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LILLEY: TC Energy CEO Francois Poirier calls for an ambitious Canada
Canada's economy can grow if we embrace the oil and gas industry.
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Francois Poirier stood at the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa on Tuesday and called for Canadians to reclaim their culture of ambition. Poirier is the CEO of TC Energy, the company that used to be known as TransCanada Pipeline, which was formed back in 1951 after meetings in that very same hotel.
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Poirier is a cheerleader for Canada’s economy and especially its oil and gas sector, even as his company puts more money into projects in the United States. It’s something he addressed head-on at the start of his speech.
LILLEY: TC Energy CEO Francois Poirier calls for an ambitious Canada Back to video
“Someone pointed out, ‘Geez, you’re investing all your capital in the United States. Your business in the U.S. is your largest now, and it’s growing the fastest. So why are you here?’” Poirier said.
Why am I here? Because I’m a proud Canadian.”
Oil and gas CEO wants Canada to reclaim our ambition
Poirier, who hails from Ottawa but has spent the last 12 years living in Calgary as part of the TC Energy leadership team, said that recent geopolitical events have expanded Canada’s opportunity to lead.
“So today, I want to share with you a path that brings Canada from ambition to results so this country can secure prosperity for future generations” he said.
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It would have been easy for an energy CEO to dump all over a Liberal government, even one led by Mark Carney. Earlier that day, Carney had confirmed that he won’t meet the April 1 deadline that he had agreed to with Albera Premier Danielle Smith about moving forward on a pipeline to the Pacific coast.
Liberals have not been good to Poirier’s industry over the last decade, but he wasn’t there to chastise, he was there to encourage. The unassuming energy CEO told the Ottawa business and political audience that by embracing the oil and gas industry, Canada could be a leading economy in just a few years.
Canada could be a world economic leader
“With political will, a renewed culture of ambition and a streamlined regulatory framework — designed to deliver outcomes — Canada can have the fastest-growing GDP in the G7 — by lifting real GDP growth to over two per cent per year by 2030,” Poirier said.
What does that look like?
He pointed out that in 2021, Canada had more than 320,000 regulations, a 37% from 2006. This type of red tape slows down projects with no discernable benefit for the companies or citizens.
“To build more, Canada must, quite simply, make it easier to build,” Poirier said.
That we have not done.
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Poirier calls on Carney to get ambitious
While Poirier was careful not to criticize the Carney government or the Major Projects Office, which is supposed to be approving major infrastructure projects, it’s all clearly a failure. More than a year into Carney being PM, we aren’t moving forward on any projects that weren’t already far along in the pipeline.
He specifically pointed to LNG, liquified natural gas, as a real benefit to Canada’s economy. Poirier pointed out that just over a decade ago neither the United States nor Canada had LNG export facilities and now they have eight and we have one despite more than a dozen proposed projects falling by the wayside.
“If Canada became the number one LNG exporter to Asia, it could add $75 billion to GDP each year — that’s more than a 2 per cent increase to today’s GDP,” Poirier said.
That would be a big boost to the Canadian economy, that would be a game changer for an economy struggling against tariffs and a changing global trading order. It should have happened already but Carney is afraid of the green portion of the Liberal caucus and feels some kinship with them.
They want to keep oil and gas in the ground. Our economic success depends on doing the opposite.
“Generational success will depend on our ability to execute — not by our ability to follow process,” Poirier said.
Let’s see if Carney will actually listen to a real business figure in Canada who would like to invest more here, would like to employ more people here, but is just waiting for the government to do the right thing.
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