Natural Resources Committee on May 28th, 2026

[Daniel Breton, President and Chief Executive Officer, Electric Mobility Canada]

Thank you very much.

My name is Daniel Breton. I am the president and chief executive officer of Electric Mobility Canada, the Canadian industry association for the transportation electrification industry. This year, we are celebrating our 20th anniversary.

I'd like to remind everyone that 20 years ago, fewer than 100 people worked in the transportation electrification sector in Canada, and there were fewer than 20 electric vehicles on Canadian roads. There are now more than 130,000 workers in the sector and more than a million electric vehicles on the roads. According to an EY report published in 2025, using an average scenario, there should be 600,000 workers in the transportation electrification sector in 2035.

Many reasons plead for the electrification of the economy as a whole and the electrification of transportation in particular.

According to StatsCan, there are now more workers in electric power generation, transmission and distribution than in oil and gas in Canada, even if oil sands production has increased by almost 50% in the past 10 years. According to the EY report, there will be more jobs in the EV industry than in oil and gas by 2035.

While some people worry that the growing number of EVs will break the grid, as technology keeps evolving, light-, medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicles will actually help the grid through vehicle-to-grid integration. We found, through the utilities working group, that as EV drivers pay for more electricity, mostly consumed overnight when there's spare capacity, it more than covers the cost of necessary upgrades to handle EVs. Put another way, by charging mostly off-peak, EVs improved the utilization of the grid, spreading fixed costs over more customers. This is why utilities increasingly see EVs as a form of beneficial electrification.

According to NRCan's “Energy Fact Book 2024-2025”, in 2023, there were almost 200 projects in clean electricity, representing more than a $70-billion investment. Hydro-Québec alone intends to invest up to $200 billion by 2035, so Canada's plan to electrify transportation and the economy is not far-fetched at all. It's actually pragmatic.

Here are four doses of reality.

The vast majority of jobs in transportation electrification and the economy in general cannot be offshored. Whether it's critical minerals, electric power generation and distribution or charging infrastructure, the U.S. President can do or say what he wants, those jobs will stay here. The James Bay dam, for example, won't be moving to the U.S.

At a time when many are talking about economic nationalism, I would remind everyone that nearly 75% of oil sands projects are owned by foreign interests and most of them are American, contrary to our electricity which is overwhelmingly Canadian-owned and publicly owned. Whether it's B.C. Hydro, Manitoba Hydro, SaskPower, Ontario Power Generation, Hydro-Québec, NB Power or any other electricity provider in Canada, the benefits and jobs stay in local communities.

I'm old enough to remember the Iran-Iraq war, 45 years ago. It led to an oil shock. Forty-five years later, we're facing yet another oil shock. While fuel prices around the world keep going up and down, because they're dictated by an international price, the price of electricity is regional, even local. As a result, while those who drive gas and diesel vehicles suffer from this international price, all electric vehicle owners, like me, have seen virtually no difference in the price of electricity. This means electrifying our transportation and economy makes us much more economically resilient.

According to Health Canada, in 2015, the impact of motor vehicle traffic air pollution was estimated at nearly $10 billion and lead to more than 1,200 premature deaths in Canada. Therefore, electrifying our transportation and our economy means we could save billions of dollars and thousands of lives every year. That's why we support the Canadian government in electrifying transportation and the economy, whether it's cars, trucks, buses, boats and trains, like Alto, all with the goal of creating local jobs and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution.

Thank you.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Shannon Stubbs]

I apologize for my brutally anglicized pronunciation of your name. You look to be in a beautiful area. I wouldn't mind visiting, and you could teach me how to be a bit more effectively bilingual.

Thank you for your testimony.

We will now move to Mr. Powell for five minutes.

[Michael Powell, Vice-President, Government Relations, Electricity Canada]

Thanks, and good afternoon.

My name is Mike Powell. I'm vice-president of government relations at Electricity Canada. We're the national voice of Canada's electricity sector. Our members make, move and deliver electrical energy in every province and territory.

I want to start with four numbers for Canada's electricity story.

One is 2%. That is the percentage of Canada's GDP that comes from the electricity sector, but it's also the first 2%. All the rest is powered by electrical energy in one way or another.

The second is more than 80%. That is the percentage of Canada's electricity system that is non-emitting. Most of that is hydro. Some is nuclear. That puts us among the best and cleanest systems in the world.

