:
I call the meeting to order. We have a very full agenda today. Welcome to meeting number 31 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on International Trade.
Today's meeting is webcast and is taking place in a hybrid format, pursuant to the House order of January 25, 2021.
Pursuant to Standing Order 108 and the motion adopted by the committee on Friday, March 12, 2021, the committee will resume its study of Canada's exports of environmental and clean technology goods and services.
Before us today as witnesses we have, from Foresight Cleantech Accelerator Centre, Jeanette Jackson, chief executive officer; and from the Forest Products Association of Canada, Kate Lindsay, senior vice-president of sustainability and environmental partnerships, and Mahima Sharma, director of environment, innovation and mill regulations.
Ms. Jackson, you have the floor, please.
:
Thank you, Madam Chair.
My name is Mahima Sharma and I am the director of environment, innovation and mill regulations at the Forest Products Association of Canada. I am here today with my colleague, Kate Lindsay, FPAC's senior vice-president.
FPAC represents Canada's wood, pulp, paper and wood fibre-based bioproduct manufacturers. We're an $80-billion industry directly employing 230,000 Canadians and supporting another 600,000 Canadian families indirectly in 600 communities.
FPAC sees opportunity for our sector to be a solutions provider in supporting the federal government's goals for a green economic recovery. As we map the path to net-zero carbon by 2050, the sector continues to pursue opportunities toward next-generation biorefinery capabilities and the development of new biosourced products for use here in Canada, and also for global export, with the U.S. being a more immediate export market.
The following are two great examples of clean technology and product development going on in Canada.
Arbios Biotech, a joint venture between Licella and the integrated forest products company Canfor Pulp in Prince George, B.C., converts end-of-life wood and biomass into biocrude oil. Earlier this week, this joint venture announced a new global alliance with Shell Catalysts and Technologies, which provides the capability to upgrade biocrude into next-generation biofuels and biochemicals such as transportation fuels for heavy-duty vehicles and aviation in one continuous, efficient process.
One of our proudest moments through this pandemic, with the support of Natural Resources Canada and Canadian scientists and researchers at FPInnovations, has been the development of a biodegradable non-medical mask from what would have otherwise been wood waste, a Canadian innovation and first of its kind in the world. Turning wood residues into low-carbon, value-added products such as face masks is another way Canada's forest products sector can help us power green recovery while supporting the Canadian government's efforts to reduce single-use plastics.
These first-in-kind technologies and innovative solutions offer global solutions from Canada's forest products sector. These are just a few examples that can further enhance the made-in-Canada brand with the potential to export clean technology and bioproducts on a global scale.
I will now turn our presentation over to my colleague, Kate Lindsay.
I will provide just one more example of a positive disruptive clean technology product gaining momentum here in Canada, and that is mass timber and tall wood buildings. In addition to the societal benefits of using wood, mass timber provides enhanced benefits of carbon storage, displacement of more emission-intensive building materials, as well as showcasing the innovative design aspects of wood.
Canada now has a number of companies that play a role in the global mass timber construction space, with facilities located in Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia currently. As an example, Quebec's Nordic Structures recently supplied the glulam beams and cross-laminated timber, or CLT, for a college being built in Houston, Texas. The wood for the prefabricated beams and CLT panels was grown in northern Quebec, manufactured in Montreal, and sent to Houston by rail to lower the transportation greenhouse gas emissions. This is just one example where Canadian innovation and manufacturing, as well as integrated supply chains, are allowing Canada to supply these excellent carbon-sequestering products to the world.
We see the recent U.S.-Canada greening government initiative as a great example of where forest products, both wood construction and the bio-based products my colleague spoke of, can contribute to positive changes through the value chain.
