Laurent Ferreira, president and chief executive officer of National Bank looks over the bank's new offices under construction in Montreal, on Dec. 5, 2022.Christinne Muschi/The Globe and Mail
National Bank of Canada chief executive officer Laurent Ferreira says the next prime minister should overhaul the federal emissions cap and the impact assessment on energy and natural resource projects.
As Canada grapples with the threat of a recession and U.S. President Donald Trump wages a trade war, Mr. Ferreira said the country’s biggest risk is complacency in failing to address “excessive regulation and oversight.” During the bank’s annual shareholder meeting in Calgary Thursday, he urged the federal government to expedite the development of energy infrastructure.
Bill C-69 – which requires that resource projects be assessed for environmental, health, social and economic impacts and respect the rights of Indigenous peoples – and the emissions cap are not effective in their current forms, according to Mr. Ferreira.
“This is about building infrastructure in our country – whether it’s renewable or oil and gas – and it is a very big impediment to economic development and building infrastructure in our country,” he said in an interview.
“We hear it from our clients constantly and we see it in our numbers. I’ve been president for 3½ years, and 90 per cent of everything that we do in renewable energy infrastructure is in the United States of America. Things don’t move here.”
In February, National Bank acquired Edmonton-based Canadian Western Bank, adding $37-billion in loans across 65,000 customers and 39 branches in Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has said that the next government must repeal the emissions cap and resource project assessment requirements, and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has said he would scrap both policies.
Mr. Poilievre has also proposed a resource project office that would handle regulatory approvals across all levels of government.
Liberal Leader Mark Carney – known for his values on climate change – has emphasized the importance of resource development and the need to increase energy production. He also reduced the consumer carbon price to zero and promised to eliminate it.
During the election campaign, Mr. Carney said he would create a federal project office with a mandate to conduct one review per project and issue a decision within two years instead of five. He has also said clean energy development will be critical to boosting competitiveness in Canada.
Mr. Ferreira stopped short of endorsing one political party but said the next government will need to reduce regulatory barriers to building energy infrastructure or face further harming Canada’s waning productivity and slowing economic growth.
“With what’s going on right now with the U.S. wanting to change global trade and what we’re facing as a country, it is one of the most important things that we need to do over the next several years to speed up economic development in our country and understand that we need to diversify trade and get back on the path of economic growth.”
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story included a headline that said Laurent Ferreira asked for the assessment rules to be scrapped. He said the rules should be overhauled. This version has been updated.