Alberta’s American envoy sees trade relationships between the province and southern neighbour taking a positive turn

Washington is taking note as the bitumen belt in northern Alberta matures

By Gordon Jaremko

May 01, 2009

Gary Mar sees vital energy, environment and trade relationships with the United States taking a turn in Alberta’s favor. He is in an ideal position to detect changes in crucial political and economic winds quickly as the province’s envoy in Washington, D.C.

Alberta has an exclusive room with an inside view of the American capital. When Mar looks out the window of his office in Canada’s embassy at 501 Pennsylvania Avenue, a short stroll from the White House at 1600 Pennsylvania, the panorama includes the National Mall and the Capitol building, home to the Senate and House of Representatives.

The Calgary lawyer and former high-profile politician – whose 14 years in the Alberta legislature included holding the cabinet portfolios of community development, health, education, environment and intergovernmental relations – had a ringside seat at the inauguration of President Barack Obama. In Washington, Mar is so close to the action that he drums up respectable sums for Alberta causes by charging visitors for glimpses of the American political heart. He has coined up to $17,000 for an Edmonton college by auctioning off a pair of tickets to watch, from a rooftop perch that goes with the embassy office, the annual Fourth of July fireworks over the Mall also known as America’s front yard.

Mar scans the Washington scene from an economic summit, as a representative of the top supplier of American fossil fuel imports. In 2008, Canada earned $80.5 billion by delivering an average 1.85 million barrels of oil per day to the U.S., the National Energy Board estimates. Natural gas shipments to the U.S., averaging 10 billion cubic feet per day, fetched $32.4 billion. In both cases, the majority of production comes from Alberta.

As a guardian of Alberta’s energy livelihood, Mar likes the trends he sees emerging as Obama and the Democrats settle into power. In Washington, that is saying a lot. Missions are not easily accomplished in the big, diverse and crowded U.S. capital.

About 30,000 registered lobbyists, thousands of national and international associations, legions of non-governmental organizations, platoons of think-tanks and flocks of foundations clamor for the ears of the elected elite of 435 members of the House of Representatives, 100 senators and one president. “To get attention for your issue is a challenge,” Mar reported in an Alberta Oil interview.

His colorful predecessor as Alberta’s Washington envoy, former energy minister Murray Smith, spent years raising U.S. awareness of the province’s role as a supplier and its growth potential. The effort ranged from obtaining official recognition for 175 billion barrels of oil sands reserves in formal government and industry reports to lodging images of abundance in the American popular consciousness.

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