COVID-19 has changed the daily lives of Canadians from coast to coast to coast. The Canadian Electricity Association—in coordination with our industry and government partners—is closely monitoring and responding to COVID-19 developments. We are committed to the health and safety of our members, staff and the public.
The pace of COVID-19 developments has been exceptionally rapid, with the situation changing daily. CEA quickly mobilized and began working with our members, government partners and the electric utility industry to gather and share up-to-date information, best practices and guidance. Our collective efforts are helping protect the grid and ensure continued access to safe and reliable electricity during these difficult times. You can find up-to-date resources and information on our website.
I am proud of the strategic mutual assistance our members are providing to each other on both sides of the border to ensure the electricity industry is able to succeed. They have taken extraordinary actions to ensure that we are able to continue to operate in a safe and reliable manner, and to deliver a critical service—reliable, safe and affordable electricity—for Canadians.
In addition to helping our customers, CEA members are also focused on ensuring the safety of our workers who are essential to the continuity of operations of our control centers, power plants, transmission and distribution facilities, as well as our lineworkers and crews who respond to outages and restore power after natural disasters and other events.
Like many other businesses, employees that can work remotely are working remotely. For critical functions that require staff to be present, our members have taken exceptional precautions. This includes restricting access to facilities, opening secondary facilities to reduce employee interactions, extensive between shift cleaning and disinfecting, and preventing interactions between work crews to limit transmission risk.
COVID-19 does not pose any technical risk to Canada’s electricity infrastructure. Electricity companies have plans in place to ensure uninterrupted service while ensuring any affected employee is able to focus on getting better.
On behalf of CEA I would like to express our gratitude for all front-line workers. They are serving our communities selflessly and at the same time, they’re facing the same challenges at home that we have with this pandemic. Your tireless work during this exceptional time is prodigious.
Francis Bradley
President and Chief Executive Officer