Third is 100%. That is how much the electricity system is going to have to grow in the next 25 years to meet demand from new technology and population growth.

The last is $2 trillion, which is what it's going to cost to meet that between now and 2050.

That's the scale of the task before us. We'll have to do it across multiple electricity systems with different resource mixes, market structures and regulatory environments. There will be no silver bullet or one-size-fits-all approach to meeting this growth. There is a need to act with urgency and precision.

We were very excited when the government recently announced its new electricity strategy, “Powering Canada Strong”, which comes at an important time, as did regulatory reform proposals, which were announced just before. These are major steps forward in reducing obstacles to building and supporting electricity system expansion.

The test now is to match ambition with execution. Electricity will be central to how we grow our economy. In a changing world, we have to get it right.

I'd like to highlight four items to support this.

First, Canada needs to develop a regulatory and approval system that supports investment and growth. We've seen substantial commitments to improving approval timelines and simplifying processes for major projects. We also need to ensure that the same is true for all electricity projects, not just the largest ones. We cannot build at scale if smaller but equally essential projects are stuck in regulatory delays.

We hope that recent commitments to single-approval authorities, federal economic zones and more flexible permitting processes will help with this. We also hope that these lessons can help improve permitting for existing infrastructure, whose operations can be saddled with red tape and regulatory delays.

We were also pleased to see the government's intention to amend the clean electricity regulations. As we've said at this committee before, the CERs need to work in every jurisdiction in Canada. Provincial system operators are best placed to make operational and system design decisions and to allocate electricity resources. Allowing appropriate flexibility and allowing existing assets to operate longer will help keep energy on the grid, support customer affordability and ensure system reliability.

Second, we need to work toward an integrated Canadian electricity system. As shown in a recent report we did with Deloitte on interties, there are real opportunities to improve interconnections between jurisdictions, to improve reliability and to help our system grow. The federal government can partner with provincial actors to advance inter-regional planning and apply a benefit accrual framework to build and optimize our east-west and north interconnections.

Third, we have to keep an eye on cost and affordability for Canadians. The investment needed to expand the grid is on a national scale, and we must be mindful of the impact on customer bills. We do an annual customer survey, and we found that 84% of respondents said that an increase in bills would have an impact on their finances.

This is an area where the federal government must play a role. The clean electricity and clean technology ITCs offer support already. We are encouraged that the new strategy commits to extending these ITCs to cover certain intraprovincial transmission projects. Other programs, such as SREPs, the smart renewables and electrification pathways program—we are an acronyms business—the CIB, the indigenous loan guarantee program and others also play important roles. We believe there is a need to extend and optimize these programs, including by ensuring that they are designed to be as simple to use as possible and are supporting the whole system, including distribution.

There's also going to be more to do. The electricity strategy rightly acknowledges that large and long-lasting projects offer a unique challenge, and we'll need to think about different approaches. We look forward to those conversations.

Finally, resiliency must be fundamental in government action. Our grid is operating in an increasingly challenging environment, be it more extreme weather or cyber-threats. We are facing growing labour shortages and supply chain constraints. The electricity strategy makes important contributions and asks important questions on these fronts.

We need continued action on workforce development, supply chain security and grid hardening. We need to develop an electricity supply chain road map that reduces trade risks and builds resilient supply chains in Canada. We need to implement policies for skill development and attraction in our sector, and provide targeted funding to make our grids more weather-resilient. We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to get this right. We have to seize the opportunity.

We look forward to working with the committee, the government and all Canadians to build the electricity system that makes our country an energy superpower.

Thank you.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Shannon Stubbs]

Thank you.

Now we'll go over to you, Mr. Milligan, for five minutes.

[Chris Milligan, Vice-President, Planning and Procurement, Nova Scotia Independent Energy System Operator]

Good afternoon. Thank you very much, Madam Chair and committee, for the invitation to join you today.

I'd like to start by acknowledging that I'm speaking to you today from Mi'kma'ki, the ancestral, unceded territory of the Mi'kmaq people, which is covered by the peace and friendship treaties. We're all treaty people. We all benefit greatly from the shared resources of this land.

