Thank you, Chair.
To continue on with my colleague's amendment here, Sustainable Marine Energy was the project in question. I'm going to read from a CBC news article, entitled “Tidal power developer slams DFO for years of delays, stops application for N.S. project”, from March 21, 2023:
The CEO of Sustainable Marine Energy, a company based in Scotland with an office in Dartmouth, says his company is stepping back from its application for a site with the non-profit Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy (FORCE) near Parrsboro, N.S.
“We have notified [the Department of Fisheries and Oceans] that we are withdrawing, what is now our third application, for an authorization,” said Jason Hayman. “We have been working for about three years to get an authorization from DFO to deliver our project, but we are basically coming up against a brick wall.”
So the expansion plans are halted. The article continues:
“Right now we are trying to work with our project partners and stakeholders and look at our options,” said Hayman. “We would like to remain in Nova Scotia if we can find projects to deliver, but that's proving to be quite difficult at the moment.”
The article goes on to say, and of course this is what the amendment and the motion are all about, that when it comes to the atmosphere that this government has created, this is another blow to the tidal power industry:
Hayman says his company has sunk about $30 million into their work to use tidal power to generate electricity from the Bay of Fundy and have also been granted millions of dollars in federal government funding.
Sustainable Marine's decision is a blow to the tidal power industry, said FORCE executive director Lindsay Bennett.
“We are very aware of the need to build a clear regulatory path for marine renewables,” said Bennett.
“Every project has unique challenges, but right now Canada is missing a clear regulatory process. If we're going to fight climate change with marine renewables, we need one.”
This just goes on. We've been saying on our side for a very long time that this is the problem when governments get too big, get too authoritative and get too much of that top-down type of approach. The industry is basically begging for a clear path and some clear vision on how we are going to continue on with renewable power in our country. They need a clear framework.
I really do think this is why the motion is so important and this committee must send a clear signal back to the government that it had better get its act together.
Thank you.