Evidence of meeting #25 for Natural Resources in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was biomass.
A recording is available from Parliament.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Covenant Energy Ltd.
I don't have that number. I could very easily figure it out, but I don't want to waste your time here with my calculator.
Conservative
Jeremy Patzer Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
If you could submit that to the committee, that would be great. That would be really helpful for our report.
My last question is this. If the fuel you're making is superior to conventional diesel—I'm looking at your website and the statistics look really good—why do we even need the clean fuel standard if it's already a superior fuel, on performance merit alone, to conventional diesel?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Covenant Energy Ltd.
It's a process to get it produced. The bottom line is that to compete with the economics of producing fossil diesel, at the large scale at which they are doing it, is very tough, so we need the government support. We need the clean fuel standard to bring in the blending mandates to require that fuel to be put in there and to bring that home, and then to kind of help break into the industry of having renewable fuels blended in.
In certain areas, it looks like they're going to straight renewable diesel. You see what's happening in the cities of San Francisco and Oakland. They are converting entire fleets of city vehicles to 100% renewable diesel and seeing a significant amount of emissions reductions.
The bottom line is the scale at which fossil diesel is used right now in Canada. There is no way we can touch that sort of production at the time being.
Conservative
Conservative
Greg McLean Conservative Calgary Centre, AB
I'll continue with Mr. Gustafson.
Let's pretend for a moment that the world is going to eat the same amount of oilseeds going forward, with no increase or decrease, and you are going to produce a bunch of oilseeds for production in fuel. I think that means you're going to have to break more land.
Is this going to be a lot like what happened in southeast Asia, where they have deforested great amounts of natural land in order to make palm oil?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Covenant Energy Ltd.
No, is the short answer, and I'll tell you why.
Looking at the “Keep it Coming” strategy that was put out by the Canola Council of Canada and the federal government, they are looking to hit, as my report shows, 26 million tonnes of production, up from 20 million tonnes, over the next five years, and they're looking at doing that with the same number of acres. As I said, the yield is expected to go from 39.9 bushels per acre up to 52 bushels per acre. That is largely due to better farming practices, better products and—
Conservative
President and Chief Executive Officer, Covenant Energy Ltd.
I don't know about more fertilizer, but better usage of fertilizer, for sure.
Conservative
Conservative
Greg McLean Conservative Calgary Centre, AB
I'll go to Mr. Larocque for a quick question.
Mr. Larocque, you talked about $20 billion to $30 billion being required in investment—I hope you mean that's industry investment—over the next little while, in order to get us up to speed on what we need.
How well have we done in producing our own biofuels since—what was it—the 2008 mandate to get to 5%?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Fuels Association
If you don't mind, I will have Mr. Dave Schick answer that question. He has a bit more information than I do on this.
David Schick Vice-President, Western Canada, Canadian Fuels Association
Thanks very much for the question.
We've seen a lot of growth. It is federal policies that really drive the economics to build these larger-scale facilities. We're seeing, under the low-carbon fuel standard in British Columbia, like the CFR federally, that the carbon intensity-natured policies are driving changes like we've seen with low-carbon fuel.
Conservative
Greg McLean Conservative Calgary Centre, AB
Mr. Schick, it's a very direct question: How well have you done in meeting the last standard, which was imposed in 2008, to get to where we are now, and how much are we importing as opposed to producing here?
Vice-President, Western Canada, Canadian Fuels Association
I don't have a specific number. There is a significant amount being imported. We can do better in manufacturing these products in Canada.
Conservative
Greg McLean Conservative Calgary Centre, AB
We have failed as far as meeting our own needs here. We have imported over half of our biofuels in the last 13 years.
Vice-President, Western Canada, Canadian Fuels Association
I don't know if “failed” is the right word, but we can do better, for sure.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal James Maloney
Thank you, Mr. McLean. You are right on time.
Ms. Jones, you are going to finish off the question portion of the meeting.
Liberal
Yvonne Jones Liberal Labrador, NL
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I also want to thank all the panellists today. It's been a very informative discussion, no doubt.
As you know, the Government of Canada has worked very hard, both with many of you who are here today and with those across the country in the industry sector over the last few years, to look at federal initiatives for developing new carbon and low-carbon and renewable fuels. We like to think that we're hitting those programs in the right direction. You're the people out there in the industry transforming this. What recommendations would you leave our committee with today?
Anyone can feel free to start the reply.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Quebec Forest Industry Council
Mr. Chair, if you will allow me, I will answer the question.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Quebec Forest Industry Council
I think I was quite clear and that my fellow witnesses were in the same place. We need some financial support to bring this to the market and some clear regulations to facilitate getting capital from the market. These are the two things that will give us the proper pace with regard to phasing in the new production plan.
I would say definitely financial support and a clear regulatory framework.
Senior Advisor, Government Affairs, Dow Canada
I would say let carbon be carbon. Any reduction in carbon is a reduction in carbon anywhere in the country. Don't limit yourselves to limiting carbon. Think of other environmental impacts, and there are lots of them.