Premier Jason Kenney speaks at a news conference November 1 announcing $176 million in funding for GHG reduction projects.

By Curtis Galbraith

Business

Province announces funding for GHG reduction projects, premier willing to talk to feds about reducing emissions

Nov 2, 2021 | 6:00 AM

Alberta’s government has announced 16 projects will split $176 million in funding from the province’s Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction fund.

Premier Jason Kenney says these projects will cut seven million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 while putting $2 billion into the economy.

“These projects are ready to start very soon, and this batch of funding will support about 5600 jobs for Alberta’s construction workers, operations managers, electricians, truck drivers, engineers, tradespeople, and many more,” he stated.

One of the projects receiving funding is located in the Peace Country.

The Mercer Peace River pulp mill will get $7.5 million to help pay for a project worth over $75 million that would see a debarking and chipping plant built at the mill.

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Proponents say the benefits of this would be using more natural greenhouse gas sinks and the ability to use more biomass when generating electricity. The project will also include the purchase of new high-efficiency log trucks.

A complete list of projects being funded can be found here.

At the news conference where this funding was announced, Kenney was asked about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s statement at the COP-26 conference that Canada would put a cap on emissions from the oil and gas sector.

Kenney says Alberta’s oilpatch is responsible for one-third of one percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the world.

“One-third of one per cent isn’t nothing and we have to get that number down. That is what we are committed to doing,” he stated. “The single most important way the prime minister could help us would be putting real resources behind a huge expansion of Alberta’s carbon capture and storage technology.”

“We appreciate that the federal budget earlier this year included a commitment to support carbon capture and sequestration but we still have not seen the details.”

Kenney says Alberta has already told the federal government it was willing to about reducing emissions while assuring the industry’s future but has not received a response.