Sarnia’s mayor joins energy policy group’s advisory council

Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley has joined the advisory council for a national group focused on energy policy and Canada’s natural gas sector.

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“Sarnia, in particular, being a community both involved in energy with its hydrogen strategy, but also traditional energy, chemistry, petrochemicals, manufacturing, is living all of these questions” amid talk about “orderly transitions” of the country’s energy sector to curb emissions and address climate change, said Shannon Joseph, with Energy for a Secure Future.

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“So, who better than the mayor of Sarnia to help inform Canada’s conversation on energy?” she asked, noting that includes municipal perspectives about impacts on everyday people.

The gas energy-sector backed group that formed in February, with aims to advance reconciliation, reduce global emissions, and implement a new vision for Canada’s gas energy and infrastructure, is focused on “thought leadership,” said Joseph.

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“We have papers that we put out semi-regularly,” she said, including ones on Indigenous peoples’ involvement in energy and on European markets for Canadian liquefied natural gas, amid disruption from Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“One of the consequences (of the war) has been just more coal burning in the world,” Joseph said.

Officials with Energy for a Secure Future rely on expertise from advisory council members, to help with those papers and grow a conversation about transitioning energy systems in a way that preserves affordability, reliability and competitiveness, she said.

“So we’re finding ways to talk about it, through events, through media, through the papers we do, through international engagement.”

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Hopes are to continue growing the group, she said.

Current advisory council members include the presidents of the Canada-India Business Council, Canadian Federation of Agriculture, and pipe manufacturer Tenaris, along with First Nations leaders, the executive director of Canada’s Building Trades Union, and former Canadian ambassador to China Dominic Barton, currently chair of Rio Tinto mining group, and an impact-investment firm focused on emerging markets.

“It’s a very eclectic group of people,” said Bradley, noting he was approached about a month ago to join.

St. John’s, NL., Mayor Danny Breen is also among four new appointees, including Bradley, announced this week.

Terms are for one year and renewable, Joseph said.

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The Sarnia-Lambton area is home to several natural gas power plants and oil refineries, along with the sustainable energy think tank Bowman Centre, various chemistry companies and the sustainable chemistry-focused Bioindustrial Innovation Canada.

Despite Chemical Valley’s impact on the economy, the area often is forgotten in federal and provincial decision making, Bradley said.

“Often we’re just not on the radar in Ottawa or Queen’s Park,” he said, adding “we’ve found that out continually, trying to advocate for the sector here.”

Joining Energy for a Secure Future is one more way to be heard, he said, including the area’s push to be a hub for the expanded use of hydrogen in the energy system.

The city’s integrity commissioner said it was OK to accept the appointment, he said.

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“I’ve always been disturbed by the bullhorn politics on Canada’s energy policy,” Bradley said. “It’s always been very simplistic: yes or no.”

He later added “you need to have voices speaking that are not being parochial. Just speaking to say, ‘these are options; these are things we can do and we should do.’”

Year International Energy Agency report this week notes the path to keeping global warming to 1.5 C, considered key to mitigating the worst impacts of climate change, has narrowed, but remains open amid record growth in clean energy technologies.

Part of the net-zero roadmap update includes continued investment in existing oil and gas assets and already approved projects, and sequencing clean energy investment and fossil fuel supply decline to avoid price spikes or supply gluts, the agency’s report says.

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