Canada’s new electricity strategy points in the right direction, but sidesteps critical issues

Press Release

May 14, 2026

Federal strategy rightfully emphasizes clean electricity and electrification as a backbone of Canada’s competitiveness, but sidesteps issues including the future shape of the Clean Electricity Regulations, the role of gas power, and coal in Saskatchewan, among others.

OTTAWA—Dale Beugin, Executive Vice President of the Canadian Climate Institute, made the following statement in response to the release of the federal government’s Powering Canada Strong: A National Strategy for an Electrified Canadian Economy:

“Canada’s new national electrification strategy is pointing in the right direction, but sidesteps critical issues about the future of the country’s electricity system. While it recognizes the need to double the size of the country’s electricity grids to shore up national competitiveness, affordability, and energy security, it offers little clarity on the role of gas power in the future. It focuses on supporting electrification across the economy, which will be essential for achieving net zero emissions, but raises more questions about the role of the Clean Electricity Regulations.

“Ultimately, the success of the strategy will depend on details of how—and how swiftly—the government follows through on expanding clean power generation, transmission, and widespread electrification.
“Several important issues remain ambiguous or missing in the strategy:

Connections to the Canada-Alberta Memorandum of Understanding are unclear. How the federal Clean Electricity Regulations will apply in Alberta will have implications for the policy across the country.
Changes to the Clean Electricity Regulations could allow additional emissions-intensive gas-powered generation that delivers reliability via peaking power, but also opens the door to long-lived, high-emissions baseload power, undermining Canada’s climate objectives.
The strategy emphasizes the role of gas in affordability but underplays the growing opportunity from cleaner sources of system flexibility (such as storage, demand response, and interties) to help deliver affordable electricity rates.
The strategy overemphasizes nuclear power, which risks higher costs and delays in scaling up urgently-needed new power, compared to falling costs of renewables and storage.
It’s unclear how the federal government will create incentives for provinces and territories to create the market conditions to scale-up electricity systems. Many important electricity policy levers are squarely in provincial jurisdiction.
The strategy is silent on Saskatchewan’s efforts to bring back coal power, in opposition to federal law and despite the emissions implications and negative impacts on affordability
Indigenous leadership and partnerships are critical to successful development of cleaner, bigger grids. While the strategy recognizes the importance of Indigenous rights and participation in the North, it’s imperative for governments to support and work with Indigenous partners across the country to advance reconciliation and realize the ambitions outlined in this strategy.

“The new strategy offers a path forward to fix some persistent issues. Prioritizing the construction of ‘nation building’ grid infrastructure to connect provincial grids and grow electricity capacity is the necessary first step to keep up with existing and future demand. Investing in building skills and bolstering Canada’s ability to produce the hardware, grid components, and services this expansion would require could offer economic and local employment benefits.

“The plan also recognizes the federal government has a constructive role to play in expanding and connecting Canada’s electricity systems: by providing policy certainty, facilitating co-ordination between provinces and territories, and leveraging federal resources and funding to support grid expansion and modernization, among other things.

“The recent spike in prices at the pump is a timely reminder of how volatile oil prices can be. With targeted government support and careful planning, switching from fossil fuels to clean electricity in our homes, vehicles, and industries can have real affordability and energy security benefits.

“Clean electricity resources already give Canada a competitive edge internationally—and that advantage will only grow as global markets continue shifting toward lower-carbon energy. Investing in maintaining and growing that edge is smart fiscal and energy policy, and is essential for Canada to make progress toward its international climate commitments. Realizing the full transformative potential of this new strategy will require meeting some of the hardest and most important policy challenges head-on. The Climate Institute will be releasing new research to help answer some of these questions in the months ahead.”

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