Environment Committee on Sept. 20th, 2022

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Good afternoon, everyone.

I am pleased to see you all after the long summer break.

Today, Ms. Pauzé will be replaced by Ms. Vignola, who has been with us before. Unless I'm mistaken, Ms. Pauzé is in New York for a North American climate summit, which the minister is also attending.

We are continuing our study of clean technology, which we were able to start after the summer break. This is our second meeting with witnesses on the subject.

Today's meeting is taking place once again in hybrid format. I remind everyone I see on the screen that they must put their microphones on mute when they do not have the floor. Of course, they may speak in either official language.

Aside from that, I believe everyone knows the health measures to follow when attending meetings in person.

In this first hour of our second meeting on the Conservative clean tech study, we have, as an individual, Dr. Michael Ross, who is the industrial research chair in northern energy innovation at Yukon University.

We also have with us Mr. Vincent Moreau, executive vice president of Écotech Québec, participating by videoconference, and Ms. Jeanette Jackson, chief executive officer of the Foresight Cleantech Accelerator Centre, participating in person.

Witnesses will each have three minutes for their opening remarks. We will then move on to questions and answers. I will follow the order I have before me.

Dr. Ross, the floor is yours for three minutes.

[Dr. Michael Ross, Industrial Research Chair in Northern Energy Innovation, Yukon University, As an Individual]

Thank you very much.

My name is Michael Ross. I lead a research program at Yukon University that's directed by the electric power utilities in the territories. What that means is that I look at and investigate renewable technologies and all technologies to meet our industries' needs, but in a lot of ways what I've been focusing on is the integration of renewables into remote communities across the north, focused on indigenous communities and their renewable energy projects.

Ultimately, what I have found with regard to the integration of renewable energy technologies is that it's never siloed. You have to consider many different aspects. I like to use the STEEP framework to identify the considerations of integrating renewables into remote communities. It's the STEEP framework where we look at the social, technical, economic, environmental and policy aspects of integrating renewables.

With regard to the social aspect, that's what government is for: to look at the best interests of people. The integration of renewables can leave a lasting legacy in the sustainability of these remote communities if it is established properly.

On the technical aspect, that's my bread and butter. I'm an electrical engineer. It's utilities' prime mandate to provide safe and reliable power to their customers. When power systems are four nines reliable—99.99% reliable—everybody just always assumes that you can throw anything at them and they will always work, whereas that's not always the case. Especially when power in has to equal power out at all times, when you integrate intermittent resources like solar and wind, where you can't tell the sun to—

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Excuse me, Dr. Ross. We're having trouble with the interpretation, I think.

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB]

It's all going to the room. There's nothing, or very little, going to her mike. It's like the volume has switched.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

The interpreter is having difficulty hearing the witness.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

If I understand correctly, it's because he is speaking a little fast, and not because there are technical difficulties on our side.

Dr. Ross, does your headset have an arm? Could you bring it down a bit and maybe speak a little more slowly? That will allow the interpreters to do their fine work, and we'll see how it goes.

Go ahead, please.

[Dr. Michael Ross]

If we can't tell the sun to shine or the wind to blow, it's hard for the utility to provide safe and reliable power to the customers when they don't have as much ability to control it. If we reduce our reliance on diesel fuel, which is a proven technology that can be dispatched and that is easy to control, we just have to supplement that with additional resources and capabilities to provide those ancillary services for a safe integration.

There's also the economic aspect of it, which impacts the business case and how much ratepayers pay for their electricity. On the environmental aspect, I'm of the opinion that you can't extract energy from an ecosystem without affecting that ecosystem. It's just a matter of different resources having different impacts on the environment.

Then finally—

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Excuse me, Dr. Ross. I apologize for these technical difficulties.

I'm told that we can't hear you.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

The interpreter said that the sound was too bad for her to be able to work and turned her microphone off.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Is the witness using a headset provided by the House?

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Alexandre Longpré]

No, we didn't have time to send him one.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Okay.

Unfortunately, your headset doesn't meet the particular standard here, which means that the interpreter cannot interpret. I don't know if you have another headset available.

[Dr. Michael Ross]

Can you hear me now?

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Can we do a little test? Just talk about the weather.

[Dr. Michael Ross]

The weather up here is getting cold.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Is that good? I'm sorry, but it's not working properly.

I think what we'll do, since there doesn't seem to be a way to salvage this at this point, is to go now to Mr. Moreau for three minutes, and hopefully his headset will work properly.

Before starting, Mr. Moreau, to check your microphone, could you tell us about the weather where you are?

[Vincent Moreau, Executive Vice-President, Écotech Québec]

It's cool, it's getting chilly and it's humid. We hope that it will warm up a little. It looks like fall has already started.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

You are correct.

Is the sound good for the interpreters, now?

It would seem so.

Thank you for the weather update, Mr. Moreau. You have the floor for three minutes.

[Vincent Moreau]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you very much to the committee members for having us here today to talk about the Clean Technology Data Strategy. My name is Vincent Moreau and I've been Écotech Québec's executive vice president for three years now. Écotech Québec is an industrial cluster that supports Quebec's clean tech ecosystem. We're talking about investors, innovators and companies that want to adopt clean technologies. We're also talking about accelerators and incubators. In short, we drive and support this ecosystem to facilitate and accelerate the deployment of solutions that will protect the environment and contribute to the fight against climate change.

