Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Chair, members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to appear before you today.
I am accompanied by Guillermo Freire, senior vice president of the Mid Market Group. We are pleased to contribute to your study on Canadian energy exports and to discuss Export Development Canada’s support for this sector.
For those who are less familiar with us, I will explain our mandate.
We are part of Canada’s international trade ecosystem. We support and develop Canadian exports. We do this through simple solutions, such as insurance, direct loans or working capital. These solutions help companies mitigate risks associated with, for example, a new buyer, holding more international contracts or operating a foreign subsidiary.
We have one of the largest structured project finance teams in the country, which enables us to support domestic and international projects, and we offer that share of our trade knowledge and connections to companies we work with. We help to grow that knowledge through the presence we have in markets, both across the country and around the globe. We operate on commercial terms, which ensures that our work complements that of the private commercial banks and private insurers. Consistent with this model, EDC does not provide grants or subsidies.
Since our inception more than 80 years ago, we've supported resource-based sectors that have long underpinned the Canadian economy. We recognize that energy, in particular, is a critical driver of our nation's wealth and prosperity, and that our support for the sector filters down to a robust ecosystem, which includes R and D, engineering services, advanced manufacturing and clean technologies.
In this moment of global uncertainty and shifting trade dynamics, we'll need to draw on the sector's strength to help build Canadian resilience, competitiveness and economic security. In 2025 alone, EDC facilitated $18 billion of exports, foreign investment and trade development activity in the energy and energy transition sectors. Over the last five years, we've facilitated $77 billion in business. These numbers encompass support for both conventional and clean energy sources and the value chains that bolster them.
Given the strong global imperative for energy security that exists today and the opportunity this has created, we are focused on supporting Canada's industry in its entirety. On the conventional energy side, we provided $2 billion in financing to the oil and gas sector in 2025, which represents a 73% increase over our 2024 levels. Support for this sector accounted for 7% of our overall business portfolio, with the recent increase supporting and reflecting some higher value transactions and a rise in global risk conditions for Canadian companies.
Looking forward, we expect that our engagement with the oil and gas sector will continue to increase as EDC is called upon to support energy security around the globe. We're working with the Major Projects Office, for example, on some of the nation-building infrastructure projects that it has chosen to advance.
On the clean energy side, in 2025 we provided $1.4 billion in financing to the renewables sector as part of our focus on supporting the global energy transition. In recent years, we've expanded our support in this space to include industries of strategic importance, like nuclear technologies and carbon capture, utilization and storage. While the pathway to a low-carbon economy continues to evolve, we remain committed to strengthening the competitiveness of Canadian exporters and the technologies that will enable this shift.
Thank you for giving me the time to provide you with some information on Export Development Canada, or EDC.
I would be happy to provide more information to the committee on what EDC is doing in the energy sector. This work helps Canada be more resilient, competitive and secure.