Other areas where the government can show support to advance these opportunities include, first, recognizing that Canada's forest products sector is a key contributor to a global low-carbon economy, with great potential to further develop the bioeconomy and export market. Second, the federal government should recognize and promote Canada's world-leading forest management practices with global customers and other governments. This would avoid any unnecessary and additional regulatory requirements that are creating confusion and a challenging investment climate. Finally, there are some key policy and programmatic areas, including modernized building codes, procurement strategies that recognize low-carbon products, ensuring that government funding programs are readily accessible across the sector, and reliable transportation and supply chain networks.
We want to thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. We look forward to answering any questions and following up with you in the future.
Thank you.
:
That's glorious. Thank you for having me.
I wish to acknowledge that the lands on which our office is located are part of the traditional unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and Tsawwassen nations.
Foresight is Canada's clean-tech ecosystem accelerator. We bring together partners to identify, commercialize and adopt the clean technologies needed to support a global transition to a green economy. The innovation community is the heart of everything we do, supported by our partners in industry, academia, government and, of course, the investment community. Our whole mandate is to position Canada as a global leader in clean-tech innovation through programming and relevant initiatives.
I'd like to start with a few statements and applaud the efforts to position Canada as this global leader. To expand clean-tech innovation and adoption, we need to better connect Canadian clean-tech companies to global markets and investors, and government agencies play a key role in a few areas.
The first is around policy and partnerships. The Canadian government has an opportunity to provide thought leadership. An example is through our progressive carbon tax. Through thought leadership, we create confidence in the markets for international buyers and investors to come to Canada because of those types of policy initiatives.
We also want to look at trade agreements. CETA and other progressive trade agreements will also allow us to have better relationships with these regions and ensure that clean-tech ventures understand the best practices to enter those markets and do business.
I'd also like to highlight some of the national strategy opportunities. We've seen lots of great conversations between Canadian and European governments, as an example, on how hydrogen, CCUS and the bioeconomy can play a significant role in both of our economies through collaboration, understanding the needs of each of our respective regions and honing in on what innovation opportunities we can export.
We also need to look at adoption. If we're truly going to scale clean-tech ventures in Canada, we do need a strong domestic procurement incentive program. Really, it's those demonstrations that allow us to home-grow our solutions in Canada and showcase those solutions internationally.
We've also been working on some other adoption opportunities through our SDG connect program in partnership with the trade commissioner service. This strategic matchmaking gives an opportunity for international buyers to showcase to Canadian innovators what their needs are and, again, create opportunities for Canadians to innovate on a global scale and to export.
The next bucket is on capital. We've seen lots of different international mechanisms that really create strong capital environments for early-stage and later-stage investments. It's also important to have strategic investor matchmaking sessions profiling Canadian ventures in all of the respective regions where their technologies could apply.
The next bucket is around innovation. While we are starting to see many clean-tech companies scale, it's important that we have a really strong, robust funnel of earlier-stage ventures as well. I think we need, as a collective, to dig in and ensure that the number of high-quality early-stage ventures are problem-driven and understand the opportunities both domestically and globally. Of course, programs from FedDev and provincial government agencies can really help drive these types of initiatives.
Finally, in terms of scale, we need to see more investment in scaling ventures. I know there have been lots of announcements recently on support to do that, but if we can continue to feed that scale-up mentality and that growth mentality to the ventures and provide the support they need, they'll be much better positioned for exponential export growth. While clean tech 101 was challenging for investors, what we've really seen over the last year is that over $1.7 trillion in capital inflows to ESG and sustainability-related funds have come to fruition, and a record $23.7 billion of venture capital investment was deployed to 1,255 climate technologies.
A combined policy and capital push is a generational opportunity for Canada. We have great technology developers and terrific universities, but our markets and local investors are insufficient to fully capitalize our ventures to compete on a global scale. In fact, a study by SDTC and Cycle Capital shows that Canadian clean-tech ventures are generally able to raise only about half the equity and debt capital as a comparable clean-tech company in the U.S. and other European regions. We need to get Canada's private capital and industry off the sidelines and massively engaged with our clean-tech entrepreneurs if we want to compete in the decades ahead.
