CALGARY — An audience of executives, lobbyists and political figures parsed every word from newly minted federal Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson on Friday, as he made his first public remarks to Alberta’s energy sector.

Attendees, including Suncor CEO Rich Kruger and Rob Anderson, chief of staff to Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, crammed into a Calgary hotel conference room to hear the minister, who had been sworn into the role just days earlier. Hodgson’s business background and experience in the energy sector meant his appointment has been greeted with cautious optimism in the disaffected West. 

In the room, the stakes for Friday’s address felt high, as Alberta’s power players looked for signals of Ottawa’s willingness to repair its fractured relationship with the $177-billion oil sector—and to do so with haste. 

The Calgary Chamber of Commerce hosted the event. Its CEO, Deborah Yedlin, joked that seats were more sought after than Edmonton Oilers playoff tickets. Kruger, who introduced Hodgson, also sensed the crowd’s anticipation: “Based on the energy in the room, if I didn’t know any better, I would have thought oil prices were higher,” he quipped. 

Hodgson, a former Goldman Sachs executive who worked alongside Prime Minister Mark Carney there, and who has also served on the board of oilsands producer MEG Energy and as chair of Hydro One, emphasized that his main focus would be to help the energy sector build major projects by streamlining the regulatory permitting process. 

Applications for developments like pipelines and mines will go through a single office to avoid regulatory overlap, Hodgson said—a promise that aligns with Carney’s “one project, one review” campaign pledge. Ottawa will also narrow its permitting times from the current five years down to two, he said. 

“In the new economy we are building, Canada will no longer be defined by delay. We will be defined by delivery,” Hodgson said. 

The federal government would also fast-track projects that are determined to be in the national interest, Hodgson said, declining to specify which projects or industries would fall under such a designation.  

Canada’s dependence on the energy sector—expected to contribute roughly $176 billion to the country’s GDP this year—has come into sharper relief as U.S. trade threats have caused a rethink in some corners of the need for energy infrastructure like pipelines. That rapid shift in attitudes is even evident in Quebec, traditionally hostile to oil and gas development. 

“Every barrel of responsibly-produced Canadian oil and every kilowatt of clean Canadian power can displace less clean, riskier energy elsewhere in the world,” Hodgson said. 

Some in attendance saw it as significant that Hodgson used the word “oil,” taking it as a subtle but significant sign of implicit support, given that his predecessors under former prime minister Justin Trudeau often opted for more vague terms like “energy” or “resources.” 

The minister steered clear of some of the most divisive decisions and policies that lie ahead. Industry representatives have been calling on Ottawa to scale back its oil emissions cap and rewrite the federal Impact Assessment Act. The previous Liberal government under Trudeau had updated the legislation through Bill C-69, adding environmental qualifications and ministerial powers that industry argues have made it all but impossible to build fossil fuel developments. 

Hodgson did not address either policy directly, repeatedly asserting that he only officially started his role as energy minister on Tuesday—“I don’t know where the bathroom is yet,” he said, to laughter from the crowd. 

“I’m a pragmatist, I’m a businessman. I’m learning to be a politician,” he said. “When I see something that needs changing, I promise you, I’ll work hard to change it.”

Those in attendance felt broadly optimistic following Hodgson’s remarks, saying the minister’s comments seemed to suggest a genuine shift in posture toward the energy sector.

“It’s really refreshing to have the government treating us so seriously,” Jeff Lawson, chief sustainability officer at Cenovus Energy, said in an interview. “Like [Hodgson] said, resetting the relationship is important.” 

Kendall Dilling, president of the Pathways Alliance, a consortium of oilsands companies looking to build a roughly $16-billion carbon capture and storage project, said he appreciated hearing Hodgson’s broad-based support for energy, which appears to extend across areas like renewables, oil and liquified natural gas. 

“The proof of the pudding is in the eating,” he said. “Words are great, but action is what’s going to matter, and I think the coming weeks and months will be very important.” 

Hodgson explicitly mentioned the Pathways project as one of the developments he would like to see move forward. The companies behind Pathways aim to build a massive carbon capture hub that will gather carbon dioxide emissions from numerous oilsands plants in northern Alberta, then inject that CO2 deep underground. 

Hodgson, who represents the Toronto riding of Markham—Thornhill, sought to play up his Western origins during the event. His grandmother is from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, he said, while his mother was born in Calgary.

“My roots are in the prairies,” he said.