Harper Government Announces Next Steps on Energy Innovation

OTTAWA — The Honourable Joe Oliver, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, today announced that Natural Resources Canada will be holding Energy Innovation Roundtables across Canada over the coming months. The roundtables will identify opportunities to strengthen collaboration among key players to solicit views on how best to align efforts to support Canada’s energy innovation and competitiveness domestically and globally.

“Increasing energy innovation will help maintain Canada’s competitiveness and reduce energy costs for Canadians while helping protect the environment,” said the Honourable Joe Oliver. “These roundtables will engage key leaders across many sectors of the economy to find new ways to use existing resources to maximize energy innovation in Canada.”

Participants will be invited to five thematic roundtables being held across Canada. The meetings will conclude in early 2014 with a national roundtable held in Waterloo, Ontario, that will bring key issues to the forefront for a discussion on energy innovation in Canada.

Five roundtables will focus on enhancing energy innovation and maximizing energy opportunities in the following areas:

• distributed power generation (Halifax);
• energy efficiency (Montreal);
• next-generation transportation (Toronto);
• long-term research and development opportunities (Vancouver); and
• unconventional oil and gas, including carbon capture and storage (Calgary).

Locations were chosen where there is a relative concentration of expertise on the subject matter to ensure a balanced discussion across the country.

Concurrently, Natural Resources Canada is releasing a report entitled Opportunities for Canadian Energy Technologies in Global Markets. The department commissioned the report to help identify global opportunities for Canadian energy technologies by 2020. The report was produced by a major global consulting firm. It does not represent the views of the Government of Canada but will serve as background for the discussion. The report, including other material to support the roundtable discussions, can be found online athttp://www.nrcan.gc.ca/energy/1167.

David Provencher
Press Secretary
Office of Canada’s Minister of
Natural Resources
613-996-2007

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