The 1989 Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement includes an energy chapter that spelt the end of arbitrary state intervention in Canada's oil industry and established a new course for Canadian-U.S. oil- trade. The FTA's energy provisions helped created an atmosphere of collaboration between government and the oil industry, while paving the way to a free trade agreement. Ottawa did give up some policy-making powers, but less than what critics contend. One of the main objectives of the energy chapter

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... s to remove government from the day to day activities in Canada's oil industry. The oil sector itself, the thousands of companies involved in this important economic sector, are largely unaffected by its provisions. However, too much has been made of the constraints imposed on government, and not enough attention focused on the business atmosphere it fostered and the positive legacy it has created.