Natural Resources Committee on March 10th, 2026

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Duguid]

Good morning, colleagues. Let me call this meeting to order.

I hope everyone had a good constituency week.

Let me start, as we always do, by acknowledging that we are on the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe nation.

Welcome to meeting number 26 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Natural Resources.

Before we begin, I'd like to take a moment to clarify something with the committee. A meeting was initially called for yesterday to deal with the travel budget for the Sweden and Finland trip and have the committee adopt it in time to be considered at the next SBLI meeting, otherwise known as the budgets subcommittee, which was scheduled for tomorrow. That meeting has been moved to March 25. That gives us time to adopt the budget in the appropriate time frame, and it's likely, colleagues, we'll be dealing with that on Thursday.

Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format. I'd like to remind participants of the following points. Before speaking, please wait for me to recognize you. There are folks who are going to be coming in by video conference in the second hour, so we'll give them those instructions when that time comes.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted Thursday, September 18, 2025, the committee shall resume its study of the management of Canadian energy exports.

I would now like to welcome our witnesses and apologize for the delay. We had a vote that took us a little bit of time.

[Claude Guay, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

Did we ask the witnesses if they're going to have the full hour? I would like to spend the full hour.

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Duguid]

I was going to get to that. Thank you for the reminder, Mr. Guay.

I would like to welcome the Canadian Association of Energy Contractors, represented by Mark Scholz, president and CEO. Welcome, Mr. Scholz.

From Canada's Building Trades Unions, we have Sean Strickland, executive director. Sean, welcome.

From Svante Technologies Inc., we have Brett Henkel, co-founder and senior vice-president, building development. Welcome.

Folks, because of our vote, we're a little bit behind in the committee proceedings, so we're going to have about 45 minutes with you, our first panel, and 30 minutes with our second panel. That should be time for some good exchanges, questions and responses.

We're going to start now with each of you for five minutes for your opening remarks, after which we will open the floor to questions.

Mr. Scholz, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Mark A. Scholz, President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Association of Energy Contractors]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for the opportunity to appear before the standing committee on behalf of the Canadian Association of Energy Contractors.

The study of Canadian energy exports is critically important for our country's future. As we navigate global energy demands and market diversification, energy exports represent not just economic opportunities but a pathway to secure jobs, thriving economies and Canada's role as a responsible energy leader.

In light of escalating tensions in the Middle East, Canadian energy is essential to bolstering global supply chains, supporting our allies and realizing Canada's potential as a reliable middle power on the world stage.

Our association represents over 100 drilling rig, service rig and oil sands mine drilling rig companies operating a fleet of 336 land drilling rigs and 667 service rigs across northeast British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, southwest Manitoba, Ontario and offshore Newfoundland.

Our members are diverse: big, small and medium-sized enterprises that create opportunities for young people, indigenous communities and middle-class workers. They employ thousands of people in rural, remote and indigenous communities, securing subsurface resources that fuel local economies while advancing both traditional oil and gas and emerging sectors like lithium for EV batteries, helium for medical and nuclear applications, geothermal energy, hydrogen, potash and storage for carbon dioxide.

The drilling and service rig sector is the backbone of Canada's energy workforce. Our recent analysis shows that one operating drilling rig and service rig creates 317 full-time equivalent jobs across site preparation, drilling, well servicing operations, fracturing, completions, tie-ins and abandonments. In 2026, we estimate that over 85,000 jobs will be created nationwide.

[Mario Simard, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

Excuse me, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Duguid]

Go ahead, Mr. Simard.

[Mario Simard, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

Mr. Chair, I would ask the witness to slow down because the interpreter is hyperventilating. It's a bit too fast.

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Duguid]

We've stopped your time, Mr. Scholz.

Maybe just slow it down a wee bit for the sake of our interpreters.

If it's a bit slower, we'll give you a little extra time.

[Mark A. Scholz]

These are not just numbers. They represent real livelihoods in communities where energy development is often the primary economic driver. Our members provide high-paying skilled employment that supports families and local businesses.

For decades, indigenous representation has been integral to our sector. From indigenous-owned companies to partnerships, ownership stakes and training programs, our industry fosters meaningful economic participation and reconciliation. These opportunities build capacity, create wealth and enable self-determination in remote regions where energy exports directly translate to community prosperity. However, these benefits hinge on market access and competitive public policy. Without reliable export infrastructure, such as pipelines and LNG facilities, our sector faces volatility.

Competitive policies that accelerate critical projects, such as those under the Building Canada Act, are essential to diversify markets, attract investment and boost drilling and service rig activity.

Positive steps include the recent agreement to advance Newfoundland and Labrador's Bay du Nord offshore project and federal funding for E3 Lithium's Clearwater project in Alberta, both of which will create thousands of jobs and generate billions in economic wealth.

