2 minute read
Message from Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, Seamus O’Regan
Message from Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources Seam us O’Re gan
Iam grateful to the Saskatchewan Oil Report for this opportunity to discuss the unprecedented challenge facing Canada’s oil sector.
You represent one of the most important parts of the Canadian economy. An industry that has been among those hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic. The global economic downturn has caused demand for oil to fall dramatically – just as an international dispute has sent prices plunging to record lows.
This has had a profound impact on Canadian producers, suppliers and workers, as well as on the national economy. Saskatchewan, Alberta and my home province of Newfoundland and Labrador face a particularly tough uphill climb. These aren’t just headlines or statistics. This struggle is affecting real people, their families, their businesses.
That’s why we moved swiftly. We began by announcing historic private sector supports that include increased access to capital, deferral of tax payments and support for market liquidity. Several of these measures are helping energy companies and their workers, including the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy, which is helping businesses throughout the sector keep the lights on and people working.
And on April 17, our government delivered important new measures to assist the oil sector, which employs some 576,000 Canadians.
This announcement has three components. First, we are providing short-term liquidity so firms can stay afloat and workers can stay employed or have jobs to come back to. We’ll do that by expanding the Business Credit Availability Program. This will support medium-sized businesses with larger financing needs facing a cash crunch – starting with energy companies.
Second, the Government of Canada is providing up to $1.72 billion to help companies clean up the more than 5,600 orphaned wells in Western Canada.
This initiative, which includes up to $400 million to Saskatchewan, offers a terrific opportunity to put our highly skilled people to work. They’ll cap wells and remediate land and groundwater as they return sites to their original condition.
Third, my department is also providing $750 million to create a new Emissions Reduction Fund. This will help conventional and offshore petroleum firms innovate with a goal of reducing pollution, focusing on methane and investing in capital projects in the offshore, all while maintaining jobs.
Together, these measures will help the sector and its workers today, while positioning for the future.
This is the best of Team Canada. These efforts reflect an enormous level of collaboration between all orders of government and the private sector in every region. I felt the spirit of this collaboration when I represented Canada’s position at a recent G20 Energy Ministers meeting focused on bringing stability to the global oil market.
Canadians have faced challenges before – and we know we will prevail again.
Your industry is critical to this effort. With a global energy transformation underway, petroleum companies remain a leading source of innovation, as well as wealth generation and government revenues. We need to make sure that once this crisis clears, your sector can help kick-start our economy, provide good jobs for Canadians from coast to coast to coast, and contribute to our clean-growth future. v
Better People. Better Service.
