This article originally appeared in the Financial Post. Below is an excerpt from the article.
By Jack Mintz, May 30, 2025
New federal Minister of Natural Resources Tim Hodgson got a very good reception from the Alberta business community for his speech last week to the Calgary Chamber of Commerce. Instead of delivering dire warnings that oil and gas consumption is on its death march globally, as his predecessor Jonathan Wilkinson used to do, Hodgson enthusiastically endorsed energy development, proclaiming: “It begins with a vision: to build Canada into a conventional and clean energy and natural resources superpower” for years to come.
Talk is cheap, of course, and Hodgson was smart enough to acknowledge that the government will be judged on its delivery, of which there has been little so far. After speaking to many Albertans this week, I believe most are not yet persuaded the Liberal government has truly changed its spots.
And there’s good reason for skepticism. In his speech, Hodgson repeatedly referred to “responsibly produced oil and gas,” not just oil and gas. Albertans know well that the term “responsible oil” doesn’t mean oil produced in democratic countries rather than dictatorships. It means oil decarbonized to achieve the net-zero emission objective in 2050.
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Jack Mintz is the President’s Fellow at the University of Calgary’s school of public policy and a distinguished fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.
