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Canada wants to be an energy superpower. Fine. What kind? The kind that ships more oil and gas into markets it cannot control? Or the kind that understands how electricity, batteries and electric vehicles are changing the economics of energy?
That question runs through my conversation with Max Fawcett. His starting point is simple: selling a commodity does not give you much power if somebody else sets the price. Canada can produce more barrels. It cannot command the market to pay what those barrels cost.
“It’s pretty hard to exert power as a price taker,” he says.
Fawcett is not arguing that Canada should stop producing oil and gas. He supports selling Canadian energy where buyers will pay a fair price. His objection is to treating yesterday’s markets as a guide to tomorrow’s investments.
China figures prominently in that argument. Fawcett sees its strength in the technologies it sells: electric vehicles, batteries, solar panels and the equipment that allows other countries to use energy differently. Those customers have their own priorities. They are not waiting to buy whatever Canada wants to export.
We spend time on the proposed Pacific Link pipeline.
Fawcett questions whether producers will commit the money needed to fill it. He also describes a downside scenario that gets too little attention in Canadian politics: weakening oil demand, fiercer competition for customers and prices that undermine new production.
That is a risk to test. Declaring a project important does not settle its economics.
The electricity discussion is just as consequential. Building more generation matters. So does helping households and businesses replace fossil fuels with electric technologies. A bigger grid alone does not tell us whether Canada is becoming a more competitive electric economy.
This is where Max and I disagree about Ottawa.
He gives Mark Carney credit for managing difficult politics. Make electric technologies cheaper and more attractive, he argues, and adoption can outrun government targets. He also thinks protecting Canadian sovereignty deserves priority.
I want to see Carney’s ambition match the strategy. Good intentions and announcements do not install equipment, change regulations or deliver the adoption we need.
We agree on the direction. We differ on how much confidence Canadians should place in the current approach.
Watch the interview. The question is bigger than whether Canada can build another pipeline. It is whether we are preparing our economy for the energy markets our customers are creating.
