I am, Mr. Chair. Thank you very much for the opportunity to participate today.
The Canadian Gas Association is, as many of you know, the voice of Canada’s natural gas delivery industry. Our membership includes utilities and transmission companies, equipment manufacturers and suppliers to the industry. Our members are active in eight provinces and one territory. Combined, we meet roughly 35% of Canada’s energy needs through a network of underground infrastructure. We provide over 20 million Canadians with what is the most affordable, reliable energy service offering available.
Our infrastructure delivers gaseous energy, and increasingly that includes renewable natural gas and hydrogen. Our member utilities are Canadian companies based in communities in your constituencies across the country. We want Canadians to benefit from the energy services we deliver today and in the future. By leveraging our energy infrastructure, we offer some of the most cost-effective options available to help the Government of Canada meet its greenhouse gas emission reduction targets.
Four of our members appeared before the committee on April 30: Énergir, Enbridge, Gazifère and Fortis Inc. They outlined the ambition and level of activity under way in their respective provinces.
For us, as the national association, we're working to support members’ goals in all the provinces in which we're active. We're focused on three key priorities. One, we are designing strategic renewable gas programming and policy support for RNG and hydrogen through public-private funding partnerships. This includes a request for federal leadership to commit to purchasing RNG, and in the future hydrogen, for federal buildings across Canada. Two, we are supporting new RNG and hydrogen technology solutions through initiatives like CGA’s natural gas innovation fund. Three, we are working with member companies to modernize provincial regulatory and legislative frameworks that govern investments that CGA members can make.
In 2020, we turned to our members to solicit project concepts to support our economy and contribute to getting people back to work. All told, we created a list of nearly 70 projects in four areas: green building retrofits, alternative transportation, LNG, and infrastructure and renewable gases. Specific to renewable gases, we mentioned over 21 projects across five provinces. That number is ever increasing and points to the opportunity that Canada has to partner with industry to deploy large-scale renewable gas deployment opportunities.
When our companies appeared before your committee on April 30, you heard about programs under way that deliver RNG to customers. Many of our other members are working in the field as well. ATCO in Alberta is piloting hydrogen and recently announced a partnership with Suncor. Heritage Gas in Nova Scotia is also targeting hydrogen as a key component of its future gas supply in the province.
Globally, governments and industry are realizing the need for gaseous energy infrastructure to meet the growing energy needs of the world. Here in Canada, as we note, recent programming and policy documents support renewable gas development, including the national hydrogen strategy, proposed funding in budget 2021 for carbon capture and storage and the $1.5-billion clean fuels fund.
What do we need to deliver on what is being asked?
First, it's essential that legislative and regulatory frameworks in the provinces allow for investment in low-emission projects like RNG and hydrogen. Specifically, we're looking at a process to adjust legislative frameworks that govern utility investments so that regulators can consider emissions reductions goals in their decision-making framework. At present, they're focused strictly on the lowest cost for customers. If governments want energy delivery companies—and this applies to electric utilities and gas utilities—to deliver on emission reduction targets, the regulatory regime governing utilities will have to be adjusted.
Second, Canada requires more public-private co-operation on clean-tech development. We created an excellent opportunity for such co-operation when we launched the NGIF four years ago as a granting vehicle for new technology start-ups using industry dollars. Governments quickly advised they wanted to partner with us, recognizing the industry leadership.
Recently, we built on that original grant fund and created two new entities: a clean-tech ventures fund and the NGIF Emissions Testing Centre. The investments made through the venture fund will improve environmental performance while building the value of natural gas to meet the ongoing needs of Canada’s energy system. The venture fund has an initial investment of $35 million from seven leading companies across the value chain. There is significant opportunity for deeper co-operation so that such market-driven innovation can deliver on the best results for environmental performance.
Third, we need policy leadership from all levels of government that is technology neutral. Government shouldn't pick which energy pathway or technology it thinks best to deliver on its emissions reduction goals. Currently, the Canada Infrastructure Bank prohibits RNG buses and focuses exclusively on hydrogen and battery buses. It's an example of the kind of intervention that needs to change.
To make the point on transportation, RNG is a promising solution in municipal and other fleet applications. We note Canada's first carbon-neutral bus fuelled by RNG in Hamilton, Ontario, and TransLink's recent announcement of 25 CNG buses in B.C.
These announcements mean significant greenhouse gas abatement and reduction in operating costs from the traditional diesel buses you see every day.