Industry committee  Good afternoon, Madam Chair and members of the committee. My name is Mark Zacharias and I am a special adviser to Clean Energy Canada. We are a climate and clean energy think tank at Simon Fraser University. I am based in Victoria, B.C. I'll be speaking today on how to help Can

Industry committee  Absolutely. The green economy supercycle is basically those elements, those products, those goods that will be required to transition the world to low carbon and net zero. Canada has a very clean electricity grid at 83%, so we have the ability to basically produce and export pr

Industry committee  Yes. Many of our markets, particularly in the EU, parts of Asia and now increasingly in the U.S., are really unaware of the low-carbon content and low-carbon footprint of Canadian products and services. Canada's largest export has been fossil fuels. It has been for quite some tim

Industry committee  A number of elements go into the definition of “nimble”. One is government policy, particularly at the federal, provincial and territorial levels, that when we do have opportunities for new companies to come and set up shop in Canada, attracting anchor companies, we have to [Tech

Industry committee  Well, there are many parts to that answer. I think, first and foremost, is our federal missions and trade missions abroad should be basically promoting the fact that Canada's largest exports are currently fossil fuels and auto parts, but we can do much more. We should have educat

Industry committee  I think we are. I think Canada, particularly since the Biden administration has come into power, has had a particular focus on the automotive industry. It is such a large part of Canada's economy, and it's part of our economic and cultural history. Also, too, I think Canada has b

Industry committee  I don't have much time left. We are in early days and we are playing catch-up to Asia, Europe and the U.S. We have work to do.

Industry committee  That's a great question. About 60% of Canada's electricity is produced by hydro right now. As you note, that grid is aging. However, there are new technologies coming behind that, which will be able to produce power at much lower rates and store it in ways we can't even imagine

Industry committee  Yes. There is an organization called Indigenous Clean Energy that looks at building partnerships with indigenous nations as well as with rural and remote communities. The recent federal budget, budget 2021, had, I believe, $35 million for indigenous clean energy generation, so th

Industry committee  Absolutely. In B.C. the Pattullo Bridge replacement will be using steel that's going to be sourced from Asia. That steel could have come from Ontario steel plants. They produce the same type of steel that will be necessary. What would have been required in that case would be so

Industry committee  Thank you to the member. I see a yellow card, so I'll be very quick. Yes, the technology is robust. Yes, it does sequester carbon. It could use some tax incentives similar to those in the U.S. It has a 45Q tax credit that gives a $50-per-tonne incentive to store carbon undergrou

Industry committee  Member, that's a good question. My response to that in terms of how to prevent all our purchasing going overseas to purchase things that could be made here in Canada, again really comes back to a buy clean type of approach. What the Biden administration is looking at in terms of

Industry committee  Member, I fully agree with you. We have an enormous amount of Canadian met coal that comes out of British Columbia. It's moved over to Asia. It's used to produce steel, and that steel comes back into Canada. Meanwhile, we have a very robust steel manufacturing industry here in

Industry committee  It's a good question. I am not aware if Canada is in front of, behind or equivalent to other nations in terms of training a workforce that's going to be aligned with the green economy. I know provinces and territories have stepped up their game over the last several years to m

Industry committee  Yes and no. Buildings produce 12% of Canada's total emissions. Compared to oil and gas at 26%, or transportation at 25%, that's much smaller, but it's still material. I agree with you, the $4.4 billion in terms of the home retrofit loans will go a long way to help buildings.