Governments must step aside and facilitate, not sabotage, the mobilization of Canada’s natural endowments to fight inflation and to play a prominent role in a righteous cause
The great resource reset is underway, as punitive sanctions against Russia strand its natural resource and agricultural production and offer opportunities to resource-rich countries such as Canada, Australia and the United States.
Russia is being isolated by financial restrictions and the noose looks to be tightening as the European Union mulls even tougher restrictions on imports of Russian coal, oil and natural gas. Just as significant are the sanctions that prohibit Russia’s access to U.S. dollar transactions, as well as to the companies, capital, technology and expertise that have built its resource industries.
Almost immediately after the invasion, the world’s major oil and mining giants pulled out of Russia voluntarily. Their departure saw the withdrawal of the money, engineers, geologists and technologists that Russia relies on to drill, develop and produce energy, potash, nickel and other metals and minerals.
This means that Russia won’t have the ability to repair and upgrade its existing operations, much less build the pipelines and other infrastructure needed to provide the enormous oil and gas quantities that it has committed to China.
For the rest of this column: https://financialpost.com/diane-francis/diane-francis-the-world-needs-more-canadian-resources