On June 3, I delivered my reply to the debate on my Private Members Bill about Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (transcript below the video):

Mr. Greg McLean (Calgary Centre, CPC): Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to rise today to speak to my bill at second reading in the House of Commons.

I will read some quotes that are very important to this debate, which state:

Carbon capture, utilization and storage is an important tool for reducing emissions in high emitting sectors.... CCUS is the only currently available technology with the potential to generate negative emissions.... We have the right building blocks in place, including infrastructure such as the Alberta Carbon Trunk Line, and innovative companies like CarbonCure in Nova Scotia, which developed a technology to inject captured carbon into concrete, making it stronger and less polluting. Alberta and Saskatchewan have the greatest near-term potential to become global leaders in CCUS by creating new ‘hubs’ where carbon from high-emitting facilities can be efficiently captured, transported, stored, or used.

Canadian innovators and engineers have developed some of the leading global technologies for CCUS technologies that are in demand as more countries take action to fight climate change. The government intends to take significant action to support and accelerate the adoption of these technologies. By providing incentives to adopt CCUS technologies, the proposed measure will be an important element in Canada’s plan to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. This important new element of Canada’s tax system is also intended to accelerate the growth of new...jobs related to carbon capture. Budget 2021 proposes to introduce an investment tax credit for capital invested in CCUS projects with the goal of reducing emissions by at least 15 megatonnes of CO2 annually.

Enough said. I am happy for the deathbed conversion of my colleagues on the other side of the House that they actually acknowledge everything we have been saying on this side of the House since we introduced this bill. I recall how much they were fighting it before the budget came out. However, I am very pleased they are going to move forward with this and I really appreciated my colleague opposite tonight when he told me the little things that were wrong with the proposal that were put forward for him, that he could tweak around the edges and make it look a little different, smell a little different, seem a little different or maybe feel a little different.

It is the carbon capture, utilization and storage bill that we put forward that recognizes this industry is going to contribute to the reduction in carbon in Canada and in the world going forward. We lead, and we intend to continue to lead.

Members may recall, when we first put it on the agenda, the intent of this bill was to continue to allow our energy sector in Canada to lead the world, like it does. It used to lead. It lost that lead in carbon capture, utilization and storage in 2018. How did it lose it? It lost it because the United States offered the 45Q, which allowed the split of the tax credit between those who were actually capturing the carbon and those who were storing the carbon. That is important because usually the people who can store the carbon are the hydrocarbon companies, but the people who need to capture the carbon are the other industries that are emitting carbon. This split tax credit moved investment from Canada to the United States very quickly. Technology we developed here got moved down south in a heartbeat.

We had to bring it back here. We have to have a competitive regime where we recognize the advantages that we bring to this world, that we bring to this technology and that we can continue to lead on going forward. The challenge, of course, is to provide a split tax credit, and we think we have accomplished that with the construction of this tax measure, as much as we can on the opposition side of the House.

I would love it if the government tweaked it, as my colleague suggests he is going to, and make it just a little better. Oil and gas is a very important industry in Canada. We lead the world in environmental production of power and energy, we lead the world in accountability to governments and the public, we lead the world as a rent payer and, contrary to what we have heard, this industry contributes $24 billion a year, on average, to Canadian taxpayers for all our services.

Let us lead, let us continue to lead and let us allow our Canadian industry to lead again.