Thank you very much.
Let me say that I'm pleased to be invited to be here, but I have to make a comment about our setting. While I'm representing the Clean Energy Association, I'm very partial to coastal British Columbia, and what a magnificent place in which to be. Thank you for being here.
For members of the committee who are not familiar with the Clean Energy Association of B.C., our mandate is to develop a viable, independent power industry in British Columbia that serves the public interest by providing cost-effective electricity through the efficient and environmentally responsible development of the province's energy resources. We have about 300 members.
More than 1,100 workers are currently directly employed in 48 operating projects, and another 15 projects are under construction. The proven technologies include run-of-river hydro, small storage hydro, wind, biomass, biogas, and natural gas. Today these projects represent an estimated $5.4 billion in capital investments. They have a significant multiplier effect through our first nations partnerships and provide tax revenue to all levels of government at a community level and through our extensive supplier chains.
Currently, 125 Indian bands out of 203 in British Columbia have some involvement with our sector. We're very proud of the relationships we have with first nations.
This year your deliberations occur at a time when there is a unique combination of global economic uncertainty and unprecedented opportunity for British Columbia and Canada in significant new industrial activities in LNG, mining, and shale gas. I know my colleagues on the mining side have a lot of exciting news to share with you in terms of the outlook in B.C.
A key hotbed of this activity is happening in northern British Columbia, which is anchored by regional centres such as Prince Rupert, Terrace, Kitimat, Prince George, Fort St. John, and Fort Nelson. By naming those centres, I'm in no way forgetting the smaller centres that exist throughout northern B.C.
B.C. recently announced its provincial jobs plan, which serves as an excellent foundation to stimulate the investment required to realize the opportunities the province has in front of it.
Clean Energy B.C. believes the ambitious targets outlined for three LNG facilities by 2020 and eight new mines and nine upgrade expansions by 2015 are attainable and laudable goals. Clean Energy B.C. members strongly support the sustainable development of our natural resources to provide the jobs and government revenue that allow our province to enjoy one of the highest standards of living in the world.
As our industrial base grows with these new opportunities, CEB.C. also applauds the provincial government's commitment to ensure the province remains a climate change leader. Around the world and within the rapidly growing clean energy sector, British Columbia's leadership in addressing climate change has puts the province on the map for investors.
What can the Government of Canada do to help out?
The first recommendation would be that we need an energy vision. Canada has bits and pieces of programs and strategies. We need to tie this together with what the provinces are doing through a strategy that underpins it all. Conservation initiatives, coal, oil and gas, renewables such as my sector, clean technologies, transmission lines, transmission developments, smart grids and distributed generation, a climate change agenda, industrial growth, and economic development all need to come under a new energy vision for Canada.
The second recommendation is more specific. British Columbia needs help to build the necessary transmission infrastructure in northern B.C. Federal participation in the northwest transmission line, which is very close to here, is welcome and a good model for what else is needed and how it can be done, but we also need a northeast transmission line and upgrades that go from Prince George, westward to Terrace, and ultimately to Prince Rupert.
Thirdly, in terms of renewable energy, Canada needs to spur development in the renewable sector. Supportive policies and instruments such as potential tax incentives or a green bond would help increase investment, innovation, and new developments.
Furthermore, we need to see harmonization between federal and provincial environmental assessments and permit regulations. We create jobs at a high level that last by having our federal and provincial investment conditions coordinated with market opportunities. Human and natural resource capital is synchronized to maximize what we create.
More specifically within the energy sector, we have new opportunities for industrial load growth that are fundamentally different from those in the past. Specific to the energy requirement for this industrial load, recent B.C. Hydro estimates show a range of relatively short-term growth specific to the opportunities that is equivalent to over three Site C dams. This is the major dam project that B.C. Hydro is pursuing in the northeast, which is a significant development. But the load growth that's proposed for northern B.C. is three times what would be met by that one project.
Clean energy fuel solutions are cost-competitive with whatever B.C. Hydro can provide. Gas and clean energy are the two options that are before the province and the federal government. We're saying that both need to be engaged and involved. We certainly ask for a place for the clean energy sector to help with the economies anchored by centres like Prince Rupert, Terrace, and Kitimat.
With that, let me conclude. Thank you very much.