Conservation Council also welcomes investments to protect nature, freshwater
Traditional territory of the Wabanaki Peoples/Fredericton — Today’s federal budget should be an invitation to New Brunswick and NB Power to get charged up about zero-emitting electricity, particularly least-cost renewable energy, storage, and transmission, rather than more costly and risky nuclear or shale gas, according to the Conservation Council.
“The province should accelerate development of a clean electricity strategy designed to take full advantage of investment tax credits and low-interest infrastructure financing,” says Louise Comeau, Co-Interim Executive Director.
New Brunswick has an opportunity to access support for reaching a zero-emitting grid by 2035 with:
- A 15 per cent clean electricity investment tax credit open to Crown corporations and publicly-owned utilities, corporations owned by Indigenous communities, and pension funds. The Clean Electricity Investment Tax Credit is expected to cost $6.3 billion over four years starting in 2024-25, and an additional $19.4 billion from 2028-29 to 2034-35. Eligible projects include wind, concentrated solar, solar photovoltaic, hydro, wave, tidal, storage, transmission, abated fossil gas and nuclear. New projects and refurbishing existing projects are eligible. To receive the full credit, prevailing wages and apprenticeship opportunities must be available to labour, and the cost savings must benefit ratepayers through lower electricity bills.
- Up to $20 billion for the Canada Infrastructure Bank to offer low-interest and flexible financing for clean power and green infrastructure projects like the Atlantic Loop transmission project and indigenous projects.
While the federal budget steers the country toward a zero-emitting grid, the Conservation Council is deeply concerned with the proposal to extend eligibility for reduced corporate tax rates for zero-emission technology manufacturers to include the manufacturing of nuclear energy equipment and the processing and recycling of nuclear fuels and heavy water (a process to extract plutonium from nuclear fuel waste).
“A ban on reprocessing is what’s required, not corporate tax cuts,” says Comeau.
There is also a 15 to 40 per cent clean hydrogen investment tax credit that increases in line with the lowest-emissions intensity of the hydrogen. Green hydrogen would receive the greatest tax credit. There is a further 15 per cent tax credit to convert hydrogen into ammonia for transport. These incentives favour New Brunswick’s proposed green hydrogen project at the Port of Belledune and should steer the province toward wind-powered hydrogen projects, rather than shale gas development.
The federal budget is missing expanded support to help low-to-moderate income households access energy efficiency programs essential to controlling household energy costs.
Freshwater investments are a source of optimism, with the federal budget continuing to invest in water protection and water security, including $650 million over 10 years for monitoring, assessment and restoration work in critical freshwater bodies across Canada, including the Wolastoq/St. John River, and $85.1 million over five years toward the Canada Water Agency, with the budget promising legislation to establish the standalone agency by the end of the year.
A Canada Water Agency could help address some of the freshwater management challenges New Brunswick faces by providing a centralized, open, and usable portal for water quality data, improving collaborative watershed planning, building capacity for community watershed organizations and resilience in the face of climate change, and strengthening transboundary water management.
Finally, we welcome Budget 2023’s investment of $184 million over three years to Environment and Climate Change Canada, Parks Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and Natural Resources Canada for monitoring, protecting and promoting the recovery and restoration of species at risk. Coming on the heels of Nature COP (COP15) in Montreal in December, we expect funding to protect nature and halt and reverse nature loss to:
- Secure 30 per cent protected land and water by 2030;
- Establish more Marine Protected Areas;
- Support Indigenous-led conservation; and,
- Fight climate change with nature-based solutions.
To arrange an interview, contact:
Jon MacNeill, communications director, Conservation Council of New Brunswick, 506-238-3539 |jon.macneill@conservationcouncil.ca