However, barriers persist. For instance, helium development could be unlocked by extending standard depreciation treatment and flow-through shares to this critical mineral, aligning it with policies for other resources.

Removing obstacles like the proposed oil and gas emissions cap, ensuring a globally competitive industrial carbon pricing model, and sensible methane emission regulations would provide stability, preventing investment flight to less responsible jurisdictions.

Streamlining regulations and harmonizing interprovincial rules, such as transportation and tax policies, would enhance workforce mobility, enabling our agile business model to thrive across borders.

Incentivizing innovation is equally vital. Our sector has pioneered technologies like high line power, battery storage and alternative fuels, reducing GHG emissions by up to 85% to 95%. However, exclusions from clean technology investment tax credits, simply because our equipment serves both traditional and emerging resources, undermine this progress. By supporting a full spectrum energy economy, we can ensure sustainable jobs that transition seamlessly from oil and gas to critical minerals and clean energy.

To close, CAOEC urges this committee to recognize the vital role of energy exports in sustaining jobs and communities. By building infrastructure and having competitive policies, we will secure economic growth, energy security and a bright future for all Canadians.

Thank you, and I look forward to the questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Duguid]

Thank you Mr. Scholz.

We're going to go on to Mr. Strickland for five minutes, please.

[Sean Strickland, Executive Director, Canada's Building Trades Unions]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Honourable members, thank you for the opportunity to share our perspective regarding the committee's important study of Canada's energy exports.

My name is Sean Strickland. I'm the executive director of Canada's Building Trades Unions, CBTU. I'm here to speak on behalf of our 600,000 unionized skilled tradespeople from coast to coast who work in more than 60 different trades and occupations.

In 2024, Canada exported energy worth $208 billion—close to one-third of the nation's total goods exports—and 89% of those energy exports went to the United States. The Government of Canada has made it part of its core mission to diversify our markets, including our energy markets. It is a priority that we at Canada's Building Trades Unions share wholeheartedly.

The members of this committee understand very well that to achieve this goal we urgently require new major energy infrastructure projects: pipelines, LNG facilities, ports and mines, to name a few. Such projects take time to build, and up until recently in Canada, too much time was wasted to assess those initiatives before construction could begin. The TMX expansion is a case in point. It took four years to build but 10 years to approve.

This is why CBTU supported Bill C‑5, which introduced the Major Projects Office and a new impact assessment regime for projects of national interest. Now that these tools are in place, Canada must get moving for real. We need governments and stakeholders to proceed rigorously, because, yes, we have to protect the environment and consider the concerns of affected communities, including building partnerships with indigenous nations, but also expeditiously, so that final investment decisions are made and shovels are in the ground as soon as possible.

These projects are needed for our nation's prosperity, as they provide generational opportunities for thousands of skilled workers and apprentices. As an example, at peak for LNG Canada phase 1, there were more than 9,400 highly skilled Canadians working in Kitimat.

However, projects will deliver maximum benefits for Canada and its workers only if certain conditions are met. Indeed, CBTU is convinced that any time the Government of Canada makes an investment to help attract private capital, that investment should be conditional on good wages and benefits—prevailing wages—as well as apprenticeship requirements and local and indigenous hiring obligations.

That is precisely the model that Bill C‑59 put into place with its clean economy investment tax credits, ITCs. To benefit from the full ITCs, proponents must ensure that tradespersons are remunerated for their labour in accordance with the prevailing wages set out in operative multi-employer collective bargaining agreements. This prevents contractors from hiring workers for wages and benefits that are below the industry standard for a given trade and region.

We must also ensure, as per Bill C‑59, that at least 10% of the labour hours for Red Seal trades or the equivalent are performed by registered apprentices. We know from experience that this requirement has accelerated the completion rate of apprentices in achieving their Red Seal or equivalent status.

During last year's election campaign, the Prime Minister committed to reinstating and improving the programs that encourage employers to hire apprentices and to financially support those apprentices while they complete their training. We call on the government to deliver on these commitments.

We also recommend that a labour supply advisory committee be put in place so that projects' labour supply plans are properly coordinated and we can optimize jobs for Canadians and reduce reliance on temporary foreign workers.

Canada's economy is at a crossroads. A significant part of our prosperity will depend on how we leverage our extraordinary wealth and energy resources. We need to produce more energy, to export more and to export to more regions of the world. For this to happen, government approvals, investment decisions and construction must happen as quickly as possible.

Honourable members, CBTU's 600,000 members are willing and ready to build Canada's future.

I look forward to your questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Duguid]

Thank you, Mr. Strickland.

Wrapping up, we have Mr. Henkel.

[Brett Henkel, Co-Founder and Senior Vice President, Business Development, Svante Technologies]

Mr. Chair and honourable members, thank you for the invitation to speak here today.

My name is Brett Henkel. I'm co-founder of Svante Technologies, a Canadian carbon management company.

