Canada doesn’t lack natural resources. What we’ve lacked, too often, is the confidence to develop them, move them, and sell them to the world.
Finally, that is changing.
In another welcome shift, Ottawa is reducing regulatory overlap on major energy projects by removing in-situ oil sands developments and fossil-fuel-fired power plants from the federal Impact Assessment Agency’s project list, while also streamlining reviews for pipelines, power lines, and offshore renewables. In plain English, that means fewer duplicative reviews, less bottlenecks, and a better chance to get nation-building projects built.
This matters because, as Energy Minister Tim Hodgson said at a recent press conference in Alberta, we need to live in the world as it is, not as we wish it to be. And in that world, countries are asking Canada to step up as a reliable energy no supplier.
Global demand for Canadian energy and natural resources is strong. It is growing. And it is coming from countries that see Canada as a stable, trusted, reliable partner.
As Minister Hodgson put it, “We’re in a world that is becoming increasingly unsafe and unsecure. Our allies all over the world are shutting down factories; they’re shutting down schools because they don’t have access to conventional energy… Our allies want to buy it from Canada because Canada’s a trusted partner,” and he’s absolutely right.
Japan is one of many countries to say so directly. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi called the recent procurement of Canadian crude oil “a concrete success story of cooperation between Japan and Canada in the field of energy security.”
The market signals keep coming. Trans Mountain CEO Mark Maki said this week that countries including Thailand, India, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, and China are expected to start or increase purchases of Canadian oil as export capacity grows. He added that Asia could eventually account for 70 per cent of Trans Mountain’s shipments.
Europe is looking our way, too. Germany has already signed two LNG supply arrangements linked to Canadian projects. Poland, Greece, Ukraine, and many other EU nations have all been part of the broader conversation around securing more Canadian energy.
For years, our friends and allies have effectively been saying the same thing: if Canada can get its products to the coast, the world is ready to buy them.
This is the opportunity before us.
Getting more of our energy resources to global markets can create critical jobs, generate immense government revenues, advance Indigenous economic reconciliation, and support our standard of living and the social services Canadians rely on.
But none of that happens by accident. It requires infrastructure. It requires more efficient ports, new pipelines and railways, better roads, and increased export capacity. And it requires governments willing to say yes more often, as Ottawa has in recent months.
For a country with Canada’s resource wealth, the path to greater prosperity is not complicated: develop our resources efficiently, build the infrastructure to reach new markets, and act like the trusted global partner we already are.
We know what to do. Now we just have to do it.