Pipelines from East to West
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Summary
In this episode of the Global Energy Show, I sit down with Crystal Wood of the Montreal Economic Institute to talk about her work advocating for smaller, smarter policy and energy for Canada. She talks about how she and her team at the institute are working with the federal government to advocate for smarter energy policy in Western Canada.
Transcript
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I'm here with Crystal Wood of Rangel of the Montreal Economic Institute on the floor of
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the Global Energy Show here in Calgary, Alberta. Crystal, thanks for joining us today.
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So you're here as a part of the energy influencers part where you're going to be
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making a pitch to different people in the industry to support work that you're doing.
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When you work at the Montreal Economic Institute, I was poking fun at you earlier that the Montreal
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Economic Institute actually now seems to be more of the Calgary Economic Institute lately.
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A lot of the leadership actually lives out here, including some very French guys from
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Montreal. But there's a few of you here now. You guys are increasingly involved in energy
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policy for Western Canada. What is the pitch you're going to be making today?
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So we actually have offices in Calgary, Montreal and Ottawa. And so we try to hit on all of those
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jurisdictions federally, Quebec and Alberta. And so today I'm just going to run people through
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basically in the last six months we've worked on a number of files. One is pipelines from east to west
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as well as some reforms to the federal government's impact assessment act. And in those two files we had
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over 50 interviews and over 2300 media mentions. So during a very dynamic time in Canadian politics
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we're really shaping public opinion. We're starting to disseminate some of our broader work related to
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the impact assessment act as well. So moving forward we're just going to be encouraging and advocating
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for smaller, smarter policy and energy for Canada.
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I think about a third of those media mentions were from us. We pick up a lot of the work you guys do.
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It's good stuff. You have kind of a unique voice in the policy space in Canada that you're
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dealing with sometimes with regional issues but kind of the greater whole of a Canadian economy
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if that's a thing. And we're now using the term one Canadian economy. You guys are kind of really ahead
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of the parade on that one. Is any of the work you guys have been doing, are you seeing that manifested
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in some of the new legislation under the kind of, you know, revamped liberal government?
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Well what we're trying to really push is that Quebec and Alberta, there's quite a few similarities.
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Like our provinces are very different mentality-wise, policy-wise, but there is a lot of similarity
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especially in how the relationship with the federal government has continued to evolve.
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So we're really trying to kind of infuse that dialogue in the work we do as well.
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And so we're hoping to be able to advocate for smarter energy policy federally in ways that make
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sense and are very targeted. Like in our research paper for the IAA, it was very practical reforms
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that are very easily implemented within the current legislative scheme. So if the federal government
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is talking about wanting to make these moves, we've made it very easy for them to take our advice
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Well, what are the big asks you're making right now?
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What are the, you know, bullet point of, what are the three big things they can do?
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They can cut down on the approval process for major infrastructure projects and they can do that
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by really peeling back some of the layers that were added on with the Impact Assessment Act
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that took it from an environmental assessment into a hodgepodge of assessment.
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We have to understand the gender of the pipeline.
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Yes, exactly. Some of the things that, you know, are well-meaning perhaps, but don't have
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place in an environmental assessment. And then also looking at ways to reduce the duplication.
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So there's substitution agreement with British Columbia where their assessments can be recognized
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by the federal government. So there should be more of those with other provinces. We don't
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Do you think that's a double-edged sword, though? I've thought of that. That's one of
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the common recommendations out there. But, I mean, the provinces could stack it one way
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or another. They could stack it in favor of development. They could stack it against development.
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I think that if the federal government focuses on having the provincial government only kind
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of assess the areas of federal jurisdiction, which is what they should be doing, then it should
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be streamlined and easily kind of move forward. Because already the provincial stuff is within
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the provincial heads of power anyways. So it wouldn't change much from our perspective
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Okay. Now, what do you hope to achieve here? Like, at the Global Energy Show, it's a big
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deal. People can't see you. And we just got the Western Centre background right here.
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But this is a gargantuan show that's just... I think it's got to be... After Stampede, I think
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it's probably the biggest event in Calgary. What is it you're hoping to achieve here today?
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Make some good connections. Have some good conversations like we're having now. But
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ultimately, increase the kind of profile of MEI and, you know, perhaps get some more support
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You guys got to change your name. You're no longer Montreal Economic Institute. You're
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That's why we're MEI now. We just go by the acronym MEI.
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There you go. That's a very apt one. Okay. Well, is there anything else you want to add?
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No, just happy to be here. And thanks for having this chat with me.