Natural Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, for the opportunity to appear today. As mentioned, my name is Timothy Egan. I'm president and CEO of the Canadian Gas Association. CGA is the voice of Canada's natural gas delivery industry. As the map in your handout shows, our members include the natural gas distribution and transmission companies that deliver energy solutions to more than six million homes, businesses, and institutions in communities from coast to coast to coast.

Finance committee  Any opportunity to put more gas into the transportation sector is one that we're prepared to consider and discuss with federal officials. With respect to the north in particular, there are obviously unique challenges. One of the challenges of showing a map of the United States and a map of Canada is that the distribution of the population is entirely different.

Finance committee  I find that whenever there's a debate about carbon, people quickly move to a position where they think that because natural gas is a hydrocarbon—it's the simplest hydrocarbon, but it's a hydrocarbon—therefore we have to think about getting rid of it. I find that the more we can talk about driving efficiency and innovation, the more we can achieve a variety of environmental benefits, including emission reductions—and emission reductions are one of many environmental benefits.

Finance committee  The short answer is, yes, it has, and utilities would be happy to work with the federal government on a project-by-project basis. They're limited in what they can do on their own because there's a formula with each regulator that authorizes what they can and can't spend. But they can always be partnering with third parties in the interest of advancing broader objectives.

Finance committee  As I mentioned, we just came off a three-day conference with the International Gas Union, and we had a series of discussions about this. When people talk about 100 years of gas, the estimate is based on approximately 700 TCF, trillion cubic feet, and we produce about six a year in Canada.

Finance committee  We have approximately a dozen distribution companies and 50 manufacturers and suppliers.

Finance committee  Interestingly enough, no.

Finance committee  It depends on where you're from in the country. In British Columbia, we're not missing out at all. A shale resource is being developed as we speak in northeastern British Columbia. Interestingly enough, it's supported by both sides of the provincial house, both the sitting government and the principal opposition party, the New Democrats.

Finance committee  Yes. It's my understanding that Natural Resources Canada is actually in the process of collecting such information. It's commissioned some work in order to ensure that there is more of a national scientific perspective. I'm somewhat cautious about the idea of a national energy strategy to facilitate this because—

Finance committee  I appreciate that. My point is that I think the appropriate regulatory regimes can be developed in the provinces. The federal government's role can be to speak to the economic opportunity that's represented by developing the resource across the country.

Finance committee  The deficit that we face on the skilled labour side is, as with many other sectors, due to an aging workforce. There's nothing you can do to reverse the aging trend, so that's a tough one to overcome. Any effort aimed at recruiting young people into the technical workforce—anything that can trigger the attraction of coming into the technical side of the business—is beneficial.

Finance committee  To be honest with you, the pursuit of this has not been a priority of the association, because the upstream side has been particularly focused on this. In terms of specific suggestions, what I'd suggest is that the federal government, again using something of a bully pulpit, can look at sitting down with the provinces and industry and ensuring that we have the right identification of where the particular need is.

Finance committee  That's correct.

Finance committee  First of all, I would say that we actually do have a very robust distribution grid in place. The issue on transportation isn't about how effective the grid is; the issue is the cost of the vehicles and the cost of building the unique stations that are required for fuelling vehicles, particularly large vehicles, for LNG, liquid natural gas, or for CNG, compressed natural gas.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Natural gas is central to Canada's energy mix, meeting approximately 30% of the country's energy needs, more than electricity. Well over half of the Canadian population relies on natural gas for heat and power in over six million homes, apartments, businesses, hospitals, schools, and other facilities across the country.