Thank you, Madam Chair.
Unhindered by wind speed or cloud cover, nuclear power at all scales is able to meet baseload energy needs 24-7, on 365 days of the year. In Ontario we do this already, with 18 large CANDU reactors generating about 60% of Ontario's electricity with among the lowest CO2 emissions in the world. In a few short years, after more than 50 years of providing low-carbon electricity to Ontario, Pickering Nuclear will be retired, having achieved some of its best-ever performance in the last decade of its life, thanks to continuous innovation in nuclear technologies.
Ontario will need to replace about 15% of its electricity baseload, which is expected to come primarily from natural gas, and it will lose its enviable place in the world as one of the lowest-emitting jurisdictions. This regrettable situation can be alleviated in full or in part by the early 2030s through deployment of small modular reactors, nuclear reactors that generate usable powers of 300 megawatts electrical or less. In fact, Ontario Power Generation is already working towards that, with its first SMR from GE Hitachi expected to come online in 2028. It's a good first step.
SMRs can play a significant role in helping Canada reach net zero if government creates conditions that promote their deployment. SMRs are most often just an evolution of an existing reactor design, even those that involve newer concepts or fuels built on a solid foundation of research and development. For more than 50 years, a small number of nations around the world have been designing, building, operating and decommissioning small reactors within their naval fleets.
Away from prying eyes, several of these reactor types are similar and/or of comparable thermal power to SMR designs in vendor design review with the CNSC. Moreover, in the U.K., Rolls-Royce has been building light water reactors in its factories for decades. It's not magic; Canada can do this too.
As one of very few tier 1 nuclear nations, Canada's extensive nuclear supply chain is eminently capable of building and maintaining SMRs. Should we so desire, wherever you currently see a power station fuelled by coal, oil or natural gas, it is likely that an SMR or series of SMRs could be a clean, slot-in replacement for it. Given that they have been designed with intrinsic safety features that do not require human intervention, SMRs will be even safer to operate than earlier generation power reactors. This fact, together with their individually smaller radiological inventories—the amount of nuclear and radiological material they contain—means that any consequences to the public and the environment are effectively zero, should a highly improbable event happen. This makes the traditional concept of large site boundaries and emergency planning zones a thing of the past.
Despite all the advantages of SMRs, it is important that advocates for them be truthful. SMRs, like all nuclear reactors, will produce a small amount of radioactive waste per energy emitted. For some people, this is a red line, but we must ask ourselves this honestly: What is the bigger risk? Is it better to generate resilient, clean energy where the resultant waste volumes are small and well managed or to make greenhouse gases and accept the devastating consequences of climate change? There is no free lunch.
The consequences of burning coal are well known, and oil and gas, while working to decarbonize through new technologies and methods, have a long road to go and may never be carbon-neutral. Taken over their complete lifetimes, wind turbines, solar panels and batteries all produce waste, and some of them can cause harm. We forget this, as we don't yet require their vendors and operators to manage waste in as costly and robust a manner as the nuclear industry. It is not a level playing field. Fortunately, we have over a century's worth of knowledge in health physics and radiation science and have been applying it to the safe storage of nuclear waste since World War II. Being an early adopter of SMRs, Canada is in an ideal position to become a world leader in developing lucrative new and novel technologies for the management of SMR wastes.
The postpandemic recovery and recent events in Ukraine have demonstrated the fragility in the global energy market. Nations with mal-intent are now able to hold their neighbours hostage through threats of turning off their supply while driving up the price of gas at the pump here in Canada.
SMRs provide energy security while creating highly skilled, high-paying jobs. In Saskatchewan, we are blessed with the abundant uranium reserves needed by SMR vendors across the Western world. In Alberta, oil and gas workers can be assured of long-term job security by re-skilling for the SMR-generated process heat economy in hydrogen and alternative fuels. Our coastal provinces could become pioneers in desalination technologies that may be exported to water-scarce countries, and—particularly close to my heart, given shipping is essential to global trade and also a major emitter of greenhouse gases—shipbuilding provinces like Quebec could become powerhouses in nuclear propulsion by tooling up shipyards to install SMRs in ships that other nations recognize could propel a green revolution in shipping.
Clearly, to embrace this once in a half-century opportunity requires a much larger workforce than exists now, along with new skills and knowledge.
Ontario Tech University, home to Canada's only undergraduate program in nuclear engineering, stands ready with colleagues at universities and colleges across the land to deliver this education and training.
In tandem with this, demonstrated commitment to new nuclear from government in the long term will give confidence to our young people when making career choices. To date, the government has been very proactive in empowering NRCan to develop road maps and plans, and in providing innovation funding to vendors for their design work.
However, leadership needs more. It's not a question of if Canada should—