The world needs energy, and Canada has it. Let's grow our energy exports to meet global demand and build prosperity for all Canadians. My own family depends on oil and gas. At the same time, let's build the next industry the world is demanding, and position Canada as a carbon management leader.

In 1974, Alberta created Oil Sands Technology Research Authority to turn steam-assisted gravity drainage, SAGD, from a theory into a proven process: Burn natural gas, produce steam, inject it into the ground and extract oil. It worked. Alberta paid for it. Industry scaled it. Ottawa supported the science and the policy. It was Canadian ingenuity at its best. SAGD is now at about two million barrels per day, but it also emits a lot of CO2—about 85 megatonnes and growing.

Canada is at a crossroads. Expanding the oil sands requires major investment, even another potential export pipeline through British Columbia, but customers and financiers are increasingly carbon hesitant. Why do finance expansion without a decarbonization plan? Is China now shaping the future for a lower oil demand, using less gas and diesel last year? If Canada wants to remain the supplier of choice, we need to pair energy export with decarbonization.

How do we cut emissions at scale? The Oil Sands Alliance is proposing the Pathways carbon capture and storage network, potentially reducing emissions up to 40 megatonnes per year. Natural gas combined-cycle power, combined with carbon capture and storage, can provide reliable baseload power needed to support renewables.

Canada is also well positioned for bioenergy, with carbon capture and storage, our large pulp and paper sector and abundant biomass. Direct air capture, which is removing CO2 directly from the atmosphere, is an emerging global market. Companies like Microsoft are already purchasing negative emissions credits for BECCS and DAC projects, and, of course, renewables and electrification are making remarkable progress.

Why is this a Canadian opportunity? We have the technical expertise. We have world-class storage. We have a track record of first-of-a-kind projects, like the Boundary dam and Quest, and Canada is already a leader. Carbon Engineering, a Canadian direct air capture company, sold for $1.5 billion. Svante, the company I co-founded, has raised over $800 million. We invented new metal organic framework materials and built a carbon capture management component manufacturing facility in Burnaby, keeping Canadian intellectual property right here in Canada.

The demand for carbon management is real, and it's growing. There are three ways that the government can help.

Provide a policy framework that gets projects built. An investment tax credit, a carbon price and certainty are essential. Government and industry can figure this out together. Their framework should support decarbonization across all industries—cement, steel, power, plastics and more—and it should apply across Canada.

Allow carbon management to access the federal clean technology manufacturing investment tax credit. The ITC covers minerals, solar, wind, hydrogen, nuclear—all of them—but not carbon management. Including it would build the backbone of the industry. Intellectual property manufacturing and innovation would stay in Canada.

Also, encourage Canadian content: Attach Canadian content requirements to federal financial support where appropriate, strengthen federal programs that support development of Canadian technology and scale up federal purchases of carbon removal credits.

Canada largely missed the manufacturing waves in solar, wind and batteries, but carbon management is still early enough for Canada not only to participate but to lead. We can grow jobs in both the energy export industry and the carbon management industry at the same time.

Thank you, and I look forward to your questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Duguid]

Thank you to you all.

We're going to go to questions, but just before I do, I want to welcome Mr. Bélanger and Mr. Stevenson to the committee. It's a great committee. We get along, for the most part.

We're on to questions, and Mrs. Stubbs, we're going to start with you.

[Shannon Stubbs, Conservative, Lakeland, AB]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you to all the witnesses for being here and making clear the truth that Conservatives have always known and stood up for: The gift and the promise of Canada is in “all and every kind” of energy, rather than the “either-or”, isn't it?

I would just make one point, though. Canada, from your perspective, Brett, may have missed the boat on many of these technologies, but Alberta, of course, hasn't; it's been home to the largest and oldest commercial wind and solar farms in the entire country for decades. This was mostly done in our province through the private sector by oil sands and pipeline companies.

I want to thank you all for talking about the full spectrum of energy and its importance in creating jobs and its community contributions. The Canadian Association of Energy Contractors say Bill C-5 is a “first step”, which is, of course, why you all know that Conservatives helped improve and pass it last year. However, they said broader reforms—as you touched on—to the regulatory and policy environment are essential for investor confidence and obviously to unlock the full potential of Canada's conventional oil and gas.

The oil sands get a lot of news and they get a lot of noise, because that is what puts Canada on the map in terms of global reserves.

Mark, from your perspective and for your members—who are mostly individuals, small and medium-sized companies, homegrown Canadian companies owned and built by them, and very many indigenous entrepreneurs like those I represent in Lakeland—would you outline the top priority laws and regs that must be repealed or fixed to address what you have all said needs to be done urgently?

Also, I might note the Liberals have given us a hand in that by listing them in the back of Bill C-5, because that's why they brought in that bill. It was to work around those very laws themselves that Conservatives say they ought to fix fast.

