Environment committee  Thank you, Madam Chair, and members of the committee, for inviting the Canadian Electricity Association to appear before you on this important review of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. I'm very pleased to represent the association, along with member and colleague, Dr.

Environment committee  Thank you, Ahmed. In closing, I'd like to emphasize that the issues just outlined strike an appropriate balance. We have made significant progress as a sector since CEPA came into force, and we look forward to continuing to provide Canadians with safe, reliable, and sustainable

Environment committee  If I may add to what Ahmed said, in Ontario, for example, the coal shutdown had a major impact in terms of bringing greenhouse gas emissions down, but at the same time a lot of the utilities across the country were investing in renewable energy, from wind to solar and so forth. F

Environment committee  Exactly. Thank you, Madam Chair. In terms of that investment in carbon capture and storage, it is world-leading, and other countries are looking at Canada to learn from SaskPower's experience. I might say, in terms of Capital Power, quite a few years ago they invested in ultra-s

Environment committee  Maybe I'll start off and then let Ahmed respond as well. You have to remember that this sector is almost 80% clean. In Canada, 60% of electricity is based on hydro power and another 15% is nuclear. The renewable capacity is growing significantly. In terms of the coal capacity,

Environment committee  I can speak to that at a very high level and Ahmed, if you may, after that. Innovation is also about risk. Every time these companies invest there is that potential of failure, but as a country, we need to continue to invest in innovative technologies and we can't be followers.

Environment committee  As you can appreciate, innovation is costly, and somebody must do it. The private sector, I would say, wouldn't invest in such a project if they didn't see the business case. They do have a business case. That's why SaskPower invested in that.

Environment committee  Right.

Environment committee  They're crown-held—

Environment committee  —but at the same time, it is a business, at the end of the day, whether it's publicly held or privately held. Unless there is a business case to go ahead with it, the president, and the ministry, wouldn't approve that. So they did all the feasibility studies—

Environment committee  That is obviously one option. As I said earlier, 93% of the existing coal capacity will come to an end before 2030. With the recently announced accelerated coal phase-out, we will see more of that being shut down over the longer term. Carbon caption and storage did make sense f

Environment committee  I have the lead on that file for the association as well. One of the first things I did when I took over the file early this year was to work with the members to develop a set of principles to engage aboriginal people. We do a lot at the local level. If you look at Ontario Powe

Environment committee  We will share the principles with you.