Liberal Win Means ‘status Quo’ For Canada’s Energy Sector: Nuttall
Kevin DuA prominent oil watcher says Canada’s energy sector is unlikely to see any significant policy changes under a new Liberal government led by Prime Minister Mark Carney.
“The punchline is I think this is really status quo,” Eric Nuttall, partner and senior portfolio manager at Ninepoint Partners, told BNN Bloomberg in a Tuesday interview following Monday’s federal election that resulted in a minority government for the Liberals, according to CTV News projections.
“You effectively have the same team in place, at least, who has governed for the past 10 years.”
Nuttall said that while Carney made numerous comments on the campaign trail about supporting Canada’s energy industry, it remains unclear what exactly the next Liberal government’s energy priorities will be.
“Details were extremely light. We heard things like Canada needs to be a global energy superpower, then it pivoted towards a clean energy superpower, so there’s pros and cons,” he said.
“Given the minority government status, one positive coming out of this is the unlikelihood of an emissions cap actually becoming a law… it was something (the Liberals) were likely to try to do but given minority status that looks like it’s challenged.”
Nuttall said that the federal Liberals have “unfortunately” signalled that they intend to keep Bill C-69 – known as the Impact Assessment Act but referred to by critics as the “no pipelines bill” – in place, a bill the Conservative Party pledged to repeal if elected.
“It’s my view that as long as that remains Canadian law, we will never see another pipeline built in this country again, there just seems to be a philosophical difference in terms of how we can move the ball down the field,” he said.
“It’s critically important to grow our oil pipeline capacity to lower our customer concentration risk to the United States, it would put us in such a stronger position but that doesn’t seem to be the case.”
