CALGARY — When Tim Hodgson makes his first trip to Western provinces as Canada’s natural resources minister, Alberta’s business sector will be listening closely—and checking their watches. 

Against a backdrop of a growing Canadian consensus around the urgent need to build new fossil fuels infrastructure—as well as a new flare-up of Western resentment and separation threats—Hodgson has limited time to prove that he is fully behind the country’s embattled oil and gas sector. 

The former Goldman Sachs Canada head, Hydro One chair and board member of Calgary-based oilsands producer MEG Energy seems alive to the fact he’s on the clock. After being sworn in on Tuesday, Hodgson said he’d head west “very soon.”

His sense of urgency marks a shift from his predecessors over the last 10 years under the Trudeau government, who were viewed by some in the energy sector as indifferent, if not outwardly hostile, to their interests. If he wants to build on the goodwill, say representatives familiar with Alberta’s energy sector, Hodgson must act fast.   

“My approach is, do this as quickly as you can,” said Martha Hall Findlay, director of the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy. 

Among Findlay’s prescriptions: immediately scale back or scrap Ottawa’s proposed oilsands emissions cap, which she said is currently built around timelines for carbon dioxide emissions reductions that are “unrealistic” for industry to meet. Also: re-write the Impact Assessment Act, the regulation that governs Ottawa’s project review process, to remove barriers for major developments like pipelines and power plants. 

“Either take these actions or say you’re about to take them, but send the message that this government will support not just production of oil and gas, but increased production of oil and gas,” she said.

Acting fast on several policy fronts, Findlay said, would go a long way in “dousing some of the flames of the anger out here.”

Adam Legge, head of the Business Council of Alberta, said the Carney government has “weeks if not days” to issue positive signals to the province’s energy and business sectors. 

“Albertans and the private sector will judge them for their very first move, and if they get that wrong, I worry about the state of the relationship going forward,” he said. “They are fully aware of our concerns, fully aware of the state of how Alberta, how the resource sector, has been treated over the past 10 years. First moves are going to be critical.”

During the election, Carney said his government would keep the oil and gas emissions cap in place. He did not commit to changing or updating the Impact Assessment Act, but promised to revamp major project reviews by forcing governments to make permitting decisions within two years rather than the current average of around five. 

Speaking to reporters in Ottawa on Wednesday, Hodgson said he plans to travel out West imminently. “I look forward to digging in, we have a lot to do,” he said. 

Hodgson, who worked with Carney at Goldman Sachs and is a Canadian Armed Forces veteran, was understood to be one of the prime minister’s favoured candidates for cabinet—a sign, many in the industry hope, Ottawa is taking a different approach to the fossil fuel sector.

Hodgson, 64, represents the suburban Toronto riding of Markham-Thornhill, which he won by more than 6,000 votes. It was his first foray into politics following a long career in the private sector. One long-time backer of Conservative politicians referred to Hodgson in a recent Bloomberg profile as “non-partisan” and of “high integrity.” 

In a written response to The Logic’s questions in March, Hodgson said he decided to run “because we are facing significant challenges: economic instability and an existential threat to our sovereignty.” 

Hodgon’s predecessor on the resources file, Jonathan Wilkinson, lost his seat at the cabinet table following this latest shuffle; he was seen as a lukewarm supporter of the Alberta energy sector, opting out of major events and representing the Trudeau government’s general aversion to liquified natural gas. 

Findlay welcomed Hodgson as a “breath of fresh air,” and held out hope that Carney’s ministers will more directly manage their files than their counterparts in Trudeau’s more PMO-centred governments did.

In a statement, Calgary Chamber of Commerce CEO Deborah Yedlin said Hodgson “brings exceptional understanding of how capital is risked and allocated, and understands the impact of policy uncertainty on investment decisions, particularly regarding the long cycle nature of capital needed in the natural resources sector.” 

Still, many others are skeptical of the government’s approach to the energy sector under Carney given its overwhelming preference for environmentally driven policy over the last 10 years. 

On Wednesday, former environment minister Steven Guilbeault, who was shuffled into the Heritage ministry, cast doubt on the need for new pipelines to give oil and gas producers more access to foreign markets, particularly if long-term oil demand peaks in the next few years, as some are expecting.

“As far as I know, there are no investors right now, there are no companies that are saying they want to build an east-west pipeline, and as you know these things are built by companies,” he said.