Will Alberta’s all-stars come through?

Premier’s Council for Economic Strategy needs to perform like Canada’s Olympic team

By Paul Marck

Premier Ed Stelmach must feel a bit like an Olympic hockey coach, after last night’s introduction of the Premier’s Council for Economic Strategy before a blue-chip audience at the Royal Alberta Museum.

The question is whether the dozen economic all-stars from across Canada and around the world will skate like Team Canada and go for the gold, or be like Team Russia, a collection of the best who flamed out early because they could not pull together for the common cause.

With fingers crossed, my betting is on the former. When you have the likes of David Emerson, former federal cabinet minister and lumber executive; Ann McLellan, former deputy prime minister; David Dodge, former governor of the bank of Canada; Elyse Allan, president and CEO of GE Canada; Clive Mather, former president of Shell Canada; Jennifer Welsh, Oxford prof of international relations; and Sir John Bell, medical scientist and also an Oxford academic, it is definitely the A-team of great economic potential.

Having teleconferenced several times since the council’s inception last July, this week was the first time the select dozen got together in person.

At Thursday night’s reception and panel discussion with about 250 top business executives, mostly from Edmonton and Calgary, the council provided a peek behind the curtain of their activities. Their mandate is to ensure prosperity and set out a blueprint for Alberta’s economic diversity for the next 30 to 40 years. Pretty heady stuff, and among the early findings:

– Alberta’s new economy will be built on the foundation of the old economic engine, namely the energy industry;
– Technology, and more precisely, technology aimed at creating efficiency in the energy sector – including the environment – top the list;
– Creating more opportunities for advanced education and promoting the wellness factor in “health and wellness” are essential to putting an economic blueprint together.

Former Syncrude president Jim Carter, a member of the audience and head of the Alberta Carbon Capture and Storage Development Council, in his comments to the economic council, put his finger on the pulse: “We’re not going to be able to develop our resources economically without developing technology.”

There were also dire warnings of what needs to be done, with Shell’s Mather taking the wraps off the 800-pound gorilla in the room: “We have not done a good job in the oilsands, either in environmental protection or communications, and we’ve got a problem.”

His comments caused a stir in the audience, but it points to a growing and pressing issue that has long been the Achilles heel of Alberta’s energy industry: It does not have a common face or a united voice, and the industry has done precious little to tell the story of its accomplishments, or highlighted its environmental milestones.

That is a separate challenge from what the Premier’s Council for Economic Strategy is charged with, but it should come as clarion call to action for the energy industry.

Emerson made reference to the energy sector’s image problem as well: “We’ve got to make sure the natural resources of Alberta do not get brand terrorized beyond our control.”

Perhaps the most poignant remarks of the evening were delivered by Welsh. She talked about last year’s Conference of the Americas, where Canada seemed to be totally out of step.

Canada wanted to talk about free trade, an issue that was on nobody else’s radar. So Canada turned in a wet firecracker performance at the conference, because as a country, we failed to anticipate shared concerns. If we had talked about energy and the need to establish research into such things as efficiency and climate change, that could have been leveraged into real benefits for both Canada and Alberta.

The Premier’s Council for Economic Strategy will meet again in August. The council will deliver a report on its activities and recommendations to the government next year.

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