Evidence of meeting #17 for International Trade in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was need.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Conservative
Adam Chambers Conservative Simcoe North, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Mr. Worry, would you be able to provide the committee with a list of some companies you follow closely that you think we should be more concerned about? I don't mean in public here today. Could you follow up in writing with some of the companies you bump up against that you believe are connected to foreign state actors?
Chief Executive Officer, Nuvation Energy
We can definitely provide that. We can provide that information to the committee, yes.
Conservative
Adam Chambers Conservative Simcoe North, ON
Excellent.
Have you provided a list like that to the federal government yet? Do you believe the government is aware of which companies they should be concerned about?
December 1st, 2025 / 5:20 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Nuvation Energy
We've provided some of that information to the Province of Ontario and the work we've done in the U.S. I don't think we've done that yet at a federal level in Canada. We'd be happy to provide that.
Conservative
Adam Chambers Conservative Simcoe North, ON
Thank you very much.
This is a broader question. How close are we to residential applications or a broader use of battery systems residentially? Is that something we can expect to see over the next few years, or are we a few years out from that?
Chief Executive Officer, Nuvation Energy
If we look at the installations of energy storage that are going in, utility-level installations are the largest percentage at some 80%, based on batteries' capacity and megawatt hours installed. In terms of quantity or unit number, there are lots of residential installations going in. Increasingly, utilities tend to encourage and incentivize residential energy storage installations, especially when it's done alongside solar installations. Basically, once you hit a certain percentage in terms of penetration of renewables in a utility area, you want to incentivize your customers to use energy storage. On a sunny summer afternoon, you don't want more energy on the grid. Electricity is kind of like water: Once it's made, it has to go somewhere. It either has to go to a load or it has to be stored.
Conservative
Liberal
Steeve Lavoie Liberal Beauport—Limoilou, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I’d like to thank the witnesses for coming here.
Ms. Young, you said your community is very culturally diverse. Can you tell us a little about opening new markets? As you know, Canada wants to open up markets, including with the Indo-Pacific and with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or the ASEAN.
Are you already doing business in this region? Is it likely that trade between Canada and these regions will increase?
Can you tell us a little about the strength of cultural diversity in your region?
Chief Executive Officer, Surrey and White Rock Board of Trade
The cultural diversity and the languages spoken mean that we already have existing relationships in these countries. All that's needed are the supports in order to invest in a new country, which of course we have. You often have to look in many different places in order to understand it as a new business person who wants to start business in another country or to sell to another country. Through the trade hub, we'll be offering these supports by taking all the different government programs and putting them in one place. What busy business people don't have time for is researching what is out there. We are putting that all in one place so that they can find it there easily. We're also providing that education.
The other thing we need to do is broaden our scope in the countries where we already are doing business. These are countries that understand Canada and what we have to offer. We need to look at different markets within those countries where we're already doing business. That's what I recommend we do. Surrey has, of course, every industry you can think of. We have the most manufacturers out of any city in British Columbia. There are many opportunities, especially with our supply chains so close to the ports as well.
Liberal
Steeve Lavoie Liberal Beauport—Limoilou, QC
What are the most promising and the most attractive sectors that can be developed internationally?
Chief Executive Officer, Surrey and White Rock Board of Trade
It depends on the country. Different countries have different interests in terms of what they would like to import from Canada. In Asian countries, for example, it's Canadian fruit and pork. Agriculture is very big. There are also many services that are exportable. It's not just products. We need to think about it from that side of the coin as well.
What we really need to think about is educating these countries on what it is we have to offer. Trade missions are the best place to do that. What we've heard from the business community is that it feels like a bit of a photo opportunity versus real business-to-business conversations and figuring out what we can do together. I would encourage government to think about bringing more industry representatives on the trade missions and making time for those real conversations.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
Thank you very much.
Thank you to our witnesses.
For the information of the committee, Thursday will be our last meeting of this session. We have the Minister of Industry for the first hour. In the second hour, we are doing forced labour.
The clerk got some messages from Buenos Aires and Brasília. The missions have indicated that the dates we had suggested for April do not work for them. We'll now tentatively look at the break week in May. The clerk will get back to us.
Is everybody good? Okay.
The meeting is adjourned.