QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of Natural Resources
Hydrogen Strategy for Canada
October 9, 2025
Minister, a recent Macdonald-Laurier Institute report argues that Canada’s green hydrogen strategy may be too late, given global competition and declining costs of other low-carbon technologies. Yet your government continues to stand behind initiatives like the Canada-Germany Hydrogen Alliance, rather than eliminating red tape and facilitating investments in pipelines and energy export terminals on Canada’s East and West Coasts.
Minister, how do you justify Canada’s green hydrogen strategy, and do you still believe Canada can compete profitably in green hydrogen exports by 2030 or 2035?
I was recently in Germany and speaking with the Germans. They believe green hydrogen is a longer-term solution and will rely on technology. There is currently a price gap between what they are willing to pay for it and what it would cost us to build.
We said to the Germans that we are not going to subsidize the German people in the short term. They must do the work and build the infrastructure in their country to make it a profitable exercise for Canadians. If and when they do, we will be happy to produce the hydrogen for them.
In the interim, they have told us — loud and clear — that LNG is a transition fuel. They made a mistake in relying on Vladimir Putin for their energy security. They do not want to rely on the United States to be their sole supplier of LNG, and they desperately want to buy ours. That’s what we heard from the Germans.
Minister, another major flaw in your government’s green hydrogen strategy lies in who is actually behind these projects — very few are Canadian. Your government loves to talk about buying Canadian, yet it seems ready to pour taxpayer dollars into subsidizing unprofitable foreign-owned hydrogen ventures.
Will you commit that no public funds will go to subsidize foreign company losses while Canadian firms — ready to build profitable energy projects in Alberta, Ontario and across the country — are left waiting on the sidelines?
What matters is where the infrastructure is built, where the jobs are and where the resource is created, not where the capital comes from. The Prime Minister has been very clear that under his program, the goal is to attract $500 billion of capital to put to work in Canada. That’s how we will create jobs and pay for things Canadians expect, like dental care, health care, $10-a-day childcare and Old Age Security. That’s what we’re going to do.
