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CAPP reaches out to federal parties as fall election nears

Alberta has lost 35,000 oilpatch jobs, petroleum producers say

The lobby group for Canada's biggest energy companies says it is already reaching out to all three major political parties ahead of this fall's federal election.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) says it didn't talk with Alberta's NDP until late in the provincial election campaign.

But CAPP president Tim McMillan says it has already taken steps to join the conversation as the federal vote approaches.

"We have certainly taken the initiative to reach out to certainly the three main national parties to ensure that they know that CAPP can be a resource that they can reach into as they're developing policy," he said.

"We have some very important issues coming forward to Canada and they may be discussed through the election campaign."

McMillan says his organization works with officials at the federal and provincial level as well as political parties across the country.

"In both cases, the elected officials are there to represent the people of our province and country with the best intentions and our role is to provide information and to enable good decisions and thoughtful decisions.

Royalty review

On the contentious question of whether Alberta's oil and gas royalty system needs to be reviewed, McMillan says the new NDP government needs to take a broad view.

- PUBLIC SPACE | Why Alberta should always be reviewing oil and gas royalties

"This is a challenging time for the energy sector and certainly we're seeing the effects of that in Alberta and across Canada," he said.

McMillan says higher corporate taxes and possible changes in climate change policies are already having an impact on its ability to attract investment.

He says the wrong move on royalties could hurt Alberta's competitive advantage.

"Where we come out of this royalty review I think will largely redefine if we're going to be competitive in that market or not," he said.

McMillan says future investment in energy projects in Alberta has already dropped from $73 billion to $50 billion.