My name is Chris Milligan. I'm the vice-president of planning and procurement at the Independent Energy System Operator in Nova Scotia. I have over 15 years of experience working in the regulated utility landscape, much of that leading electricity system planning activities. This includes the development of several integrated resource plans for the Nova Scotia electricity system. I have also held responsibility in new system interconnections and energy resource procurement activities. I'm the vice-chair of the Northeast Power Coordinating Council's reliability coordinating committee, a member of Electricity Canada's transmission council and a registered professional engineer in Nova Scotia.

IESO Nova Scotia is an independent, not-for-profit organization created by the province's More Access to Energy Act to take on long-term system planning, new energy resource procurement and transmission grid operations on behalf of Nova Scotians. Importantly, we're structured to be independent of governments, utilities and independent power producers. Our mandate is to deliver a secure supply of electricity for the province and to enable transition to renewable energy while doing so at the best possible cost for Nova Scotians.

Over the last nine months, we've been standing up this new organization and, at the same time, advancing several major priorities critical to maintaining a reliable electricity supply for the province. Coal-fired generation is being phased out, a transition to 80% renewable energy is targeted for 2030 and demand for electricity continues to grow.

These projects include our inaugural integrated resource plan, which will identify resources and programs critical to meeting our province's electricity needs over the next 25 years; overseeing transmission and connection processes crucial to reliably integrating new loads and resources to our transmission system; and procuring urgently needed new-generation resources, including fast-acting natural gas, energy storage and renewable energy resources. These initiatives are essential to Nova Scotia's energy security and supply reliability, but they also support our province's key priorities of affordability, energy transition and enabling economic growth.

Current forecasts demonstrate that the load on the system will continue to grow, driven by population growth, electrification and economic development. A new peak demand record was set in Nova Scotia in January of this year, highlighting this growth in very real terms. This demand strained the current system and confirmed the urgent need for new energy resources. Forecasts for the province anticipate hundreds of megawatts of continued growth in demand through 2035 and beyond.

That's why this is such a pivotal time for Nova Scotia's shift from coal to renewable energy sources to be coming to bear. Nova Scotia's wind resources are world-class. High inverter-based renewable generation is an area of focus for Nova Scotia. We are leading in North America. We have learnings to share and ongoing areas for study. Our exceptional wind resources also present exciting opportunities for the province, like Wind West, our provincial government's ambitious plan to harness offshore wind to power electricity systems on a national scale.

While our mandate is clearly focused on Nova Scotia, we recognize that our electricity grid is part of a broader system and that when systems work together, it can bring significant benefits for electricity customers. Recent concrete examples of this in the Maritimes include the development of an enhanced transmission interconnection between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and the agreement for IESO Nova Scotia to purchase capacity from a fast-acting generation facility being developed in New Brunswick. Our organization is keen to study further opportunities to expand electricity partnerships across jurisdictions.

The significant build-out of onshore wind generation and the procurement of the firm capacity and energy storage resources that support it represent the most cost-effective and carbon-minimized energy portfolio that meets the needs of Nova Scotians. The transformation of Nova Scotia's electricity system away from coal is forecast to lead to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of over 90% relative to 2005 levels. This provides a solid foundation on which economy-wide electrification can lead to further carbon reductions across all sectors of the economy.

This portfolio of energy resources also provides critical energy security, enabling our province to transition away from a reliance on global fossil fuel markets and to instead leverage our own domestic resources—an important advantage for the moment we're in right now.

The Government of Canada has played an integral role in enabling many of the projects that underpin Nova Scotia's energy transition and system reliability—both today and into the future—through funding programs like the smart renewables and electrification pathways program and the Canada Infrastructure Bank, among others. This support has a direct impact on infrastructure resilience and energy affordability in our province. IESO Nova Scotia looks forward to future collaborations that serve our mandate to deliver a secure supply of electricity and to enable the renewable energy transition at the best possible cost to Nova Scotians.

Thank you, members of the committee, for the opportunity to participate today. I look forward to answering your questions.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Shannon Stubbs]

Thank you very much for your testimony.

Now we'll move to Mr. Rowe for six minutes for the first round of questions.

[Jonathan Rowe, Conservative, Terra Nova—The Peninsulas, NL]

Thank you all for being here today.

My first question is for Mr. Milligan.