To showcase some success stories, we are succeeding in some areas on the international stage. Occidental has a partnership with Carbon Engineering in Texas. Svante has a great partnership with Chevron in California. MineSense has projects in South America, and Enerkem has waste-to-chemicals plants in Spain and China.
We're starting to see momentum, but how do we turn these four stories into a hundred stories? That's what we're really trying to dig into.
As a bit of feedback, SDTC is a great opportunity and mechanism to showcase the demonstration of technologies. It would be interesting to look at having a first project deployment off site as well, as part of that funding model.
EDC is also great in supporting the export development opportunities. It would be nice to see some more flexibility in financing options. EDC is not empowered to take technology risks and below-market returns.
Global Affairs has also been a great strategic partner for us in our ventures. We work very closely with the trade commissioner service. Things like industry matchmaking events or SDG connect events are a great opportunity to profile Canadian ventures and position Canada as that global leader.
ECCC has also been very supportive across Canada in supporting CETA workshops. These types of programs help educate all the different stakeholders in the community to understand what we need to do in order to do good business and follow all the trade expectations that have been set at the federal level.
Finally, IRAP's pilot program, both domestically and internationally, is another great tool.
In terms of closing remarks, we really are doing everything we can to help SMEs scale at home to help sell abroad, but we need more resources and tools to do that as an accelerator community. We need to scale the supply of export-ready companies and more proactively source overseas companies seeking Canadian innovation.
We propose a ready-to-export training program—an expanded SDG connect program—that scales our pipeline of export-ready companies. We have some opportunities to present the proposals in that regard.
There is also a critical need for further development of relationships between Canada and the global network of clean-tech accelerators in partner countries. This includes the U.S., the EU, Asia and Latin America. These accelerators are beachheads and validation points for our companies to access these global markets and investors. While we have done some of the work in this area off the side of our desks, we'd love to lean in on this with the federal government as well.
Finally, there are some interesting best practices that we can lean in on. Yesterday an article came out regarding the CAN Health model, which can be applied to clean tech. We would love to work with all of you and your various partners and collaborators to see how that model can help clean tech in Canada scale and really position us as export-ready for global markets.
Thank you for having me. I look forward to Q and A.
:
Thank you for the question.
There is a little difference between the price of conventional lumber right now and the mass timber market. Where we see the real advantages with mass timber are where it can replace some of the other, more emission-intensive building materials, such as concrete and steel. It's really proving to have many advantages as far as its carbon footprint is concerned—there is less carbon footprint. It's prefabricated, in many cases, so construction can happen more quickly. There is a lot of benefit even just in the beauty of the product and the way the inhabitants feel when they're in it. There are lots of different value propositions there.
It's also something that can be made out of some of the waste material of other lumber manufacturing processes. It's a value-added product, which is great to see. It can also be a longer-lived wood product, so there is the ability to store that carbon for longer periods of time instead of it going back into the atmosphere or being landfilled, which is really exciting.
It's something that really was initiated in Europe, but we're seeing it in North America and primarily here in Canada recently. It's just great to see this new adoption of technology.
One of the challenges is having the architecture and construction professions become more familiar with this building product. Lots of great work is going on right now to educate and do demonstration projects.
Then, of course, there are the building codes. Right now we're at mid-rise tall wood buildings, but if those building codes increase, we can have taller wood buildings into the future.
We've supported over 550 ventures across Canada over the last three and a half years. We find there are still too many innovators that are technologies looking for problems. In our new strategic plan and all of our programming, we're reimagining the accelerator model. We're working with industry to clearly identify the innovation gaps they need to reach to achieve a net-zero target. What you do is put that at the start of the funnel in your call for the cohort.
An example would be water. We know we have several large multinationals in the manufacturing space and production space that use a lot of water, and they're looking for innovation to solve specific problems. We actually do calls for those innovators and weed them out, and really help the industry partners better understand and work closely with those ventures to improve the probability of success.
