OTTAWA — Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland says a major federal tax credit to help build carbon capture projects is almost in place and she wants to see quick progress on the project promised by Canada’s biggest oilsands firms.

The government promised a tax credit for carbon capture and storage in 2021 but the legislation to enact didn’t come until last fall.

That legislation is in the second-last stage in the Senate and Freeland says it should be law soon.

Derek Evans, the executive chair of the Pathways Alliance group of oilsands companies, said in May the group couldn’t start on its $16.5-billion project until it had fiscal certainty.

Freeland says that certainty is nearly there and she now wants to see “shovels in the ground.”

The Pathways carbon capture project is a big piece of Canada’s plan to reach its greenhouse gas emissions targets by 2030.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 11, 2024.

The Canadian Press