Natural Resources committee  I'll start by saying, community opposition is actually a characteristic of virtually any development these days. It's not a wind-specific issue. Nonetheless, it's certainly true that there has been community opposition to wind energy development. Some of the issues that have come

Natural Resources committee  I think, obviously, if we consider decarbonization a key rationale and driver, most of our carbon emissions in the electricity sector today can be found in Alberta, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Ontario. Interties that help to reduce those carbon emissions are goi

Natural Resources committee  I think it can affect it in the sense that storage provides another opportunity for managing variability. You can look to manage variability in wind through the use of batteries, through importing electricity from elsewhere, or through the charging of electric vehicles at nightti

Natural Resources committee  I think if you look at a situation, for example, where there's a lot of reflection on the possibility of building an intertie between British Columbia and Alberta, you see that we have two very different systems. You have a British Columbia system, which is a crown utility. In Al

Natural Resources committee  Yes.

Natural Resources committee  First, I would argue that wind energy in Canada is not subsidized, in the sense that I think is most commonly understood.

Natural Resources committee  Right now, we're seeing that Ontario has moved to a competitive tendering process.

Natural Resources committee  The most recent procurement in Ontario was in the range of 8¢ a kilowatt hour, in Quebec it was 6.3¢ a kilowatt hour, and we're confident the procurements you're going to see in Alberta and Saskatchewan are going to be significantly below that. We've seen the cost of wind energy

Natural Resources committee  I'll be brief. In Canada today every jurisdiction has moved to a competitive tendering process, which requires intense competition. Alberta is looking to procure 400 megawatts of wind and has 29 companies bidding projects into that. You can be very sure you're going to get very

Natural Resources committee  The more isolated a grid is, the more challenging it is to integrate variable renewables, and Newfoundland has truly historically been an isolated grid. With the new developments that are under way, certainly Nalcor, for example, has spoken about the possibility of accompanying i

Natural Resources committee  I have a couple of comments. First, in terms of numbers, I think it's always important to put these numbers in context. You will also find that Environment Canada has data that's very clear in stating that the contribution of wind turbines to bird fatalities in Canada is minimal

Natural Resources committee  First, I think provincial regulators have very strict provisions in place in requirements for both monitoring interactions with birds and then taking action if any significant impacts are noted. The industry itself, I think, has been quite proactive in working with various secto

Natural Resources committee  Thank you very much for the question. As I noted in the presentation, Canada has been a leader in building out wind, but we have tremendous untapped resources. We are really only scratching the surface of what is possible. In terms of what the federal government can do—and I'm s

Natural Resources committee  Prices are coming down here as well. Alberta and Saskatchewan both have very aggressive targets in place for new wind energy development. They both currently have competitive tenders under way to procure new wind energy. I am extremely confident that we will see the lowest prices

Natural Resources committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and members. It's a pleasure to be here, and I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you on this issue of strategic electricity interties. I'll take one second to tell you a bit about our organization, the Canadian Wind Energy Association. We ar