Liberal Finance Minister Bill Morneau delivered his 2017 budget with a prescription to enable Canadians to get the skills they need to find work in a rapidly changing economy and a briskly evolving environmental landscape. The budget had a special focus on helping more women join the workforce.
For the propane industry, the budget provides opportunities to expand the use of propane in many of its applications, including transportation, industrial, residential, institutional, and agricultural. Highlights include:
- Proposed $229 million over four years to Natural Resources Canada and Transport Canada to continue research and development (R&D) activities;
- Reduce reliance on diesel in Indigenous and Northern Communities, with more than $620 million being proposed to communities south of the 60th parallel to fund more sustainable, renewable power solutions and address energy security.
- Reduce emissions from federal operations by allocating $13.5 million to energy efficiency and clean energy technologies, retrofitting federal buildings, and cutting or eliminating emissions from vehicles; and
- Allocate $75 million to a new initiative, the Impact Canada Fund, to address such challenges as helping rural and remote communities reduce reliance on diesel.
The budget also focused on this country’s aging workforce and the rapid pace of technological change. “It’s a pace of change that creates challenges … but it does create opportunity as well,” Morneau said in the post-budget interview. “How do we prepare workers to be ready for these opportunities? That’s where we think we can play an important role. While governments should not be choosing the winners and losers, we can focus on sectors where Canada has a comparative advantage.”
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