Commentary In 1980, I was struggling MBA student. The University of Toronto exposed me to the radical, for the times, ideas of the Chicago school economic thinkers like Milton Friedman and George Stigler, and Austrian school giants like Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek. These two “schools” of economic thinking championed individual freedom and capitalism…

The Liberal government has released its “just transition” plan that claims it will not trigger massive unemployment in the country’s energy towns. Released on Feb. 17, the “Sustainable Jobs Plan” says the federal government aims to create “sustainable jobs” in every region of Canada as it looks to move the country to a “net-zero world.”…

Texas is the top oil and natural gas producer and industry employer, according to a new report. The state also ranked highest in the country in industry wages, payroll, and Gross Regional Product (GRP). GRP is the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for a region of study. As the country’s top oil producer, Texas supplied more…

Federal Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan says Canada needs more oil and gas workers and that he doesn’t like the phrase “just transition.” “I’ve said this for years,” said O’Regan in the Senate Question Period on Feb. 9. “‘Just transition’ is a phrase that workers hate, and my constituents don’t like, and so I don’t like…

The Texas economy is expected to make a “soft landing” this year, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. Job increases are slowing. The bank expects jobs to grow by 1.4 percent this year, significantly lower than last year’s 3.5 percent job growth and below the state’s annual 2 percent trend. “That is consistent with…

After a lengthy debate over numerous amendments, and despite the Biden administration’s promise of a veto, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed a bill on Jan. 27 limiting the Biden administration’s ability to draw from the nation’s oil stockpile. First introduced on Jan. 26, the Strategic Production Response Act passed 221–201. The measure is unlikely to clear…

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said he is initiating consultations with First Nations and industry leaders on a new proposal that would allow First Nations to collect more fiscal revenues from resource projects on their lands. Speaking at a press conference in Vancouver on Jan. 24, Poilievre said he will be championing a “First Nations Resource…

Despite the international community’s pledge to depend on renewable energy to achieve its net-zero emissions goal by 2050, the world will need oil and gas for the next 50 years, says JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. While speaking in an interview with CNBC in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, Dimon warned that if the global economy…

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said Tuesday that the federal government’s so-called just transition plan is a “big threat” to the province’s oil and natural gas industry. At a news conference, she said the language that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberal government are using when they talk about just transition “is language that they…

Commentary Recent comments by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will do nothing to defuse tensions with Albertans. In a recent Reuters interview, Trudeau said, “One of the challenges is there is a political class in Alberta that has decided that anything to do with climate change is going to be bad for them or for Alberta.”…