Evaluation of ecoAgriculture Biofuels Capital Initiative : Évaluation de l'Initiative pour un investissement écoagricole dans les biocarburants

The Strategy includes the following four key elements: • increasing the retail availability of renewable fuels through the regulation of five percent renewable content in gasoline by 2010 and two percent renewable content in diesel and heating oil by 2012 (Environment Canada); • supporting the expansion of the Canadian production of renewable fuels through the ecoENERGY for Biofuels program (NRCan [...] These overall benefits at the local level may be largely offset by the potentially negative impacts on the Canadian livestock sector, due to the increase in the prices of feed-grain in the short-term.5 Interviews and the literature review indicate that the majority of farmers often cannot afford the required capital to invest in biofuel manufacturing plants and are not necessarily seeking new off- [...] In the 2006 Speech from The Throne, the Government stated: “In support of the future competitiveness and prosperity of the industry, the Government will invest in ongoing measures, including…funding in support of a biofuels strategy.” The rationale was that renewable fuel production was a new market opportunity for farmers and rural communities. [...] The first related to the determination of construction readiness, and the second related to the calculation of the contribution payment. [...] There were also similarities in the design between the EEP and ecoABC programs with regard to the definition of eligible project costs and the structure of the repayment formula.