Taking action in support of our vital natural resource sector

Rafi Tahmazian, Director and Senior Portfolio Manager with Canoe Financial tells BNN why he thinks Canadian oil and gas is undervalued. He discusses Canada's exemplary record for environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment criteria and how this may present a grand opportunity for investors in the future.

Side Note: He’s absolutely right. Canada is the world’s 4th largest exporter of crude and ranks 1st out of the top 10 oil exporters on a recent ESG Scorecard (more examples below).

While investment has left Canada in droves since 2015, Rafi believes the positive steps our oil and gas companies are making in terms of ESG criteria will eventually bring back capital over the long-term and possibly make our product more valuable in the process.

Here’s what he had to say on his latest interview with BNN Bloomberg:

“I think it’s very important. I think what’s even more important as Canadians we have to realize we were already there. I think that the environmental aspect, even the governance aspect of the ESG are areas that we are leaders in globally and those are not understood either and as people start to understand our gas flaring policies, or our water management policies towards recycling and reusing, and the technologies that we understand and how we use them. That value proposition still has to be understood, and it's an opportunity from an investment perspective.

People have to get their head around using oil and this whole concept that oil is unethical, there is unethical oil and then there is clean oil and not all oil is unethical because we all use it. See, what’s inappropriate is when someone says oil is unethical and then they continue to use it and not understand really how much we, in our day, in our life, that it’s used.

So, you know the ESG side of it I think Canada doesn’t have anything to worry about and what’s beautiful is when the market come back to the sector, I think there’s an opportunity to get even an increased value adjustment upwards for the Canadian companies because we’ve already been there due to aggressive regulations that we’ve had for decades…”

- Rafi Tahmazian, BNN Bloomberg

More Examples of Canada’s ESG:

We couldn’t agree with you more Rafi! Canada's record for environmental, social and governance investment criteria is second to none among the world's top 10 oil exporters. Our oil and gas companies work hard to continually improve their environmental footprints and should be recognized as the world leaders in ESG criteria they are:

> Canada Ranks 4^th on Human Freedom Index 2019

> Canada Tops Environmental Index Among Top 10 Oil Exporters

> Canada Ranks 6^th on Democracy Index 2018

> ESG Infographics: How Canada Ranks Among the World’s Top 10 Oil Exporters