Thank you, Chair, and Dr. Jaczek.
The potential investment of $2.5 billion in Canadian clean energy on the way toward a $5 billion investment over the mid-term is a remarkable opportunity, absolutely. I would like to get the benefits of this project on the record so that all committee members will be fully aware of them. These are the benefits according to the project proponent, and the benefits that hang in the balance of this ill-conceived motion.
First, what are the real customer savings involved here? The Lake Erie Connector is going to maximize efficiency and increase competition, which creates opportunity for significant customer savings. For Ontario customers, that's going to translate into some very quantifiable benefits: In net benefits $100 billion plus per year; $3 billion in savings over 30 years of the project; savings of $22 per year per residential customer, and $660 per customer over 30 years of the project.
It will enable market access. We heard this in earlier testimony. The Lake Erie Connector will enable direct access between Ontario, a significant energy market with a very different resource mix, and PJM the largest multi-state competitive power market in the world. I believe it's 13 states and the District of Columbia. This is going to enable the buying and selling of energy capacity in renewable energy credits. Harnessing energy trading with the largest electrical market in the world will also allow Ontario to take advantage of low-cost capacity imports on an as-needed basis and find high-value export markets when the province is in surplus, all the while using transmission lines that are currently underutilized. These benefits are going to prove entirely valuable for Ontario's electricity system and help lower costs for residents and businesses, as previously stated, at a time we need it most.
Having access to the Ontario energy market will provide the PJM participants on the other side of the border with increased trading opportunities, with resulting increases in market efficiencies, including the ability of load-serving entities and large electricity customers to obtain energy from non-emitting wind, solar, hydro and nuclear resources during periods of surplus generation in Ontario, with a resulting reduction in PJM's emissions profiles. As we know GHGs don't obey political boundaries; what's good in Canada is good in the U.S., and if we can help reduce emissions there, then this is another checkmark in the win column for the Erie Connector.
It's a shovel-ready project. The Lake Erie Connector is ready to go. It has received all of the necessary regulatory and permitting approvals, including a National Energy Board certificate of public convenience and necessity, a U.S. Department of Energy presidential permit, a Pennsylvania and United States Army Corps of Engineers permit. Route 5A is finalized; it has secured all of the necessary real estate and rights-of-way, positive discussions with indigenous communities and Ontario Ministry of Energy inclusion in the LTEP.
ITC/Fortis has invested over $40 million U.S. to permit the project; it's well invested. It's a very serious credible application. ITC/Fortis is ready to invest up to $1 billion U.S. in this Ontario infrastructure.
Moving forward now with the Lake Erie Connector would ensure that infrastructure would be put in place for both markets to import and export electricity and enjoy a wide array of shared benefits.
One of those is access to clean energy. As the connector project's website states:
The Lake Erie Connector can offer significant support to the goals laid out in the North American Climate, Clean Energy and Environment Partnership between Canada, U.S.A. and Mexico, including the continental goal to achieve 50% clean power generation by 2025.
Are we really sure we want to put this in jeopardy?
Furthermore:
The Lake Erie Connector can help provide a cleaner energy mix by reducing Ontario's GHG emissions in the electricity sector by up to 2-3 million tonnes per year.
It can open access to non-emitting electricity imports to Ontario from PJM during periods of potential capacity shortfalls, such as during Ontario's nuclear refurbishments.
For PJM participants, load-serving entities and large electricity customers will be positioned to obtain energy from non-emitting wind, solar, hydro and nuclear resources during periods of surplus generation in Ontario with a resulting reduction in PJM's emissions profile.
Another one of these shared benefits is “economic development in both regions”, south and north of the border:
The Lake Erie Connector will provide system reliability and security benefits. The project is expected to increase market efficiencies and benefit local economics. When completed, the Lake Erie Connector will make tax payments which will benefit local communities and residents.
Another benefit is “safe technology” with “low environmental impact”. The “[h]igh-voltage direct current cables”, or HVDC, that are considered for this project “have very little impact on their environmental surroundings”. HVDC technology is proven to be safe and reliable: “The solid cables are well insulated.” They contain no gels or liquids. They are made from non-flammable materials. They're essentially inert: “Because the cables are constant direct current”—DC current, in other words—“no fluctuating electromagnetic fields are created.” Also, “[t]he HVDC converter stations that will be located on either end of the cable will utilize the latest technology which has proven robust, flexible and very stable.”
As well, “[m]ost of the HVDC cables for the Lake Erie connector will actually be buried under Lake Erie”. Indeed:
The water jet installation process minimizes disturbance to the lake bed and helps [to] minimize the width of the trench, which is barely larger than the cables themselves and which begins to be filled in by natural forces of water movement once the cables are in place. Transmission lines buried underwater are much less susceptible to damage by inclement weather or natural disasters.
In fact, “[i]f a cable is damaged, automatic protection systems stop the power flow within a fraction of a second...”.
Colleagues, to conclude, I think it's pretty clear that the opposition is trying to derail an investment that will benefit the Ontario economy, will benefit Ontario electricity ratepayers and will benefit our environment, and I think that's very unfortunate. I think it's also very unfortunate that it comes at this time, when we are seeing our largest trading partner, our next door neighbour—with the longest shared border in the world—returning to the Paris climate agreement and establishing their own net-zero emission goals.
This is a time, more than ever before in the history of these two countries, for collaboration and co-operation on our shared efforts to address the climate emergency head-on and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by any means that we can possibly come up with, including transborder transmission opportunities. It is incumbent on us to pursue this, not just because it's an economic imperative that will help us to recover from a pandemic-induced recession, but because it's an environmental imperative that is going to help us to restore the environment and make sure that we leave a habitable world for our children and grandchildren. I'd go further and say that this work toward reducing our GHGs, in collaboration with the United States, is a moral imperative. This is something that we must do.
There are many ways that we can go about reducing GHGs in North America. Putting a price on carbon pollution is high on the list. Changing behaviours among the public to shift modes of transport from single-occupant vehicles to active transportation and to electrified transit is another one. Encouraging our communities to grow and to develop in more dense, more walkable and less car-dependent physical arrangements is another one.
Furthermore, we can encourage young Canadians to pursue fields of study in the sciences, particularly in the environmental sciences, so that they understand the seriousness of the stewardship role they're inheriting as they come of age. They will become the people who sit in the very chairs that we're sitting in now and lead this world into what today is an uncertain future. However, it can be a much brighter future, a much cleaner and greener future, if we allow good green infrastructure projects like the Erie Connector to proceed and if we create the economic and business case conditions that can encourage even more proponents to come forward with similar projects. We can build a critical mass of investment in the green, clean infrastructure of tomorrow that will help us reach our GHG reduction targets, whether they're provincial targets, national targets or shared targets under the Paris climate accord. This is how we're going to change the world, quite frankly, and leave a habitable world for our kids and grandkids.
I think I've made my point, so I'm going to leave it there. I thank my colleagues for their kind attention. I'm sure they will have more to say as time goes on.