January 17, 2007

Good morning, everyone. First of all, I'd like to thank Pierre for that introduction.

Welcome to the CANMET Energy Technology Centre. I'd like to congratulate Director General John Marrone and all of the employees here at Bells Corners for the great work they do every day. They're an outstandingexample of how the people at Natural Resources Canada are devoted to finding more efficient ways to use energy and protect the environment.

Many of you may not be aware, but this is the 100th anniversary of the CANMET Energy Technology Centre and its predecessors within the Canadian government. I admire the passion you have brought to your work.

Today we're here to talk about an important announcement. Before I get there, though, I think it's essential to recognize that 85 percent of both emissions and greenhouse gases come from energy. We need to work on this and we need to do a better job. We want to focus our energies – we want to focus our direction to get the best results that we can.

Our Government is looking within my department – mainly at three areas where we believe we can get the best results. First and foremost, we need to use science and technology to clean up our conventional energy. We're going to talk a little more about that in a moment.

Another area that's very important to our Government is our need to put a lot more clean energy on the grid. We need to do whatever we can to see more renewable energy come forward. As I've said in the past, the largest untapped source of energy in this country, far above everything else, is the energy we waste. Obviously, energy efficiency is very important.

This morning, I am pleased to announce the creation of the new ecoEnergy Technology Initiative. This is a targeted investment in clean energy of $230 million over the next four years. This will bring our Government's funding for science and technology to $1.5 billion over the next four years.

This investment is part of a series of ecoEnergy initiatives by our Government. These initiatives, overall, are focused on how we can achieve the best results for the environment. The three areas that we're most interested in are energy efficiency, renewable energy, and of course, cleaning up our conventional energy.

The ecoEnergy Technology Initiative will feature several improvements over former funding practices.

For example, energy research, development and demonstration will henceforth be delivered through a single program. For the first time, our clients and stakeholders will have a single window to our energy science and technology. Mechanisms will be put in place to ensure that promising technologies are moved quickly to market. We are committed to working in partnership with the provinces and territories, industry, and academia to make use of our best innovators and brightest minds.

As most people are aware, the energy sector is one of our greatest successes. It's a major contributor to our strong economy and our quality of life, and Canadians are justly proud of it. But we must do better. We must reduce emissions. We must not become just an energy superpower – we must become a clean-energy superpower. This is something that we must all work together to address. It's a priority for our Government.

Our Government took a bold approach last fall. We introduced the Clean Air Act. It's the first time a Canadian government has ever undertaken to regulate every single sector — from oil and gas to automotive manufacturing, to mining and forestry — on both greenhouse gases and emissions. I know my colleague John Baird is going to talk about that this morning. These emissions targets will be tough, but they'll be achievable and they'll be enforceable.

We also want to work with industry to help develop technologies that are needed to meet these targets. One of the areas we want to focus on is carbon capture and storage, which is showing an incredible amount of promise. We are developing clean technologies right now that can eliminate 90 percent of the emissions we've put up in the atmosphere from burning coal. You combine this with carbon capture and storage and we have a winner – for both the environment and clean energy production.

We want to invest in technology for cleaning up oil sands production, and also for next-generation nuclear. These are all priorities for our Government. We are committed to working in partnership with the provinces and territories, industry, academia, and labour. The Power Workers Union is one of our partners and will help us to make the most of our human resources. And we are going to challenge industry to come to the table like they never have before.

I'll give you a few examples of what we're talking about. Last fall, I had the opportunity to travel to China. As you know, China's economy is booming. They're adding 1,000 megawatts of new energy to their electricity grid every two weeks. Eighty percent of their electricity is generated from coal. We'd like to find ways to go to zero emissions and deploy these technologies to industrializing countries like China and India. We can do more for the global environment than anyone can possibly imagine.

Today, we're working with partners such as SaskPower, Ontario Power Generation, Babcock and Wilcox, the Alberta Energy Research Institute, and the US Department of Energy on projects to demonstrate clean-coal technologies. These projects could dramatically reduce the emissions from burning coal and generating electricity. Later on this morning, we're going to have an opportunity to look at some of the work being done in this area.

Carbon capture and storage is another priority. At Weyburn, Saskatchewan, we have a pilot project where we're monitoring the storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) underground. We are working on this carbon sequestration project with a variety of partners from the public and private sectors – including EnCana, Apache, the Petroleum Technology Research Centre in Regina, and the US Department of Energy.

This work is showing incredible promise in generating electricity in places like the oil sands and the refineries. We can take these CO2 gases, capture them, and then put them back in the ground.

On the tour this morning, you'll also see a Hydrogen Fuel Cell Back-up Power System that has been developed jointly by Hydrogenics Corporation of Mississauga and Natural Resources Canada. This back-up fuel cell system is here and it's working today.

It's worth noting that one of the buses we took out here this morning is running on hydrogen and producing zero emissions. The other two buses were hybrids, something that we're becoming more familiar with. These are the kinds of things we need to ensure that we're doing the best for the environment. We need to start taking action to achieve results – to reduce both greenhouse gas and emissions.

Lastly, let me just talk about one other project I know. I was on the bus this morning and I talked briefly about it. I like this project. It's a solid-state lightbulb that's being developed by a company right here in Ottawa. The lighting here in this room is conventional lighting – like what we light our homes with. It's only five percent light and 95 percent heat. Fluorescent lighting is 80 percent heat and only 20 percent light. This company's developed a technology that's 95 percent light — 90 percent more efficient than conventional light. This innovation could help revolutionize the way we light up North America. Five percent of all the energy we use in North America is in lighting. You can do the math, and you can just think about that.

These are just a few examples of some of the things that we're looking at doing – projects like the solid-state lightbulb, done by Group IV Semiconductor. It's supported by Sustainable Development Technology Canada. We're fortunate to have SDTC's President and CEO, Vicky Sharpe, here with us today. She's also going to say a few words.

Let me conclude with a challenge to the private sector. We in government, especially those who work in our energy and science technology centres, are doing what they can to achieve real, tangible, significant environmental progress through S&T. We greatly benefit from the active involvement, the know-how, and the focused resources of the private sector. Without question, however, more is required.

This announcement today of $230 million for the ecoEnergy Technology Initiative by our Government is a step in the right direction. It will accelerate the development of promising clean-energy solutions.

Now I would like to hand the podium over to my good friend and colleague, Minister Baird, who will say a few words. Shortly, we will also be hearing from a few others.

Thank you very much.