40th PARLIAMENT, 2nd SESSION
EDITED HANSARD • NUMBER 052
CONTENTS
Monday, May 31, 2010
Committee of the Whole

Natural Resources - Main Estimates, 2010-11

Mr. Ed Komarnicki (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development and to the Minister of Labour, CPC):

Madam Chair, with the recent opening of the Vancouver pavilion at Shanghai Expo 2010, Canadian expertise in wood construction is now on display for the world to see. The Vancouver pavilion significantly is located in the urban best practices theme of Shanghai Expo 2010. The building's interior will serve as an exhibition space. The first floor features the city of Vancouver, while the second floor is devoted to consumer focused displays, promoting wood as a natural, sustainable building product and wood frame construction as energy efficient and safe.

Importantly, the second floor display area and third floor meeting rooms will be used to host Chinese developers, engineers, architects and government officials as part of the program to market Canadian wood products and advance wood technology in China.

With all of this put together, the Vancouver pavilion in China provides the unique opportunity to showcase Canadian wood products and wood construction techniques to an international audience.

Would the Minister of Natural Resources tell us how much the government has invested in the Vancouver pavilion and what it hopes to achieve with that?

Hon. Christian Paradis:

Madam Chair, I would like to thank the member for his excellent question.

The Vancouver Pavilion is a collaboration of the Government of Canada, the province of British Columbia and the City of Vancouver. The Government of Canada has invested $2.5 million in the construction and operation of the Vancouver Pavilion.

This funding is part of a $170 million economic action plan investment. As part of this investment, $10 million has been allocated to projects that showcase Canadian wood products overseas, such as the Vancouver Pavilion.

China has rapidly emerged as one of Canada’s most important lumber export markets. Canada’s wood product exports to China are up eleven-fold from $32 million in 2001 to $385 million in 2009.

An estimated 70 million visitors, including several million international visitors, will attend Shanghai Expo 2010. Widespread media attention and access to prominent builders and large buyers of construction materials make Shanghai Expo 2010 the most important trade marketing event of the year in China.

With this investment, the government is helping the Canadian forestry sector benefit from these new opportunities and improve its long-term competitiveness.

Mr. Ed Komarnicki (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development and to the Minister of Labour, CPC):

Mr. Chair, there is no doubt that in addition to renewable energy, we can and must become cleaner producers and consumers of our fossil fuel resources. It is clear that technology will play a key role in meeting this challenge. One very promising technology to achieve large emission reductions is carbon capture and storage, known as CCS.

In total, the Government of Canada and the governments of Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia have provided $3.5 billion in funding for carbon capture and storage. This does not include the contributions of industry partners. In fact in budget 2008, the Government of Canada committed $240 million to the Boundary Dam clean coal project in my riding of Souris--Moose Mountain in the southeast part of Saskatchewan. The province of Saskatchewan invested about $1 billion. This will be one of the world's first and largest commercial-scale clean coal and carbon capture and storage demonstration projects.

We also collaborate internationally to accelerate the development of technology. As I have said, my riding of Souris--Moose Mountain is on the leading edge of implementing world-class CCS technology. We also collaborate through the United States-Canada clean energy dialogue signed by the Prime Minister and President Obama last year. Remarkably, a reference was made to work that is being done with the North Dakota-Weyburn carbon capture and storage project in my riding near Weyburn, Saskatchewan. I certainly invite the member for Kings--Hants to visit Weyburn, Saskatchewan to see first-hand what is being done.

Also, Weyburn and Midale oil fields are hosts to a decades long international study examining CO2 geological storage. This project near Weyburn, Saskatchewan is one of the largest international CO2 measuring and monitoring projects in the world. It is world class.

I would like to ask the minister what steps have been taken under the dialogue with the United States to advance the development of carbon capture and storage.

Hon. Christian Paradis:

Mr. Chair, I want to thank the hon. member for his question.
[English]

I am pleased to report a number of significant developments relating to carbon capture and storage under the Canada-U.S. clean energy dialogue. A joint CCS working group has been established and is in the process of developing a North American carbon capture and storage atlas. This will detail both the major sources of CO2 emissions and potential CO2 storage reservoirs. This information will help to ensure that future investments in technology are well targeted.

We continue to reinforce and expand the links among researchers in our two countries. We are working with the U.S. to develop and demonstrate CO2 measuring, monitoring, and verification methods. This will help to confirm that CO2 storage is both safe and effective. It will build on the research under way at the successful Weyburn-Midale carbon capture and storage research project in Saskatchewan.

Mindful of the close energy connections between our two countries, we are also working toward developing compatible carbon capture and storage regulations to minimize business barriers and to facilitate possible future cross-border CCS projects.

We have also agreed to hold an annual joint conference on carbon capture and storage to facilitate information sharing on an ongoing basis. In fact, the first conference was held earlier this month in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

TOP