Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
It has been over 18 months since Russia's illegal and vicious attack on Ukraine. It has been over one month since Hamas's monstrous terrorist assault on Israel. Asia is on high alert, as Communist Chinese rhetoric and actions suggest the integrity of Taiwan is at risk.
Conflicts are raging and more threaten. The world is unstable. It's a grave concern for us all. Its effect on energy means that energy matters more than ever. Energy's the lifeblood of functioning modern societies. It is the foundation of economic well-being, and is essential for national and international security. It always matters, but all the more so in moments of instability.
Canada has energy in abundance, particularly natural gas. My association is the voice of Canada's natural gas industry. Our members are responsible for nearly 40% of our country's energy needs—almost twice that of the electricity industry—serving eight provinces and one territory. Since before Confederation, Canadians have been using gas energy. Over 20 million benefit from it today and more still across the country want access to it. Natural gas is the largest single contributor to our residential, commercial and industrial energy needs.
Canada is home to world-class companies in natural gas production, transmission, distribution and services to the sector. Canada is at record production and consumption levels of natural gas, and the numbers are growing.
Now we have an enormous opportunity to help the world. Canada should commit to making more of its extraordinary energy resources and technologies available to our allies. The world needs and wants energy, and for the most part it isn't discriminating on what kind. There does remain some discrimination as to the source. One source the world would like more energy from is Canada.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine, my offices have had meetings with representatives from across Europe and Asia. They have all asked how to get more natural gas, more quickly, from Canada. They know our environmental standards and our our governance standards are high, and that we have an extraordinary abundance of the resource. They know that if they had a comparable abundance then they would be developing it quickly. Yet, they see us as seemingly incapable of delivering in the way they would expect us to deliver.
This needs to change. Canada should step up and do more. In an unstable world, a concerted Canadian strategy to help on energy is both an opportunity and a responsibility. We have hundreds of years of supplies of natural gas, and a producer industry more than willing to get it to market quickly and efficiently. What are we doing to ensure that happens?
We have global expertise in the movement of gaseous fuels across great distances safely and reliably. What are we doing to take this to the world?
We have efficient and transparent regulatory regimes for the distribution of energy. What are we doing to take these to the world?
We have extraordinary innovation in how we manage the resource and its use, including the development of alternative gaseous fuels like renewable natural gas and hydrogen, and are working to develop more. What more can we do to bring this to the world?
Parliamentarians should sit down with industry to craft answers to all of these questions.
Consumers of energy care about three things: that energy is reliable, affordable and acceptable. Under the third of these, acceptability, a primary focus for many years has been environmental acceptability, particularly with respect to emissions. Global insecurity has forced a necessary step back from an exclusive focus on environmental acceptability, and a reflection on how all three legs of this energy stool are kept stable.
Natural gas energy, consistently one of the most affordable, reliable and acceptable in countless applications, is particularly well positioned to help address all three for the world, as it continues to do for Canada.
While the CGA is primarily focused on domestic concerns, we represent Canada globally for the gas industry in the International Gas Union. We recently hosted the global industry's biggest liquid natural gas conference, LNG2023, in Vancouver. We're about to host the world's biggest conference on gas technology and innovation, IGRC2024, in Banff next May. All of this speaks to how we are apprised of the role of gas globally. What we see is great promise.
There are reports about how we are trending towards a decline in the use of fossil fuels, but the evidence on the ground suggests anything but that. Moreover, in the course of human history it is rare that we stop the use of any particular fuel or energy technology, rather, we add more and improve the use of all. This is the likely future of natural gas in the world. Canada, given the comparative advantage we have in supply, infrastructure and expertise, should lead on this for Ukraine and for the world at large.
Approximately a decade ago our industry worked with government in Canada and the United States to assist the Ukrainians in strengthening their gas infrastructure, at a time of serious threat from Russia. Those threats have manifested themselves in terrible ways. The help we provided then should be built upon and we should do more now.
In conclusion, I should note that we don’t speak about gas to the exclusion of other fuels or technologies. We think all are needed for a more prosperous and more secure world. But we see an enormous opportunity for immediate and profound benefits from natural gas not being realized, and we think it should be.
Thank you.