The art of business ownership is taking risk. But that usually means calculated risk…knowing how to weigh the pros and cons in making a decision.
Risk comes in many forms. It can be financial or it can be reputational or it can be political. And that last one is getting all the attention in the wake of Encana’s decision to move its corporate headquarters from Calgary to Denver.
This is a big story and its timing is no coincidence, coming only days after the Liberals were returned to power in Ottawa. The fact that they have a minority means they will come under even more pressure to make life miserable for oil and gas producers in order to stay in power.
The last time we saw a federal government with virtually no members from the West, we saw the Trudeau government of the day introduce the National Energy Program. It gutted the western economy and reinforced the spectre of political risk it the minds of corporate decision makers. The Encana decision feels like a pre-emptive move to get out of Dodge before the next NEP-style program is unveiled.
