Industry Committee on Nov. 24th, 2006

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you very much, Mr. Scott.

I want to stay with the energy theme. Energy is obviously one of the main challenges we're dealing with, from both an environmental and input cost position. I'd like to ask Mr. McDougall to highlight some things, and others can comment.

You're working on the Alberta Research Council. As well, we have been to the facility in Vegreville. On CO2 capture and the algae program that you're developing at the ARC, would you quickly highlight some of those initiatives for members?

[John McDougall]

I appreciate that, Mr. Chairman. Let me make a bit of a preamble comment as a follow-on to Alan Scott's comments.

It's virtually certain, I think, that the oil sands will be producing three million barrels a day within the next decade or so. In Beijing last week, one of the economists from the energy and utility board suggested that by 2047 they'll be producing nine million barrels a day, which would put Alberta, if not at the front, very close to the front as number one producer in the world. Of course, that brings pressures, not only the labour pressures that we've talked about but actually the CO2 and other greenhouse gas emission pressures. We'll be talking about hundreds of millions of tonnes of emissions. What's fascinating about that is what we've said and concluded, that this will put Canada in the position of having the world's largest resource of CO2, as opposed to the biggest problem.

We're looking at a number of options for dealing with it. The obvious one is to hide it away, which is what sequestration largely is. You kind of stuff it in the basement and forget it, and that's okay. You may get extra value by trying to enhance oil recovery or coal-bed methane production. But the real value comes if you turn it into a product. And we have a scheme we're pursuing to actually convert CO2 into algae, use the algae to then produce hydrogen and methane, take the remaining biomass and turn it into other products and materials, ranging from biofuels to plastics to whatever.

We're quite excited, and so is industry, about the potential of this. We've been trying to encourage the federal government, NRCan, to support this work; so far, I might add, without success but with good encouragement. We're hopeful the two will come together soon.

The final thing to comment on is not only that oil production or hydrocarbon production creates problems, but we have many things that have been classed as wastes that, with new kinds of thinking, you can turn into value. I'm referring to what we call our integrated manure utilization system, which actually takes cattle manure from feedlots and turns it into power, takes clean water out that can be used for the cattle, and creates compost and chemicals for fertilizers and various things. So there's a lot of actually exciting things happening nowadays, really positive things.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you very much, Mr. McDougall.

I have a lot more questions, but the clerk is reminding me of the time. We have two site visits today.

I just want to touch on a few themes. When we started off we had four challenges. We had the rapid depreciation of the Canadian dollar; the energy cost issue; competition with countries like China; and skilled labour, which is probably most in demand here in Alberta. We added on the regulatory environment as a challenge in terms of both paperwork for businesses and dealing with environmental regulations and others.

But just from the hearings this week--if I can speak for the committee--the issue you have raised and that has been raised across this country is patent protection. I think pretty much all of you touched upon getting the patent, but also protecting the product once it's actually developed. That will likely be added as a main area of the report. So I thank you for that as well.

I want to thank you very much, because I'm the only Alberta member of this committee and I keep sending the message, but I think you've done an excellent job of showing just how big Albertans are in the sense of the economic growth in this province. It's something we want to share with all regions of this country. I thank you for spreading that message today, as well as the message on the importance of research and development staying out of the curve. That's essential. The issue of capital cost allowance is one we've heard at every session we've had, if I can speak on behalf of the committee.

So I want to thank you very much for your presentations here today and for taking the time to be with us,

Because this is our last session, I want to thank the members as well. We have 12 full members of the committee, but these are the magnificent seven who went from Sunday night in Halifax and did this trek across this country. So I want to thank all of the members who are here today, because they did the full trek and deserve a lot of applause.

I also want to ask your indulgence and thank very much the people who actually made this happen. When a committee travels, it's not just the members; we travel with a whole group of staff. So I'd like to thank our fearless leader, the clerk of the committee, James Latimer. I'd like to thank the logistics officer, Laurette Dionne; the two researchers, one of whom had to return to Ottawa yesterday, but Lalita Acharya is with us here today. Dan Shaw was with us for most of the trip. The three interpreters are amazing. I have no idea how they do it, but they are Justine Bret, Susan Vo, and Hervé Carrière. I think Hervé is interpreting me now. Our two proceedings officers are Michel Legault and Stéphane Monfils.

Thank you very much to all of you who have made this week such a success.

Members, if you have any further recommendations, presentations, or information, please get it to the clerk. We hope to be discussing this report and finalizing it within the next two weeks in order to present to Parliament by mid-December.

I encourage you to talk with the members a little bit afterwards, exchange business cards, and get to know each other. If you're ever in Ottawa, look us up, for sure.

[Dave Van Kesteren, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON]

Mr. Chair, I know I can speak for all the committee. I would like to thank you for the splendid job you have done as well.

It's somewhat fitting to end here. I have to tell you, gentlemen, I came to the west for the first time--and I'm ashamed to say that I didn't travel a whole lot--about five years ago, and told my wife that if I had come here as a young man I would have stayed.

It's exciting and somewhat unfortunate that, as much as I want to go to the site visits, we have to adjourn at this point, because this has been a fascinating discussion. Thank you for your western hospitality.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you.

The meeting is adjourned.