Canada's Prime Minister, Mark Carney, on Thursday announced a national strategy to double Canada's electricity generation capacity by 2050, while signaling the federal government will ease clean electricity rules to allow greater flexibility for natural gas generation.
In a statement released by the prime minister's office, the government said Canada must respond to rising electricity demand driven by industrial growth, artificial intelligence, and electrification by building what it called a more "affordable, competitive, and sustainable" economy.
"Electricity is the clear solution to Canada's energy security, affordability, and competitiveness," the statement said, adding that national electricity demand is expected to double by 2050.
The government said it is launching consultations with provinces, territories, Indigenous groups, utilities, and unions to develop the strategy, which aims to expand generation, transmission, storage, and grid modernization across the country.
According to the statement, the strategy could lower total energy costs for seven in 10 Canadian households and deliver up to 15 billion Canadian dollars ($10.9 billion) in energy savings by 2050. It also said achieving those savings would require "a willingness to use a wide range of energy - including natural gas."
"That's why we intend to adjust clean electricity regulations to provide the flexibility needed to keep energy costs for all Canadian families reliable and affordable, while reducing emissions and building the clean energy system of the future," the statement said.
Bloomberg reported that the total cost of expanding Canada's electricity grid is expected to exceed C$1 trillion ($729 billion), with costs shared among federal and provincial governments and private-sector investors.
The strategy contains a few concrete measures and instead focuses on consultations over the coming months.
"Doubling our grid will not be easy. The scale is huge, the timeline short, and the task of getting the right mix of power complex," Carney said at a news conference in Ottawa, according to Bloomberg.
"Get it wrong, and Canadians will pay higher utility bills. Be too timid, and Canadians will end up short of power - losing good jobs and growing reliant on foreign suppliers," he reportedly said.
The strategy outlines four main priorities: expanding electricity infrastructure, improving east-west and northern transmission connections between provincial grids, training more than 130,000 skilled workers needed by 2050, and increasing domestic manufacturing of grid technologies.
The prime minister's office said the government would also expand financing and grants for energy-saving retrofits for up to one million homes, including support for replacing oil, propane, and electric baseboard heating with electric heat pumps.
Bloomberg reported that the announcement came ahead of an expected industrial carbon pricing agreement with Alberta tied to a proposed west coast oil pipeline and the Pathways carbon capture project in the oil sands. Carney said the government would support a pipeline capable of transporting at least one million barrels per day of what he described as "low-emission Alberta oil" to new markets.