As the impoverished masses of oil-rich Venezuela know all too well, you also have to have a stable, predictable, competitive tax and regulatory regime. And right now, Alberta and Canada do not. “When an international investor sees that in Canada a single level of government aided by activist groups can stop a project that has been officially approved after years of regulatory process, they’re going to conclude that Canada is not a stable and reliable place to invest, that its risks are effectively on the same level as those of a Third World country,” says Questfire’s Dahl. “We’re starting to operate like a banana republic, but one that doesn’t even want to sell its bananas.”
[…]
“The provincial government claims their policies are not driving capital away,” says one Calgary entrepreneur. “But it’s a lie.” He notes that in the pre-Internet era, when documents moved by fax or courier, a provincial licence to drill a new oil or gas well was typically issued within seven to 14 days. Today, despite all parties wielding modern information technology, one month is typical and government regulators can take six months to issue certain well licences. In Texas, the same type of permit can be obtained within 24 hours of application.
Another example of regulatory sclerosis: for years Alberta has been tightening its restrictions on “flaring” or burning off unneeded natural gas that often comes up as an uneconomic by-product in an oil well. Flaring remains a common practice elsewhere, but even the world’s tightest flaring rules weren’t enough for Alberta’s NDP government, which now demands that literally any volume of gas be “tied-in”, or brought on production. Because the cost of doing so is prohibitive, the new policy has resulted in uncounted numbers of wells being shut-in and not producing oil (or generating government royalties). Next up are new federal rules requiring the capture of even minute leakages of methane, which will further raise costs at virtually any existing well, pipeline site or processing facility. Originally planned jointly with the U.S. when President Barack Obama was in power, the Trump Administration has dumped the rules, leaving Canada with yet another competitive disadvantage.

Read it all. But first, pour yourself a stiff drink.