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Thank you.

There's already been a bit of talk about electricity. I was hoping to pull on that a little bit more, but particularly when we're talking about nuclear, because that's a big part of the source of clean electricity in Ontario. I often get a lot of questions about what we're doing to support the nuclear part of our electrical grid, and also on the safety issues.

I saw there is funding for the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, and I was wondering if you could talk a little bit more about what that funding goes towards and what work the Nuclear Safety Commission is doing right now.

Thank you for that and for giving me a bit more background.

The reason that I think people are particularly interested, too, is that we're hearing a lot more conversation about SMRs. There was the announcement about the Darlington SMR, the first, I believe, grid-level SMR.

Would you be able to tell me a little bit more about the SMR strategy and what you see happening in the world of SMRs.

In my final minute, we've talked about a few different aspects when it comes to nuclear, but another one is the Nuclear Waste Management Organization and the work they are doing. I don't believe they're present today.

I don't know if you have anything you might be able to update us on about the work they're doing right now.

Thank you.

I want to ask some questions about nuclear. It's an issue that has a lot of conversation around it. Being from Ontario, I've seen the importance of nuclear as we transition from coal-fired electricity. I always like to say that it's one of the greatest successes that we went from having an average of 55 smog days a year to zero. It's great, because I'm a runner and I always really appreciate the clean skies that we have.

I saw that there's funding here for the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission within the supplementary estimates (C). It got me thinking about the small modular reactor strategy and what we're doing with small modular reactors. Can you tell me a little bit more about that?

Actually, I'm happy that you mentioned the Darlington part of it, because that was a recent announcement, I believe, in the past few months, and you might be able to correct me if I have that wrong. At the same time, there was the announcement of a regional table that was created with the Province of Ontario. If I recall, nuclear was part of that regional table as a list of priorities.

How do regional tables play a role in forwarding those kinds of conversations?

That's pretty much the end of my time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I think the point Mario Simard is raising is really important, and I appreciate his advocacy for the use of mass timber.

I am curious as to whether Mr. Hamilton would be able to help us understand what the impact of this amendment would be on government decisions.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to follow up on some of the different questions we had about methane a bit earlier today.

I was excited that just about a month ago one of our Canadian satellite companies, which is tracking methane leaks from space using satellite technology, was able to participate through COP27 in highlighting methane leaks around the world. They found some from coal plants, for example, but they also found one from a waste treatment plant in Terrebonne, back in November. It's a company called GHGSat. They're based in Montreal. I think they show how some of the cutting-edge technologies that we're developing here in Canada are helping to track down methane, and from different sources than people might normally think of as sources of methane.

When I was looking through the supplementary estimates (B), I saw that there was funding for Canadian data-receiving infrastructure for the space-based earth observation network. I was just wondering if maybe, thinking about that piece of funding, you can highlight some of the Canadian technologies that we're helping to support and develop on methane emissions.

Thank you. I appreciate that. It has given me a little bit of background on that piece.

I am going to shift to someone else, so I think you're off the hot seat for the parts about satellites.

I want to talk a little bit about green construction and what we are doing to advance innovations on that. Just about a couple of meetings ago we had someone come to speak about the role of forestry in green buildings, and about tall timber construction and its role in green buildings.

I won't direct my question to anyone specifically. You will have to let me know who the right person is.

Could I get a bit more about what we're doing to build innovation in green buildings?

Great.

I don't know whether Mr. Hargrove has anything to add specifically about the tall timber and forestry piece.

Thank you.

My question is for the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, if they are still there. It's about hydrogen and investments.

When we're talking about federal investments in hydrogen, I believe you wrote about the export of hydrogen and the opportunities. Can you tell us a bit more about that?

I have two things.

How long do we think this conversation is going to go? I suggest that we may want to dismiss the witnesses if we think we're going to be talking about it for another 10 minutes, because we are running into the end of the meeting.

That's the first part, and then I was going to propose an amendment.

As I was saying, I have amendments to propose. That's why I asked the question first.

The first amendment that I want to propose is actually right off the top. It is that we change the word “require” to “request”. The reason is that there hasn't been a refusal from the Canada Energy Regulator. This is really just a request at this point. There's nothing to show that they're trying to stop this production.