The question now is whether the federal government has tipped too hard toward inflexibility – and whether it will subsequently be able to course correct
Matt Jamieson the chief executive officer of the Six Nations of Grand River Development Corp. in Ontario, at the Nanticoke Solar farm on Aug. 29, 2022.As Ottawa gets close to finally putting in place long-promised tax credits for low-carbon investments, Indigenous leaders have been sounding the alarm that the measures could inadvertently discourage their communities’ participation in clean-energy projects.
A similar reaction has greeted some early-stage cleantech companies whose projects would not qualify for the credits as currently drafted. The same goes for industry associations pushing for more technical changes to expand the policies’ reach. That responsiveness may prove most necessary when it comes to the concerns around Indigenous investment.
”In a competitive solicitation, where there’s multiple people bidding on a provincial need, you could see those that choose to partner with Indigenous communities being at a competitive disadvantage,” said Darren Suarez, a vice-president with renewable-power developer Boralex Inc That impact could take various forms. If not preventing partnerships altogether, since some provinces now require or reward Indigenous equity during energy procurements, it could cause private developers to do the bare minimum to meet those expectations. Or it could impede Ottawa’s efforts to make energy projects cost-competitive with projects in the United States. Beyond the partnership concerns, it could impede Indigenous-led projects.
For instance, as the government tries to establish Canada as a producer of low-carbon hydrogen, it has limited the credit for that sector to green hydrogen and blue hydrogen . It has rebuffed requests from industry representatives to also include turquoise hydrogen – which uses a process called methane pyrolysis to produce the fuel from natural gas, with the byproduct being solid carbon rather than gaseous emissions – despite Canadian companies such as Vancouver’s Ekona Power showing promise.
Credit Hydrogen Ottawa Government Carbon Canada Need Place Occidental Petroleum Corp. First Nations Finance Ministry
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