On a desk in my office, I keep a metal flask filled with liquid.
No, it’s not that kind of flask or that kind of liquid, but it is fair to say that what’s inside can quite literally get your motor running.
The flask contains biodiesel – it’s a sample I received as a souvenir of my tour of the Fame Biorefinery trial plant near Airdrie earlier this year.
The plant is a one million litre-per-year pilot project that converts non-food grade canola into a biodegradable and renewable diesel fuel.
My tour of Fame Biorefinery in January was an eye-opener on two counts.
First, I thought it was fantastic to see that the plant was creating a market for non-commercial grade canola – something farmers once discarded from their crop yields but which they now have an opportunity to sell.
Secondly, it was a good on-the-ground illustration of the way that our Conservative government’s Renewable Fuel Standard is meeting its target of delivering results for the environment and for rural communities at the same time.
The Renewable Fuel Standard is a national average of five per cent ethanol-blended in the gasoline pool and two per cent biodiesel blended in the distillate pool and home heating oil.
The standard is to thank in part for the emergence of new renewable fuels industries such as Fame Biorefinery across the country, which are providing new employment opportunities for rural communities and new markets for farmers’ crops.
Recently, the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association released a third-party, economic impact assessment report by Doyletech Corporation that illustrates some of what we’re seeing on the ground.
The report concludes that the economic impact of the renewable fuels industry in Canada is at just more than $2 billion.
As the study notes, the major benefit of this economic impact is on rural communities, in the form of jobs, local economic activity and increased sales of value-added products for our farmers.
I have seen this economic impact in the Wild Rose constituency time and time again.
Our government is showing its respect for the rural way of life in Canada by encouraging industry and new employment in rural communities that enables people to more easily work where they choose to live.
