The National Electricity Strategy

On May 14, 2026 the electricity sector reached a big milestone in the formal announcement of the federal government’s proposed National Electricity Strategy. This announcement provided a framework to making Canada’s electricity grid stronger, more affordable and more reliable. Electricity Canada’s Manager of Government Relations Adrian Castro provides his analysis.

Hi Adrian, thanks for joining us. What is the proposed national electricity strategy and why is it such a big deal?

The proposed National Electricity Strategy is a federal government action plan. It provides a blueprint on how the government sees it can enable building the electricity grid to meet the demand by 2050.

2050 is the most important piece here, because based on our projections at Electricity Canada and the federal government’s projections, electricity demand is going to double by 2050. For us, that means building more generation, more distribution, and more transmission at a pace not seen in generations. The last time we saw a pace of building that fast was after the Second World War. In 2026, we're at a point where we need to build at that pace again with a completely different regulatory environment, not designed to double the size of the grid in 25 years.

What the government is doing is acknowledging that, right now, we don't have the conditions to build out the grid. Since I’ve been at Electricity Canada, we have been advocating for a ‘whole of government approach’ to building the electricity system and to stop operating in silos. We need to have a government that's actively involved in achieving this. And that's why this strategy is so important and timely for us.

What do you think are the biggest wins from this announcement?

The main win is that we have a strategy! Right now, we have a government that's clearly invested. That sets the fundamentals for building everything else from there. On a practical level, the announcement of Intra-Provincial Tax Credits, Changes to the Clean Electricity regulations and a Comprehensive Transmission Investment Strategy led by the Major Projects Office are huge.

The government announced a number of measures to increase intra-provincial and inter-provincial transmission. What is this and why is this a good thing?

Inter-provincial means between provinces, while intra-provincial means within the provinces. In Canada, provinces are more connected North-South than they are East-West. That's just the reality of the situation we have right now. So that's where intra-provincial, which is within the provinces, comes in.

The Clean Electricity Investment Tax Credit to include intra-provincial transmission is important because most of the transmission in Canada is within provinces. If we want to grow the grid, yes, we need interties, we need to connect provinces, but we also need to make sure we can connect within those provinces, because that's where most of the investment will happen.

The government also announced it would make adjustments to the Clean Electricity Regulations. How will these benefit Electricity Canada members?

This is a game-changer for our members. As currently drafted, the CERs will not allow the buildout of the electricity grid, and the government commits to amending them. This was one of our biggest issues for the past couple of years, and our message will be the same: ‘We need to make sure the CERs work for every province.’ Our CEO, Francis Bradley, has said before, “We have provinces that have a lot of falling water, and we have provinces that don’t. We need to account for different generation mixes.”

In practice, the CERs, as currently drafted, are simply unworkable for a big part of the electricity system in Canada. If we didn't change the CERs, companies won't be able to build at the scale needed. That's why amendments are important because they remove unnecessary barriers.

What do electricity companies want most out of a national electricity strategy?

The most important thing for us right now is execution. We already have a lot of promises, and the thinking is in the right place, but we need action. We want to see CER amendments that make the regulation work in every jurisdiction. We want to see the eligibility requirements for the clean electricity ITC to include intra-provincial transmission.

The most we want out of the strategy, is policy changes that eventually allow for building out the grid. How can we ensure that the government makes the decisions that unlock our potential? Their thinking is in the right place. We are better aligned with intentions in the government right now, and we want action and the right execution. Electricity Canada is engaging with the government to make sure we're partners in delivering the right policies.

What are the next steps for implementing the proposed national electricity strategy?

On the government side, they are going to be consulting with us, with our members and with other affected parties, such as other associations and other stakeholders like labour and supply chain- that's on the more practical next step. After that, we're expecting to see a set of legislative and regulatory changes.

The next step for us as Electricity Canada is to do the same thing we've been doing and do best, and that's engaging with the government partners, engaging with our stakeholders in the Parliament, engaging with the Ministers’ Offices, engaging with the public service, engaging with our members and making sure we're in the conversation.

It's very important to see this strategy not as a final document. The way I see this strategy being the most successful is as a live document that adapts to a rapidly changing environment.