Speech for Hon. Chuck Strahl, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and Minister for the Canadian Wheat Board
INNOVATION PLACE
SASKATOON SASKATCHEWAN
December 20, 2006 10:00 a.m.
Check against delivery
Canada - Energy Superpower
- Greetings.
- It's a pleasure to be here at Innovation Place in Saskatoon, a true hub of bio-based research in North America. Thanks for your gracious hospitality this morning.
- I am especially delighted to be here with Minister Ambrose to tell you about some important steps Canada's New Government is taking to protect the environment and to build opportunities for Canadian farmers in the biofuels and bioproducts industries.
- During the heating season, our thermostats are a steady reminder of a serious global challenge - can we meet our energy demands today while protecting the environment for generations to come?
- While the rest of the world is looking for answers, Canada is finding solutions.
- Leadership and real action are required.
- As our Prime Minister has said, Canada is an "energy superpower".
- We rank fifth in the world in total energy production, and we are America's largest supplier of oil, natural gas, electricity and uranium.
- What this means not only in terms of the strength of our economies - but also the security of our continent - is sometimes under-appreciated.
- Canada's strong and robust economy, with its enormous energy potential, represents a tremendous opportunity for our agriculture industry and a crucial element of the world's energy security.
- But with power comes responsibility.
- As you well know, our new government has introduced Canada's Clean Air Act to strengthen the Government of Canada's ability to take co-ordinated action to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gases.
- Now, I wish to invite Minister Ambrose to talk about Canada's regulatory requirements to ensure we meet our clean air targets.
Time of Change
- As I said earlier, Canada is an "energy superpower". Well, this Government is a "government of action." I'm proud of that label. It speaks to the core of our commitment - that is, to secure a stable and prosperous economy for Canada and a bright and healthy future for all Canadians.
- Today, I'm very pleased to tell you about two important new ways this Government is meeting its commitment - to industry, to our environment and to Canadians - through a $345 million investment to support bio-products research and development which, in turn, will help producers capture new opportunities in biofuels.
- Canada is at the forefront of nations developing a biofuels industry. By encouraging the industry to prosper, Canada's New Government is taking serious, affordable, and results-oriented steps to protect the environment and promote the well-being of Canadians and our economy.
- Through these two new initiatives, Canada's New Government is helping producers capture new market opportunities in biofuels and building new biofuels and biomass industries. At the same time, we're working to achieve a strong and globally competitive Canadian bio-based economy.
Agricultural Bioproducts Innovation Program
- First and foremost, we in Canada have some of the best scientific minds in the world working on developing new biofuels and biomass products and processes.
- But when it comes to getting them out of the laboratory and into commercial application where it will have value for producers -- we fall short.
- Our efforts are often fragmented and uncoordinated.
- We need to be smart about where we allocate and how we spend to give the best bang for the buck.
- If Canada is to stay on the leading edge of the global biomass and biofuels movement, it is clear that no one entity can do it alone. We need to pool our resources.
- Canada's New Government is committed to creating new opportunities for prosperity for all Canadian producers by supporting a growing bio-based economy.
- These new opportunities can be generated or exploited fully through innovative scientific collaborations that engage players across the agri-innovation chain.
- The departmental Science and Innovation Strategy that I presented last May recognizes the increasing importance of increasing research collaboration among government, academia and industry to achieve greater impact.
- To continue to foster this collaborative approach right along the value chain, today I am pleased to announce a federal investment of $145 million over five years in the Agricultural Bioproducts Innovation Program.
- The goal of this program is to link Canada's research talent in academia, in the private and public sectors, and apply this collective knowledge towards commercially viable applications.
- We already have the smarts we need to get there. What this program does is help bring those resources together into an even more powerful force for industrial and economic growth in this country.
- Scientific excellence will be criterion Number One for eligibility. The best minds in the country must be assembled to meet the challenge.
- The networks formed under this new program will focus on issues such as improved agricultural feedstock production, advanced conversion technologies and the discovery and development of value-added co-products that will enable the development of new generation "biorefineries" that will produce a range of high value products.
- All of this will generate demands for Canadian agricultural products.
Capital Formation Assistance Program
- So we're building effective collaboration within our scientific communities and our investments in scientific excellence will carry us forward with confidence.
- In the meantime, we're taking steps to boost industry's place in renewable fuels production.
- As we've just heard from Minister Ambrose, the Government of Canada intends to regulate an annual average renewable content of five per cent based on the volume of gasoline by 2010 and a two per cent requirement for renewable content in diesel fuel and heating oil by 2012.
- These are sound and responsible commitments.
- Domestic production of renewable fuels benefits our farmers through increasing demand for biomass. Yet, to reap the full benefits of renewable production, we have to move beyond simply supplying commodities to become more active in the renewable fuel industry.
- The more farmers we have contributing to the production of biofuels, the quicker we can reach our 2010 and 2012 targets for cleaner air.
- Canada's New Government is investing $200 million in another new program, the Capital Formation Assistance Program.
- This four-year program will encourage farmers' involvement in the Canadian renewable fuels value-chain.
- The aim is to support the construction of renewable fuel production plants while encouraging farmers' participation in these projects.
- This investment will help stimulate the growth of the renewable fuels industry in this country and, at the same time, help our farmers increase their financial bottom lines.
- The growth of a strong renewable fuels industry will provide Canadian farmers with reliable domestic market opportunities for their products, and may provide them an important opportunity to stabilize their incomes.
- That means economic benefits for farmers and rural communities across Canada.
- We'll have more information on this program in the New Year, and we will continue to work with industry, stakeholders and provinces and territories to explore further measures for the biofuels industry.
The Way Forward
- Canada's New Government is committed to supporting a strong, profitable and globally competitive agriculture sector and a healthy environment for Canadians.
- We are committed to ensuring that opportunities exist for producers in this new biobased economy.
- We can't sit still. The status quo is not an option. Internationally, investments in value-added industrial bioproducts and renewable fuels are constantly increasing and Canada needs to be at the forefront of this new market, not playing catch-up.
- And that is why Canada's New Government is making these announcements today
- We're giving our farmers an opportunity to participate in the ethanol value chain and to take ownership in the value-added process and in their own product.
- We believe through our $345 million investment today that we are helping producers capture these new opportunities which exist in bio-fuels.
- All of this is good news -- down on the farm, and throughout Canada.
- This is a good announcment for farmers and this is a good announcement for the environment.
- Thank you .