More than $50 billion in clean tech in Canada at risk with pending incentives – National
More than a year after Canada first announced incentives to revive clean technology projects, the money is still not flowing, and if they are not implemented quickly, more than 50 billion of investment dollars could be at risk, industry groups said.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government has committed to providing a series of investment tax credits (ITCs) worth approximately $27 billion over five years to spur investment in technology green, partly in response to generous incentives offered in the United States for more than 20 years. a year.
“Companies are going to get tired of waiting given the certainty they have in the United States,” said Bob Masterson, president and CEO of the Canadian Chemical Industry Association. The government “must urgently publish as many of these measures as possible this autumn”.
Masterson says there is “well over $25 billion in proposed investments” in more than a dozen projects in his sector awaiting incentives.
The government first announced some $10 billion in ITCs 17 months ago for investments in net-zero emissions technologies – including wind or solar power – and for carbon capture and storage ( CSC), and concluded consultations on this legislation with industry this month.
Additional ITCs of $17 billion for clean hydrogen, electricity and manufacturing were announced six months ago and are only at an earlier stage.
The two sets of ITCs, once fully legislated, will be applied retroactively to the previously stated dates, a Finance Ministry official said, and some companies are already investing because they have enough certainty that the money will flow.
The official, who spoke behind the scenes due to the sensitivity of the information, said the consultation process took time because the government wanted the legislation to be correct. Without specifying when the first round of ITCs will be adopted, the official said their completion was a top priority.
Trudeau has made the transition to a low-carbon economy a cornerstone of his economic policy and the incentives are key to helping the country bring net emissions to zero by 2050, a goal set by the prime minister.
Cement maker Lafarge is among the companies relying on ITCs for its plant in Exshaw, Alberta, where it has a plan to capture 1 million tonnes of carbon emissions per year.
“Establishing CTI in Canada… will certainly facilitate the business case for the project and ensure that investments in decarbonization take place in Canada,” the company’s two sustainability leaders said in a joint statement to Reuters.
Dennis Darby, president of the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters (CME), which represents 2,500 companies, said there is urgency because companies are making investment decisions during this calendar year.
CME members will need to make between $25 billion and $50 billion in green investments over the next four or five years to compete with the United States, Darby said.
Adam Auer, president of the Cement Association of Canada, said his members have “billions” of projects waiting for ITCs.
Masterson cited as an example the planned Dow Chemicals project in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, which would be the world’s first carbon-free petrochemical facility.
If this project doesn’t come to fruition due to the uncertainty surrounding the ITCs, “it’s hard to see how the rest of the global chemical industry looks at Canada and says, ‘I should go take the tires off and see if I can make a carbon-free investment in Canada’. ,'” he said.
“We are working with the Canadian government to confirm the necessary incentives so that we can make a final investment decision this year,” Rachelle Schikorra, a spokeswoman for Dow Chemicals, told Reuters.
