Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and good afternoon.
Through you, I extend my warmest regards to the committee members.
I'm proud to speak to the committee today about Dow Canada. Dow operates two manufacturing facilities, in Fort Saskatchewan and Lacombe County, Alberta. The Alberta sites convert natural gas feedstock into ethane, ethylene and, finally, polyethylene. Our main product in Alberta, polyethylene, is sold to customers across Canada and worldwide to make durable industrial goods, as well as packaging and consumer products. We also supply industry in the region with other petrochemical derivatives.
In Ontario, we have two manufacturing sites—one in Scarborough at West Hill and the other near Sarnia. These facilities produce emulsions and specialty plastic resins, respectively.
On November 29, 2023, Dow's board of directors approved a final investment decision for the world's first net-zero scope 1 and scope 2 emissions ethylene and derivatives complex in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta. Economically speaking, this brownfield investment enables Dow to deliver two million metric tons per annum of product growth in attractive, high-end markets, effectively tripling our domestic production. At its peak, we expect approximately 7,000 construction jobs to be created. When completed, our site will produce and supply approximately 3.2 metric tons of certified low- to zero-carbon-emissions polyethylene and ethylene derivatives for customers and joint venture partners around the globe. Environmentally speaking, this investment will eliminate a million tonnes of CO2, even with the added growth. We'll do this by converting hydrogen from cracker off-gas as a clean fuel, while capturing and storing the remaining CO2.
To expand on this a bit, the by-product of the cracking process to produce ethylene is a methane-rich off-gas. In the circular hydrogen process, this methane-rich off-gas will be decarbonized and returned to furnaces as clean hydrogen fuel. Associated CO2 is captured, transported and sequestered in deep saline caverns. This investment paves the way for the growth of Dow's entire packaging and specialty plastics portfolio.
The first-mover advantage gives us the ability to lead in capturing the growing demand for low-carbon solutions and puts Dow out front in delivering the first world-scale, fully integrated site with net-zero scope 1 and scope 2 carbon emissions.
The Fort Saskatchewan site is strategically advantaged, because we have access to low-cost ethane; there is existing rail and export infrastructure that will be expanded to support our global sales; we have direct government support from Alberta and Canada, as well as tax credits that are offsetting a portion of our cost of investment; and it is one of the few places in the world where existing infrastructure for carbon transportation and storage exists. This is a key reason that we have a first-mover advantage in low-carbon solutions.
Certainty in the investment environment we are operating in is also a key advantage. As such, I am here today to offer Dow Canada's support for Bill C-69 and the clean hydrogen tax credits it creates. The tax credit will go specifically to underwriting the costs of the hydrogen-fuelled ethylene cracker. These tax credits were first announced in a previous budget. Natural Resources Canada released its thoughtful study on the potential of this sector in 2020. It is high time we have this adopted. Similar measures were introduced, debated, adopted, implemented and deployed under the United States Inflation Reduction Act in less than two months.
We urge parliamentarians to pass this bill expeditiously, so the certainty required to rely on these investment tax credits can be built directly into our investment models. These tax credits help support the decarbonization of our operations in Fort Saskatchewan and our return to operation by 2030.
I would like to repeat a key point. These credits will lead to absolute emissions reductions. In order for Canada to succeed in reducing our emissions and meeting our emissions reduction goals, we need to see transformative investments like the one being made by our company. It is through advances in the chemistry sector that these deep emissions reductions will occur.
I welcome any questions the committee members may have.