International Trade Committee on Sept. 24th, 2026

[Jeff Nankivell]

Let me add to that.

I can't think of a single country or jurisdiction in Asia that doesn't want it all, right now. Especially because of the new situation of constrained supplies for oil and gas, there is a keen—in some places desperate—demand for the diversification and identification of reliable sources and choke point-free sources of oil and gas. Canada offers both of those in increasing amounts, and Canadians are out there talking to potential customers. Canadians aren't pitching only clean energy; it goes right across the whole spectrum. Vietnam was an excellent example, with a growing population and a growing economy that is aiming at 10% a year. So much energy is needed for that.

In the case of Japan, Japan is not investing in new oil refining capacity, but they would like to have access to different sources of crude oil. There's an issue there with the variety of oil that we sell, but there may be technical solutions related to blending. While Japan is absorbing the supply shock from the gulf, it's at the same time accelerating its efforts to make a transition to renewables and green energy.

[Chak Au, Conservative, Richmond Centre—Marpole, BC]

That brings me to my second question.

The other thing I learned during my field visits is that Canada has failed to turn goodwill into projects. There's lots of goodwill in Asia regarding Canada, and people hold us in very high regard, but we were not active enough to turn that goodwill into doable projects.

What is our competitive advantage, or lack of it? We know that this is a highly competitive market, so what do we have or what do we not have in terms of being competitive?

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

I need a brief answer. There are 29 seconds remaining.

[Jeff Nankivell]

We do have a level of international trust in Canada as a stable supplier. What we haven't had, up until very recently, were clear signals from governments at different levels in Canada that it will become easier—that there will be a more permissive environment to embark on major projects.

As you all know, there are a number of initiatives under way, but they are just starting. That's what our potential partners and customers in Asia want to hear. I think they like what they're hearing initially, but they want to see the proof.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much.

We'll go to Ms. Acan, please, for five minutes.

[Sima Acan, Liberal, Oakville West, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you all for joining us today. Mr. Smith, it's always great to see you.

As we all agree, Canada has what the world wants. We have a long history of exporting CANDU technology, as you mentioned, with 26 reactors in six different countries and potentially two more in the near future. This success is backed by uranium resources, skilled workers and engineers, and a Canadian supply chain with its industrial capabilities and manufacturers.

The nuclear energy strategy launched in June identifies becoming a global supplier and exporter of choice as a priority. From Candu's perspective, how ready is Canada to meet growing international demand for nuclear technology? Where are the most immediate opportunities? What limits our ability to deliver multiple projects at the same time?

[Todd Smith]

Canada is extremely well positioned to build new CANDUs globally. Of course, we have ambitions to build new CANDUs here in Canada as well, but we're well positioned globally, and there are a number of reasons for that. I thank the government for the nuclear energy strategy that was unveiled earlier this summer, putting some ambition in the window and then putting some policy behind it.

Because we've been very active in refurbishing the CANDU plants in this country and elsewhere in the CANDU fleet globally, we've been able to keep our supply chain active. Unlike a number of our competitors in this space, we have a supply chain that's been building reactors—not from the ground up, but we've been refurbishing the ones that we have. That's kept those who make components in different places across Ontario and across the country very active and able to meet the growing demand that's coming.

We have the fuel independence that comes with a CANDU reactor. I think you're seeing this with other pressurized water reactors. Light water reactors require enriched uranium, but our CANDU reactors run on natural uranium fuel, so there's no need to rely on another country to power our plants. You can get natural uranium as a commodity on the market and then build that fuel in your own country, as we do here in Canada. In every place that Candu operates globally, they have their own fuel fabrication facilities, so there's an abundance of natural uranium out there.

We're at a time when countries are looking for energy security and energy sovereignty, because the Strait of Hormuz could be shut down at any time. The war in Ukraine and the unprovoked Russian attacks that have gone on there over the last four-plus years have caused great strains in the oil and gas sector. We have all of the pieces, including a technology with over 90% of its components coming from Canada, so we have a reliable, tariff-proof supply chain that will help us meet our demand globally.

You asked where else we're looking. Poland is at the top of our list. We're very active in Turkey and in Romania, where we'll be building Cernavoda 3 and 4. There are already two CANDUs operating in Romania today. Then in the ASEAN as well, we've been talking to countries like the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia.

[Sima Acan, Liberal, Oakville West, ON]

Each of those projects is $50 billion to $60 billion and will create jobs for 100 years—for decades. Thank you so much for that hard work.

When you pursue an international project, which Canadian export controls or foreign licensing requirements create delays for you? What could the federal government do to help you with that process?

[Todd Smith]

We had some good discussions about this last week, actually, at the International Atomic Energy Agency conference in Vienna, where their general conference was held. Our regulator, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, was well represented and is well respected globally as one of the top nuclear regulators in the world. We were discussing how we can streamline nuclear co-operation agreements with countries where we may not already have NCAs, to ensure that this happens at a faster pace so that we can share the information that countries are looking for to potentially build CANDU reactors.

We've seen a real change, I would say, in urgency in Canada as a result of the national nuclear energy strategy that was released earlier this year and the ambition of the Prime Minister to ensure that we're increasing trade globally. We talk about increasing trade to countries outside of the United States by $300 billion. If we sell a couple of CANDU reactors in countries like Turkey or Poland, we're well on our way to hitting those kinds of targets.

