Quote:
Originally Posted by ThePrince
Ya, it's totally a free market situation when you look at the over-regulation, taxation, and political issues.
The lack of infrastructure in Canada actually literally is the free market speaking and saying "Canada is not investable, we can make a better return elsewhere and not have to deal with the issues listed above".
I've said this time and again on this board, but Canada has gotten to a point where there is no investment thesis anymore. So not sure where you're coming from.
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As noted in my edit, i was only half (60%) being a jerk with my comment, because while i agree with you, that blame can only go so far.
Since the USFTA was signed, business has focused on cross-border trade and infrastructure to facilitate that trade. We are on the border of the world's largest market so it made business sense to do so - to both government and free market.
Until basically 2 months ago, this generally made sense for all products/services. You can argue that Oil and gas, it made sense until 2013? when the WTS price was steeply discounted.
But to many companies, it still made more financial sense to ride the US trade vs developing infrastructure for new markets. Yes, some of that is government policy and regulations; but some of that is pure dollars and cents from a company's perspective.
It could be argued that TMX is an example. A company that found the process of approving new infrastructure to be too expensive and too time consuming to pursue on economic grounds vs divesture and move to US markets. The Government stepped up to push that one over the line.
It's not just oil and gas, though either. All of our markets are geared towards the US; which typically made sense when one market dominates another in proximity and consumption - its not unlike many satellite states to Germany today.