Discussion · Private Members' Business
Greg McLean Conservative
“I want the House to send this bill to committee and pass it. It gives a tax credit to companies that turn waste heat into power. The United States has had this tax break since 2020, and Canada is losing business and investment to them because of it. Right now, even Canadian public funds are going to projects in the U.S. instead of here. This bill will keep that investment in Canada, cut waste, and create more electricity at a low cost.”
“Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my Bloc Québécois colleagues, who carefully examined this bill, consulted with their constituents and found constructive ways to implement it to make our economy more competitive. I also want to thank them for agreeing to send this bill to committee so that we can examine the details that warrant further discussion. I will also address some of the government’s responses, insofar as the bill is not perfect. As members know, any private member’s bill is drafted with the Library of Parliament to replicate the tax credits that already exist. As much as a bunch of regulations would come forth with the bill, those are to be determined at committee as well. I do question the negativism that was brought forward on that. What I am trying to do, and I think it is the role of all of us as private members, is to find the gaps that are going to make for a better Canadian economy at the end of the day. Waste heat to power is one of the gaps in our system that the United States is exploiting very fulsomely at this point in time. To get back on par with the United States as far as our competition goes, and to get investment back into Canada for these types of common-sense approaches to less waste and more electricity, this would be a winner for everybody. I do agree there is overlap with other tax incentives, exactly as there is in the United States. We do need to be competitive with it, even in the stacking that happens in those credits. The bottom line is to get this investment happening in Canada. Here is one of the riddles on this. I am working with a company, and everybody knows the company I am working with on this, to try to get this moving in Canada. That company is out of Calgary, with a suboffice in Houston. It has received a $50-million U.S. investment from none other than the Canada Growth Fund. The Canada Growth Fund is going to invest, alongside a big U.S. investment entity, another $50 million U.S. into waste heat to power. It is going to give the money only when it is approved for the financial mechanism. That is going to happen at this point in time in the United States, because the returns are better. Canadian taxpayer dollars, again, are going towards investment in the United States. Talk about cutting off our nose to spite our face, we are actually funding more competition from the United States through Canadian taxpayer dollars. That is a ludicrous approach to what we need to do to build this economy. The U.S. has had this regime since 2020, and we have been playing catch-up ever since. We have been losing investment in Canada as a result of the U.S. being much more investable than Canada is. We have to get ahead of this. I am trying to get us on par, but the fact is, we have to be more competitive in this Canadian economy. I can talk about the bill from our last Parliament. The bill in 2021 was called an act to amend the Income Tax Act (capture and utilization or storage of greenhouse gases), and the Liberals voted against that too. Now here we are, five years later, and they have come forward with a bill on enhanced oil recovery and carbon capture that was half as effective as it needs to be in order to be competitive with the United States. These are things we need to move forward with at pace and at the time when they are necessary. We have lost five years, and we are still half as competitive in that credit as we need to be vis-à-vis our major competitor for investment in that sector. The U.S. has had this, as I said, since 2020. The primary beneficiary of it in the United States is the chemical industry. Think about how much waste heat comes from the chemical industry. It has exploited that in the United States and done a number of retrofits, making sure that it is very competitive in the chemical industry as a result. That is something I think we need to replicate here in Canada to get that investment back in this country so it makes more sense to invest here. I know that we have spoken about a lot here, but one of the things I always like to talk about is how much the government has spent on environmental measures. This is an environmental measure because it would get more electricity from the same amount of hydrocarbons and other power being produced. We would be capturing that and turning it into something real: less waste and more electricity. It is a cheap way to do that. However, in the last 10 or 11 years, the government has spent hundreds of billions of dollars on its environmental policies, all of which have resulted in almost net-zero reductions in CO2 emissions and a whole bunch of deindustrialization of the Canadian economy.”
Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my Bloc Québécois colleagues, who carefully examined this bill, consulted with their constituents and found constructive ways to implement it to make our economy more competitive. I also want to thank them for agreeing to send this bill to committee so that we can examine the details that warrant further discussion. I will also address some of the government’s responses, insofar as the bill is not perfect. As members know, any private member’s bill is drafted with the Library of Parliament to replicate the tax credits that already exist. As much as a bunch of regulations would come forth with the bill, those are to be determined at committee as well. I do question the negativism that was brought forward on that. What I am trying to do, and I think it is the role of all of us as private members, is to find the gaps that are going to make for a better Canadian economy at the end of the day. Waste heat to power is one of the gaps in our system that the United States is exploiting very fulsomely at this point in time. To get back on par with the United States as far as our competition goes, and to get investment back into Canada for these types of common-sense approaches to less waste and more electricity, this would be a winner for everybody. I do agree there is overlap with other tax incentives, exactly as there is in the United States. We do need to be competitive with it, even in the stacking that happens in those credits. The bottom line is to get this investment happening in Canada. Here is one of the riddles on this. I am working with a company, and everybody knows the company I am working with on this, to try to get this moving in Canada. That company is out of Calgary, with a suboffice in Houston. It has received a $50-million U.S. investment from none other than the Canada Growth Fund. The Canada Growth Fund is going to invest, alongside a big U.S. investment entity, another $50 million U.S. into waste heat to power. It is going to give the money only when it is approved for the financial mechanism. That is going to happen at this point in time in the United States, because the returns are better. Canadian taxpayer dollars, again, are going towards investment in the United States. Talk about cutting off our nose to spite our face, we are actually funding more competition from the United States through Canadian taxpayer dollars. That is a ludicrous approach to what we need to do to build this economy. The U.S. has had this regime since 2020, and we have been playing catch-up ever since. We have been losing investment in Canada as a result of the U.S. being much more investable than Canada is. We have to get ahead of this. I am trying to get us on par, but the fact is, we have to be more competitive in this Canadian economy. I can talk about the bill from our last Parliament. The bill in 2021 was called an act to amend the Income Tax Act (capture and utilization or storage of greenhouse gases), and the Liberals voted against that too. Now here we are, five years later, and they have come forward with a bill on enhanced oil recovery and carbon capture that was half as effective as it needs to be in order to be competitive with the United States. These are things we need to move forward with at pace and at the time when they are necessary. We have lost five years, and we are still half as competitive in that credit as we need to be vis-à-vis our major competitor for investment in that sector. The U.S. has had this, as I said, since 2020. The primary beneficiary of it in the United States is the chemical industry. Think about how much waste heat comes from the chemical industry. It has exploited that in the United States and done a number of retrofits, making sure that it is very competitive in the chemical industry as a result. That is something I think we need to replicate here in Canada to get that investment back in this country so it makes more sense to invest here. I know that we have spoken about a lot here, but one of the things I always like to talk about is how much the government has spent on environmental measures. This is an environmental measure because it would get more electricity from the same amount of hydrocarbons and other power being produced. We would be capturing that and turning it into something real: less waste and more electricity. It is a cheap way to do that. However, in the last 10 or 11 years, the government has spent hundreds of billions of dollars on its environmental policies, all of which have resulted in almost net-zero reductions in CO2 emissions and a whole bunch of deindustrialization of the Canadian economy.