Meet and Greet with Josée Guibord

On September 8, 2026, with a cup of green tea in hand, Josée Guibord stepped into her new role as President and CEO of Electricity Canada. Bringing more than 25 years of experience in the energy, mining, and infrastructure sectors, she joins the organization at a pivotal moment for Canada's electricity industry. Current Affairs sat down Josée to talk about her experience, what drew her to the role, and her vision for the future of Canada's electricity sector and Electricity Canada.

What was it that appealed to you about Electricity Canada and its work?

I've known about Electricity Canada for quite a while, and I worked with Electricity Canada on its Board. When the CEO position came up, I felt like I could make a difference. I was excited to see the opportunity come up and excited to put my name in. The electricity sector is something I'm passionate about, having worked in it for 13 years, and I wanted to come back to it. The fact that Electricity Canada helps many different stakeholders and utilities and participants in this industry was also a unique opportunity.

As an Ottawa resident familiar with the local market, the region, and the federal government, I felt the role brought several things together. The opportunity to make a broader impact across the industry was especially appealing, and already knowing some of the people and the team also helped.

What excites you most about the National Electricity Strategy and this moment for Canada’s electricity sector?

The National Electricity Strategy is a unique moment for the sector. I know that Electricity Canada has been lobbying and advocating for a strategy to be put in place on a national level. It's something that we need as a country, particularly in this moment with electrification and climate change. It’s the right time for an organization like this to take the moment to push and advocate and support all the work that all our utilities and participants in the industry are doing to advance electrification and advance our economic growth in the country.

Where does Electricity Canada fit into the opportunities ahead?

Electricity Canada is the national voice for electricity in Canada and it's exciting to be the CEO of an organization that has an impactful voice. As we are building up our economy and developing new projects across the country, we recognize that electricity is going to play a big role, whether it's manufacturing equipment, professional services, AI or data centres. The provinces recognize it, the federal government recognizes it. We need to get it right and we need to move quickly. Our government is seizing this moment with the National Electricity Strategy to get things done and the fall budget coming up shortly will have an impact on that. We will need to take advantage of that in 2027.

You know Electricity Canada well from your time as Vice-Chair and a Board member. What feels different now that you’re leading the organization as President and CEO?

Being a Board Member and being a CEO is very different in every organization. You go from being remote and not seeing what is going on, to really being on the ground immersed in everything. From my experience being on Electricity Canada’s Board for quite some time, I understood the industry quite well, the different parties that come to it, I had a pretty good sense of what we were trying to achieve.

What I didn't know, which honestly most people don't know unless they're in the organization, is all the work that goes on behind the scenes to get us to that advocacy point or get us to that paper, or that thought leadership piece. There's a lot that goes on. There's a lot of collaboration and it's amazing how much our different committees and councils work together with utility members across the country to advance all of those projects and initiatives.

As you look to the coming year, what are the biggest priorities for Electricity Canada?

As we go forward with a National Electricity Strategy, I think that's the overarching guiding light for us in trying to achieve our objectives and move forward. We hope the Budget will also be very insightful and supportive to advance those priorities.

If I were to break down what I am seeing right now, number one is obviously the financial part of supporting the build of electricity and doubling our electricity grid by 2050, in whatever measures we can advocate for and adjust to the extent that they exist already whether it is ITCs or other funding models.

Secondly, on the regulatory front, there are some openings as recently as the last couple weeks! We heard of the C-39 being tabled, which opens the Canadian Electricity Regulations as well as the Fisheries Act. There's regulatory reform that we can do in the short term hopefully that will help our members, and our industry move forward.

Third, would be economic regulation and supporting our organization and our members in making sure that the ambition at the political level, whether provincially or federally, matches the habits and the process on economic regulation. We want to make sure that our regulators are equipped to meet the ambition set by our governments and the industry.

And finally, with respect to the growth and what we're seeing, and if we're going to double the electricity grid, there's a lot of work that needs to be done to ensure that we're resilient, and that new and upcoming priorities like AI data centres and large loads are properly planned. We want to make sure that we, as Electricity Canada can support in getting those types of projects done as well. It’s an exciting time and I can’t wait to get started.