“The similarities between the language in that 27-year-old article and our current cover story are uncanny… and the parallels are chillingly undeniable.”

This is not the column I intended to write.

As my granddaughter recently reminded me, speaking the most innocent of childlike truths, I wasn’t born yesterday. She’s not wrong. With almost 30 years of experience under my belt at Atlantic Business (27 as editor, two as a freelance contributor), I’ve witnessed the rise and fall of many, many, many resource projects across Atlantic Canada.

That’s why my initial intention with this column was to chronicle the importance of resource development to the Atlantic economy via some of the changes I’ve seen over time. I started working here during the collapse of the storied northern cod stocks, covered the start of Voisey’s Bay, wrote about the closure of the Brunswick Mine after almost 50 years as one of the world’s largest and most profitable zinc mines. I’ve researched wind farms, tidal power, hydrogen, gold mines, royalty structures, associated service industries and so much more. The start of Newfoundland and Labrador’s offshore oil boom, beginning with Hibernia’s first oil in 1997, followed by Terra Nova, White Rose, Hebron and most recently, the West White Rose expansion. Nova Scotia’s natural gas highs—from Cohasset Panuke to Deep Panuke to the Sable Offshore Energy Project—to the industry’s entire shutdown in 2018. Construction of the Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline, a 1,101-kilometre pipeline initially built to carry natural gas from offshore N.S. to markets in Atlantic Canada and the northeastern United States, but which now flows in reverse.

Which brings me back to how I originally planned to prepare and write this column.

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