Now, one of the important notes on those calls is that it's not only domestic, but international. We have a pretty strong network through the trade commissioner service, through other networks, where industry partners are looking to Canada. We've become somewhat well known for our ability to innovate in clean tech broadly. Through the programming, we can actually curate and support ventures that have a higher probability of success right out of the gate because they're problem-driven right out of the gate.
On the export readiness side, it's really making sure they have the right team, value-prop business model and competitive advantage to compete, and they're properly funded so they can export at scale. A lot of our programming provides that support or guidance to ensure they are export-ready.
You need to be at a certain threshold. You need to have demonstrated your technology. Your business model has to make sense for that scalable opportunity. We really dig into those specifics.
Clean tech is broad, so now we're starting to break it down and be more proactive in finding ventures that solve real problems, and that people will pay a lot of money for as well.
:
Thank you very much to our witnesses for being here with us today.
A recurring theme at this committee over the life of this Parliament has been a contention by many witnesses across many different industries that Canada really stands out in terms of not doing a lot of industrial planning, or sector-based industrial planning. I think what we've heard from a number of sectors is that they'd like to be able to sit down with government and hash out a medium- and long-term plan for their industry and really coordinate government policy with the aspirations of the industry.
Of course, when we're talking about a really important emerging industry, even less emerging now than it was five to 10 years ago, in terms of clean tech, obviously this is important.
Could each of you speak a bit to the way your industry is able to engage with government and the extent to which you feel there should be some more formal planning with government around your industry, whether it's trade policy or certain kinds of domestic policy, such as procurement, which I know has come up already today on several occasions? How can it work within your industry to make sure that there is actually a plan and that the actions of government and the policies of government are reinforcing the development of the industry in a way that's beneficial both to businesses and to workers within the industry?
Are you satisfied that the government is where it needs to be on that? Do you think Canada stands out as not doing as much as our allies and competitors around industrial planning? What do you think those missing pieces are?
I'll start with Ms. Jackson, and then we can go to our witnesses from the Forest Products Association.
Thank you.
:
Thank you, Mr. Blaikie, for the great question.
Though our roots are in British Columbia, we've actually supported industry and innovators across the country. However, I'm going to lean in a little on what we're seeing in British Columbia, just as an example.
We did a phase one cluster strategy to identify the real core competencies of the region and what the largest emitters in the province need to do to reach net-zero targets. We identified six areas of interest: water, resource, transportation, built environment, ag tech, the usual suspects.
What we find is that—you are correct—there is not enough capacity for industry to take a step back and reflect on where they really want to be in 2030 and 2050. We obviously have the policy pressure to reach climate targets, but what's the next layer of that? What's the how? How do we set priorities as a collective?
I'll give you an example. Again, 50% of our time is spent on acceleration; the other 50%-plus is actually spent on industry and investor engagement. We proposed an actual energy decision tree to decide where hydrogen, biofuels and electrification fit to help these large emitters transition.
That's just one of many different platforms that could be useful in helping industry make decisions, set priorities and be willing to take the risks where they need to. This can be expanded globally. In fact, we work very closely with FPInnovations on several of these conversations as well.
I'll pass it over to Kate.
:
Thank you, Mr. Blaikie.
I'll start, and then Mahima can feed in.
I would say, absolutely, we would look for a sector strategy. I wouldn't say that we've seen that yet to the extent possible. We do see it in some of our competing countries, like Finland and Sweden, where they have very strong forest sector strategies that the government has put forward specifically for climate change targets.
We have an existing bioeconomy framework that we would love to see implemented. Generally, we often see different regulatory or government programmatic areas that are at cross purposes with each other, whether it's low carbon, whether it's conservation agenda, or whether it's inclusive growth. We would absolutely appreciate sitting down with different departments federally to walk through pathways to success and to address some of those challenges.
