With great pleasure, we will welcome Margaret Lefebvre’s former CAIF colleague and good friend, George Kesteven for a long overdue return visit – he was last with us in February 2008. George is currently Manager, Corporate and Investor Relations at Sterling Resources Ltd and serves as Chair of the Canadian Investor Relations Institute Board of Directors.
Given George’s background and expertise, oil & gas, energy policy, pipelines and related matters will certainly be at the top of the agenda.
Madelaine Drohan: Where Canada Gets Energy Wrong
Canada’s environmental performance is harming its image as an energy superpower
(OpenCanada.org) It’s that time of year when the world’s business and political elite flock to Davos, Switzerland for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.
This year, they will be shown the forum’s latest report on which countries do the best job of providing an affordable, sustainable, and secure energy supply. It’s no surprise that Norway is in the top spot. Of the 124 countries assessed, they have done the best job of managing the trade-offs necessary to ensure that energy contributes to a country’s economic, social, and environmental well-being. But it is somewhat of a shock to find Canada down in 14th place, below countries such as Colombia, Costa Rica, Romania, and Latvia. Yes, we’ve been lapped by Latvia.
This isn’t a great result for a country that Prime Minister Stephen Harper once boasted was an emerging energy superpower and whose government has poured time and resources into trying to achieve that status. And it cannot be dismissed as an assessment put together by the “environmental and other radical groups” that have been the bane of Natural Resource Minister Joe Oliver’s existence. The report is the result of a three-year research project by the World Economic Forum and Accenture, a global accounting firm. Only the most bull-headed of governments could ignore the message that Canada trails a wide range of countries in managing energy for the greater good.
The Global Energy Architecture Performance Index Report 2014
Effectively balancing the demands of providing an affordable, sustainable and secure energy supply continues to play a key role in the development of countries. Driven by the boundary constraints of economic development, geography and prosperity, countries are striving to find new and innovative ways to meet the demands of their energy system.
The interview with Brian Ferguson, CEO of Cenovus offers a more positive look at the tar sands and the industry in general, while U.S. refineries are rejoicing over the opening last Wednesday of the Keystone Pipeline south leg.
Mario Iacobacci recommends Amec’s Samir Brikho: A man of boundless energy – and opinions, with the comment that it “Provides a view of Canada’s energy industry that is probably representative of what the business community thinks.” It is a refreshingly outspoken interview.
Jeff Rubin adds another perspective “Big Oil is discovering that blindly chasing production growth through developing ever more costly reserves isn’t contributing to the bottom line. Maybe that’s a message Canada’s oil sands producers need to be listening to as well.” (Why turning a buck isn’t easy anymore for oil’s biggest players)
All of the above leads us to remind you that the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada is holding its annual conference, Petrocultures 2014: Oil, Energy, and Canada’s Future on February 6-7, 2014, at the McGill Faculty Club. More information and to register. Désirée McGraw is co-chairing the conference with Annette Hester, senior associate with the William E. Simon Chair in Political Economy at CSIS and an economist, writer, and independent scholar; participants include past and present Wednesday Nighters Brett House, Jonathan Sas and Chris Ragan.
There has been much, much more from Davos, especially related to comparisons with the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of WWI, the ever gloomy Nouriel Roubini citing “Echoes of 1914: backlash against globalization, gilded age of inequality, rising geopolitical tensions, ignoring tail risks” . For more gloom and doom, see Davos diary: A new sense of dread is settling over the world’s elites – the dread stemming from the inexorable march of technology towards the elimination of jobs. (Do see entertaining comments from Tony Deutsch and Guy Stanley on World Economy 2014)
Feeding our on-going fascination with Bitcoins, Brett House offered this (rather large) morsel from Marc Andreessen whose venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz, has invested just under $50 million in Bitcoin-related start-ups.: Why Bitcoin Matters Far from a mere libertarian fairy tale or a simple Silicon Valley exercise in hype, Bitcoin offers a sweeping vista of opportunity to reimagine how the financial system can and should work in the Internet era, and a catalyst to reshape that system in ways that are more powerful for individuals and businesses alike.
A propos the Bitcoin story and the numerous public policy issues raised every day, we recommend Why Your Company Needs A Cynic The modern definition of cynicism doesn’t have positive connotations, but the original meaning of the word — a cynic as a contrarian is something every company could use. We would substitute ‘organization’ for ‘company’ and are happy that Wednesday Night boasts a number of resident cynics.
