The federal government wants to move toward its net-zero carbon goals, and is putting up the cash to prove it.
Jonathon Wilkinson, Canada’s minister of natural resources, was in Saskatoon Wednesday to announce a partnership between Ottawa and the Métis Nation–Saskatchewan, and a $400,000 investment over the next two years to help the Métis Nation become a licensed EnerGuide provider.
Wilkinson said the funds will be used “to train a number of energy advisors, who actually go into homes in Métis communities to actually assess the energy efficiency and to look at areas where you could actually significantly improve that and reduce overall heating costs, for example.”
The minister added that having the EnerGuide name attached to the partnership is important.
“It’s basically a standard associated with energy efficiency, and obviously you want to have a relatively common approach to assessing the efficiency, so EnerGuide is quite important in that regard,” Wilkinson said.
The minister stood behind the federal government’s plan to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050, saying Canada could be an economic leader and is poised to be one, compared to other countries in the world.
Wilkinson also shared some optimism about things happening in Saskatchewan, particularly around critical minerals and rare earth elements.
“It starts with areas where Saskatchewan is already a world leader, like uranium and potash,” he said.
“But there are also lots of other opportunities, the rare earths processing facility is one where I think the provincial government is looking at how they can go up the value chain.”
The minister said he recently had a meeting with MLA Jeremy Harrison, Saskatchewan’s minister of trade and export development, at the Saskatchewan Research Council’s Rare Earth Processing Facility in Saskatoon. Wilkinson said he expects that industry to become a major one in Saskatchewan.
“I think critical minerals can be a real economic driver for this province going forward,” Wilkinson added.