Ottawa needs 'made-in-Canada' response to U.S. Inflation Reduction Act: climate group
Ottawa needs 'made-in-Canada' response to U.S. Inflation Reduction Act: climate group
OTTAWA -
As the federal government readies its spring budget, a climate group is urging Ottawa to pursue a "made-in-Canada" response to U.S. clean energy incentives.
The Canadian Climate Institute published a report on Tuesday with recommendations for the federal government on how to respond to the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act passed last summer.
The institute says the federal government shouldn't try to match the incentives and subsidies offered by the U.S. and instead tailor its measures for Canada.
The Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law last August by U.S. President Joe Biden, invests nearly US$400 billion in everything from critical minerals to battery manufacturing, electric vehicles, and clean electricity, including hydrogen.
"To compete with the Inflation Reduction Act, Canada should not try and replicate it," Marisa Beck, the institute's clean growth director, told reporters on Tuesday.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has signalled the March 28 budget will include ways to keep Canada competitive as countries transition their economies to cleaner energy and technologies.
"Our friends and partners around the world, chief among them the United States, are investing heavily to build clean economies," Freeland said in Oshawa, Ont. on Monday.
"Today and in the years to come, Canada will either capitalize on this historic moment … or we'll be left behind as the world's democracies build the clean economy of the 21st century."
The federal government took the first step in its push to keep Canada competitive by introducing new federal tax credits for clean technology and low-emitting hydrogen production in its fall economic statement last November.
The budget is expected to outline how Canada plans to grow and transition to a clean economy.
The institute says Canada should pursue targeted policies that don't over-subsidize industry but instead support projects to benefit society that the private sector wouldn't pursue on its own.
It also says the Canada Growth Fund, which will invest in clean energy projects using public dollars, should strive to to balance risk and return.
Once projects achieve profitability, the report says the government should pull its support.
"Long-term commitments over 10 (to) 15 years, of course, provide a lot of certainty for investors. But they can become really costly if it ends up that the projects are being over-subsidized," Beck said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 21, 2023.
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Monday morning, the Public Service Alliance of Canada announced it had reached a 'tentative' agreement with the federal government for the 120,000 picketing Treasury Board workers who, since April 19, had been engaged in one of the largest strikes in Canadian history. Here's a rundown of the developments from Parliament Hill as they happened.
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NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh slammed foreign interference special rapporteur David Johnston's refusal to heed the House of Commons' call for him to step down as 'tone-deaf.'
Air Canada reported a technical issue with its flight communications system on Thursday, causing delays across the country for the second time in a week.
The Royal Bank of Canada is facing issues with online and mobile banking. According to a brief message posted on Twitter, there is an issue with the digital display of transactions.
The wedding of Jordan's crown prince to the scion of a prominent Saudi family began on Thursday in a palace celebration that drew massive crowds and a mood of excitement around the kingdom, while presenting the young Hashemite royal as a new player on the global stage.
A jury Wednesday convicted a former contestant on the television game show "Family Feud" of first-degree murder and home invasion in the slaying of his estranged wife in western Illinois.
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The prime minister's national security adviser says Ottawa needs to improve the way it manages intelligence, and officials are taking steps to address breakdowns in communication within government.
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Air Canada reported a technical issue with its flight communications system on Thursday, causing delays across the country for the second time in a week.
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The Royal Bank of Canada is facing issues with online and mobile banking. According to a brief message posted on Twitter, there is an issue with the digital display of transactions.
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German prosecutors said Thursday that they will examine objects that were found in a search in Portugal last week for clues regarding the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, but can't yet say whether they are linked to the British girl who went missing in 2007.
The powerful sister of North Korean Kim Jong Un on Thursday accused the United States of 'gangster-like' hypocrisy for criticizing her country's failed launch of a military spy satellite and insisted that the North will follow with a successful launch soon.
The wedding of Jordan's crown prince to the scion of a prominent Saudi family began on Thursday in a palace celebration that drew massive crowds and a mood of excitement around the kingdom, while presenting the young Hashemite royal as a new player on the global stage.
He's heir to the throne in one of the oldest monarchies in the Middle East and a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad. She's a Saudi architect with an aristocratic pedigree of her own.
The White House announced Thursday that it will levy sanctions against key defense companies and people "perpetuating the violence" in Sudan as warring sides fail to abide by a ceasefire agreement.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh slammed foreign interference special rapporteur David Johnston's refusal to heed the House of Commons' call for him to step down as 'tone-deaf.'
The prime minister's national security adviser says Ottawa needs to improve the way it manages intelligence, and officials are taking steps to address breakdowns in communication within government.
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Canada will soon require health warnings to be printed directly on individual cigarettes, making it the first country to implement this kind of measure aimed at reducing tobacco usage.
A team led by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) has found physiological evidence of brain inflammation in people with cognitive and depressive symptoms months after their COVID-19 infections.
Forget your hook, line and sinker. An Israeli foodtech company says it has 3D printed the first ever ready-to-cook fish filet using animal cells cultivated and grown in a laboratory.
Attorneys representing adult entertainers, erotica authors and sex educators on Wednesday asked a judge to put on hold a Utah law requiring porn and other adult websites verify user ages.
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Some of Adidas' remaining Yeezy shoes are back on sale, months after the German sportswear company cut ties with Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West.
Amazon has agreed to pay more than US$30 million to settle two federal lawsuits alleging that the tech giant violated users’ privacy — including that of children — through its Alexa voice assistant and its Ring doorbell cameras.
More than three years after COVID was declared a global pandemic, a new study is looking at how the international health crisis has changed the lifestyle habits of Canadians.
Now a New York company that makes carbon-negative aviation fuel is taking the menu for interplanetary cuisine in a very different direction. Its innovation has put it in the finals of a NASA-sponsored contest to encourage development of next-generation technologies for meeting the food needs of astronauts.
Lionel Messi arrived two years ago wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with 'Ici C'est Paris' (This Is Paris) -- a favourite cry among Paris Saint-Germain fans -- and to chants of 'Messi! Messi! Messi!'
The Pittsburgh Penguins have named former Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas its new president of hockey operations, the club announced Thursday.
The U.S. government's auto safety agency plans to require that all new passenger cars and light trucks include potentially life-saving automatic emergency braking and meet stricter safety standards within three years.