We may be more closely connected than you think. I'm from Newfoundland and Labrador, and I worked on the Muskrat Falls project. As you know, there's a link there, the maritime link, that links Newfoundland and perhaps one of the largest undersea cables in the world—for sure one of the largest in the country. One thing that's exciting about hydroelectricity is that it never runs out as long as it keeps raining. In Newfoundland and Labrador, it always rains.

Was there an initial route that may have been considered before the maritime link that would have been more cost-effective?

[Chris Milligan]

I can't speak to the specifics of that project, in any way that I recall, with that lens. That project would have been put forward in front of the regulator in Nova Scotia, and it was determined by that regulator to be the lowest-cost option to supply Nova Scotian customers with the portion of the project that supplies their needs.

[Jonathan Rowe, Conservative, Terra Nova—The Peninsulas, NL]

That's interesting. One of the big rumours in Newfoundland and Labrador was that the original plan was to go from Labrador to Nova Scotia through the mainland and down through Quebec, but they ran into some interprovincial barriers. I was just wondering if that was true or not, if you could confirm that.

The maritime link has a 25-year lifespan. Do you think that Newfoundland and Labrador would have more opportunities to offer hydroelectricity or biofuel from wood chips or even from natural gas if we had more access to Nova Scotia through more links through Quebec or from under the ocean—a maritime link?

[Chris Milligan]

Speaking specifically about the opportunities to integrate between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, I would say that the maritime link has definitely brought a lot of benefit to both provinces.

One concrete example of that came as recently as earlier this year when there was a very cold weekend in January. I mentioned in my opening remarks that we would have set a new peak demand record in Nova Scotia. There was a particularly important weekend when Nova Scotia was able to supply energy to Newfoundland, I think on a Saturday. Then the very next day, on the Sunday, Newfoundland was able to supply additional energy to Nova Scotia. Both provinces, by working together through that intertie, were able to keep the lights on on very cold days and through some challenging conditions for various reasons for the electricity systems of both provinces.

I use that as an example to highlight the value of having a greater connection between provinces. I would say we work together with Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro and other aspects of the Newfoundland electricity system to try to find more of those opportunities all the time.

[Jonathan Rowe, Conservative, Terra Nova—The Peninsulas, NL]

I remember the days when we'd all turn our electricity down and light our wood stoves. I remember that very clearly.

Do you think removing provincial trade barriers...? One of the biggest trade barriers between Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia is the ocean. Do you think the federal government should put in some dollars, if they're going to put out dollars, to add another maritime link to Newfoundland and Nova Scotia so we can do more of that electricity exchange?

[Chris Milligan]

Yes, and I mentioned in my opening remarks the really high value that federal support can bring to those types of interprovincial projects. I believe some was provided for the maritime link project in the form of a federal loan guarantee. That was instrumental in enabling that project to go ahead.

I would think that any examination of the interties between provinces benefits from that type of support. We would have recently seen approval for the new transmission intertie between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, and that also benefited from Canada Infrastructure Bank funding, which allowed it to be the most economic option for customers.

[Jonathan Rowe, Conservative, Terra Nova—The Peninsulas, NL]

You mentioned a lot about wind turbines. Obviously, wind turbines need complementary generation, whether that's Newfoundland's hydroelectricity at Muskrat Falls, further hydroelectricity development or even natural gas development. Is Nova Scotia looking at doing possible natural gas generation using the natural gas there to offset or be complementary to the wind turbines?

[Chris Milligan]

When we develop an energy portfolio, we have to create the resource mix for customers that is lowest-cost, meets our decarbonization objectives and, most importantly, maintains system reliability for customers. As you mentioned, it's not always windy, although it's pretty windy in Nova Scotia, almost as much as in Newfoundland, although maybe not quite as much. It is very important that the system has balancing resources in order to integrate all of that wind.

In Nova Scotia, we'll be developing a portfolio of firming assets or balancing resources that includes energy storage. It includes the conversion of a couple of coal plants to alternative fuels, and it includes the development of new fast-acting, gas generation-fired facilities that will all work together to integrate wind energy into the system.

[Jonathan Rowe, Conservative, Terra Nova—The Peninsulas, NL]

It's interesting that B.C. can't turn its natural gas into electricity but Nova Scotia can, even though we all have the same atmosphere. That part kind of blows my mind.

