The statement tabled in the House of Commons on Thursday is Freeland's first big push to keep Canada in the clean-tech economy race in the shadow of the massive Inflation Reduction Act south of the border and move Canada's transition to a green economy further along.
Experts and industry associations have been warning ever since that Canada would be shoved aside in the global competition for investment, skilled workers and materials if it did not step up and do more to match the U.S. investments. “CVMA will continue to highlight these needs to the government and encourage more specific actions before and in the next federal budget.”
That credit is being carved away from the clean-tech investment tax credit for green electricity production, energy storage and heat pumps that she said last spring would be ready by this fall. The April federal budget planned to include hydrogen as part of that, but that is no longer the case. She said the idea is that if government is going to support companies, then that money from taxpayers should be guaranteed to create good-paying jobs and help train the workforce of the future.