Evidence of meeting #10 for Environment and Sustainable Development in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was energy.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Liberal
Joanne Thompson Liberal St. John's East, NL
Thank you. I will try to be quick with this.
Ms. Joseph, I suspect that you might be the better one to answer this. It concerns fossil fuels in Canada not being restricted to support from just the federal government. Provinces and territories have jurisdiction over policy and regulation. How does the federal government coordinate and engage with other levels of government to facilitate the reduction and elimination of subsidies in accordance with international commitments?
Vice-President, Government Relations and Indigenous Affairs, Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers
On the production side, again, it's our view that there are no production subsidies in Canada. I think there's work that the federal government can do with the provinces to create the best policies possible to enable producers to reduce their emissions.
I can give an example from methane emissions. The offset systems that are available in the TIER system in Alberta, which the federal government agreed was equivalent, has allowed many of our producers to meet their targets early, the initial federal targets, and to look to go beyond them. That's not public money. That's them reducing their carbon tax load by taking the actions that we want to see and then being able to benefit by selling those offsets. That's creating a virtuous circle to get the technology and innovation that we want.
Liberal
Joanne Thompson Liberal St. John's East, NL
I may get another little question in. What should the role of the federal government be in reducing or eliminating fossil fuel subsidies?
Vice-President, Government Relations and Indigenous Affairs, Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers
Well, I think as my colleague said, the federal government should take stock of what is a subsidy and what isn't. We do rely on the G20 definition for that.
If the federal government has policy goals that go beyond what industry's able to do economically, because we don't want to have our emissions reduction goals as a country be achieved through economic harm, then the government will have to take measures that enable those things to happen. It could be an ITC, for example, for CCUS.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Francis Scarpaleggia
Ms. Thompson, thank you for helping us finish the first part of the meeting more or less on time.
I want to thank all the witnesses. Their testimony has added value to our study. This will surely be reflected in the report we will table at the end of our study.
The meeting will now continue in camera.
Committee members need to disconnect and reconnect to transfer to committee business in camera. I ask that you do so very quickly.
We stand suspended.
[Proceedings continue in camera]