Canada’s Prime Minister Paul Martin has intervened to break a logjam of key energy issues, with the Mackenzie and Alaska gas pipeline projects at the top of that list.

He named John McCallum to temporarily fill the energy portfolio in his cabinet, taking over from ailing John Efford, a long-time diabetes sufferer who has been sidelined for several months.

McCallum, a former Royal Bank of Canada chief economist and currently natural revenue minister, wasted no time making contact with the industry.

Within 24 hours he was in Calgary meeting with executives of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers and Alberta government representatives.

But neither he nor his office would indicate what specific actions he will take to move Arctic pipeline files back on track by tackling the conflicting claims of TransCanada and Enbridge to build the Canadian portion of an Alaska project and the aboriginal claims that are stalling the Mackenzie plans.

“I’m on a listening tour,” he told Calgary reporters.

However, McCallum was emphatic that he will oppose using energy exports to the United States as leverage in resolving a cross-border softwood lumber dispute and to obtain the return of C$5 billion in U.S.-imposed softwood duties.

He also pledged that the federal government has no intention of seizing a share of Alberta’s energy windfall.

“When Alberta does well, Canada does well because Canada shares in the tax revenue and Alberta offers a place for Canadians to work,” he said.

McCallum said he has a role to play in working with provinces and the petroleum industry to build Canada’s oil production, while also promoting the development of non-conventional energy supplies and cutting demand through conservation.

Gary Park, Petroleum News