Justin Trudeau is undermining the country with bungling of TMX

While five of Canada’s premiers are in the United States trying to instil investor confidence in the country, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is doing the opposite.  

The economy is one of the areas where political rhetoric is critical. When investors or prospective business owners have confidence in specific markets, they are more likely to invest their money where the rhetoric is less volatile. This holds especially true for resource development projects.

Conveniently ignored on the economy-environment debate is carbon leakage. The loss of business firms to more competitive business environments leaves Canadians baring an economical price for our reduced competitiveness. The loss of Kinder Morgan on TMX shifts emissions to less environmentally conscious jurisdictions, with negative impacts on regional employment and income. In 2019 alone, approximately 28,800 resource jobs were lost nationwide. A loss of $196 billion in investment was also incurred over the past five years.

According to the Fraser Institute, carbon leakage undermines the purpose of the carbon tax. A proposed federal carbon tax of $50 per tonne will shift more energy producers to less-regulated countries, failing to curb GHG Emissions. In fact, emissions remain relatively stable.

In Canadian petroleum and coal product manufacturing, costs will jump 24.8% by 2022 and exacerbate the issue of carbon leakage. Bear in mind that Canada produces 1.6% of global carbon emissions – a drop in the bucket in the grand scheme of things. While some point to Canada’s higher per capita emissions as a concern, proponents of climate alarmism fail to realize that our exports (i.e. agriculture), in part, benefit the world.

Unfortunately, there is no bigger horror story for direct foreign investment in Canada than TMX, and the account has gotten worse. After TMX cleared its final legal hurdle, the Liberals are fanning the flames of Western alienation with the Teck Frontier Mine project. This sends a message to the business community that “Canada is closed for business.” 

Kinder Morgan proposed this pipeline at no cost to the taxpayer, but after the Liberals provided every possible roadblock to the TMX project, Kinder Morgan was forced to cut their losses and leave Canada. This forced a government buyout of $4.5 billion. They assumed the remaining costs, which have now ballooned past $12.6 billion. 

With TMX firmly in the hands of the Liberals, it appears the only remaining obstacle to resource development is the federal government. With this disaster playing itself out on the world stage, its of little consequence what our premiers or business leaders say to investors. Because at the end of the day, Justin Trudeau remains in control of Canada’s economy.