Ottawa, Ontario (August 8, 2023) – The government of Canada’s commitment to create a comprehensive, coordinated clean electricity strategy is an important step in providing Canadians with clean, reliable and affordable energy for generations to come. The development of this strategy will ensure that all partners—government, electricity companies, and Canadians—will have a clear plan and path to meet Canada’s future power needs.
Decarbonizing Canada's economy and the electricity sector are herculean tasks. Canada will need to double or triple the capacity of its electricity grid by 2050. To achieve this, Canada will need to build more generation, transmission, and distribution capacity in the next 27 years than in the last 100. The key to success will be ensuring that all provinces and territories are coordinated and equipped with the tools necessary to meet that demand.
Like any big builds, making Canada’s electricity grid cleaner and more reliable is complex. Electricity companies will have to make decisions to invest based on the “big picture” at the end of a decades-long build. However, this requires a great deal of support from regulators and government now. There is much coordination that needs to be worked out between the Federal, Provincial, local and Indigenous Governments. The Clean Electricity Strategy will make that big picture much clearer, as everyone involved will better understand the way they need to work together.
Electricity Canada has been a strong advocate for such a strategy for a long time. The Clean Electricity Strategy will fill a huge gap to implement the planning and building processes in the race to get building in order to make our climate commitments. Electricity Canada applauds the government for making this important step.
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“Getting Canada ready for a future where clean, reliable and affordable electricity powers everything is a big job. There is a huge build-out, and Canada’s electricity sector is ready for it. What we need is a national strategy to bring together everyone so we can get building. The publication of Powering Canada Forward: Building a Clean, Affordable and Reliable Electricity System for Every Region of Canada, and the Clean Electricity Strategy it proposes, will get us much closer to achieving our goals.”
- Francis Bradley, President and CEO Electricity Canada
About Electricity Canada:
Founded in 1891, Electricity Canada (formerly the Canadian Electricity Association) is the national forum and voice of the evolving and innovative electricity business in Canada. The Association supports, through its advocacy efforts, the regional, national, and international success of its members. Electricity Canada members generate, transmit, and distribute electrical energy to industrial, commercial, residential, and institutional customers across Canada. Members include integrated electric utilities, independent power producers, transmission and distribution companies, power marketers, and system operators, who together deliver electricity to all Canadians, in every province and territory.
For additional Information:
Graeme Burk, Director of Communications, burk@electricity.ca 613.809.0720