STARK LESSONS FOR NATURAL RESOURCE PRODUCERS

There are three stark lessons here for Canadian natural resource producers and Canadian provinces dependent on petroleum resource income for their prosperity. First, we can forget about the idea of obtaining a social license once and for all. That game is over—appeasement was a loser. Second, we can forget about looking southward as a continued (much less growing) market for Canada’s oil resources. If there’s a pathway to global markets for Canada’s oil reserves, it’s clearly not through the U.S. Finally, given the hard brackets of deep-green governance to the east and west, it’s probably worth some research bucks to see if there is a viable path to Asia through Canada’s true North, strong and free. Could the time have come for the Arctic gateway to tidewater via the Northwest Territories?