CAPP is responding to the 21st century culture of instant communication, rumor portrayed as reality by political attacks and challenging economics by trying not simply to survive but to thrive.

The new approach starts with a confession. “We acknowledged… that we don’t have the trust of Canadians, and that Canadians don’t think we’re doing a good enough job of protecting the environment while developing the oil sands,” CAPP president David Collyer wrote in an Edmonton Journal editorial last winter. It was one of many such admissions made freely and circulated widely as new leaders took over the association.

Equipped with decades of industry expertise, most recently as the former president of Shell Canada, Collyer is passionate about going beyond preaching to the choir. “The external world has changed. Energy has gotten tremendous criticism and is called dirty oil,” Collyer says.

Hard green factions leading attacks on the industry have more on their agenda than environmental improvements to its operations. “This is more appropriately an off-oil campaign. We need to get our message out and up our game significantly,” Collyer says.

“There are lots of tough issues out there. My vision is that Canada and the producing provinces will either put in place or reinforce policies that represent an appropriate balance between energy, the environment and the economy – the 3-E. We want to develop resources responsibly. This industry is critical to our overall economy and it makes a strong contribution to energy security in Canada and North America. I want CAPP to be seen as a constructive and balanced voice in that conversation and process.”

To convey that continental perspective, CAPP hired American career diplomat Tom Huffaker as CAPP’s vice-president of policy and environment. As former United States consul general for Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories, he understands both the American mindset and U.S. dependence on Canada’s energy exports. As an economist who served in the U.S. embassies in Moscow, Yugoslavia and India,

Huffaker brings global expertise to the delicate balance of the 3-E world.

Since the U.S. depends on Canada as its biggest supplier of oil imports – 1.9 million barrels a day last winter – Huffaker seems particularly well placed to catch attention in Washington’s corridors of power. Americans are debating climate change legislation that could affect their imports from the oil sands.

He believes American faith in know-how and progress are the key buttons to push by making sure influential Washington leaders understand realities of the Canadian industry that its critics leave out of their campaigns. “A whole suite of new technologies in oil sands development will change production and the carbon footprint,” he says.

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