Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and good afternoon, everyone.
I'm happy to join you virtually today from Mi'kma'ki, the traditional territory of the Mi'kmaq people.
I'm pleased to have this opportunity to speak about the importance of Bill C-49 for Nova Scotia's transition to clean energy.
Our province has some of the most ambitious climate change goals in the country. These are legislated goals, and we're determined to reach them. By 2030, we'll be off coal and have at least 80% of our electricity from renewables. By 2050, we'll be at net zero. There is no silver bullet to achieve these goals. It takes a suite of solutions to make them a reality. We're focused on made-in-Nova Scotia solutions as much as possible, and Bill C-49 is key to helping us advance them.
We've released a number of plans to help us reach our goals. The clean power plan focuses primarily on greening our grid. The offshore wind road map focuses on harnessing the power of the world-class offshore wind of this province. The green hydrogen action plan focuses on the clean fuel that can help with the transition both at home and abroad. They all work together to move us towards a sustainable future, but offshore wind and green hydrogen in particular really go hand in hand.
Nova Scotia's offshore wind speeds are among the best in the world. They rival the winds of the North Sea, where the world's offshore wind sector started. We have an incredible opportunity here. That's why we set a goal of offering licences for five gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030. We're planning the first call for bids in 2025. We want the world to know that we are open for business, not just for offshore wind but also for green hydrogen. These sectors are tied very closely together.
We anticipate high demand for renewable electricity for green hydrogen production, so developers know they can pursue offshore wind projects at a scale that make them worth investing in. We're nurturing the development of both these sectors. They are key components of our plan to meet our 2050 climate change goals.
New sectors require new regulation to make sure they are safe and responsible for the environment, for workers and for other sectors working in the offshore. That is why Bill C-49 is so important for Nova Scotia. It will bring us into a new era of offshore energy regulation, an era that brings untold new possibilities for clean energy and for green jobs, not only in offshore energy but also in the broader ocean-tech sector.
My premier, my government and I fully support this bill. It will expand the role of the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board to include renewable energy and will rename it the Canada-Nova Scotia offshore energy regulator.
The board will be well positioned for this expansion in regulatory authority. It has more than 30 years of experience in responsibly managing the health, safety and environmental aspects of our offshore developments. It has the technical expertise and the administrative capacity to regulate highly complex marine environments. This skill set will be easily applied to offshore renewables.
Together with Natural Resources Canada, we'll continue to review the board's budget and capacity, and we'll make sure it has sufficient resources to effectively and responsibly regulate this new sector.
Further, we're working with our federal partners on the regional assessment for offshore wind, which focuses on identifying where and how these projects can be optimally developed. It will inform governments on future planning for this sector, and it's an opportunity for Nova Scotians to have their say in how the sector and projects should be planned. We've been encouraging Nova Scotians to take part in this process, and we're listening to their feedback. That's why we made a decision in the fall to pause any consideration of wind development in our provincial waters until we have a framework in place for our jointly managed waters. We're confident that with that framework in place, offshore renewables and traditional industries such as fish harvesting can coexist, just as we've seen with natural gas projects and with wind projects in other parts of the world.
Finally, I want to emphasize that Nova Scotia welcomes all the appropriate scrutiny to make sure that offshore wind projects are done safely and responsibly and that they can coexist with other sectors and interests. That will involve review and approval at federal and provincial levels, and there will be a lot of opportunity for public input and engagement with our first nations.
Again, I will state that Nova Scotia fully supports this bill. It is key to advancing our clean energy and climate change goals. We have complete faith in the board's ability to help safely advance these goals, and we urge the speedy passage of this bill so we can meet our timelines in Nova Scotia.
We cannot afford to wait till Christmas. Developers are weighing their investment options right now as this committee debates, and we still need to make amendments to our own mirror legislation in time for the call to bids.
Offshore wind is Nova Scotia's greatest economic opportunity since the age of sail. There are tremendous opportunities for our coastal communities, for our province and for our country. We cannot afford to wait.
Thank you.