Good evening, everyone. Thank you for the invitation to appear before you.
The Centre of Excellence in Energy Efficiency, or C3E, is a fund that focuses mainly on investing to help Canadian companies get through what is referred to in marketing as the “valley of death”. We invest a lot of money in research and development and in expending plants to obtain contracts, but between the two lies the “valley of death”. That is where C3E wants to position itself and further what it has been doing since 2009. The Centre of Excellence in Energy Efficiency feels that the only way to make money is to export products and import money.
We note that in the wake of COP21, the Government of Canada has shown a strong interest in decarbonizing the country's economy and in investing more to reduce our carbon footprint. The transport sector is responsible for more than 23% of greenhouse gases in our country. In certain provinces, like Quebec, that figure is 45%. Globally, the figure is 13%. Consequently, we must focus our attention on this matter, but not only on the “transportation” aspect. If certain provinces want to eliminate oil from their plans, and purchase BMS, vehicles and batteries offshore, the loss of trade will simply be transferred to another sector. Consequently, it is important to invest in Canadian innovations so that we can export our products and import currency. That is how we will create wealth here.
Let's look at another issue. We've been discussing transportation. Did anyone come here today without using some means of transportation? Some of you took a plane and others took the train. Personally, I came by car. What can Canadians do to encourage homegrown innovations and help businesses get through the first steps in commercialization? That is exactly where the problem lies. We invest in research and development, but there is nothing left for commercialization. That is where businesses need a hand up to get the first sales and raise their profiles.
Currently, projects are funded in silos. There are budgets for transportation, industry, natural resources, the environment, and there is a desire to invest in all of those sectors. For our part, we invest in the energy efficiency of rail, sea, road and air transportation. We know that the majority of projects concern the road sector, but there are also many applications for the lightening of materials, as well as for managing power, energy and engine power.
According to a study by the International Energy Agency, in 2035 oil will still be used for certain mobile applications. We think it is still possible to improve and increase the energy efficiency of traditional internal combustion engines. Consequently we must invest in our innovations. When it comes to lightening, hydrogen, and electric vehicles, I am convinced that Canada as a whole would benefit if the Department of Transport, the Department of Environment and Climate Change, the Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and the Department of Natural Resources were grouped together so as to invest in a program to advance the commercialization of our spinoffs.
For instance, SDTC, Sustainable Development Technology Canada, has quite an impressive budget for technological demonstrations. They show Canadians that things are working. That is were C3E would like to intervene and have a fund to help commercialize the best ideas, the best positionings and these innovations. Once again, the idea is to export products, import money and create wealth here. That is what we want to do.
We need to see initiatives from government as well as policies on industrial technological spinoffs. The Department of National Defence, for instance, buys technology abroad. It is used here to reduce our carbon footprint. Imagine how good the financial picture could be if we did the same thing with our Canadian innovations.
Thank you.