Diversified GM David Richards Part of Delegation Promoting Edmonton Region Hydrogen Supply Chain

by | May 10, 2024 | News

On May 6th to 8th, Diversified Transportation General Manager, David Richards, along with a group of Edmonton region businesses led by Edmonton Global were in Ottawa to lobby the Government of Canada for the region’s share of programming and funding.  Delegates had the opportunity to share their success stories, and build awareness from federal government officials on activities happening in our region. 

Among other items highlighted one of the key messages was that the Edmonton region has been a world leader in the development of the Hydrogen supply chain, creating the potential for Canada to significantly reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. 

While in Ottawa, David met with the following: 

Office of the Minister of Environment and Climate Change

  • Joshua Swift – Senior Policy Advisor
  • Liam Olsen – Regional Advisor, BC & Prairies

Natural Resources Canada

  • Michael Vandergrift – Deputy Minister
  • Jeff Labonté – Associate Deputy Minister

Privy Council Office

  • Paul Halucha – Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet (Clean Growth) & Deputy Minister of Public Lands and Housing

Global Affairs Canada (Trade Dept.)

  • Nathalie Dubé – Director General, Investment, Innovation and Education

Transport Canada

  • Arun Thangaraj – Deputy Minister
  • Désirée Sauvé – Chief of Staff to the Deputy Minister 

Office of the Minister of Trade, Export Promotion and Economic Development

  • Leslie Sherban – Deputy Chief of Staff and Director of Operations
  • Elise Wagner – Director of Policy

He also attended the House of Commons tour and dinner hosted by Mike Lake MP (Edmonton—Wetaskiwin) / Laila Goodridge MP (Fort McMurray & Cold Lake).  At that dinner he had the opportunity to sit with Mike Lake and discussed potential contacts to support our hydrogen initiative and an array of other topics. Laila is Fort McMurray born and raised and her parents rode our coaches to work every day, or as she called it  ‘The Syncrude Bus’. 

Regretfully, she is unable make our anniversary celebration on June 5th, but we will be having further discussions on the challenges of working in Fort McMurray.   

It’s exciting to see that our Hydrogen initiative and region have made an impact to that level of government and look forward to where this is going to lead.

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