Evidence of meeting #28 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 technology.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:45 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Francis Scarpaleggia
Thank you very much.
Last but not least, batting cleanup, we have Mr. Duguid.
5:45 p.m.
Liberal
Terry Duguid Liberal Winnipeg South, MB
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm batting cleanup in clean tech.
My first question is for Mr. Burany.
The story of your company going south of the border is not a new story. I think we've all heard it before, and there are many critics of our innovation ecosystem. We do incredible R and D and we develop the IP, but we can't get the money to scale up and we get scooped up. That's happening with big tech all over the place. It's happening in water technology and energy technology.
I wonder if you could amplify a little bit on Mr. Mazier's question. If you were innovation minister for a day, what would you change, and how would you change the Infrastructure Bank? Perhaps be a little more granular. We have the clean growth hub and the net-zero accelerator. We seem to have a lot of stuff, but, again—per Mr. Rochette—results could be better.
5:45 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, BioSphere Recovery Technologies Inc.
It's not that hard. I would allow the Infrastructure Bank to fund between 75% and 100% of projects. I would allow the infrastructure funds to provide a 0% loan for 20 years, and I would allow them to adjust the payback rates to zero for that period of time.
A lot of these projects are long-term and they are very lucrative. The problem is that you can't get them off the ground. If we can do that, they'll be able to support the growth in this industry.
The U.S. already does this. They have a $105-billion fund that is doing exactly this, and it's a fund that we've tapped into.
5:45 p.m.
Liberal
Terry Duguid Liberal Winnipeg South, MB
Could you send that to us in some sort of communication? It would be very useful for the committee as part of your testimony. I can tell you that we will take a very close look at it.
Thank you.
5:45 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, BioSphere Recovery Technologies Inc.
Yes, I will share that with you. I can also tell you that the Federal Reserve in the U.S. directly backs $20 billion of that fund through gold reserves.
5:45 p.m.
Liberal
Terry Duguid Liberal Winnipeg South, MB
Mr. Rochette, buildings are 13% to 18% of our emissions profile, so they're a place where we can get real gains on reducing carbon pollution.
You are the minister of procurement for a day. Again, as I understand it, all the technology that can get us to our goals exists, but it may take more innovation and processes, and being creative about how we do things. Minister, what would you do?
5:45 p.m.
Founder, Ecosystem
Yes, we do buildings. We also do industrial. Again, I think outcome-based procurement and contracting are great, because they tell the market, “We have a problem with this building. We have a problem with this industry. What would you do to solve it?” That's what they said to SpaceX and Boeing: “We need to go to the space station. How would you do it? How much would it cost?” The engineers competed against each other for the best solution, and they have to deliver it.
This is night and day. You incentivize creativity and innovation—
5:45 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Francis Scarpaleggia
Thank you.
That takes us to the end of a very interesting set of panels.
I want to thank our panellists for this discussion about individual technologies that will help us make progress against greenhouse gas emissions and so forth. Thank you very much.
Thank you to the members for your patience today. We'll be meeting next Tuesday, because Friday is, of course, a holiday.
Thank you again to everyone. Enjoy the rest of your evening.
The committee is adjourned.