The Mining Association of Canada | The Canadian Mining Story: Economic Impacts and Drivers for the Global Energy Transition 2023 57 The creation of an initial planning phase in the IAA was intended to enable coordination, early Indigenous engagement, and the tailoring of an assessment to the key issues and potential effects that are anticipated to be material and relevant to decision-making. Clean Fuel Regulations Future mineral discoveries are likely to lie in remote regions, and policy that discourages or renders their development unfeasible is inconsistent with global climate change and domestic economic objectives. Refining emissions abatement policy and regulatory approaches to account for clean technology development objectives is essential to preserving and expanding Canada’s world-leading low carbon critical minerals assets. In this regard, MAC welcomed the government’s decision to exempt liquid fuels utilized for power generation for off-grid mining contexts in the Clean Fuel Regulations. Off-grid mining companies are overwhelmingly reliant on liquid fuels for power generation and will remain so until a paradigm shift ushers in the next generation of technologies. Until then, it remains in Canada’s best interest, and consistent with stated Indigenous reconciliation and clean technology development policy priorities, to ensure these vulnerable assets are not artificially rendered redundant. Clean Electricity Regulations Environment and Climate Change Canada released the “Proposed Frame for the Clean Electricity Regulations” in support of establishing a net-neutral electricity grid in Canada by the year 2035. From MAC’s perspective, the regulatory framework document released to outline the key components of the Clean Electricity Regulations (CER) continued to be limited in providing the necessary context that would inform draft regulatory text. MAC continues to stress the importance of these topics as the government drafts regulatory text for the CER, including: sensitivity to off-grid operations and increased access to clean non-emitting electricity, as well as an efficient federal permitting regime to ensure that large scale power generation projects don’t get gummed up in red tape, delaying the urgent decarbonization progress Canada requires. Innovation By investing in new and innovative technologies and providing financial support to catalyze private sector innovation investments, real progress is being made in further improving energy efficiency, environmental protection and business productivity in all aspects of critical minerals development and the advanced manufacturing that depends on them. Canada hosts a number of innovation forums for the mining industry, some commodity specific with others focused on challenges unique to the regions in which their members operate. Others are broad in their appeal and seek to advance solutions and resolve challenges common to mining operations regardless of their particular circumstances. Specific areas of focus include small modular nuclear reactors to provide an alternative to producing electricity using diesel generators for mine sites in remote areas, the
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