GATINEAU, Que. – Canadian ethanol producers touted the industry as an unmitigated Canadian success story last year.
They highlighted billions of dollars of investment, more than 10,000 jobs created and significant pollution reduction.
On Dec. 15, the federal government will implement a regulation requiring gasoline sold in Canada to have an average five percent ethanol content.
“This is a milestone moment for biofuels,” Canadian Renewable Fuels Association president Gordon Quaiattini said Nov. 30 at the association’s annual meeting.
It will increase demand and create stability for industry investors, he added.
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The association now wants to see the same progress on the biodiesel side of the industry.
“Now is the time to finish the work.” Quaiattini called on Ottawa to commit to a firm timetable for implementing regulations requiring a two percent minimum content of biodiesel in all diesel fuel sold in Canada.
Environment minister John Baird was sympathetic but made no commitment.
The CRFA said the federal government should create an interdepartmental group of senior officials to focus federal policy on supporting development of the next generations of biofuel production that use feedstocks other than grain.
Quaiattini said the association will focus next year on using available federal funds and private investment to launch a project to build a large biodiesel plant on the Prairies where the canola feedstock is produced.
Canada has yet to build a “world class” biodiesel plant, Quaiattini said. “This is a record we must correct in 2011.”
Sam Kanes, a managing director at Scotia Capital for files that include biofuel, told the conference the lack of biodiesel production capacity is a serious gap in the industry.
“We’re sending our canola south to be made into biodiesel that we import back,” he said.
“That has to change.”
Added CRFA chair Doug Hooper, chief executive officer of the Canadian Bioenergy Corporation: “We have failed to build a world-class biodiesel industry that Canada is capable of producing.”
Six existing plants are capable of producing just 205 million litres of biodiesel annually. Another 115 million litres of capacity is under construction and 660 million litres of capacity is proposed.
The ethanol industry said it has attracted more than $2 billion in investment during the past five years, creating production capacity of more than 1.8 litres and more than 10,000 jobs, according to a report card on the industry published Nov. 30.
