Thank you, Chair, and thank you to the committee for the opportunity to share the perspective of Siemens Energy Canada on this study.
Our parent company, Siemens Energy, is a global leader in energy technology, with locations in over 90 countries. Here in Canada, we service the entire energy value chain, from power generation and transmission to fully integrated systems for industry. The Canadian portfolio includes conventional and renewable energy technology, such as gas and steam turbines, power generators, transformers and wind power technology. We are also thinking forward to Canada's net-zero commitments, working with our clients on decarbonizing parts of the economy. Our company has a 100-year legacy in Canada and is dedicated to keeping the lights on across the country. We are also active in the emerging Canadian LNG sector.
One of the service lines operated by Siemens Energy Canada is maintenance of specialized critical infrastructure for pipelines, known as aeroderivative gas turbines, or AGTs. Turbine owners typically have long-term programs to maintain the safe operation of the unit. Companies operating pipelines around the world ship these turbines to the state-of-the-art Siemens Energy Canada AGT facility in Montreal. It's the only service shop in the world that works on these specialized parts.
In February 2022, Siemens Energy was in the middle of performing maintenance activities on a turbine owned by Gazprom. When Russia began its illegal war in Ukraine, the Government of Canada announced sanctions in response to these actions, including against Gazprom. Siemens Energy Canada immediately ceased all work on the turbine, froze the movement of the turbine, stored it at our facility, and informed the RCMP, as required.
Siemens Energy opposes Russia's unfounded military aggression in Ukraine. We support the position of the coalition of governments working to end Russia's war, including through sanctions. We abide by all sanctions imposed against Russia and have refused all new business in the Russian Federation.
In May the Government of Germany notified Siemens Energy headquarters that Gazprom was insisting that the continued sanctioning of the return of the AGT would prevent the continued operation of the pipeline this fall. At that time, the Government of Germany advised that non-functionality of the pipeline threatened a failure of energy security in Europe. It was this extraordinary humanitarian circumstance that led us to alert Global Affairs Canada, and this circumstance alone that led us to the filing of an application regarding potential return of the turbine.
We recognized the seriousness of the situation. These were unprecedented global events, but in the end, we are engineers, not diplomats. We are not in a position to balance the geopolitical situation between the Canadian sanctions regime and the energy security of Europe. Siemens Energy Canada is a good corporate citizen. We recognized that we were not the appropriate party to balance the extraordinary geopolitical issues at stake. We were in effect the service shop holding the impounded parts.
Since the practical question was whether Siemens Energy Canada should ship out the AGT, we filed an application to the government pursuant to the sanctions rules, so that the officials could take that decision.
On July 9, 2022, Global Affairs issued a permit pursuant to the Special Economic Measures (Russia) Permit Authorization Order made under the Special Economic Measures Act. Shortly after the permit was issued, we began the authorized process for the return of the AGT to Germany. The turbine was returned to Germany in July 2022, and it remains there today.
Our role throughout was to provide information to the Government of Canada. We were not involved in the Government of Canada's discussion with the Government of Germany, the assessment of Russian strategic intentions, or any decision-making process. These were not our decisions to make. Strict adherence to our regulatory obligations is a cornerstone of our company. At all times, we operated in accordance with the sanctions regime.
Thank you for this opportunity. Siemens Energy Canada remains eager to work with Canadian industry on energy projects from coast to coast to coast.
I'm available for your questions. Thank you.