Thank you, Chair.
Mr. Chair and members of the committee, I want to thank all of you for undertaking this study of the low-carbon and renewable fuels industry and how we might work together to advance these industries in Canada to create new jobs and maintain energy security, reliability and affordability, all while addressing climate change, including our country's recently announced goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 40 to 45% below 2005 levels by 2030.
In our view, low-carbon and renewable fuels will be a significant part of Canada's low-emissions future.
My name is Cynthia Hansen and I'm the EVP and president of gas distribution and storage at Enbridge. I'm fortunate to lead the Ontario-based Enbridge Gas Inc., which follows the amalgamation of Enbridge Gas Distribution and Union Gas, as well as Gazifère, which serves the Gatineau region of Quebec.
With me is Jean-Benoit Trahan, the director of Gazifère.
Enbridge operates North America's largest natural gas utility by volume, and the third largest by customer count. Enbridge Gas and its affiliates deliver safe, reliable service to about 15 million people in Ontario and Quebec through 3.8 million residential, commercial, institutional and industrial meter connections.
We've been delivering energy for over 170 years, so our perspective on the promise of Canada's low-emissions future is informed by decades of experience. My comments today will focus on hydrogen and renewable natural gas, or RNG.
Enbridge was an early investor in both hydrogen and RNG, and is very experienced in RNG. On the hydrogen front, our journey started in 2011 when we partnered with Cummins Inc., formerly Hydrogenics Corporation, to establish a collaborative joint venture to create and advance the renewable hydrogen market in Ontario and, more broadly, North America. The culmination of this joint venture was the construction of the first and largest power-to-gas renewable hydrogen plant in North America, located in Markham Ontario.
The plant was a platform for Cummins to showcase its world-class, leading proton exchange membrane electrolyzer and fuel cell stack technology. For us, it's an important expansion of our renewable energy portfolio, establishing and growing the market.
This past November, we announced the next phase of our hydrogen journey in Markham—a $5.2 million project, supported by Sustainable Development Technology Canada, to blend renewable hydrogen gas into our existing gas network. This project will be the first of its kind in North America, and will be in service this fall. This project will unlock additional value in our larger-scale hydrogen blending activities in other parts of our distribution system.
In Ontario, we have a number of exciting hydrogen opportunities under development. We're looking at leveraging our four strategically located compressed natural gas stations along Highway 401 to create a green hydrogen corridor.
We are approached regularly about new hydrogen projects. We're looking at bus refuelling facilities, new power-to-gas opportunities, and several mobile and stationary power generation applications. We see opportunities in other parts of the country as well, including with B.C.'s gas transmission and distribution system. Further, the opportunity to decarbonize Alberta's oil sands through a carbon capture utilization and storage solution that is fully integrated with ambitious plans to launch a local blue hydrogen sector is very exciting.
In Quebec, as my colleague Jean-Benoit can explain, Gazifère aims to be North America's first natural gas utility to be 100% green by 2050. Hydrogen will play a large part in that, which is why, in February, we announced, along with our partner Evolugen, a new $90 million, 425,000 gigajoule green hydrogen injection project. We agree with Canada's Minister of Natural Resources, Minister O'Regan, that hydrogen's time has come. However, steps will be needed to take this opportunity.
Finally, on renewable natural gas, we're involved in three significant RNG projects in London, Niagara and Toronto, Ontario. We're a partner in a biorefinery project in Lacombe, Alberta, and we've recently celebrated the launch of Ontario's first carbon-negative RNG bus in Hamilton. We've also launched an important voluntary RNG program for our customers in Ontario to empower households to lower carbon emissions. Just this Wednesday, we announced a major new partnership to execute projects in Ontario that convert organic waste into energy and utilize current Enbridge infrastructure to heat homes, power business and fuel fleets, all while reducing carbon emissions.
We've done a lot in the hydrogen and RNG space today, but much more could be done with government support, including strategic investments and the proper regulatory and tax environment.
I'm very much looking forward to the conversation over the next hour and a half. Thank you again for your time and leadership.