Hon. Jonathan Wilkinson, P.C., M.P., Minister of Natural Resources: I wouldn’t agree with your assertion. It’s extremely important that these projects go ahead. That’s particularly true in the oil sands, where CCUS — carbon capture, utilization and storage — is one of the major opportunities for reducing emissions.

We must be sensitive to two things: the overall economics of the projects and what our friends in the United States are doing under the Inflation Reduction Act.

We brought forward what we thought was an appropriate incentive to bring forward the capital that’s required to build these kinds of projects. We expect the private sector also to be putting its capital at play; it is part of the solution here, too. There are other ways in which we can create value — for example, contracts for differences, which is something we are embedding in the new Canada growth fund which is of value and must be calculated into the overall economics.

We are waiting for the Government of Alberta to come forward with what it is going to do under its royalty regime as part of this. They have been working on that for some significant time, but that’s part of this on a go-forward basis. We have done lots of analysis with respect to how we compare vis-à-vis the United States, and Canada is actually quite reasonable in terms of where it sits.

We certainly want these to go ahead. I talk to the Pathways Alliance CEOs all the time; I talk to the Province of Alberta all the time. My view is that these are going to proceed. The Government of Canada is committed to doing what we need to do, but we obviously expect the sector to do their part as well.

Hon. Yonah Martin (Deputy Leader of the Opposition): Minister, oil and gas industry proponents have been asking for a 75% investment tax credit from the federal government in order to spur investment in carbon capture and storage technologies, which would reduce upfront capital costs involved in constructing this critical technology. However, your government’s announcement fell short, promising only a 50% tax credit. Many in the industry have stated that the size of the credit means that many of these planned projects will not go forward.

Minister, given the impact this technology could have on emissions reduction, does it concern you that many of these projects may now not go ahead?

Hon. Jonathan Wilkinson, P.C., M.P., Minister of Natural Resources: Thank you for the question. Certainly, I think some of these infrastructure issues are critically important as we think about things like critical minerals. Two of the ministers from N.W.T. were here the other day speaking to us about a couple of infrastructure projects that are not dissimilar to what you are talking about. Part of this is about building roads. Part of this is about building transmission lines so that you have access to energy. Part of it is about ports; there is another port issue in the Yukon that is not dissimilar. We are certainly live to and thinking about this.

Of the dollars allocated for critical minerals, $1.5 billion are around infrastructure, so there is money there and in Minister LeBlanc’s area. However, there is also the Trade Corridors Fund, as you said, which is under Transport. I am happy to look at this. I’m not entirely familiar with where it sits from a status perspective, but I am more than happy to look at it and have a conversation with Minister Alghabra.