Good morning.

Thank you, Minister Dabrusin, for the introduction and for your leadership. And thank you, Russ, for joining us this morning.

Canada is facing major challenges from a rapidly changing world.

The United States is fundamentally transforming all its trade relationships, turning many of our former strengths into vulnerabilities.

War rages on in the Middle East and Ukraine causing sharp increases in energy prices around the world and here at home.

The rapid rise of AI is beginning to transform how we live and work, while driving unprecedented demand for power.

Climate change is worsening, with more aggressive storms, heavier flooding, and more devastating wildfires, underscoring the importance of Canada building resilience and doing our part.

Canadians are feeling the impacts – at their kitchen tables, at the pumps, on factory floors – as costs rise and uncertainty casts its heavy shadow.

The good news is that, unlike many countries, we can control our future – if we seize this moment.

That means applying several lessons that these forces reveal.

First, when the world fundamentally changes, we must respond with new approaches.

As Marshall McLuhan described 60 years ago, an age of anxiety is caused by trying to do today’s job with yesterday’s tools and yesterday’s concepts.

Canadians get that, which is why they are changing how they shop, where they travel, and how they are coming together.

Governments must now follow their lead.

Second, in a much tougher world, we have to take care of ourselves. The right path forward is to build big and build for all.

With code, copper, and steel.

To that end, Canada’s new government has been moving fast.

We have already referred 21 nation-building initiatives to the Major Projects Office.

Projects that will connect, diversify, and propel our economy through over $125 billion in new investment.

Last year, construction began on the new Darlington nuclear power plant in Ontario. 

In March, we began construction on the Contrecœur terminal expansion project at the Port of Montréal. Forty years after it was first proposed, shovels were in the ground less than seven months after we formed government.

This summer, we will be starting construction on the Mackenzie Valley Highway project in the Northwest Territories, a project I have been hearing about since I was a child.

And this is just the beginning.

We’ve created a new agency – Build Canada Homes – to drive affordable home building at a pace not seen in generations, over $50 billion to build our communities strong, from hospitals to hockey rinks, and a new Defence Industrial Strategy that will catalyse half a trillion dollars in investment in Canada over the next decade.

The third lesson that we must take from the current rupture is our sovereignty, our sustainability, and our prosperity will depend on our ability to supply and control our energy.

We have to unlock Canada’s full potential as an energy superpower.

As the head of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, said just last week, Canada has a “golden opportunity” to build a more sustainable and reliable energy system.

This will require bold investments; practical solutions focused on results, not rhetoric; and the full force of a united Canada working together.

Working together to build a stronger, more resilient, more independent Canada that works for all.

That’s our mission.

And central to it is more electricity.

As our industries expand, our economy grows, and AI accelerates, electricity demand in Canada is expected to double by 2050.

So, we will double our grid.

That’s the headline. Canada will double its electricity generation.

Because the path to affordability is electrification. The path to competitiveness is electrification. The path to net-zero is electrification. Electrification underpins everything – our emissions, our environment, our economy.

In a rapidly changing world, Canada is taking control of its future. Through our new National Electricity Strategy, we will build quickly and at scale to double our energy infrastructure and build a strong Canada that is powered by clean, affordable, and reliable energy.

Over the coming decades, Canadians will use more electricity because many of the things we use every day – the cars we drive, the heaters in our homes, and the machines in our factories – are switching to electric power.

Doubling our grid will not be easy. The scale is huge, the timeline short, and the task of getting the right mix of power complex.

Get it wrong, and Canadians will pay higher utility bills. Be too timid, and Canadians will end up short of power – losing good jobs and growing reliant on foreign suppliers.

We cannot pursue business as usual. We cannot simply rely on restrictions and prohibitions. We must do things differently.

With the right investments and electrification measures, seven in 10 Canadian households will pay less for their total energy by 2050. That’s $15 billion back in the pockets of Canadians.

That’s because electric machines are two to four times more efficient than those they replace. So, as we electrify our transportation, our buildings, our industry, the electricity slice of our energy budget grows – but the entire pie shrinks.

We start from a position of strength. Canada has amongst the lowest electricity costs in the world, and our system is already 80% non-emitting.

Doubling generation in the next few decades will require massive investment, the linking of provincial systems, and the spreading of costs across time by using our AAA balance sheet – so that some ratepayers today don’t pay all the costs of investments that will benefit all Canadians and our planet over decades.

It requires permitting reform, new partnerships with Indigenous Peoples, and a willingness to use a wide range of energy – including hydro, nuclear, wind, solar, some gas, carbon capture, and geothermal.

It is important to note that our electricity grid currently emits a little under 50 megatonnes, while emissions from industry, transportation, and buildings are well over 500 megatonnes.

By far the biggest prize is reducing emissions – affordably – through electrification, not pursuing absolute purity in generation. Aggressive electrification can reduce total emissions by up to five times current total electricity emissions.

Our partnership with Alberta demonstrates the value of working together to solve multiple challenges.

Building on November’s Memorandum of Understanding, Canada and Alberta recently signed a Co-operation Agreement to get major infrastructure projects built faster, and Alberta has committed to reduce methane emissions by 75% by 2035.

Tomorrow, we will announce an Implementation Agreement which includes strengthening industrial carbon pricing to send clear investment signals and to reward decarbonisation.

This is essential to our clean electricity agenda. To create the conditions to build the clean grid of the future, we need a carbon pricing market that actually works.