[Mark A. Scholz]

Thanks again for the opportunity to be here.

I think the government has introduced a number of key pieces of legislation that deal with, in the short term, some of the great challenges we face as a country. When we look around the world, we see the immense geopolitical tensions. We saw the invasion of Ukraine. We have people in our own country dealing with affordability crises.

We have a bountiful resource here in Canada that the world desperately needs, and we've spent the last 10 years as a lost opportunity, a lost decade for Canada. The legislation that has been introduced recently, I think, is a step forward in the right direction. I think it addresses some of the major challenges in the short term in terms of building infrastructure in this project.

Let's be frank. At the end of the day, without infrastructure, without port access, without pipelines, Canada can't get its products to market. Then, at the end of the day, I think long term we need to start looking at creating the regulatory framework that allows capital to come back into Canada so that we can show the world that we can get stuff done and we can get things built.

Keep in mind what I really want to focus in on is how we spend a lot of time speaking about infrastructure and the lack of infrastructure to get our products to market, but one of the things I'll point out is what's behind that infrastructure. When we can build that infrastructure, we can start hiring tens of thousands of drillers and service rig contractors all across Western Canada. We can start building and manufacturing steel that could potentially go into new drilling rigs and new service rigs and new pieces of equipment that could unlock everything from helium to lithium to new oil and gas reserves. This is a huge opportunity for Canada to look at this in the sense of, yes, we have challenges, but there's an immense number of opportunities that we can take advantage of.

[Shannon Stubbs, Conservative, Lakeland, AB]

Yes.

[Mark A. Scholz]

We're moving in the right direction.

We need to have a whole rework of the regulatory framework that allows not just projects that get designated in the Major Projects Office but allows projects, both brownfield and greenfield projects, to come forward with certainty of what that regulatory process looks like.

[Shannon Stubbs, Conservative, Lakeland, AB]

So far, the Liberals have announced about 11 projects with some already being built and some already being approved. Apparently, they're going to the MPO, which hasn't approved a single thing. There are 72 real projects with real private sector proponents in front of the three federal regulators. They are in limbo land while these guys create yet another layer, an expensive office, and say that it's going to get things built at speeds not seen in generations. However, not a single thing has been built, except things that have already been approved.

The Liberals killed a dedicated export pipeline to Asia, when they should have redone the indigenous consultation. That was over a decade ago. Northern gateway would be operating out of my riding, in Bruderheim, if that were the case. They killed a west-east pipeline for Canadian energy security and exports to Europe through death by delay, and they kept moving the goalposts deliberately for domestic politics. Then, they had to buy TMX, because they wouldn't clear the path for certainty for the proponent to actually build the pipeline once it was approved. Now it's on the taxpayers' dime.

Would you agree that the government needs to fix the fundamental laws and regulations it admits to blocking? Then every investor and every proponent across the entire spectrum of energy development in Canada could have certainty to propose and build projects. They would know that they would get the green light and that the government would back them. They could create jobs and contribute to all the communities across the country. All three of you have articulated that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Duguid]

Mr. Scholz, give a quick answer. We're out of time.

[Mark A. Scholz]

That's a tough one to unpack, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Duguid]

You can say yes or no.

[Mark A. Scholz]

There's no question that it's been a difficult past decade. We did get a pipeline built, which ended up being essentially nationalized.

We have serious problems, from a regulatory perspective. I do believe that we've seen a tonal change by the federal government. We have seen bills introduced that I think are going to be dealing with some of the short-term challenges. However, there's no question that we need a systemic change in how we regulate and how we approve these projects so that we can get products to market.

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Duguid]

Thank you.

We will go to Mr. Hogan for six minutes.

[Corey Hogan, Liberal, Calgary Confederation, AB]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, witnesses. It is great to see you all today.

Mr. Scholz and Mr. Strickland, your testimony was a reminder that we do this for Canadians. We do it for workers, for their families and for their communities. That is ultimately what all this drives to. We talk about energy policy, fiscal policy and environmental policy. These are all means to an end, but not an end in their own right. We do these things to provide as many people as possible with the opportunities to build better lives. I want to thank you.

Ms. Stubbs and I agree on some things, and we disagree on others. However, we certainly agree that it needs to be easier to unlock opportunities that put people to work, as the Prime Minister has said and as the Prime Minister has tasked the Major Projects Office to do.

Mr. Henkel, I don't want to leave you out of my thanks. Your work has a very interesting connection to the work of Mr. Scholz's members, which is where I want to start today.

Mr. Scholz, I don't know if many people fully appreciate how the same people who drill and service oil wells, with the same equipment, are involved in so many other parts of the energy sector and how that could unlock export opportunities. I'm hoping you can expand on the variety of work done by your members and the opportunities for growth and stability, keeping people working through declines in oil prices as well as the booms.