Canadian Government Invests C$26 Million in Cleantech Companies

Amidst controversy surrounding the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline project, the Canadian government announced on Wednesday (May 30) that it will invest C$26.3 million in clean technology with a focus on the companies that ‘protect the environment’.

The federal investment is being pumped into four companies that are in the diverse verticals of cleantech with the beneficiaries being D-Wave Systems, Ionomr Innovations, MineSense Technologies and MEG Energy (TSX:MEG).

The announcement was made by Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development at the third annual Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) Cleantech Leadership Summit.

“These companies are great examples of how Canadian innovations are poised to improve Canada’s economy while protecting the environment,” Leah Lawrence, president and CEO of SDTC said in therelease. “SDTC’s investments in D-Wave, MEG Energy, MineSense and Ionomr will deliver environmental benefits to multiple industries and demonstrate our government’s commitment to helping businesses scale and compete on the global stage.”

It should be noted the four companies that received the funding on Wednesday joined 300 others that SDTC has invested in since 2001.

In terms of the breakdown of the investment, D-Wave Systems Inc and MEG Energy will each get $10 million while $2.3 million will go to Ionomr Innovations and $4 million to MineSense Technologies.

D-Wave Systems, a company that is developing quantum computing systems that are more energy efficient and which they claim to help reduce emissions from high-performance computing, is backed by Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), 180 Capital (NASDAQ:TURN) and Jeff Bezos through his Bezos Expeditions.

MEG Energy is a Canadian oil sands company focused on developing a way to improve bitumen recovery in oil sands development and production while reducing gas emissions and water consumption.

MineSense Technologies is a Vancouver based company which is making the mining process cleaner and more efficient using sensor technology and data analytics.

Another Vancouver based company, Ionomr Innovations that also received funding, has developed more efficient, durable and cost effective membrane system for water treatment and purification, grid-level energy storage and cleantech energy generation.

“Our government’s investments in cleantech reflect our commitment to protecting the planet and growing our economy. They also point to a clear direction for economic development through innovation,” Bains said. “That’s because innovations in cleantech have the potential to create thousands of well-paying middle-class jobs for Canadians. That’s how innovation leads to a better Canada.”

These investments comes in the midst of federal government buying the Kinder Morgan (TSX:KML) pipeline deal for about C$4.5 billion announced on Tuesday (May 30) which is facing hurdles from environmentalists.

On the cleantech space, the 2017 Federal Budget set aside more than $2.3 billion which the government claims to be the largest ever public investment committed to this field in the country.

In the Investing News Network’s cleantech Q1 2018 update, it was noted that the country saw an investment of $3.3 billion in 2017 which was up from previous years but less than the peak investments of $7 billion and $6.5 billion that was poured into the space between 2010 and 2014.

Meanwhile, the stock of MEG Energy Corp closed Thursday’s (May 31) trading period  at $9.24 and was down 2.94 percent over the one day trading period.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Bala Yogesh, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.