Energy ties with Israel

On June 28, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources Joe Oliver held a teleconference from Haifa to discuss the outcomes of meetings with senior Israeli government officials and energy industry executives. The minister was in Israel on a weeklong economic mission. The transcript of his June 28 remarks are below.

Thank you, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen.... Thanks for dialing into Haifa,where I just completed an economic and commercial mission to Israel. Before taking questions, let me give you a quick rundown of my trip.

First, let me say to all of you how delighted I am to be in Israel. The purpose of my trip is to build on already robust connections between Canada and Israel in trade, investment, innovation and science and technology and these are connections that reinforce our strong diplomatic and cultural ties.

For the foreseeable future, the world will need oil and gas and Canada is ideally positioned to deliver. We have the third-largest oil reserves – 174 billion barrels – and the potential to produce 700 billion barrels with new technology. We also have over a hundred years of domestic supply of shale gas.

Canada’s first free trade agreement outside of its hemisphere was with Israel and that was 15 years ago. Since then, two-way merchandise trade between the two countries has more than doubled to 1.4 billion [dollars] and it continues to grow both in services and investment. Canadian companies like Bombardier, Air Canada, Super Farm and many others are building a strong presence here in Israel and Israeli investors like Teva Pharmaceuticals, Ormat, Amdocs ... have made significant inroads in Canada. And, as I said in my remarks to a business roundtable earlier this week, Canada and Israel are linked by friendship and kinship and, now more than ever, by commerce…. So, there’s very significant untapped potential in our relationship and I came here to focus particularly on opportunities in the energy sector.

Earlier today, I had the privilege of privately meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and discussing a range of issues relating to our diplomatic and commercial relationship and Israel’s challenges. The prime minister made the point of expressing his appreciation for Canada’s steadfast support of his country in its unrelenting battle with international terrorism.

Earlier this week, in my meeting with Dr. Uzi Landau, the minister of energy and water resources, in additional to fruitful discussions, we signed an agreement between our two countries on energy cooperation. And this agreement will advance Canada’s energy interests and contribute to jobs, growth and economic prosperity. The agreement will strengthen ties relating to offshore development, new sources of oil and gas supplies and renewable energy. Canada offers Israel expertise and experience in offshore drilling, extraction of unconventional oil and gas, and natural resource regulation.

This week, I also met with Shalom Simhon, Israel’s minister of industry, trade and labor, and I witnessed the signing of a mutual recognition agreement on telecommunications between our two countries. Minister Simhon and I noted that this agreement was a good model that could be applied to other future mutual recognition agreements.

Israel, as you know, is a hotbed of innovation and technological advancement. And some of the areas in which it is world-renowned are solar energy, cutting-edge technology and energy storage, intelligent sensors and waste recycling. And, this in mind, I visited the Technion Institute of Technology in Haifa and I discussed their research in nanotechnology, aerospace, chemical engineering and their existing academic partnerships with Canadian universities.

I also visited the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot and explored the strong Canadian link to the institute’s solar research facilities. The institute is a world leader in solar energy and alternative energies and I explored future opportunities for collaboration between Canadian institutions and Weizmann.

And, you know, throughout the visit, I reaffirmed Canada’s desire to expand on trade and investment with Israel and I made it clear that Canada is open for business. I reiterated the mutual benefits of collaboration in my meetings with senior executives of companies developing oil, shale and renewable energy technologies.

As I indicated, I also held a couple of roundtables, which gave me the opportunity to discuss key issues with members of the Manufacturing Association of Israel, the Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce, Israel Export Institute and senior executives of the oil and gas sector. And I learned a lot about the challenges and the opportunities in Israel’s business environment, particularly in the energy sector.

Canada is about to embark on a series of natural resource megaprojects. In fact, as I’ve mentioned a number of times, over the next 10 years, as many as 500 projects worth more than $500 billion could come on stream, and no other country in the world is undertaking energy and mining projects of this scale or at this pace. It’s creating a truly once-in-a-generation opportunity for investors.

To ensure that these projects move forward, and with proper environmental safeguards, we’ve been modernizing our regulatory system for major natural resource projects to ensure less tape and better oversight. When Israelis think of Canada, they can think not just ... of a country with great resources, but an even greater potential, and a potential that Israeli investors can participate in and benefit from, a market that is open and transparent and competitive.

So, let me just close at this point by saying that Canadians have a firm friend and a faithful partner in Israel. We have to honor that relationship with closer commercial cooperation and seize the potential benefits for all Canadians and Israelis alike.

– Courtesy of the Office of the Prime Minister of Canada

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