OTTAWA – Strong environment laws and policies could foster growth for Canadian businesses in a rapidly expanding green economy, Environment Minister Peter Kent was told in an internal government memo obtained by Postmedia News.“The clean technology sector in Canada looks to governments to overcome existing barriers to allow it to realize its economic and environmental potential,” said the memo, sent by Kent’s former deputy minister, Paul Boothe, a few weeks before the last federal budget. “Environment Canada… leads the green growth (and green economy) file for the government of Canada and plays an important role in fostering clean technology innovation through well-designed environmental regulations and policies.”
Boothe, an economist who left the government in July to accept a position as director of a policy centre at the University of Western Ontario’s Ivey Business School, noted in the memo that Export Development Canada estimated the clean technology sector was worth $1 trillion in 2010, not including green buildings, and that it was projected to expand to $2.4 trillion in 2021.
“Clean technology is a rapidly expanding sector of the Canadian and global economy and it is increasingly relevant in international and domestic discussions on green growth that seek to find policies that support both environmental and economic objectives,” said the memo, dated March 8 and released through access to information legislation.
A few weeks later, the Harper government’s 2012 budget cut millions of dollars in federal programs to stimulate green economy growth and scientific research to protect the environment as part of a plan that included legislation to overhaul several Canadian conservation laws, reducing federal oversight and eliminating about 3,000 environmental assessments.
When asked about the memo, Kent’s office was not immediately able to say how it used the information provided by Boothe in recent months.
The memo also highlighted the value of Sustainable Development Technology Canada, an arm’s length government-funded investment foundation, which has received more than $1 billion in funding since it was created in 2001 to invest in green technology projects.
The foundation recently invested $2.5 million in a project by Ottawa-based Agrisoma to create an alternative fuel for commercial airplanes using an oilseed crop. The project completed a test flight in October but must still do more research before it can market the fuel to airlines as an alternative to jet fuel.
Vicky Sharpe, the president and CEO of the foundation, told Postmedia News in an interview that companies face barriers and risks in these types of projects since they don’t know whether new technologies will succeed. But she said that this biofuel project had the potential for numerous economic and environmental benefits by reducing pollution and allowing farmers to get new revenues by planting crops for the biofuel on land that has low capacity for growing quality food crops.
“We look at a lot of very innovative technologies and when they first come to us, there’s a great deal of uncertainty on the performance of the technology,” said Sharpe. “Our job is to accept that risk and work with the companies to derisk it.”
While the memo concluded that Environment Canada was leading the government’s efforts to promote clean technology through a series of programs, the federal government’s budget subsequently slashed the spending, including a $1.2 million annual budget for the Canadian Environmental Technology Advancement Centres, which were created 20 years ago, helping about 300 small and medium-sized businesses every year. The memo said this spending helped develop products that “address the government of Canada’s environmental priorities.”
Kent’s office defended the cuts in April, suggesting at the time that Environment Canada didn’t have a mandate or accountability to foster an environmental industry in Canada. It also suggested that there were other more appropriate federal programs to help small businesses.
Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Mike De Souza
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