Mr. Chair and honourable members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to present today.
My name is Trent Vichie. I am the chief executive officer of EverWind Fuels, Canada's most advanced green hydrogen development.
For the last two years, we have invested over $200 million in capital to pursue and push our projects forward. Last week, we were pleased to announce the completion of our front-end engineering design, which marked a major milestone in the development of the project and in the development of the technical and engineering requirements to build the project. In short, we are a significant supporter of the government's initiatives to move forward in terms of reducing carbon emissions, and we see hydrogen as a crucial part of this work.
As you will hear in our comments, the swift passage of the investment tax credits—first announced in the 2022 fall economic statement—are a crucial part of bringing these projects to life. The swift passage of ITC legislation is important for two reasons. First, it provides certainty to invest. Second, the passage of legislation also allows other parts of the government that administer the ITCs—namely, the Canada Revenue Agency and Natural Resources Canada—to roll out the administrative aspects, which are crucial to the effectiveness of the investment tax credits. Some of these areas are highly technical and need to be integrated with the engineering work. This leads to a need for speed on that.
Today, I am here to provide our perspective on Bill C-59, which implements certain provisions of the 2023 fall economic statement. Specifically, we will focus our comments on the clean technology investment tax credit.
First off, we are pleased the federal government has introduced a robust suite of policies to ensure Canada remains a globally competitive jurisdiction when it comes to clean energy. The fulsome set of ITCs and other public policy tools gives Canada the opportunity to be an investment destination of choice and a leader in this sector. However, to truly seize this first-move advantage, we must be swift and decisive in our public policy actions. The global race to provide clean energy to the world is on and competition is fierce. We have the opportunity to make Canada a leader in this space. The U.S. Inflation Reduction Act must be met with an equal or more robust policy response, and the ITCs play a key role in this.
With this context, we want to highlight two important commitments made in the fall economic statement.
First, a timeline was laid out with regard to the enactment of certain clean investment tax credits. For EverWind, the timeline around the clean hydrogen ITC is crucial, along with the introduction of legislation for the clean technology ITC through Bill C-59.
Second, the fall economic statement proposed clarity regarding the effect of repayable loans from Crown corporations and other public authorities on the investment tax credits. EverWind closed a $125-million loan with Export Development Canada in late November 2023. This proposal provides certainty that the loan will not delay the availability of various clean investment tax credits. We look forward to seeing this measure in the forthcoming bill.
With that background, the introduction of legislation for the clean technology investment tax credit is therefore most welcome, including the mechanisms for labour conditions, which we wholeheartedly support. As a general comment, the refinements from the August draft legislation are welcome and also consistent with the original framework announced in the 2022 fall economic statement.
My message to parliamentarians is simple: We need the legislation that will activate these ITCs to be passed without delay. The clean energy ITC and clean hydrogen ITC will help ensure Canadian green energy projects can develop with greater speed and certainty and can be cost-competitive on a global stage.
As I mentioned earlier, EverWind has invested nearly $200 million in our projects to date, in order to establish North America's most advanced green energy hub in the Atlantic Canada region. We are the only project in the western hemisphere to have completed FEED engineering. This shows Canada can lead the way, but we need all the public policy tools to be fulsome and operational in order to seize this opportunity in front of us.
As we are in advanced discussions on offtake, full certainty and accessibility of the investment tax credits will enable the signing of binding offtake agreements and the financial close—project financing and final investment decisions—on our multi-billion dollar project this year, with production at the end of 2025.
As we indicated in our consultation submissions, we have full certainty in the design and functionality of these ITCs to provide greater commercial certainty and establish Canada as a global green-energy leader.
I'll conclude by saying that the global energy movement towards green energy is rapidly accelerating. It's a critical time for the federal government to determine whether Canada will be a leader or a follower in the future energy economy. That is why we need to ensure that the clean technology ITCs and others are in place as quickly as possible. There's not a moment to waste in this fierce global race.
Thank you again for your time, and I look forward to questions.