{"id":94193,"date":"2026-06-18T18:50:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T18:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/94193\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T18:50:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T18:50:12","slug":"canada-risks-losing-its-edge-on-low-cost-industrial-power-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/94193\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada risks losing its edge on low-cost industrial power: report"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Canadian Climate Institute has published a detailed script<\/a> for the Mark Carney government to spearhead wide-scale upgrades of Canada\u2019s electricity system. The report published Wednesday argues that for the prime minister\u2019s massive trade and building push to succeed, the country must move quickly to preserve a key competitive advantage: abundant clean, low-cost power.<\/p>\n

Canada has some of the lowest industrial power prices among high-income economies, and 85% of the grid is non-emitting<\/a>, with nuclear and hydro playing an important part of the mix. But as artificial intelligence and electrification drive up demand faster than expected, Canada\u2019s edge for attracting big industry is at risk of eroding, the authors write. After a decade of flat growth, Bank of America Institute now forecasts<\/a> 2.5% compound annual growth until 2035. Investment will flow to regions with the best grids, not just the most resources, but Canadian jurisdictions are systematically underplanning for industrial demand, they argue.<\/p>\n

\"ElectricityChart by Bank of America Institute<\/p>\n

The report, titled Power Play: How to Supercharge Canada\u2019s Clean Electricity Advantage, contends that for Carney\u2019s economic strategy to work, the country must overcome an ethos of risk-avoidance at the planning level. Utilities and regulators are wary of overbuilding infrastructure and passing the bill to ratepayers. But the bigger risk now is underbuilding, the Climate Institute suggests, especially as faster-moving regions take advantage of low-cost renewable technologies to improve their offer for energy-hungry industries.<\/p>\n

The new research presents side-by-side comparisons of Canada\u2019s four largest electricity systems with other jurisdictions around the world. Alberta and Texas are treated together as \u201cmarket-led systems,\u201d while Ontario and the United Kingdom are compared as \u201ccoordinated market systems.\u201d Four other jurisdictions \u2013 British Columbia, Quebec, Washington and Norway \u2013 are grouped as \u201chydro-led systems,\u201d whose reservoir storage gives them an inherent advantage with clean, dispatchable power. Quebec\u2019s tie-in with California\u2019s well-functioning carbon market is an added bonus for investors.<\/p>\n

\"IndustrialResource planning is typically shaped by regulatory incentives that tend to favour caution, cost containment, and protection against near-term rate increases over the opportunity for economic growth, the report states.
\nImplementing growth<\/p>\n

Increasing grid flexibility across all regions is one of the foremost recommendations of the report. That means more \u201cfirm\u201d power from low-emissions sources like batteries, as well as more interties with neighbouring grids so that available clean energy is more likely to be shared and less likely to be wasted. The report also points to better long-term planning, more predictable procurement for renewables, modernized rate design, and stable climate policy as critical to sharpening Canada\u2019s offer. It argues that funding interregional transmission lines should be a national policy imperative.<\/p>\n

Increasing Indigenous ownership is another strategic priority, to uphold self-determination and bring in capital. \u201cIndigenous ownership could further unlock $12 billion in generation and $5 billion in transmission equity,\u201d the report states, citing the First Nations Major Projects Coalition.<\/p>\n

The Climate Institute\u2019s central argument about protecting Canada\u2019s clean electricity advantage echoes a report<\/a> published in February by SHARE, or the Shareholder Association for Research and Education. \u201cGrid constraints, slow infrastructure build-out, and mounting policy and regulatory barriers are colliding with skyrocketing demand from electric vehicle manufacturing, battery materials, critical minerals, AI and data centres, and green industrial production,\u201d the authors write. Increasing the flow of clean electricity \u201cadds material asset value and enables market access\u201d for industries like tech, AI and mining, SHARE\u2019s Power at Risk report states.<\/p>\n

Mark Mann is the managing editor at Corporate Knights.<\/p>\n

The Weekly Roundup<\/p>\n

Get all our stories in one place, every Wednesday at noon EST.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Canadian Climate Institute has published a detailed script for the Mark Carney government to spearhead wide-scale upgrades…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17,11809,10935],"class_list":["post-94193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-canada","tag-electricity-grid","tag-electrification"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}