Environment committee  On the wind and solar stuff, it's a capital problem and a commitment problem. On some of the barriers, I think I'm going to echo what Mr. Moreau said. Thankfully, I was listening. It's really about the ability to have innovation sandboxes where regulatory and even capital structures to finance these types of projects are given a little bit more leniency, and again, even some education.

Environment committee  Sure. Foresight, as an organization, is national. We work with over 20 different organizations in different regions and sectors, including associations, to provide a pillar of support around acceleration—so companies they're interested in learning more about, getting them further along in their commercialization pathway—and, on the adoption side, running innovation challenges for industry.

Environment committee  We, as an organization, don't use the clean growth hub for our own funding. That was not an option for us. It's really about venture services. It's interesting, because each ministry also has a portal for specific programs in the ministry, so it depends. I'll give an example. PacifiCan has the BSP program and a few other things.

Environment committee  Actually, most of the projects now are becoming cost-comparable. You might pay a small premium, but once you start to factor in carbon tax, you have to do a holistic analysis.

Environment committee  I am not a carbon tax expert. I do believe the carbon tax creates a framework to collect dollars to invest in programs that will accelerate the net-zero transition. I think it has the effect, in certain ways beyond the money, of getting people to start thinking and acting, so yes.

Environment committee  There's great opportunity there. We have engineering strengths across the country.

Environment committee  Am I done already?

Environment committee  I'll start talking a little bit. We'll kick it off and hopefully not offend anyone. Certainly, certain countries outside of Canada have been more bullish on policies, where certain fuels in certain applications are no longer accepted. Those economic environments are quite different from Canada's economic environment, in which we do rely on that sector to fund a lot of non-energy-related programs around social services and other pieces.

Environment committee  You have great companies like CarbonCure and several others that sell outside of Canada, but there are policies with respect to building across municipalities. If it's not embedded in the specifications, then it's just too complicated for the engineering firm approving the project, or even the engineers within those communities, if it's a municipal buyer, to get a project approved within a jurisdiction.

Environment committee  Hello. My name is Jeanette Jackson. I'm the CEO of Foresight Canada. I'm honoured to be here today. Foresight is Canada's largest clean-tech accelerator, and our audacious goal is that Canada be the first G7 country to reach net zero. We can do this by effectively bringing together innovators, industry, investors, academia, government and indigenous communities in strategic, thoughtful ways to rapidly launch, commercialize and scale clean-tech solutions from Canada.

International Trade committee  Absolutely. We are working very hard on how to incorporate diversity and inclusion across all of our programming, campaigns and initiatives. It's really about relationship building and connecting with communities at a much deeper level. We do that by working with other accelerators because we have a clean technology focus.

International Trade committee  Thank you, Mr. Blaikie, for the great question. Though our roots are in British Columbia, we've actually supported industry and innovators across the country. However, I'm going to lean in a little on what we're seeing in British Columbia, just as an example. We did a phase one cluster strategy to identify the real core competencies of the region and what the largest emitters in the province need to do to reach net-zero targets.

International Trade committee  Absolutely. We've supported over 550 ventures across Canada over the last three and a half years. We find there are still too many innovators that are technologies looking for problems. In our new strategic plan and all of our programming, we're reimagining the accelerator model.

International Trade committee  Good morning. I'm assuming everyone can hear me this time.

International Trade committee  That's glorious. Thank you for having me. I wish to acknowledge that the lands on which our office is located are part of the traditional unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and Tsawwassen nations. Foresight is Canada's clean-tech ecosystem accelerator.