Tom Rand: Can Canada carve out a competitive niche in clean energy?

The investments for Canada’s green economy in the 2023 federal budget are “trying to match pro rata, the U.S. with their incentives,” but the bigger question is whether it will be enough to just match the U.S., according to a clean-tech venture capitalist.

In an interview with BNN Bloomberg on Tuesday, Tom Rand, co-founder and partner of ArcTern Ventures, said Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland is “responding, as they must, to the Inflation Reduction Act south of the border.”

“It's (Inflation Reduction Act) really, across the smorgasbord of low carbon tech and Canada's got to respond to that, roughly about a 10th of that would be equivalent to Canada's share, and that's roughly what they've (the federal government) done,” Rand said.

“The question for Canada is, can we carve out a niche in which we're competitive, or is it enough just to match the U.S. and do, as you know, President Biden and Prime Minister Trudeau talked about which is really building an integrated North American clean energy technology market, and I think that's the ultimate goal. But right now, it's kind of tit for tat on the incentive side.”