Countries like Russia and Saudi Arabia will benefit if Canada doesn’t fully unleash our energy sector.
Recently, I wrote about how the Liberals seem ignorant of supply and demand when it comes to their large scale immigration increases and the impact Canada’s rapidly-increasing population is having on rents:
“The law of supply and demand is so intuitive, and so simple that we shouldn’t even need to talk about it.
The Liberal government knows that a massive population surge will make all kinds of housing less affordable, unless the government is also incentivizing a significant increase in the housing supply – which they are not.”
And it’s not the only way in which the Liberal government seems to pretend supply and demand doesn’t exist.
The so-called “just transition” being pushed by the Liberals demonstrates the ‘triumph’ of ideology over basic economic reality.
If Canada produces less oil & gas – the inevitable result of the “just transition” – it will result in our country being poorer and having fewer well-paying jobs. It will make our country even more divided. It will deprive our nation of money that could have gone towards lowering taxes, building up the military, strengthening healthcare, etc.
That’s what it will do.
Here’s what it won’t do:
It won’t lower global demand for oil & gas.
It won’t improve the environment.
It won’t make energy more affordable.
In fact, it will make energy less affordable, driving up the price of oil & gas, and increasing the market share of authoritarian states like Russia and Saudi Arabia.
Those countries will make more money, and our allies – many of whom lack significant energy resources within their borders – will have to pay a higher price and be more dependent upon those authoritarian states.
And as we’ve seen with Russia’s attack on Ukraine, when authoritarian states have significant energy profits, they can afford more weapons, and when they make other nations dependent on them they will feel emboldened to expand their territory by force.
Only negative results
You may be reading this and thinking, “it seems there are only negative results from the ‘just transition'”.
And you would be correct.
When a government places ideology above reality, reality doesn’t go away, it still asserts itself.
A world where Canada wrecks our own energy sector with a “just transition” will be a world that is more dangerous, where more money goes towards authoritarian states with much worse labour and environmental standards than Canada.
It’s a world none of us should want to see come to pass, and we must reject the “just transition” before it does irreversible damage.
Spencer Fernando
Photo – YouTube
