Markets, policies, geopolitics and technologies all impose risks. Private firms judge these risks better than governments desperate to act

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A recurring theme in FP Comment concerns the risks governments take when they invest public funds in projects traditionally undertaken by private investors. Prime Minister Mark Carney’s efforts to make Canada an “energy superpower” by endorsing and in some cases funding major new energy infrastructure are a case in point.

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Carney’s goals, if taken at face value, stand in stark contrast to Liberal policies under Justin Trudeau’s leadership. In the Trudeau years, by one estimate, federal government decisions cost Canada almost 30 major energy infrastructure projects — including oil and gas developments, pipelines, LNG plants, ports and mines that were either cancelled or significantly delayed as a direct result of federal government decisions — with an aggregate value of hundreds of billions of dollars. Yet now the Carney government and its new Major Projects Office say federal funding and faster regulatory review will........

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