And we will advance a potential pipeline to transport at least one million barrels of low-emission Alberta oil a day to new markets.

As a prerequisite to this project, we’re progressing Pathways – a project that would enable Alberta to export some of the lowest carbon-intensity oil in the world while creating a new industry of carbon capture.

And we are both committed to exploring new sources of energy, including nuclear, and a more efficient system by connecting with neighbouring provinces.

We need to take the same pragmatic approach of partnership across the country to build new hydro, nuclear, and renewable power at scale, together.

From hydro in Québec, Newfoundland, Manitoba, British Columbia, and the North, to nuclear in New Brunswick, Ontario, Saskatchewan, to renewables in the Maritimes and across Canada.

To those ends, Canada’s new government is launching consultations today on our new National Electricity Strategy.

Over the next few months, we will work with provinces, territories, Indigenous Peoples, utilities, and unions to identify the actions needed to double our grid most effectively and affordably.

Our strategy rests on four pillars: build, connect, train, and make.

First – it’s time to build.

We need to build more transmission lines, more transformers, more wires, more power.

We are already fast-tracking several clean energy projects that will allow us to add thousands of megawatts to our grid. 

The necessary pieces for electrification are already in place: refundable investment tax credits, the most favourable investment tax rate in the G7, loans from the Canada Infrastructure Bank, and funding from the Canada Growth Fund.

We are proposing to augment these, including with new Investment Tax Credits for interties between and within provinces.

Which brings me to the second pillar: connect our power East-West-North.

Today, Canada is powered by many separate electricity grids, most of which are not connected to each other. In many cases, it’s easier to trade electricity with the United States than across our own country.

Fragmentation costs us billions. It means more power outages; expensive, duplicative infrastructure; and higher prices for Canadian families.

Meanwhile, many Northern and remote communities aren’t connected to broader Canadian grids at all – resulting in energy bills six to 10 times higher than the national average.

Fragmentation means wasted power – about 10 terawatt-hours every year. That’s enough to power one million homes for an entire year.

Connecting grids in Europe is saving nearly $80 billion annually. The opportunity here in Canada is just as significant. 

That’s why, in Terrace, British Columbia, back in November, our government referred the Northwest Critical Conservation Corridor to the Major Projects Office.

This project will generate $10 billion in economic activity, connect communities, and build a new clean energy corridor for generations to come. It will link Yukon’s isolated grid to British Columbia and the broader North American grid through the Yukon-British Columbia Grid Connect, while creating a potential connection to Alberta.

Interprovincial integration is a complex undertaking.

Every province and territory has its own market structure and planning mechanism. For some provinces, like Québec, this structure is a source of great pride and a driver of economic prosperity.

Our consultations will explore the steps that we can take to build on this success in order to further connect our electricity infrastructure and accelerate the development of essential interconnections, while respecting provincial and territorial jurisdictions. 

The consultations will tackle common barriers to interprovincial interties. They will explore an increased role for the Canada Energy Regulator, develop a standard cost allocation mechanism to fairly distribute costs across provinces and territories, increase data sharing and regional grid modelling to speed up intertie projects, and refer the development of a new comprehensive Transmission InterConnect Investment Strategy to the Major Projects Office.

Third, we need to train, attract, and retain new talent.

Doubling our electricity grid will create nearly 30,000 new high-paying careers for Canadians by the end of 2028 – and 100,000 more by 2050.

But right now, over 80% of employers in the electricity sector are facing labour shortages.

In last month’s Spring Economic Update, we launched the Team Canada Strong initiative – a $6 billion nationwide effort to recruit, train, and hire up to 100,000 new Red Seal trades workers in the next five years.

Through upcoming consultations, we will build on this momentum to ensure our workforce measures are effectively targeted to the needs of the electricity sector.

Finally, we need to make our future. Our new strategy will ensure that more of the technologies and components powering our grid – smart meters, transformers, wind towers, the AI systems that run a modern grid – are designed and made here at home.

Many of the components needed for the grid of the future are already in short supply globally, and right now, Canada’s electricity sector is highly import-dependent.

These consultations will explore how to grow domestic manufacturing capacity so that the components powering our grid are made in Canada wherever possible. From wind towers in Québec to transformers and steel in Ontario to uranium in Saskatchewan – the opportunities are pan-Canadian and virtually endless.

To be clear, there is no credible plan to net-zero without a relentless focus on affordability.

That’s why we intend to adjust the Clean Electricity Regulations – keeping energy reliable and affordable in the short-term as we shift to cleaner energy over time.

And that’s why we will expand support for energy-saving retrofits for up to one million households through financing, grants, and complementary measures. This includes making it easier for Canadians to transition from expensive propane, oil, and electric baseboard heating to more affordable electric heat pumps.

In a rapidly changing world, Canada must become the source of our own affordable, clean, reliable power.

Because when we master energy, we master our destiny.

This is no small feat. No small step for humankind. We cannot use yesterday’s tools or concepts. That’s why today’s strategy marks an important shift from prohibitions to partnerships; from bargaining to building.

Yesterday, I had the honour of meeting the astronauts of Artemis II – including Canada’s own, Colonel Jeremy Hansen.

Their mission reminds us of what we can achieve through teamwork, ingenuity, and boldness.

In that spirit, we are launching our mission to power Canada strong for all and for all generations.

Thank you.