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“The question we are continually asked, whenever I’m on the road, is, ‘Why would we invest in Canada right now, when there isn’t a consistent policy on energy or the economy?’ … Even the Canadian institutional investors are skeptical about investing in Canada.”

Investors have been turned off by the lack of export pipeline space for oil and gas, Canada’s failure to match U.S. reductions in corporate taxes, higher personal taxes north of the border and numerous ongoing reviews and changes to provincial and federal regulatory systems that create uncertainty, he said.

The pipeline capacity issue has grown worse since the Energy East pipeline to Eastern Canada was cancelled last year after the National Energy Board said it would use a tougher review process that would include looking at indirect emissions related to the pipeline, from production to end-use of the oil.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau approved Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion to the West Coast in 2016, but rejected Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline to Kitimat, B.C. Since then, the NDP government in B.C. and protesters have been trying to disrupt Trans Mountain construction.

Whitecap’s story is typical of a sector that just can’t seem to do anything right these days.

In November, it announced it would buy a stake in the Weyburn, Sask., CO2 enhanced recovery light oil project from Cenovus Energy Inc. for $940 million and, based on the predicted increase in revenue, would raise its dividend by five per cent.