I'll just see if Mahima has anything to add there.
:
Thank you very much for the question. It's an excellent point.
There is a lot of misinformation and misconception about forestry practices. The most progressive practices today are really around understanding the natural range of variations. Particularly in the boreal forest, for example, fire is a dominant; it's a disturbance-driven ecosystem, largely fire-driven. Forestry is now mimicking the frequency of fire and the patterns of fire so we can work within what's called ecosystem-based forest management.
We're also seeing that so many of the other values that are important for wildlife species, for soil and for water, are being incorporated into forest management planning, as well as all the value that is locally provided. For the most part, in Canada, this is being done on public land, so local voices, indigenous communities, have the opportunity to feed into those long-term forest management plans, which are done over 100 to 150 years. Therefore, very much so, clear-cutting is not the same image in our mind that it might have been 30 or 40 years ago. It's really about sustainability, ecosystem-based management and resilient forests for the future.
:
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Good afternoon. I'm Rosaline Kwan, director general of the trade sectors bureau of the trade commissioner service at Global Affairs Canada. It's my pleasure to be here with you today. As a representative of Global Affairs Canada, please allow me to say a few words about the trade commissioner service, the TCS for short.
The TCS is a network of international business professionals who help Canadian businesses grow through international sales, commercial partnerships and investment. The TCS has over a thousand trade representatives working in over 160 cities around the world, including in offices across Canada, to help Canadian firms succeed in entering or expanding in international markets. Over a hundred of these trade commissioners have responsibilities that include supporting Canadian clean-technology firms.
Within the federal clean-tech ecosystem, the TCS is just one player in the wider ecosystem of clean-growth partners that includes colleagues who are with us here today: NRCan, ISED, ECCC, SDTC and our international trade portfolio partners EDC, BDC, CCC and Invest in Canada. We all work closely together to help start-ups and scale-ups of clean-tech firms. Witnesses here today are all part of the clean growth hub, a unique whole-of-government focal point for clean technology, dedicated to supporting Canadian companies to navigate federal programs and services.
As this committee has heard through the input of industry witnesses, domestic efforts to scale and finance clean-tech companies are key to increasing clean-tech exports, and we collaborate closely on this effort.
ISED supports Canadian clean-tech businesses through a number of programs and initiatives, including the strategic innovation fund and the recently announced net-zero accelerator. The strategic innovation fund has been a critical tool to growing Canada's economy while advancing Canada's green industrial strategy and transforming the economy for long-term, cleaner growth. The strategic innovation fund has invested over a billion dollars in large projects with a significant clean-tech component, and the net-zero accelerator will further drive investment to large emission-reducing and job-creating projects across every region of Canada.
Budget 2021 includes funding of $1 billion over five years to leverage private investment towards large, transformative clean-technology projects. This initiative will eliminate risk from decarbonization projects for traditional lenders, bring down the cost of capital and make many of these large-scale projects more economically feasible while decarbonizing the Canadian economy and creating new jobs.
Other partners I've mentioned include SDTC, which supports small businesses and start-ups in their commercialization efforts. As of March 2020, SDTC has provided $1.28 billion in funding to 447 projects. SDTC-supported companies have generated $2.7 billion in annual revenues, created more than 14,000 jobs and brought 126 new technologies to market, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 19.3 megatonnes annually.
BDC has the only dedicated pan-Canadian clean-tech financing team, with Canada's largest clean-tech fund of $600 million. Through this team, BDC offers clean-tech entrepreneurs equity and financing solutions to support and accelerate their growth and operations. As of March 2021, $370 million has been committed.
NRCan helps Canadian companies develop new, innovative technologies and products to transition to a low-carbon future. The department also assists Canada's natural resources sectors, helping them to improve their efficiency, adopt clean technologies and develop our resources sustainably. NRCan has several clean-tech support programs and initiatives to support resource industries and value chains.
