Question Period Note: CLEAN TECHNOLOGY

What is the Government of Canada doing to support advances in clean technology and the adoption and commercialization of cleantech?

• The Government of Canada is laying the foundation for a more resilient, sustainable and competitive economy by focusing on innovation and good, green jobs and investing in clean technology.

• Cleantech offers significant benefits to Canadians by helping to meet our climate goals and protecting our planet for future generations, while driving economic prosperity and creating more than 211,000 well-paying jobs across Canada.

• Budget 2021 provides $17.6 billion toward a green recovery that will create middle-class jobs, build a clean economy and help protect against climate change.

• These new investments will be a cornerstone of the government’s plan to rebuild the economy, help Canadians make their homes greener and invest in world-leading technologies that make industry cleaner and reduce pollution.

• Clean technologies contributed more than $28.8 billion to the Canadian economy in 2019, including the export of approximately $7.05 billion worth of clean technology goods and services.

• Employees in cleantech are better paid than the average Canadian worker, and women account for 41 per cent of all jobs employed in the cleantech sector. Women and Indigenous peoples in cleantech are also better compensated on average than in the general workforce. Moreover, Indigenous peoples are better represented in cleantech compared to the overall economy.

Budget 2021

Specific cleantech budget measures identified for Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada include:
• $24 million over three years to renew the:
o Clean Technology Data Strategy to continue to measure the cleantech sector’s contribution to Canada’s economy; and
o Clean Growth Hub to continue to help clean technology companies navigate federal resources and supports.
• $5 billion over seven years to increase funding to the Net Zero Accelerator. This additional support builds on the $3 billion over five years announced in the strengthened climate plan in December 2020. This funding will allow the government to provide up to $8 billion of support for projects that will help reduce domestic greenhouse gas emissions across the Canadian economy.
• $1 billion over five years to leverage private investments toward large transformative clean technology projects. This initiative will eliminate risk from decarbonization projects for traditional lenders, bringing down the cost of capital, and making many of these large-scale projects more economically feasible, decarbonizing the Canadian economy and creating new jobs.

Strengthened climate plan

In December 2020, the Government announced a strengthened climate plan designed to make Canada’s economy stronger and more competitive in the emerging clean global marketplace. This plan is a cornerstone of the Government’s commitment in the 2020 Speech from the Throne to create more than 1 million jobs and restore employment to pre-pandemic levels. It includes 64 new measures and $15 billion in investments to build a stronger, cleaner, more resilient and inclusive economy.

Growing Canada’s industrial advantage and the jobs that come from it will depend on the speed and success of decarbonization efforts. To achieve Canada’s full potential, ISED is proud to support Canadian companies as they seek to meet the demands of domestic and global consumers for low-carbon goods and services, making investments that can drive the growth of Canada’s low-carbon economy.

These measures include:

• Strengthening support for Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) with an additional $750 million over five years, representing the single largest investment made by the Government in SDTC since its inception in 2001.

• Making investments to support decarbonization and drive the immediate creation of well-paying, resilient jobs through an $8 billion investment over five years in the Strategic Innovation Fund’s Net-Zero Accelerator Fund.

Speech from the Throne

The Speech from the Throne to Open the First Session of the 44th Parliament of Canada – Building a Resilient Economy: A Cleaner & Healthier Future for Our Kids – stresses that the government is taking real action to fight climate change, moving to cap and cut oil and gas sector emissions, while accelerating our path to a net-zero electricity future.

Investing in public transit and mandating the sale of zero emissions vehicles will support climate action. Increasing the price on pollution while putting more money back in Canadians’ pockets will deliver a cleaner environment and a stronger economy.

Supporting Sustainable Development Technology Canada

SDTC is an arm’s-length, not-for-profit organization created by the government to support the development of clean technologies. As of October 2021, SDTC-supported companies have generated $2.8 billion in annual revenues, created 16,930 jobs and brought 177 new technologies to market. These companies have reduced greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 22.4 megatonnes annually, equivalent to taking almost 7 million cars off the road every year.