Canada’s cleantech sector generated about $43.3 billion in GDP and $10.8 billion in exports in 2024, figures that surprise many Canadians—including people in government, says Peter McArthur, chair of the Canada Cleantech Alliance.
The sector includes 2,470 companies, and when McArthur explains its scope, many people respond: “Where’d that come from?”
People looking at Canada’s economy often think first of its oil and gas sector, McArthur told The Energy Mix in an interview. But the fossil fuel sector employs about 20% fewer Canadians than cleantech, he said, citing data the alliance gathered from Natural Resources Canada and Statistics Canada.
In Ontario, people the automotive sector is a major job creator, he added. “They employ 142,000 people, almost 40% less than the cleantech sector.”
Employment in cleantech has grown from 201,000 in 2021 to 224,000 today, he added. “This is the future. This is an opportunity for us.”
The sector’s economic impact and jobs are spread across the country in small and medium-sized businesses. “You don’t see that one big employer in town, and everyone’s paying attention to it.”
Cleantech includes energy storage, circular economy solutions such as battery recycling, and the repurposing of waste energy and materials, McArthur said. “Think about better water treatment. Think about grid and energy management, and building efficiency.”
Skilled scientists are developing these solutions, he said, and skilled labour plays a big role in working with “hard tech.”
McArthur sees a role for cleantech to support Prime Minister Mark Carney’s larger nation-building projects. All 167 projects listed in Carney’s Canada Investment Summit dealbook could benefit by adopting clean innovations to help them operate more efficiently and competitively, he said—making the dealbook companies themselves a potential customer base for the cleantech sector.
“What if mining projects were to use renewable power and battery energy storage to power their operations, or to process more efficiently and have less waste?”
His message to investors in these projects: “Whatever you look at, make sure it’s adopting the most efficient solutions, the best ways to extract those resources to develop your business and look for innovation.”
“Don’t just accept tried, true, old,” he added. “Look for innovation to get a better return on your investment.”
