Bonjour.
The Pembina Institute is an intensive user of energy and climate data. On a daily basis, technical and policy experts in our organization are accessing and analyzing energy and energy-related data from various federal and provincial agencies. This includes analysis to support the development of methane regulations, to re-envision freight transportation in the GTA, or to provide recommendations on how to decarbonize electricity generation in Alberta. As a result, we have a practical understanding of the issues and limitations of energy data in Canada.
In addition, our organization has a long-standing support for evidence-based energy and climate policy. We believe that high-quality data and analysis are a critical component of informed public policy, and we know that in Canada we have work before us to ensure that decision-makers from government, but also from businesses as well as civil society, have access to timely, complete, and independent energy data and analysis.
First, I would like to explain why good energy data is crucial in a context of energy transition. Our energy systems—that is, the way we produce and use energy—are under huge pressure to change, and they are already changing at a pretty fast pace.
A first cause of this change is the imperative to develop low-carbon alternatives to address climate change. A second cause is purely economic: some zero-carbon options have become more cost effective than hydrocarbons. Wind power, for example, is now a cheaper option than natural gas to produce electricity in many jurisdictions. A third reason is the emergence of new technologies. Think of smart grids, for example, or the rapid change in behaviours that affect energy demand. Think of millennials, for example, who drive significantly less than previous generations.
For all these reasons and many other reasons that I won't have time to expose here, Canada's energy systems are changing very fast. As a society, we need to better understand and document this change if we want to accelerate the energy transition and seize the opportunity offered by the new economy.
Energy data in Canada suffer from many flaws, and these flaws impede our ability to develop efficient and effective policy, to suggest alternative policy pathways, and to fully support the rise of a clean economy.
First, there is a quality issue. Some data made available are inconsistent. For example, StatsCan reports that Quebec is using significantly more natural gas than it is supplied with. Second, there are missing data. Some public reports do not include major energy sources. For example, the report on energy supply and demand, which is the go-to place to understand how we generate and use our energy in Canada, does not report wind energy, solar, and biomass as energy sources.
Quality and missing data are only two of the most frequent flaws. I won't have time to develop here all the issues at stake, but we could easily also add consistency across datasets, confidentiality issues, transparency issues, granularity, and availability in a timely manner, etc.
We have entered a data-driven world. We need credible and reliable energy datasets to develop informed, transparent, and accountable policies in order to accelerate the energy transition as well as the rise of the new clean economy in Canada.
Thank you.