Canada on par with U.S. on clean energy transition: industry experts

Canada is not falling behind the U.S. in its transition to a clean economy despite the Biden administration’s massive spending initiative to develop low-carbon energy, according to two executive banking leaders.

Roman Dubczak, deputy chair, capital markets for CIBC and Lisa Raitt, CIBC’s vice-chair and managing director, global investment banking, sat down with Compass Rose managing director Theo Argitis for a fireside chat on the topic of “Is the U.S. eating Canada’s lunch on climate transition?”

Dubczak’s response to that question was a clear “no.”

“It’s a fairly balanced playing field,” he said at the session that took place at the Public Policy Forum’s Canada Growth Summit in Toronto last week.

Dubczak said the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which invests hundreds of billions of dollars into greening the economy, is essentially a continuation of the reshaping of industrial policy in the U.S. It was also intended to make a statement to the world that the U.S. is “very serious” about decarbonization, he said.

Argitis noted that in response to the IRA, the federal government’s recent budget set aside $80 billion over 10 years to support Canada’s transition to a clean economy. 

Dubczak said while many were wondering if that was enough money relative to the U.S. investment, it’s important to remember that Canada already had strong policies in place to finance the transition to renewables.

Raitt, a former Conservative government cabinet minister who now also serves as co-chair for the Coalition for a Better Future, said she was glad to see the budget make a significant response to the IRA.

“From a business perspective, at least they're getting it and it was a large part of the budget,” she said. “For example, if you're sitting in universities and colleges, you are not happy with that budget, because there's nothing in there for R&D and universities. All of the resources have gone into this one specific area, because we have to meet the challenge from the United States.”

Raitt said the tangible impact of the federal investment will depend on the success of how it’s rolled out.

“It's all about execution. The devil’s in the details,” she said.

Leveraging private investment and innovation, streamlining the permit approval process and engaging Indigenous partners are all key to achieving positive outcomes, Raitt said.

“What you have to recognize in a government is that it's not just one stakeholder. It's many stakeholders, and it's a minority government. And there's an election coming…That's why I'm saying you need political will and political capital to get it done,” she said.

The Public Policy Forum also held its annual Testimonial Dinner, in which Raitt was honoured for making outstanding contributions to the quality of public policy and good governance.