20.MAR.2007 | Canadian Bioenergy Corporation

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Canada's budget welcome news for Canadian Bioenergy

NORTH VANCOUVER, March 20 – Yesterday's federal budget announcement brings needed support to the burgeoning Canadian biodiesel industry. Combined with the government's requirement for renewable content in diesel and gasoline fuels by 2010, the renewable fuel production incentives outlined in the Government of Canada's budget will help create a domestic biodiesel industry that will benefit the Canadian economy and rural development as well as provide cleaner vehicle emissions and reduce greenhouse gases.

"We want to congratulate the federal government for stepping up in support of biodiesel," says Doug Hooper, CEO of Canadian Bioenergy, a Vancouver-based company with plans to build a canola-based biodiesel production facility in Alberta. "Fiscal competitiveness to establish parity with the US renewable fuels marketplace is one of the last key steps needed for us to build a domestic biodiesel industry. We're showing the rest of the world that Canada is ready to take a real leadership role in lowering greenhouse gas emissions and improving the quality of the air we breathe. And we're going to do it with fuel grown and produced at home."

The Finance Minister announced in his budget speech yesterday that the Canadian government will invest $2 billion over seven years to develop Canada's renewable fuel production capacity. The details include an operating incentive for manufacturers of renewable alternatives to diesel of up to $0.20 per litre.

Canadian Bioenergy, a leading supplier of biodiesel in Western Canada, has announced plans to construct a biodiesel production facility on land adjacent to Bunge Canada's oilseed crushing and refining operations near Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta. The plant will be capable of producing over 100 million litres of canola-based biodiesel annually. "Several of our end-users have voiced their support of a Canadian biodiesel industry and we're looking forward to supplying them with a Canadian product." Hooper says.