The end of an era
It will frame opportunities and challenges by bringing together more than 100 key leaders and practitioners from the energy and agricultural sectors for discussions designed to answer a key question: can the province’s two primary industries collaboratively design a new future for Alberta?
Growing Forward Together: Ag-Energy Summit on September 9 will kick off what organizers hope will become a series of collaborative conversations over the next several months intended to create “transition pathways” via which the two sectors can explore new economic and innovation opportunities via an air-water-land sustainability approach.
“It’s apparent by the interest the summit concept has generated that we’ve latched onto something important…what’s particularly intriguing is the idea that ag and energy can share and build a collective and coherent vision of Alberta’s sustainable future,” noted JWN Energy CEO Bill Whitelaw. “When you take the great things happening in both sectors and toss them into a creativity hopper, who knows what will emerge? If we get this right, ideally it will generate an appetite for further efforts.”
Source: Summit to tackle Alberta economic diversity – JWN Energy
Economic Diversity?
“The original innovation and sustainable ecosystems in this province are ag and energy; they’ve driven Alberta’s success for decades…and harnessed together more strategically, they will be able to do the same,” noted JWN Energy CEO Bill Whitelaw. “Both sectors find themselves at key crossroads…navigating the future together potentially promises some innovative opportunities neither sector could achieve independently.”
If he is referring to oil & gas as part of a “sustainable ecosystem” then it’s doubtful the summit will be beneficial to Albertans. With Chrystia Freeland appointed as minister of finance and the federal governments wish to transition to a greener recovery, they may discover their plans need to be revised.
