Thank you very much for having me. It was an unfortunate occurrence last week with the line strike. I am in the pipeline sector, so I guess it was somewhat of a fateful event.
I'm thankful to be here on behalf of Young Women in Energy and my employer, Keymay Industries. I'm humbled and excited at the opportunity to present my views, which I've gathered over the last eight years of being in energy, along with being a voice for about a dozen or so industry leaders I consulted in preparation for this speech.
I want to spend my time speaking to two interests, “clean tech” definition clarity and platforms that support the commercialization of technology. First, I'll explain how Keymay Industries, my company, which was historically in manufacturing, is now involved in the clean tech market.
Within the natural resources ecosystem, transportation via pipelines is a pretty critical component. Oil and gas pipeline construction is particularly challenged right now by the current political and economic climate, with sustained low commodity prices and an increase in complexity. Fostering innovation has understandably been taking a back seat, as businesses tend to pursue their operational survival.
I think a lot has already been said by other witnesses about the importance of policy stability and reliability from term to term helping out a lot in that sector. We do notice that the large-scale adoption of technology is much more reliant on having that for the long planning cycles they tend to have.
I agree with that sentiment, but I'm giving you the small and medium enterprise perspective here: there are other driving factors for innovation. During the 2015-16 downturn, Keymay Industries spent 1.5% to 2% of our revenue each year on the development and commercialization of an automated coding technology for pipeline construction.
The equipment, which is called the AutoBond, replaces a manual painting process and provides a major savings to our customer in the form of efficient improvement and very large-scale reduction in one-time use materials. It's a significant environmental impact. Like I said, the landfill reduction is a key component here. We estimate that in the course of the next couple of years, there's going to be about 2,500 kilometres of new pipeline construction, and we're talking about a landfill savings of 240,000 pounds of waste.
This brings me to my first point. Is this clean tech? Many who I talked to in preparation for this said, “Absolutely,” and nodded, while others said that the government is looking for biofuels, batteries, and grid solutions. There's a lot of work to be done here in ensuring that small, medium, and large enterprises are included in the development of clean tech.
The definition provided in this study is “any product, process or service designed with the primary purpose of contributing to remediating...any type of environmental damage”. The latter two words are really the key part, “environmental damage”.
At first glance, the example I gave you about the AutoBond may seem like a very small drop in the bucket. It's important to acknowledge that small companies all the way through to large companies have an important role to play as we transition to a more sustainable energy ecosystem.
The major emphasis within the clean tech definition that you have provided us seems to be the remediation or prevention of environmental damage. As there is no generally accepted clean tech definition nationally or internationally, I see this as a leadership opportunity for Canada to champion the measurement and classification of clean technologies using a much more holistic view of the impact, rather than isolating purely the end benefit or product. This is what some would call the wheel to well philosophy, this holistic kind of balance of considering all components that go into the end product, and not just what it's doing at the end of its life cycle.
Life-cycle impact is a much more valuable part of the definition. The reality is that without measuring cradle to grave, how do we truly know if there is a prevention or remediation piece occurring?
One example is the recent tax that Singapore levied on Teslas, and this is a very eye-catching kind of headline. The Singapore land transport authority did a study, and they discovered that the energy that goes into generating the electricity for Teslas uses over 400 watt-hours per kilometre. They taxed the Teslas, because this wasn't as efficient as some of the other energies that could go into driving a car.
Similarly, if we look at the biofuels debate, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that increasing bioenergy crop cultivation poses risks to the ecosystem and biodiversity. Their examples are that biofuels—some of them, I should specify—produce greater total greenhouse gas emissions than those of petroleum products.
The clean tech study is an incredible opportunity for the government to engage industry experts and economists, first to design the proper instruments and tools that you'll need to measure these life-cycle impacts that I'm referring to, and then to provide that feedback to the public so that all stakeholders, including industry, academia, and associations, have a clear understanding of where that area of priority will be and where we will be making a real difference.
The motivation to create clean technology isn't solely for the environmental benefit or the intrinsic benefit. It is also for profit. Where there are inefficiencies or wastefulness, there will be entrepreneurs. In my opinion, clean tech products or technologies will spring to life not because of government policy or incentive but as supported by government policy and incentive. Really, when we look at the $2 billion already spent in the last three years on clean tech R and D, a very healthy amount of that, almost 70%, comes from industry as compared with about 18% provincially and 14% federally. I really don't believe there is a lack of motivation or incentives impairing the creation or adoption of clean tech. I think we need to start looking at some of the disconnects between the R and D and commercialization stages. There is definitely a disconnect there.
There has been a lot written already, such as in the 2015 publication “Canadian Energy Strategy”, about technology and innovation as a high-priority area of focus, but it is very heavily leaning toward the development and research side of things. Really, this is where I'm starting to echo a lot of the experts who have 20, 30, or 40 years more than I do in the industry. It's very unclear in those studies what portion of that $2-billion expenditure is in what stage of that product being developed or realized. Is it more in the R and D stage or is it on the commercialization side? As I said, it's surfaced in almost every single conversation I've had with my peers and mentors that a focus on commercialization is essential, and it's often missing.
The programs they mentioned most frequently, since you guys are looking for examples, included Technology Partnerships Canada, which was retired in December 2006, and the Canadian innovation commercialization pilot program. They mentioned these repeatedly because they had something in common. They both supported pre-commercial products and services, not R and D. There were a lot of examples within Technology Partnerships Canada, where the government was able to get a return on this investment, up to 1.5 times, for the technologies that were successful. But I'm sure you guys have much more access than I do to all of the information behind those programs.
To reiterate, I really appreciate the opportunity to speak to you. I believe that the highest value the government can provide in fostering clean tech is to assume this leadership role in defining clean tech in a manner that emphasizes life-cycle impacts, and to ensure that the expenditure that will be spent in the next little bit on clean tech development and adoption is inclusive of both carbon-based and carbon-free or renewable-type industries at all levels—small, medium, and large enterprises. If we are going to prioritize anything, it will need to be the investment in the commercialization phases of the technology, not pure R and D.
Thank you very much for having me.