Evidence of meeting #68 for Natural Resources in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was electricity.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal James Maloney
Thank you very much.
Mr. McCauley, you're going first. You have about two minutes.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
I probably have about two minutes of questions.
You mentioned a fair number of items, such as switching over to electric vehicles and electrified conversion. You know, we have these targets. I think in Ontario, one out of every 10 cars is going to be a Tesla or a Volt in 10 years. Has anyone done an analysis of what the demand is going to be for electricity and how many more Site C dams we are going to have to build if we are successful in achieving these dreams?
5:10 p.m.
Chief Economist, National Energy Board
In our high technology case, we did incorporate more electric vehicles, etc. We have significant amounts of solar and wind coming on in that time period. Natural gas uses a little bit less, because we have so much more renewable coming on.
It all balances out. There is sufficient electricity capacity for the electric vehicle assumptions we made.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
What's the assumption? Is it what Ontario has, the fantastic number of one out of every 10, or is it much lower?
The reason I'm asking is that if it's one out of every 10 cars, or along those lines, I think we're going to have to build, in B.C., eight Site C dams to cover the extra power generation, or massive amounts of wind, which has unintended consequences, such as killing off birds and bats off the sides, and this and that.
I'm just wondering what numbers you are using.
5:10 p.m.
Chief Economist, National Energy Board
I don't have those numbers off the top of my head.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Okay, maybe we'll get them later.
The second question is kind of the flip side. We heard from the ATCO guys and Capital Power, going back to the excess energy we have in every single province and all this green energy coming on board. Is the whole talk of interties going across the country perhaps an expensive boondoggle we should stay away from? Every province, it sounds like, has a fair amount of excess energy. That's again even before Site C or Muskrat Falls come on.
5:10 p.m.
Chief Economist, National Energy Board
It's not something I could comment on.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal James Maloney
That's where we'll end it. Thank you, Mr. McCauley.
Thank you both very much for joining us today. We appreciate your taking the time to be here to contribute to our study.
We will suspend for two minutes, and then we're going in camera for committee business, so everyone else will have to clear the room.
[Proceedings continue in camera]