Natural Resources committee  Cyber-risks or international security risks are there all the time. In fact, we responded to the OPEC crisis in 1973 exactly for these reasons, because we felt we were exposed. It's part of the equation. In our work, we talk about what it would take to meet the Paris agreement t

Natural Resources committee  There's a financial component to that. It can be either a political decision to bring it, or there are some technologies around local grid options that could be deployed. If you're thinking of low-carbon options, we're back to my point about batteries—or storage, more largely def

Natural Resources committee  There's no easy answer to this. If it was straightforward and economically viable to supply electricity to remote communities, it would happen now. If it's not happening, it's because there's a major cost associated with bringing all that infrastructure to communities that are sp

Natural Resources committee  You're right. The $1,200 you mentioned is part of the work done with the Canadian Academy of Engineering. That's what we call in technical terms a shadow price on carbon. In other words, if you were to bring in the latest, greenest technology available on the market, the final te

Natural Resources committee  It's long term. It's not because they wanted to be necessarily clean or eco-sensitive 50 years ago. It's just that for economic competitiveness reasons that's the price they had to pay. We have to reflect that in our policy transitioning. There's no way we can get up there overn

Natural Resources committee  That's what we heard from other witnesses earlier today. It's a question of negotiation and long-term contracts, a question of certainty of availability. You have to know how it fits into the different types of electricity we need. Peak load and base load must be taken into accou

Natural Resources committee  Your committee deals with natural resources. But the challenge of the climate program is precisely the one you mention. Everyone is for virtue. In other words, everyone is ready to be environmentally responsible as long as they don't have to pay for it. If we can continue to do t

Natural Resources committee  It is in this sense that I consider that we can't exclude the carbon price policy from this consideration. You have to send a price message. If we accept there is a carbon-related environmental cost, it has to be reflected in the price in a certain way. I don't think we can ignor

Natural Resources committee  I think I understand your question. Clearly, there is a whole exercise of strategic economic development that can be done on the basis of policy options to reduce greenhouse gases. Quebec has a comparative advantage: it produces green energy. In the current context, it is an extr

Natural Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to thank the committee members. It's a pleasure to present again today in front of all of you. At the Conference Board recently, we did a report called “The Cost of a Cleaner Future”, and a lot of what we talk about in the report is on electr

Natural Resources committee  That is a fundamental question. Let me give you the Conference Board's and my own perspective on this. We are in a period of globalization and integration of value chains. Intellectual property is created where the value of the assembly is created. The iPod is a very good examp

Natural Resources committee  As you know, there's a list of agencies. There's SR and ED, which is a tax credit. First of all, by design, you need to make money to save money, and SR and ED has been pointed out as a tool that Canada uses that generates a lot of action but not necessarily a lot of outcome in t

Natural Resources committee  I did look at that. Frankly, I can't draw a causality link. There might have been a correlation in some sectors. I would say, though, that we're tinkering at the margin at $30 a tonne. Just to give you a sense of proportion, in the work done by the Canadian Academy of Engineerin

Natural Resources committee  Well, that's part of that cycle. I'm not saying this is the solution. I'm just saying that it's the carbon that's the problem. The technological solution, whatever it is, that could eliminate the carbon in the fuel gets away from one of the problems we have, which is around the i

Natural Resources committee  I'm not sure about that specific.... We produce, I think, 500 reports a year. I wasn't personally involved in that one. On the whole question of the innovation agenda in Canada and the productivity challenge we have collectively and the way innovation plays into it, we identifie