Interview with Ontario’s Energy Minister Todd Smith

On February 16, 2024, Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) announced some proposed changes to the draft Clean Electricity Regulations (CER). Initially released in August 2023, the draft legislation requires electricity production in Canada to be net zero by 2035. Peter and Jackie start the podcast by reviewing the recently proposed changes and discuss whether these changes are enough to win over the provinces that object to the proposed CER, including Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario.

Next, they introduce this week’s guest, the Honourable Todd Smith, Ontario’s Energy Minister and MLA for the Bay of Quinte in Ontario. Since the Conservatives came to power in 2018, Todd Smith has held various cabinet positions.

Here are some of the questions that Peter and Jackie asked Minister Smith: When the Ontario Conservatives first came into power, renewable electricity projects that were agreed to under the Liberal government’s feed-in tariff (FIT) program were canceled, yet now Ontario is procuring new capacity for wind, hydro, biomass, and solar generation, why the change? Is Ontario having a nuclear renaissance? What are the plans to expand nuclear electricity? Where will Ontario source the enriched uranium for the new nuclear power plants? Is it realistic to see nuclear plants operating in other parts of Canada, such as Saskatchewan and Alberta? What is the role of natural gas for power generation and residential heating in Ontario? In November 2023, the Ontario IESO wrote a letter to the Federal Government on the proposed CER, saying, “The CER as drafted is unachievable by 2035 in Ontario…the policy would cause a resource shortfall”; what are your concerns and do the changes announced on February 16th improve the situation? Are you working with any other provinces that oppose the CER?

Content referenced in this podcast:
- ECCC’s Proposed Changes to the CER (February 16, 2024)
- The Ontario IESO’s letter to the federal government on the proposed CER

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