The House of Commons resumes sitting Monday. Following his triumphant trip to Israel, Stephen Harper will no doubt be more uncompromising than ever, so no doubt the session will be turbulent. It is expected to focus on the federal budget, an important government decision on the Northern Gateway oilsands pipeline, more tough-on-crime legislation, a series of challenges facing the Canadian military, and the ongoing Senate expenses scandal, among other issues. Postmedia reminds us that Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has already said he’ll reject any big-spending proposals and instead try to squeeze economic growth out of low-cost measures … [and] if the Harper government tables it in mid-February as expected the fiscal blueprint will land during the period when public attention is focused on the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Such clever timing!
Mr. Harper has announced that there will be an emergency debate on the situation in Ukraine – other than a rather blatant shout-out to Ukrainian Canadian voters, we cannot see what useful purpose this will serve. And can someone explain, please, why Andrew Bennett, Canada’s Ambassador for Religious Freedom, is holding a media teleconference from Kyiv on Monday (or any other day of the week?)
Presumably there are not sufficiently large – or concentrated – blocs of Syrian-Canadians, or Egyptian-Canadians, for any such gesture towards the crises in either country. Canada is not at the table for the Syrian talks and Stephen Harper has made his views very clear In Tel Aviv, Harper offers gloomy view of Syria’s war and Egypt’s democracy Prime Minister Stephen Harper is painting a dark picture of the Middle East, saying Canada doesn’t want either side to win a Syrian civil war fuelled by sectarian forces from across the region – and that its most populous country, Egypt, is not ready for democracy.
Has anyone seen the latest iteration of the PM’s page on the government website, 24/seven? Presumably this is the work of new PR advisors. Not too sure why it was necessary, nor why Pet adoption (which we fully endorse) is considered the only appropriate cause for him to support – oh, wait, lots of voters own pets.
While George Will suggests that Cancelling the State of the Union Address would be a good way to cut costs, we can be assured that on Tuesday night, President Obama will deliver the annual message. Most commentators believe that the president will focus on immigration, along with jobs and the economy. According to The Hill, Retaining the Senate counts as Obama’s top political goal for the year, and much of his address will be given with that in mind. Thus it is unlikely that gun control will be on the agenda as It’s not an issue that would help Democratic Senate candidates or incumbents running in Alaska, Arkansas, South Dakota, West Virginia or Montana. Sunday’s talk shows were naturally dominated by the topic as administration officials used them to signal a backup strategy of executive action (Obama’s Plan to Use Executive Action Triggers Criticism)
Also of concern was the threat looming over at the Sochi Olympics (Putin’s Games). Each day, as February 7 approaches, there is new, unnerving news about corruption, human rights violations and terrorism; The talk shows managed, however, to avoid the latest Cri du Coeur, which comes from the fashion critics – and just about everyone else who believes that Olympic athletes should be attractively/fashionably clothed in something that celebrates their nationality and prowess, along with the abilities of a respected designer. Alas, Ralph Lauren has had a serious relapse. “We have outfits made in America … by your well-meaning but hopeless great-aunt” , says the New Yorker. We imagine that the athletes are really grateful they have been told not to wear their Olympic uniforms outside of the events. Interestingly, diligently as we have searched, we are unable to find a complete album of the teams’ get-ups. It seems that everyone was riveted by the “Christmas sweaters”.
On a lighter note:
For all of you telephone conference time travellers:
What if the annoyances of conference calls happened in real-life meetings. Painfully accurate…and hilarious
Blades of fun, a history of skates
Amazingly, the earliest ice skates were found at the bottom of a Swiss lake and were calculated to be from 3,000 BC. Scientists deduced it was the population in southern Finland who created the first skates out of animal bones. And as the area was populated with many small lakes, this was a convenient way to get around. … The Dutch took advantage of their inventions in 1572 during the Battle of IJsselmeer in Amsterdam where they surprised the more powerful Spaniards by taking the combat to the ice of the frozen canals.In the 17th century — after James II was temporarily exiled to the Netherlands — he returned to England and shared this new sporting activity with the British aristocracy. It soon spread to all classes as a great way to enjoy winter days on frozen ice. And in the 1740s the first organized skating club was created in Scotland, the Edinburgh Skating Club.
So, don your Olympic Christmas sweaters and skate over to Wednesday Night for what should be a highly informative evening.