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Yu’s report predicts that Canada would become “a destination for global technology developers” and that clean-tech providers targeting the transportation and waste-management sectors are the best positioned to profit from the transition. Yu said there were also opportunities for power companies to generate earnings from the country’s transition to lower its emissions.

It is released at a time when Ottawa is planning to directly invest $1.8 billion from its federal budget in clean-technology companies and as companies in multiple sectors have begun planning ahead for a Canada-wide $50-per-tonne carbon tax in 2022.

“Carbon is now an input, so like any other thing, as the cost of an input goes up, you want to minimize it,” TransAlta Corp. president and CEO Dawn Farrell said Thursday, adding that a $50 per tonne carbon price makes converting her company’s coal-fired power plants to natural gas more economic.

TransAlta, a major Alberta power company, announced Wednesday it would accelerate its planned retirement of coal-fired generating stations from 2029 to 2023, mothballing some power plants and converting others to burn natural gas.

Farrell also said she would have discussions with other power producers with which TransAlta co-owns coal power plants to discuss accelerating the phase-out of those plants.

The decision, Farrell said at her company’s annual meeting Thursday, would “support our transition to become Canada’s leading clean-power company.”