Page 4 - CERI 2017-2018 Annual Report

MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN

An ever more mature and widespread debate on project

approval processes is a good sign but one that also risks
getting lost in the pipeline noise. In the meantime, the federal

government has now advanced legislative proposals that, while
responding to pressure for public engagement, risk creating

additional challenges for investment in major energy
infrastructure in our oil, natural gas and electricity systems.

And on carbon pricing, electoral politics in at least two critical 2017-2018
provinces risk reverting to the long-standing silliness about

“job-killing carbon taxes,” and public support appears to be
unravelling.

CERI continues to believe that, despite all

this, better information and analysis can help

Canada move forward provided the

stakeholder community is able to set the

discussion on a more mature basis in the face

of ever more divisive electoral politics. So,

once more unto the breach.

What if we could start to take the business of carbon
management seriously? We know that we are looking at a

fundamental transformation that needs to take place over
several decades, well outside of any electoral time horizon. But
that will need all manner of institutional change including

rebuilt policy, planning and regulatory mechanisms, new
business models in the energy industry and a fundamental

rethink of the consumer-facing part of the industry and the
regulatory machinery under which it operates. This is about

innovation, but not so much the exciting business of shiny new
widgets as the prosaic hard slugging around processes and

institutions.