Natural Resources Committee on May 16th, 2023

[Jeremy Patzer, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

Okay. Thank you.

When it comes to the Inflation Reduction Act in the United States, obviously the American Treasury has access to a lot of money that, obviously, Canada does not. We cannot beat the Americans when it comes to money, but the one thing that we could do to be competitive with them—and quite frankly, we should aspire to beat them in this—is streamlining regulations to be able to get projects built and accomplished.

I'm just wondering if the department is working to streamline regulations, so that way.... The minister said, we had an approval of under three years on a project. Wow, three years, really? That's fantastic.

If we want to be serious and try to beat the Americans, what is being done, throughout the department, to try to make sure that we have the regulatory certainty, so that we're not celebrating its just being under three years. We should be having projects completed in under three years, not just approved in under three years.

What's being done to make sure that we can get that done and accomplished?

[Mollie Johnson]

We know that the fastest way for us to achieve our goals with respect to economic prosperity and energy security and the environment, and the fastest way to get things done is by getting projects built and getting them built quickly.

We are focused, as the minister said, on having an approach of working across the federal departments to streamline the regulatory review and permitting process with results that will come out by the end of 2023—and that builds on another investments.

What I would say as well is that it's not just what we do at the federal level. There are the provincial processes. There are permitting processes. There are the partners who we work with, and so we're very focused on not just what we can do within our zone of control, but also how we work with all of those other players to make sure that our systems get things done faster so that we're able to achieve all of those outcomes together.

[The Chair, Liberal, John Aldag]

Thank you.

We're out of time on that one.

Ms. Dabrusin, we'll go over to you for your five minutes, please.

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Thank you.

There's already been a bit of talk about electricity. I was hoping to pull on that a little bit more, but particularly when we're talking about nuclear, because that's a big part of the source of clean electricity in Ontario. I often get a lot of questions about what we're doing to support the nuclear part of our electrical grid, and also on the safety issues.

I saw there is funding for the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, and I was wondering if you could talk a little bit more about what that funding goes towards and what work the Nuclear Safety Commission is doing right now.

[Mollie Johnson]

I might just pass it over to Shirley to talk a little bit about what the CNSC is doing, but off the top, I would say that the safety of Canada's nuclear facilities, of our regime.... We're known and renowned as being the top nuclear regulator in the world, and we continue to focus on that, particularly as we're looking at continuing to manage the nuclear that we have and considering the opportunities to deploy nuclear to look at clean baseload power across Canada to support our net-zero and decarbonization objectives.

Shirley.

[Shirley Carruthers, Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Management and Services Sector, Department of Natural Resources]

Thanks, Mollie.

I would just add that the funding further goes to implement Canada's international commitments on the peaceful use of nuclear energy and dissemination objectives, specific to regulatory information and members to the public.

Thank you.

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Thank you for that and for giving me a bit more background.

The reason that I think people are particularly interested, too, is that we're hearing a lot more conversation about SMRs. There was the announcement about the Darlington SMR, the first, I believe, grid-level SMR.

Would you be able to tell me a little bit more about the SMR strategy and what you see happening in the world of SMRs.

[Mollie Johnson]

That's a big world.

Canada released the small modular reactor action plan as an opportunity to talk about how we could figure out what the art of the possible is. It wasn't a federal-only strategy; it was working with provinces, indigenous groups, civil societies, university scientists. The whole idea, really, is try to mobilize how we can throw in together to capture this opportunity for Canada.

What's really important about this is going everywhere from critical minerals—and I point to Jeff, given his role in the critical mineral strategy—all the way through to this clean power supply that we can have in Canada as a secure supply chain, and really trying to capitalize on that in Canada.

We are very fortunate to have, at Darlington, an EA site where a 300-megawatt GE SMR is being explored and permitted. We have the AECL, which is Canada's lab, that is looking at this and providing us with some good lessons learned. We have the CNSC, which is going to be looking at how we can regulate and permit this as fast as possible, ensuring that we are looking at indigenous consultation and engagement and all of the environmental protection considerations, because if this is Canada's advantage, it is ours to lose, and we really want to ensure that we are continuing to maintain this advantage as we consider the opportunities and potential for Canada.

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

In my final minute, we've talked about a few different aspects when it comes to nuclear, but another one is the Nuclear Waste Management Organization and the work they are doing. I don't believe they're present today.

I don't know if you have anything you might be able to update us on about the work they're doing right now.

[Mollie Johnson]

For folks who haven't had an opportunity to learn about the NWMO, I would encourage you to do so, given their engagement process, which really starts with the reverse onus, asking people if they want the site, and if they do want the site, to opt in as opposed to pushing it on other people. It's been quite impressive, and, in fact, they are in Washington right now briefing the United States on how they can work together on the process they have championed.

They are getting closer to the selection process on how they work with this. They are down to two sites, and it's a 10 to 15-year process that has been under way. There will be continued news on it, but it's an important part of how we have a safe and long-term management strategy for waste that has been generated over Canada's 70 years of peaceful use in nuclear.

[The Chair, Liberal, John Aldag]

We'll stop there, and we now go to Monsieur Simard, who will have two and a half minutes.

[Mario Simard, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Ms. Johnson, to tie into the questions that Ms. Dabrusin just asked you, I believe that Canada is one of the only countries that considers nuclear power to be clean energy. Am I wrong in saying that?

[Mollie Johnson]

Under the taxonomy from the European Union, they have classified it as clean energy as well.

[Mario Simard, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

If you consider it clean energy, does that mean that nuclear energy is going to qualify in the whole strategy that's going to be put in place, particularly on electrification? I'm thinking about the $10 billion that's in the budget: Could there be tax credits for mini-nuclear projects that would produce electricity, because that's clean energy, in your view?

[Mollie Johnson]

Nuclear is part of the energy mix and, when we're looking at decarbonization of Canada's energy system, nuclear is one of the pathways we are considering.

[Mario Simard, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

Perfect, thank you.

Earlier, in response to my colleague, you talked about the famous just transition and you mentioned the current implementation of regional round tables. To my knowledge, however, there is no discussion with Quebec about setting up regional round tables. Is that the case?

[Mollie Johnson]

To my knowledge, conversations have begun with the Province of Quebec, but a table isn't formally established yet.

[Mario Simard, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

I don't know. I'm not going to spill any gossip, but I did hear that in Quebec City, there was no interest in this formula.

In the event that Quebec does not see the value of setting up round tables to negotiate, has the department thought of another type of mechanism? It must be understood that everything that will be put in place for the just transition will require sums of money that are still considerable.

[Mollie Johnson]

I don't have information on what the alternative arrangements would be at this time, but what I can say is that our path forward on decarbonization and economic opportunity is going to require partnership at the multiple levels that we've been discussing, and as the minister discussed.

[Mario Simard, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

Thank you.

[Mollie Johnson]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, John Aldag]

Mario, your time is done.

Now we'll go to Charlie for his two and a half minutes.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Thank you for being here again.

I might have mentioned it the last time, but my memory does tell me that I did a show with a Mollie Johnson. That wasn't you? I was thinking you didn't look like her, but then I don't look like I did back then either.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

I was thinking maybe that's just the years, but you're a different Mollie Johnson. I just wanted to confirm that.

I want to find out about the sustainable jobs partnership council. Will that be a project of Natural Resources Canada? Where is this thing? Is this a stand-alone, or is this something that is a project?