Canada announces US$50 billion plan to boost clean energy

MONTREAL: Canadian officials announced plans on Monday (Aug 17) to massively enhance wind and hydropower generation in the eastern part of the country, in a project Ottawa called “the largest clean energy investment in North American history.”

The tentative agreement between Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government, the province of Quebec as well as Newfoundland and Labrador marks a major effort to increase electricity production.

It includes plans to upgrade the Churchill Falls generating station while developing a new hydro project on Gull Island. Both sites are in Labrador, on Canada’s Atlantic coast.

Some of the new power generated would also be transmitted to Quebec, with utility Hydro-Quebec selling a significant amount of electricity into the northeastern United States.

Carney’s office put the total investments in the project at nearly C$70 billion (US$50.5 billion).

But the initiative could be stalled within months.

At Monday’s signing ceremony in Newfoundland, Quebec Premier Christine Frechette acknowledged that her political opponents, the separatist Parti Quebecois, could tear up the agreement if they win provincial elections in October, an outcome current polls suggest is likely.

But if the project moves forward, Carney said the amount of power generated would be “enough to light, heat (and) cool the homes in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver combined.”

Since taking office last year, Carney has been criticised by environmentally conscious groups who accuse him of betraying climate pledges backed by his predecessor Justin Trudeau.

A member of Carney’s cabinet resigned last year over plans to advance a new oil pipeline running from Alberta to the Pacific coast.

Monday’s announcement was however welcomed by the Canadian Climate Institute, which said it showed “the level of ambition needed to reach Canada’s goal of doubling the electricity grid with clean energy”.

The group’s president, Rick Smith, said that enhancing domestic clean energy supply will also “improve energy security and affordability in a time of volatile energy price swings”.