ECCC has policies, regulations and funding that spur the development and scale-up of our clean technologies domestically and abroad. ECCC helps Canadian exporters of environmental and clean-tech goods and services expand into foreign markets by leveraging ECCC's international environmental co-operation networks with foreign governments and stakeholders, and through its multilateral and bilateral initiatives, including environmental co-operation agreements or environment chapters of free trade agreements.
Canada's export credit agency, EDC, plays an important role in supporting Canadian exporters through the provision of innovative financial solutions. EDC is the largest provider of financial solutions for Canadian clean-tech companies looking to expand their businesses internationally. In 2020, EDC served 288 clean-tech companies and facilitated $4.6 billion in trade in the clean-tech space and close to $14 billion since 2012.
Canadian firms are leading the way in the development of the clean technologies the world is seeking. The environmental and clean-tech sector contributed $70.5 billion to GDP in 2019, provided more than 341,000 well-paying jobs and is growing faster than the rest of the economy.
The sector exported $13.5 billion of environmental and clean technology products in 2019, accounting for 1.8% of total Canadian exports. Three-quarters of these exports were destined for the United States. Europe, with $1.7 billion, and Asia, with $1.2 billion, were the other important markets for Canadian environmental and clean-tech products and services.
Canada's modern free trade agreements provide Canadian clean-tech companies advantages by eliminating tariffs, creating an equal playing field for service providers, improving labour mobility provisions, and expanding access to government procurement opportunities when applicable, among others.
For the trade commissioner service, promoting clean tech in global markets is a key priority, as you've heard from many of the witnesses through the sessions you've had, a priority supported by our clean-tech international business development strategy. This strategy was first announced in budget 2017 and renewed through budget 2021. It has proven successful at helping Canadian clean-tech firms tap into export opportunities and the rapidly growing pools of global climate finance. Since 2017, this strategy has helped generate more than $83 million in commercial successes by Canadian clean-tech firms, helping them to scale internationally.
Our trade commissioner service programming and services have supported hundreds of Canadian clean-tech firms across Canada to secure international research and development partnerships and diversify into global markets. Through our CanExport programs, we have provided $10 million to support over 260 clean-tech projects. Since 2019, our Canadian technology accelerator programs have supported over 85 of Canada's most promising clean-tech firms to improve their access to global markets.
The clean-tech sector represents significant opportunities for Canadian companies and the economy as a whole. The collaborative efforts of the TCS and all our partners in promoting clean technologies position Canadian workers and businesses to be among the leaders in the increasingly low-carbon global economy.
Thank you for the opportunity to join you today. We look forward to your questions.
:
Thank you. You raised a really important point. Perhaps I could address that first by talking about the trade diversification strategy. As you mentioned, we want to be able to help our companies grow internationally to build up their capacity to succeed globally. Maybe I'll pass it over afterwards to my colleague at ISED, Mr. Noseworthy, to talk about programs that will be put in place, that have been put in place, to support Canadian industry.
As part of the trade diversification strategy, as you might have heard from other witnesses as well, we look very much at enhancing tools and opportunities for our Canadian companies and increasing the capacity of our own network to be able to serve our Canadian companies. We look at where we trade, whom we trade with, what we export and who exports, including very much supporting some of the themes that were talked about in the session just before, in promoting women leadership, under-represented communities, etc.
We have a number of programs. I talked about CanExport and the funding that's gone into that to help Canadian companies make connections abroad, internationally. Also, there are tools that we've built, and we continue to build, to be able to work with our companies and help them access information at their fingertips through websites and information tools, as well as through the resources of our network, as I've explained. The trade diversification aspect is important, because it does help us access more markets and tap into more opportunities internationally.
Maybe I'll stop there. I will invite my colleague Mr. Noseworthy to talk a bit about programs under ISED that are helping Canadian companies in this area.
