Yes.
Evidence of meeting #28 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 million.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #28 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 million.
A recording is available from Parliament.
2:20 p.m.
Liberal
Seamus O'Regan Liberal St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL
Certainly, we know that getting those consultations right is absolutely essential to having a predictable process in order to make sure that good projects, including pipelines, get built.
2:20 p.m.
Conservative
Jeremy Patzer Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
Thank you.
Just quickly—I have 30 seconds here—you talked about $319 million for carbon capture and storage over seven years. You also alluded to emissions having no borders. There is, again, a carbon capture knowledge centre. If 8.5% of the coal plants in China had carbon capture, it would capture the same amount of emissions of Canada in its entirety.
What are we doing to expand carbon capture beyond Canada's borders to help reduce global emissions?
2:25 p.m.
Liberal
Seamus O'Regan Liberal St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL
I don't know exactly about other countries. I just know that CCUS is something that we're being very aggressive about. I've heard the concerns from you, Mr. Lloyd, and from others about where things will figure in the consultation process. We take it all seriously. We want to get it right. It will need to be competitive. The Americans are also getting very aggressive on CCUS as well. With the high ESG of our products and with CCUS, not only do I think we are lowering emissions in the oil and gas industry; we could open up an incredible market in hydrogen.
2:25 p.m.
Liberal
2:25 p.m.
Liberal
Michael McLeod Liberal Northwest Territories, NT
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
It's good to see everybody at committee.
Welcome to the minister. As the minister knows, the north is not the same—
2:25 p.m.
Bloc
2:25 p.m.
Liberal
2:25 p.m.
The Clerk of the Committee Ms. Hilary Jane Powell
I'm going to confer with the folks in IT. I know we're having some difficulties with the sound cutting in and out, so I will get some more information and report back shortly.
2:25 p.m.
Liberal
Patrick Weiler Liberal West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC
Michael, if you lift your boom a bit that might help.
May 28th, 2021 / 2:25 p.m.
Liberal
Michael McLeod Liberal Northwest Territories, NT
[Technical difficulty—Editor] the rest of Canada doesn't face, and we're experiencing climate change impacts like nowhere else in Canada. In the last two weeks, five communities flooded and to an extent we've never seen before. I'm on flood watch right now in a community where the water is going to be over the banks pretty soon.
With changing water levels, temperature change, melting permafrost, shore erosion and forest fires, we have it all, and the sad reality is that we have very little greenhouse gas emissions. It's something that concerns us and we want to see every avenue taken to try to change it.
The announcement of the $2.6 billion for home retrofit grants was very good to see. I think a lot of people in our communities are happy with it. There is a large indigenous population here and we have challenges with housing, so this is going to go a long way.
However, we have other issues: our costs are higher, we have isolation concerns and our construction seasons don't match those in the south. I'm hoping the minister will be able to let us know whether a solution will be tailored to the north so we can be included as part of this. That's my first question.
The second question is about the energy advisers. These positions are going to require people with a high level of education and degrees in the field already, before they're even considered as advisers. We have a small population. We don't have many experts in this field. I'm hoping this portion of the announcement will allow us to tailor the training program so we can have people from the north doing the job of energy adviser.
Those are the two questions I have for the minister.
2:30 p.m.
Liberal
Seamus O'Regan Liberal St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Those are two excellent questions.
As I just said in answer to Ms. Jones, I've seen it where I grew up in Labrador. It is literally rendering the wisdom that has been passed down over hundreds, if not thousands, of years in Inuk communities in northern Labrador no longer accurate—I think that would be a soft way of putting it—because everything has changed. The ice highways that connect communities are no longer there when they need to be there.
As I indicated earlier, all of this, including two things you mentioned.... We were talking earlier about getting off diesel, but we're also talking about housing within these communities. There are steps we can take to adapt to a change in climate.
There is the issue that you rightly mentioned about energy advisers. There are about 800 energy advisers in the entire country right now. The Prime Minister and I, just about a week ago, announced that we would begin training. We are now taking proposals on training another 2,000 advisers. We see this as an incredible opportunity to really increase the number of indigenous people and women we hire. They would be in communities that are affected, as they know their communities best. We're using local knowledge and local capacity.
I know we don't have much time, and I don't want to put him on the spot, but because he was my former deputy minister in Indigenous Services, J-F may have something to add quickly to flesh out my answer for Mr. McLeod.
2:30 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Natural Resources
No, you're right. The north has specific challenges and specific opportunities at the same time, especially on issues of adaptation. On the issue of training, I'll turn to Mollie. We've been doing some work to ensure that, as much as possible, the advisers are where the needs are and not necessarily just in downtown Ottawa.
2:30 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Low Carbon Energy Sector, Department of Natural Resources
I'll be quick. We made early agreements with trusted partners to fill some of those gaps. The announcement that the Prime Minister and Minister O'Regan made is really focused on diversity and inclusion, but it also looks at training people in the places they are needed.
Mr. McLeod, as you noted, that training will focus on how we help overcome those barriers for energy advisers as they want to upskill to learn how houses work. Traditionally these have come in from specific sectors of the economy. We want to help overcome...and provide more training. We'll do that on an accelerated basis.
That is part of the focus of what we are doing. We're also working to ensure that we are taking a regional- and place-based approach. Also, right now, in the portal, individuals who have different ownership structures in indigenous communities can call into the call line, and we'll support and facilitate their entry into the portal.
2:30 p.m.
Liberal
Seamus O'Regan Liberal St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL
Mr. McLeod, I'll just add—and you can hold me to account on this—that I grew up in the north. My officials have heard me say too many times, although never enough, that we have to take local capacity into account but particularly in the north. I'm very sensitive to that. If you see that that's not the case in your communities, you can hold me to account, and I know you will, Michael.
2:30 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal James Maloney
Minister, that is an appropriate way to end. You're here today so that we can hold you to account.
2:30 p.m.
Conservative
2:30 p.m.
Conservative
Greg McLean Conservative Calgary Centre, AB
I would ask the minister, through you, to stay an extra 10 minutes. I do think he started a little late because of the officials having difficulty getting in. I know he committed to us for an hour and a half, but that's an hour and a half of questioning, I think, not an hour and fifteen or twenty minutes.
If you would stay the extra 10 minutes, I'd appreciate that.
2:30 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal James Maloney
It's not an unreasonable request, Mr. McLean, but I understand that the minister needed to stop at 2:30. It's now 2:30—almost 2:34, and we started at 1:05. We're arguing over a minute and a half, if we want to get right down to it.
2:30 p.m.
Conservative
Greg McLean Conservative Calgary Centre, AB
Well, I'll challenge your timing on that, Mr. Chair. I think we started after 1:10, and the minister took his first 10 minutes getting on page, so we didn't actually start asking questions until after 1:20.
