The cleantech industry is expanding in BC, creating challenging and high-paying jobs in the
service sector. These producers are also achieving a worldwide reputation for innovation and
leadership, and further contributing to BC’s exports of goods and services.
leantech companies develop products, services, or processes that enable industrial users to
C
11
harness renewable materials and energy sources, reduce the use of natural resources, and
minimize or eliminate emissions or waste.
eloitte Canada and Sustainable Technology Development Canada, Cleantech, Positioned for
D
12
Growth – Western Canada Cleantech Report, 2009.
Pulp and Paper Canada, Kruger’s Biomass to Syngas Venture Pays Off, May/June 2010.
13
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impact, reduce costs, and boost performance.11 Cleantech’s biggest customers are conventional
companies in oil and gas; energy and oil sands production; mining and related services; renewable
energy; and utilities.12
Resource companies have also partnered in many cleantech initiatives, and have implemented
the technology in a variety of ways. For example:
• n New Westminster, Kruger Products (a tissue manufacturer) replaced its natural gas
I
boiler with biomass gasification to produce process steam, with the goal of attaining lower
emissions and costs and reducing its carbon footprint. This technology was developed by
Nexterra Systems Corp. of BC.13
• ancouver-based MineSense™ Technologies has developed an ore recovery process that
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enhances the sustainability and longevity of mining operations.
• uWave Research of Burnaby has developed NuGenesis™, a high-tech method for drying
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goods that enables farms or food processing plants to minimize food waste. This reduces
the energy and transportation costs associated with transporting food to drying facilities.
Conclusions
Due to more complicated corporate structures,
the increase in electronic communications,
and changing trade patterns, the relationship
between the resource sector and the rest of
the economy has strengthened and become
more sophisticated. The untold billions of
dollars in capital that have flowed into BC’s
resource sector over the past century have
generated jobs, income, and business revenues
not only in resource-focused towns but
throughout the provincial economy, with the
Lower Mainland being a major beneficiary.
There is no denying that some resource industries experience cyclical booms and busts
by virtue of their dependency on world commodity prices. Nevertheless, these industries
have generally sustained many BC communities for several generations, through good
times and bad. And they continue to seek ways
to reduce their vulnerability to world markets.
Moreover, resource operators have become
far more attuned and responsive to social
and environmental issues—one reason that
the cleantech industry has gained traction
so quickly in BC.
In a world where most people are employed
in the service sector and where high technology is regarded as the beacon of the future,
it is easy to lose sight of what really makes our
economy tick. The resource sector is the foundational stone on which the BC economy was
built, and it’s as important today as ever.
Marlyn Chisholm is the principal of Chisholm
Consulting and the lead economist on the
BC Check-Up reports.