:
I can speak generally to border carbon adjustments, but not in the context of the WTO. Perhaps a GAC colleague can add to that point.
In the context of border carbon adjustments, as noted, this is something that Canada is exploring as a possible measure to ensure, as we transition to a low-carbon economy, that it is achieved in a way that is fair and predictable for our businesses and that it supports international competitiveness for Canadian companies. As noted, the budget indicated that the government will be launching a domestic consultation process, which we expect to happen in the coming weeks.
We are working with other like-minded countries, such as those in the EU, to consider how this approach more broadly fits into global strategies for countries to meet their climate targets while ensuring a fair and predictable environment for businesses.
With respect to the European proposal, Canada did submit formal comments to the EU as part of their consultation process, which, among other things, underlined Canada's robust price on carbon. We also know that the United States has made some comments, but they're also looking at this.
I would say this is still an evolving space in terms of policy.
I might cede the floor now to Doug or Rosaline from GAC. I'm not sure if you have anything with respect to WTO.
:
Sure, thanks, Jeanne. I'm happy to add to your comments.
Good afternoon. Thank you for the question, Madam Chair.
Yes, as Jeanne said, this is an evolving policy space. It's very topical, no question about it. There is a lot of interest from around the world. I think a lot of that is being driven by the European Union. They announced that they have been conducting a number of studies and analyses, and I understand they will be in a position to release, as part of their broader environmental package, a CBAM, a carbon border adjustment mechanism. There will be details on that in mid-July. We are following this very closely, obviously, as Canadian exports to the European marketplace could be impacted.
As to whether it is WTO-consistent, well, we don't know. I think this is the challenge with respect to carbon border adjustment mechanisms. There have been a great number of studies over the years and no one has yet implemented one that is WTO-consistent, so we're watching carefully. As Jeanne noted, Canada is currently analyzing whether that policy is appropriate for Canada. We'll continue that analysis, and the consultations will follow later this year.
My next question is a little more general, although it might be most properly directed to the Department of Industry. One of the recurring themes at this committee over the course of this Parliament has been hearing from a number of folks in industry, both on the employer side or business side and from a number of labour unions as well, that Canada stands out among our international trading partners for a distinct lack of industrial policy and planning.
Of course, we're here to talk about how to increase export opportunities. We often talk about trade deals, but in the Canadian context, it seems we do that without a concerted plan for what we want strategic industries to look like in the next 10, 20 or 30 years: I think, for instance, of Canada's lack of a plan for the aerospace industry or the automotive industry.
If we have those plans, please table them with the committee. However, we've heard repeatedly—including just earlier from our last panel of witnesses—that Canada is not doing a good job of this and that it would bring benefit in terms of helping industry coordinate some long-term planning, which they don't always have the capacity to do as they try to meet the short-term demands of their industry. Also—and I think we've seen a little bit of this today with some of the questions that get punted around—sometimes different government departments don't really know what their partners are working on, so you don't get a cohesive plan emerging.
I'm curious about the philosophy behind this, whether it's a matter of resources and when the government plans to get serious about convening its interdepartmental partners and industry to develop explicit medium- and long-term plans for certain strategic industries.
:
Thank you for that question.
Of course, clean tech, as evidenced by the diverse set of witnesses who have appeared before this committee, applies to many different sub-areas, if I can call them sub-areas. Some are quite deep on their own, in terms of technologies and application. It is, as we see it, a cross-disciplinary, cross-platform sector, if you can still limit it by that terminology.
Clean tech could cover what some people call “pure play”: the technology side of decarbonization of certain products or services. It also, as we've heard, applies to the oil and gas sector, the energy sector, the mining sector, the agriculture sector and so on, because the implications of reducing greenhouse gas are so wide and so important. For us also, those are considered areas to which clean technology could be applied.
I'm not an expert, by any means—I don't want to portray that—but there is a taxonomy for clean tech that is used when we do data and data strategy.
