2015 Energy and Mines Ministers’ Conference

BACKGROUNDER

Canada’s Annual Energy and Mines Ministers’ Conference — Energy

At this year’s Energy and Mines Ministers’ Conference (EMMC), hosted by Nova Scotia, federal, provincial and territorial ministers discussed current opportunities and challenges for the energy sector related to diversifying markets, enhancing competitiveness, strengthening Aboriginal engagement, building infrastructure and improving environmental performance and protection.

This year’s conference theme, Innovating for a Strong Canadian Energy and Mining Sector, underlines the importance of natural resources to Canada’s economic future and the continuing need to innovate in order to capture opportunities for all Canadians. Development of our natural resources produces numerous economic advantages for this country, driving investment and creating jobs. However, to maintain our competitive edge and global reputation as a leader in this field, we must look for continual improvement by diversifying our markets, supporting energy innovation to maintain Canadian competitiveness and using energy responsibly.

Key Energy Deliverables

Electricity

Canada and the United States share a highly integrated electricity network, making it a backbone infrastructure for the North American economy. Collaboration among provinces, the federal government and their counterparts in the United States has led to fundamental improvements in electric reliability for Canadians over the past decade.

The report, After the Blackout: Implementation of Mandatory Electric Reliability Standards in Canada, describes improvements made to Canada’s electricity systems over the past 10 years and identifies additional actions to address emerging reliability issues.

Another report discussed at the conference, Regulatory Side-by-Side Governing Permitting of Cross-Border Electricity Transmission Facilities, provides a comparative analysis of the permitting and regulatory processes across Canadian and U.S. jurisdictions for the construction and operation of international power lines.

Ongoing collaboration is critical to address emerging issues facing the integrated electric grid, including cyber security and changes in generation sources.

Energy Efficiency

Governments are uniquely positioned to help industry overcome barriers, improve industry’s access to information and services and inform broad audiences about success stories. The ministers recognize the need for energy-intensive and manufacturing industries to accelerate the adoption of energy efficiency practices, products, technologies and services in order to reduce energy costs and improve productivity, competitiveness and environmental performance.

The report Maximizing Canada’s Energy Advantage: Canadian Industrial Energy Efficiency builds on outcomes of last year’s conference and provides considerations for continued improvement of industrial energy efficiency in Canada. It includes an overview of the state of energy use by industry, the benefits of energy efficiency, challenges and options for addressing those barriers and advancing energy efficiency in the industrial sector.

Technology

The global energy landscape is undergoing significant and rapid change, and nations around the world are investing aggressively in energy technology innovation to gain a competitive advantage. For Canada, the development of advanced energy technologies will be critical to addressing environmental challenges and driving economic growth.

The EMMC Energy Technology Working Group has undertaken a multi-jurisdictional and multi-year effort to advance collaboration on innovation through science and technology. Its report, Taking Action: Moving forward together on energy research, technology and innovation, outlines the case for innovation through collaboration and presents action plans for two “energy innovation clusters”: Improving Environmental Performance in Shale Resource Development, and Distributed Power Generation. The results of these action plans will be reported at next year’s EMMC 2016.

Oil and Gas

The oil and gas sector is a major economic driver for Canada and accounted for 7.5 percent of Canada’s nominal GDP in 2013. Governments in Canada are committed to providing Canadians with authoritative information on the responsible development of energy resources.
The new shale and tight resources web portal is a tool to enhance fact-based public understanding and dialogue concerning shale and tight oil and gas development in Canada. The updated pipeline safety web portal continues to provide Canadians with a cross-country perspective on federal, provincial and territorial pipeline safety regimes.

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Media may contact:

Alexandra Lemieux
Press Secretary
Office of Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources and
Minister for the Federal Economic Development Initiative for Northern Ontario
613-996-2007

or

Media Relations
Natural Resources Canada
Ottawa
613-992-4447

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Telephone: 613-995-0947
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