National Energy Program
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The National Energy Program (NEP) was an energy policy of the Government of Canada. It was enacted by the government of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in 1980, and administered by the Department of Energy, Mines and Resources (Canada).
The NEP was introduced in the wake of the energy crises of the 1970s, and was designed to promote oil self-sufficiency for Canada, maintain the oil supply, particularly for the industrial base in eastern Canada, promote Canadian ownership of the energy industry, promote lower prices, promote exploration for oil in Canada, promote alternative energy sources, and increase government revenues from oil sales through a variety of taxes and agreements.
The program was enormously unpopular in Western Canada, where most of Canada's oil is produced, and heightened distrust of the federal government, especially in Alberta and British Columbia. Albertans believed that the NEP was an unjustified intrusion of the federal government into an area of provincial jurisdiction.
The justification for the program died when oil prices fell in the early 1980s, leading to its abandonment by the new Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney that campaigned against the policy in the 1984 election.