Doug Ford opens door to storing CO2 underground to help hit climate change targets

Premier Doug Ford's government is opening the door to allowing underground carbon capture in Ontario, a way of fighting climate change by trapping and storing greenhouse gas emissions.

The government brought in legislation to repeal Ontario's previous ban on injecting carbon dioxide underground, and is now proposing rules for carbon capture pilot projects. 

The process involves capturing industrial emissions of CO2, compressing them into liquid, then putting them deep into the earth, in effect cancelling their release into the atmosphere. 

Ontario's Minister of Natural Resources, Graydon Smith, calls carbon capture a big opportunity for the province.

"You look at other jurisdictions, not only in Canada but in the United States and really around the world, and carbon capture is seen as emerging effective technology that can really make a difference," Smith said in an interview. 

While carbon capture has been touted particularly by the oil and gas sector as a way to neutralize emissions, the price tag can be hefty. Federal and provincial taxpayers have covered a significant chunk of the cost of projects in Canada so far.

A range of companies and business lobby groups encouraged the Ford government to lay the groundwork for starting carbon capture in this province. 

"I'm hopeful that Ontario will get there, but they've been slow," Darby said in an interview. "They've taken the right first step, but it's a bit of a baby step. Let's see if they go further." 

"Industry always wants to to move very quickly and I understand that," countered Smith. "I think they're very excited by the prospects of this technology as are we. But it's also important to get it right." 

Canada's leaders on carbon capture are Alberta and Saskatchewan. According to federal figures, Alberta captured more than three megatonnes of CO2 in 2021. (For a sense of scale, Alberta's emissions that year totalled 256 megatonnes.) 

Ontario's biggest-emitting candidates for using carbon capture include steel mills, cement makers, gas-fired power plants and refineries. 

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Jim Redford, vice-president of energy services for Enbridge Gas, says his company's industrial customers are keenly interested in the opportunity. 

"Carbon capture is a great way for those businesses to continue to use natural gas, but also to significantly reduce their emissions," said Redford in an interview.