Laurent Ferreira, president and chief executive officer of National Bank in Montreal, Que., on Dec. 5, 2022. Prime Minister Mark Carney would do well to listen to what Mr. Ferreira has to say.Christinne Muschi/The Globe and Mail
John Turley-Ewart is a contributing columnist for The Globe and Mail, a regulatory compliance consultant and a Canadian banking historian.
Can anyone bridge Canada’s economic solitudes, Alberta and Quebec? It is the toughest of challenges, finding common ground between one politically conservative, anglophone province committed to conventional energy sources and another, politically progressive, francophone province that is a proponent of renewables.
The 54-year-old CEO of Montreal-based National Bank of Canada, Laurent Ferreira, seems to be trying. He may well cut a path to a pragmatic, national economic plan for another banker trying to unite the country, Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Eschewing the common milquetoast public statements bankers are prone to, Mr. Ferreira is today the most direct and vocal of bank executives. Through shareholder meetings, conferences and media interviews, he is calling for action from Ottawa to reverse the complacent response to Canada’s own goals, “excessive regulation and oversight.” They put sand in the gears of growth and undermine living standards.
Mr. Ferreira points to Ottawa’s Bill C-69 and proposed federal emission cap on conventional energy as examples. The emissions cap on oil and gas production would, according to Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Officer, reduce Canada’s GDP by $20.5-billion and cost the country more than 40,000 jobs.
Bill C-69’s efforts to build energy infrastructure of all kinds are tied up in red tape at the federal level and layered atop of provincial red tape, undermining efforts to build even renewable energy projects.
Neither Bill C-69 nor emissions caps regulations as currently written serve the interests of Alberta or Quebec and the Canadian economy more broadly. Mr. Ferreira is doing Canada a service by pointing this out.
Unlike economists, pundits and bureaucrats that sift through reports and data to spot trends affecting investment, employment, wealth creation and lost business opportunities, Mr. Ferreira has the banker‘s advantage – the day-to-day experience of his customers, working to build their businesses and realize their full potential.
We have made doing business such an arduous process that many Canadian investors simply give their own country a pass. “We hear it from our clients constantly and we see it in our numbers,” National Bank’s CEO told a recent shareholder meeting. “I‘ve been president for three and a half 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.” That 90 per cent amounts to $9-billion worth of investment flowing south.
National Bank was founded more than 160 years ago by francophone business leaders in Quebec City who felt Ottawa and banks led by Anglos – banks which are now headquartered in Toronto – ignored their economic interests. In February, National assumed $37-billion in loans from Canadian Western Bank when it acquired the Edmonton-based bank. CWB was founded in 1984 by Albertans who felt their economic interests were ignored by Ottawa and Toronto bankers.
Two provinces of Canada that have felt excluded from nation-building conversations in the past are being given a voice by Mr. Ferreira as he takes the stage on issues critical to our economic progress. Business leaders from these provinces want to be in the middle of the national economy-building conversations of the future. Mr. Ferreira is their proxy. It is what good bankers do (note to other bank CEOs).
The frankness with which National Bank’s CEO speaks, saying Canada’s economic and industrial policies need a “complete overhaul,” reflects the stakes involved. Both Alberta and Quebec share a common aspiration – maitres chez nous: They want to be masters in their own houses.
That aspiration has been dashed by the presidency of Donald Trump and his targeting of Canada with economy-killing tariffs. There is an opportunity today, thanks to Mr. Trump, of reimagining our economy and Confederation itself.
In March, Quebec Premier Francois Legault indicated his province’s normally hard opposition toward oil and gas pipeline developments is softening, a trend that Mr. Ferreira has likely contributed to.
Support for the kind of change National Bank is promoting is good for B.C., which has numerous energy projects it would like to move forward, in Ontario too, where the Ring of Fire mineral reserves have yet to be tapped, and on the East Coast, where Newfoundland and Nova Scotia have interests in expanding oil and gas projects.
By forcefully speaking out for business communities that have felt alienated from the centre of power and policy making in Canada, Mr. Ferreira could broker a future for the Canadian economy that is pragmatic and where all regions of the country feel, if not masters, at least at home.
Prime Minister Carney would do well to listen to what Mr. Ferreira has to say.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that National Bank acquired Canadian Western Bank for $37-billion. National assumed $37-billion in loans from CWB when it acquired the Edmonton-based bank. This version has been updated.