Prime Minister Mark Carney meets with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith in his office in Langevin Block, Ottawa. – Photo by Daniel Pereira, Office of the Prime Minister of Canada
The federal government has put speed at the centre of its message on major projects. Building has become the language of the moment, with the prime minister and energy minister both framing Canada as a future energy superpower.
And at last week’s 2026 G7 Summit in Evian, France member countries released a statement that notably welcomes “the potential for Canada to deliver significant additional [energy] capacity to global markets in the coming years.”
We’re tracking a few developments this month that are worth lining up next to this ambition.
The pitch
Federal Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson made the case in Calgary this month at the Global Energy Show.
“Energy does not make us prosperous when it’s sitting in the ground,” he told an international audience. He closed with a line meant to settle the question: “When the choice is now or never, Canada chooses now.”
The capital question
At the same conference, Cenovus CEO Jon McKenzie said the current framework makes the project economics impossible.
The federal government has conditioned its support for a proposed one-million-barrel-per-day pipeline from Alberta to the British Columbia coast on two things: construction of the Pathways Project, a proposed carbon capture and storage network led by major oil sands producers through the Oil Sands Alliance, and an industrial carbon tax structure.
McKenzie pegged the cost of the Pathways Project at $20-$30 billion. Under the current regulatory framework, he said, “the pipeline is unfinanceable” by the private sector. Without that capital flowing into the broader oil sector, he argued, neither project makes sense.
The bigger picture
Minister Hodgson says Canada chooses now, and Cenovus’ CEO says the current rules won’t let Canada choose anything. When the government calling for speed and one of the executives who could put up the capital don’t agree on whether the framework allows the work to start, the likelihood of projects getting built shrinks.
We know 85 per cent of engaged women support increased pipeline and refining capacity within Canada to strengthen energy independence, but only 23 per cent express high confidence in Canada’s ability to approve and complete large energy projects in a timely manner.
Whether Canada becomes an energy superpower comes down to whether the policy framework gives the country a credible path to build what women, executives, and government all say they want.