The second thing we do is influence public policy along these lines. We believe very strongly in the power and the means offered by clean technologies to initiate the green transition, which businesses need to make. Think of large companies or industries that will ask their small suppliers to adapt to criteria or standards, such as sustainable finance, or even environmental targets. The fact that we are starting a green transition, which is necessary to address climate change in Canada, will have an impact on the entire supply chain.

We have three recommendations to that effect.

First, support small and medium-sized innovative companies to bolster their position and enable them to continue their research and deployment activities. This can be done in a number of ways, including enhanced programs or through eco-fiscal measures or tax credits. I can talk more about this during the question and answer period.

Second, we need to enhance programs currently in place. Make it faster and easier for businesses to access them, and accelerate their deployment activities. We want to get as many projects up and running as possible. So, we need to ensure quick access to existing programs, while enhancing and aligning them.

Third, we must encourage industrial companies that have taken steps, that want to pick up the pace and embark on the transition adventure, which must happen. We must also use other measures to encourage companies that benefit from these programs. Require them to have targets and standards, or to show they are adopting clean technologies that will have an impact on fighting climate change and on protecting the environment. This can be done in many ways. I can give you several examples of recommendations. One is accelerated depreciation. We can also allow companies to protect their intellectual property, offer them tax credits, for example for research and development, enhance programs—

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Thank you.

I'm sorry, but we've just gone over the three minutes. We will, however, have the opportunity to delve deeper during the question period.

Ms. Jackson, it's your turn for three minutes.

[Laurel Collins, NDP, Victoria, BC]

Mr. Chair, I have a point of order.

With respect to Dr. Ross's time, are we going to try to get the sound working for him, or will he not be able to answer questions in this session?

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

I'll go to Ms. Jackson right now, but after Ms. Jackson, we'll give it one more shot. Maybe we can ask him some questions with the hope that we can receive a written response. Just because Dr. Ross cannot at the moment interact verbally, that doesn't mean we can't ask him to provide some insights and information in writing.

We'll go to Ms. Jackson, and then we'll see if we can get Dr. Ross back online.

Ms. Jackson, go ahead.

[Jeanette Jackson, Chief Executive Officer, Foresight Cleantech Accelerator Centre]

Hello. My name is Jeanette Jackson. I'm the CEO of Foresight Canada. I'm honoured to be here today.

Foresight is Canada's largest clean-tech accelerator, and our audacious goal is that Canada be the first G7 country to reach net zero. We can do this by effectively bringing together innovators, industry, investors, academia, government and indigenous communities in strategic, thoughtful ways to rapidly launch, commercialize and scale clean-tech solutions from Canada.

We have a passionate team of 35 staff and 170 global executives who support three key pillars of activity around acceleration, adoption and ecosystem alignment. I'm happy to discuss some different program details as required.

Tackling climate change takes collaboration. With our partners and networks, our programs have helped more than 850 Canadian companies validate, commercialize and scale and 150 global partners source Canadian clean tech. Our venture network has created more than 7,050 green jobs and $1.2 billion in investments and has driven more than $2 billion in economic impact for Canada. We also do investor matchmaking and curate about 1,000 introductions per year to strategic investors.

We applaud the Government of Canada's efforts to position Canada as a global leader. Other countries are catching up in some areas around investment and policies in adoption.

The biggest challenges and opportunities for Canada are in every sector. Every sector is impacted, and we have a very dynamic landscape of sectors and competencies across the country. This will, if we work together, lead to unprecedented economic and social well-being opportunities through investments, exports and attracting the best minds in the world, as well as preserving our resources.

I want to showcase a few strengths and, in particular, clean tech across different value chains. In forestry, we're talking about engineering wood, biomaterials, bioenergy and packaging; in mining, mineral processing, ore sorting, better electric vehicles, zero-emission vehicles for large industry, and of course lithium production; in energy and carbon management, things like CCUS, hydrogen, methane, renewables, the processing of those technologies and ores, and of course utilities management; and in transportation, in things like batteries and fuel cells, we have these competencies.

We cannot overlook waste management and the built environment, as those are up-and-coming aspects of excellence in Canada. Also, water is often an unlooked-at segment, because you don't calculate it by GHGs; you calculate it by saved water.

In Canada, we are also building competencies around data and digital clean tech, AI and some manufacturing and carbon credit management solutions. If you want to become a global centre for financing clean tech, let's look at the finance sector as well.

We have innovation gaps in these value chains, in particular around manufacturing in scale, and it is important to keep in mind that companies are still moving from Canada, closer to adoption as well as capital.

In the opportunities we have, on the ideation stage, let's make sure that we're giving industry information to academic institutions and innovation hubs so that we can be more problem-, market- and data-driven. I'm happy to get into that.

On the commercialization side, this is why we've launched some of our programs around technology acceleration. You really need to know how to commercialize technology and allow ventures the tools they need to use engineering firms and other sources without feeling insecure about their IP.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Thank you.

[Jeanette Jackson]

There's great opportunity there. We have engineering strengths across the country.