International Trade committee  Thank you for the question. I think every technology that will be able to produce electricity without carbon emissions will be required. If you simply do the math on triple the electricity required by 2050, we can't turn our back on any good technology. Whether it's small modular or large nuclear, whether it's small hydro or large hydro, or whether it's wind or solar, every technology that is non-emitting will be required.

International Trade committee  Yes, certainly, and thank you for the question. I think it's an interesting one. What have we not thought about? What I would add is that instead of simply thinking about one-off investment decisions, this isn't a matter of whether a single investment will be made in Canada or the United States.

International Trade committee  I think the IRA, indeed, as you suggest based on what you have heard from other folks, is a game-changer. I'm hoping the fall economic statement is the first step in an effective Canadian response. We see that, really, as a first step, and we're waiting to see what comes out in budget 2023.

International Trade committee  As I said, we're working on what we will be proposing specifically in budget 2023, but there absolutely needs to be something in parallel with ITCs for those non-taxable entities. With respect to the challenges you see in Ontario, actually, relative to some other jurisdictions, Ontario is starting in a pretty good place.

International Trade committee  Yes, absolutely. Thank you for that. Again, that's going to be foundational as well. I talked earlier about needing all of these resources and all non-emitting resources. We're going to need hydro and wind and solar and distributed energy resources and so on. However, our ability to actually maximize all of those resources and to be able to do so in an efficient manner is also going to require a deployment of new technology, everything from AI to quantum computing by the time we get to 2050.

International Trade committee  Yes. The future is going to require every type of non-emitting electricity. At the grid scale, we're going to need more hydro; we're going to need carbon capture utilization; we're going to need wind; we're going to need solar; we're going to need distributed energy resources, and we're going to need more transmission to be able to move this between different jurisdictions, absolutely.

International Trade committee  With regard to the top three priorities for an electrification strategy, I think the first priority would be having a clear understanding of, to put it bluntly, who pays and who pays for what. The desire to lower our carbon footprint is something that will fall disproportionately on different people depending upon what the resources are that are available in their jurisdiction.

International Trade committee  Yes. Certainly. Like the other witness, I'm not a direct specialist in this area, but I would agree that certainly we should be working towards that ability. We're even now trying to figure out what happens with those batteries. There may be a role for them as grid storage in the future.

International Trade committee  Sure. I think it's a very interesting question. It is not where we as a sector and association have focused, though I think it certainly is something that the Government of Canada should be thinking about in terms of what their approach is. We've approached this in a very practical manner.

International Trade committee  We're hoping that the regional tables will be the critical enabler to ensure that there is coordination between the various levels of government. What we've seen up until now is that there's been a lack of alignment between federal, provincial and municipal governments. We're hoping that all of the regional tables, as they stand up, will be able to bridge that gap and be enablers for the energy transition, but it remains to be seen.

International Trade committee  Thank you very much for the question. It is the critical question, absolutely. When we look at a future that will require two to three times more electricity to be able to meet our 2050 target, how are we going to do that? How are we going to achieve that? The short answer is yes, absolutely, there is a critical role that the federal government needs to play.

International Trade committee  Yes, I would agree. Without a clear idea and without a clear plan, it's difficult to see how we will all arrive at that destination, which is again why we've been asking for several years now for a national electrification strategy that we can all get behind—

International Trade committee  Mr. Gorman and I are on the same floor in the same building. The same things keep me up at night that keep Mr. Gorman up. I think everybody in the electricity sector is very concerned about our ability to meet those commitments. It's why I continue to talk about how many days there are until the end of 2035.

International Trade committee  We recognize the urgency in this, absolutely.

International Trade committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like to thank the members of the Standing Committee on International Trade for inviting our organization to take part in this important study. My name is Francis Bradley and I am president and chief executive officer of Electricity Canada. Electricity Canada is the national forum and voice of the electricity business in Canada.