure. If there's too much CO2 in the atmosphere, why not remove the excess, and store it deep underground or use it in manufacturing other products? It sounds like a considerable solution on the way to a net zero carbon economy by 2050.

Whatever one’s view of the oil industry, we will all be better served by an orderly transition over the current chaos. Oil's implosion in provinces such as Newfoundland, Saskatchewan & Alberta is forcing a 30 year transition in 30 days, and PPF President & CEO Edward Greenspon says we need to be strategic in leveraging the current crisis to stimulate economic activity while addressing climate change.

OPINION: Needed: A grand bargain on climate and energy. How: The Energy Future Forum brings together the players — from oil and gas producers to environmentalists, governments, bankers, utilities, academics and Indigenous leaders. The Mission: To find ways Canada can meet or exceed its targets under the Paris climate agreement on the way to a net-zero future, while strengthening the economy and enhancing national unity. When: Now.

The Energy Future Forum (EFF), a new pan-Canadian initiative to develop policy answers that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and strengthen the economy, was officially launched on Dec. 16 at a meeting in Toronto. It's an "unprecedented effort to find common cause in addressing Canada’s climate and energy challenges,” said PPF's Edward Greenspon.

On Nov. 13 in Calgary, Premier of Alberta Jason Kenney explored three forms of reconciliation for Alberta's provincial government: with Alberta’s Indigenous people, of energy growth and environmental stewardship, and of the provincial and federal fields within Canadian Confederation.

With Brian comes rigour, quality and depth. Welcome!

Canada has lost its edge in northern development and research. The North's resources have important strategic and economic implications for Canada, and their development - done in the right way - has huge potential benefits for all Canadians now and into the future.

"If Canada wants to retain its effective power to shape and influence decisions in its own backyard, it must make sure it clearly understands its interests in the Arctic and is prepared to back them with solid policies and strategic investments."