Canada Needs More Power—Here’s a Smarter Way to Get It
Canada is facing a clear challenge: we need more electricity to power our economy, and we need to lower our emissions in the process. In the House of Commons, I recently introduced my private member’s bill, C-269, which offers a practical way to achieve both goals. The idea is straightforward—capture waste heat from industrial processes and convert it into usable electricity.
Today, a significant portion of the energy used in heavy industry is simply lost as heat. In some sectors, as much as 30 to 50 percent of heat is wasted. At the same time, technology already exists to recover a meaningful share of that energy and turn it into power. What has been missing is the economic incentive to make these projects viable at scale. My bill proposes a targeted investment tax credit to close that gap and encourage industry to invest.
This approach has several advantages. It produces new electricity without creating new emissions, improves overall energy efficiency, and reduces costs for Canadian manufacturers. It also avoids the long timelines and significant capital requirements associated with building new generation facilities. In other words, it is one of the fastest and most cost-effective ways to expand our electricity supply using resources we already have.
“More power. No new emissions. That’s the opportunity in waste heat.”
Greg McLean, M.P.
Other countries are already moving in this direction. The United States, for example, has implemented similar incentives and is seeing real results. Canada has an opportunity to do the same. I believe this is a practical, achievable policy that can deliver real benefits for our economy and our environment—and I look forward to continuing the conversation with colleagues and Canadians about how we move it forward.
Related Material
