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In Alberta oil country, the canonical refrain to the question of restoring industry health and investor confidence, is “Build a damn pipeline.”

That’s an obvious prescription, because investors pay for growth. There is little incentive to put money at risk if the market for a product is boxed in, especially by socio-political forces.

Yet, it’s not so simple. Would building a pipeline like Trans Mountain or Keystone XL rejuvenate the market for oil and gas investing? Yes, solving the market’s choke points, whether by pipe, rail or ox cart, would go a long way. But flowing more barrels is not a sufficient condition for being capital competitive.

Canadian companies are adapting to lower prices and regulatory issues ahead of others around the world

Why? For the same reason that building a larger parking lot won’t guarantee bringing more people into a shopping mall. We know from our digital shopping carts that the entire premise of retail shopping — what’s happening inside the mall — is being disrupted. Like any commercial concern, oil and gas isn’t immune to disruption. Savvy investors know that rocks and pipes are just as vulnerable to industrial change as bricks and mortar.

That’s why the performance of U.S. oil and gas equity indices isn’t overly healthy either. Access to capital is thin south of the border too. Although American energy stocks are ahead of Canada’s TSX oil and gas benchmark, the U.S. S&P 500 Oil and Gas Index is also in the red, by 17 per cent. Losing almost a fifth of your portfolio is nothing to brag about when the broader markets are up around 18 per cent.