Natural Resources Committee on June 16th, 2026

[Eric St-Pierre, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

Great.

What would you see as the biggest opportunities as we plan to double electricity grids by 2050? What would be the biggest opportunities for the Canadian economy, for federalism and for Canada as a whole?

Can you comment on how this should be positively perceived? What are some of the positive opportunities for Canada?

[Cherith Sinasac]

We know being able to generate enough electricity for economic growth is the number one priority for Canada. The main barrier preventing that at this point is scaling and securing domestic manufacturing of critical grid technologies. The supply chain is under significant stress. It's under stress, as well, from the geopolitical situation south of our border and the trade situation. Therefore, we're asking the government to please follow through with pillar four of the national strategy and launch a critical grid supply chain initiative, but also to invest in expanding the technology tax credits to include grid equipment so that we can not only secure domestic supply, but start to grow domestic manufacturing of critical grid equipment here in Canada. That is a massive opportunity.

[Eric St-Pierre, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

Great. I'll sneak in one last question.

We have a lot of interties with the U.S. I think there are over 30 that are north-south. In 15 seconds, what can we do to better support east-west or northern interties?

[Cherith Sinasac]

I'm not super knowledgeable on that topic, so I'm not going to comment on it. I'm so sorry.

[Eric St-Pierre, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

Thank you for your time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Duguid]

Thank you, both.

Mr. Simard, you have the floor for six minutes.

[Mario Simard, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Ms. Sinasac, during your discussion earlier with my colleague, Mr. St‑Pierre, you spoke about workforce challenges. I find that surprising. Yesterday, I visited a company in our area that made a $6 million investment. The company is Moteurs électriques Laval, which will be producing large coils for electric motors.

One of its major challenges concerns the temporary foreign worker program. I know that not everyone across Canada faces the same reality in the job market. However, Quebec—particularly the regions—is currently facing a severe labour shortage. This type of industry often relies on temporary foreign workers. I don’t know whether your organization has data on this, or whether this issue factors into your discussions on workforce challenges.

After my discussions with people yesterday, it struck me as a significant issue for the growth of these companies. The companies may be equipment manufacturers or service providers set to play a key role in the deployment of electrification. I'm wondering whether you have any data on this. On a broader note, I would like to know whether you have data on jobs related to this sector and on the labour shortage, specifically regarding temporary foreign workers.

[Cherith Sinasac]

I don't have anything to say on temporary foreign workers, except that we were pleased to see that the national strategy included the consideration of the workforce. It is a continual concern and it keeps up. One of the very top issues that always keep our executives up at night is finding the right talent.

We know that as we start to deploy these new technologies, we are going to need a highly trained workforce to help support the electricity system of the future. This continues to be a top priority, but I do not have any data. I apologize.

[Mario Simard, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

I would like to discuss the financial support that the government can provide. I don't know whether you noticed that the budget and its implementation plan include a provision specifically for the gas sector, which involves an accelerated depreciation measure. This accelerated depreciation makes it easier to deploy infrastructure.

Would you be in favour of extending this to the electrical energy sector for infrastructure purposes? Have you ever considered a mirror measure?

[Cherith Sinasac]

I'm sorry. Are you asking me about how it has been extended to gas or energy?

[Mario Simard, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

Under the current budget, the accelerated depreciation measure applies specifically to the gas sector, meaning to gas infrastructure. Could implementing the same type of accelerated depreciation measure for electrification infrastructure make it easier to deploy the grid?

[Cherith Sinasac]

Anything that can help support.... The cost barrier is the number one barrier, so it's the cost barrier and the supply chain. Anything that helps to secure our domestic supply chains helps confront the cost of upgrading the grid. We know this is going to be a once-in-a-lifetime, generational investment, so anything that helps make it financially viable to help get the grid built out to where we need it to be is beneficial.

Mainly, our request is to have investment tax credits expanded to manufacturers.

[Mario Simard, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

We've already had discussions here, as part of this study, with some stakeholders. We know that Hydro‑Québec has a detailed plan all the way to 2035 that focuses on energy storage and greater energy efficiency. However, the plan for electricity deployment isn't the same across Canada. So, even though we have a clear picture of what Hydro‑Québec plans to do by 2035, the situation is a bit less clear for the rest of Canada.

Does your association have any guidelines adopted by the other provinces? How does this fit into the strategy that the federal government will be implementing?

[Cherith Sinasac]

We are actually very supportive of the federal government's current strategy, which was just released. We feel they hit the nail on the head in almost every single category that is important to our industry and that we've been consulting on with utilities, as well as with manufacturers. We're happy to see that they're going to be doing a critical grid supply chain initiative.

How each province decides to unroll this is something that we just have to.... It's the environment that we work in. We want to see utility regulatory rate-setting frameworks not only favouring building hard assets, but also being able to have a cost recovery mechanism for digital solutions. We need value and compensation frameworks for distributed energy resources and demand flexibility. These are things outside of the regular hard assets that the utilities are used to building. That needs to be federally led. Without a federal lead on that, we are going to have each province building more electricity grid than they need to, and that's going to inflate the cost.

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Duguid]

Thank you, both.

Colleagues, we're going to move on to our second round.

Mrs. Stubbs, we're going to start with you and then Mr. Rowe. I believe you'll be splitting your time.

[Shannon Stubbs, Conservative, Lakeland, AB]

Yes. Thanks, Chair.

I want to give the witnesses a chance to answer my question, which is twofold.

First, on the issue of the federal industrial carbon tax being imposed on Canadian businesses, which the U.S. and OPEC countries do not burden their businesses with, it has been said, for example, that it is a flawed hybrid. Its performance-based measures are tied to the decline of the sector they are targeting. It's a system designed not to foster innovation, but to manage the most productive industries into non-existence.

I'll direct this to the Canadian Fuels Association.

Imperial, Suncor and Cenovus have all talked about the burden of the federal industrial carbon tax, which will limit production and therefore limit exports. Could you comment on, let's say, your top three, and then provide more submissions, on the legislative or regulatory changes that must be made urgently to former Bill C-69, the Impact Assessment Act, which your members have also called flawed since it passed?

[Bob Larocque]

Thanks for that question, Shannon.

[Shannon Stubbs, Conservative, Lakeland, AB]

You're welcome.

[Bob Larocque]

I will focus on the immediate for the refining sector. I think the upstream, which is the Cenovus and whatever.... Bill C-69 does not really apply to refining, but one thing I will say is the clean fuel regulation does. To take a year and a half—

[Shannon Stubbs, Conservative, Lakeland, AB]

I'm sorry. I asked about the federal industrial carbon tax—

[Bob Larocque]

Yes, I will will touch on that.

[Shannon Stubbs, Conservative, Lakeland, AB]

—and about your legislative and regulatory reforms. That's the question I'd like answered.

[Bob Larocque]

Okay. I'll be—

[Shannon Stubbs, Conservative, Lakeland, AB]

As well, I've quoted members of your association who have called for those changes, so I'm assuming you're going to reflect that.

[Bob Larocque]

Okay. Well—