The trillion-dollar plan stops short of committing new public spending despite promising tax credits and grid-connecting infrastructure
Prime Minister Mark Carney unveiled a national electricity strategy costing more than $1tn Thursday, targeting a grid that trades more power with the US than Canadian regions do with each other.
Reuters reported that the plan, called Powering Canada Strong, aims to double the country's power grid capacity by 2050, using new investment tax credits to spur construction of east-west electricity interties connecting regional grids.
The government forecasts the effort will require more than 130,000 new skilled workers, AP News reported.
“The path to affordability is electrification; the path to competitiveness is electrification; the path to net zero is electrification,” Carney said at a news conference in Ottawa, according to CBC News.
Canada's electricity systems face increasing strain from industrial growth, AI data centre demand and rising electric vehicle use, Reuters reported.
Total electricity generation has nonetheless fallen, due in part to droughts reducing hydroelectric output and the retirement of coal-fired plants, the wire service said.
US electricity imports have risen every year since 2020, according to the Canada Energy Regulator, as cited by Reuters.
AP News reported that the strategy allows natural gas to play a larger role in the energy mix, marking a shift from the Clean Electricity Regulations finalised under former prime minister Justin Trudeau in 2024.
According to CBC News, the government said it will amend those regulations to give the sector greater flexibility to offset residual emissions.
Carney said natural gas will nonetheless be dwarfed in scale by investments in hydropower, nuclear and renewables, Reuters reported.
The strategy does not specify how much public spending the government will commit, though it mentions tax credits and energy-saving retrofits for up to one million households, AP News reported.
No new funding is expected for transmission projects, though the existing clean electricity investment tax credit could be expanded, a source told CBC News.
Multiple sources told the same outlet that Ottawa may involve the Major Projects Office in transmission infrastructure expansion.
The government is also considering fast-tracking interconnection projects under the Build Canada Act as projects in the national interest, including interties between BC and Yukon, the Atlantic provinces, and Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador.
The Canadian Climate Institute said the strategy is “pointing in the right direction” but described several key issues as ambiguous or missing, AP News reported.
Executive vice-president Dale Beugin said the strategy's success will depend on how quickly the government follows through on expanding clean power generation, transmission, and electrification.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre dismissed the announcement as old news, saying the Liberals had “used over the last decade to jack up the cost of power bills by 35 percent,” CBC News reported.
Carney said his government is launching consultations with provinces, territories, Indigenous Peoples, utilities and unions over the coming months to fine-tune the strategy.
