Alberta correspondent for @the_logic covering energy and tech. Previously @financialpost. Reach me: [email protected] or Signal: meghanpotkins.81
Calgary, Alberta
Joined March 2009
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Canada's largest natural gas producer, Tourmaline, is advancing plans for its 1-GW Malachite data-centre power generation project in Alberta. Tourmaline wants to profit from growing data-centre electricity demand without footing the bill for new power plants. Its subsidiary, Emerald, plans to seek funding from private investors. From our briefing on $TOU.TO 's Q3 call: thelogic.co/briefing/tourmal…
It sure sounds like TC Energy is about to make some big moves in data-centre power generation: “We could potentially be announcing one or two projects in excess of a billion dollars as early as before the end of 2026,” François Poirier said on the company’s third-quarter earnings call. From our briefing on TC's Q3 earnings: thelogic.co/briefing/tc-ener…
$TRP.TO
NEW: Trans Mountain's first optimization project is ready to go ahead of schedule, CEO Mark Maki says. The project to boost the crude pipeline's capacity by 90,000 barrels per day, or roughly 10%, using drag-reducing agents, is just awaiting sign-off from federal regulator. #oott
thelogic.co/news/summit-mark…
What does business want from the 2026 federal budget? We sifted through 1,350+ federal submissions to find out. In energy, Ottawa has already delivered on parts of the oilpatch's wish list—but there are still a number of asks from the sector. Cenovus summed up its top recommendation in two words: “Move fast.” thelogic.co/news/special-rep…
Meghan Potkins retweeted
Major projects, the trade war and Ottawa’s deluge of planned defence spending shaped many of the asks for this year’s federal budget. The Logic reviewed more than 1,350 submissions to see what business wants.
thelogic.co/news/special-rep…
Adam Waterous has a bold plan to ship an extra 250,000 barrels a day of Canadian crude by rail to a West Coast terminal for export to Asia—in just two years, and at a fraction of the cost of a new pipeline, he says. But will Ottawa be willing to revisit the idea of an exemption to its BC tanker ban? $SCR.TO $CNR.TO #oott #com
Strathcona is looking to capitalize on its dominance of Canada’s crude-by-rail business. The company owns two rail terminals in Western Canada and handles between 75,000 to 80,000 barrels per day by rail. That’s roughly 80 to 90 per cent of the country’s rail shipments. MORE: thelogic.co/news/adam-watero…
Some additional detail not in Bloomberg's fine report from earlier: “What we’re going to be focused on is making a crude-by-rail export terminal a project of national interest and referred to the Major Projects Office,” Waterous said in an interview, noting he expected federal approval would likely hinge on certain conditions, including “some level of Indigenous participation." How advanced are these plans? Strathcona has engaged w commercial stakeholders, including CN Rail, on capital and operating costs. MORE: thelogic.co/news/adam-watero…
Gufran remembers when Alberta was actually trying to court workers like him. The 34-year-old IT employee was living in Toronto in 2023, having immigrated from India four years earlier, when the province’s “Alberta is Calling” campaign was encouraging workers in other parts of Canada to move west: "Three years back you were inviting people to come to this province, inviting them because you needed people. And now, I don’t know for what reason… They want to project a hostile environment for the newcomers or people moving in from other countries.”
This piece published Saturday more relevant now that Albertans have voted YES to the five immigration-related referendum questions. ICYMI: thelogic.co/news/the-big-rea…
“A lot of time has been spent on this. Too much time.”
Alberta’s decisive rejection of separation was greeted with relief Tuesday by some business leaders, even as financial markets largely shrugged off the result. lnkd.in/gRhUv8Hq
Meghan Potkins retweeted
Alberta’s decisive rejection of separation was greeted with relief Tuesday by some business leaders, even as financial markets largely shrugged off the result showing that, at the latest count, just over 75 per cent of voters favoured remaining in Canada.
thelogic.co/news/alberta-ref…
ALT A photo of a man raising his arm and cheering among other pro-federalist supporters seated in rows of chairs in a large room. The man is wearing jeans and a grey sweater, but others in the frame are wearing red and waving small Canadian flags.
Always surprised to see this argument. Ottawa buys a pipeline to pander to separatists? Maybe it does to rescue what was a bit of deteriorating reputation in capital markets. Or to preserve what can be a double-digit slice of federal corporate tax revenue in boom years (i.e. so long as pipeline bottlenecks aren't tanking the $$$ of your exports). I wasn't covering the sector at the time, but it was always an economic play for the country, not about appeasement. Although the returns definitely took a hit when TMX's price tag climbed.
As I wrote in July, with very few exceptions, the private sector in Alberta hasn't shown up in this referendum campaign the way it did in Quebec, or Brexit. Economic indicators in Alberta have been flashing green for some time and the referendum hasn't changed that. There's still no discernible political risk premium in Alberta's bond yields, last I checked. Markets have never seen separation here as likely. thelogic.co/news/the-big-rea…
So I was a bit surprised by consecutive chamber surveys that suggest that the referendum debate is worrying Alberta businesses. None of this is necessarily contradictory. There's a big difference b/w sentiment among Main Street chamber members and financial markets. But I think some of the disconnect is down to the increasingly favourable outlook for Canadian oil & gas, which is already a sector much less likely to be jittery about separatism for a host reasons. While elsewhere in the economy, the mood is just worse. Trade and tariff threats, the possibility of more political turmoil (incl. within the UCP) and broader anxieties about AI, are piling up.
The bruising battle over separation has left business owners anxious and immigrants feeling unwelcome. If Albertans agree on one thing, it’s that Monday’s vote will not bring closure: new Abacus poll suggests 73% of Albertans expect the independence question to return even if majority of voters choose to remain on Monday. thelogic.co/news/the-big-rea…
Two angles in this massive Emera/Canadian Utilities merger to watch:
-Scale to major chase cross-country transmission infrastructure projects that are part of Ottawa's push to integrate power grids East-West-North
-Newly streamlined ATCO betting on significant buildout of defence and Arctic infrastructure: “There's approximately $180 billion in defence procurement opportunities ahead of us, and $290 billion in defence-related capital investment over the coming decade, primarily in Canada's Arctic,” CEO Nancy Southern said. thelogic.co/news/emera-merge… $EMA.TO $ACO.X.TO $CU.TO
Cenovus is buying one of Canada's last large independent oilsands companies for $5.7 billion. As Ottawa and Alberta try to kickstart a wave of oilsands projects, CEO Jon McKenzie says Ottawa's new tax incentives are already factoring into its plans.
“All of the oilsands companies are cautiously positioning to prepare for a renewed growth push, given the changes to federal fiscal policy, the [Pacific Link oil pipeline] and potentially provincial fiscal stimulus as well,” said energy economist @PTertzakian .
thelogic.co/news/cenovus-tak…
#oott #com
Canada's oilsands majors just posted one of their strongest quarters in years, but the biggest theme wasn't the profits. It was the return of a question the industry hasn't seriously confronted in more than a decade: Is it finally time to build again? thelogic.co/news/canada-oil-…
#oott #com $CNQ.TO $CVE.TO $SU.TO $IMO.TO
Also, a little preview of what oilsands firms are looking for from Ottawa come November when they finalize agreements on Pathways/production growth/pipelines: Internal briefing notes prepared by Natural Resources Canada, obtained by The Logic through ATIP, suggest the Oil Sands Alliance is urging Ottawa to enable the immediate expensing of capital investments in oilsands projects (similar tax measures were rolled out for manufacturing buildings/equipment in Budget 2025): thelogic.co/news/canada-oil-…