A sustainable electricity distributor group has expressed doubts about the Liberal government’s claims that the recent Clean Electricity Regulations would help build the low-carbon energy infrastructure Canada will require.
Electricity Canada CEO and president Francis Bradley recently told DailyCommercialNews that the proposed draft regulations “don’t do anything at all” when it comes to building.
“With respect to making it easier to build things…It doesn’t do anything at all to help build things any more rapidly. It doesn’t help us build now,” said Bradley.
While Bradley said the regulations were an “important piece” of decarbonizing Canada’s electricity grid, he believes the $400 billion price tag to retrofit Canada’s grid for lower-emissions cited by the federal government was a gross undervaluation.
According to Bradley, the retrofit will likely cost Canadians as much as $2 trillion.
“It’s not a number that I’d seen previously. It’s a smaller number,” said Bradley.
“If we can do what needs to be done for $400 billion, I think that’ll be great news, but I’ve seen previous research by the Conference Board of Canada that estimates the cost in the vicinity of $1.7 trillion.”
The draft regulations were unveiled by Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault last week. They will require provincial governments and the private sector to meet a net-zero target of 2035 – a timeline Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has called a “fairy tale.”
Earlier this week, Smith vowed to stick to her province’s target year of 2050 and said she would not be complying with the federal government’s demands.
“We agree with the broader goal of decarbonizing the electricity grid and getting to carbon neutrality. We have a plan to get there by 2050. It’s our emissions reduction and electric energy development plan. But a 2035 target is not attainable,” said Smith.
Smith said complying with the federal plan would lead to blackouts and a spike in the cost of electricity for residents.
“Ottawa’s own forecast expects electricity demand to double between now and 2050. As it is now, Canada’s electricity grid, including Alberta’s, can’t handle the increased load that is coming. And the draft regulations will severely threaten the reliability of the our power grid even more, leading to potential blackouts that would be devastating,” said Smith.
