The Liberals must stop rewarding Beijing’s unconscionable behaviour

For some time now, it has seemed as if Canada’s foreign policy approach toward China has been similar to that old Abbott and Costello baseball shtick of “Who’s on First?” That is to say, Ottawa’s strategy, insofar as one can even call it that, has been a circular, confusing and nonsensical parody. The major difference is, clearly, there is no humour to be found; rather, this comedy of errors carries only dire consequences for Canada.

The Trudeau government’s latest confounding abdication of common sense stands out for being particularly egregious. Ottawa has allowed a Chinese state-owned company, Zijin Mining, to bid on a Canadian-owned lithium mining operation, Neo Lithium Corp. The government has done this while abandoning the national security review that accompanies such purchases. The Liberals claim this is a non-issue as Neo Lithium’s operation is not in Canada, even though the headquarters is based here. But this just speaks to their narrow-minded naiveté about the threat posed by China.

Surely the Trudeau government knows that critical minerals like lithium are crucial to addressing the climate crisis. It is therefore absurd that we are allowing China to capture an even greater presence over resources critical to the green transition. A major polluter and unwilling climate partner, it defies logic that Ottawa would further cede control to China over global climate efforts by allowing it to solidify dominance over this sector…read more.

Investments in crude oil this year in Canada could rise by as much as 22 percent, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.

While this is an improvement over 2021, the expected spending total of US$26.2 billion (C$32.8 billion) is still much lower than the annual industry spending a decade ago, CAPP said as quoted by CBC.

“Today we’re at $32 billion, and we’re only capturing about six per cent of global investment,” CAPP president Tim McMillan said. “We’ve lost ground to other oil and gas producers, which I think is problematic for a lot of reasons … and it leaves billions of dollars of investment that is going somewhere else, and not to Canada.”

Canadian oil production is set to increase by 18 percent this year, according to the national energy industry regulator. That would come in at a total of close to 4 million barrels of crude daily. In spite of the federal government’s ambitious emission-reduction plans, the oil output increase is perfectly understandable, according to Canada’s natural resource minister.

“For the [oil] demand that continues to exist, Canada needs to extract value from its resources, just like the United States, the United Kingdom in the North Sea, and Norway,” Jonathan Wilkinson told the FT earlier this month…read more.

While the markets digest the inflation numbers on Wednesday, all eyes will be focussed on the Federal Reserve’s reaction to the inflation data. Many economists expected the 7% gain in the Consumer Price Index, marking a 39-year high. Many markets, including stocks and bitcoin, have come under pressure this year on expectations that the Federal Reserve will likely raise interest rates sooner and more frequently than earlier anticipated.

Experts consider rising inflation one of the biggest market risks this year because runaway inflation could corrode asset values, limit buying power and eat away at corporate margins. In a research note, Goldman Sachs’ Jan Hatzius has warned that rapid progress in the U.S. labor market and hawkish signals in minutes from the Dec. 14-15 Federal Open Market Committee suggest faster normalization, with the central bank now likely to raise interest rates four times this year and start its balance sheet runoff process in July, if not earlier.

But the commodities sector is a different beast altogether.

Commodities outperformed other asset classes in 2021 and are widely expected to remain competitive in 2022.

Indeed, Goldman Sachs global head of commodities research Jeffrey Currie has reiterated his earlier call saying we are merely at the first innings of a decade-long commodity supercycle…read more.