The TSX30—the annual ranking of the top-performing stocks on the Toronto Stock Exchange—was recently released and, once again, oil and gas companies made up the lion’s share of the list.

Half of the top companies (11 producers and four energy service companies) are in the oil and gas sector.

Share prices have been driven up due to energy supply and security concerns and ever-increasing demand for oil and gas. The industry and its investors have enjoyed extraordinary three-year returns. The average share price return for the 15 oil and gas companies in the TSX30 was 210 per cent.

But what about the large endowment funds, pension plans, institutional funds and, more recently, banks that have bowed to pressure from divestment-promoting activists to stop investing in the natural resource sector?

In removing oil and gas from their investment pool, they have ignored their responsibility to their beneficiaries, who have missed out on these remarkable returns.

Trustees have a fiduciary duty to act in the best interest of their beneficiaries, which in this case means maximizing the risk-adjusted return for their clients.

But for ideological reasons, oil and gas companies are often being left out of the investment equation.

What’s more, the divestors aren’t even achieving their ideological goal.

Abundant energy is the prerequisite for modern life. Divestment does not stop oil and gas production because it does nothing to reduce demand. After more than a decade of divestment pledges, demand for oil and gas has only continued to go up. This demand is projected to continue to grow for years to come.

If Canada does not supply the oil and gas the world wants and needs, it will be supplied from elsewhere, including by authoritarian regimes in poorly regulated, undemocratic countries that are less responsible and less environmentally friendly.

It would be better if Canadian companies like those on the TSX30 were the ones to step up and meet the world’s ever-growing energy needs.

It would be better for Canadians as well. Canada is blessed with abundant natural resources, and oil and gas is central to our prosperity. All of the companies on the TSX30 list rely on the oil and gas sector to fuel their business, from industrials to mining, to aviation, technology and yes, even to renewable energy.

Investing in the Canadian oil and gas sector means investing in energy companies that can and should be the suppliers of the energy demanded by our power-hungry world.

These companies have high environmental and governance standards, are driven to innovate—an essential process for emissions reduction—and have had some of the strongest returns on the TSX in recent years.

Can our banks and fund managers possibly continue to ignore the significant value in the energy space? Only time will tell.

Gina Pappano is the former head of market intelligence at the Toronto Stock Exchange and TSX Venture Exchange and executive director of InvestNow, a non-profit dedicated to demonstrating that investing in Canada’s resource sectors helps Canada and the world. Join the movement and pass the InvestNow resolution at investnow.org.

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