I believe the government has seen that there's an opportunity in front of them through acting quickly, so making sure that our CNSC, the national regulator, is resourced properly to ensure they can work with other countries that have the ambition to add more nuclear energy is key.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much, Mr. Smith. I apologize for cutting you off.

Mr. Simard, you have five minutes, please.

[Mario Simard]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Mr. Smith, I believe we've already had a discussion at a Standing Committee on Natural Resources meeting. I want to come back to the same topic, mainly out of curiosity. When I look at electricity generation charts, I see that the most expensive source per kilowatt-hour, if you factor in waste management as well, is nuclear power. I keep reading articles about projects using energy sources that may be intermittent but, when combined with storage strategies, are actually quite inexpensive today.

So I wonder if, on an international scale, there will still be an appetite for nuclear power over the next decade, given that building a CANDU reactor doesn't take three or four years, but rather about 10 years. When people calculate what's coming and the associated costs, will there still be enthusiasm for nuclear power?

[Todd Smith]

They're very popular and on the minds of governments around the world as a way to balance the renewables they currently have on their grids. It's really important to have diversification in your energy sector. Certainly, we have that in Ontario, where we get 50% to 60% of our electricity from our nuclear fleet and 25% of our electricity from our hydroelectric fleet at places like Niagara Falls and with run-of-river in northern Ontario and different places. Then we have a mix of wind and solar that is intermittent and needs to be balanced with storage, which we now have in abundance, both battery storage and pump storage.

We need everything to make our economy, but the key with nuclear is having its baseload power there all the time when you need it. With the growing demand that we're seeing from data centres and AI factories, you have to have the baseload power that nuclear provides. If you were to try to run data centres on wind and solar power, you wouldn't be able to do it.

If you're looking at the price of electricity—the levelized cost of electricity, as we call it in the sector—over the 100-year lifespan of a nuclear plant, then you will see that nuclear power is going to be able to compete with wind and solar and renewable power. These are assets that you're going to have for a century.

[Mario Simard]

It's pretty audacious to talk about 100 years, but anyway...

How many CANDU reactors have been built in the last 10 years?

[Todd Smith]

Do you mean brand new CANDUs? The last CANDU was built in 2007 in Romania. Refurbishments have been ongoing during that time. They just completed the units at Darlington. Those four units were completed ahead of schedule and under budget. They're working on refurbishing the Bruce Power facilities. They've refurbished the Argentina CANDU facility as well. However, the last brand new CANDU was built in 2007, and that was C2, Cernavoda 2, which is the top-performing nuclear reactor globally when it comes to lifetime capacity.

[Mario Simard]

So, over the past 10 years, only one new reactor has been built.

In the next 10 years, how many new CANDU reactors will be built?

[Todd Smith]

Well, my hope is many, and I think the government is also hoping that there will be many.

[Mario Simard]

Realistically, how many CANDU reactors are likely to be built in the next 10 years?

[Todd Smith]

The Ontario government has an ambitious plan to add to its nuclear fleet. It's talking about potentially four large-scale reactors at Bruce Power on Lake Huron and another 10 large-scale reactors at Wesleyville in the community of Port Hope, just east of the Darlington facility on Lake Ontario. There is the potential that we build six CANDU reactors in Poland, and there is the potential that we build another six in Turkey. Then we'll see what happens in the ASEAN region; they do have ambitions to build nuclear power there. Aside from Vietnam—where they're actually moving forward on nuclear power—there is ambition to get there in other places like the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much.

Mr. McKenzie, you have four minutes, please.

[David McKenzie, Conservative, Calgary Signal Hill, AB]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Ms. Dovgal, can you confirm for me that an industrial carbon tax adds to the costs of virtually or indeed every good that is produced or transported in Canada? Is that true?

[Margareta Dovgal]

In a way, yes. It depends on where those products are going, but it's costly for the producers.

We're an export nation. We're a small open-trading economy. Our well-being relies on being able to produce things at an affordable price and sell them to the world so that we can create jobs for Canadians and revenues that go into investments. It hurts in that form. It also hurts when the goods being produced are goods that are consumed here in Canada.

Yes, prices go up.

[David McKenzie, Conservative, Calgary Signal Hill, AB]

Prices go up, costs go up and Canadians are less well off.

[Margareta Dovgal]

That's right.

[David McKenzie, Conservative, Calgary Signal Hill, AB]

It's a pretty straight equation, yet we persist. Do you have a sense of why that is? You must have had conversations with members of the government about why they're continuing to pursue an industrial carbon tax.

[Margareta Dovgal]

I think we saw some well-intentioned seniors arrested on the lawn here last week when they were telling the Prime Minister that his climate plan doesn't go far enough. I don't know if they were arrested, but there were headlines I saw. This kind of thing doesn't go away.

We're a democracy, so we're going to have conversations about policies we should be taking on energy, climate change and climate mitigation. We have choices to make. In our choices right now, we have a southern neighbour that, despite our best efforts and despite the best efforts of all parliamentarians who are in a capacity to go in and have those conversations, is not relenting. That relationship is a tough one.

We need to diversify our trade. We need to look at ways that we can actually build things, export things and sell things. Prosperity doesn't just materialize, and Canadians are hurting. I think industrial carbon pricing is not helping. It is a policy that would better serve in times when we're not in the crunch that we're in right now.