Thank you, Mr. Chair. The game was exciting, although I contend that we didn't get my desired result.
I'm pleased to be here this afternoon on behalf of the Business Council of Alberta. We are a non-partisan, for-purpose organization, comprised of the province's largest-enterprise chief executives and leading entrepreneurs. Our members represent the majority of Alberta's private sector investment, job creation, exports and research and development. We are dedicated to building a better and more prosperous Alberta within a strong Canada.
My comments this afternoon will focus on selected components of the 2022 budget, organized across three key themes.
The first theme is decarbonization and a clean energy future. With the right policies in place, Alberta businesses can and want to play an essential leadership role in reducing emissions domestically and globally. What is needed is clear, long-term, market-based policy certainty to accelerate the pace and scale of major investments, as well as policy that reflects important regional differences across Canada.
To these ends, we were happy to see a number of supporting initiatives in the budget. The introduction of the refundable carbon capture investment tax credit, the proposed $15-billion Canada growth fund and the broadening of the Canada Infrastructure Bank’s mandate to include support of private sector investment into hydrogen and carbon capture infrastructure are all important steps forward. However, a few pieces were missing.
First, decarbonizing Alberta’s economy in time to meet Paris targets will require a massive acceleration of project approval and regulatory timelines, yet the current regulatory process is slow and inefficient and reforming it was not a priority item in this budget.
One option that could help would be to create a regulatory NEXUS card to fast-track approvals for trusted project proponents and for major decarbonization projects. Second, the budget missed an important opportunity to support emissions-displacing exports of liquefied natural gas. The global need for LNG has been highlighted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and how the resulting high costs and limited energy access have forced countries to revert to higher-emitting alternatives like coal.
Beyond this, the budget overlooked some other opportunities to support the low-carbon energies and solutions of tomorrow. One is immediately expanding capital cost deduction allowances for a wider range of opportunities, like geothermal power and bitumen beyond combustion. Another is establishing Alberta as the world’s “living lab” for industrial clean-tech solutions. With concerted, long-term federal investments, Alberta has the existing asset base and skills to create and export valuable global solutions.
Theme two is a long-term growth strategy built on innovation and productivity. Productivity is a key determinant of long-term economic growth, and the business council has long been concerned about Canada’s lagging productivity levels relative to its OECD peers. With that in mind, we were looking for the budget to include a long-term growth strategy built on innovation and an improved policy environment that encourages business investment and scaling.
We were happy to see several such initiatives in the budget, in particular, the progress on establishing a council of economic advisers, the Canadian innovation and investment agency modelled after DARPA, the announcement of reviews on modernizing and simplifying tax support for R and D, intellectual property and the SR and ED program and, finally, the proposal to more gradually phase out access to the small business tax rate.
That said, details on many of these initiatives are lacking, making it difficult to comment on them, beyond stating that the ideas, at least, are welcome. We look forward to working with the government as it fleshes out these proposals.
My final theme is developing the workforce needed for the economy of tomorrow. Automation, technology development, the energy transition and the pandemic have converged to create stubbornly high long-term unemployment levels in Alberta. We were looking for the budget to provide a direct federal contribution to employment insurance to incentivize skills upgrades and an annual top-up to the Canada-Alberta Workforce Development Agreement.
We were happy to see the budget include plans to consult on modernizing EI to support workforce retraining programs, even if details were light. The emphasis on under-represented workers in the labour force and the focus on supporting innovative partnerships are critical to shaping a productive and relevant workforce.
We were also pleased to see labour supply and mobility measures proposed for trusted employers to access temporary foreign workers, a new tax deduction for relocation and travel expenses for tradespeople, and increased recognition of foreign health care worker credentials. However, the budget did not clarify the government’s just transition policy priorities. Likewise, the proposed futures fund for regional economic diversification and the emissions reduction plan’s promise of a clean jobs training centre were notably missing.
In summary, we believe this budget represents a step forward in several areas important to Alberta’s long-term economic prosperity. There is still much work to be done, however, and we look forward to continuing that process.
Thank you for your time. I would be happy to answer any questions when the time comes.