Canada to be 'superpower' in energy

NIAGARA FALLS, ONTARIO - Prime Minister Stephen Harper signalled he has no intention of bringing in environmental rules that would undercut the burgeoning oil and gas industry, which he portrays as the centrepiece of Canada's economic prowess.

Canada's economy is currently outperforming other industrial nations but it is Canada's status as "an emerging energy superpower" that holds the key to future prosperity, he told a business audience here.

"For international investors, the most important sector story I have to tell is energy. And it is simply this: we are the only stable, democratic country in the world with growing energy export capacity."

Canada, the Prime Minister said, is already the world's fifth largest energy producer and the largest supplier of oil, natural gas, electricity and uranium to the United States.

With global petroleum supplies dwindling or menaced by political instability, Canada's role as an energy exporter will only grow, Harper said.

"The production from Alberta's oil sands — the second largest proven petroleum reserves on the planet — now stands at more than a million barrels a day, on its way to three to four million a day by 2015."

As demand for energy and minerals is fed by economic expansion in the large economies of India and China, "the potential for Canada's long-term economic growth is truly breathtaking," he told the Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario.

By paying down debt and reducing growth in federal spending, "We're on the best economic footing of any of the (Group of Seven) countries," Harper said.