You guys are doing the right thing by tapping into natural gas. I find it interesting. If we have to build a natural gas facility to power the grid when the wind turbines are down, I don't completely understand the economics of why we would spend money to build a wind turbine. I guess that's for the industry to determine on its own.

Newfoundland and Labrador has a lot of natural gas that we could turn into electricity as well. Do you think having some import facilities in Nova Scotia to import Newfoundland LNG could be a good opportunity?

[Chris Milligan]

I would say that a reliable supply of natural gas is part of the supply to those facilities, but equally and importantly for Nova Scotians, we would be designing those facilities to be dual-fuelled. They would also have a backup of liquid fuel available. That is part of ensuring that the reliability asset they are is available. That would be diesel, but the ability to transition to a renewable fuel over time is all part of the design of those facilities.

Overall, those facilities still emit about half of the greenhouse gases of coal per megawatt generated, and they will also run a lot less frequently, because rather than being baseload, they're only in there responding to really high-peak demand days or really low wind renewable generation days.

That's part of enabling the 90% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from our provincial electricity system over time, relative to 2005. Even though we will be adding those facilities with the predominant amount of generation coming from wind, the overall emissions are significantly reduced.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Shannon Stubbs]

Thank you.

Colleagues, we will now move to our parliamentary secretary for six minutes.

[Claude Guay, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you to the witnesses. This is a great group.

Thank you, Mr. Clerk, for bringing them to us.

It's good to see you again, Mr. Powell. My first questions are going to be for you.

I listened to the four things that were important in execution, and every one of those things is in the national electricity strategy the government just published. To your point, though, now we have to do execution and ambition. I just want to make sure for this committee.... Are there things missing in the strategy that in your opinion the committee missed and should have been there?

[Michael Powell]

There was a lot in the strategy. I think it gets the key stuff right, and it maps with the questions that we have been looking to see moving forward—questions on affordability and how we finance the system to make sure we have the right needs; on building out at pace; on interconnecting; and on matching the supply chain and the people.

One thing I'm reflecting on is having a clear space for Canada's distribution system. The government has done a very good job of thinking about ways in which it can support the build-out of generation and more transmission, with the welcome addition of intraprovincial, but when we get to the last mile in front of our houses, there is still a need to think about how we support the growth in that system. There are different challenges that might come, but I think there's space to have that conversation within the context of the strategy.

[Claude Guay, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

To be specific, on high-voltage intraprovincial, I'm assuming you're supportive of the tax credit.

[Michael Powell]

Yes, very.

[Claude Guay, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

Do you want to talk about the tax credit and why?

[Michael Powell]

That was a welcome addition.

We can build all the generation we want, but it has to get to people. Just as we have factories and cities with highways in between, we need that within provinces for electricity. A bulk of where we have to build out Canada's wireless network is within jurisdictions. Provinces are quite large, as you all know, so this focused high-value investment in transmission to help grow the system will be very important. It's something we've been advocating for over several years.

[Claude Guay, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

I'll change topics a bit.

You saw recently that the government invested in the Matawinie mine for Nouveau Monde Graphite. We're investing in a fully integrated battery supply chain domestically.

We have big ambitions from a buy Canadian perspective, and I am aware that today, a lot of the equipment we provide to support our electricity ambition is coming from foreign countries. Some of that may be less reliable than others.

What's the position of your members on buy Canadian?

[Michael Powell]

As a starting point, I'll say that when our members make investments in Canada, the vast majority of the money is usually spent on Canadian goods—so workers, goods, etc.

Canada is a market in a larger world, and there are certainly some companies that make a lot of goods here in Canada. We have a very healthy relationship with our supplier community, with companies that make transformers, wires and all these other pieces. Some goods are, by their nature, not Canadian, and we have to make sure we have the flexibility and ability to get those. Even if there might be a Canadian alternative, the nature of bids and capacity is that you'll have to draw from them.

As for what we're hoping to see—which we talked about in our annual report and saw in the strategy—there needs to be a comprehensive focus on where Canada can be successful in investing in and growing business communities in this space in a way that can be durable, where we have strength and where we can grow.

The approach you saw in the defence industrial strategy—build, partner, buy—is probably the right approach, but we have to double the grid in the next 25 years. We can't wait to grow all these pieces. As we're looking to bring mines online, which requires generation and transmission, we should make sure that we're getting resources up and running so that we can make the whole economy move faster and there's balance in there.