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QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of Natural Resources

Hydrogen Exports

December 14, 2022


Minister, thank you very much for being with us today. It’s no secret that our European friends and allies are in for a tough winter and probably an even tougher winter after that because of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and the shift away from Russian oil and gas.

When German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was here in Canada a few months ago, a Canada-Germany Hydrogen Alliance was signed, looking at the development of hydrogen exports, particularly from Newfoundland. I am wondering whether you can comment on the feasibility, and how the work is going with respect to the fact that it is a very competitive field out there with large international competitors.

Hon. Jonathan Wilkinson, P.C., M.P., Minister of Natural Resources [ + ]

It’s a great question. I would say that Canada has been doing everything it possibly can to support our European friends and allies in the aftermath of the brutal and illegal invasion of Ukraine. That started with the commitment we made to augment production of oil and gas in this country by 300,000 barrels a day such that we were creating more liquidity in the global market to enable countries like Germany to move away from Russian oil and gas. But it certainly also involves the conversation around hydrogen.

Chancellor Scholz and my counterpart, Vice-Chancellor Habeck, were here for a very important and, I think, successful visit. As you say, part of that was the signing of the memorandum on hydrogen. It relates to Newfoundland and Labrador and also Nova Scotia, which also has very significant aspirations in this area.

The first step is putting in place a regulatory regime to be able to appropriately regulate offshore wind. Some of these projects are starting with onshore, where there is a regime in place, or one can be put into place relatively quickly by the province. Then there is a federal-provincial offshore regulatory piece that we are working on with both of those provinces right now, and we are looking at ways we can do work even as that progresses.

The target is to be in a position to start to ship hydrogen to Germany by as early as 2025, which is not very far away. The Government of Nova Scotia, in particular, has set very aggressive public targets as to what they would like to see with respect to hydrogen going forward. So it’s an area in which I am working closely with both of those provinces and territories.

More generally, hydrogen is an enormous opportunity also for Western Canada, but it will more likely be hydrogen derived from natural gas, with appropriate carbon capture. It is one of those things that Canada can actually do to help energy security around the world.

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