On January 07, ECC submitted the following response to the Government of Canada’s consultation. See Notice of Objection and Request for Board of Review.
In our response, we note that pipelines are critical to Canada’s efforts to decarbonize.
464 kilometers of pipelines are shipping CO2 in Canada today, sequestering 7 megatonnes of CO2/year[i]. Twenty-four carbon capture, pipeline and storage projects are being proposed in Alberta alone.
According to RBC, $2 trillion is required to reach Net Zero by 2050, with Canada’s energy industry and pipeline industry representing much of that investment potential. Dozens of projects were poised to proceed but are now at risk due to the confrontation chosen by policies such as this regulation and others.
We urge the Government of Canada to rescind this regulation, continue to rely upon the existing carbon pricing regime and the many successful equivalency agreements struck with provinces, de-risk the federal government’s carbon price trajectory by advancing carbon off-take agreements/carbon contracts for differences, and vastly improve the predictability and timeliness of federal project review processes.
Canada’s energy industry is poised to continue its investments and efforts to decarbonize, but is seeking thoughtful, coherent federal policy that contributes to ensuring investor confidence. Collaboration and investor confidence in turn will lead to investment, job creation and more progress towards Canada’s decarbonization goals.
