I’m glad to be able to ask a question of the Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry. Under schedule 5, which makes changes to the Oil, Gas and Salt Resources Act, I appreciate the conversation around carbon capture. There’s lots of new information and technologies available to us and lots of interesting conversations about environmental benefit but also impact.

I did want to ask, though, because as we are repealing the subsection that will allow for the injection of CO₂ into geological formations as a form of carbon capture, and the government’s discussion paper about this talked about the opportunities for business—“unregulated business environment” currently and whatnot. My question is, what is the rationale, or walk me through—the proposal in this case seems to narrow the prohibitions here only to projects that are also engaged in the recovery of oil or gas. “Only” involved in the recovery of oil or gas: Can you explain to us why?

Thank you to the member opposite. I listened to her speech with great interest.

On carbon capture, storage and utilization: I note that the Inflation Reduction Act in the United States commits over $369 billion, of which a portion goes to CCUS, and an international panel report on climate change showed that “the potential for CO₂ capture and storage is considerable,” and goes on to support this.

To industry that are already doing this and have asked the government to play a leadership role in establishing a framework here in Ontario, like Stelco—what would she say to that industry? Does she feel they have a role to play in capturing CO₂, and what would she say to the workers and union workers on the cutting edge, looking to do this for sustainable capture of CO₂?