Economic Competitiveness

ENERGY DEMAND AND COMPETITIVENESS

As world energy demand increases, Canada is well-placed to become a key global supplier of sustainably produced oil, while driving job creation and economic growth here at home and ensuring our nation’s prosperity for the future.

Competition for capital investment in the global market is fierce and if Canada wants its industry to be a major player internationally, a number of factors need to be considered.

  • Environment Social and Governance (ESG) advantage
  • Indigenous relations and economic reconciliation
  • Policies and regulations

Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) Advantage

By prioritizing Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) principles the natural gas and oil  industry in Canada demonstrates that our sector is serious about the environmental,  social and governance aspects of how it operates. As ESG grows in importance among investors, governments and the public, Canada’s strong ESG performance is becoming a vital competitive advantage.

This includes strong environmental performance. CAPP and member companies support climate policies that efficiently and effectively manage GHG emissions while protecting competitiveness to maintain a strong and productive natural gas and oil sector.  

CAPP continues to work with governments and other stakeholders to accelerate the adoption and deployment of technologies to help lower emissions while enabling Canada to drive global action by exporting our resources and cleantech solutions to the world. 

Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) Tax Credit 

 The government intends for the new Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) investment tax credit to be available for a broad range of CCUS applications across different industrial subsectors (e.g. concrete, plastics, fuels), including blue hydrogen projects and direct air capture projects, to the extent that captured CO2 is not used in enhanced oil recovery projects. (Source: Government of Canada)   

The natural gas and oil industry, workers, and Indigenous partners have an important and growing role to play in meeting Canadian and global energy needs. The success of our industry will benefit all Canadians, continue to support reconciliation, and will generate technological innovation that will support domestic and international environmental goals.   

CAPP supports the Government of Canada’s desire to create a path for meeting its international climate change objectives which will require innovation, major investment, a healthy industry, and good public policy. With the right incentives focused policies, we can continue to build on Canada’s world class innovation investment and GHG reduction leadership. 

Indigenous Relations and Economic Reconciliation

Canada’s upstream natural gas and oil industry has a long history of interaction with Indigenous peoples and has made great strides toward learning, developing relationships, and sharing benefits from resource development.

According to Indigenous Works the resource sector is “…the most engaged sector of the Canadian economy.” The industry acknowledges the importance of Indigenous reconciliation in Canada, and believes natural resource development is linked to the broader Canadian reconciliation process.

The industry’s strongest role is through ‘economic reconciliation’ — identifying feasible ways to share economic opportunities arising from resource development, while continuing to improve and grow relationships based on trust and respect.

Responsible development contributes to overall reconciliation and Indigenous self-determination by supporting the growth of sustainable Indigenous communities. Industry works with Indigenous communities in a variety of ways to meaningfully engage and to share in the economic opportunities arising from development. These activities include consultation, procurement, equity partnerships, consultation capacity funding, business and other agreements, community investment, and training, skills development and employment.

Shared economic opportunities are only part of industry’s engagement with Indigenous peoples — both industry and Indigenous peoples place high value on environmental stewardship, including the role traditional Indigenous knowledge can play to inform environmental management.

POLICIES AND REGULATIONS

Policies and regulations should be designed to achieve desired goals in a cost- and time-efficient manner, avoiding duplication, uncertainty, and unnecessary layering. A confusing and overly complex regulatory environment can negatively affect the country’s ability to attract the investments needed to create jobs and national prosperity. In the global competition for investment capital, having an efficient, timely and effective regulatory system is crucial to promoting investor confidence.

Canada’s natural gas and oil industry have strong expertise in this area, and are active as solutions partners. Industry works with governments and regulatory agencies, providing feedback and proposals to ensure new policies and regulations are effective at their stated goals, while preserving industry’s ability to compete in a globalized world and continue generating strong economic returns for all Canadians.

Canadian natural gas and oil are preferred energy sources around the world now and for the future.