Former Alberta Energy Minister Addresses War On Canadian Oil

  A former Alberta cabinet minister says Canada must do a better job at promoting its energy sector and win the “war” against it. Sonya Savage, an energy lawyer with […]
Published on January 15, 2025

 

A former Alberta cabinet minister says Canada must do a better job at promoting its energy sector and win the “war” against it.

Sonya Savage, an energy lawyer with Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, was Minister of Energy and Mines from 2019 to 2022, then Minister of the Environment until June 2023. She appeared on a Wednesday livestream of Leaders on the Frontier, a video blog of the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, to be interviewed by the think tank’s president David Leis.

“I think it goes without saying that Canada would not function without our oil and gas industry,” Savage said. “I’ve traveled the world as an energy minister and also as environment minister, and I don’t think you can talk to any jurisdiction that’s an oil- and gas-producing jurisdiction that’s as proud of its efforts and in finding steps to address climate change as well as responsible resource development.”

Savage said oil will be needed well into the future.

“OPEC, for instance, does not forecast oil and gas to be reducing in demand for many, many years. The International Energy Agency, on their net zero scenario, does forecast the demand for oil and gas to go down in the 2030s but without doubt there’s going to continue to be a need for oil and gas,” Savage explained.

The case for Canada as an ethical oil supplier, promoted by Ezra Levant in a book and speaking tour fifteen years ago, still resonates with Savage. She was environment minister until June 2023 and said Alberta and Canada are very environmentally responsible in their oil and gas extraction.

“If there’s a global demand for it, it will come out of the ground in other jurisdictions that certainly aren’t as committed to addressing climate change, they’re not as committed to democracy, and it would just be transferring wealth and power to other jurisdictions. So I’ve never understood why there’s been such a target on Canada, and such a target on Alberta.”

Leis asked if there was a “war going on against the oil and gas industry in this country” to which Savage agreed.

“I think you’re absolutely right,” Savage said.

Savage recalled working 9 years on the Northern Gateway pipeline proposal which would have transported 525,000 barrels a day of oil from Alberta to the west coast to open new markets. She blamed the Tar Sands Campaign for “on the ground” opposition that eventually led to the Trudeau government vetoing the project.

Ottawa also banned oil tankers off the northwest coast of B.C. “just to ensure that no product escaped the country” something Savage called  “one of the biggest mistakes this country has ever had” and “Ground Zero on where we went wrong.”

Savage said it was good that Ottawa bought the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion because the regulations they piled up ensured no one else could do it. She said the Trudeau government continues to heap on more regulations, including Bill C-59, which would prevent energy companies from sharing good things they are doing to reduce emissions.

Canada, Savage said is left with a “competitive disadvantage” that will only widen if Trump cuts U.S. regulations and imposes tariffs. She said the almost-exclusive “focus on climate policy without a view to energy policy is short-sighted.”

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled much of the Impact Assessment Act in Bill C-69 as unconstitutional. Ottawa’s amendments have not satisfied the provinces, and Savage said that needs to change.

“I would just reiterate how impressed I am with the job that Premier Smith is doing in standing up for Alberta’s constitutional rights. She’s extremely assertive and fearless in challenging the federal government to stay in their own lane,” Savage said.

Savage added that the consumer carbon has lost all public support and has no future.

“We’ve spent a lot of time, a lot of effort in this country on things that are not necessarily producing greater GDP and increasing productivity,” Savage said. “We should be celebrating our oil and gas sector and proudly supporting it. And, unfortunately, we’re not in this country.”

Published in the Western Standard.

 

Lee Harding is a Research Fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy

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