Madam Chair, please give me that extra few seconds.
Batteries are also making a tremendous change in energy storage, which will make clean tech—solar and wind-powered generation—more viable in the future, and not just in the future, even currently.
I know in the recent budget we did invest to create a critical battery minerals centre of excellence at Natural Resources Canada. We also provided funds for federal research and development to advance critical battery mineral processing and refining expertise.
Both Canada and the U.S. have signed an agreement to strengthen the Canada-U.S. joint action plan on critical minerals collaboration. I want to know what is happening on that front from Canada's side. The United States Department of Commerce held a closed-door meeting about eight weeks back with the miners and battery manufacturers to discuss ways to boost the Canadian production of critical minerals. I think 17 of the 35 minerals identified as critical by the U.S. Department of Defense are mostly also related to critical minerals for battery development that can be supplied from Canada. The United States is looking for us to be a small part of the whole world supply chain.
I feel we should have a comprehensive strategy to develop everything—from minerals and metals to technologies and manufacturing facilities—here in Canada. I want to ask the Department of Industry and the Department of Natural Resources whether they have a comprehensive strategy to develop this sector, from minerals and metals to technologies and manufacturing companies, here in Canada.
:
Thanks for the question.
We've been really focusing a lot of effort in promoting Canadian clean-tech goods and services around the world. As I mentioned, it was important for us to be able to renew the resources through budget 2021 and continue the support to Canadian companies in regional offices.
To your question, in our missions abroad, Canadian companies connect with our trade commissioners there to learn about the local business environment, the high-potential business partners and what the business risks are, and get some advice on business opportunities and networks. So far, from the resources we have been given and from the tracking of our activities, we found that there has been success we can point to and also that there is continued potential for even more of that success, given the strong capacities of some of our very good companies and their technologies.
Where we want to help even more is to provide an ever better focus area of support to different companies across their needs. I know we have limited time, but one of the areas and programs where we really provide that enhanced focus is through our Canadian technology accelerators. It started out in the U.S., but now we have them in Asia, some in Europe, some across the Americas. We run 12-week programs, and our partners around the virtual table here, in particular BDC, EDC and others, work together with us in preparing companies and then connecting them when they are abroad. Mr. Noseworthy mentioned the waste-water mission that took place earlier to India. That also pointed to a lot of specific opportunities that our Canadian companies have been able to further develop and seize upon to be able to grow their activities in international markets.
For us, it is an important area. It is an area we feel we need to continue to support the industry on. Just to give a sense of what I'm talking about with the Canadian technology accelerators, since 2013 the program has raised capital of over $600 million. Canadian companies have increased revenues by $238 million, and it has created about 2,500 jobs. We very much look forward to continuing that.
What we've seen more recently is very encouraging. We've had 30% growth since 2019 in women's participation in the Canadian technology accelerators. We are very pleased to see that and we are very pound of it, so we'll continue to work in that regard as well.
Perhaps I can add a little bit from the perspective of the trade commissioner service. If other colleagues have additional comments, they're most welcome to join in as well.
In terms of international partnerships, from a trade commissioner service perspective, we are of course led by Canadian companies. What we're seeing, in particular.... I talked about the clean-tech side, but I also want to mention the climate finance side in terms of partnership. We're seeing multidirectional connections being made to connect our Canadian companies to even more opportunities and more financing and capabilities around the world.
As one example, we would have a Canadian company with a very strong capacity in a certain area. We would help it, through the network I mentioned, in Europe and elsewhere; this example is in Europe. We helped to connect them to a Finnish international financial institution that has a project in Africa, for example.
The traditional model of going out to a specific market now has, as I'm sure members will appreciate, multiple connections in an integrated, interwoven world. We feel that the benefit comes from additional connections that the trade commissioner service is able to provide to create those partnerships with various agencies and organizations, including all of the partners here, of course, to get our Canadian companies into new and emerging markets.