The federal government is launching a new national electricity strategy that it says will “double the capacity of our grid by 2050 and supply clean, reliable, affordable power across the country for decades to come.”
What will that mean for the Northwest Territories, which isn’t even on that grid in the first place?
On Thursday, Prime Minister Mark Carney said his government would spend the coming months in nationwide consultations “to identify the actions needed to double our grid most effectively and affordably.”
After that, the full strategy will roll out.
A paper published alongside Carney’s announcement on Thursday gives some insight into how Ottawa is thinking about the North and its lack of grid access.
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Titled Powering Canada Strong, the paper is published by Natural Resources Canada and appears to provide talking points for the discussion that will lead to a strategy.
“Securing the North” is one section of the paper. In a summary, Ottawa says that means “examining existing and new federal supports, including targeted investments for infrastructure, energy planning, and deployment of made-in-Canada technologies (eg advanced grid controls and digitalization) that contribute to reliability and affordability in the North.”
Similar terminology is employed whenever the North is mentioned: examining, addressing, advancing.
The specifics of what that will look like aren’t set out. There are no new commitments, for example, to connect any NWT communities to the broader national grid, though the paper does note existing commitments like the referral of the Taltson hydro expansion to the Major Projects Office.
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That expansion would connect Yellowknife to the South Slave’s Taltson hydro plant, which the NWT government says would provide cheaper, greener power to the North Slave region.
In the past, the GNWT has contemplated a second phase of the expansion that would connect Taltson to the south, but even phase one would cost billions and take years. In February, NWT minister Caroline Wawzonek said connecting the territory to a southern grid would cost roughly $2 million per kilometre.
The paper released on Thursday again frames investment in the North as an Arctic sovereignty initiative, a theme since Carney became prime minister.
“Development in the North, often to a greater degree than in grid-connected areas, can affect Indigenous rights and interest. Development must occur in close collaboration with Indigenous Peoples, who now are leading the advancement of numerous projects across the country,” the paper adds. “This is one of the most significant opportunities to combine energy development, climate action, and economic reconciliation.”
The paper promises more federal support for grid connections between provinces and territories and says this will involve “actively supporting those jurisdictions that are willing to undertake more transformational efforts to advance regional integration.”
Aside from a lack of external connections, the NWT also suffers from ageing power infrastructure. Some of its hydro dams and generators date to the 1950s or before.
Powering Canada Strong states Ottawa will support the modernization of northern electricity systems through “smart, clean energy technologies such as advanced grid controls, automation, analytics and advanced energy storage.”
The paper goes no further in providing detail, but the NWT Power Corporation recently said it is looking to more frequently incorporate battery storage into community power systems, which in turn can allow the use of more renewables like solar and wind.
Ottawa says it is now embarking on “targeted consultations.” The public can provide feedback too via email.
