From The Vancouver Sun – April 7, 2011

by Patrick Daniel – Enbridge CEO

With the second-largest proven petroleum reserves in the world,
Canada may like to flatter itself that it is a global energy superpower.
This may surprise you – coming from a Canadian energy industry CEO –
but I’m afraid it’s not true.

Canada could be. One day we might be. But we are not an energy superpower yet.

Our
energy reserves are a tremendous strategic advantage but they will
deliver true value to Canada only if we choose to develop and make them
available to the world.

The Northern Gateway pipeline project is
Canada’s energy crossroads. With Northern Gateway we will safely move
energy to the West Coast, open new markets for Canadian petroleum and
create thousands of construction and supplier jobs -and significant
permanent employment right across Canada. We will generate millions of
dollars in direct, lasting and meaningful benefits for the first nations
and other communities involved and hundreds of billions of dollars for a
generation of Canadians.

An economic superpower is a country with
the influence, impact and standing on the world stage, and that only
comes from delivering to partners across the globe.

Right now we don’t -and can’t -do that with Canadian energy.

Our
proximity to the world’s largest energy consumer is a unique advantage,
one all our competitors would love to have. But our unparalleled
integration with the U.S. market is also a problem: It makes us
complacent, and it makes us a captive supplier. We only have one
customer for our energy, the United States.

There is a second problem with our dependence on energy trade with the U.S.

American markets are projected to remain flat for the foreseeable
future. So with one stagnating market, Canada’s energy future will
flatline as well. Make no mistake, the U.S is, and will remain, Canada’s
most important market and our closest trading partner. The
interdependence of our economies is a huge permanent advantage for
Canadians and Americans.

But Canada’s energy relationship with the
U.S. can more accurately be described as “dependent” not
“interdependent.” Today, virtually all of Canada’s oil exports go to the
United States. At about two million barrels per day, they make up one
out of every five barrels imported by the U.S.

Canada is the
United States’ most important trade partner when it comes to
carbon-based fuels. No competitor can trump our advantage of geography,
capacity and a trading partnership built on shared values on the
environment, human rights, the rule of law and democracy.

We might
be the most important energy supplier to them, but the United States
has other options available for energy trade partners.

Canada doesn’t. But Northern Gateway will change that.

For
too long, Canada has been a price taker in North American oil markets.
Gateway liberates Canadian oil producers from that straitjacket.
Canadian oil will move closer to world oil price levels, from its
current position about $2 to $3 less than that. This transformation will
mean hundreds of billions of dollars flowing into Canadians’ hands, for
generations. Reliable independent estimates of the project’s impact
over 30 years say it will deliver to all Canadians an additional $270
billion increase in Canada’s GDP.

Can Canada be a leader in the
world energy market? Of course we can. But only if we make the smart,
strategic moves, and take the sustainable steps to make it happen, now.

To
succeed in the 21st century and beyond, Canada needs to look west,
across the international date line, to the vast, growing economies and
huge markets of the Pacific Rim nations.

Northern Gateway is a
smart, strategic and sustainable way for Canada to connect our most
important and valuable export commodity to the markets that need it.

The
economic impact of the project on Canada will be significant and
sustained. The hundreds of billions of dollars in increased GDP will be
felt across the nation, in steel mills and manufacturing centres, from
heavy industry to high finance, for a long, long time.

Northern
Gateway is a great Canadian project. It is being reviewed and assessed
by our tough and professional regulators to determine if it is in our
nation’s best interest and if it can be built and operated to Canada’s
world-class environmental and safety standards -I know it can.

Opponents
of energy development go so far as to suggest that Canada should be
ashamed of our country’s abundant energy resources -the oilsands, in
particular. I think this is nonsense. Canada is a leader in the world
energy industry in safety, reliability, environmental performance,
respect for human rights, regulatory oversight and technological
innovation.

Our energy sector employs hundreds of thousands of
Canadian men and women from coast to coast. They work within a strict
regulatory regime. And every day they do their best -and their best
keeps getting better -to provide sustainable and responsibly developed
energy to all our communities.

As Canadians, we need to better
understand the connection between what the energy industry does and the
lives we all lead. There is a direct connection between your car’s gas
pedal, and your house thermostat and Canadian oil and gas.

Some of
those same critics say we are too small to be a global player in any
sector; that we should be grateful for our access to the United States;
that we can’t compete as an equal on a global stage.

Can we be
more than that? Yes, with politicians who are far-sighted, courageous,
strategy-driven nation builders. The world is clamouring for energy, and
will continue to require all sources of energy over the coming decades
as we make the transition to renewables.

We could choose to keep
Canada’s vast supply of oil, which we have developed ethically and
responsibly, landlocked in North America. We could continue to sell it
at a discount, while other nations create the energy supply lines and
energy market access for the rest of the world.

Or we can take the
steps required to bring Canadian oil to markets around the planet. We
can responsibly, sustainably and safely construct and operate
nation-building projects like Northern Gateway. We can make the most of
the opportunities available to us and build on our strategic advantages
as a responsible, democratic trading nation. We can build an even
stronger Canada for future generations. The crossroads lie right before
us. The choice is Canada’s to make.

Patrick Daniel is president and chief executive officer of Enbridge Inc.

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