Investment, Regulation, and a Letter to the Prime Minister — with Tamarack CEO Brian Schmidt

This week on the podcast, our guest is Brian Schmidt, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Tamarack Valley Energy.

Tamarack is a Canadian oil and gas company with operations in Alberta, including the Clearwater and Charlie Lake plays. Brian was also a signatory to a letter, alongside more than 90 leaders from Canadian oil and gas producers, service providers, and midstream companies, sent to Prime Minister Mark Carney on September 15, 2025. The letter called for policy changes to enable companies to make long-term investments in Canada’s energy sector.

Here are some of the questions that Jackie and Peter asked Brian: What makes the Clearwater play unique? What technologies are being used to produce oil in the play, including secondary recovery methods such as waterflooding? What are the regulatory and permitting challenges that are slowing development? How does Tamarack prioritize between using cash for stock buybacks, production growth, or other uses of capital? Would investors be more inclined to fund production growth over shareholder returns if pipeline capacity and supportive policies were in place in Canada? Other topics included whether ESG remains a focus for investors, how the anti-greenwashing provisions in Bill C-59 affect the industry, and whether the recent shift in tone from the federal government has improved sentiment toward Canadian oil and gas. They also discussed the ongoing consolidation in the sector, where smaller players are merging into larger companies.

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